http://norman.walsh.name/2009/01/27/overengineered 12 5 2009-01-27T07:19:38-05:00 Norman Walsh 2009 Norman Walsh This is what happens when you let a bit-pusher mess with hardware. When an experienced, professional carpenter looks at a project, she asks, “how strong do I have to make this to suit its application?” I am not a professional carpenter. When I look at a project, I ask, “how strong can I make this?” Really not the same thing. This point was driven home to me, not for the first time, as I was constructing the laminated header beam for this wall. Granted, I'm not planning to tie the header into the ceiling, so there was (just possibly) some grounds for considering its strength. But I expect a sandwich of two two-by-fours around a core of half-inch plywood was overkill for suspending a couple of closet doors that can't weigh more than about 20 pounds (about 9kg for those of you comfortable with a reasonable system of weights and measures) over a sixty inch (1.5m) span. Nevermind. Maybe I can use it to do chin-ups or something. P.S. I did eventually finish.