Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Netfoot]

OK, the first three tables are all but done. Well, they are done, but I need to give them a thorough wipe down.

Table #4 is progressing well. I've waxed one half of the top, and the two legs that go with it. I've slid the legs onto the pivot\handle and drilled and pinned the legs to the pivot. I waxed the second half of the top, but back pain and thigh burn force me to take a rest. 

I've also discovered that my ⅜" Forstner bit is dull. As ditch-water. It's my favourite drill-size for doweling things together so it has gotten more use than all the other bits put together. So, I not only need a new 1" bit (U$32.99) but a new ⅜" bit (U$23.99) as well.

Forstner bits give a very clean cut, and a flat-bottomed hole. The flat bottom helps seat the underside of a screw-head and the clean bore makes plugging with a dowel very neat. But my bit isn't cutting very well. So I am forced to follow a new procedure.

I start the hole with the Forstner bit. Stop, change to a ⅜" pilot-point bit, drill almost to full depth. Stop, change back to the forstner bit to finish the bore and give me a flat bottomed hole. Three operations and two bit-changes to drill one hole. <sigh>

To make matters even better, it's been hosing down all morning and it's still coming down now!

Anyhow, I have a cup of tea drawing at my elbow, and apparently I could have had it last night after all. Despite a big potato for dinner, blood sugar this morning was 4.0 mmol/L, the lowest allowed and considered OK. 

Mo woke me by calling under the window at 2:30 AM, and demanded to be let in. So not even an hour's sleep. But then he was gloriously snuggly... until 4:45 AM when he had to be let out to admonish early-risers who dared pass the house.

The thigh has stopped burning but the back is still hurting. So I will drink my tea, and if there is still pain, I will take an couple Panadol and get stuck in to table #4 again. I'm running out of ⅜" dowel, and may have to pop out and get another one.

Meanwhile, Mo is probably in (or under) the bed! Lazy little sod!

[Netfoot]

All done!

Just finished the final one. I would still like to take a new towel and some white spirit or something, and wipe them down. But there is nothing more to be done here.

I thought I was going to have to go out and hunt up a ⅜" dowel, but the piece I had was enough.

Just! This is all that remains after the last table was completed.

My back is killing me, probably from all the bending over I've been doing to get these tables assembled. I think I will take a break from the woodwork for a few days. And I'm hungry because I skipped lunch. So far only two mugs of tea and two handfuls of pills for the day. I've got a little corned beef in the fridge that would go well with some onion & pak choy, paired with some macaroni or some rice. I am usually dubious about eating rice & pasta which will last essentially for ever, when I have potatoes that will spoil, but I've had potatoes for several meals in a row now, so I think nit it will be one of the other two. Just have to decide which one. My mouth is springing for macaroni but I think rice will be easier to cook and place less of a burden on my back. Plus, I can probably find a tin of channa to throw in. Or black beans. Which would make for a bigger meal as a result, and as it is, I'm hungry!

The rain finally let up mid-afternoon and hopefully we will have a dry enough weekend that Mo and I can visit the club on Sunday.

Anyway, maybe another cuppa now, and dinner in a couple of hours time.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Netfoot

[andidante]

Netfoot, the tables are beautiful! I hope your back feels better soon. 

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, andidante said:

Netfoot, the tables are beautiful! I hope your back feels better soon. 

Thanks. Yes, they don't look bad from a distance. The grain of the wood always pleases me. I think paint would spoil them. But everyone has their own idea as to what looks good.

I had a buddy call me up and ask if I'd take $150 for one. I've done the math and the wood, dowels and screws cost $144.14 and that does not count glue or sandpaper. Not Nor does it make provision for electricity to run the saws, planer and sander. And it doesn't count Panadol for my back!

Honestly, for $150 in materials, I have no idea what I should reasonably ask. But I want more than they cost me to make! An honestly, I've worked pretty hard on these and wouldn't want to settle for twenty bucks each for myself. It simply wouldn't be worth my while.

Listepning to Alison Goldfrapp sing Horse Tears and playing with Mosie baby. And as I say that he runs out the door. Rain came back again and we had to wait for a lull and do our Garden Patrol very briskly. Not raining now, but a cool breeze is coming in the window and it is charged with moisture.  

Ate a big dinner of rice, with a little corned beef in it along with pak choy and channa. Had planned to put in some onion, but clean forgot. Bajan seasoning and a tiny stock cube to improve on things. It was a big bowlful and I ate it all, with a knob of red butter on top, and enjoyed every bite. Mo looked very disappointed when he saw how little there was left for him in the bowl.

By keeping myself quiet and the back is dormant but I'm sure it will flare up again if I do anything physical. Like roll over in bed. (Mo just ran in, played a quick round of Trampoline Tummy with wet feet from the grass outside, then ran off again.) 

Chore for tomorrow is to replace the spare tire under the back of the van. Heavy old thing has been lying in the back of the van for months but it really gets in the way of life back there, so it has to go back under, where it belongs. 

Also, want to try the chuck on the lathe, now the key had finally arrived! Just don't know how long I can stand and hold a chisel. But it would be nice to finish at least one of these half-done bowls that I've got laying around these past 2½ months!

It's 11:30 and I want to go off to sleep but I also feel for a cuppa. Just don't know if I feel like it enough to get out of this bed! But I got to get out anyway, to lock up the house. So I think I will go and brew up, drink that, then go off to bed again. 

Brrr! It's quite chilly, tonight! Yes, a cup of hot tea will go down good, right now!

Edited October 29, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

In bed very early. Can't sleep, orcif I do thecakarm will wakecmevat midnight - I have medicine to take then. Just lying here listening to the music of The Police. 

Got up this morning and before even brewing up, I went out to tackle that spare tire. The spare for the van is bolted under the rear end, in a metal cage. Undo the bolt and the cage and tire fall down. But to get it up, you have to hold it up with one hand while engaging the bolt with the other. While bent double. And I am not strong enough to hold up the spare with one hand, not since MG!

So I got a scrap block of wood. Then, instead of bending over, I lay on the ground. Using two hands I lifted the tire and jammed the block of wood under. I was then able to engage the bolt. 

Next step is to use a 17mm socket on my drill..... Ooops! Drill was nicked a couple nights ago. So I got my socket spanners out and used the speed tool. In five minutes or less from start to finish, the tire was put away. Then I brewed a  cup and sat to contemplate my morning. Job's a good 'un, and no stress on my back.

Tables all finished, and nothing else to do. So I tied a doubled Turk's Head knot on the handle of each table. 

The fourth one is green. It is in the car, so not a part of this photo. Why? Why not? 

Started late on lunch. Put water on to boil for macaroni, and when it was boiling, I threw the macaroni into the pot... and the stove instantly shut off. Out of gas! Drove doelwn to the gas station to get a refill. Got there at 2:01, right after they began a shift change. I was told that there was no way they would be able to sell me anything until after 2:30 and to make matters worse, id left my phone at home so I couldn't play sudoku or watch pr0n or anything to pass the time. Just sat in the van with a dog in my lap. 

Got the stove relit at 2:49, but the pasta had been in the pot for nearly ¾ of an hour so I tipped it out and started fresh. The first batch went for Mo's dinner. I had the fresh pasta for lunch after three o'clock. Tasted very good, and I saved some if the sauce for dinner. 

Good thing I like corned beef, because it's the only thing I can afford these days!

The bad news is that manhandling a heavy steel cylinder out of the cupboard, down the  steps and ubti the van, then back again only 25 lbs. heavier, triggered my back into a high level of discomfort. Which is kind of why I'm in bed early. 

And when I got into the bedroom, what did I find in the bed?

A stainless bolt, ¼-20 by looks like 4" long. Now I'm lying in bed wondering what part of the household is going to fall down, blow up or topple sideways because someone removed this critical component.

Little man came in and looked out the window.

He is quite cuddly when he isn't streaking out to put some careless passer by in their place with a piercing, loud bark!

He has also taken to barking a greeting at people on the side of the road. Everyone we pass gets a "good day!" Since they are rarely expecting it, they usually respond by jumping out of their skin. 

I'm going to have to get up. I forgot I finished my book. Need to search for something to read... 

OMG. Mo has just come to bed with a new toy:

[Netfoot]

Swoke this morning at about 3:00 with a bad pain in my left wrist. Felt like the wrist were being squeezed in a vice. Pain radiated up the arm halfway up to the elbow, and down the hand into the wrist. 

Mo was snuggling in a most cuddly way, so I stayed still and enjoyed that for about half an hour, but I couldn't take any more. Dug around in the freezer and pulled out a plastic ice cube that was supposed to be used in a sippy-cup that was thrown out long ago. Using a tee-shirt I strapped that icecube to my wrist and went back to bed. Mo was very interested in the affaire but soon settled down, and we got some more cuddling in. 

Mo wanted out at about half five but since it's been raining all night he came and complained about the wet. Repeatedly. About an hour before my alarm, he finally dug me out of bed. By then the wrist had stopped hurting and the plastic icecube went back in the freezer to chill op for later. I have a sneaking suspicion I will be needing it later.

Chucked up a partially finished bowl. Many would look askance at this piece, but I thought it was interesting. Had to change the jaws three times, but I finally got it where I want it. Before I show it to you, remember: If it will hold water, it's a bowl. If it won't, it's art.

This is definitely art, because that's a big hole in the bottom, where a knot fell out. I considered drilling out the hole, then turning a plug to fit and gluing it in place before finishing the bowl. Decided against it.

Here it is from the underside.  And here it is seen from one side:

The low sides come from this being natural-edged right on those spots. The bark has been removed but other than a light hand-sanding, the natural edge is untouched. Here it is again:

The rounded side of the trunk is uppermost, and the bottom is where the log was split down the center.

Everything is so wet I don't know if Mo And I should risk a trip to the club. It will be the second Sunday in a row if we miss. I could really use the break and Mo could as well.

Just got to wait and see who reports on the state of the tracks, and what they say. Might just ask the WhatsApp group 

[Netfoot]

Had another go at a different bowl. This is definitely a bowl and not art. Here it is in the lathe.

This is Tamarind. Came from a tree trimmed on a property where I lived as a teen, in a house built by my dad. It was right on the beach. So close, we were constantly sweeping red crabs out of the house.

I deliberately left a little wain on the bottom edge. To remove it I would have had to reshape the entire bowl. 

It is about 7½" wide, 3¾" tall and there is quite a bit of colour in the wood due to spalting. 

I'm not too displeased with this. I didn't go crazy with the finish. Unlikely someone would pay more than maybe $20 for this, so I didn't put more than $20 worth of effort into it.

I wonder if Heidi would like it? Her house is called Tamarind Hill...

[Netfoot]

One more. Simple pine 2x10, 10" long, corners trimmed and then turned. 

Just about 7" across, and an absolute hair over 1" deep. Flew off the lathe and hit me full in the face shield! Put it back on and finished it anyhow.

[Netfoot]

Despite rain falling all last night and half of today, the yard was fairly dry when we did our Garden Patrol tonight. I'm tired again, and getting severe twinges from my back if I lie down wrong, or move suddenly. Tired, too. Phone did an OS update and I fell asleep twice waiting for it to finish. 

Bathed and in bed. Listening to Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing by Stevie Wonder and I've set the music to auto-stop after 90 minutes. Got a new sci-fi book to read but don't know that I will start it tonight. It's called Headlong and is about neuralinked lunar architects who get unexpectedly and inexplicably disconnected from the machines and systems with which they are in an effective symbiotic relationship. Trying to survive the symptoms of withdrawal while figuring out what happened to cause the disconnect seems to be the order of the day for the protagonist. Might be interesting. But no, I won't try it tonight. 

Made more thin fry-breads for dinner. Put baking soda tonight and they puffed up a bit, which I think is better than the completely unkeaven type I made last time.

They look like the tortillas I've seen pictures of, but I've never met a tortilla in person before so maybe not. But they sure are good at sopping up and scooping up stew. But they're a PITA to make. No matter how much dry flour I sprinkle in the counter, the rolling pin or my hands, the dough sticks to everything! Tastes good though. If only I could get to eat them without The Hot Breath On My Hip! I must obtain a suitable shaker and keep flour in it like the salt shaker in the kitchen. For sprinkling to stop sticking.

Mo snoozing here now, so will lock up and kill the lights.

The only patch of white on him! Apart from the rear toesies...

[Netfoot]

You may remember this attempt to see if a bowl could be made by cutting rings out of a single board and restacking them. I went at it today to see if it was a reasonable idea. 

Here you see the "finished" bowl. I put that in double quotes because this bowl is not good enough to actually use. It contains enough glitches to be a reject, but it retains enough of it's good qualities to prove the viability of the method.

If you were to use two boards of different colour wood, and alternate the rings, you would end up with two bowls with stripes of different coloured wood. You could even do tricks with wood thickness, too. Say a wide stripe of mahogany then a narrow stripe of purpleheart then a medium stripe of mahogany and a medium stripe of purpleheart and finally a narrow stripe of mahogany and a wide stripe of purpleheart. 

As shown, this pine bowl is still on its glue-block. I wasn't planning to take this any further but I now think I should complete the bottom in proper fashion and produce a 'finished' bowl (single quotes) for people to look at. 

So I will go do that now.

Oh, I took one of my tables to a popular, local hardware/housewares store and they agreed to sell it on commission. This means they will put it on sale at no cost to themselves and if it sells, they will end up making more on the sale than I do. And if it doesn't sell, I get nothing, and I don't even have a table I could use at home myself.

[Netfoot]

I fitted the largest jaws I have (called "Cole Jaws", presumably invented by Mr. Cole?) To my chuck.

Then, with the bowl held by the rim, I turned away the base of the bowl. 

The glue-block went flying in one direction and the bowl in another. Since the bowl was spinning at high speed, the violence of the event was quite remarkable!

After the glue-block was gone, I reduced the thickness of the base. This also widened the base and makes the bowl less tippy. 

The bowl went flying again, but I'm getting better at ducking each time! Also, the little rubber-coated buttons are pretty painful, if they catch your knuckle while rotating at 3,600 RPM! Didn't add my usual two blackened rings, because I don't see this ever being used by or even given to anybody. At best I will fill it with peanuts or chips and pass it around, up at the club.

Once the base had been flattened and then slightly dished, I applied more wax/oil finish to the newly cut area. And so to a final bowl.

[Netfoot]

Just in case you were wondering what happened to the bowl when it came off the lathe twice, have a look at the result:

See the wounds caused by the piece bouncing off the lathe ways, the ground, the grinder and the scrollsaw?

If this were a bowl being made for actual use rather than as a proof of concept, it would have to be thrown away. I could attempt to shave it thinner and do away with the marks that way, but it's pretty thin right now, and even thinner might not be particularly sturdy. Besides, my skill might not be up to making such a thin-sided vessel.

Anyway, I also turned the glue-block flat and sanded it smooth again, ready for it's next job.

I don't know what is with the hole in the middle but it won't affect its future use. I might have used this block with an appropriate hole as a jam-chuck for a dowel I was sanding, but I don't recall exactly what the hole was for.

As glue-blocks get used they get thinner and thinner and additional layers of wood get glued on to make them thicker again.

[Netfoot]

Another timple simple bowl removed from a glue-block and finished. 

This one came off the chuck and hit mecsquare me square in the middle of my chest. Oooof! The reason they are coming off the chuck is because I am using a set Cole jaws (without rubber buttons) as expanding jaws, which they were never intended for. They can be used expanding, but the rubber buttons are designed to hold the workpiece whereas the rim of the jaws definitely were not.

The sooner I am finished with these pieces that were designed to be made without a chuck, the sooner I will be happy.

The glue-block was trimmed up for use with some future piece, but as described before, it is borderline in terms of thickness. Only ⅛" of wood remained between the spindle and the face, so I glued on another slab of wood (scrap from table-making) to thicken it. Here, it's being clamped between the spindle and the quill of the tailstock. May add another, when the glue sets up.

I have two actual faceplates so the chances are I won't need glue-blocks very often but it goes against the grain to just throw them away.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Not much happened today. Finished a few bowls on the lathe, watched two movies (The Day The Earth Stood Still. 1951 and 2008. Yes, both of them) and ate two meals.

I intended to have potatoes for lunch but by time I realized I'd started cooking rice, it was too late to go back. Emptied the rice bag and it came to a little less than my usual measure. Found one more tin of channa, which I added with pak choy and corned beef. Intended to add onion, but when the rice was cooked, I discovered the onion still sitting in the counter, waiting to be peeled. Second time I've done that.

The slightly smaller than usual amount of rice highlighted the fact that one whole tin of channa or beans or corn is really too much. I need to use less than a whole tin or cook more than one meal.  Anyway, lunch was very tasty and I was pleased. Dinner, not so much.

Finally got those potatoes diced and into boiling water to cook. Meanwhile, as oil was heating in another pan, I got a small piece of pork and sliced it into thin strips and put them to brown with that onion. A little pak choy and some of the starchy, boiling potato water, and a spoonful of minced garlic.

Poked the potatoes with a bamboo skewer to make sure they were cooked and added them to the pork. Let the flavours meld for a while in the pan and retiredvto retired to table. 

The meal was really not very good. 

Somehow, several pieces of potato were not completely cooked, and I had to discover that the hard way. Several pieces were discarded, although the remainder were fine. Don't understand how that happened. And worse of all, half of the dish remains for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a book-tent day. I have no reason to visit that store and I'm getting my meds elsewhere these days too. But I might go just so Mo can see his ladies. There is a guy I have to touch base with and he works near there. I'll check with him first thing, and if it's OK to go to his work tomorrow then the book-tent won't be a wasted trip.

Speaking of meds, I'm almost out. When I started using the poly-clinic last month, Dr. Kristi was traveling, so Dr. Gabby wrote me a one-month prescription. I will need to get a new one by Thursday which gives me a chance to visit with Dr. Kristi. Hopefully she won't just leave the prescription with Clauda at the desk, and we get a chance to catch up. 

I sneezed this afternoon, and it did not result in any twinges of pain from my back! Also, when I went to pick up Mo's bowl to give him his dinner there was no pain there either. Every other movement causes me to wince. But I'm looking at those two pain-free moments as a sign of improvement.

Tired again. House is locked and Mo is inside. Listening to Me And A Gun by Tori Amos. She mentions this island by name in that song, and if you know the song you will probably understand why I wish she was speaking the name of any other island. The song describes a terrible experience and I wish the name of my home didn't bring that experience to her mind, as I expect it does. 

Anyway, going to turn the lights out now, and try for a good night's sleep. Maybe puppy will come acuddling.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Trued Tried hollowing this piece but the foot exploded and left me scratching my head.

Fortunately, I was able to rechuck it by the rim and redo the foot of the bowl. 

Took Mo to the supermarket where he entertained all the book-tent ladies while I shopped. All I wanted was a big can of bug spray (mozzies still tormenting me) and two boxes of Panadol. 

Back still hurting pretty bad. Sneezing and coughing are pretty difficult. Don't know whether to go lie down or not. Think I will. Maybe Mo will come play with me a while.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

It was dry when we went on our Garden Patrol but only minutes later it's wet and chilly. A cool breeze is in the window and Marilyn Manson is on the gramaphone. I took two Panadol and I'm nursing my back but I think I'm making some improvements.

Mo is sprawlaxed up between my feet and he is a welcome little hot water bottle.

I'm feeling very depressed tonight. I've been waging a war here for months and years, and it looks like I'm losing. In fact, it might be more correct to say I've already lost! No matter what I try to improve my mood, it just gets worse.

My cuddle-pup can brighten me up for a  while. He just came and sprawlaxed against my tummy, and is making it pretty obvious he wants tummy rubs.

Tired again but will try to get my book started before lights out. Tomorrow looks like another day of time-wasteing and coddling my back.

[Netfoot]

In my last post I mentioned a bowl that ended up with a broken foot when I was trying to hollow it out. I redid the foot and completed the hollowing. Here it is:

The tamarind wood is always a big surprise when it comes to colour. One side of the bowl can be a beautiful, pale shade, and the other gloriously dark figured. And the veins of spalting have a mind of their own. 

So right after completing that bowl, I tried with another and...

Yes, the foot on this one broke too. What a pity! I was rather fond of the shape of this one. More rounded at the bottom. I will have to reverse this, change to the Jumbo jaws (Cole jaws) and create a new, bigger foot. Then change jaws again back to the smaller jaws to hollow and finish the inside, then back to the Cole jaws to reduce the oversized foot before the bowl can be considered finished. Just let's hope it doesn't fly off the lathe. The one that did that today hit me directly on the knockle knuckle of my left ring finger. It still smarts, and that along with the back has me on Panadol. 

I'm also on happy-pills. Feeling really down and decided to give one a go. Hate taking them and do it only very rarely because they can make a broken leg seem like a pleasant experience. But tonight really did call for one.

I'm in bed, showered and powdered and the door locked but Mo refused to come inside. Cool breeze in the window and the fan as well, which makes it almost artic arctic in here! Winter is Coming, after all. Listening to P!nk (!?!!) and wondering when I will get around to starting my book. Probably not tonight either. Fairly tired and it is a bit late.

Macaroni with a red sauce for lunch, and some of the same red sauce for dinner, with beans and Sodabix crackers. I prefer Eclipse crackers, but there isn't enough in it to make me reject the Sodabix. Wanted a cuppa after dinner but felt so lazy I didn't feel like making one. Tomorrow will probably be pork and potatoes because the potatoes have to be used before they go off, and because there is a little piece of pork hanging about in my fridge. 

Dr. Kristi first thing, for new prescriptions. And later, the poly-clinic to fill them. I have warfarin enough for tomorrow morning only, so I need to resupply tomorrow for sure. In between a friend is coming to pick up something but that should only take a minute.

I suspect I wont be asleep long before Mo starts keeping a racket under the window, demanding to be let in. It could be five hours from now but it could be in 20 minutes. So I'm going to get some shut-eye now!

Edited November 3, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Second bowl with a broken foot. Cole jaws to grip by the rim, turn a new, sturdier (bigger) foot.

Next, rechuck in the #3 wide jaws and hollow.

Back to the Cole jaws again, to remove the ginormous foot.

And finally, a finished bowl.

Actually, I like this one a lot! I may just keep it for myself. 

[Netfoot]

I have a little bowl I keep my pill-boxes in. It is made from spalted Casuarina and is actually a work of art. (It won't hold water.)

My only issue is that it's a little small. My newly minted bowl is a bit larger and may be more suitable to task, although it isn't art. (It will hold water.)

I am not sure if to switch to the new bowl or not. The bigger, newer bowl will take more room, but I guess any bowl which accommodates my pill-boxes more easily will take up more room. 

If I switch and change my mind later, I can simply switch back. Or switch to an entirely new bowl, as yet unborn...

[andidante]

I love all of these bowls! They are so pretty. 

[Netfoot]

44 minutes ago, andidante said:

I love all of these bowls! They are so pretty. 

Me too! But when the chips and shavings are coming off the chisel red hot and stinging my fingers before flying up to hit me in the face I sometimes wonder why I am doing what I'm doing!

However, it's remarkably relaxing when it's all going smoothly. And the simple pleasure of turning away the unwanted wood can be mesmerizing. I've stuck people on the lathe, usually with a cylindrical piece of wood between centers. After teaching them the basics and letting them go, they will turn and turn and turn until a piece of wood 5-6" in diameter ends up the thickness of a pencil. When you're holding that chisel and doing the Woodturner's Waltz, you can carry on and on just for the pleasure of doing it, and not for the resulting item that you end up with.

Woodturner's Waltz: When you don't move the chisel so much as move your whole body and let the chisel come with it.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Went for a prescription this morning, assuming it would only be about 5-10 minutes. The place was like a train station and I waited 1:45 before I got to see Dr. Kristi. 

I know people who say they haven't seen their doctor in years. They phone up and say they need a prescription renewal, and later they collect it from the receptionist. Dr. K. doesn't roll that way. Every so often she insists on a little examination and query session where she determines if your meds are still appropriate as is. It may be more convenient to just pick up the script and go, but I think it's more sensible to reassess your needs every so often. 

So, it may not have been convenient, but I got to hear about her recent trip to Canada (for a wedding) and she got to notice my wincing and flinching at every move. As a result, my prescription included some anti-inflammatory meds. And my back has been feeling better ever since. 

For lunch I had thinly sliced pork in rice with a little onion and pak choy. Pak choy goes with just about everything, even if only for the decorative nature of the thin, green strips in the dish. And while I've heard it said that the stalks should be cut off and thrown away, I chop them like celery and add them to the dish for a little extra crunch.

During the afternoon, I tried to turn a simple dish, suitable maybe for keys and coins or for desktop nick-nacks. To my dismay, I Joined the Funnel Club. This derisory term is used when you turn your bowl or dish a little too deep. 

Not sure how I managed this. I was, ss as always, keeping an eye on the depth of the vessel in comparison to the depth of the blank, and allowing for the depth of the recess in the base. Just as the chisel broke through I was thinking how inhafd I had a fair amount of hollowing still to achieve. 

I also made an experimental bangle today, which would have been fine except for two things. The first if these off, there was a knot in just the wrong place. Then, Google suggested that bangles vary from 2⅛" to 3" in diameter. I bored out the center with a 2½" bottom-clearing bit (not ideal). The resulting bangle could only fit me if I removed thumb and little finger from the hand! Interesting idea though. Must revisit.

Dinner was boiled potatoes with tuna, fried onions g more pak choy. I get more meals out of a tin of corned beef than a tin of tuna, which costs much the same. But sometimes the change of pace is worth the cost.

Later, before Garden Patrol, I had a mug of hot Milo. This was accompanied by four small cookie sandwiches with a strawberry flavoured icing filling. I gave one to Mo, in four separate pieces. He really enjoyed them (as did I) and obviously hoped (as did I) more would be forthcoming at some future date.

In bed and not planning a late shower as I had one earlier. Mo is asleep by the front door. I will have to go lock that shortly. Actually, here he is now, and blech! He gave me an unexpected and very wet kiss!

Now he has taken my cover-sheet and made a little nest with it, and is lying on it all cat-spraddled. He steals that often, leaving me with nothing to combat the winter chill. And now he's looking out the window, so I stole it back....

Dunno why that photo is in there twice. I tried to delete it but the really crappy mobile editor won't let me. No surprise. 

Desktop editor allowed extra photo to be deleted.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Netfoot

[andidante]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I know people who say they haven't seen their doctor in years. They phone up and say they need a prescription renewal, and later they collect it from the receptionist. Dr. K. doesn't roll that way. Every so often she insists on a little examination and query session where she determines if your meds are still appropriate as is. It may be more convenient to just pick up the script and go, but I think it's more sensible to reassess your needs every so often. 

So, it may not have been convenient, but I got to hear about her recent trip to Canada (for a wedding) and she got to notice my wincing and flinching at every move. As a result, my prescription included some anti-inflammatory meds. And my back has been feeling better ever since. 

I'm glad she gave you a once over and some meds to help! Back pain is no joke. 

[Netfoot]

Remember the "funnel" I made yesterday? I glued it on top of another slab of wood and this morning:

Not too bad a save. 

I also dug out a piece of really crappy oak that I got from a pallet and started another project. I must wait for the glue to dry before continuing, but hopefully I can finish it tomorrow. I will show it to you then.

Took another one of Dr. Kristi's back pain pills right after lunch. I was grilled repeatedly to ensure the tablets were only taken with a substantial meal. By Dr. K. and the pharmacist. So that meant I had to prepare a substantial lunch!

Macaroni and corned beef with a little pak choy for luck, plus red pepper flakes and aromatic rosemary. Enjoyed it very much. 

The news is all about 'midterms' which, of course, we don't have. I understand the principle but the mechanics are lost on me. Would someone care to enlighten me as to when the actual midterm elections will be held, and when the results take affect? I know that weeks can pass between your presidential election and the handover of power. Is it similar for the midterms? Does anyone have an opinion on how things are likely to go and what the resulting effects will be? If anyone cares to enlighten me, a private message might be best, since there are moderators around here who are still struggling to get those fence-posts out of their asses. I would google to find the answers but who can trust Silicon Valley these days?

Please ignore that paragraph. I won't delete it because some may already have seen it. But on second thought, the last place I want to have an adult discussion on legitimately serious issues is on a platform that penalizes members for wrongthink.

What bears remembering is that in order for an ostrich to bury his head in the sand, he must first stick his butt up in the air.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Netfoot

[andidante]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Remember the "funnel" I made yesterday? I glued it on top of another slab of wood and this morning:

What bears remembering is that in order for an ostrich to bury his head in the sand, he must first stick his butt up in the air.

I love this bowl. and that last line made me laugh. As far as the other, I am looking forward to next Tuesday being over with!! So tired of all of this. 

[Netfoot]

Yesterday, I dug out a very ugly piece of oak pallet wood and milled it square on the saw. Cutting two blocks, I glued them together and clamped them so the glue could set up overnight.

This morning I shaved the sides to eliminate any sign of the glue line, and drilled a hole through from top to bottom.

This may look nice and square but it is in fact a trapezium. The two ends are cut at a very slight angle so the face closest to the camera is a few millimeters shorter than the opposite face.

Next, I got a piece of the same oak, trued it up on the saw and stuck it on the lathe. A section at one end was carefully turned to a diameter of ⅞" while the other end was not turned to a circular shape.

By positioning the point of the live center offset from the actual center in opposite directions, a sort of oval profile was achieved with flat sides. 

Using a simple jig I cut a slot in the circular end, and also fashioned a wedge out of purpleheart (just for fun).

Finally, the parts were put together and locked by hammering the wedge into the slot.

A small mallet. The black stains are from the nail holes. Iron stains wood black due to the tannins, and oak in particular reacts strongly. 

Purpleheart wedge. That handle is never coming off!

Edited November 5, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Just hopped into bed with Mo lying across my leg and polishing his nuts. It's hacking down and earlier we had such a squall come through it was blowing the rain 30+ feet into the garage and knocking over sheets of plywood. 

Fairies Wear Boots by Sabbath is playing and now Mo wants to give me kisses (eww!). 

Hungry. Not eaten much for the day. Dragged myself out of bed and went to Brighton Farmer's Market this morning. Only saw one person I knew; my friend Jim who bought me a coffee. He offered to buy me breakfast as well which was thoughtful, but I declined. Lunch was Eclipse crackers with peanut butter. Dinner was a bowl of beans, and only because you have to eat something before taking Dr. Kristi's back-pain medicine. I will eat a big lunch tomorrow. No, make that a big dinner, if we go to the club. Not looking good with the rain falling so heavy, but we will see.

Made my mallet this morning because I needed a small mallet. And it works great. Not too pretty with all the black iron stains but when I tried it, it worked perfectly. If I get another piece of oak I may build another, slightly bigger one, but this small one is great.

And I enjoyed building it so much. I like working on things I need. Much more satisfying than building dumb folding tables I don't actually need. 

Tired. Going to sleep now. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Here are a few scraps of the oak pallet wood I used to make my mallet.

None are very big, but I didn't throw them away in case I thought of a use for a small but hard block of wood.

Just look at the shape of that largest piece, bottom right! That is a bit of the original board as it came from the pallet. You will understand why I was calling it ugly and nasty. It took some effort to mill that flat on all four sides and square at each corner.

Meanwhile, I've been doing a bit of cleanup. This sack of sawdust

came out of the saw and (a little) from the surrounding area. I generously offered it to my mates free of charge, but mysteriously, nobody wants it!

There is a ton more sawdust to vacuum up (especially under the lathe) and then there are all the little strips and scraps that the vacuum can't handle, and a broom won't shift.

But I'm not doing any more today, because I don't want to overstress my back. It's much better since Dr. K. intervened, but the medicine stops tomorrow, because (according to her) I can only have so many days of that stuff due to also being on warfarin.

Coming home from Brighton Farmers Market yesterday, I had to mentally plot the shortest route to  the nearest gas station, and the van was running on fumes when it got there. I put in a few ounces, so we should be good for the club today unless real bad weather sets in, spoiling the afternoon. Hopefully not, because it's been three weeks since Mo and I got up there and we're going stir-crazy!

Soon midday and I have had nothing since I took my blood sugar this morning (nice and low) and not much yesterday. So I think I will cook some rice and have that for lunch. Dinner will probably be pasta. Or fry-bread. The pasta is easier and I like it, but the fry-bread is really good too. So I guess it depends on how lazy I feel when I get home. I could also boil potatoes because I have a few of them left. In fact, they might be the easiest thing to cook this evening, if I'm feeling too lazy for fry-bread.

Fry-bread, pan-bread... I don't really know what to call it now that I'm doing several thinner ones rather than one big, thick one which is just called bannock. Next time I will post a picture and you can tell me what you think it should be called. Apart from delicious!

And just because...

[Netfoot]

Can you find Mosie Baby in this photo? I assure you he is in there..

[Netfoot]

I cooked black beans and onion rice for lunch, and as the pot went on the stove I had a brain fart wave and added two heaping teaspoons of curry powder. The rice came out a sort of muddy yellow because the black beans have a tendency yommake to make the rice darker. But the flavour was good and I ate it all up before realizing I had not remembered to add any form of meat. 

Off we went to the club where we found Unka Rudy fighting with the weed wacker because it would start and then die out. We went looking for an air leak in the fuel line, so I took off the cowling. One of the bolts slipped my grasp and fell down between thw the crankcase and the fuel tank. A long pair of hemostats couldn't retrieve it, so I had to take off the pull-starter. And so it went until the engine was almost in pieces, when... The bolt fell out on the floor of its own accord. By that time we had had to drain the fuel tank for the disassembly to continue, and we noticed the fuel was  cloudy and awful. So when I finally got the machine put back together the tank wssctefilled was refilled with fresh, clean fuel and the machine ran like a clock thereafter. 

On the way in the track looked very muddy and sticky-uppy. So when Austin advised that I should leave the moment any more rain started to fall, I agreed. The lads had a couple flights, not all of which ended well. 

Kevin helps with the recovery of the Extra 300 of Death that lost power and didn't make it back to the field. Rudy carried back onecwing one wing, I carried another, Kevin carried the tail section and owner Austin carried the front.

It's a clean break and Austin says the repair shouldn't be too hard.

Mo of course, had a whale of a time, playing in the bushes and running hither an yon. If he sees someone hurrying, he races to join them and they jog together. 

Late in the afternoon the rain began to sprinkle. I considered leaving immediately before the track got any worse, but decided to wait a minute to see if it was a passing shower or not. One minute later I left in the van, and soon regretted that wasted minute. I got through the two boggy parts of the track with no difficulty at all and with only 10 yards to go I let my guard down and promptly got stuck. Thankfully, Austin came along in his Landie and pulled me out.

Back home I immediately gave Mo his dinner then rolled out our wheelie bin, as tomorrow is collection day. Also put out a huge sack of sawdust, which I ain't sure they will take away. We can but hope. If they refuse to take it, they will end up taking it anyway, bit by bit over the coming weeks.

I remembered I had another bag of that cavatappi pasta, the Turkish made variety. So I put that to boil and made a tomato and corned beef sauce with the last of the pak choy and an onion. I had a good dinner off that and there is the same again for lunch tomorrow. After dinner, a cup of tea made with tinned, sweetened, condensed milk. Now there's a childhood memory in concrete form. Mo has recently been pestering me not only for a bite of my meals but a slurp of my tea. So when my mug was brewed I used the same tea bag to brew up some tea for him, right in his bowl. He must have liked it because he polished it off quick!

Janis sings Trust Me and I love that song so much, when it ends I restart it. That is my 110% favourite tracks of hers (which says a lot, seeing as I love so much of her music) and close to the top of my Best-In-The-Entire-World-Ever list. A song which when I hear it, I struggle not to sing along. And now, followed by Get It While You Can.

When I was vacuuming up sawdust today, I discovered a large, tamarind bowl blank on a face plate, which had rolled under the table. Tomorrow, I think I will have a look at the foot of the blank and possibly redo it to be stronger. The last two did break, after all. Then I'll try hollowing it out and finishing it. Might start with a 2" Forstner bit, the biggest I have.

She is now singing A Woman Left Lonely. Do you think when all ye olde fartes like me die off, the music of our time will die too? What a crying shame that will be.

Mo was just here giving me Lovings, but he has gone running out. I feel for a shower, even though I had one earlier. And since it's already gone midnight, if I'm gonna do it, I'd better do it now!

Edited November 7, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Did you find Waldo?

Mo is a real sweetheart when he wants to be but keeping an eye on him isn't always as easy as it should be.

Sometimes of course, he isn't a sweetheart at all...

[Netfoot]

To be fair, the broken bowl isn't really the pup's fault. It was turned from a block made by gluing three slabs of wood together. The glue joint were not well done and upon completion, I had not intended that bowl to be anything other than junk. Last night, when it fell off the table and rolled under the van, I didn't even attempt to retrieve it. So to find it out by the gate chewed and broken this morning was not a real surprise.

If you look back at the photo you can see where the top layer of the block separated cleanly, along the glue line. 

Anyway, I thought I'd try to resurrect the piece to make a shorter bowl.

Here is the other glue line. You can see how bad it is. I thought I'd turn the side thinner, and hope the gap would disappear, and I could save the piece.

Turning the bowl, it kept coming off the chuck and the third time, only the base came off and it hit me right in the face shield. It had separated on the glue line again. After this, there was essentially nothing left to save. 

However, Mo suggested I revisit the idea of bangles. So with a few passes of the chisel on the rim of the bowl (which remained in the chuck) I removed the sharp edges. My Style Consultant observes as I try it on. As suspected, size and fit was an issue.

If I push it right up my arm, I can get it over my puny bicep. But that is a sight that nobody needs to see.

ETA: If you have/wear bangles, do me a favour. Measure the inside of your bangle(s) and tell me what the diameter of the opening is. Google gives me answers that make no sense. Their recommended median diameter is so small, I can only get three fingers through! 

[Netfoot]

This is the piece I found under the table.

It's upside down. It had to be hollowed out. I started with a big, 2" Forstner bit in the tailstock of the lathe and drilled until close to the bottom of the piece. That took over an hour. Forstner bits don't like to get hot. Especially carbide ones like this. And a big bit gets hotter than smaller sizes. Also, Forstner bits are prone to clogging on their own shavings, which makes it even worse for overheating. So I had to bore down a short distance (like ⅜" maximum), then back the bit out, clear the shavings and let the bit cool. The needed hole was deeper than the bit was long, so after the first part had to be bored, the entire tailstock had to be moved up so the quill was inside the hole even when fully retracted.

Once the hole had been bored to required depth (5¼"), then with a bowl gouge, I widened that 2" hole gradually, one teentsy little shaving at a time,

working my way from the top, gradually deeper and deeper. This photo shows a little of the original 2" hole untouched, at the bottom. The remainder of the piece has been hollowed to a diameter of 3¾" and needs to go to somewhere between 4" and 4¼" wide. But I stopped because I didn't want to strain my back any more today, and the light was fading anyway.

Mind you, the light is immaterial. With the tool rest, the chisel and your controlling hand up inside the hollowed vessel, and a storm of shavings whipped up by the spinning of the piece, you can't see what you're doing anyway. You stop, pull the chisel and hands out of the way, wait for the shavings to settle, look in and decide where needs cutting next. Then you go and do that, essentially blind.

Scariest part is operating with your fingers deep in that hole. The inside of the vessel is a fraction of an inch from your knuckles and if the chisel gets away from you....

[Netfoot]

Listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts I thru IX) and contemplating a shower. My speakers on the computer outside were not working satisfactorily. You would get a momentary burst of sound/music, then silence, then another split second of audio... So I swapped out the speakers from the bedroom, which fixed the computer. The troublesome speakers were tried in the bedroom and the momentary sound bursts interspersed with silence continued. The LED power indicator light also flashed on and off in sync with the audio. A brief flash of the LED would be accompanied with an equally brief burst of sound. Then the LED would go off and so would the audio. Mysterious.

I noticed that with no audio playing, the LED was on full time. So presumably the speakers were ready to play music, so long as no music was playing! What about if the music was playing but the volume was zero? With volume turned down to zero, the LED was on solid. As the volume came up the music played fine. But just before full volume, the intermittent behaviour started.

Don't know why that is, but I've turned the volume down on the source and turned the volume up again on the speakers themselves to compensate. And hence, I enjoy some Pink Floyd.

Remember my niece who I made the first folding table for? The same one who told me I should make more tables and sell them? She took a turn in my arse today for stupidly building tables that nobody wants to buy, and why didn't I make bowls on the lathe instead? 

She knows very well that I waited 79 days for a chuck key. She also knows that I've been making bowls as best I can, because I send her photos of the nice ones and ask her if she would like to pick one for herself.

So when I followed her suggestion and made tables, I was stupid. And no doubt if I make bowls I will also be stupid for not building dog-houses. Or kitchen cabinets. "There have been two craft markets you could have sold bowls at already." Well how nice of her to wait until after these events to bring them to my attention.

I live mostly apart from my family, for reasons I won't go into, except to say it isn't a situation of my own making. I often wish it didn't have to be so. But sometimes I feel I should just move to a new house, change my phone number, divorce them publicly and never have anything to do with them, ever again.

Gotta go outside. Mo is barking up a storm and I will have tomgo and see what his problem is. He will bark furiously at a damned cat for the entire night, if I don't stop him.

Ok, he's in and the door locked now. 

Dinner was potatoes and tuna with onion and a very light sprinkle of red pepper flakes and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. I don't say you could taste the vinegar in the dish, but sometimes a little bit of something you add will enhance the overall flavour without dominating it.

I will have to take another shower. I glanced down a while ago and my right foot was covered with blood from about 4 inches above the ankle. It was dried and yukky by time I noticed it. I wiped away as much as possible. There was a tiny scratch in my leg that I must have got from brushing past something without even noticing. But the warfarin noticed and viscosity is on the low side of normal, so that tiny scratch became a gusher.

Tomorrow I will attempt to finish hollowing that vessel without either destroying it or being destroyed by it. I have several other chunks of tamarind that could be cut down into suitable sized blanks. I would also like to try a few other things as well. But who knows what di) happen next?

Anyway, time for another shower to get the last of the blood off, if nothing else!

[andidante]

8 hours ago, Netfoot said:

 And hence, I enjoy some Pink Floyd.

Remember my niece who I made the first folding table for? The same one who told me I should make more tables and sell them? She took a turn in my arse today for stupidly building tables that nobody wants to buy, and why didn't I make bowls on the lathe instead? 

She knows very well that I waited 79 days for a chuck key. She also knows that I've been making bowls as best I can, because I send her photos of the nice ones and ask her if she would like to pick one for herself.

So when I followed her suggestion and made tables, I was stupid. And no doubt if I make bowls I will also be stupid for not building dog-houses. Or kitchen cabinets. "There have been two craft markets you could have sold bowls at already." Well how nice of her to wait until after these events to bring them to my attention.

I live mostly apart from my family, for reasons I won't go into, except to say it isn't a situation of my own making. I often wish it didn't have to be so. But sometimes I feel I should just move to a new house, change my phone number, divorce them publicly and never have anything to do with them, ever again.

I bought my son The Wall album. I told him everyone should have that album.

I am sorry about your niece; that must be hard. I figure you should do and make what makes you happy! People can be very toxic and sometimes we do have to separate from them for the sake of our mental health and well being. I love your tutorials when you are making the tables and bowls. I would love to buy some from you but do not know how that would work with sending them to the US. Especially after hearing about how much trouble you have receiving things you ordered. 

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, andidante said:

I figure you should do and make what makes you happy! People can be very toxic and sometimes we do have to separate from them for the sake of our mental health and well being.

I love my family, but for reasons I won't go into, I keep my distance. To protect them, I would point out. But sometimes you can't do right for doing wrong. And so you end up feeling that it's pointless. What good is a family that you love, but can't spend time with? And tell you that when you do as they suggest, that you are wrong and should have done something else entirely?

Quote

I love your tutorials when you are making the tables and bowls. I would love to buy some from you but do not know how that would work with sending them to the US.

It's nice of you to say so. I often think I am yammering on and everyone is skipping over because they're so not interested.

As for shipping something to the USA, I've no idea how best that would work. The last time I sent something to the USA via FedEx (an 8-page document to Washington DC) it cost me over $100. And that was years ago. I understand FedEx does half-price on Wednesdays, but you are still looking at $50+ for a few sheets of paper, and those bowls, etc, plus packaging, would weigh a bit more than that. There is also the post office, which might be cheaper but also take much longer. And whereas courier services insure against damage or loss, the post office doesn't. Not unless you use their Express Post option, which brings you back into courier class pricing.

And frankly, for a bowl that would be overpriced at $40, I can't see it makes sense to even consider it. I can't see anyone giving as much as $40 for one of my bowls, even from the "exotic" tamarind wood. Cheap pine bowls, platters or dishes would be worth even less. So, I don't spend hours working on the lathe to get the best possible finish, and then hours more and $10 in sandpaper to make them really glassy.

I would like to try some segmented turning, which can not only be interesting and beautiful, also eliminates the end-grain from the bowl-blank. The end-grain is the part that is most difficult to finish. But I need to cut precise angles to make the segments and I am not (yet) set up for that.

No, what I make are more utilitarian than for display. Why put a mirror shine on the bowl that someone will be chucking their keys and coins into, immediately ruining that mirror shine?

So, frankly, any bowl wouldn't be worth the cost of sending it. I would happily part with them, but the shipping is the issue. I know some people have an account with the couriers, but I'm not sure how that works. If someone had an account, could I go in, and surrender the item, saying "Send it to account holder X and charge their account?" If so, would that bypass the third-world pricing that I face if I pay at this end? Don't know. Probably not.

[Netfoot]

Quiet day at home. Didn't have to go out for any reason. And it's a good thing too because the landlord cast concrete right across in front of my gate, effectively trapping me inside until the concrete sets up. Supposedly patching some cracked sections just outside the gate  And knowing what a cheapskate he is, I suspect the concrete is only a very thin skin, waiting to break the first time any stress is put upon it.

To make matters worse, the workman said he was coming again tomorrow morning to cast more concrete inside the gate patching some cracks in the driveway. So that will mean concrete pawprints all over the house. And a permanent Grauman's Chinese Theatre style pawprints memorial as well. 

Listening to some Leonard Cohen and playing with puppy. We turned in early because we are both tired of elections, which is all anyone is talking about. 

I don't care what the outcome is. I only hope things turn around. I'm struggling to keep head above water. And I know many who are in the very same boat.

Had macaroni for lunch and rice for dinner. May have overdone it with the carbs! Better do a blood sugar test tomorrow morning. I know that a little excursion won't matter too much so long as I reverse it quickly. But I work hard to stay in band. I've only been out three times in the last 180 days, and two of those times the reading was low.

Going off to sleep. Light gusts, cool in the window. It's been a dry day, but the breeze just won't stop talking about rain. Eyes shutting down.....  Z-zz-zzz...

[Netfoot]

Day started with a request from an old friend (and TAR fan) to do them a favour. So, I bundled Mo into the car and we set off. Unfortunately, we were not successful in our endeavour. But after around 24-25 miles of driving, our fuel situation was looking dire. So I pulled into a gas station.

Debit card declined. Internet banking shows there was more than enough in the account to put some gas in the car, so I don't know what that is. Anyway, headed home, hoping to make it on the dregs still in the tank. Got halfway home and the Check Engine light came on. Stopped and let the car "rest" for half an hour, meanwhile took Mo for a walk around and gave him a chance to have a bathroom break. 

Back in the car, and heading home but by this time the needle was scary low on the dial. Scraped $4.35 out of the ashtray and limped into a station to buy less than a quarter of a gallon of gas, and managed to get home.

Only to find that the landlord had cast some concrete right across my gate. So I couldn't put the car away; have to leave it out in public for the criminals to vandalize.

With nothing better to do, I made myself another rolling pin. It's not a very big one but I don't have big things to roll out, and I like this one better than the previous one, which was just a smoothed up dowel made of mystery wood.

This is mahogany with a diagonal stripe of purpleheart.

The purpleheart is not particularly vibrant because this is years old. It was a tool-handle I made years ago for a now-defunct tool. I turned it between centers to make it cylindrical (it was shaped like a coke bottle, sort of). I would make fry-bread this evening just to give this a try, but my back is hurting too much to stand up in the kitchen for that long.

Anyway, I am about to have a cup of tea, the first thing to cross my lips for the day. (I don't count meds.) My back-pain medication has run out and I really wish it hadn't. But there is no sense asking Dr. K. for more, because she told me straight out that since I am already on warfarin, I was only allowed 5 days of these anti-inflammatory.

Maybe I can get Mo to come and snuggle with me in bed? That's as good as medicine any day! Oh, wait! I have Panadol! It isn't an anti-inflammatory, but it might help with the hurt...

Edited November 10, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

It turns out that if your Debit Card is clearly marked "Valid thru October 2022“ you shouldn't be surprised if it gets declined in November!

(What a dumbass.)

Well, my back is not too bad thanks to the Panadol. I really should sit or lie quietly for a week and let it recover, but I find it very hard to keep still. So I tell myself "I'll just nip outside and do this..." And next thing you know, I'm hurting again.

The car is still parked out in the road. I can't drive on that fresh concrete outside my gate until tomorrow. Of course, if I bring it in tomorrow, the landlord will be casting more concrete inside the gate tomorrow, so then the vehicle will be trapped!

But you know who is more upset by the situation than I am? Molasses, my baby dog. He loves the car and spends quite a bit of time under it every day. And this afternoon, when we got home from our adventure: no van for him to crawl under! He has been making his displeasure known all evening. I sit inside and hear him quarreling away out in the garage.

I don't think I had any lunch. No, I think I had a cup of tea later in the afternoon. But I had macaroni and corned beef with beans. When digging in the fridge for something I noticed the cheese was getting a bit green around the gills, so I hacked off a generous chunk and grated it on top of the macaroni.

Now, when I open a tin of corned beef, I don't use it all at once. I could eat a whole tin of corned beef, but I don't feel the need for that. So I've been using a quarter of a tin at a time. Just enough to give a bit of flavour to the dish. Tonight, there was a quarter of a tin in the fridge and I used half of that! So, an eighth of a tin. And to make matters worse, when I was finished eating, half of the dish remained for tomorrow. So actually a sixteenth of a tin.  It's getting ridiculous.

Tell you what. I have a small tin of spam. Quite small. As soon as I figure out what to do with it, I will eat the whole tin in one go. Not sure what sort of dish to make with it, though. Slice it, fry it, and eat it with what? Rice? Dice it and mix it in? Or just have it on the side? I think it would go well with breakfast things. Eggs and toast with spam, but I have neither eggs nor bread. 

Oh, I was worried about the blood sugar after carb-heavy meals. Took a reading today first thing and it was 5.1, only a fraction over 5.0 which is the ideal norm. Generally I prefer it to be under, but 5.1 is perfectly respectable.  

Listening to some Tori Amos off her Strange Little Girls album. Not sure what she's up to these days. Had feelings of admiration for her ever since she reportedly said how difficult it was "to be a hot piece of ass and a grandmother at the same time." I couldn't help but laugh. But I recently found a page of Tori Amos Quotes and can't find that in there, so maybe she never said it at all. She's said a lot of other good stuff, tho. 

The witching hour. Going to lock up and get some sleep. Hope Mo comes in and cuddles. It's been dry most of the day despite being overcast. But there is a pleasantly cool, damp breeze in the window and I think... Yes, I am feeling a tiny sprinkle of rain with each gust. Better go fetch Mo if he is coming in. Or he will wait to get completely soaked by the rain and then come jump into bed! Yep, here it comes...

[Netfoot]

The landlord came early and did the concrete work inside the gate. The moment he left, a deluge washed half the concrete away. When the rain finally stopped, Mo went and dug up what ever concrete remained. The landlord will not be pleased but I got a bit of wood and packed back Mo's holes with the diggings and smoothed it all over. Nowhere near perfect, but I will blame the rain for everything if the matter comes up.

Went to the post office to collect my new debit card. Box was empty. Went to the bank to find out what was going on. Seems when they were making my new card, there were "challenges", meaning someone screwed up or the machine broke down. A whole batch of cards were lost. This was in August. So, what did the bank do? Nothing. Not remake the fouled up batch. Not advise those customers there was a problem. No, they decided to do absolutely nothing. So now, those people whose replacement cards were not made because of the "challenges" are trickling in one by one and they are making cards for them, one by one.

I grumbled that it would probably be two weeks before... Fifteen working days. So three weeks. But I need cash today! Well, we can issue you a temporary card immediately! Great! But you won't be able to use it until it's pinned. And we don't have a machine for pinning cards in this branch. Wildey branch would be the closest with a machine. But they are closed for the day. As are all the other branches with suitable machines.

At times I feel an affinity for those people who buy a rifle and climb a tower.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I had this little rectangular block of purpleheart that I thought I would try on the lathe. Purpleheart is very hard so I didn't want to make the square into a circle by turning the corners off. It's more usual especially with a hard wood, to cut the four corners off at the table saw and start the turning with an octagon. You would angle the blade at 45° and set the spacing between fence and blade to be the exact distance needed to make a perfect octagon. But given a square blank with sides of X", what distance do you set the fence at to make octagons?

As a retired software engineer I wrote a quick program to take the width of the block and return a distance to set the fence at. Then I had to test it out by turning the block of purpleheart into an octagon. 

Worked perfectly. So I stuck the octagon on the lathe and made this:

Now why in hell would I make a mushroom? Because it isn't a mushroom! It's something I've wanted to try for quite a while now. (And the unfinished bottom of the mushroom should clue you in that this is not a success story.)

It is in fact a little bowl. Cup. Box. Whatever you want to call it.

After hollowing, I turned the piece around in the lathe to make the rounded bottom. I didn't want to tighten the chuck too tight because the rim of the piece was thin enough to crush, and I didn't want to mar the nice finish on the outside of the rim with the jaws of the chuck. 

The piece kept flying out of the chuck and each time I put it back and tightened the chuck some more.

I finally got the rounded bottom I wanted but by then the excursions from the chuck had marred the outer surface of the piece, especially the outer rim, where the jaws had gripped it increasingly tightly. 

I figured I would need to do a series of very light cuts on the outside until the surface was restored, then resand and apply finish. To hold the piece for this, I made a jam-chuck. This worked well enough but the piece wobbled. So I tightened and tightened the jam-chuck until:

Well, that's  the end of that. No point going any further. This big crack is matched on the other side by this one:

So that was the end of this idea. For now. Because, if you temporarily ignore the unfinished surface and the massive cracks, it worked exactly as planned!

Mo is not himself. I gave him his lunch as usual but when I went to refill his bowl for dinner, the lunch was still there untouched. There was ⅛ tin of corned beef in the fridge I was planning to have with beans and a potato for dinner, but instead I cut it into tiny slivers and fed it to Mo. After being hand fed the first 3-4 pieces, he stuck his nose in the little bowl and polished off the rest.

Encouraged, I added three big spoonsfull of puppy food from a tin as "gravy" to his chow and he ate about ¾ of that. Then, when I fed myself, I left some of the beans and potato in my own bowl and put it on the ground and he came and polished that off for me.

So, I don't know. He is normally a ravenous trencherman so him leaving any food uneaten is very unusual. 

Only two things are different in his environment. First, the van is still parked outside. It can't come in until tomorrow morning. And he had been unhappy all day, not to have his van right where he can crawl under it when ever he wants.

 Secondly, there is the concrete that was put down this morning. I know he dug it up in spots. And I doubt he would attempt to eat it, but I can easily see him cleaning his feet afterwards by licking them. 

LIke I said, I don't know. He is right here next to me in bed now, cuddling against my tummy,

but he isn't back and forward between the window and the front door. Which is his usual routine.

Anyway, I will be keeping a close eye on him to see if he returns to normal. And if not, it will have to be the vet for him!

Is it strange for me to wish that Dr. Kristi also had a degree in veterinary medicine? 

Listening to Superstition by Stevie Wonder. It's just gone midnight so I will go lock up and try to read a little before doing a system shutdown. 

Good news! When I went to lock up, he jumped out of bed and followed me out. Whereupon he fell on the remaining dinner, "gravy" and all, and polished off the lot! Upon returning to bed, he went straight to the window and looked out, as he is find fond of doing. Upp! He's back at the window now!

Now, my back is hurting (still) and I'm tired. Plus, my left knee is hurting like it got a hard knock but I don't remember knocking it against anything. But then I rarely do pay much attention to cuts, scrapes and bounces unless they are immediately a matter of concern.

I want to read a bit of my book, which I am having trouble getting into, because night after night I'm too tired to read it. So I'm going to do that now.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Sometimes, rarely, you set out to make something, and it actually comes out pretty much exactly as you envisioned it.

This stands just under 2" high and just about 3" across the rim.

Mo finished off his dinner late last night and when it was time for his lunch inlsid I laid it out for him and he polished that off too. Right now, he is crammed into the space between my feet and my worktable. He is kissing my legs. Either that or ibtaste I taste good!

My back is hurting as usual. It isn't concentrated on my actual spine, but on the flesh/muscle on either side. I take comfort in that because it means it probably isn't a disk. I hope it's just muscle strain and not indicative of something much worse. Back pain can be indicative of issues with your lungs, they say...

Hungry, but don't know what to eat. A pot of rice would be easy to cook, but my last blood sugar test was 5.1 which is high (for me). Normal I anywhere between 4.0 and 5.9 with 5.0 considered ideal but I am happiest when it is below 5.0 rather than above.

The van is inside and the landlord is here with his workman, patching back the concrete arras that were damaged by the rain yesterday.

QRX...

Ok, got a pot of rice on the stove. With onion, corned beef and red beans. Not the Trinidadian Matouk's brand I usually eat. They have a sort of sauce with them that makes them great but not for boiling into the rice. Instead I am using another Trinidadian brand.

Will only eat half for lunch and the other half will be for an early dinner. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Ate the second half of my lunch for dinner. And now I'm in bed listening to The Sweetest Taboo by Sade.

I imagine when I mention something I'm listening to, everyone snickers. I like the music that was significant to me in past years. It's not that I don't want to hear and enjoy more recent music. It's that I have little chance to hear it, and if I can't hear it I can't come to like it, so it never gets added to my collection.

Once upon a time I used to listen to the radio in the car and hear new stuff that way. But the radio is rubbish these days. The people on there think I'm tuning in to listen to them. As a consequence they never shut up, regularly cut tracks short to blab some more, and never do their job. Which is to identify the music and then STFU while I listen to it!

Nowadays, with internet radio commonplace, I guess I should start listening to that. But the only place I have any bandwidth is at home. I guess it might make sense to wear some sort of headphones when doing my woodwork and listen to the appropriate internet radio station. Anyone got any recommendations on channels? Or apps?

Speaking of woodwork. Have a look at these.

Three circles made up from angled segments of wood. If they don't look like circles, it's because they are in two halves each. The reason for this will follow. But if you close one eye and turn your head on one side you will see one small disk, and two slightly larger rings.

The rings are made from 12 segments each cut at 15° on each end. That will give you a full circle. But the angles must be exact! So a simple but precise jig is used to cut the angles. If there is any error in the jig, this error will be propagated through each cut. Even so much as ½° error in the jig will lead to an overall error of 12° in the ring of segments, which will fail to close into a perfect circle. And that's why my rings are each in two halves.

If you make half-rings instead of complete rings, the open faces should be coplanar. If there is an error in your jig, they won't be. What you can do at that point (and I plan to do tomorrow when the glue on my half-rings is fully cured) is sand the two exposed faces together on a flat surface, which will make them coplanar, so the half-rings can be brought together without any gaps.

This is not a satisfactory solution, though. For several reasons. For example, when gluing segments into rings, the correct way to do it is to glue them all together and put a big rubber band around the ring. This puts enough even pressure on all the joints to make them set up as strong as possible. And since these are all end-grain to end-grain joints, they won't be all that strong at best. If you have to glue up half-rings, there is no good way to put even pressure on the joints, so they are weaker than we would like 

I made six jigs today. Discarded all. These segments are from the best. And they still aren't good perfect. The jigs were all close to 15° but without a CNC it isn't easy to cut an exact angle. 

So what I'm going to do tomorrow is come up with a jig that's adjustable. I will set it up with a fence that is as close to the desired 15° as I can get it. It will have a pivot on one end (just one screw will work). The other end will press up against the head of another screw. By turning that screw in or out the angle can be adjusted.

I will cut segments and see if they make a properly closed ring or not. If not I will drive the screw in or back it out as appropriate. When I finally get it dialed in, I will use some super glue to lock it permanently into place. After that, cutting segments should be a breeze. 

I will also use the test rings pictured. I will try to sand the faces coplanar without the glue joints falling apart. If I succeed I will glue it all together and then stack the rings to make a segmented blank for the lathe.

But right now, I will try to advance my book by another chapter. Mo was here a moment ago giving me sweet snuggles, but he's gone off now. He will be back. It's a cool night (winter is coming!) And the whistling frogs were in full voice when we went on our Garden Patrol so I hope he doesn't want to go out.

Midnight + 3. Book!

[Netfoot]

Sleeping on the floor right next to the bed. Where did he get that oily rag?

[Netfoot]

Rings sanded and glued up.

Feeling very low. Don't know what I'm going to do next. Takeva chill pill, I guess 

[Netfoot]

NDue to a number of reasons I won't go into, I am going to take a bit of a break from the internet, so you won't see me posting rubbish nineteen times a day for the next while.

I will pop in every few days and post a picture of Mosie Posie if I get a nice one. Because nobody should be without cute Mo-photos for any length of time.

Snoozing, under the bed:

Otherwise, for the next however long, I am going dark. 

[Spunkygal]

Take care, @Netfoot! I too have to go dark every once in a while. Give Mo a kiss for us. 

[andidante]

NDue to a number of reasons I won't go into, I am going to take a bit of a break from the internet, so you won't see me posting rubbish nineteen times a day for the next while.

I will miss seeing you post on here! I always enjoy your posts. I hope you are ok. 

[Netfoot]

15 hours ago, andidante said:

I hope you are ok.

Mo and I are both fine. Well, I cut my right index finger and it hurts really bad. Especially when I forget and try to use it which only increases the hurt. But it will get better eventually.

Keeping this really short because I am trying to minimize internet usage and keep it to essential communications only.

[Netfoot]

Mo is here with me, in bed.

He played a very vigorous game of Tummy Trampoline, looked out the window quite a bit, and is concentrating on chewing my right hand (which makes typing difficult).

He has been determined to investigate the small bandage on my right Index finger ever since I put it there yesterday. 

The back pains are still with me, but I was able to go through the entire day without painkillers avoiding any unnecessary bending, twisting, etc. I consider that a good sign. Unfortunately, the finger was throbbing do strongly I had to get out of bed and take two tabs. That quickly made the throbbing go away. If the finger continues to be sore for much longer I will seek the advice of Dr. Kristi.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Netfoot