Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[b4pjoe]

8 hours ago, Netfoot said:

The blank they had was not quite ideal. It was slightly too long. The guy cut the pattern on the end of the key

which will work but if you look closely you will see that the lip or stop on the new (lower, front) key is further back. This means if you insert the key until it stops, it won't work. You have to insert it to the stop and then ease it back a sixteenth and try turning it. 

It works. It is not difficult, just jiggly. If I was using it every day I'd soon be sick of it but I'm not likely to use this more often than once every 4 weeks, and then only if the landlord himself doesn't appear and give me the mail himself.

Give the new key to your landlord and let him deal with it! 😁

[Netfoot]

Been thinking about that key.

The blank was too long. The guy cut the active shape of the key on the end, leaving the stop maybe a sixteenth too far away than ideal. This gives me a key that works fine, but only if you remember to insert it all the way and then pull it back that sixteenth. 

I think the correct thing to do would be to start by removing the tip of the blank until it is the same length as the key. I'm sure the key-cutting machine could do this. It follows the original active shape and grinds away the unwanted metal from the blank. Surely it could follow the tip of the original and grind away the unwanted tip of the blank? 

If not, cut the new key so the two stops align. Then the active shape and the stop on both would match, but the new key would be a sixteenth too long at the tip.

But I have files at home so it wouldn't be long before the unwanted sixteenth was gone. In fact, I could buy the blank and take it home to use files to replicate the active shape myself. (But why make work for myself? I doubt the blank key would cost any less than the cut key. If so, not by much.)

Anyhow as I said previously, it works as is, without too much hassle and I won't need to use it more often than once a month anyway - if that. 

[Netfoot]

Some more photos from Saturday.

Some of the aircraft on the strip:

A couple of the girls and some olde farte:

Unka Rudy. (Not pleased about Mo's absence):

Edited January 29 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Watched the pilot episode for a show called Watson. That would be John Watson, friend and confidence to Sherlock Holmes. After Holmes "death" at Richenbach Falls along with professor Moriarty, Watson returns to 2025 Philadelphia to open a clinic? What? And BTW, Watson is black? And Moriarty is asian? 

Not sure I'm going to worry with episode two....

Also watched the first episode of Squid Game series #2. Will continue with this until it fails to intrigue.

Mo had the last of the pasta for lunch. I cooked a big pot of rice and had a portion for my lunch and we both had some for dinner. 

I have two tins of corned beef but there are no more potatoes and no more pasta. There is probably enough rice to cook one more pot and there are onions and a single carrot to go in it. I have a package of "Soup Mix" beans soaking which would also go into rice. So another pot of rice will happen but the pot is currently close to full. After that there is less than a quarter of a bag of flour so we could make fry-bread and/or dumplings, enough for one small meal. Then the larder is totally empty.

Mo is in and out. I am about to go to sleep. Got to test blood sugar in the morning and would prefer not to be awake until 4:30. (It's currently 00:25.)

Think I will go and fetch... No need. Here he is now. OK, time to go to sleep. 

[Netfoot]

Mo's been at it again...

Edited January 30 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

We ate the last of the cooked rice today, for lunch and dinner.

I will need to cook more tomorrow. I soaked some "Soup Mix" for 26 hours and then boiled for 40 minutes. I'm not terribly impressed with the result. I think I tried this stuff before. It looks good in the package. All different beans in a variety of colours - green, brown, yellow.... But by time they are soaked and boiled until softened, the colours leach out of the beans and they are all a uniform light grey. 

Boiled until still a little crunchy, they are a glutinous, sticky mess. I'm not looking forward to trying them in rice. But they are all there is left. 

Repositioned myself to watch movies on the computer. Mo thought it was great! He insisted on playing Tummy Trampoline. After a long, tiring game, he collapsed on my tummy and decided that was a good place to take a nap. Of course, the whole time, I could not see the TV episodes I was trying to watch. But sweet cuddles with the most handsome of boys? Well worth it.

Problems today doing some woodwork. Rough cut all my pieces but four of them need to be rounded on narrow sides. As the wood is ¾", two passes with a ⅜" round-over bit, one on each side, would do the job. But the big router with the ½" chuck had a ¼" round-over bit in it. I located the ⅜" round-over bit but I couldn't get the ¼" bit out it the router! Stuck! I tried half the day and got nowhere so decided to remove the entire base of the router to see if it made it any easier to free up the bit. It gives more room to maneuver. That didn't work very well. The base was stuck too! It was after 10:00 PM before I finally got the base off!

Tomorrow, I will work on getting the ¼" bit out and the ⅜" bit installed and the base reattached. I'm hoping that happens quickly and without damaging the router. The ¼" bit might be damaged which would be bad enough. I doubt a replacement would be available for under $100. Kooyman has one for $129.99 which is out of reach. 

But better lose a replaceable bit than the router itself, which would cost a minimum of $500 to replace.

Door is locked, Mo sleeps on the tiles and I've got reflux tonight. Also been fighting with a bit of a tummy bug all day. Not bad, thankfully, but never pleasant. And it seems to have relented now, so all I have to do is switch off the lights and close my eyes. Which I plan to do soon! 

Tomorrow night I drop the rent cheque in the landlord's mail box. He never returned to get the key so I thought I'd put it in the envelope with the cheque. Good thing I thought that over, eh?  😏 He will just have to ask for it when he comes.

I've got $6.17 in the bank according to my calculations, but that's assuming the service charge at the bank is $16. It is normally $13 which would give me an additional $3 but it was $16 a couple months ago so now I assume it will be $16 so as not to be surprised. And if it is actually $13 intake the $3 win and be glad. 

There is enough milk for one more mug of tea. I would like to take the $6 (or $9) and buy milk, but it might be better to get something Mo and I could eat. 

It's a quarter to midnight. How about I go to sleep a wee bit early tonight? I think I will do that.

[Netfoot]

Ok, got the collet removed from the router with the bit still stuck in it. And lo! There was enough room in the base of the collet to get a ¼" stainless bolt in and touching the bottom of the ¼" round-over bit. Gave it a couple of smacks with Big Red.

And out she come!

(Very little resists Big Red.)

Reassembled with the correct (⅜" round-over) bit and ready to make some rails!

Thankfully, no damage to the router and not much (if any) to the bit. There was some rough handling with grippers trying to get it out before dismantling, but the bit was wrapped in leather, so no apparent damage. Won't know for sure until I put it back in and try it. 

But today is blistering hot and I am sitting in front of the window with the fan blowing and still sweating. And funnily enough, when I got up this morning (warm, fuzzy snuggling against my back) it was quite chilly, so input on a tee-shirt.

Anyway, gotta go and turn some rectangular stock into "stadiums". And since I don't have a router table, I will be crapping myself the whole time. I have a thing I do when using scary tools: I count my fingers - out loud - before I start. This sets up the correct frame of mind; you want to take care to ensure that the after count be the same as the before count....

[Netfoot]

OK, it took quite a bit of fiddling to get the router base back on. I don't take it off too often. Putting it back on, I had to adjust the locking mechanism. This involves putting it on and testing, and if it needs to be tightened, you have to take it off, adjust the locking screw a quarter turn and put it back on again. Repeat, ad infinitum, ad nauseam!

Got it in the end and tried the "stadiumizing" (stupid word) on a scrap:

It isn't perfectly rounded at the two ends but it will take very little sanding to get that fixed. 

You have to think of it as four rounded edges rather than two rounded ends. If you look closely you might see a ridge (my thumbnail is hooked on it) on this one edge. 

This is because the initial test showed the bit was a hair too far up. Or more accurately, the base was too far down. But this is why you try it out with a scrap. Adjusting to eliminate this, all three other edges were fine.

Now that this is done, I can "stadium" the three rails.

My fingers pass within 1" of that bit, which is running at thousands of RPM (slowest possible is 8,000). Scary.

But now, I have to go cook lunch for Mo and myself. The last pot of rice. Hope there are four cups remaining in the bag!

[Netfoot]

Four rails complete, bar sanding.

Router (with bit) in the background.

I wish I had some grease. I'd grease the shaft of the bit and the inside of the collet. So I don't have to resort to Big Red in future. I wonder if I can use petroleum jelly?

Lunch turned out OK. I have cut my portion in half; Mo's is a unchanged. It was tasty enough, for sure. 

Edited February 1 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

This is what my monitor thinks it looks like:

This is what it actually looks like:

Woke up to find it this way this morning.

Good news: Remember I was waiting to see if the service charge at the bank was going to be $16 or $13? Turns out it was $10!  So I have $12.17 to spend at the grocery. Some thought must go into this!

Edited February 1 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Remember that package of "Soup Mix" beans? They were pretty in their package but after soaking to rehydrate and boiling to soften, their colours were all faded and the resulting pot of beans were gluey. 

Well, this morning, I took 1½ scoops of those beans and set them to boiling again. I added salt, garlic, MSG, paprika and a mini stock cube. Also a very small piece of bully beef. After 30 minutes of boiling, I ran the mixture through the blender and the resulting soup was delicious! The blender left very tiny fragments of the beans in the soup, which was thick and rich without any thickening agent. The tiny bits of bean might have been a little sifter softer if the beans had been soaked more than 26 hours, or boiled for more that 1:10 in total, but maybe not. What I can say is that the little bits of bean were fine by me. I actually like "bits" in my soup. I just wonder whether I should have blended and then boiled rather than bord boiled and then blended.

So I have $12.17 to spend. I can't spend it all because I don't want the bank account to go to literal zero. So let's say $12. When I was hoping for $9, I was thinking a 2Kg bag of rice for $6.29 and a tin of condensed milk at $1.89 which is $8.18 total, leaving a buck in the bank. We have one tin of bully in the pantry already. 

Now that I actually have $12 to play with, I can go with the rice at $6.29 and another tin of bully at $4.79 or $11.08 total. A bag of rice should make two pots of rice which is four days food.

So I will go with that. No condensed milk, but Mo's need for food trumps my desire for tea.

Edited February 1 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Damned forum offline for half the day, yesterday.  😠

Mo and I had rice for lunch and dinner yesterday. It taste pretty good. There is enough left for a meal (lunch) for Mo and possibly for me too. Tonight will have to be dumplings.

Apart from the ongoing woodworking project, I found the time to  rewatch all three of the Crocodile Dundee movies. The first one was pretty good, the second nearly as good and the third trailed behind, Paul Hogan looking older than his 62 years. There was a lagniappe made fairly recently, with Hogan in his early 80s, which I've never watched, but intend to. I believe this movie departs from the brawling, crock-hunter wielding a (very, very ugly) knife for more civilized country.

Some time today or first thing tomorrow I have to go to Popular and spend that $12 on rice & corned beef. I wish there was enough for milk but I guess I will need to keep drinking my tea with <gag> lime. But not to worry - the lime is about to run out.

Managed to burn my finger in the kitchen last night but not too bad. 

Mo very affectionate in bed last night and this morning but at 7:30 he advised me in no uncertain terms that it was time to get up. Took my blood sugar (4.2 mmol/L), and now contemplating a mug of tea. Just not sure if I can stomach a milk-free mug at this time of the morning. Also think this would be the ideal time to go to Popular but right now I feeling extremely lazy.....

Edited February 2 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Eleven bucks. And eight cents. Took me less than a minute to pick these items up. Chose the shortest line of all; half as long as the others and a quarter the length of the "Express" line. Only four persons in front of me, plus who was already being cashed out when I joined.

28 minutes later.....  😕

[Netfoot]

Here is a short "foot" which is to be glued to the longer "leg". 

The feet will make the base of the rack 3½" wider and a little more stable. 

To reinforce the glue joint I will add a short dowel. Two would be better but there isn't much room. To accommodate the dowel, I made this jig which guarantees that I can drill a dowel hole in the same place in the four feet and the four legs. (The rounded end of feet and legs are identical.)

With the holes drilled, these pieces are ready to be doweled and glued.

Clamping is tricky because the offset caused by the opposing curves prevents direct clamping across the joint. Using spacers to keep the leg & foot parallel and calls on the outside, I can use two clamps. 

Edited February 2 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Here are the four feet attached to the legs:

These completed leg/feet need to be sanded, of course. And when assembled I to into two frames, I might even return to the router and round over the edges. 

Tomorrow, I will have to look into turning four legs into two frames by adding two 11" cross-bars. Lap joints.  There is trick that can be used to ensure that the cut away portion of the lap joints are a perfect fit to the other half of the joint. I will have to do some test cuts until I get it perfect because I can't afford to screw this up. I've taken way too long on this job thanks to a week plus with a bad back. And I can't afford to buy any more wood to complete the job. I just have to remember to readjust the blade height for cutting the part two rebates after the part one rebates. 

The rice was sufficient to give Mo a full portion of lunch and a small portion for myself. There is a new 2 Kg bag of rice and about one cup from the last bag. So around 11 cups total. One cup is enough for Mo and I to get a meal. We eat twice a day, so 11 cups is 5½ days, starting tomorrow.

For dinner I cooked dumplings. Using most of the remaining wheat flour and adding some Indian corn flour to stretch it, I made a batch of dough and turned it into a beriffle of dumplings. While they were cooking I made BOK and tossed the finished dumplings in that. Fishing out the dumplings then splitting the remaining BOK gave us a good sized meal. Here is Mo's meal:

Mine were about the same except I get tired of dumpling making as time passes and the later dumplings were slightly larger and therefore slightly fewer in number. 

Watched that movie The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee made when Hogan was in his early eighties. Not a Crocodile Dundee movie really, but about Hogan himself. Obviously, plenty of references to those movies but more about the life of an aging actor in Hollywood. 

Other than woodworking I also did some work on software on my computer. The monitor seems to have marginally recovered. It is still bad but whereas before working with it was impossible, it is now only difficult.

It's now just gone midnight but I fouled up my meds today so I have to wait until 1:30 in order to take a dose so I can rectify my mistake. I guess I will read a while. Mo, who has been lolling around in the bed for hours, has now decided to rush out and prowl the yard. It was raining heavily earlier so when we went on Garden Patrol, we made or it swift. Here comes Mo now! Looking out the window. 

Is I'd have a mug of tea but there is no milk. And the lime juice is almost all gone, too. And beastly as tea with lime may be in comparison with tea with milk, tea with neither is not to be contemplated.

Edited February 3 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Lime juice almost gone.....

Edited February 3 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Stupidly managed to flood the bathroom this morning. Was trying to fill a bucket. Walked away for a few seconds... Well, by the time I realized that I'd forgotten and rushed back, much more than the bucket was full!

Because the tiles in this house are so poorly laid (there are places where adjacent tiles are ⅜" different in height; you can stump your toe on a tile in the passage, if you aren't careful!) there were shallow and deep pools of water all over the bathroom and the flood had started out into the bedroom. 

I stopped the flow into the bedroom with a towel, then bailed the water into the sink. I got most of it but there are some wet spots remaining (low-set tiles). Mopped up where I could and now waiting for the heat and breeze to take care of the rest. Nearly fell down, slipping on the wet tiles but avoided hurting myself. 

Later, went to cook lunch. Rice, bully, onion, "Soup Mix" beans, paprika, garlic, MSG and tiny stock cubes. When I went to scoop the beans from the bowl in the fridge into the pot.... no ladle. A cursory look around in the kitchen and then:

That's a good tee-shirt! And the ladle has been properly gnawed upon. I had to cut and sand 1½" off this handle once before!

Ok, back to the kitchen to get this rice pot on the stove!

[Netfoot]

First, we change blades. Removing the normal blade with the ⅛" kerf (left)

And replacing it with the two-part blade with ⅜" kerf (right). Reason? Ask me later! Here is the new blade in place:

(I don't have a Zero Clearance Insert for this wide blade so I have to use an insert with a huge slot in it!)

Now, this small scrap of wood (right) is the exact width of the cross bars that will turn two legs into a side-frame:

We cut this in half and to prevent it falling through the huge gap in the red insert we use a scrap of hardboard under it:

It's a real beast keeping your fingers out of the blade when cutting something so small but with two push-sticks I was able to complete the cut:

Now, why did we do this? The answer is obvious. So we could glue it back together again! 😄

[Netfoot]

By cutting the block in half and gluing it back together, you get a block that is narrower than the original board.

By how much is it smaller? By exactly the width of the kerf of the blade! Now, if you use this block as a spacer when you make your cuts, you will compensate for the kerf. I will show what I mean tomorrow.

Made a new pot of rice today and Mo and I had some for lunch. No carrots to go in but there was the last of the "Soup Mix". It came out pretty tasty. Mo got his usual serving and I took a small one.

We had more rice for dinner but with a difference. There was a small bit of dough left over from yesterday's dumplings. I divided it roughly in three, rolled the pieces flat and fried in oil. Ended up with three sizes of fry-bread. Mo got the small & medium pieces and I took the largest. I'm pretty sure he came out on top. I had to tear his fry-breads into pieces since he can't manage that for himself. Tossed the pieces in his dinner rice. I am able to gnaw a piece of fry-bread so I just ate the rice with a long-handled teaspoon and occasionally nibbling at the bread. It had a mild corn flour taste which I enjoyed. 

There is rice for tomorrow. Wednesday, I can cook another pot which will get us to Friday. And I cash a welfare cheque on Friday. I have no choice but to buy food with it because by Friday we will have no rice, potatoes, pasta, flour, corned beef, onions, tuna or any other type of food in the house. Of course, the bills will suffer. And three weeks later I will not be able to pay rent unless I can make $174 somehow. 

And the guy who gives me woodworking jobs WhatsApped me a photo this morning of him in hospital. Not 100% sure I know what for, but apparently it was unexpected and he is waiting to see how serious it is. So no work for a while.

Not listening to any music. Just finished watching a movie called We Live In Time about a man who goes out to get a pen to sign his divorce papers and gets knocked down by a girl driving a Mini who starts dating him then develops ovarian cancer and delivers his daughter in a gas station but refuses treatment for the cancer so she can participate in a competition to determine who is the top chef. And there must have been aliens in there somewhere because after all, there was everything else!

Mo has just joined me and is curled up against my shoulder. I'm glad because there is a cold breeze in the window tonight. I am going to wrap up in the sheet and read my book for a page or two before shutting off the lights and getting some sleep. No shower tonight. Sorry. I'm not getting wet now because I don't want to freeze my bollocks off!

[Netfoot]

Using our little measurement block (which we know is the width of the boards less the kerf of the blade), we clamp a stop-block on the miter-guide. The distance from the back (left side) of the blade to the stop-block should now be exactly the width of the wood. (We actually add a hair extra because a hair extra is better than a hair short and can be sanded off later.)

With the height of the blade set to approximately the height of the board, we make a cut. 

Now, we make freehand cuts to remove the unwanted wood from the end of the board:

With the unwanted wood removed, we see that the board now fits across other boards at right angles with only that extra hair to remove!

(And now you know why the ⅛" blade was replaced with the ⅜" blade; whittling away the unwanted wood ⅛" at a time would take all day!)

The process having worked on the test board, we repeat on each end of the four stretchers. 

Now, the legs must have rebates cut to accept the stretchers. The little block of wood will help here too!

Edited February 4 by Netfoot

[andidante]

28 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Using our little measurement block (which we know is the width of the boards less the kerf of the blade), we clamp a stop-block on the miter-guide. The distance from the back (left side) of the blade to the stop-block should now be exactly the width of the wood. (We actually add a hair extra because a hair extra is better than a hair short and can be sanded off later.)

With the height of the blade set to approximately the height of the board, we make a cut. 

Now, we make freehand cuts to remove the unwanted wood from the end of the board:

With the unwanted wood removed, we see that the board now fits across other boards at right angles with only that extra hair to remove!

(And now you know why the ⅛" blade was replaced with the ⅜" blade; whittling away the unwanted wood ⅛" at a time would take all day!)

The process having worked on the test board, we repeat on each end of the four stretchers. 

Now, the legs must have rebates cut to accept the stretchers. The little block of wood will help here too!

This is very interesting to me! I am not handy at all and I appreciate you showing us the steps of how you make things.

[Netfoot]

Ok, so now we want to create a rebate in our legs to accept the stretchers. First thing to do is to adjust the height of the blade to the same as the thickness of the tongues we left on the stretchers.  Then, we practice on a scrap.

We want our stretcher to be (say) 2" from the end. We align the scrap with the blade at the 2" mark and clamp a stop-block in place with our spacer block in between.

We make a cut here, then remove the spacer block before making a second cut.

This gives us two cuts in our board  and we can go ahead and cut away the unwanted wood in between by hand:

And lo! The magic of that spacer block, cut from the same stock as the parts, then cut in half and glued back together. What do we get?

Perfect fit!

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, andidante said:

This is very interesting to me! I am not handy at all and I appreciate you showing us the steps of how you make things.

Believe me, I'm no expert. But I go slow, think things through and test before commiting myself. If I don't know a good way to do something I search the net for tips. And I believe in using little jigs, and other techniques (like my magic spacer block) to try and avoid making silly errors.

OK, so on to the actual legs. Adjusting the rip-fence (instead of a stop-block) and remembering to use my magic spacer, I make the first cut:

Removing the spacer and making the second and subsequent cuts, I created the rebates at the bottom of four legs. Likewise, after resetting the rip-fence I cut the rebates at the top of the legs. Remember: the legs go left and right so don't get that wrong. We don't need four left legs and no right legs!

So here are the frames; two legs separated by two spacers or stretchers.

Here is a close-up of one of the lap-joints: 

Note that these frames are not glued or screwed together. They are holding themselves together thanks solely to the snug fit of the stretchers in the rebates on the legs. I got to glue and clamp these together now, taking care to apply my combination square so they don't come out crooked. 

But first a mug of tea. After which it will be time to get lunch ready.... 

[Netfoot]

First frame glued and clamped. All four corners repeatedly checked for square with the combination square as the clamps were gradually drawn up. 

After 45 minutes, I removed the clamps and when the glue was only barely set up, I clamped the frame down onto my table saw. This to make sure the frame comes out flat. The top of the saw is milled cast iron and the flattest surface I have

Gravity-clamps were used for this...

Second frame will be done in the same way but I will give this one 2 more hours to set up strongly before inset I set it aside to cure fully.

Edited February 4 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Do you remember the homemade, tippy-topply monitor stand I made that was so unbalanced it needed a big lump of lead on it?

Do you also remember all the times I told you I was a dumb-ass?

[Netfoot]

Here are two tablesaw "inserts", also called "throat plates". The one on the left is aluminium, and came with the saw. The other is one I made myself.

The large holes are to stick your finger in to lift the plate out. Note the wide slot in the red one, which allows you to tilt the blade up to 45° without it touching the insert. Note the much narrower slot on the homemade one. Called a "Zero Clearance Insert" or ZCI, the slot is the same width as the blade. You can't tilt the blade but you can cut small pieces without them falling through the slot into the guts of the saw. 

The inserts sit on lugs cast into the top of the saw, around the throat 

Three are visible here and there are three more at the other end of the throat.

Inserts have to be adjusted so the top of the insert is exactly level with the table top. The red one has six grub-screws that can be accessed from the top. Observe:

One of the grub screws is visible here and the earlier photo shows the holes in the tip of the insert through which you adjust the grub-screws.

The home made one is adjusted differently. Thin wooden pads are glued on to the underside. These are gradually sanded and fitted, sanded and fitted, until the insert is perfectly flush with the cast iron top. That takes forever, and if you sand too much, you have to cut the pad away, glue on a new one and start again. It's a pain in the butt!

Why do we need to make inserts anyhow? Because as mentioned earlier, you can make them ZCI. Usually, you'd make several blank plates. Then, when you need a plate with a ⅜" slot to accommodate a wider blade, you lower the blade, insert a blank plate (with no slot), turn on the saw and raise the blade to cut a perfectly fitting slot for what ever blade you are using. At what ever angle the blade is at.

Why don't I do that? Because adjusting plates by sanding is a PITA!! What I need to do is identify the size of grub-screw (easy), order 100 of them, and use them on my homemade plates. With 100 I could make 16 blank plates and have four grub-screws in reserve. And when any plate wears out the grub-screws can be recovered and reused.

Edited February 4 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

It's late. I've been watching a movie. Earlier I watched The Last Of The Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis & Madeline Stowe. But just now, I was watching the spaghetti western Once Upon A Time In The West with Charles Bronson & Henry Fonda. 

Funnily enough, I recently watched another spaghetti western: My Name Is Nobody with Terence Hill & Henry Fonda again!

My two side-frames are done. Tomorrow I have to do some sanding but then the final and most difficult part of the build - the part I don't know how to do. I have to join the two side-frames with the four towel rails.

The rails have a stadium profile. Ideally, I would cut a matching stadium shaped hole in the frames, insert the rails with glue and that would be that. But how do you cut a stadium shaped hole in a frame? With a router. But a router can cut any shape hole. And any size. How to get it to cut the right shape and the right size? With a pattern or template. The template would be a board with a stadium shaped hole of the exact size of the needed hole plus a specific size increase. So I'm back to making a perfectly stadium shaped and perfectly sized hole. Which is what I was trying to do to start with!

Honestly, I an starting to feel the easiest way would be to use chisels and carve out the hole by hand. But to carve the rounded ends I would need a curved chisel. Which I've never owned.

So tomorrow is going to be fun. And as it's already after two in the morning, I'd better grab some shut-eye. 

It's cold tonight. A shower would be painful! But I skipped last night. Thankfully I took my shower just after dark this evening when the heat of the day was still upon us! I'm clever, you see. Except when it comes to towel rail stadium mounting holes. And TV stands...

[b4pjoe]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

The rails have a stadium profile. Ideally, I would cut a matching stadium shaped hole in the frames, insert the rails with glue and that would be that. But how do you cut a stadium shaped hole in a frame? With a router. But a router can cut any shape hole. And any size. How to get it to cut the right shape and the right size? With a pattern or template. The template would be a board with a stadium shaped hole of the exact size of the needed hole plus a specific size increase. So I'm back to making a perfectly stadium shaped and perfectly sized hole. Which is what I was trying to do to start with!

Honestly, I an starting to feel the easiest way would be to use chisels and carve out the hole by hand. But to carve the rounded ends I would need a curved chisel. Which I've never owned.

Could you just round off the ends of the four towel rails about 3/8" or 1/2" to where you would only see the stadium shaped towel rails in the completed project and then drill the round hole in the end pieces to put them in and glue?

[Netfoot]

56 minutes ago, b4pjoe said:

Could you just round off the ends of the four towel rails about 3/8" or 1/2" to where you would only see the stadium shaped towel rails in the completed project and then drill the round hole in the end pieces to put them in and glue?

Actually, I had a similar idea. I thought about cutting the ends down by (say) ⅛" on all four sides, leaving a rectangular tenon to fit into a rectangular hole. Cutting the rectangular hole would still require chisel-work but no curved chisel would be needed. 

Now, your idea just might be genius! I could cut into the end of the rail with a ½" or ⅝" plug cutter. Removing the excess wood would leave me with a perfectly circular ½" or ⅝" tenon or integral dowel. Or possibly two. The matching hole(s) could be drilled with a Forstner bit for a perfect, easy fit.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will go and do some experimenting to see if any sort of gotcha pops up. 

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Now, your idea just might be genius!

I still think this is genius, but it doesn't work for me at the moment. 

To cut circular tenon(s) with a plug-cutter, I would need to use the drill press. Which drills vertically downwards. This means the rails would have to be clamped  in place vertically upwards.  My drill press has a horizontal work table. It could be swung out of the way entirely (or even removed completely) but the frame on which the drill press is mounted has no provision for vertical clamping of a workpiece.

Why not? Because when I built it several years ago, I didn't think to include such a feature. It would have been easy to do so if I'd thought about it at the time. It would be easy to build a new frame/table with this feature included or even modify the current table to suit. But it would require some parts which I just can't afford at this time.

A suitably sized piece of plywood attached to the side of the current frame would do. boards to be end-drilled could be clamped to this. A spirit level would allow us to check for vertical and we could move the board from side to side until that was satisfactory. But back and forth adjustment would require hinges and some sort of adjuster (a bolt would do). 

I will attempt to cut a tenon manually. I am not confident because I don't think I will be able to hold the drill steady enough by hand. The bigger a drill is the harder it is to control and the ½" plug cutter is probably ¾" outside diameter. Preventing that from "walking" as I start the cut will be very difficult. The fact that I'll be cutting into end-grain won't help...

[b4pjoe]

  

14 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

I still think this is genius, but it doesn't work for me at the moment. 

To cut circular tenon(s) with a plug-cutter, I would need to use the drill press. Which drills vertically downwards. This means the rails would have to be clamped  in place vertically upwards.  My drill press has a horizontal work table. It could be swung out of the way entirely (or even removed completely) but the frame on which the drill press is mounted has no provision for vertical clamping of a workpiece.

Why not? Because when I built it several years ago, I didn't think to include such a feature. It would have been easy to do so if I'd thought about it at the time. It would be easy to build a new frame/table with this feature included or even modify the current table to suit. But it would require some parts which I just can't afford at this time.

A suitably sized piece of plywood attached to the side of the current frame would do. boards to be end-drilled could be clamped to this. A spirit level would allow us to check for vertical and we could move the board from side to side until that was satisfactory. But back and forth adjustment would require hinges and some sort of adjuster (a bolt would do). 

I will attempt to cut a tenon manually. I am not confident because I don't think I will be able to hold the drill steady enough by hand. The bigger a drill is the harder it is to control and the ½" plug cutter is probably ¾" outside diameter. Preventing that from "walking" as I start the cut will be very difficult. The fact that I'll be cutting into end-grain won't help...

Could you not use your lathe to round the ends of the four towel rails? (Might be difficult to get a precise round measurement I guess. I'm no lathe expert so excuse me if this is stupid. 😁 )

Edited February 5 by b4pjoe

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, b4pjoe said:

Could you not use your lathe to round the ends of the four towel rails?

In theory, yes. But it would be difficult to hold the driven end while rounding the opposite end. I wouldn't be able to use my chuck, nor the woodworm screw nor a faceplate. I'd have to use a drive center which grips across a 1" width and the boards are only ¾". So the grip would be tenuous. Once one end was rounded I could grip the rounded part in the chuck to do the second end, but that first one would be an adventure.

It occurred to me that the angle of the drill-press table can be adjusted (with difficulty, it isn't a quick job) and I thought I might be able to adjust it by 90° but 

It seems it will only rotate 45° each way. But this has suggested to me that a vertical clamping surface could be built to attach to the table rather than the frame. Thinking about this.

The simple alternative is to just drill two pilot holes in from the outside and screw into the end of the rails. Not exactly the best joinery but better than nothing! Or instead of screws I could use dowels.....

Edited February 5 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Tried to use my plug cutters in a hand drill but the shaft of the clutter cutter was larger than the chuck of the drill. That's an I indication of how much force the plug cutters reflects back from the cut. Not a good sign for hand-held cutting!

Figured out a way to hold the rail in the lathe with the chuck. Tomorrow I will see if the lathe is long enough to hold the full length of the rails (36½"). I did install the 40" bed extension on the lathe years ago, but the chuck will take some of that length as will the live-center in the tailstock and the gizmo I have dreamt up for holding the rail will as well. 

Going to experiment with doweling the rails into place but I have to buy a dowel.

Combined Garden Patrol with a Croc hunt. Cooked up a two-day pot of rice and despite there being very little additions to the pot it still tasted pretty good. There is 2¼ cups of rice (about two meals) left and some corned beef in a bowl in the fridge to add to it but no onions or anything else. Going to buy a small selection of groceries on Friday. No choice. Can't let the puppy starve.

May have located a monitor I can have FOC. Not sure size, aspect ratio or connection type. Hopefully it will not be too ancient and can work with my computer. Will pick it up on Friday. 

Been watching a few Squid Game episodes. At first S2 was struggling to keep up with S1 but things are now starting to warm up a bit.

Another cold night. Mo was here a moment ago but had has just run out for some reason. When he gets back I will lock up and wrap up for the night. I'm tired but I might try to read a page or two from my book before blowing out the candles.

Gasping for a mug of tea. No tea since yesterday when the last of the lime juice ran out.

Mo is back.....

Edited February 6 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I'm sitting at the computer with a mug of tea. Yes, tea. With milk! How is this possible?!??

Tomorrow is welfare cheque day. (And collect old computer monitor day, too.). My pension also dropped today. So instead of waiting until tomorrow to spend the welfare cheque on groceries, I decided to spend the money now, out of the pension, and replace it with the welfare cheque in the morning.

Then, I got a call from my friend who was last heard of in QEH. I was going to send him a message tomorrow and offer to bring him a roti from IV-Play Deli so he wouldn't have to eat the QEH food. (In fact, the food at QEH is good!) He says he's been home since Tuesday (?) and his boss (who is, incidentally, his wife), has told him not to come to work. But (he says), they call him every 15 minutes.....

Anyway, he asked if I'd recovered from my fall and was working again, and how the towel rack was going. I sent him photos of the current state:

And fold told him this unit would be finished by tomorrow.

After he saw the photos, he messaged back to say "These are top notch!". Anyway, they want me to make a dozen more. He will come and take away this example unit early next week (Monday?) and we will discuss price for the 12 additional units. Between now and next week I gave to compute what it will cost me to build these and therefore what I want for the job. Off the top of my head I'm thinking $275 each or thereabouts. That would be $3,300 for the lot. The lumber should be in the area of $75 per rack or $2,400 for me. 

So I went to the supermarket and bought some food. This included tea, sugar, condensed milk, flour, potatoes, rice, pasta, onions, carrots, pumpkin, plantains, corned beef, sausages, lentils, ketchup, pepper sauce, cheese, granulated garlic, tomato paste, mayo and a couple of selfish items: Teatime biscuits, a cheap bag of CheeZits and a coke. Mo will get a share of the Teatime biscuits and of the CheeZits but the coke is mine! Mine, I tell you! Mine!!!

Anyway, the drilling jig is glued up and in clamps. Stopped at Kooyman on the way home to buy two dowels. With the glue cured tomorrow I will try out the jig and (assuming it works as intended) assemble the frame into a complete whole.

Meanwhile, there is a chill breeze in the window and it isn't even 5:30 PM yet! So I'm off for my shower now, before the sun goes down and the chill worsens.

Edited February 6 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Watching YT videos with one eye, and posting with the other. Mo is snoozing on the foot of the bed. 

Mo & I had rice for lunch and he also had rice for dinner. There is sufficient rice remaining for his lunch tomorrow. My dinner was CheeZees with a dip of ketchup, mayo, pepper sauce and granulated garlic. It was hot! It definitely said hello; I hope it doesn't say goodbye! 🥺

And a coke. A beastly cold coke.

Mo assisted with the CheeZees. If I put two in my mouth without giving him one, he would dig his claws into my thigh. (Why do I give him the big ones?) Later, after Garden Patrol, I brewed a mug of tea and he helped me with the Teatime biscuits as well. I broke each biscuit in "half" and kept the bigger half for myself, giving the smaller half to him. 

I have a small bag of peanuts (which I forgot to mention that I'd bought) and we will share them as well. I am determined to get the lion's share!

But speaking of Garden Patrol. Shortly before we went out, he went out on his own. Returned and began drying himself on the bed and on me! The cheeky devil! He was only sprinkled and not drenched, thankfully. It was only lightly drizzling and by time for Garden Patrol, it had stopped. (He has just woken up, looked at the window and rushed out!)

Tomorrow for dinner I dunno what we will have but it won't be rice and it won't contain bully beef. Which means it will be potatoes or pasta and it will have sausage in it....

So tomorrow, post office to cash cheque, pick up monitor, buy some bread, buy some Hershey's Kisses if I can find them and they are cheap enough (next Friday is Valentine's day), bank money from post office and return home. And at home, finish the towel rack. I have all weekend because it won't be collected before Monday, but the sooner the better.

Mo still not returned. Will watch more YT until he does then we will eat our peanuts.

I've not actually touched my book these last two (three?) nights. Hope to actually read a page or two tonight.

Here he is now!

[Netfoot]

Chores completed. ChatGPT and I can't get the donor monitor to work. Spent the morning trying. 

Here is my jig:

Two blocks glued to a strip of thin plywood. Look closely between them at the right hand end and you will see two small pilot holes. The spacing is just right to hold the legs of the side frames. 

Now look at the back. Four little blocks glued on to form a rectangular pocket. The two pilot holes are visible in the bottom of the pocket. (Light is bad, try zooming.)

By drilling through these two holes I can repeatedly drill a pair of holes for dowels.  Just position the block on the side frame in the right spot and all the holes will be drilled with the same spacing and positioning.

Now remove the side frame and flip the jig over. Using the same holes but drilling from the opposite side, young should be able to get matching holes in the ends of the rails! That's the plan, anyway....

[Netfoot]

While at the post office, I popped into the grocery next door to see if they had any meat scraps. (They didn't.) While there I saw pak choy and could not resist. I also saw the smallest breadfruit I've ever seen! 

800 grams. $3.67 and irresistible! Dinner tonight? Maybe...... 😃

Edited February 7 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

After lunch, I started to feel a little off-colour. I lay on the bed and the next thing I knew, it was dusk. I am a still a little out of sorts. I did not have a good afternoon. 

But I had a good dinner! Boiled breadfruit and plantain with a sauce of diced sausage, onion, tomato and pak choy. It was great!  Mo got some of the sauce over his rice - the last in the pot - and he got some breadfruit too. 

I think the breadfruit is starting to affect me. It's supposed to make you fart. I have never noticed any such effect before but there is no denying that something is happening...

I missed my chance for an early shower before things started to turn cold, but I needed a shower. So, just back from that and shivering here with the window open and the fan blowing.

 I'm watching a movie about nuclear terrorism in California and the efforts of a number of people to survive after the event. It's called Homestead and it appears to be a cross between survivalism and bible-bashing. The survivalist faction want to conserve food at the homestead while the bible-bashers want to give everything away to the masses outside the gate. It remains to be seen how this will work out. Oh, wait! They are beating their swords into ploughshares! And, lo! Magically, there is manna for all and an end to hunger!

Mo is here with me, lying on my feet and keeping them warm. He looks full. He ate his dinner (a large bowl of rice with sausage sauce on top) in under a minute and polished off my uneaten breadfruit in quick order too. Mo has always had a healthy appetite, and given our present circumstances, I'm glad he is easy to feed. It is rare that I prepare a meal that is so bad he rejects it.

Actually, I could eat something now! But it's after midnight and I'm not going back into the kitchen. Not even to brew a mugga tea. 

Unfortunately, I made no progress on my towel rack today. Which is very annoying. I want to get it finished and ready to hand over and I want the glue to cure for a day first so now I have to get it done tomorrow. It shouldn't be a problem, but...

Going to sleep soon......

Edited February 8 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

A little off-colour all day today As well. Did not do much at all. Was about to start work on the towel rack when I got a message from my buddy saying they would like the frames rounded. In the same way the tails were. Personally, I don't think that will be attractive. I think the square lines of the frame are in pleasant opposition to the rounded rails, but they asked for everything to be rounded on the prototype so I will do it. Good thing they spoke up when they did. After the trails are assembled the inside of the rails would be impossible to round over and the outside, while possible, would be very tricky.

Mo ate well today. I fed him on potatoes & bully beef. I had the left-over sausage & pak choy from last night. Nothing too complex, and tasty enough.

Watched The age Of Adeline which is an interesting exploration of the life of a woman who stops aging at age 29.

Still can't seem to find time to read. I lie on the bed and go fast to sleep. And it was getting interesting, too.

OK, got to round-over the frames and then assemble the rack tomorrow. And I have to calculate how much wood to buy in order to build twelve more. I need to price out the lumber so as to be able to work out my quotation for the twelve. 

Just gone midnight. Mo was lying behind me, snuggling up against the back of my thigh with his head on my calf. As soon as I touched the phone to get a picture, he moved away. He does it a lot. He had a small sore on one of his toes. He's ultra protective of his feet at the best of time and doubly do now. I can't do much to help. I could sprinkle the toe with BNT but he would immediately lick it back off again. If I wait til he's asleep I might get some on there for a while but that's only possible if he is lying in just the right position to allow me to dust that particular toe.

After midnight so I will probably finish this mugga tea and call it quits. A light rain began to fall after Garden Patrol. But there is a fairly strong, cool breeze which is blowing droplets in the window. I've closed it down to only about ½" gap but the occasional drop is still getting through. 

[Netfoot]

With a framing square I drew a line across both legs, positioned so that the size of my jig is taken into consideration. 

With the jig clamped into position on the line, I drilled through the two holes in the jig and into the frame. Because of the one taller side on the jig, I couldn't get all the way through, and I didn't have long-reach drill bit.

It was necessary to remove the jig to finish these two holes. The jig was replaced in exactly the same position, and a rail clamped in the pocket. (Now you see why one side of the jig is taller, to facilitate clamping.) By drilling back through the holes in the frame, I ended up with matching holes in the end of the rail and perfectly aligned with the holes in the frame. 

Rinse and repeat seven more times (four rails, two ends per rail) and the pilot holes are done. These will have to be opened up to match the dowels but that can come later as the rack is being assembled. 

[Netfoot]

Repositioning the jig in exactly the same place is important. I facilitated this by clamping a scrap (triangular) to the frame so when replacing the jig I just have to butt it up against the scrap.

When this exercise is complete I have matching pilot holes in the frame and rail.

Both are marked to ensure the same rail goes back to the same part of the frame. The arrow on the frame is really unnecessary because it is obvious which end is the top. The rails are not so easy to distinguish so the arrow on the rails will ensure that I put them together in the same orientation as to how they were drilled. 

Edited February 9 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

It's not done yet!  But I have to take a break because I am starting to feel it in my back. And elsewhere.

All the drilling and fitting for dowels is complete and the dowels are cut and fitted. Here it is (if you can make it out among the general clutter and host of scrap bits) standing on my table saw. The only thing holding it together is the friction fit of the dowels. 

It now needs to be taken apart, all the dowel joints sanded, then put back together with glue and left standing on the flattest surface in the house (tablesaw top) for the clue to cure. This to make sure that when in use all four feet will touch the ground. After that is done, the little stubs of dowel protruding from the holes can be cut/sanded flush and Robert is your father's brother!

But right now, I'm going to lie in bed and hope the puppy (currently asleep on the tiles) comes and keeps me company. 

[Netfoot]

Ok, here it is, glued, clamped and weighted. Will not touch again until tomorrow. Then I will trim the dowels, fill any chips or gaps and sand.

The final assembly was a nightmare. I should have some sort of jig to facilitate alignment and gluing. But that is another story. 

Mo is under the bed snoozing and has been there since right after lunch. 

Has the forum upgrade happened yet? When it does, I may want to change my username, if that is possible. I am thinking something different. Something like "Big Balls", maybe.

[Netfoot]

Was just saying "In a sec. we will go out on Garden Patrol..." when with a tinkling smash that set my teeth on edge....

"God damnit, dog...." But there was no point saying any more because by that time he was in another parish. I had to go and root around in the back of the kitchen cupboards to find another mug. Which had been in there so long it had to be scrubbed thoroughly then sterilized with boiling water then washed again. And finally:

I used it after Garden Patrol and it works well, but I don't like it because I don't like the message. There is no chance that it contains vodka.

My dad used to drink 4-5 mugs of tea a day and they were 20 oz. mugs. One British pint. And the mug had to be plain white. I spent a lot of time looking for a plain white 20 oz. mug a while back. Finally located one and within a week of it arriving from the UK, I dropped it. 😕

The towel rack has gone. We discussed variations that could be made but the rack will be examined by "The Boss" who will decide if it is up to standard. If so, I should get an order for a batch of racks. Originally, I was told 12, but today I was asked if I would want an order for 10, 12, 15? Deliverable in smaller batches, like 6 at a time. We agreed on a price of $280 each. I will have to supply the wood out of that but the last one was made from a 1"x6"-16' for $67.99 plus the dowel at $1.49 and glue. So I can make $200 or maybe a few bucks more, for each one. He told me he would pre-pay a deposit of 60% so paying for the lumber, etc, won't be a problem. 

Glue. I have a near-empty 8 oz. bottle of TiteBond III that I've been using and a new, unopened bottle that I paid $21.99 for. I will need more glue for this project. I can get a pint for $32.99 or a gallon for $119.99 which is $14.99 a pint. That's better than half-price, pint for pint. But it is 120 bucks!

Mo has not returned to the house since I bellowed at him. He joined me on Garden Patrol but chose not to come inside afterwords. 

Finished Squid Game S2 and I didn't find it as good as S1. It sort of ended o a cliffhanger so I'm sure S3 will be along sooner than later. Otherwise have not watched any other movies. Nor read any of my book these last several days. But with no woodwork project underway I should have a bit more time in my hands. And I shouldn't be as tired. 

It sounds strange to say that a little woodworking project with little or no big, heavy pieces would be tiring. Alas, I tire easily and have to stop to rest several times during the day. Not to mention stop to fix lunch for Mo. I like to eat but I can easily skip a meal or two if I am engaged in a project of some sort. Or simply wait until it's too dark to work and then eat a meal  But Mo needs to be fed twice a day and I can't ask him to skip a meal. I can force him to skip a meal by simply not feeding him. But that would be cruel. If I get the job to build a batch of towel rails, I will buy him some chow, so I can give him a meal in a minute without having to stand around in the kitchen for 30 minutes  preparing something for him. 

(He has just come in and is curled up behind me. Ooof! Tummy Trampoline.)

Ok, I will stop now. It's five past nine and I will read for a little while and try for an early night. 

ETA: A High-Wind Advisory has been issued for tomorrow by the Met. office. This is a bit unusual. I don't recall one of these being issued, ever before.

Edited February 11 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Managed to advance three chapters my book, when I picked it up early last night. Hope to get another chapter or two read tonight.

After smashing my mug yesterday, Mo attempted to bust my water glass today. I use an old, red plastic "glass" because it is unlikely to break if it should fall. Good thing, because Mo wasn't satisfied with sticking his nosie in it as he has done so many times before. Today he dashed it to the floor where (fortunately) it bounced instead of breaking. So no damage but the bedroom floor was awash with water and ice cubes and I chased his ass out of the house. He stayed out for a while but after Garden Patrol he came in again and was here a moment ago, playing TT with his daddy.

Did virtually nothing today which was nice. I hoped to get a good, long nap in the afternoon but couldn't get to sleep. Not sure why.

When I was at college, my professors all envied my fingernails. They told me that fingernails are a valuable tool for an engineer. I'm not talking about using them as screwdrivers or anything like that. But they can be useful otherwise. For example, if you have two surfaces that are supposed to be at the same level, you can use a fingernail to tell if one is proud by a few thousandths of an inch. Your nail will feel it whereas your actual flesh may not.

The girls in the family were also envious because my fingernails were indestructible. Unlike their own.

I had strong, hard, fast-growing nails. I say had because my nails no are longer the same.

Look at the edge of these nails. Do you see hard and strong?

My nails are now thin, soft and crumbly. And they are certainly not fast-growing. 

It's probably because of my diet. I used to drink a lot of milk. Dr. Kristi took me to task once for drinking 4 liters of milk in a week. If I had my druthers I'd have at least one liter a day! 

Speaking of nails, I recall a couple of years ago having one of my nails ripped off while working on the lathe. As I was looking at my nails just now, I could not determine which finger that was! The entire nail came off and a new nail slowly grew back. It took about a year but the finger and nail are perfect again now and you would not be able to tell there had ever been a problem.

Watched a couple episodes of a show called Dark Matter. This show is about a guy who gets shifted into a parallel universe somehow, and his attempts to return to his own reality. There was another show about 15 years ago with the same name. I watched that one OK but the new one is a strain to watch. I've only seen two episodes so far so I won't give up on it yet, but the next episode better be especially engaging or I will consign the series to the trash and regain my disk space.

My buddy days the towel rack will be painted by one of their staff, then the boss/wife will assess it and at that point an order will be formally placed at an agreed price. I don't have a compressor and therefore can't offer to paint.

I dislike painting because it takes me a long time. Instead of throwing on a thick cost coat of paint, I like to apply several thin coats and give each plenty of time to dry before applying the next. When I painted my flight box it took me 16 days. It came out great but I can't be painting things for people if It will take 16 days! And that was painting with a brush. Also, when I have to paint something, it costs me one set of clothes every time I pick up the brush. A pair of shorts and a tee shirt, possibly a pair of shoes, too.

Anyway, a puppy wants to play TT so I will end here and enjoy the game. I just wish he would not insist on putting his weight down on his elbows directly on my solar plexus!

Edited February 12 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

This is a monitor of mine. It has functional circuitry in the base including DVI & VGA connectors. And a bad display. You can see diagonal marks on the screen where the picture is distorted. 

You can't see the cloudiness of the display that makes it virtually unreadable.

This is a very similar monitor that I  acquired a few days ago. It has a VGA connector. The actual display is functional but apparently the VGA base is problematic. I can't get it to work on my computer.

This a photo of the guts of the VGA monitor base.

By dismantling the two monitors I transferred the working DVI/VGA base circuitry into the other monitor with the working display.

There is no guarantee this franken-monitor will work. But I am hoping that it will.

I powered it up on its own (not connected to anything) and it came up, displayed the maker's logo and a message saying "No Signal". Then it powered itself down into standby mode. No explosions, no magic smoke leaking out.

I will leave it for a few hours, switching it on and off, to see if it explodes or not. After that.....

My buddy called. First words out of his mouth: "It takes three women three days to make a decision." I naturally have no idea what he's talking about. The towel rack has been examined and they don't want the feet to spread out; just have the leg go straight down to the ground. (The photo of the unit sent to me to be copied distinctly shows splayed feet at the bottom of the legs.) I don't mind. They will be easier to build without that feature. Not that they were difficult to do...  

So he says he will come over on Friday with a cheque and I can get to work on the first batch. Not sure how many they will want. The more the merrier because once you set up the machines to cut legs (or stretchers or rails or feet), you just keep processing wood until you have as many as you need. Parts for 16 units are essentially as easy as parts for 6. It's the setup that takes time and effort. 

Cooked a good rice pot for Mo and I for lunch. Bully beef, pumpkin, carrots and pak choy. I like pak choy in rice. You get crunchy bits of the stem, almost celery-like, and you get streamers of the green, leafy parts as well. Looking forward to dinner!

Gotta go to QEH and Edgar Cochrane tomorrow. Should have gone yesterday, and killed two birds with one stone by going to see that lot in Neuro at the same time. They promised me on 26th November to call with an appointment date/time. I was given a 4-month prescription so I will need another by end of March. So I will need an appointment to see the doctors before then, too. But they never called. 

Franken-monitor powering up and down without smoke and in between sitting happily in standby. Later I might try swapping it with my wooden-based monitor to see if it really works!

ETA: And lentils!  The rice contains lentils! I like lentils. They are good in rice, make good soup, and re-hydrate easily and quickly.

Edited February 12 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

This is a tummy that really needs rubbing & tickling!

And this is what you have to deal with if you fail to deliver:

[Netfoot]

Franken-monitor:

Note that there is a darker area bottom/right of the screen. Remember, this is not a new monitor, but rather one that was no longer in service and given to me for free. It is much better than any of my monitors, despite the darker area. I will fiddle with the monitor parameters (brightness, contrast, etc) and see if I can realize any improvement. But if I can't, this is still an improvement.

Mo and I had rice for dinner. There is easily enough for Mo to get a couple meals tomorrow and I might get one as well. If not, there are a couple of potatoes remaining and I can make chips. There is also at least two bags of cheap, Turkish pasta and half a tin of bully, plus a half a hear of pak choy, so food tomorrow won't be a problem. 

And if a cheque shows up on Friday, hopefully it will be sufficient to cover the lumber needed for the towel rails as well as to pay a couple of bills and get some groceries. I assume here that:

• The cheque does come on Friday, not in 2 months.
• They want ten or a dozen units as previously suggested and not four.
• They are going to stick with the price we discussed.

Got to go get meds tomorrow. Going to go to sleep now.

[Netfoot]

By the way, two things.

The high winds we were warned about for yesterday (Tuesday) never materialized. But this afternoon (Wednesday) we had some strong gusts and they are still.on-going. Strong and quite cool. But not extremely strong. We have periodically had these conditions before. And we have never had an official High Winds Advisory before that I can remember...

I mentioned before how when I use pak choy I consider it two different things. You roll up the green leaves and cut thin sliced off the end of the roll. When the slices unroll in the pot you get tasty, green ribbons that are (I assume) also actually good for you. But apart from the leafy, green parts, you also get the stems. I chop these up like celery and they too are tasty and crunchy and I like them. But I don't like real celery. Dr. Kristi told me years ago that celery was not food. She said (and I have since confirmed from other sources) that celery delivers less nutrition & calories than it takes to digest it. So eating celery takes away your energy rather than increasing it. I wouldn't mind if I actually enjoyed eating it, but I never have. It's the strings. You can either spend 45 minutes before the meal removing the strings, or leave them in and spend 45 minutes after the meal picking them out of your teeth. Now pak choy strings have no strings so you can quickly chop them to size. They taste good, are nice and crunchy and no strings to worry about!

[andidante]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I mentioned before how when I use pak choy I consider it two different things. You roll up the green leaves and cut thin sliced off the end of the roll. When the slices unroll in the pot you get tasty, green ribbons that are (I assume) also actually good for you. But apart from the leafy, green parts, you also get the stems. I chop these up like celery and they too are tasty and crunchy and I like them. But I don't like real celery. Dr. Kristi told me years ago that celery was not food. She said (and I have since confirmed from other sources) that celery delivers less nutrition & calories than it takes to digest it. So eating celery takes away your energy rather than increasing it. I wouldn't mind if I actually enjoyed eating it, but I never have. It's the strings. You can either spend 45 minutes before the meal removing the strings, or leave them in and spend 45 minutes after the meal picking them out of your teeth. Now pak choy strings have no strings so you can quickly chop them to size. They taste good, are nice and crunchy and no strings to worry about!

The only time I eat celery is if I put it in tuna/chicken salad for some crunch. Otherwise I don't eat it at all.