Netfoot

Watched two movies. The first, called Infinite with Mark Wahlberg & Chiwetel Ejiofor (I had to look that spelling up). A sci-fi movie about two warring factions of super-humans who live secretly among us normal humans. The second, a western called Horizon, which encapsulated several separate storylines. One of the lead characters was played by Kevin Costner. This movie was three hours long! Was sitting here when I realized I have a bookshelf that consists of pine boards across concrete bkocks. If I wanted to, I could cut one of them into the two missing parts of towel rack #6! But what to do with the stuff on that shelf? Put it in a pile until I get paid for the racks and then buy a replacement? That would work but it seems silly. I think I will abandon that idea. I have plenty of sugar and three tins of milk but only one teabag! Otherwise, four potatoes, maybe eight small onions, a bowl of lentils, a bag of rice, no carrots, cabbage, pak choy or pumpkin, no pasta and one tin of corned beef. Plus maybe ¼ tin of corned beef in the fridge. A box of 25 teabags costs $2.75 and a tin of corned beef $4.79 but I only have $6.45 in my pocket. I think I will buy the teabags because the corned beef I have will last us at least 3-4 days, whereas the last teabag will be gone very soon after I wake tomorrow. That boo-boo on my foot is proving to be quite tender. And Mo just can't leave it alone. Every time he comes near he starts licking at it. Which does make it sting a fair bit! Midnight approaches and there is a chilly breeze in the window. I'm going to lock up the house and settle into bed for the night. I'll wrap up I the sheet and invite Mo to snuggle. He does snuggle but he generally prefers to curl up against my back. Same as Buddy before him. I think I will forgo any attempt to read, tonight. Uh-oh! Mo has just run outside. Locking up will have to wait until he decides to return. Oh, here he is now!

LOL! Here I am, eating Mo's dinner! Why? Because he is eating mine! I came in and sat down, put a bowl on the floor and began eating from the other. I was about ¼ of the way through when I realized! By then Mo was well into my own meal. But I'd given him a larger portion than myself, so now that I'd reversed the bowls, he was getting less. So I left the last ⅓" of the bowl for him. Meanwhile I'm watching a Californian guy cook a Chicago style "Tavern" Pizza. My tummy is grumbling!

It's now 6 PM and I've just knocked off for the day. It's quite dim (light) and I'd have called it quits before now, except I ran into a problem and I didn't want to stop until I'd solved it. This job requires lots of work with the router. The rails have to be rounded over but so do the completed frames. And with six to do, and another six to do later, I'd be a lot happier if I had a stable surface to use while routing. A router table, essentially. So I decided to build one. Even a rough lash-up would be better than nothing! I cut a 24" sq. piece of ply and will use this as the table top. With the router mounted underneath and the bit poking up vertically through a hole, I can slide the rails & frames across the table and past the bit, getting a good, clean round-over on the part. The trouble started when decided to be clever and use the router itself to cut that hole in the middle of the table. To do this, I removed the ⅜" round-over bit and inserted a straight-cutting bit. But it was immediately apparent that this was not a good idea. The hole didn't have to be neat or precise, so I could use a jigsaw or even just bore the hole with a big Forstner bit! So I removed the straight-cutting bit and replaced the ⅜" round-over. But the straight-cutting bit got jammed! This took ages to get loosened up and removed. By time I finally got the ⅜" round-over bit back in place, it was too late and the lighting too poor to do anything else. I never did like working with poor light and with the cataracts that (I believe) I am currently dealing with, even moreso. Anyway, tomorrow I will finish the tabletop by boring that hole and fastening the router to the underside. Then I will build "legs" for the tabletop to stand on. I want it to stand on top of my saw but I also want some way to firmly fasten it down so it doesn't wander around while I'm using it. I have also figured out a good way to quickly and consistently bore out those stadium-shaped pockets in the legs. I won't actually do that until I have the rails done, because if I bore those pockets first, the rails might end up too small to fit and there would be no solution to that. So instead I will finish the rails and then bore the pockets to suit. Finishing the rails, of course, requires that my router table be available for the job..... On another note, my friend came around for a flying visit. He handed over an additional $400 and asked if he might get 1-2 of the towel racks completed next week. He was very pleased to hear that he would get 5-6! He was also very impressed when I showed him the little sample of the new rail-to-leg fastening mechanism I uploaded a photo of a couple posts back. The $400 is very welcome because it puts me only $92.27 away from paying the rent next Friday. Meanwhile, no direct deposits have occurred on my account. I will check later whether Postie delivered any cheques. Now Mo is here asking for his dinner so I will go and arrange that for him and the remainder will be mine!

To get the rails to fit into the stadiumed pockets, they have to be exactly ¾" thick because the pocket is made with a ¾" Forster bit and is therefore exactly ¾" wide. Since the boards come a hair over ¾" the rails were put through Mr. Noisy, my thickness planer. I first built a long pocket for use as a thickness gauge and each end of each board was test fitted into the gauge after planing. Here are the rails, planed to thickness. Note there are only 22 of them. For six towel racks I will need 24 rails! There were 26 proto-rails and all were planed and tested to ensure a fit. But four of them raised concerns. Here they are: On the right, up against the fence is a banana. I have two much worse bananas that I have set completely aside, but while nowhere near as bad, this one is not ideal! Next, we have two with damage on one edge. I don't know if it will be possible to route the stadium shape onto these without leaving a severe blemish visible on the resulting rails. And finally on the left, an ugly knot. This one might actually be usable. I will add filler to the knot, sand it down and see how it looks. After painting, it might be perfectly fine! But my instinct tells me I should avoid this rail if at all possible. You can also see the gauge block I made to check the thickness of each rail as it came off the planer. I ran a scrap through the planer until it was the correct thickness. After that I just ran the rails through, 3 or 4 at a time, staggered. (Mr. Noisy can plane up to 13½" wide so four at 1¾" were no issue at all. It could have done more at once but I not only had to feed them in at the front, I also had to simultaneously catch the finished pieces as they came out the back! So I chose not to give myself too much work to do all at once.) Each board should have been automatically correct, seeing as the thickness was set with the test-piece and not altered after that. But I gauged them all anyhow. At each end. Options: Forget #6 and settle for five. I was asked for 10 in two batches, so there should be no complaints. Use the two best of the rejected rails and complete the 6th rack. Try and find (buy if necessary) enough wood to make two more rails so I can complete #6 without compromise. Two pieces 1¾"x37" is not a lot of wood but the smallest board I can buy is a 1"x6"-12' at $41.70. The 6th rack is $275 more for me at the end of the day, though. But it's time for lunch and Mo has already come and given me his "I'm waiting....." look. I promised him potatoes & carrots with bully & onions. And I can add some lentils too! Oh, and I done myself an ouchie!

Morning, guys! Been looking for a better way to get the rails attached to the side-frames. Previously, I glued them on (end-grain to side-grain 😕) and added two dowels through the frame and into the rail. This, to strengthen the joint. But look at these two pieces: This is a very short leg and a very short rail! The leg has a stadium-shaped hole bored in it almost the whole way through. The hole is pretty much the same size & shape as the rail itself. Here, we see the rail is fitted into the leg. It is not glued or anything, but it is so snug you could almost use this as is! With the addition of some glue this will be a very secure joint. And what's nice, is that from the outside of the towel rack, there is no visible sign of the joint! No screw-heads, no dowel-ends, not even cut flush and sand smooth! I now have to figure out a process that will allow the stadium-pockets in the legs to be created quickly and accurately. Possibly using a variation in the magic spacer idea. And similarly the rails have to be "stadiumed" easily and accurately. Which should not be difficult, because once the rails are planed to the required thickness (¾"), my ⅜" round-over bit in the router should turn rectangular into stadium.

I assumed the captors had deliberately swept dirt and grime over the hatch and lifting-ring to conceal the presence of the hatch. Firing the bullet into whatever it was that leaked the fluid was a mistake which lead to the discovery of the concealed cellar.

Good start! And I love me a big wheel-gun! He noticed that the liquid dripping down was soaking away. That is how he discovered the hidden cellar where the missing woman had been held. I love me the Neagley character but she appears in only a small percentage of the Reacher novels. And by my recollection she isn't in this one. Clearly, production feels that by shoehorning her into every Reacher series, they are improving the source material. But the fact is, Reacher is a loner. Perhaps the most iconic loaner there is! This is not the Reacher & Neagley show. (Or should that be the Neagley & Reacher show?) Now that a separate series featuring Neagley has been green-lit (and I am eagerly looking forward to it!) perhaps we don't need to see her taking a leading position in everything Reacher. A cameo appearance here and there would be great, just as I hope he will put in the occasional appearance in her show. And a more significant part on occasion too. But I'm starting to think that it's time for Reacher to return to his self-sufficient norm. No doubt the tar & feathers will come out, now I've said this.

There are two suppliers of gas cylinders. I use RubiGas from Rubis (formerly TexGas from Texaco). The alternative is SOL Gas from SOL (Formerly Shellane from Shell). Both are LPG (predominantly a mix of propane & butane). If you have gas piped in, it is Natural Gas (predominantly methane). When you buy a stove you have to tell the vendor which you will be using and they set & adjust the stove to suit. If you change supply or move house you have to get a gas fitter to come and "re-jet" the stove.

Dinner was rice again. Basically the same recipe as lunch, but I also diced a potato into it to give it bulk and a slightly different flavour. We ate, we went on patrol, I recovered the kitchen ladle from the yard, and looked into the landlord's mailbox. No cheques. I get two at a time, dated two weeks apart. The last one I cashed was on the 7th but I thought it was the second of two and that a new pair would arrive by today. But no cheques in the box. So did I remember wrong? Was the cheque for the 21st already in my wallet? No. So was it in my wallet and I've lost it? I checked back on the forum. On the 24th I said: "The welfare cheque for today (and the one for a fortnight from now) never arrived....." The 24th was a welfare day and a fortnight later would have been the 7th. That being the case I should have received cheques for today (21st and for a fortnight hence (7th Match) by now. Nothing in the box. They have been threatening to switch to direct deposit for the last year. I just checked. No new deposits on my account. I wish they would switch to direct deposit. No cheques for me to lose, no trip to the post office followed by the bank. It would be much more convenient. You know, the money is not due until the 21st. That's tomorrow. Perhaps they will direct deposit, but they are waiting until the 21st to make the deposit? If not, I am hoping that the postman arrives in the morning hot-footed, to deliver two cheques! If I seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill, understand that those cheques play a critical part of my financing for food, utilities, etc. As I'm sure I've told everyone ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Showered, powdered, in bed with a cute, sleepy puppy. Did manage to read a chapter of my book last night and hope to do the same tonight. Last time I heard from my guy, he said "Will be in the office Thursday, should pass by you on Friday". He didn't say what he was coming for. I don't have any towel racks for him to collect. So I hope he is bringing me some money! Don't forget, I am to produce ten racks and only have six in the pipe! So I need to buy lumber for at least four more (or six, if they want the second batch to be the same size as the first). Watched the movie 300 last night, with Gerard Butler & Lena Headey plus a host of thousands. At least some of who were prolly CGI. It is a recreation of the comic book (graphic novel my ass) of the same name and the final film was processed in such a way as to add a comic-booky look. It's a fictionalized version of the battle of Thermopylae wherein King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans battle against Xerxes, Persian king, who commanded 300,000 soldiers. Going to go and watch a TV episode and then switch to my book. ETA: Had bad cramps in my hands all afternoon but they seem to have raised ceased now. Left hand was the worst. Lets hope they don't come back again

We have two supplies of gas here. You can get "Town Gas" which is piped into your home by NPC (National Petroleum Corporation). Or you can get cylinders of gas which you have to refill. NPC Town Gas is not available in all areas. Gas cylinders come in 20 & 25 lb. sizes that you exchange at gas stations. You can also order 100 lb. cylinders which are delivered but these are usually connected outdoors somewhere (usually near the kitchen) and the stove is piped directly to these, as it would be for Town Gas. I've seen a huge cylinder (1,000 lb.?) before but that was on a school and I don't know how widely these are used or even if they are still available. This house is not plumbed for gas at all so I buy the cylinders from the gas station, store them in the cupboard right beside the stove and connect them via 4-6' of rubbery "gas hose". I don't believe my stove has a broiler or grill. There aren't any controls for such on the front...

When cutting the lap-joints, I butt the end of the wood up to the spacer, which is clamped to the fence, which is locked in place. When making the first cuts, on the fourth or fifth cut, I butt the end of the leg up in the usual way but failed to notice that there was a little chip of wood between the wood and the spacer. As a result, the cut was slightly off. I noticed very quickly but not before I made a small cut partway across the leg in the wrong place. I didn't have a spare leg to use so I had to fix the mistake. I patched in a little sliver of wood where my erroneous cut was. When the glue dried I recut the lap-joint. Here is the repaired lap-joint cut: You can see the small, triangular sliver of wood I glued in on the lower left part of the lap-joint. Here it is again a little bigger: When this is all assembled into a side-frame, it will be rounded with the router, filled, sanded and (after it leaves me) painted. There will be no sign of it. Due to the design, the flaw will be on the inside of the completed towel rack, which should make it even more impossible for anyone to spot. But I had to use TiteBond III adhesive because it's waterproof. (Wet towels.) And that takes much longer to set up and start curing. While that was drying I finished the first lap-joint on all the remaining legs. When that was done I could not move on. I couldn't change the set-up on the saw until the repaired joint had to be recut. And there was no way I could do that until the glue was sufficiently cured that the repair would not fly apart when I hit it with the beastly ⅜" blade. So I twiddled my thumbs for 2-3 hours. Then I recut that lap-joint very slowly and carefully, so as to put the least stress on the patch. Now, I could start assembling legs & stretchers into side-frames tomorrow. But I'm thinking ahead to the rails. I want to try a slightly different method of attachment. Rather than use dowels like last time, I want to cut out two stadium-shaped holes in each leg. The rails would then be fitted inside these holes and glued permanently into place. I'd thought of this before when doing the prototype but I couldn't think of a guaranteed way of getting the size/shape of the hole to match the rail. But I have come up with a few ideas and I want to experiment tomorrow to see if any of them work. Using scrap wood, of course. I want to do this now, because if I find a good method it will be easier to cut my stadium holes on individual legs rather than glued up side-frames.

I'm fine done for the day. I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked but my back is hurting. I marked and rounded one end of each leg. Then I made up an extension to the cross-cut sled that let me trim them all to exactly 36" at the opposite end. Next, cutting the upper lap-joint in each leg. Using my magic spacer I make perfectly spaced cuts with the ⅜" blade. The wood can be hogged out with 3-4 cuts by hand. With all 24 legs lap-jointed at the top, I reset my spacer. Then i flipped each leg end-to-end and taking care to cut the second lap-joint on the same side as the first, I cut the lower lap-joints. Result: 24 legs, ready to be joined with the spreaders I previously made. But! When cutting the first lap-joints, I made a boo-boo..... ☹️

Tired. Mo and I ate well for dinner. I made rice with corned beef, carrots and onions. It was only one cup but that is sufficient for a full meal for Mo and a modest meal for myself. With a few more ingredients there might have been a bigger portion for myself. But there was enough. I should rehydrate some peas or beans. I think I have two extra packages at the back of the fridge. I made a single cup of rice for a single meal because the last time I cooked two days/four meals at once, the rice mysteriously spoiled in the refrigerator in one day. I don't know why so I will cook one meal at a time for a while and eat it hot. I started work on the legs a bit later than I'd hoped. I only got the tops rounded. And I nearly screwed up bad while doing that. I had 48 pieces in a pile, 24 legs and 24 rails. One by one I started marking and trimming one end of each piece to an approximate curve, to be finished on the disk sander. I had everything set up and was cutting the ends rapidly when I suddenly realized that I should only do 24 pieces because the other 24 were rails which aren't supposed to be rounded at one end! I screeched to a halt and counted to see if I'd already done too many. Rounded, exactly 24 and exactly 24 remaining for use as rails. Phew! That was lucky! Those rails will need to be "stadiumed" before use. This requires use of the router. And the completed side-frames are to be "stadiumed" with the router too. It was difficult enough doing the one rack I already built. That won't do if I have 10-12 t do. I am going to have to put together a more stable platform for routing than clamping the router upside down on the lathe. Another job for tomorrow. Anyway, Mo is here sleeping on my feet and I am going to watch a movie. i mar I may fall asleep while watching, but that's OK.

In the middle of cooking lunch, the gas ran out. It's 49 days since I last changed the cylinder on 1st January. The average life of a cylinder was 58 days. Had to bundle Mo into the van, go and get cash from an ATM, buy a cylinder refill and put some gas in the car to ensure we made it home. By the time I was sitting down to lunch it was already gone two o'clock. Now taking a breather after the meal and thinking about a mug of tea. I want one but if I brew one up and take my time to enjoy it, it will be three o'clock before I get back to work. Mo is under the bed. I know, because I can hear him under there trying to dig a hole in the tiles. I wonder about that boy.....

30 stretchers cut to length and half-lap joints cut. Two are suspect due to my error: I failed to lock the fence and there might have been movement of the spacer. So I will not use these unless necessary. Back hurts, tummy rumbling, lunch needs to be made and eaten. Mo agrees with me on this point. Potatoes & carrots with corned beef & onion sauce, I think. Will need to trim the legs to length, round one end slightly and then cut the half-laps on these as well. Will make a start after lunch but I don't know if I will finish them all today. Will do my best.