Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Browncoat]

13 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Mo loves rasins.

Please don't feed Mo raisins.  Raisins and grapes can cause kidney failure in dogs.

[Netfoot]

Just now, Browncoat said:

Please don't feed Mo raisins.  Raisins and grapes can cause kidney failure in dogs.

Wow! Never new that. Thanks so much for the heads-up! Poor baby... no more raisins for you!

It seems that 3 grams per kilogram of dog is the dangerous dosage. Thankfully, I doubt Mo received anywhere near that, he only had 4-5 raisins and he probably weighs 15Kg. But never no mind. He won't get raisins again.

[Netfoot]

So, instead of doing something productive this afternoon, I took a nap. Now, minutes to midnight, I should be wide awake but nevertheless, I feel tired.

Cool, gusty breeze outside (and in the window). I can deal with cool and warm. Cold and hot are less easy to enjoy. Let's hope the night doesn't turn cold in the wee hours.

Mo is here with me, but while he is a delight, he is not reliable. He will use my feet as a pillow, often forcing me to hold an uncomfortable pose for an extended period. His new thing is to lie against my back or tummy and use my inner thigh as a pillow. Forcing me to find something to do with the other leg! He is a dream when it comes to cuddling and snuggles. But he only wants to cuddle/snuggle for extended periods right when I decide to get out of bed in the morning. He will avoid cuddling for an hour or more prior to that, but as soon as I make the move to get up, he's right there with an irresistible demand for snuggs.

Right now he is giving himself a pedicure. He often tends to his feet, but he does not like it at all when I check on his footies. I like to check my puppy for issues that might crop up. Burrs, sweethearts, and so forth snagged in his coat. (And with his double coat Mo is more prone than Bud or Dot were.) Plus possible lumps, bumps and scratches on his skin, ticks, fleas and whatever. But Mo doesn't like to be investigated like that. So I have to do it as part of a good cuddle session. First thing in the morning when I'm dying to go have a pee.

When cutting bowl blanks to go on the faceplate, I regularly end up with a small off-cut that is too small for my little 2" faceplates. Ideal for a wormwood screw. These small pieces would allow me to turn small little bowls or boxes. Nothing I could sell for a lot of money, but small sales can add up.

I need a wormwood screw for my chuck. Unfortunately, the manufacturer classifies it as a part and they don't sell parts on their website, so I can't order one that way. No, you have to phone their 800 number (which is not free from here) wait on hold the until you get a human, and tell them what you want.

And they will say "You must give me the part number or I can't take your order!" How do I know? Because they consider a chuck key a part as well and I had to go through this process when I ordered that. 

So where do you get the part number from? You have to  call a different department, wait on hold there, ask for the part number, then switch to the sales department, wait on hold again, then give them the part number and order the part. 

When I went through this process to buy the chuck key, the price of the key was six bucks. (And a woodworm screw is much smaller and simpler than a chuck key, so it can't be much more expensive.) The cost of the long distance call with two on-hold periods, came to thirty seven bucks.

When Heidi was in the states last time, I asked her to call the 800 number and get the part number for me. That would have eliminated one on-hold period for me, potentially reducing the cost of my phone call by half. But apparently the task was too difficult. She never did get me a part number.

Now, understand; I didn't ask her to order the part. She could have ordered it and had it delivered to her in the USA, and popped it into her handbag to bring it home with her, for free. But I didn't ask that much of her. Just to make the call to the 800 number, get the part number and send it to me. Too much to ask, apparently.

Well, apparently she is back in the states. (Not that I wouldn't drop dead before I'd ask her to call that 800 again.) I've asked her a thousand times to just let me know when she leaves the country. She is essentially my next of kin, so it would be nice to know when she isn't available. But she never, ever, lets me know when she's going away, and she never, ever, lets me know when she gets back. 

So maybe I should make a woodworm screw? Yeah, maybe if I had a metal-turning lathe and a milling machine that would be perfectly fine. But I don't. So, maybe I could make one out of wood? Might not be all that sturdy. But I guess I should look into the possibility.

Well, it's late, Mo is curled up next to me and shivering. I will go lock the door and crawl under the sheet. I'll throw a corner over Mo as well, but he doesn't generally like to be covered.

[Netfoot]

Collected my new bowl gouge this morning:

These chisels come with a "traditional" grind. I prefer the "fingernail" or "Ellsworth" or "Irish" grind. This requires the reprofiling of the tip of the chisel. I will do this, but first I may just try the traditional grind to see how it goes.

On the way back, I stopped and purchased a couple of lag-screws.

One ½" and one ⅜". Not sure which one would be more suitable. Will try to convert one (or both?) of these things into woodworm screw(s). 

You may notice a pack of four Teatime biscuits. I blew 85¢ on these. Three for me and one for Mo. I enjoyed them with a cup of tea. Naturally, Mo was not satisfied with only one bikky and I had to give him half of my last one. Then, I popped out of the room for a second, and caught him red handed, stealing the wrapper the biscuits came in. What a sheepish expression he had on his face!

What with all that, and going to the bank to deposit money, it is already time for lunch. I have rice, potatoes or pasta. Guess I'll have to choose. 

Oh, I also bought some Histal tablets for Mo and I to share, 2.288Kg of "loose" salt at $2.09 per, totalling $4.88 and a 1Kg bag of oatmeal. 500g bags used to be $2.99 but they have gone up to $3.06 and the bigger bag is now $6.06 for one Kg. I can make a filling meal out of one cup, and 12 meals from a 1 Kg bag. That's 50¢ per meal, or thereabouts. The stuff tastes better with sugar and milk which makes the mealore meal more expensive but those are not essential. 

Ruminating about what to have for lunch and watching Quantum Leap. Boy, is it rotten, compared to the original! Makes me want to go watch The Little Mermaid. Or Peter Pan & Wendy. Or some other woke bullshit.

Edited March 22, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Cheap t'ing nah goog, good t'ing nah cheap.

Sharpened my new chisel a bit on the grinder. Took it over to the lathe to see how it cut. Tried a simple, scraping cut and...

Bang!!!

A large chip out of the wing within seconds.

Obviously no point dealing with these people any more. Googled and discovered that they have a reputation for chisels that chip or break or show signs of a bad heat treatment, like refusal to hold an edge, and easy burning/blueing of the steel during sharpening. I knew they weren't great chisels, but they were all I could afford. 

Not going to be easy to turn bowls without a bowl gouge, or even a spindle gouge. Nor spindles, for that matter. 

Not sure what to do next.

Edited March 22, 2023 by Netfoot

[Spunkygal]

Let me know if I can help with calling an 800 number and getting a part for you. If I have to call them, you’ll need to write me a script of exactly what to ask! 

[Netfoot]

11 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

Let me know if I can help with calling an 800 number and getting a part for you. If I have to call them, you’ll need to write me a script of exactly what to ask! 

Thanks for offering. I'll send you a private message.

[Netfoot]

Another non-productive day. I took the brand new, chipped gouge back to the grinder and ground down the two wings. This got rid of the chip and increased the length of the wings to something closer to what I've been using. 

You can see where the two wings have been roughly ground flat. The two shiny areas are the flats left from this regrind. It is axiomatic that if you can see shine on the wings, eou are looking at a flat spot which, by definition, is not sharp. It is dull. 

So the chisel next goes into a grinding jig that allows the whole thing to be rotated & swept around on the grindstone to sharpen the edge, right around from one wing, through the tip to the other wing, and back. 

This process is done bit by bit, dipping the chisel into a bucket of water to prevent it from overheating and breaking the temper of the steel. Left-to-right, right-to-left, dip & slosh. Eventually, the big, fat silvery edges are ground down into a useable, sharp edge.

Now, you can see that the edge has been greatly improved. But if you look closely, there is still a silvery hairline running along the edge. This chisel is still dull. It cuts, but very poorly. However, as periodic sharpening is the norm for this type of chisel, the flat spot will shrink down with each sharpening until it is microscopically small and then completely disappear.

So, hopefully, this chisel will soon come into its own, and help me make a number of bowls.

Went out to buy dog chow for Mo. Couldn't find the variety he is accustomed to but there was something new on the shelf that was twice the amount for less money. Cheap t'ing nuh good, good t'ing nuh cheap. But we will take a risk and try it out. Also bought Bajan salt-bread and some cheese so I had cheese cutters for dinner. Blood sugar yesterday was only 4.1 so the bread shouldn't be an issue.

Mosie is leaning on my chest and producing huge sighs, like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. I think he is just stir crazy. It's been weeks and weeks since he went up to the club and got a good run-around. I keep promising to take him but the gas level in the car is always somewhere between very low and critical. As is most everything in life these days.

Listening to the album Mezzanine by Massive Attack. This is my favourite albums of theirs, featuring the voice of Elizabeth Frazier from Cocteau Twins. Her singing is described as "often eschewing any recognisable language." I particularly like her on the track Teardrop. The band nearly broke up over the choice of vocalist for this track. But two members chose Fraser and so we were spared an appearance by the other contender (Madonna). 

Another Massive Attack album (Protection) featured a guest vocalist I'm fond of: Tracey Thorn who, with Ben Watt, formed the duo Everything But The Girl. I love EBTG and Thorn but consider Mezzanine with Fraser to be a better album than Protection with Thorn. I've been listening to it for years and so far have failed to find a single flaw. 

Anyway, it's late and Mo and I will now extinguish the lights and try to get some sleep. Hopefully, my little man will not roused me repeatedly, through the remainder of the night. 

[Netfoot]

Listening to El Mundo Pequeño by Ian Brown. Former lead singer for The Stone Roses, and known by the amusing nickname of monkey-boy. The reason for the nickname is because he could accept a leading role in a film from the Planet of the Apes franchise and not have to wear makeup. I've also heard a critic say that he "couldn't carry a tune in a bucket!" But I think that is an unfair assessment of his talents. He may not have the most melodious voice I've ever heard, but I've heard plenty worse from the alt-rock genre.

In bed in my long-sleeved tee. It is still chilly in the early hours of the morning so I am still wrapping up a little bit, if not in long sleeves/trousers, socks, gloves and a pseudo-balaclava.

Had cheese cutters for lunch and dinner. Will take a blood sugar test first thing. Last time I was sitting at 4.1 but all that bread makes me nervous.

Been making bowls all day. Five have come off the lathe, three to be thrown away. I'll give you an example of why.

Started with a block of wood 3" in diameter and put it in the faceplate. After chasing cracks and blemishes, I had a little bowl that was reduced in size until I was worried the outer side was getting close to the faceplate screws. Took it off the faceplate and put it on the chuck. The hollowing process began, and part of that is "hollowing away" the holes left by those screws. But in no time, the side of the turning blew out, and the chisel, now unrestrained, walked all over the rim of the bowl before I could stop it, tearing it to shreds.

Look at the photo and you will see the bottom left side sheared off. You can clearly see two screw holes close to the rim at top and right. The third hole at the bottom is concealed among the splintered remains of the rim. And the fourth screw hole

is right on the edge of the broken side. The holes are closer to the sides than they might appear, because the bowl tapers in towards the bottom.

Now, if you've heard me moaning about the lack of a woodworm screw, it is because they are designed for exactly this sort of situation. If trying to turn a small blank, instead of using a faceplate which has at least four screws spaced out from the center, the woodworm screw uses one screw right in the middle. it is quite large, on the order of half an inch diameter, so it can hold tightly, but only requires one relatively small hole in the middle of the piece. In comparison, my smallest faceplate has screws that are 2¼" apart. 

Oooo! Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana!

Mo was here a short while ago, but a house fly tormented him so he wandered off and I can hear him barking outside.

Little scamp! As I slipped my shoes on for our Garden Patrol, he snatched up.a large red pencil and ran me around the garden for a while before bringing it back and pretending to be sorry. I didn't fall for the act, but I patted him on the head anyhow. Naturally, the pencil was chewed to.destruction, but I was glad to retrieve it before he ate the red "lead" in the middle. I've no idea what that stuff is (obviously not graphite) but whatever, I doubt it would be good for a puppy's digestion. 

So as I was saying, I have 5-6 blanks prepared for tomorrow, some mahogany, some tamarind. Three are already shaped and need to be hollowed and then finished. If I can get them done successfully, I will be pleased. But I've had some misfortunes with turnings this last few days, with cracks surfacing at inopportune moments, and causing nearly complete bowls to self-destruct. So I would be pleased if all three can be completed successfully. Better still if there is time to mount additional blanks and try for even more!

Not seen nor heard Mo for a little while, so I'd better go and fetch him inside for the night. He has been very affectionate on a morning, but he waits quietly until I am trying to get out of bed before he flings himself in me and starts dispensing fuzzy-kisses. Why doesn't he come administer love while I'm lying there half awake for the hour before rising?

Eyes starting to close!

[Netfoot]

This was shaping up to be a nice little bowl! Until I went and ruined it...

I had the bowl to the point where you see it, with the outside turned, sanded and finished. I was hollowing, and had most of that done. I turned away from the machine to hold the chisel up to the light so I could look at the edge. When I turned back to the machine, I was careless and the tip of the chisel unexpectedly touched the rim of the bowl. There was a loud crack! I stopped the machine and examined the bowl to find this chunk missing.

My first thought was to lower the rim of the bowl until the missing chunk was eliminated, but the bowl was already shallow. I thought of simply grinding away that spot on the rim, but examining the area with a loupe showed several fine cracks in the wood. 

So, this is junk. A nice little piece of mahogany lost and two hours of my time wasted. Of course, I won't throw it away. I will keep it in the hope I can find a use for it. Like what I do not know.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Notch out the chunk in a U-shape, and notch 3 more at 90 degree angles. It'll look like a deliberate design. 

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, Superclam said:

Notch out the chunk in a U-shape, and notch 3 more at 90 degree angles. It'll look like a deliberate design. 

Been thinking of that exact same idea! Only three notches at 120° apart.

[Netfoot]

These three pieces completed just at dusk, so I'm glad they survived.

The cup/chalice was the most likely to self destruct, and did jump off the lathe three times, but I caught it each time before it hit the floor.

And here are all the new pieces for the week. Remember that I had 4-5 pieces self-destruct on me! 

The two small pieces at the front all started as much larger bowl blanks and got smaller and smaller as the flaws in the original blank became evident and had to be eliminated.

The rounded, near-white bowl in the rear is not complete. I'm taking it up to show another woodworker up there. It is, believe it or not, mahogany. It was growing Sunday morning, cut down Sunday afternoon, brought to my house Sunday night and rough-turned Monday. The wall was deliberately left thick - between ½" & ¾" thick. This should speed the drying process. It is likely to warp as it dries. My cuz Lindsay, a bone fide artist who lives in Glasgow suggests letting it warp and celebrating the organic shapes left by the warping process. But I left it thick enough that I will (hopefully) be able to turn it some more and eliminate the warps. I just hope it doesn't crack!

I bet you thought mahogany was a dark wood! As you can see it is very pale. But it will darken with the passage of time.

Now I have to go outside and figure out how much to ask for my little pieces.

[Netfoot]

I'm in bed an hour earlier than usual and plan to go to sleep ASAP.

Listening to Look What You've Done by Bread with a 90 minute off-timer set. Mo is right here with me, but the door is still open so he can come and go. I will close it when I wake up in a couple of hours. I usually wake every 90 minutes to 2 hours. Have done so ever since I got roasted by a house fire, 32 years ago last week. 

Car packed, clothes laid out with EDC gear installed. Ate a toffee earlier, from my stock . Not tried these before and was pleasantly surprised at how good this one was. Usual toffee flavour but with a hint of cherry! Looking forward to seeing if the toffees are all the same or if different fruit are represented. 

Mo has a fully developed sweet tooth so I gave him a toffee as well. He was back in quick time demanding another one, but I don't let him indulge too much. 

I put $14 in gas into the car and I've got $20 in my wallet to pay my entrance fee. It is usually only $10 because I get a half-space. Sometimes it is $15 depending where they put me. If I'm under the wriggly-tin roof with a concrete floor the space is more expensive. I could use a few sales because I could use some coin. Bills must be paid and groceries must be bought.  I refuse to even think about medical expenses. 

Had a good shower, which I am happy about. Two nights in a row I've not had hot water. I don't mean the water flowing out of the hot tap was cold. I mean no water was flowing out of the hot tap at all. But tonight it sprayed out with good pressure and 2nd-degree-burn hot, as usual. 

Turning in now, expect to wake before midnight and will lock the door then. House will remain lit to fool burglars, and Mosie-Posie will maul any unwelcome guests.

Alarm set for 4:30, no rain, please.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Ok, so I went to bed early last night... And started stared at the ceiling until nearly 2:00 for Mo no good reason I can think of. Finally did nod off just before two... And was awakened at 4:10 by a puppy who didn't seem to want anything in particular,. But would not let me grab a single extra wink, far less forty!

At a quarter past four and fifteen minutes before the alarm, I gave up and started getting dressed. 

Arrived at Brighton early, with $20 in my pocket and ended up sharing with Marva, the coconut-bread lady. 

A couple of the cuter regulars were absent but there were plenty of others to brighten up the landscape. After the sun came up.

Got a handful of sales, nothing spectacular but after paying $10 to get in, I came home with $141 in my wallet. After I put aside $40 for fuel and for entrance next week, I made $101. Two people said they would be back next Saturday to make a purchase but at least two people say that every week, and they rarely come through.

Arrived home just after 11:00 so it was soon time for lunch. I cooked a pot of rice. It contained cucumber, pak choy, carrot, potato and corned beef, plus light seasoning. In fact the only thing it didn't have was salt. Because I forgot. And I also forgot to set the timer, and I also forgot to lower the fire when the pot started to boil. So the water boiled out and the rice started to burn before it was fully cooked. And even if you sprinkle unsalted rice with salt on the plate, it never tasted 100% right.

Mo liked the rice though. He insisted on some raw cucumber and raw carrot and raw pak choy and even some raw corned beef while I was prepping the dish. And also got a big scoop of the finished rice. He thought it was fine, salt or no salt.

Anyway, I am knackered and will probably take a big nap this afternoon. I will avoid any work today but I want to make at least two of my 12-sided planters by next weekend.

And of course, turn some more bowls. I'm working on an idea utilizing this piece of mahogany:

The idea is three bowls (or boxes, depending on your whim), each of which functions as a lid for the one below, and a separate lid for the top one. Not sure how to make it happen. I might separate the top piece (lid) from the rest, fashion it into a lid, then make the top bowl to fit the lid and give it a tenon/foot so it can become the lid for the one below. I think the bowls should not be ordered, so any bowl will be able to be used as the lid for any other, and the actual lid able to fit any of the three. May not be able to finish the piece as planned.

The large, wet-turned bowl I carried up to show another woodworker? One woman really wanted to buy it. When I let her handle it and explained that it had a lot of work still to be done, and that it might be several weeks (if not months) before it would be finished, she wanted to pay in advance! I told her I couldn't take her money because I could not guarantee it would survive the drying and finishing.

In any case, I have enough items left unsold to go again next Saturday, and with any luck I can finish a few new piece as well. 

So. A hundred bucks. That will help with the light bill...

Edited March 26, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Off to bed a little early again. Hopefully I will be able to actually sleep, and Mo won't feel it necessary to keep waking me up. I must say, Mo does not speak English as well as Budweiser or even old Dotcom. Mo comes along and makes you well aware that he wants something, but he is not very adept at making you understand what!

Listening to Swallowed from the Razorblade Suitcase album by Bush. Always thought that was a silly name for an album. It comes from the lyric of one of the other songs on the album and is an interpretation of the phrase "emotional baggage" but I still think it's silly. Silly or not, it's a pretty good album, if a little raw when compared to Sixteen Stone, their debut which this album followed. I also own three more of their albums, including Golden State, The Science Of Things and Deconstructed, but this last is a remix album, which reimagines several of their earlier tracks and contains no new/original material._

Oh! Jacob & Sophie were at Brighton today. They were the couple I shared a tent with for several of my first visits. They weren't working today. Sophie had the baby a few weeks ago and this is the first time I've seen her since. She looked fabulous! Handsome and happy. Some women seem to come out of a pregnancy tired and worn down. And who can blame them? Sophie, on the other hand looks stunningly well recovered, and honestly, if she had not come up to say hello I might not have recognized her. She says she wants more; "lots more" to use her words. And I met the baby who Sophie carried in a sling over her shoulder, and who resembled nothing more than a little munchkin, really. But then, what little babe that isn't even 8 weeks old yet doesn't?

Anyway, my little munchkin has not come to bed as yet so I will go and fetch him. Time to switch to Power-Save mode 

[Netfoot]

A few days ago, I bought a large bag of chow for Mo. A different brand to usual, but it was very cheap. Cheap t'ing nuh good, good t'ing nuh cheap! He won't eat the stuff. He will stand next to a bowl of that stuff and cry for his dinner. In my own defense, I will point out that the stuff he usually eats was not available, so it seemed reasonable to try an alternative.

Anyway, I just had to go to the supermarket to get a bag of the stuff he  is used to. He eats that stuff with gusto! So I bought a bag of the "good stuff" which was back in stock, and also a tin of dog food with which I will make "gravy" to sweeten the chow for him. Also got two small tins of mackerel for a buck'na'half each to make a different flavour of "gravy" now and again.

The supermarket is my undoing, these days. I saw macaroni selling at $1.79 a pack, which is 20¢ cheaper than the last lot I bought, so I bought three more packages. I bought 5 lbs. of potatoes, one lb. of carrots, one Kg of cucumber, half a Kg of onions, a lb. of red butter, and a half Kg of plantains; two lovely big fellas. Couldn't resist. And while I was a t it I threw in a couple lbs. of sugar to sweeten my tea and/or porridge. 

$80.68 total.

Well, I guess it's a good thing I made a "Grantley" at Brighton yesterday. 

The Right Excellent Sir Grantley Adams. Revered statesman. Portrait on the hundred dollar bill. Example #1, #2, #3 (all of these still in circulation. I think they are bringing out a fourth tomorrow and number five on Friday.)

Been breaking pallets all morning and have only got two done. Photos later.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Broke down two pallets. Only two. But these were super-pallets, very sturdily constructed and more than the usual number of boards - 11 per pallet. 

Because I needed shorter pieces, I cut each board down the middle, which made the job easier. I do occasionally require full length, 40" boards for my project, and I can tell you it is much more work getting them off. Boards are held in place by 6 nails per board or 66 per pallet. By cutting around them, I get 22 boards 18" long, 3½" wide and about 1" thick from each pallet. That leaves three remaining boards that are 40" long, 3½" wide and close to 1½" thick. But these are riddled with nail holes on both sides, and to use the boards you have to pull all the nails out. Luckily, having cut away the thinner boards, the nails are all sticking up about an inch so it is much easier to pull them out than when they were hammered down flush.

That's 44 shorter (18") boards and six of the thicker boards full length at 40".

Note that you never get to use it all. Some boards will have cracks and splits, some of the nails will break off rather than pull out l, and you don't want to put a board with a nail in it anywhere near your saw! So some boards will have to be shortened or narrowed to avoid nails, splits, knots, twists, etc. But that's why I call these super-pallets. Most of the wood is strait, flat, clean and unbroken. The only real issue with these particular pallets is that they are very sturdy indeed, and nails have a tendency to "pop" rather than "pull".

Meanwhile, Mo who has been refusing to eat for the last day or so, had had his lunch. It was some of the "wrong" chow with some herring in oil mixed in. 

He didn't eat it all, but he did get through most. Enough to give him a full tummy, anyway, and he will be able to take a comfortable afternoon nap.

I could use a meal myself! Maybe some rice with nice things in it, like broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, cucumber, and corned beef. Or I could leave out the broccoli and have a ricccce instead. (A rice with four Cs in it.) Or five. Cayenne. 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

A few days ago, I went to buy Mo a bag of chow. 2Kg for about $28. But they were out of stock! And in it's place they had a different chow at $25 for 4Kg.

I bought it. Mo refused to eat it. 

I tried sweetening the cheap chow by mixing in canned dogfood. Corned beef. Mackerel. Sweet rice. Mo would go and pick out the sweetener, and of course some of the chow would go with it. But generally, he wouldn't eat the ckeap stuff.

So I went back to the shop today and they had the stuff he likes back in stock. I bought a bag. And I've just tried him with a bowl for his dinner. 

He inhaled it! And it was a pretty big serving, too. Having not eaten much for a few days, I figured he would be a mite on the peckish side. He yammed it down.

I'm glad I will be able to feed him now. I had intended to shop for his favourite chow tomorrow, after depositing my Grantley in the bank, and hoping he would eat a little of the cheap stuff in the mean time, out of sheer hunger. But today it became obvious that he would not eat that stuff unless actual starvation set in. And I didn't want that for him. So I bought him a bag of his favourite and he licked his bowl clean.

One of my greatest worries about my financial issues and now my health issues is Mo. I worry about my ability to keep him fed and (whenever) doctored. And I'm doing it so far, but if I actually run out of funds completely, or have to go into hospital...

My own lunch was a pot of rice. I found in the very back of the freezer, a bag of frozen Broccoli Normandy. Broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. A big handful of that, a diced cucumber, an Oxo cube and a a little corned beef. Plus salt, this time. And a little garlic powder. It tasted fine, and a big scoop went into some of that cheap chow to see if it would tempt Mo to eat it. And I thought he was, but it seems he just ate the grains of rice from between the chow.

Oh yes. I had the rice with a plantain. I keep buying these plantains, forgetting I don't have a microwave any more. So a 3-minute job in the nuke-box becomes 30+ minutes in a saucepan. I didn't get to eat my rice until after 3:00! But it tasted good. And the plantain was great too. But I am going to fry the next one. Hopefully it won't take as long, and the rice (or spuds or whatever) can cook simultaneously. I don't have any cinnamon so my mum probay probably would not approve, but jmfo I do have some brown sugar, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

Now, Mo is barking hard enough to knock the house down, so I better go and deal with that. Prolly the blasted neighbor's cat.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Porridge with rasins for dinner. No raisins for Mosie. He ate his large bowl of chow with relish! And after a while, he came and said 'Please, sir, I want some more.' So I gave him some more and he finished that quick-time. 

I feel sort of bad that he was so hungry. But then, I also feel that I did my best for him. His normal brand was not available. I gave him an alternative. Genuine dogfood, new and fresh, and in an effort to make it more to his liking I augmented it with corned beef, fish, tinned dogfood, and my own "fancy" rice. Could it taste so horrible that he would rather starve than eat it? Wow! I feel like I should take it back, but what exactly would I say? I bought this chow and my dog didn't like it? I doubt that would win me any joy.

Anyway, he's got a full belly and there is plenty more for him to have for his meals going forward.

Listening to Georgia by Boz Scaggs. I ain't shame to say I like the old Boz Scaggs albums. Slow Dancer, Silk Degrees & Down Two Then Left. That last was a favourite of the girl upstairs, when I was a student in England in the late 70s. And when ever I played it she would come down. Mind you, I had the largest room in the house and kept it toasty warm, and I had the only TV in the house (for use with the computer I soldered together myself, but otherwise it was used to watch ITV and The Beeb). So my room was always full of my house-mates. But she and I were an item for a while... and I thank old Boz for that!

Tomorrow, I have to fire up Mr. Noisy and process all that pallet wood. But it occurred to me that when the mahogany came home, we dumped it out of the truck and to save the concrete we dropped those pieces on one of my good pallets. Busted it to hell. I went and looked at it just before bed to see if any of it was salvageable and to my surprise only three of the 11 boards were badly busted! So whereas I was just thinking of getting it out of the place to eliminate clutter, I should be able to get some useful pieces of wood out of it! So I will get that broken down first before the planeing and trimming begins. Also got to go make a bank deposit tomorrow, but that shouldn't take long, as I just use their drop-box.

I will also check my blood sugar as well, tomorrow, first thing. Last test a few days ago was 4.9 which, while it is actually less than the ideal norm of 5.0, is still a bit high for my liking. I prefer it to be under 4.5, just on the principle that if 6.0 is too high, the further away from that I am, the happier I will be. This country is the diabetes capital of the world, and I like my ten toes exactly where they are!

Any way, I'm reading a free Kindle book on my phone. Author is a woman I've never heard of, and the book seems to be part Romance novel, part dystopian sci-fi and doesn't appear to be going anywhere. Which is prolly why it's free on Kindle, eh? But while it might be going nowhere fast, maybe I just can't see where it's going. So I will read a chapter, then I will lock up, flush main store to disk and do an orderly shutdown.

Oh! Last couple of nights I've been sleeping in a pair of Boxers only. It's been cold but by keeping myself well wrapped in my sheet and employing my fuzzy hot water bottle, I was fine. But if for some reason I have to get up in the wee hours, my teeth really end up chattering.

[Netfoot]

This morning, I slept late. Opened my eyes to find it was three minutes to eight! I was about to leap out of bed when Mo-baby came calling with kisses & cuddles. And believe me, those fuzzy-kisses are not easy to reject, any more than the fuzzy-cuddles.

BS of 4.6 which is down a bit so I guess I should be pleased. I am! I am! Only, I'd be even more pleased if it was 4.2 instead...

So the broken pallet. Having a couple hundred pounds of mahogany dropped on you from several feet up is more than even a super-pallets can withstand.

There were two places that had taken the brunt of the mahogadrop.

But that left the majority of the boards in relatively good shape!

So, cutting alongside the three thicker, center boards, I recovered 18 boards of 18-ish inches in length.

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

That leaves the long, thicker boards, or (as I like to think of them) iron-quilled porcupines.

Minimum of 66 nails in this batch of pallets, each one which we must strive to extract.

The normal woodworker's claw hammer would be an obvious solution...

...except for the fact that pallets are made with extremely cheap nails, and the heads just love to break off.

(Note the blackening of the wood around the nail. This is a result of the tannins in the wood reacting to the iron of the nail, and is the basis for my home made wood-darkening stain.)

So instead of a claw hammer, I use an artificial head for the nail (AKA vicegrip) and a 36" pig-foot jemmy. 

This works most of the time, but sometimes it just pops the nail lIke it was a piece of rotten string.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

So here are the three thicker, long boards on top of the 18 shorter ones.  

Regrettably, there are a few nails that I could not get out because they snapped. I am very gentle with the big jemmy, but it happens.

So I mark them in red to make sure I keep them well away from saw and planer blades that are designed to cut wood and will self-destruct if faced with a nail-sized chunk of steel.

And also, one of the boards has a sizeable crack, probably due to the mahogadrop. I might get some small pieces out of it, but probably not much.

Anyway, that has taken me nearly three hours, and so now I will wander over to the mall and drop some cash off at the bank. Only problem: some of the money is in the form of US currency, and the bank will want to charge me a fee for changing it, and I'm not too sure how well that will work if I just use the drop box. But wait! I've just thought! I was going to hold back gas and entry money for next Saturday. I can deposit that and hold back the US for Saturday instead! I'm so clever. Been worrying about that since day before last.

Anyway, gotta throw on some togs and head over to the bank now. Note to self: Don't leave a three foot long pig-foot jemmy right outside your front door. No need to make it easier for the housebreakers.....

[andidante]

6 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Anyway, gotta throw on some togs and head over to the bank now. Note to self: Don't leave a three foot long pig-foot jemmy right outside your front door. No need to make it easier for the housebreakers.....

Is there a lot of crime where you live? House break-ins and whatnot?

[Netfoot]

Well, I returned from the bank and cooked lunch. It was supposed to be boiled veggies but I added too much water and it ended up as a soup. Or stew. Or stoup. It tasted pretty good either way. 

After lunch I took the 62 short boards to the planer. Eight were a little too funky for me to deal with today, so I set them aside. Fourteen were thinner than the remainder. So rather than mill them all to the size of the thinnest, I made two stacks. 

The 14 thinner boards were planed on both sides until all were nice and smooth and just about exactly ½" thick. The 40 remaining boards were planed on both sides until all were nice and smooth, at a thickness just a hair over ⁹/¹⁶“ thick. 

The thicker 40 are stacked on top of Mr. Noisy, and the thinner 14 are on the outfeed ramp (right).

That was three hours and my ears are still ringing.

Then I cut and planed a couple bits of wood including a thin strip of purpleheart. Gluing them together with waterproof Elmer's glue, I will see how they turn out and maybe make something out of them tomorrow. (I have a cunning plan!)

I'm trying a small bottle of the Elmer's instead of Titebond III because it's marginally cheaper, but I don't think I will buy any more of that. It's drying out very quickly in the bottle, which makes it a PITA to use, and the glue lost to premature drying eliminates any cost saving anyhow.

I think I will have macaroni for dinner. With bully beef and godnozewot else. If you see the lovely fruit & veggies selling at Brighton! Would that I could just go and buy a weeks supply of stuff each week. Oh well. 

[Netfoot]

14 minutes ago, andidante said:

Is there a lot of crime where you live? House break-ins and whatnot?

I guess I'd have to say yes. Not as bad as Trinidad ot Jamaica, but yes. 

 Of course, having a dog in the yard is always a help. Especially a black dog! The local population seem to think that black dogs are much more dangerous than any other colour. And somehow have a worst bite. A superstition I am at pains not to eradicate.

Enough to say that virtually every house above hovel classification has bars on the windows.

[Netfoot]

Now, the goal is to make planters. I am going to try a 12-sided design because that gives me greatest flexibility with the choice of stubby feet for standing (3, 4 or 6) and the same for hanging points. Plus of course, a rope handle option.

Starting with 40 boards, I sorted through and pulled out the ones with serious wain (where the outer surface of the original tree, with or without barkl remains on the board) or cracked edges. I set aside 13 of these.

Then, I separated out those with nasty cracks. I found four, inclufyone crack so fine I nearly missed it and had to wedge it open with a shaving for this photo.

Next, boards with blemishes (like knots) that I may or may not be able to work around. Found three of these.

This should have left me with 20 "good" boards, but for some reason I can only fing 19. I was very careful with my counts, so there should be 2o, but one has gone walkabout. And given the state of devastation out in my garage, I guess it can be forgiven. So, here are the 19 good boards.

[Netfoot]

Oh, by the way. I mentioned a small glue-up that was left to cure overnight. Here it is.

A buddy contacted me and asked if I could make a phone-stand, and this is my prototype board. 

Made from pallet wood, I cut two pieces and turned the nail-hiled in on each other effectively making them disappear. And to justify the glue line I sandwiched in a thin piece of purpleheart.

It's not very long, but I should get two out of it, one phone-stand length (around 3½") and one more tablet-stand sized (about 5½").

I will cut a slot along, near one edge, and then flip it over and cut a second slot, a little deeper and wider, along the other edge. So you have two size of slot to pick from, by just deciding which way up you put it. It is about 4" wide which will become front-to-back) and about ¹³/¹⁶“ thick. The width is a little more than your usual phone stand, because it will accommodate tablets without them falling over backwards. 

I've got to cut the two slots, trim down to two separate pieces, and do some sanding before finishing with beeswax & oil.

Mean time, here is a question for you: What is the most useful size for a trivet? Probably two sizes, one for plates and smaller dishes, and one for larger dishes as well as pots & pans in the kitchen.

I'm thinking 6½-7" for plates and smaller dishes and 9" for larger dishes and in-kitchen use.  But I'm no trivet expert.

[Netfoot]

I measured my "good" boards and found they were two slightly different widths so I separated them and treated them separately, but in the same way.

First, I used my Wixey to set the blade over to exactly 75° from the table top, which I zeroed the Wixey on to begin with.

Next, I set up a featherboard (yellow) to help keep the boards against the fence.

Adjusting the fence for each board, I took a hair-thin slice off the edge, giving me 15° bevels on one side.

Two 15° bevels together will give a 30° angle when the boards are joined, and 12 joints of 30° will give 360° or one complete planter.

 

That was one side of the board. Flip the boards around, move the fence in by a literal hair, and both sides are beveled, giving trapezoidal boards. 

I did the two different widths of board, and then I went after the boards with wain on one edge. By cutting away the wain with the bevel, I was able to come up with another set of boards of yet another width.

Different width boards give a different diameter planter at the end, but variation is the spice of life.

Or so they tell me, but personally, I think curry is the spice of life, and so I'm contemplating something with curry for lunch.

[Netfoot]

Just in passing, I've started taking this little fellow into the garage with me, and driving him with my phone. 

He is small, but for his size he sounds great! He will run 2½ to 3 hours on a single charge, and will charge up over lunch to give another 2½ to 3 hours in the afternoon.

He's quite loud, too. Especially if you stand him on something that will function as a sounding box. He is supposed to be waterproof (but I am not going to dunk him to find out if that's true) and he didn't even cost me much 2 years ago, when I bought him to give audio capability to my Raspberry Pi projects.

No, he is not loud enough to drown out the saws, and certainly not Mr. Noisy. But in between, he is a pleasant addition to my labours. 

One slightly disconcerting thing: when I take a photo, the camera no longer producrs the ca-chink sound of the camera shutter. That sound now comes from over yonder!

[Netfoot]

Ok, I had seven boards, two each with an ugly end. I cut them in half and discarded the two ugly ends. That left me with twelve staves, just enough for one planter.

With three staves lower than the rest, we end up with a planter with three short legs for the planter to stand on. I used masking tape to fit them together so as to get an idea of what it would look like. It's big!

It's about 12¾" across, on the outside, and stands about 9¼" high at the highest point. With a ⅜" thick bottom fitted, the inside height will be around 7½" at the highest point.

Because all the staves are the same length, the tops of those three that form legs are lower at the rim than the others. This is because I didn't have enough length to make the top rim equal, despite having three legs. This would have mandated three staves a bit longer than the rest.

I rounded the corners of the staves a bit and I think I rather like the look of the slight variations in the rim made by the three legs. 

What do you think about the size? It looks pretty big, but it's only slightly wider than a foot, and not 10" tall. 

And what about the uneven rim? It came about for practical reasons, but I sort of like how it looks. Should I do this deliberately on at least some of the other planters?

On another subject, you may have heard me talking about kickback on the table saw. It's a dangerous phenomenon where the blade throws a board back towards the operator. Which is why I never stand directly in the line of fire.

Earlier today I was using a yellow featherboard while adding a bevel to the boards. This is just the removal of a tiny sliver of the edge of the board to leave the bevel. Just as I finished one board, there was a loud bang! I switched off and looked to see what had caused the noise. 

That tiny sliver of wood was thrown back with such force it broke a finger out of the feather board.

You can see the sliver of wood laying across the featherboard. Not very big. And you can see the broken finger as well as the place (far left) where it came from. The finger first in line for the impact. 

The saw is quite capable of picking up something several inches across and several feet long. If that hits you, you can get some serious injuries!

[Browncoat]

23 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

And what about the uneven rim? It came about for practical reasons, but I sort of like how it looks. Should I do this deliberately on at least some of the other planters?

I like the uneven rim.

[andidante]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

I like the uneven rim.

I like it too! I am fascinated buy the whole process!

[Netfoot]

The Age of Aquarius by The 5th Dimension. Wow where did that come from? The 5th Dimension isn't a particular favourite if mi e of mine, but that particular song was big, way back when. I think it was inspired by the music of a stage show back in the sixties.

Ok, I have two piles of staves remaining and from my notes it would seem they are the same thickness and the same width. So I will consider them to be one large pile. Therefore, I have 25 staves between 16½" and 18¼" long. Also two more staves that due to crufty ends are only 15" and 11" long. 

With 25 staves I should be able to build 2x tall 12-sided planters with one stave left over. Or I could cut the staves in half to get 50 at 8¼" and build 4x planters at that height. Or instead of cutting each one into two at 8¼", I could offset the cuts so I got 25x 7½" staves and 25x 9" and create 2x at one height and 2x  Or subtle variations on that idea. I could also make some planters with a reduced diameter by recutting the staves slightly narrower. So lots of options to consider tomorrow. Four near identical or two pairs, or four completely different.

Speaking of the spice of life, I had my curry at lunch. It was like corned beef and cabbage but with onion, carrot and cucumber as well. Dinner was a corned beef stew with onion and the last of the pak choy. I sprinkled some flour in the pan and added evaporated milk, which thickened it up. It was creamy and nice, and I kept adding a little hot water from the kettle to prevent it from over-thickening while I made and boiled a batch of dumplings in a small saucepan. When the dumplings were cooked, I added them to my creamy corned beef & psk choy sauce and gave them a few minutes for the creamy taste to mekd with the dumplings. Ate the lot with a spoon, with some red butter melted in top. 

Several years ago (I think it was January of 2019, do so four years ago), I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease called Myasthenia Gravis. It affects the neuromuscular junction, where the nerves transmit commands from the brain to the muscles. It leads to weakness and loss of control of certain body parts. My first visit to the specialist cost me $13K in tests and each monthly visit thereafter was hundreds of dollars. (The guy is notorious. Unfortunately he is the best.) He put me on a regimen of drugs which not only f*cked me up for the next three years but cost $785 per month. And he recommended surgery to remove my thymus, which cost me $32K. It took three years to wean off those drugs but eventually, I was declared "in remission!"

I think it's back. 

You'd think if I beat it once I could beat it again! Unfortunately I don't have enough money for a single consultation, can't afford any tests, can't  additional medicine and most telling,I don't have another Thymus to take out!

So, thinning bones in spine and neck, causing pain. Difficulty walking without bumping into things and now the MG is back. Well, it's going to be difficult to make things out of wood and sell them to pay for groceries.

Going to go persuade Mo to come cuddle with me. I could use some kisses right now.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

(Sittin' On) The dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding. First posthumous record to chart in history, because three days after recording it, while travelling between engagements in his own Beechcraft, he died when the plane crashed, killing six of the seven people on board. He was in his mid-twenties at the time.

Hurt by Nine Inch Иails. Written by Trent Reznor, this song has been covered by a wide selection of other musicians, most notably perhaps by Johnny Cash. Cash's interpretation was well acclaimed, to the point where Reznor himself praised it highly. I don't particularly like Johnny Cash, but I do have his album that features this song in my collection. In fact, I had The Downward Spiral (Reznor's album) much longer but it wasn't until I heard Cash's interpretation that I really developed an appreciation for this number.

What Do You Want From Life? by The Tubes. Fee Waybill's lyric makes fun of the advertisement-driven TV programming of the mid 70s in this popular number from The Tubes first album. The track ends with a lengthy list of whacky but humorous prizes to be won, such as in a TV game show of the era. "...A solid gold Kama Sutra coffee pot? Or a baby's arm holding an apple?" I saw The Tubes live on stage in the UK when I was a student. The standout numbers in my mind from that occasion were this and White Punks On Dope.

Mosey won't come and cuddle. Maybe if I turn the lights off?

Edited March 29, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Got up and sorted my staves by length and divided them into two batches of the 12 longest and the 12 shortest. Took the length of the shortest in each group and worked out I could take the longest group and cut them into lengths of 9½“ and 7½". Similarly, the shortest group gave lengths of 9" and 7".

The staves were all around 3" wide, so I did some sums and cut the shorter ones to 2½" widths.

With masking tape, I mocked them up to see how they look:

The heights from left to right are 9½", 9", 7½" and 7". The two on the left are at the same diameter of 11" across flats. The other two are 9½" across flats. The smaller ones will fit inside the larger with a bit of clearance. This should make them more easily transported, but isn't a selling point.  The larger of these also fit inside the one I did yesterday, with the three descending legs.

Speaking of legs, I now have to round the corners of the legs on these new planters. I hope they don't suddenly look misproportioned when I do that.

Also got to make bottoms for all five of these and cut retaining slots on the inside of all sixty staves to carry said bottoms.

I will leave you with a photo of the smaller items sitting inside the larger ones. The one from yesterday is also included for comparison. Woodworking apprentice looks on.

[chitowngirl]

12 hours ago, Netfoot said:

The Age of Aquarius by The 5th Dimension. Wow where did that come from? The 5th Dimension isn't a particular favourite if mi e of mine, but that particular song was big, way back when. I think it was inspired by the music of a stage show back in the sixties.

It was in the musical Hair

[Netfoot]

Ok, with the corners rounded on the staves as needed, now to cut the slot for the bottom to fit into. As I have a box-joint blade that cuts a slot exactly ⅜", I milled the stock for the bottom to exactly that size. So I installed the box-joint blade.

The rounded feet will protrude down below the bottom of the rest of the planter by an amount equal to the curve on the corners. This little block of wood is cut to that size 

The slot for the bottom is to be ¼" above the bottom rim. So I spaced the fence from the blade by the size of the block plus a quarter of an inch. 

With the height of the blade set to approximately half the thickness of the staves and using the miter gauge to keep the stave perpendicular to the fence, I pushed the four feet through the blade to create a ⅜" slot.

Then the process was repeated for the remainder of the staves, but using that little block as an extra spacer. This guaranteed that these slots are only a quarter inch up from the bottom.

With all slots cut, I laid some of them side by side and fitted a piece of the stock milled for use constructing bottoms. 

Perfect fit in the slot and you can see three legs at the bottom of the photo and the wavy top above. 

Four more to slot, remembering to check blade height for each batch of staves. Then I must glue up boards to make wider panels from which bottoms can be cut. I hope I have enough boardd, otherwise I will.have to mill more.

Oh, and while the ⅜" blade is in the saw, I will use it to cut slots on those phone stands I was working on as well!

But I will finish this cuppa first. Feeling terrible this morning...

16 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

It was in the musical Hair

Ok! That was big back then, but I never did get to see it in any form. 

[Netfoot]

A pair of phone/tablet stands:

Double sided with two slot sizes. Either one will handle a phone or a tablet but the larger obviously is better suited to the larger device.

These need some light hand sanding followed by being left out in the sun for a few hours to bring up the purpleheart strip. I will probably finish with linseed oil.

I normally orient my devices in landscape,

but these are wide enough to handle even a tablet in portrait mode!

[Spunkygal]

5 hours ago, Netfoot said:

A pair of phone/tablet stands:

Double sided with two slot sizes. Either one will handle a phone or a tablet but the larger obviously is better suited to the larger device.

These need some light hand sanding followed by being left out in the sun for a few hours to bring up the purpleheart strip. I will probably finish with linseed oil.

I normally orient my devices in landscape,

but these are wide enough to handle even a tablet in portrait mode!

Those stands are just lovely and would be good to take to market.

[Netfoot]

Using a beriffle of clamps, I glued up panels wide enough to be used as bottoms for the planters. I used boards milled to exactly ⅜“ do they would fit the slot left by the blade, but see below.

I made up four panels, but I have five planters looking for a bottom.

Unfortunately, I ran out of ⅜“ boards so I could not make the fifth panel. I did find three boards that would probably have worked, but they were a little thinner than ⅜" and I didn't like the idea. Here are two staves positioned with their slots side by side, facing up.

As you can see, on the right, the ⅜" board perfectly fits the slot. Itvsoides it slides in with minimum effort but is not tight. In the left is a narrower board sitting in a slot. There is a clearly visible gap between the right side of that board and the side of the slot.

Because the staves wrap around, the slot becomes a circular and trsps traps the bottom so it can't fall out. Generally, such a bottom would not be glued as a rule. If I used the thinner stock to make that last bottom, it might rattle, although a few drops of glue would solve that! But I've opted to wait until tomorrow and mill up three more boards of the correct thickness. 

Indeed, I might mill them up slightly too thick, and after they have been glued into panels, send the whole panel through Mr. Noisy to get it down to final thickness. It's unfortunate I couldn't finish all the bottoms today because the last panel won't get a chance to cure if I make it tomorrow and use it later the same day but I want the planters glued up tomorrow so I can apply a stain. I don't think these will be ready for Saturday but I'd like them together enough that I could take photos or even carry a nearly finished one as an example and a teaser of things to come.

I have to find a better way to break down pallets. The way I have been using cuts the boards in half and that is often fine for what you want to do, but getting whole boards is often desirable too, and it can be a huge PITA. I should look into getting demolition blades for my recip. saw. Designed to cut wood with nails in it, such a blade should make it much easier to get the boards off in one piece.

It's been hard working with a malfunctioning thumb all day. But I've been slogging on and didn't get finished with the glue-ups for the bottoms until after nine! Now, I'm dead tired.

Listening to Walking Back To Happiness by Bob Geldof. It's from his Vegetarians of Love album. In 1891 after a house fire, I spent six weeks in hospital being treated for burns.

Surgery after surgery for skin grafts, interspersed by agonizing trips in Defense Force Landrovers to their base to suffer even more agony in a hyperbaric chamber for three hours, breathing pure oxygen at five atmospheres to help the grafts "take". My advice: if you ever suffer burns, demand the hyperbaric oxygen. 

Anyway, during the six weeks I was there, someone loaned me a walkman but the only cassette available was Vegetarians of Love. I listened to it about seven trillion times before I got out of that place. You'd think I'd never want to hear it ever again. But in fact I ended up very fond of it.

Anyway, super tired so I will go to sleep. The door is wide open still but I'm not moving from here until Mo comes to bed. That will wake me up and I will lock up then. Wups! He just jumped into bed and laid his head on my pillow.....

Edited March 30, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I screwed up!

I had five planters and four glued up panels, so this morning I started by gluing up one more panel for one of the smallest planters. Then I began cutting dodecagons from the four panels I did have. 

One large planter, two medium sized, and one small. (The last small planter waiting on the latest panel to be ready.) Starting with Large #1, the measurements for the bottom computed with a piece of software that Chat-GPT helped me write. I drew a circle of the appropriate size using a tramel compass, and divided the circle into six 60° segments, using the compass. Then I used the compass again to divide one of the 60° segments in two, and with the compass again, struck another six marks, giving me 12 segments. Cutting out on the bandsaw didn't take long, and a quick touch on my homemade disc sander had it spiffy. Laid out the 12 parts of the planter, put glue in the joints, positioned the bottom in the slot and rrrollled the planter up around the .bottom. 

Holding it together with a couple loops of cord wound tight to let it dry. Large #1 complete, moving on to Medium #1. This is where I screwed up. 

Somehow, I cut the dodecagon a hair too small! Aaaarrrggghhh! Ok, will handle that later. Put the planter staves and the too-small bottom for Medium #1 aside and started work on Medium #2. Which came out just fine. 

 Using the same method again, I completed the glue-up for Small #1 and turned to Small #2. 

I was just about to cut up that last panel for Small #2 when the obvious finally percolated into my head.

I had a bottom for Medium #1 that was a little too small. So I cut it even smaller, and used it for Small #2. Then with the last panel, I carefully cut it to the correct size for Medium #1. And so, I corrected my earlier screw up, and completed all five planters without further issue.

That's when I realized I'd been time-travelling. See, last night as I was shutting down the reactor, I glanced at the clock and distinctly saw Thursday on the calendar. So everything done so far for the day was done on Friday. Then it occurred to me - I have a 4:30 alarm on a Friday morning, and I didn't hear it this morning. (What I did hear was a lot of whineing and feltbx pot felt a lot of scratching that got me out of bed at 5:20 instead.) So I time traveled back from tomorrow and now it's Thursday again, and I have a whole extra day before Saturday!

But I'd already decided not to finish these planters for Brighton. I will sand them and get them completed but I will take them unfinished. They would be ready for paint if anyone wants to paint them, or they could be used exactly as is. I will also stain three spare scraps of wood. I have a darkening stain, a reddish stain, and a greenish stain. I will ask people what they like best. I might sell them as-is for the new owner to paint, or bring them home again to be stained with which ever tint prices proves popular.

So not much more to do today. And a whole day tomorrow to maybe turn something on the lathe?

Edited March 30, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

OMG!

I was shaking up an old bottle of red stain, when the plastic of the old bottle crumbled to pieces. I got red stain all over!

Tried everything. Soap & water, detergent, #2 reducer, WD40, acetone and a metal scouring pad. I draw the line at muriatic acid. Guess I am now a "red man" for real. 

Mean while, found a sleepy puppy snoring on the floor surrounded by dust bunnies and other rubbish:

 

[Netfoot]

The planters are curing overnight. In the morning I will sand to #150 and that will be that. Photos then. I also sanded the phone/tablet stands and finished them with boiled linseed oil. The oil will take 12 to 18 hours to dry hard. 

I had rice for dinner. I was planning to have pasta, but when I went to fill the pot with water, there was no water in the tap! Fortunately, I have a 1 liter bottle of water I keep by my desk, for when I have to swallow a pill. With that, I was able to cook a pot of rice with enough left over to drink over ice with the meal. The rice was fine, but I can barely squeeze anything out of the tap before it dries up. But the longer you leave it before you try again, the more you can get before it runs dry. Giving it some time, I was eventually able to refill my liter bottle, and a glass, which I am drinking now. I just hope this problem goes away quickly! I will need a bath tomorrow night in readiness for Brighton on Saturday. Truly, I need a bath now! 

Listening to Tsunami by Manic Street Preachers. Originally a quartet, one member of the band disappeared in the mid 90s. His car was found parked near the Severn Bridge, a notorious suicide spot, and despite a number of reported "sightings", is presumed to have taken his own life. After more than a decade, he was declared legally dead. The band continued as a trio, but they always set up a 4th microphone for him on stage for each live performance they do.

(The Severn Bridge crosses the Severn estuary, that stretch of water that separates southern Wales from Gloucester. I crossed that bridge on my way south, during my 2017 road trip around Britain. Crossings south are free but a toll is levied on northward crossings.)

Tomorrow, I need to put some gas in the car. I may actually stretch to a liter of milk as well, so I can have tea. Assuming I have water to brew it with, of course. And I want to get some more toffees, etc, to dress up the table a bit. I'd love some artificial flowers to make the planters look nice, but I can't get into that right now. Also want to throw some wood on the lathe and try to get a new bowl or two to go with on Saturday. 

Mozie just jumped into bed and gave me a binch bunch of big, wet smooches. So I think I will lock up, and try to get through a paragraph of this book I was reading on my Kindle app before bed

Edited March 31, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Ok, now that I have daylight, here are a couple photos of the planters.

Later on this morning, I will sand the outsides of these, particularly the vertices of the staves. These can feel a bit sharp to the touch.

This second photo shows a glimpse of the bottom of the planters, which consists of a single panel, ⅜" thick, captive in a slot.

As noted previously, they will "stack", making them easier for me to transport. I only have one large planter because I only had 6 boards of that width. Dividing them in two gave enough pieces (12) for a planter, but only the one.

I wonder if I can come up with a design that would let one stand or hang on the rim of another?

And here are the phone/tablet stands, hoping for the purpleheart to pick up a few rays. Got to remember to flip them over mid morning. And gotta hope there is no rain!

[andidante]

17 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Ok, now that I have daylight, here are a couple photos of the planters.

Later on this morning, I will sand the outsides of these, particularly the vertices of the staves. These can feel a bit sharp to the touch.

This second photo shows a glimpse of the bottom of the planters, which consists of a single panel, ⅜" thick, captive in a slot.

As noted previously, they will "stack", making them easier for me to transport. I only have one large planter because I only had 6 boards of that width. Dividing them in two gave enough pieces (12) for a planter, but only the one.

I wonder if I can come up with a design that would let one stand or hang on the rim of another?

And here are the phone/tablet stands, hoping for the purpleheart to pick up a few rays. Got to remember to flip them over mid morning. And gotta hope there is no rain!

Love all of these! And the stackable feature is really cool.

[Netfoot]

1 minute ago, andidante said:

And the stackable feature is really cool.

Well, it's convenient for me from a transport PoV but I don't know that that will mean much to someone who buys three. They will fill them with foliage and they won't be stackable any more. But the variations in diameter and height should allow them to be arranged so as to present an attractive tableau.

I am thinking about a sort of three-tiered plant stand made from water pipe. The pipe itself might be expensive, so I have to think twice about getting into that. Later, I will post more on my ruminations in this direction.

[luv2lurk]

OK this board is wonky - it just told me a message I sent weeks ago has been restored - might explain why @Netfoot did not reply.

Anyway what I wanted to say is since you have a free day - make many phone/tablet stands - sounds like they are easy for you and I think will sell well.

[Netfoot]

Sitting inside, drinking a cup of black tea (yuk!). Really, it's just an excuse not to be outside working. I am not feeling well, plus I'm just not in the mood. 

Still, I am hoping to complete two tamarind bowls, one of which has been shaped externally and is in the process of sanding. It has an unusual "wrinkle" in the outside which is due to a strange twist in the original bark (now removed).

That wrinkle might become a hole when I get around to hollowing. I have another bowl with a similar hole that many people have cooed over, but nobody has bought. I might be making another of those!

You can also see the second piece with faceplate attached, sitting on the ways of the lathe. This chunk of tamarind is larger than the first, but that does not mean that the completed bowl will be bigger. I probably will be, but who knows?

2 hours ago, luv2lurk said:

...make many phone/tablet stands - sounds like they are easy for you and I think will sell well.

I have scrolled back eight weeks and can't find any post from you that mentions phone or tablet stands. Yes, this board is wonky indeed. 

I do intend to make more if these sell. I posted a picture on our club group and one guy replied immediately, asking about prices. I priced them at $25 & $35 respectively. (If that sounds expen$ive, remember those are Bajan Dollarettes, worth only 50¢ of your money.) Kevhas He has not got back to me but that's because he has not read my reply on WhatsApp yet. Still remains to be seen if he is interested.

They are reasonably easy to make, but adding an interesting accent stripe or two (like the purpleheart) can increase the cost. More to the point, I can make planters and sell them under the guise of "Modern Rustic" or "Rustic Chic" which allows me to use wood that has character.

Like knot holes and other blemishes. In fact, I'm wondering if I should deliberately blemish them or not. (My mom deliberately blemished a piece of timber in the house she was building. The carpenter cried!)

A phone stand which is in your hand or in front of your face a lot should probably have a better finish, with no knots, stains or weird grain marks. But yes, if I can get these sold, I will make more. Using scrap lumber for the most part means it cost me little or nothing to make them, so if nobody buys them I am not out of pocket at all. And if someone buys in 6 months time, that money can buy milk for my tea in six months time just as easily as next week.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

One bowl completed, at least.

And here is the piece of bark that gave rise to the dimple in the side.

That dimple has forced me to leave the bowl rather thick in the base. Otherwise I would have broken out into a hole. The alternative would have been to hollow it out into almost a cone shape or funnel shape on the inside and I decided not to go there.

Having some lunch now, and watching some TV (Rewatching Reacher with Alan Ritchson). Will go sand planters after that and then maybe even turn another bowl. 

Water seems to be back on, even if the water pressure is a bit low. But it will be fine for a thorough scrub tonight. Just in case it goes off again, I am catching 25L of water in a plastic container. Maybe more than one!

Edited March 31, 2023 by Netfoot