Treebeau

2011 New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-11T14:41:00.002-05:00

This year I want to:

Finish more projects than I start (especially the dresser project that was started years ago and is close to done)
Do more cooking and baking.
Have a deck built (or at least the part out my bedroom door).
Continue to de-clutter and make my house more organized.
Go camping once or twice.
Go kayaking once or twice.
Go skiing once or twice.

Any other suggestions?

Totally Random, and Connections

2011-07-05T08:56:00.003-04:00

Sometimes a totally random thought comes to me and I want to explore it. Today, while I was stripping finish off a table leaf a scene from "National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation" was in my head. The scene was in a casino. The Griswold's had lost all their money and were lamenting on what to do. Then, Sid Caesar won the big prize in Keno and had a heart attack. he gave the ticket to the Griswolds.

Then, as I was preparing my coffee and washing dishes, a different scene came to me. This was from the original "Vacation" movie where the Griswold's were travelling to Wally World by car. They are out in a very rural area having lunch with Mrs. Griswold's cousin and that family. Out walks Imogene Coca and surprises Mr. Griswold by saying "You're driving me to Phoenix!!" On the way, she dies (and so does her nasty little dog).

The connection. Both Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca die in those movies. Both were tremendous comedians. Both were regulars on a 1950's TV show called "Your Show of Shows." I was too young to have seen that show when it first aired, but have seen a clip here and there throughout my life.

But WHY did my mind decide to make that connection today?

By the way, I used to love a PBS show called "Connections" with a host named James Burke. In that show, Burke would pick up little bits and pieces of information and show how one thing led to a completely different thing over time. For example, he might demonstrate how Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo led to the discovery of Super Glue. Two things seemingly random, yet if you look deep enough you can find a connection.

The last day at Aon...there's always something!

2011-04-29T20:28:00.004-04:00

Today was my last day working for Aon. It was not very eventful at the office, but outside the office a lot happened.

1. I wanted to drive the Jeep because it was supposed to be a beautiful day. The Jeep had just been repaired (fuel pump and hoses) and was at the mechanic ready to be picked up. To get there (just 2 miles, mostly downhill) I took a bike. But it was colder outside than I planned for. Oh well, only 2 miles and too tough to pedal uphill to get home and dress warmer. I arrived shivering. The Jeep started up great, drove home, changed, and went to the office.

2. The new PC was supposed to be delivered (for my job starting Monday) sometime today by FedEx. Got home at 2pm and there was a note on the door saying I could pick it up at the office. Why can't the deliveryman be late, like he would have been had I been home waiting? Had a late lunch and got there about 3. The lady said "the truck doesn't get back until 7. We close at 8. If you want, you can pick it up tomorrow". OK, wasted trip, but it was a nice Jeep drive on a beautiful day.

3. Cleaned the birdbath and made some hummingbird food. Went to pick up my son (using the Jeep) and turned it off while waiting. 10 minutes later, with him in the car, it wouldn't start. I just picked it up from the mechanic TODAY! It already has a new coil, new starter, new battery, new battery cables, new fuel pump, new distributor, and new fuel line hoses. Turning the key causes the "battery gauge" to drop, so it all seems right. Decided to go into the Italian restaurant there and have dinner and let things under the hood cool down.

4. After dinner, it still wouldn't start. Still enough daylight, I called my mechanically inclined neighbor. He came with a couple of tools. He seemed to be focused on the solenoid, which is between the battery and the starter. He said "it seems intermittent, but also registers ok...let me try something." He takes wires off and scrapes the bolts and terminals a little. They didn't seem corroded to me, nor did it seem like he made any difference. He put them back on and the Jeep fired right up... Amazing! On Sunday I will do a more thorough cleaning of those connections and put dielectric grease on it all to retard corrosion.

5. Got home and decided my mailbox was just too beat up. I have had a new replacement in the garage ready to go for YEARS. Still plenty of daylight. I take off the old, put on the new, then go to put on the clasps and flag. Not enough screws, and not enough nuts. There should be a longer screw to go through the flag. Who packaged this hardware??? I look at the hardware package and stamped on it are the words "Packaged by the blind". If I don't put the flag on, there are enough screws, but still 1 nut shy. Luckily I am a handyman. I have plenty of spare parts in my shed. Found the exact nut needed and put the clamps on. Won't need the flag for awhile. Actually, I don't like the new flag. I want to use the old flag, but it attaches differently. So on Sunday I will trace the holes of the old box, drill matching holes on the new box, and mount the old flag on the new box.

There's always SOMETHING...isn't there? It's going to be nice working from home and have the ability to do little tasks either during lunchtime or immediately after work...no commute to eat up daylight.

Need RTV

2011-03-01T10:46:00.003-05:00

As we were growing up, my dad often referred to using RTV. Look it up and you will see that it stands for "Room Temperature Vulcanizing" rubber. It's a sticky product that is squirted out of a tube, then cures to a rubbery consistency. Amazing how many things my dad felt could be fixed by applying some RTV (fixing holes in sneakers using "Shoe-Goo" was just one use my dad had for RTV).

Well, it has been years since I even thought about RTV. Then all of a sudden I have a need for it. I like my simple bluetooth earpiece (Motorola H3). It came with the older phone I bought and since replaced. Nothing is wrong with the bluetooth electronics, but a molder rubber piece has torn over the years and is starting to fall off. I set it on the shelf for a long time because using it was a little ear-ritating!

And all of a sudden it hit me...I need RTV !! A judicious squirt here and there and I can stick that piece back on. Another squirt or two and some forming with a popsicle stick will make that piece good as new. It may not actually look like it came from the factory but it will work perfectly. And all for a little over a dollar.

Good old RTV !

I'm 50! And I can Kick and Streeeeeeetch, and KICK!

2010-07-14T18:32:00.005-04:00

Birthday card from my brother Duane. I passed the quiz.

This is for all you guys out there.
Scroll down after you have a nice look.

Moving forward, cautiously.

2010-03-15T11:32:00.001-04:00

I got a phone call, based on my last post, wondering if I was depressed and suicidal. Absolutely not! I just had a lot going through my mind that day and wanted to write. Sometimes that is therapeutic.

So, now I have more on my mind and will do the same…don’t worry, I’m just fine.

A few years ago I was dating a woman who started off our relationship with “Isn’t it amazing how much we have in common?” A few months after that, we stood in the exact same spot in her kitchen and she said she wanted to break up because we don’t have much in common. OK, no big deal, so I left. Less than 2 weeks later, she was calling me saying “I think I really made a big mistake in breaking up, and can we get back together?” Well, for me, that ship had sailed. Why could she not have taken the 2 weeks to reflect before making that decision to break up? It just seemed wishy-washy to me and I didn’t want to be in a potential “on again, off again” relationship.

She believed herself to be a very positive person. After a few months of observation, I got the feeling she was kidding herself into believing she was positive, but in fact was just denying reality. Just a casual glance around her house revealed books lying around by Deepak Chopra, and Eckhart Tolle. Why would a positive person need to have books like this lying at every turn? I believe that they were crutches to help her convince herself that she was a positive person, whenever she was feeling not so positive.

Reality is what it is. Sometimes we are up, sometimes we are down. Sometimes things go right and sometimes they go wrong. I do not see myself as positive, nor negative…just accepting of the fact that there is this duality.

One thing this woman said struck me as very interesting. We were talking one day about why my ex left me. She said to me “Tim, you need to look at this in a positive way. (gee, go figure) She knew what she was like (liar and cheater) and that it did not fit with your personality. She loved you SO much that, subconsciously, she gave you your freedom from living with someone like her.”

I like that. It must be unconscious. My ex (wife or recent girlfriend) seem to just hate me. I have heard before that there is a very fine line between love and hate. That person who you once loved, for so many reasons, all of a sudden is someone you hate. But why? I know for a fact that they were treated well.

Observe this text from one of the earliest emails I got from the ex-gf.

“…I am amazed by you. Your passion for life, happiness, music, opera, JP, hobbies, future plans, and me is so unusual and refreshing. You are so different than anything else I’ve experienced and you were right under my nose. Amazing????????? Awesome???????? I am loving every second that we are together and think of you every second that we are apart.

Relax your mind and know that I am a CONSTANT in your life. I don’t want to be overbearing, but I do love our time together. ….”

How interesting that only a handful of months later, everything about me drove her crazy (like that my joints crack, or that I don’t put food in the garbage can, or that I don’t want to be in crowds and have my wallet stolen). And that “constant” that she SAID she was became a “variable” pretty quickly.

So she has moved on…after just a few weeks I knew she was already in the next relationship, and is likely telling the new guy that he is amazing, passionate, etc. I have my doubts that it will last, though, because she is someone who needs rescuing.

I learned something about myself recently…that I seem to be drawn to people and things that need rescuing. I much prefer to build or restore furniture than buy, for example. My ex (wife and GF) both had childhoods that they deemed unhappy, due to their relationships with their parents. I felt for them and stepped in as the good guy that they needed. But, inevitably it was shown that their troubled pasts could not be forgotten, and for all the love and attention I gave, it appeared to never be enough. All of MY flaws became major issues, and on they went to the next rescuer.

So now I am taking my time in order to try to not become attached to yet another woman who needs rescuing. To that end I just had a wonderful second date. Let me describe.

I met “K” through one of the online services. She lives in Greensboro and our first date was lunch a couple of weeks ago. She is very much into the performing arts and loves opera, but she never had any friends who would make consistent plans with her. I didn’t have a date for “Carmen” so asked her if she would like to see it. She had to check her calendar and let me know, but she got back saying she was available and would love to see it.

That second date was yesterday. We met at the parking lot next door to [removed] and drove down to Charlotte for the show. She had never been to one of the pre-show lectures (which I enjoy) and I assured her that the speaker was wonderful. Well, just a few words into the lecture and she leaned over and said “She’s so sassy…I love it!” and was smiling the whole time.

The opera was gorgeous. I had never SEEN Carmen, but was so familiar with the music. It had everything…love, lust, desire, anger, violence, insanity, and murder. It had strong vocals and some absolutely beautiful dancing! There is a scene where a song and dance is done by “cigarette girls”…they work in a cigarette factory. All of them wore dresses that flowed so beautifully and invoked imagery of cigarette smoke. Even the lyrics were about smoke. That’s choreography!

“K” LOVED the show, as did I. Afterward we walked a little and found an Italian restaurant that was not just your average pasta and sauce place. She had a seafood risotto and I had chicken marsala. We shared a portion with each other and had a bottle of Malbec. The conversation (and my date) couldn’t have been lovelier. On the drive back we talked about so many things and seem to be at a close/similar place in our lives, though not exactly the same place.

We talked of former relationships, books, authors, musicals, operas, and so much more. We don’t agree on everything, but the respect for different opinions was evident. I told her that I do not want to rush or push for a relationship and she thanked me for that. It is important for me to make sure that I do not play the savior role in another relationship, and that I have someone that is confident about herself…her looks, and her ability to take care of herself. She seems to have that confidence (and I told her so). She told me about former husband and some former relationships, and her desire to find a man who was mature enough to turn off the sports and communicate for a change. She doesn’t need someone who is 100% compatible, but compatible with a willingness to compromise with each other.

She’s a good looking woman and looked fantastic dressed up for the opera. We parted with a hug and kiss on the cheek. She is on the downside of a cold and it was evident that she was congested, sneezing, etc. Neither of us wanted ME to get sick.

Sound nice? It was!
Looking forward to next time. One thing that is clear is that NEITHER one of us is jumping into the next relationship. To do so would just be needy/codependent.

Lies!

2010-02-16T17:10:00.002-05:00

I would like to live in a world where the women I date are honest.

I was married for almost 13 years. Before that I was in a long term relationship for about 4 years, and after that in and out of short term relationships, culminating in a recent relationship of almost a year.

What I discovered through these relationships is that the women are rarely honest. Lies were told to my face, thinking that I either would never find out the truth, or in some cases not knowing that I already knew the truth. I always gave my significant other the benefit of the doubt, and plenty of chances to be honest, or even change her tune. Other “things” were not discussed, or hidden (lies of omission). I am not naïve or stupid, and I have my resources. A liar is only kidding herself.

I never used to be suspicious, until I found out that my wife was cheating. She of course denied it, then during separation continued to deny being involved with the other man (“Ewwww, No!!!” she said). Then, less than 60 days after our divorce was final, she married him. She could lie right to one’s face and seem totally innocent, thus being the gold standard of lying. She set the bar.

In a more recent relationship, when things started to appear dishonest, my guard went up. I became suspicious and found definite evidence to support my suspicions. She didn’t even come close to the gold standard. I gave plenty of chances for her to come clean, and she didn’t. Finally, SHE broke things off with the statement “My therapist says I should not be in a relationship with ANYONE.” Then, about 6 weeks after, she entered into another relationship… with the very next guy that came along. I am reasonably sure that she met him afterward. But doesn’t that seem bizarre, and even cowardly? Why lie? Why base a lie on someone else’s opinion, that she felt I could not follow up on? Why not say “I’m sorry, I want to break up. We’re too different and I can’t handle all the differences.” Did she think that I was never going to become wise to the deception?

What is wrong with these people? Why the dishonesty? Is it to save my feelings? Well, I have news for people like that. Not only do the lies eventually get revealed, but they hurt twice. First for the situation that is being lied about, and second, for having trusted someone who turns out to be a liar.

A person who enters into a relationship with ME is going to get the truth. I would much rather be open in communication and work through situations honestly, even if it involves breaking up, than to have someone lie to me. If I hurt feelings, at least it will be done with honesty.

I don’t know if “she” still reads my blog, but I hope she does and sees this. To be fair, no names were used, but she should know who she is (particularly when it comes to the comment about the therapist's opinion). If anyone adds comments, please be fair and do not address a person in particular. I hope it leads her to a new path of honest communication. It's time to grow up. Lies are childish and she is now an adult.

To her: I already knew (about him) when I made the vague reference about you being involved with the new guy. I was giving you an opportunity to be honest and you did not take it. You even said “Since I have nothing to hide…” and then lied. I couldn’t believe it, yet, there it was! You will never have a lasting relationship if this is how you conduct your life. Unfortunately, I will never have a lasting relationship either, because my world seems to be full of women just like you.

I would love to live in a different world.

Bushed from de-bushing.

2009-12-18T08:49:00.002-05:00

If you've been following along here or on my FaceBook page, you know I'm restoring a piano. Right now, just about every task is repeated 88 times, but there are some things, like repairing 2 broken keys, that aren't...and those are nice diversions.

Currently I am "de-bushing" all the keys. Under the front of each key is a hole that sits on a pin when installed in the keyboard "tray". The hole is oblong and the pin is round. The oblong hole allows for a pivoting motion when the key is played. Inside the oblong hole, glued to the "long" sides is some thin red felt, and it is called a "bushing". I suppose the felt keeps the key press silent (no wood on metal rubbing. Anyway, a lot of that bushing felt was deteriorated, so I am removing it.

I can do about 10 keys in a half hour. I clamped a heat gun to my work table and set it on low heat. Then I wave a bushed hole over the heat, about 5 inches away to keep from scorching the wood. This softens the glue. It takes about 15-20 seconds for the glue to soften just right. Then I use a dental tool to pull the felt out. When it cools a little I scrape off most of the glue residue. That's a couple of minutes.

So far 70 keys have been debushed. Replacement bushing felt will be ordered soon. A roll of it that is enough for all 88 keys is something like 4 bucks. Aluminum wedges, used to insert the new bushing material and hold it in place till the glue dries, cost about 10 bucks. The rest is just time. Not difficult at all and it should make for a quality restoration.

Ou sont les serviettes de table?

2009-12-11T09:26:00.001-05:00

Bonjour!
OK, enough of that.

Is it the same for you? Whenever I go to McDonalds they do not just give me napkins anymore. I’m pretty sure that some accountant did some number crunching and decided that a lot of money was just thrown away by either giving away too many napkins, or people taking more than they need. So I imagine that employees have been told “Only give napkins if the customer specifically asks for them.”

One problem could be those people who take extra napkins just to have in the car or the office. Guilty! However, I don’t throw them away unused. And now, when I am not just given napkins I want to take even more for “just in case.” Did the accountants think about that?

88: 12/07/2009

2009-12-07T09:57:00.002-05:00

Late last week I used my air compressor to blow much of the dust off the keys.

Yesterday I used "Simple Green" to clean all the black keys, then started to scrape remaining glue residue off the white keys, where I had removed the ivory a few years ago.

In order to glue on the pretty new white plastic keytops, I need to clean the sides of the keys first. I started scraping, but felt that was going to take off too much wood, so I will go back to what I did on about 10 of them before...scrub with bleach. Those that I bleached look really nice. Once I decided that course of action, I felt it was time to stop for the evening. Tonight I will do the bleaching on several more keys and and probably finish the residue scraping. Once the bleached keys dry I can do the final wood prep and glue on the new plastic.

Pics next time.

88

2009-12-03T15:20:00.001-05:00

...times who knows what.

Several years ago I was given a piano. It is a full upright with beautiful mahogany veneer. The finish is messed up, likely due to being stored in basements. I did some research back then and found that it was built in 1910. My plan was to renovate it as well as I could. Well, that was put on hold due to lots of reasons, but my idea was always to have it COMPLETE in 2010 and to rechristen it for a 100 year piano party.

It’s now time to get busy again if I want to meet that goal. A lot of the work on the keys and hammers can be done in the basement next to the fireplace. I already had 87 of the hammers working and only 2 of the keys need repair. BUT there is a lot of cosmetic work…cleaning, replacing keytops, and replacing felt everywhere. If I can get all that done over the winter, then I can do the cabinet work (stripping, refinishing, fixing broken veneer) in the spring and summer. Would be nice if I got it all done and tuned for a summer or fall party, don’t you think?

So, last night I set up a worktable in the basement and brought in the keys and hammers. They have gotten really dusty from sitting around and I think some mice chewed up some of the felt. I have to fix 2 broken keys, and a variety of simpler cosmetic wood repairs, and install new white plastic on the white keys (and only clean the blacks).

In case you don’t know about a piano, it basically consists of 88 copies of 1 working mechanism. That mechanism transfers a key press to a hammer stroke against a wire. There are MANY MANY pieces in just 1 mechanism. That is why I put “88 times who knows what”. You never know what might need fixing or adjusting.

Will take and post pics as I go. Of particular interest should be the wood repairs.
Stay "tuned".

Milestone reached, Christmas 2009

2009-11-18T09:18:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I completed all of the “B” parts for the Christmas gifts, 30 in all. So far there are 22 “A” parts done, so only 8 to go. One of those is ready for the lathe, and for the others I need to mill up the wood and glue into blocks. All should be done some time next week. Still needing pennies. If you have corks and 2009 pennies for me, how about dropping them in the mail for me. I know Mom has 7 pennies and Duane and Cheryl usually have a decent supply of corks.

There are still a few other things to make, as well, before I close up shop for the cold winter. I think I will be doing work on the piano keys and hammers during the cold months.

To Everything (turn turn turn)...

2009-11-11T09:03:00.002-05:00

In previous posts (July and October) I mentioned the “things" I am making for Christmas.

To read those posts:
Click Here

and Here.

At first I wanted to make 20 complete “things” which was 40 turnings. Then it was up to 25 (50 turnings). Now the estimate is up to 30 (60 turnings). I gave myself a break from the lathe for a few weeks but am back at it. So far, I’ve completed 23 part A’s and 20 part B’s, which means only 17 more parts to go. The B’s are simpler…I turned out 4 of them yesterday alone. If I keep at it, I should have it all done in time for Christmas.

Stay turned…I mean tuned.

How many will I need?

2009-10-26T10:23:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

As most of you know, I have been making the things I give out for Christmas for a few years. Sometimes these have been “1 per family” and sometimes “1 per person”. Last year was oval boxes which were 1 per person. This year I would also like to do a 1 per person, but would like to get a count of everyone who will be present at the Christmas gathering.

Send me an email on behalf of yourself and your family members so that I can get an accurate count.

Everything I am making this year will be similar, but each will be unique. My plan is for everything to be “laid out” and each person just picks whichever appeals to them the most (like we did with the pens a few years ago). I may find myself in a situation where I don’t have enough ready, so if you happen to get an “IOU”, don’t take it personally. Sean, Ryan, and Danny got IOUs a couple of years ago and I eventually made good on them. (Did you guys like the clipboards? Were or are they useful?)

I’m making a guess that I will need 25 or more “things” for this Christmas. I’ve finished 7 of them, and am almost done with another 7. As you may know, I sometimes like to include a penny with the current year and it has been a big challenge in collecting 2009 pennies. If I had about 20 more 2009 pennies I could knock these out much quicker. If you’ve been saving corks for me, why not send them, and if you have some 2009 pennies, drop those in the package as well? 2009 pennies are easy to distinguish because they are very shiny and do NOT have the Lincoln Memorial on the back.

Poison Ivory…remember?

2009-10-19T14:39:00.005-04:00

If you have followed my blog for a long time you may remember “poison ivory”…that’s Poison Ivy to you and me, but pronounced by my less than literate neighbor.
Click here
and here.

I had this dead tree in the backyard that was FULL of foliage...all of which was poison ivy. I went out and cut through the vine, which was about as big around at the base as an elephant’s leg. The ivy all died back and I was pleased, although I had to continue to be careful around it, as there were several tendrils hanging that could still come in contact with me. The chemical inside stays active a LONG time as I understand, so dead poison ivy is still to be avoided.

Recently that tree fell down. It’s root structure was consumed enough to allow a wind and soggy ground to topple it. It fell mostly on my backyard, but the top was a little into the neighbor’s. I wanted to get it removed because I did not want to come into contact with any of it.

So I contacted a tree service. They came and looked and pronounced that it would be $585 to remove it and dump it in the woods next door. Yikes! This job would take me about an hour if it weren’t for the ivy. I declined. Then I went to the “sand and stone” seller about 2 miles from the house and explained what was there. The guy said “I can come out tonight with my bulldozer and push it into the woods for $30. Fantastic...and SOLD !

I assumed that I would have to get home before him and cut the trunk into about 3 pieces, but by the time I got home he was done and leaving! There is a little bit of cleanup left to do, but should not be bad at all with rakes and a tarp. I gave him $50 and thumbed my nose at the professional tree service people. He did a nice enough job and stayed off the area of yard that has septic lines. The pushing made a line/trail of red dirt, but that will disappear next spring. Couldn't be more pleased, and I didn't get a rash.

Just something to keep in mind, should you ever have a similar circumstance...don’t settle for the first price.

CDs and MP3s

2009-10-08T10:14:00.001-04:00

When CDs were first being developed, it was a design requirement that they be able to play at least 72 minutes of music. Why? Because some big-wig knew that Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was that long and he desired to hear it uninterrupted...not having to flip over a cassette or record album.

There was no MP3 compression format at the time. One could not “burn” one’s own CDs.

Today, I put a CD into my computer here at work. It contains ALL NINE Beethoven symphonies. I “ripped” them from the originals that I purchased many years ago, and “burned” them in MP3 format to the single CD.

Later I may add up the total play time of all 9, but don’t have the stats right now. But I looked at the CD using “My Computer” and “Properties”. The disc is not even HALF full. Close...335MB used, 345MB free. This CD will last for several HOURS of music at work without needing to change the CD.

The guy in the office next to me listens to an iPod every day. I know that they can store a TON of music, however, once filled up you’re stuck. What if you want to hear something that isn’t in your iPod memory? You need to make room by getting rid of something else.

I love classical music and have gotten spoiled by the CD. I rarely play them anymore because they run out too quickly (not all are 72 minutes) and I need to go change CDs. Yes, I know they make CD changers that hold many CDs, but I am somewhat of a cheapskate.

What I need to do is start making my own compilation CDs, in MP3 format, of favorite music so that I can listen for many hours without needing to change out a CD. Rip and Burn on my newly upgraded home PC will be speedy. In fact, I can use the PC to play the CDs, my office laptop PC can play them, and the car can play them. No need to buy anything! More to come.

"Hansel and Gretel" was so-so

2009-10-07T10:35:00.002-04:00

Well, I went to see “Hansel and Gretel” last night. It was enjoyable, but I will not be in a hurry to see it again, so I rank it a “so-so”. I agree with Mr. Peter Perret, who reviewed it at this link but he says it much more eloquently.

An almost perfect weekend.

2009-10-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

Last Friday was taken as a vacation day. The plan was to go spend the 3 day weekend in Raleigh, taking in an opera on Friday night and seeing the local sites for the remainder of the weekend. It was almost perfect. The only thing wrong was that I booked a room at a Motel 6, sight unseen, and it was in a part of town that was a little seedy. It was along a highway, so there was road noise. There were some less than desirable folks staying there. And for some reason the air conditioner went through phases of working and not working. If and when there is another opportunity, I will choose a Red Roof Inn nearby but looking to be in a slightly nicer area.

It takes about 2 hours to drive from my house to Raleigh. We got there a little after noon, checked in, and went out to tour around. We walked around the Governor’s Mansion (beautiful and wonderful gardens) and then went to an administration building for a little bit. Susan once lived and worked in Raleigh, nearly 20 years ago, and thought she may still know some people that worked there. However, she found that everyone that she knew had retired.

We then went to an area that is across from a park. It had shops and small restaurants. I forget the name of the area, but it is very close to a bus station, a Children’s museum, and an IMAX theater. We found an Irish pub that had been recommended called “Tir Na No’g”, and had sandwiches and beer. It was very good, although my beer was a little more hoppy than I like…still, it was just fine.

We drove back to the Taj Mahal, I mean Motel 6, cleaned up and changed, and went to the opera, “Rigoletto”. The performance was nice, however, we were sitting a little too far away from the stage. I was not familiar with that theater when I bought tickets…next time I will try to get closer, or even just get a couple pairs of opera glasses. I have seen Rigoletto before and enjoy it very much. Before the show the conductor came onstage and apologized ahead of time for a sinus problem with the female lead of “Gilda”. However, I couldn’t find anything wrong with her…she sounded great.

After the show we drove back to the area of the Motel and found a great place to eat called “Jack Astor’s”. Our waiter told us it was a Canadian chain and that there are only 2 in the states…Cary NC being one of them. The other in Buffalo NY ?? Anyway, it was fun. Like a sports bar with good food, and a flair for fun decorating. They had an Elvis shrine corner table. I will post pictures later.

On Saturday we toured. Lots of time spent at the Natural History museum. We saw a show about Tornados and a live demonstration on Tropical areas, given by a fabulous speaker. Lots of geological history info and displays pertaining to NC. Across the way was the NC History Museum. Both of these were free, by the way, and reminded me of the Smithsonian. We didn’t get to spend as much time in the second one but may go back some day and do that and more.

Breakfast that day was at a Bob Evans restaurant (my first time ever). Dinner was at a mall with “Crabtree” in the name, and we ate at a “Cheesecake Factory” restaurant. WOW, what great food and nice service. The place was crowded, attesting to how good it is.

On Sunday, after checking out, we had a lighter breakfast at Bob Evans, and then we drove to a food store Susan wanted to see, called “Trader Joe’s”. She had been before and said that they are more well known in California. Nice place. Good fresh food. Then we went to Chapel Hill to walk around the campus of UNC. By the way, every day was just beautiful. Sunny but nice temperatures…no rain even though it was forecast. The campus is very nice and I found out later that it was “parent’s weekend.” And yes, I did see a lot of people who would be parents, but didn’t think anything of it at the time. There was also a street fair going on with many arts and crafts tents up and down the road.

We ate dinner at the "Mellow Mushroom" in Greensboro. The MM had closed down from a different place, and reopened in their present location. Very nicely decorated inside. The pizzas were wonderful.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and Monday came just a little too quickly. However, I got a decent night’s sleep at home after 2 not so good nights at the Motel 6.

I will have JP for the next 2 weekends, and after that perhaps we may go…..CAMPING! (which would be my first time ever) Stay tuned!

Rainy Days and Mondays

2009-09-28T12:30:00.004-04:00

It was a good weekend, despite the rain. On Friday Susan and I drove up to Roanoke Va. We had a few things on the list for Saturday. However, the weather was not very cooperative. It rained Friday night, all day Saturday, and all night.

We did quite a bit of walking and looking into small shops downtown. We went to see the “O. Winston Link” exhibit at what used to be the major train station. “OWL” was an innovative photographer and was commissioned by the Norfolk and Western railroad to photograph it’s trains and lines at the end of the steam era. Over the course of 5 years he took a ton of photographs. They are tastefully displayed in the “museum”. There were a few that really stood out, but one that struck me as really cool was a picture of people in their cars at a drive-in theater, an airplane on the movie screen, and a train screaming past on the tracks right next to the theater. The picture can be seen at this link:
o-winston-link-hot-shot-eastbound

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We visited “The Hotel”. A gorgeous hotel that you just have to see to believe. We sat on rocking chairs out front and watched the rain.

We later had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called “Red Clay”. This restaurant was 2 or 3 doors down from the theater where we took in a play called “Elvis Blossom.” The story was about a woman, who apparently had some mental illness, and her fascination with Elvis. She believed that her child (conceived 10 years after Elvis’ death, by one of many unknown Elvis impersonators) was the child of Elvis. The story was told in flash backs and forwards. It was enjoyable, but I really thought there was going to be more humor. In the end it left one hanging as to how she was going to survive, after her child won an International Elvis contest and decided that he wanted to be his own person, not what his mother expected him to be. Also, her husband Jerry, decided to cast off his lifestyle of Elvis impersonator, to be his own person, yet vowed to take care of her (he only continued in the Elvis persona because it was her wish to be surrounded by all things Elvis).

After that we drove back to Winston.
By the way, lodging was scarce in Roanoke because Virginia Tech was hosting University of Miami. That may not have been a very fun game for the spectators because of the rain.

On Sunday, having no local plans, we decided to go to Linville Caverns. That is about a 2.5 hour drive, yet still shy of going to Asheville. It was a beautiful day and the cavern was fun. At one point we were asked to stand still and they turned off the lighting. TOTAL darkness! You could not see your hand in front of your face…really amazing. When I was much younger, my family went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky…now I would LOVE to go back there.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. It is now Monday and I am already looking forward to the NEXT weekend.

PC Upgrade

2009-09-15T09:21:00.001-04:00

So I decided it was time to upgrade my computer. A long time ago this was a straightforward process…way before Windows. Now, Windows really binds itself to your hardware and has all these internal hidden files. The process is tougher today, but supposedly still doable.

I bought a new motherboard, CPU, hard disk, and memory. 2 Gig of Ram as opposed to 512Meg before. The hard disk is twice the storage of the old one. There is a process called “cloning” which allows you to copy all the data from an old drive onto a new one, byte by byte so that the contents are identical, except that the bigger one will have a lot of free storage when done. That software was a download from the manufacturer’s site.

The new hard drive is a “SATA” and the old is “IDE”. My old motherboard does not have connections for SATA, though the new one has connections for both. Unfortunately the cloning needed to be done using the old motherboard. So I bought an adapter that converts SATA or IDE to a USB port. Nice, but slow. The cloning process was kicked off at about 8:30 PM Thursday and finished about 11:30 pm Friday. Yes, you read that right…27 hours I did not have to sit and watch this process.

On the weekend I set to installing the hardware. When all hooked up nothing happened. Double checked and found that I forgot to plug the power cable into the new drive. Did that and the computer still didn’t boot into Windows, though it was close. There was some hardware error. With a few hours of checking, trial and error, I decided to “punt” and install Windows fresh. That required reformatting the drive, wiping out the 27 hours of cloning. At least I still had all my old data on the old drive AND that wonderful adapter that I could hook up when everything was done.

Still had a little trouble but finally got a good install when I disabled the second processor on the CPU chip. I think I can re-enable that now, but it took me awhile to figure it out. In hind sight, that was probably what caused me to punt and reformat.

Oh well, now I have reinstalled and downloaded all the latest and greatest patches and service packs. The machine flies compared to the old. And that is running only on one core. Would like to see it with the second enabled.

My next problem was in getting to my old data. I hooked up the IDE drive to the USB adapter and found that the folders with my data were “locked up”. I had set up a user account on my old system and that protects the files. A little searching and about a half hour of doing a fix and waiting for it to be applied and now I have “taken ownership” of all the files on that drive. Thank you Microsoft Knowledge Base!!!

So, now I can leisurely copy files from the old drive to the new. Everything works and is a joy. The system is faster, quieter, and boots in 1/10th the time.

And to answer the inevitable question from my dad…no, I did not record the amount of time that I took to do this and calculate how much it would have cost due to my time being worth money. This was just hobby work.

Wireless Mouse

2009-09-07T19:17:00.000-04:00

After weeks of working overtime and having my wired mouse get hooked once again on the pull out keyboard drawer, I just got a cordless mouse. It’s nice because the receiver plugs into a USB port and clips into the bottom of the mouse when travelling. I can use it at home and at the office. At home I placed a little 4 port USB hub at the base of the monitor and routed that to the USB connector in back with an extension cable. That is where I plug in the mouse receiver and a Jump drive. At the office there is a convenient USB port on the side of the place where I drop in the laptop PC. The package says that the mouse will work for about 6 months on one AA battery (included).

Already using it at home and it is wonderful. I don’t see the need at this time for a wireless keyboard. I would highly recommend a cordless mouse if anything about your mouse has been bothering you. This one cost $23 but I have seen them for $20.

Annual Enrollment

2009-08-27T07:31:00.001-04:00

Our company has gotten to a period called "Annual Enrollment". We handle the enrollment process for employee benefits for a number of clients. For the client that I work with, there are many changes. For example, all of the medical plans are being changed, the dental, the vision, group life insurance, and others.

People are currently enrolled in a 2009 plan. When Jan 1 comes around we have to "map" them to a new plan so that they do not lose coverage, AND allow them to select what they want as well. This means that all the new plans and maps need to be set up way ahead of Jan 1. Along with all the plan changes are rate changes. And rates are sometimes based on geographic location and smoker/nonsmoker status. The list of details goes on and on.

There are 3 of us working on this client setup. We have been working like dogs to meet a Friday morning deadline for some stuff. I have been putting in 12 hour days setting up and debugging a number of things. If all goes well I will have my piece done late today. Unless I fall over first.

Since I am still new to the company, this is the first time that I am going through AE. Next year I will have experienced it and will have a lot more knowledge. Hopefully the client won't change so much next year.

I hope to be able to eat and sleep better this weekend.

Turning and Turning

2009-07-22T14:37:00.001-04:00

In a previous post I mentioned that I had started working on this year’s Christmas gifts. I don’t want to say WHAT they are because recipients read my blog and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Perhaps my first blog post of 2010 will be pictures of these gifts.

But I will say that I am making 20 of these things. Each thing is 2 parts, so that is 40 parts total. Each part is made on the lathe. Because of the size requirements, I need to glue up wood to make the raw material to mount on the lathe. That requires a lot of machining of flat boards, which involves several steps of cutting, planning, sanding, gluing, and clamping.

The A parts, once the blocks are cut to size, require 4 holes to be drilled before mounting on the lathe. To do that I need to measure and make several pencil marks. The pencil lines come right off when the tool touches the wood on the lathe. The A parts are a pain in the butt to turn because they need to be “mostly” shaped, removed from the lathe, turned around and re-mounted in a special way, and finished.

The B parts are MUCH simpler, just 2 holes to drill and no special mounting on the lathe. Although sometimes, the holes strip out and I have to plug them with glue and dowels, then redrill.

When all the parts are made, there are still several things involved, such as gluing the parts together and adding 3 different embellishments. A little sanding may be required so that part A fits into part B. A “tenon” on part A fits into the bigger hole of part B. These final assembly details are much easier and most can be done sitting at the dining room table.

So, where am I, you ask? In the past 2 days I was able to complete 7 parts. That makes 25 parts complete and 15 to go. 5 parts are ready to go on the lathe and then I will have to make up more raw material.

I wish I had kept all the sawdust, for pictures. There is actually more sawdust than there is finished material, but that is the nature of working with a lathe.

Anyway, I am pretty tired of lathe work and am looking forward to finishing these and moving on to another project. For those of you that are recipients, you will get a unique gift that took a lot of time and patience. I hope you like it, use it, and one day hand it down to your kids or grandkids.

Adirondack Chairs 5

2009-06-29T09:09:00.002-04:00

Very near completion now.

I had my son over the weekend, and putting 1 of the chairs together was on our list. We started by assembling the angled legs with the two crosspieces, one in front and one in back. Then we added the vertical legs, and the decorative arm supports. At this point we paused because it was a VERY hot day.

A little later I added the arms and the upper rear crosspiece.

I clamped on a scrap of plywood under the rear crosspiece, so that the back slats could be temporarily set in place.

Once I made reference marks the back slats were screwed and nailed into place, then the seat slats were nailed in as well. This completed chair 1.

I'm pleased. It looks and feels very nice. JP posed for the picture because he had a hand in milling the wood and helping with the assembly.

Assembly of the second chair will begin tonight, but may not be completed.

Adirondack Chairs 4

2009-06-25T22:42:00.003-04:00

Here are all the chair parts drying after 2 coats of Thompson's Water Seal has been applied to all sides. Note the clever stacking of two 2x4 frames that I had sitting around, as well as the modified grill cart work table.

All that's left is about 48 hours for them to completely dry and then assembly. They will be put together and in use by early next week.

Google Reader

2009-06-24T09:10:00.003-04:00

If you are an avid reader of my blog, you may remember (several months ago) that I had the idea for, and was working on, a program that would act like a dog going out to get the newspaper for you. I wanted something that would go to all my favorite blogs, check the date and time of the last entry, and compare it to a list that it would keep. If there were any new entries, it would let me know and I would then go check them. The intent was to save me time going to look at blogs only to find that there were no changes.

Click here to read Part 1 of that project

And here to read Part 2

When I was laid off in April of 2008 I had the time to develop the program, but didn’t know much about programming things that could interpret web contents. Once I got some of that knowledge, I had a rudimentary program working but then found my current job and no longer had time and desire to play and finish the program. That’s what happens when you work with the computer all day…you want to do something else in your off hours.

Well, apparently, I wasn’t the only one with that idea. I recently learned about “Google Reader”. From my Google mail (Gmail) page, I click on the link and it will bring to me all of the stuff I haven’t yet seen, from the sites that I put into a list.

Did you catch the difference there? It brings the contents to me...it doesn’t just say “Dad’s blog has changed, click here to go read it.” Yesterday Google Reader told me that Cheryl had a new post. Today it told me that my dad had a new post. All one has to do is build a list of sites for Google Reader to check, and that is simple.

If you want to try it out, you might need to create a Google account (don't worry, it's free). If you are a user of Blogger, you already have a Google account. Just go to Google’s home page, click on “Gmail” at the top. You may have to add Gmail as a mail client, but I have found that VERY easy to use...it will walk you through the process (for "power users": you can train Gmail to go out and bring you email from any and all other mail accounts you may have...don't enable that particular feature if you really LIKE your other email programs, though). Once you are logged in to Gmail, click on “Reader” at the top. Read the intro stuff. Then, to train it to go get your stuff, click on “Add a subscription” near the top left. (Copy and paste of a URL would be perfect here.) Put in the URL of one of your sites, and click “Add”. Repeat for all of your favorite sites.

I suggest going to play with it. It only takes a few minutes to learn, is super simple, and will save you LOADS of time by checking stuff for you.

Adirondack Chairs 3

2009-06-22T10:21:00.002-04:00

Starting to enter the home stretch.

We're at the sanding and finishing stage now. Every piece will be sanded to at least 150 grit on both sides. The pieces where your body typically makes contact (arms, sleat slats, back slats) have all been rounded over on the edges and are being sanded to 220 grit.

I sanded several parts and Susan is applying the Thompson's Water Seal. Each piece will get two coats on each side, then will be tested for "water beading". If they need more sealer, then that will be done. I would much rather have them all sealed before assembly than have to add sealer after assembly.

I am thinking that sealing will take a good portion of the week since things have to dry, be flipped, and repeated. Also, that is some smelly stuff, so it is applied on the driveway and allowed to air dry out there for awhile, but then brought in to the garage at night.

So, here are some of the parts after sealer is applied. One is shown before sealing. Only the one side is sealed at this time (edges and ends too).

Here are the angled legs.

A few more parts.

The arms. Someone told me that these make it look like I am making an outhouse. But there will be no mistaking them when the chair is assembled.

Adirondack Chairs 2

2009-06-17T17:05:00.004-04:00

Continuing on.

The 18 parts that were rough cut before were then planed. My son helped me. Here they are, still oversize, but ready to shape.

Then I shaped the back slats. I cut them to width, traced the curves, and marked the length. Cut them out on the bandsaw and then sanded to the line. They came out perfectly. Both sets are here, but one set is under the other.

Next we have the arms, front (vertical) legs, and the front cross pieces that hold the sides together.

And here we see (left to right) the decorative supports for under the front of the arms, the inner most seat slats, the lower rear cross pieces, and the angled legs. The angled legs are done in pairs so they are uniform. That takes time and only 1 set is pictured.

Still to finish are the other pair of angled legs, the upper rear cross pieces, and the seat slats. A few more evenings and these will be done.

Adirondack Chairs 1

2009-06-12T13:22:00.002-04:00

To start off this project, of 2 cedar Adirondack chairs, I rough cut 5 boards (each) for the back pieces, 2 boards (each) for the arms, and 2 boards (each) for the legs. Here is one set in a rough layout position.

Here is the other set.

Closer view of the back pieces. Laying on top are the templates that are used to mark the shape of the back pieces.

Closer view of one leg and arm. The templates for these pieces are laying on top.

Everything is cut 4-5 inches long because planing leaves "snipe", about 2 inches long, in both ends of a board. I will simply cut off the sniped ends after planing. Will be planing these pieces over the weekend. Stay tuned.

Shop Notes 3

2009-06-12T10:53:00.002-04:00

Ahhhhhhh, cedar! Is there any nicer smelling wood than cedar?

One of the things that has been on my To Do list for a few weeks is to make a couple of Adirondack Chairs for my newly cleaned deck. I bought Norm Abrams’ “New Yankee Workshop” plan probably 15 or more years ago. I made 1 chair for myself and about 7 or 8 for a former coworker. Those were all pressure treated lumber and relatively simple since the wood came from the store already milled to the desired widths and thicknesses. (BTW, my chair sat out in the weather for many years and I finally discarded it a year or 2 ago.)

It was before I was cutting trees and keeping prize lumber. Maybe 10-12 years ago I cut down a cedar tree that yielded over 400 board feet of lumber and it has been air drying under my shop since then. Over the years I had laid down a lot of stuff on top just to get things out of the way. Now that I wanted some of that cedar, it required a lot of moving. And what better time than 4pm on a Sunday when it is hotter than Hades outside?

Anyway, several boards were moved into the shop, and most of it is really pretty. The tops of the boards look grayed, but underneath is all pretty red cedar. Once it goes through the thickness planer it will look gorgeous again. I figure that cutting and milling the parts, and then assembling the chairs may take roughly 2 weeks of an hour here and an hour there.

Yesterday I did some scanning and rough cutting. I cut the 10 back pieces out from between knots and other defects. Today I would like to get the 8 arms and legs roughed out as well. I'll plane and shape those 18 pieces over the weekend. Then will start on the 6 cross pieces and the 10 seat slats (which don't have to be as carefully selected).

I will take and post pictures in a couple of days.

Shop Notes 2

2009-06-01T09:16:00.002-04:00

The 6 oval boxes are well underway. Over the weekend I shaped the strips (bands) for the lower and upper box parts. These were soaked in hot water for over ½ hour. The newly painted water tray performed perfectly (and this time I emptied the water out to keep rust away). The strips were formed into ovals around their foam forms, and hammered into shape with the copper tacks. After 2 days I took them off the forms. I then prepared the thicker material that makes the box tops and bottoms. These were cut and milled to their respective thicknesses. Last night I traced the ovals, cut and shaped the box bottoms and tops, and installed the bottoms. That is done by drilling through the thin bands into the thicker bottoms, then rolling toothpicks in glue and tapping into the holes. At lunch today I trimmed the excess toothpicks and sanded them flush. Next will be to repeat that process for the tops and sand the boxes.

In case you haven’t seen the oval music box project from last year, here is the link:

Click here.

As often happens, while I am working on one thing, something else pops up. This time I got a card from a niece in California who is graduating high school. I had already made her sister a cherry pen (from a tree in my backyard) a couple years ago when SHE graduated. So I thought it fitting to make another pen for this graduate. Would be nice if I had a little stockpile, but as with the oval boxes, my supply of cherry pens was zero. However, months ago I started preparing to stockpile some cherry pens and had already worked up the blanks for 2 pens. Last night I turned and finished one of them to send to California. At lunch today I shaped the second one but have not finished it. Hopefully, I won’t be like Michelangelo and leave a bunch of unfinished works when I die.

While driving, it occurred to me that if I don’t get working on it SOON, 2010 will come and go before I finish the restoration of the mahogany upright piano. Not sure if I have blogged about it before. The piano was given to me by someone who had it in their basement for years. It looked sound yet required some cosmetic touchups. I found a web site dedicated to piano repair and restoration and started. That was years ago already. The piano was built in 1910 (again, searched the web) and I would like to have it restored some time in 2010 when it is 100 years old (and have a party with a professional piano player). If I blogged about it I will find the link. Anyway, the sound board and harp were good. Most of the hammers and keys were good. A few repairs are needed that I can do, but aren’t trivial. Lots of felt to replace. Need to strip and refinish the cabinet. It’s a big job but I still have a little over a year (thinking that Michelangelo thought again).

Shop Notes

2009-05-19T15:41:00.001-04:00

This past Christmas I made and gave Shaker oval boxes. For 2 dear friends I installed a music box movement. A few of the boxes had minor problems, but I kept those and used them as storage in the shop…one has to store copper tacks and cut up toothpicks in order to make oval boxes. It has been roughly 6-7 months since I completed the boxes.

But I never cleaned out the water tray, nor did I put away any of the supplies. They sat on my workbench in case I needed to make more boxes. That day came Friday. I got an email from one of the friends who received a music box. She would like to BUY a music box just like hers to give to a young lady who is graduating college. Unfortunately, my supply of completed boxes is depleted. I told her it would take about 2 weeks to get a music box made and she said that would be fine. So I suppose she gave a promise to the young lady.

Making one box is not a very efficient use of time, so I decided I would make 6. I cut and milled all the thin strips last night and got them all prepared for their hot water bath. But I now have a problem. The inside of my galvanized steel water tray is rusty and stained (recall…I never cleaned up 6-7 months ago). So now, before I can bend these strips I must refurbish the tray. Over the next 2-3 days I will clean up the rust and paint the tray. It was recommended that I use high temperature spray paint. At Lowe’s I picked up a can of BBQ grill paint. After that I got some distilled water at the grocery store. Minerals in water can cause wood to discolor, so distilled wood is recommended. Since then I thought that maybe water collected from my dehumidifier would be just as good, and free. I have an abundance of it and use it to water my lucky bamboo plant.

I am going to try the dehumidifier water. And after these 6 boxes I will make sure to empty, clean, and dry the tray, then put everything away.

In the shop I recently installed a mobile base under the table saw. That helps very much in moving it, so I can clean underneath and set up another tool in its place. I have a large open end sander that needs floor space too. The problem is that the sander does not have a mobile base. The base has been ordered, but the item is on back order. Last night I “muscled” the sander into place so I could use it with the whole shop dust collector. I love that dust collection because it gets all the fine stuff, BUT what a pain to muscle the tool into place. Can’t wait till the mobile base comes…probably next week.

There are some modifications to make to the dust collection system. First, I would like to have a hose that can reach anywhere in the shop. That will allow me to vacuum up dust and shavings, rather than sweep. Second, I want to run dust ports to the workbench (for using a palm sander or other small tools), the drill press, and the lathe. Currently I have ports going to the table saw, the jointer, and the planer. Ports are selected by opening and shutting appropriate gates. It is a wonderful system and I will take and post pictures when I clean up the shop some more.

This year’s Christmas gifts are underway…I’m roughly 1/4th done. On hold until I can get some more boards out from under the shop, but after that I will blaze through and should have them all done way before it starts to get cold.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next installment.

The World on the Moon, etc.

2009-05-13T14:14:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was such a treat. It started Friday night with a fun little opera called “il mondo della luna” or “The World on the Moon.” I don’t know if I have blogged here about our School of the Arts, but it is a school of very talented young people. Someone recently told me that they shot some of the footage for the movie “Fame” here. This opera is by Haydn (I didn’t even know he wrote opera). It is about a young scientist who tricks a man into believing he has been transported to the moon, all to win the hand of the man’s daughter. Act 2 takes place “on the moon” which is really the decorated backyard of the young scientist. He uses a couple of friends, who are themselves interested in the man’s other daughter and chambermaid, in his trickery. Wonderful farce and humor are throughout. If you ever get a chance to see this opera, do. The person who did the translation and made the English supertitles took some modern liberties…one of which cracked a lot of people up…”resistance is futile”…spoken by one if the “moon” people.

Playing the part of one of the daughters was Jodi Burns. No, you haven’t heard of her, but I am making a prediction that you may one day. She is an absolutely lovely young lady with a beautiful voice and great stage appeal. I saw her last month playing the role of Adina in Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’Amore” and she was just wonderful. I spoke with her parents (then and now), who were visiting from Ohio for the performance, and they said she just took third place in a competition at New York’s Met. She will be graduating from the School of the Arts soon, and I believe she will take the opera stage by storm. Last month I met them in the audience by chance, having sat directly in front of them, and we chatted during intermission. This time we actually bumped into each other at a pizza place that is open late…what a coincidence.

Continuing on for the weekend, I spent Saturday in Blowing Rock, NC. What a nice place to visit. The weather was very nice and I walked the main street, stepping in at various stores up and down, and eating lunch at “Kojay’s”. They have a web site. Later on I drove a little way along the Blue Ridge Parkway and took a half hour hike to some rushing water (cascades). That walk reminded me of some trails in the Florida Everglades, in that there were markers placed to assist in identifying various plants and trees. I learned that the Hemlock tree grows in groups and always very close to water. Yup, sure enough, once I knew what one looked like I could see them all along the water.

Sunday I spent HOURS on my first ever trip to IKEA. There is a new one near Charlotte, roughly a 1.5 hour drive from the house. This store is amazing and I thought there were a number of great home ideas and great prices. BUT I am not sold on revamping my house just because I can. Everything has a decidedly European flair and after a little while I was easily overlooking things. I purchased a few things though. A step stool that took me 30 minutes to assemble, a couple of glass vases, some bamboo placemats, a 4 bottle wine rack that mounts on a wall, and a neat little lantern for burning tea candles. I used one of the vases to transfer a “lucky bamboo” plant that was given to me a couple of years ago…it was alive and green, but not growing well in the smaller container. Now it has a lot more room and still looks lovely. Will take a picture sometime soon.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I just wish it didn’t have to end.

My second lighthouse

2009-04-20T09:44:00.002-04:00

Howdy,

For the weekend I went to the Outer Banks. It was only the second time I have been out to the NC coast in 20 years of living in North Carolina. The first time was cold and rainy, but this past weekend was absolutely beautiful.

While there, a trip was made to the Currituck lighthouse. This was the second lighthouse I climbed in my 48 years.
Click here for the website.

The first lighthouse I climbed was a handful of years ago, near Daytona Beach/New Smyrna Beach, FL. That one is the Ponce DeLeon Inlet lighthouse, which is Florida's tallest.
Click here for the website.

Look at those two lighthouses...see any similarity? To me they look very similar. I believe the Ponce Inlet one is painted "terra cotta", but at a casual glance this could be just taken for natural brick color. The Currituck lighthouse is natural brick...no paint.

The weather was beautiful. Perfect blue sky and probably in the mid 70's. I could post pictures, but there are better ones aleady available online.

Of note, I felt less secure at the top of the Currituck lighthouse. I've never had a fear of heights, but certainly a respect for being careful at altitude. For some reason, thoughts kept entering my head of slipping and going through or over the railing. And I was thinking about younger children going up there too, and not acting in a safe manner. Glad to be on the ground. But I do want to visit and climb more lighthouses. Would love to visit Cape Hatteras now.

Fortune and glory!

2009-03-31T15:49:00.001-04:00

Private Sub btnRunAutoQuery_Click()
On Error GoTo btnRunAutoQuery_done

Dim SQLstring As String
Dim querytable As String
Dim numrecs As Integer
Dim Loopcount As Integer

Me.RecordSource = "AutoQueryList"
querytable = Me.RecordSource

DoCmd.SetWarnings False

' Set all Counts in the table to 0
SQLstring = "Update " & querytable & " Set Count = 0"

DoCmd.RunSQL SQLstring

' Get count of Queries to run.
numrecs = DCount("*", querytable)

' Go to first record in database.
DoCmd.GoToRecord , , acFirst

' Loop through all rows
For Loopcount = 1 To numrecs
Me!Count = DCount("*", Me!Name) ' Save query result count
DoCmd.GoToRecord , , acNext ' Go to next record
Next Loopcount

btnRunAutoQuery_done:
MsgBox "Check " & querytable & " table for results."
DoCmd.SetWarnings True
End Sub

Well, how would YOU have accomplished it? :-D

What a relief!

2009-03-23T09:43:00.001-04:00

I've been fighting lower back pain for several days. I believe it was Tuesday that I woke up and things didn't feel right. On Wednesday I called to get a chiropractor appointment for Thursday. They were able to squeeze me in. I got the adjustment, but the muscles have been so sore and only gradually feeling better. Last night I was able to get in and out of my car without it being a painful experience.

Why am I telling you this? Because I figured out a way to decompress my spine without getting an inversion table. I was thinking of getting one, but they cost about $200, even at "Play It Again Sports".

At another sporting goods store I saw a piece of fitness equipment that is pretty standard in gyms. It is a tall "stand". On it there are pads for your forearms and handles to grip. There is also a pad for pushing your back into. You stand on some small steps while you set up your upper body. Then you get off those and do knee raises. The whole lower body hangs free and you support yourself with just the forearms. I got on that and felt some relief and was walking better after. So I "made" something similar without really making anything.

I simply set up my sawhorses in the garage. Before I leave the house and when I get back I get between them, squat down, and put my forearms on the horses. Then I either raise my legs or just take most of the weight off the lower body and let the spine decompress. Just a few seconds is all it takes...sort of like being on the parallel bars but using forearms instead of hands. That and cold packs for about 10 minutes a couple times a day have really helped. And I didn't have to spend a dime nor build anything.

Now, the real problem is that I haven't been working out! I need to get well and do some exercising to stay well.

Hope you're well.

Juror # 3

2009-03-19T10:56:00.002-04:00

I received a summons to report, on March 16, for Jury Duty. Since living here this was my third summons. In each of the previous 2 cases, when I called the provided phone number, the night before, and listened to the recorded message, no jurors were actually needed, so I didn’t need to report. This time, the recording indicated to show up.

The jury pool room at the courthouse holds close to 200 people. I figure there were perhaps 120 people there. The room had your standard collection of people. People that were frustrated because they had to leave work to be there. People who were retired with nothing else to do. Young mothers who needed to arrange care of their children. College students who were missing class to be there. Middle aged men who complained loudly that they couldn’t serve. And so forth.

We learned there were 3 trials scheduled for the day. At about 10 am one group of about 40 people were randomly called. I was surprised that I wasn’t. They were taken off to a courtroom. At about 11:45 another group was called and I was in this group. We went off to a courtroom and waited in a hallway. Since it became lunchtime they told us to go to lunch and be back at 1:50. So I did. About 2 pm we went back to the courtroom. We went in and sat where court spectators sit.

They randomly called 12 people to sit in the jury box. I was not one of them. The judge asked questions, then the DA asked questions. The DA struck almost half of them. So the seats were filled by more random people and again I was not called. I was very surprised because I fully expected that I would be called since it was random. Anyway, after a few more were then struck, the DA was satisfied. The Public Defender then asked questions and struck some. Then the process started all over. It finally got to a point where I was called along with two other women. We had to go through ALL the preceding questions again. This process, by the way, is called “Voir Dire” which means “to find the truth.” I was kept by both sides, so I became juror number 3.

The trial started at 4 pm. The DA did not finish questioning his main witness until 5, so we broke for the day. Had to return at 9:30 on Tuesday, the 17th…St. Patrick’s Day. When we did, I noticed that the DA had a bright green tie on. The trial took all day with a couple of breaks and both sides rested at about 4pm. We went back to deliberate. After talking about an hour, the bailiff came in and asked if we wanted to quit for the day or continue. There was one woman who absolutely needed to go, so we all went. That meant a third day. So on Wednesday the 18th, we met again at 9:30. We deliberated for 2 hours and reached a unanimous decision. So, 3 hours of deliberation total. We went in, the verdict was read, and the trial ended. Finally, we were all dismissed and received a letter to take back to our respective jobs, confirming our serving with a notarized stamp.

OK, now for the trial. I know you’re curious.

On July 4, 2007, the defendant was clocked driving a car at a high rate of speed. He was going over 60 in a 35 zone. The police pursued and pulled the car over. The officer saw the driver, a front seat passenger, and at least 2 in the back seat. Later on it was determined to be 3 in the back, but the officer didn’t recall the number…after all, police are busy and it was over a year and a half ago. He asked for license and registration. The kid had no license (it was revoked over a year prior due to another offense in a neighboring town). He did have the registration, but it was a car belonging to his girlfriend. The officer went back to his car to start doing some lookup. The kid started approaching the police car. Police man told the kid to return to his car. The kid only gave his name and the officer had trouble looking it up, so he went back to get spelling. When he did, the kid was at the car but not inside, and ran away. The policeman started a chase. Another police car came up. Second officer was going to chase, but felt it important to stay with the other passengers in car. There was a period of time where the other passengers were not being directly observed (the DEFENSE felt this was important so they could get the reasonable doubt fixed in our minds).

The kid had run into some woods. Officer called for Canine unit, which came, and located the kid hiding under some overgrowth. He was unresponsive. So much so that he may have been unconscious, so they called for EMS and had him taken to the hospital.

The car was searched and marijuana was found under the drivers seat. In such a way that the policeman indicated it could not possibly have been put there by someone in the back seat. Part of the evidence was a letter the kid wrote in the hospital saying that “the pot belonged to ‘xxxxx’ who was in the back seat.” The DA kept trying to point out that it could not have been put there from the back seat. More on that later. Anyway, the way the marijuana was bagged was suspicious. It was in a plastic bag that contained a loose amount and some smaller bagged amounts, called “dime bags.” This, according to the police man indicated that the kid intended to sell it, as it was packaged to distribute in smaller amounts. On cross examination, however, it did come out that it can also indicate that the kid purchased it that way (buy two, get 1 free dime bags, in other words, or he bought all of what the seller had). The kid was arrested and charged with “Possession with intent to sell marijuana.”

There were 3 possible verdicts. Guilty of possession with intent to sell, guilty of possession, and Not Guilty. We, the jury quickly ruled out the “intent to sell” part. We did not feel that the DA proved this beyond a reasonable doubt. That took us less than a half hour to decide. The harder part was the possession or not guilty. One has to remember that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You can’t just go in there, look at him, and say “well, he’s guilty”. You have to carefully consider everything. By the way, when I first saw the defendant, during Voir Dire, I immediately thought “he’s guilty.” I believe any reasonable person would. But I did not allow that to make up my mind. I do believe that there was more than 1 person on the jury that went with that gut reaction. But I and 2 other women were determined to take our time and carefully discuss everything. I believe we really frustrated a few people, but it was the right thing to do. In fact, I said on more than 1 occasion “Look, I think he is guilty TOO, BUT we have to make sure to satisfy that ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ part.”

Back to the case. The defendant did take the stand. He admitted that he was a pot smoker and that he has served jail time for other convictions. However, he stated that he was a diabetic and that his low blood sugar at the time caused him to make some mistakes. Also, after he ran, he believed that he went into diabetic coma, which required the EMS and hospital stay. Medical proof of this was not presented, but one has to remember that he is INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. He does not have to PROVE he is a diabetic. It would be up to the DA to prove that he is NOT. The DA did not do this, so I felt that there was doubt…not necessarily REASONABLE doubt, but certainly a possibility to be discussed. The kid was having a 4th of July cookout at his place and borrowed his girlfriend’s car to go pick up other people. He had to go to two different locations. At the second location, one of the people was smoking a “blunt” and was allowed to get in the car. A blunt is a hollowed out cheap cigar that is then filled with marijuana. I suppose it looks like smoking a cigar. While in the car and moving, the driver said that a second blunt was being prepared by one of the other guys. After this was when he was pulled for speeding.

The DA cross examined him and we found that he has run before. That he has also served time for possession of a stolen firearm, etc. I think the DA was trying to establish that this wasn’t some unlucky kid, but that he has a history of breaking the law…not just making mistakes due to his diabetes. There were expert witnesses called in. The lab people that test substances proved it was marijuana. The fingerprint people were called to tell how they lift prints, and there were none useable on the bags of marijuana. At length, both sides rested.

Finally, when we started deliberating, one woman and I started putting out the things that allowed for doubt. For example, the marijuana COULD have been given to the person in the front seat and put under the driver’s seat (during the time that the passengers were not being observed) by the person in the front seat. One woman doubted that but I did some research that night and found that, in a similar car with me in the front passenger’s seat, I had no trouble putting something under the driver’s seat in a variety of places. By the way, the person in the back and the passenger in the front were brother and sister…why not help each other if trying to hide one’s stash?)

Also, at least 3 people on the jury were familiar with people who have had trouble with diabetes. It was established that they do indeed make stupid choices. We explored and talked about every thing we could think of. We went back into the courtroom 4 or 5 times to get more information from the judge on the letter of the law. We went back in to examine the evidence. During all this, at least 2 people seemed REALLY frustrated with the whole thing. They wanted to throw the kid in jail and couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t agree with them. Again, I assured them that I was pretty convinced of his guilt of possession, but we MUST explore and make absolutely certain…not just go with feelings.

In NC, “possession” has 2 parts. Proximity and intent. You do not have to have the marijuana on your person, but in close proximity to it and be aware of its existence. We all agreed that the kid admitted this on the stand…he knew ONE guy was smoking a blunt, another was being rolled while the car was moving, and he even wrote a little letter saying the pot belonged to ‘xxxxx’ in the back seat. Proximity was not the issue. It was the intent. According to the statute, you have to have “power and intent to control the disposition or use of the substance.” This was where I wanted to be absolutely careful. Did this kid intend to use it? Certainly he could have been transporting others to his house to smoke pot during his cookout, and not use it himself. Never mind the fact that he admitted to being a pot smoker AND knowing how to roll and smoke blunts. Did he intend to use it that day (or was he sort of a designated driver)? And due to his diabetes, did he really have power over the others and what went on in his car?

I kept thinking something like this: I have a glass of wine or beer every now and then. Not every time it is available, but every now and then. I could have a party at my house and allow others to drink there. Doesn’t mean I am going to drink. I could get in the car and go pick up others. They may have alcohol with them, and be bringing it to my house. One could have an open bottle of beer. Another may open a bottle of beer along the way. Still doesn’t mean that I am going to drink (of course, the consequences of being caught with an open bottle of alcohol anywhere in the car weigh on the driver). But still, it wasn’t MINE.

I still had doubt about the kid’s intent to use the pot. But I finally focused on “disposition”. That didn’t mean HIM using it. It meant “IT BEING USED” at all…by anyone. Part of my doubt was chipped away. What was left was “did he have the power over the others? Remember, diabetes could have impaired his judgment. What I finally decided was that he had the power to drive to one location, pick up a passenger, drive to another location, pick up 3 passengers, recognize that a blunt was being smoked, start driving again, and recognize that another blunt was being rolled. For a period of time, not necessarily the whole time, but for a reasonable amount of time he was aware of everything that was going on, and could have stopped it from going on. He chose not to exercise this control. For me, that sealed his fate. I decided to vote for guilty of possession. At that time there were 2 other women who were siding with me on discussing everything carefully. As soon as I changed my mind, they did. I found that amusing, but didn’t say anything. We were unanimous. Incidentally, there were 2 people in the jury room that I felt would have gone with what the majority decided. Wouldn’t you just LOVE to have them on YOUR jury if you are ever on trial???

Afterward, the judge and both attorneys came back to talk to us. They thanked us and praised us on not coming to any snap decisions. They recognized that we must have been paying close attention if we needed the letter of the law spelled out more than once. As it turns out, this kid isn’t JUST a kid. He is definitely a repeat offender. His offenses aren’t as simple as possession of marijuana. He is facing future court dates for multiple counts of possession of cocaine. He is actually entering a plea of GUILTY of possession of a stolen firearm, in a federal trial that is upcoming. For that he will be serving at least 18 months in prison. He is a verified gang member (whatever verified means). Upon hearing this, the one woman who “felt so sorry for him” and didn’t want to be responsible for “ruining his life” and “wanting to find him help” completely changed her tune. She was no longer sorry for this little punk felon.

A lesson learned. The defendant is brought into court in a nice suit. He is brought there while you, a juror, are not there. He is escorted in from a jail cell by multiple guards, likely in handcuffs which are removed without that being seen by the jury. The number of armed sheriffs present during the trial is likely a strong indicator that this isn’t “some poor kid.” I hadn’t given that much thought at all because of the peaceful nature of the trial, but once I learned about this kid’s history, it made a lot of sense.

Anyway, that’s my story as juror number 3. My next possibility for jury duty is supposed to be no less than 2 years hence. I didn’t mind it at all. I don’t know why people want to get out of it. I think it is one of the responsibilities of being a free citizen. Hope you all get a chance sometime in the future. Leave me comments. I’d love to read them.

Hello blog

2009-03-12T14:30:00.002-04:00

Hi there.

I had a slow period at the office and decided to look at the blogs. I hadn't looked at blogs in several weeks and saw several new posts. Well done everyone. But what about me?

Well, I will just put a few random things here to update on what has been going on and what is upcoming.

1. I received my third degree black belt in December. Since then I haven't been attending classes. The school would like for me to sign up for the program to become 4th degree, but that is a pretty big (4 year) commitment. Since I lost my former job in April and it took 7 months to get a new job, and that at a significant pay cut, I thought it would be a good idea to take a break and see how finances go for awhile. I'm making ends meet fine, but am not sure yet about 4th degree.

2. The job is going well. I had 2 weeks of training a few weeks ago and came out not knowing much more. I passed the exam and have the opportunity to retake it some time in the future. I think it will be interesting to see what is much easier on the exam after about a year of on the job experience. Right now I have 2 projects near completion (they are being tested by users) and just resolved my first problem, unassisted, this morning. So, even though it will take a long time to feel competent, I am feeling like I'm starting to "get" it.

3. The weather has been down and up. Two weekends ago it was freezing cold and we had some snow. Then we had a day this week in the 80s. Now for the next few days it will be cold and rainy. Where is spring?

4. When I can, I get out to the workshop. I have made a good start on the things I'm making for Christmas. Without giving it away, I'm making 15-16 "things" which consist of 2 lathe-turned parts, glued together. If you did the math that is about 32 pieces of wood that need to be milled up and glued into blocks, drilled and mounted on the lathe, turned, sanded with many grits, polished and waxed. Big job...so you better like what they are! Right now I have 6 bottoms and 4 tops completed. The gluing of the 2 parts is simple enough and will come later. I want to put a 2009 penny inside and haven't come across any yet. Once glued, I will hang the completed ones on the wine bottle tree shown in the previous post, until Christmas time.

5. This year I have a number of projects on the list. Some of you may know about the piano restoration, which is something I want to have complete in 2010, when the piano is 100 years old. There is a wine cabinet, that I promised Aunt Lori, that needs to be done. I want to build a bamboo bed for JP's room. I want to build a bed, dresser, and 2 end tables for my room. What else can I heap on? I would like to make a new cabinet and control panel for my arcade machine, then refurbish the original control panel for the old cabinet, set it up as another arcade system, and perhaps sell it.

6. Just before Thanksgiving I helped a female friend redo her own arcade cabinet. She loved mine and wanted one for her daughters. She's a Space Invaders nut. It was fun to work on a project with someone else. Since then I think we've exchanged emails maybe twice. Both pretty busy. But I'll bet my Space Invaders high score still tops hers.

7. My Dining Group has become "drama central." There is a woman who is the ultimate drama queen that brings all her troubles to the dinners and get togethers. It has become pretty annoying. I have joked to others that we have become the "Winston-Salem Make Sure Not To Piss Off 'R' Group", R being her initial. R and I were pretty good friends once, but she has gone nutso and I think she needs some professional help. Until I hear she has started in therapy I plan on boycotting the group.

8. I hardly ever watch TV anymore. But I do have shows I like to see. I never set my VCR and do not have a DVR. But what I will do is either go to a site like NBC.Com and watch episodes of the things I like in a streaming format, OR another thing I discovered a while back are "torrents". Too difficult to explain how it all works, but think of a torrent and a "torrent client program" as a way to download video to your PC. Now you may think "piracy" and you may just be right. However, in my defense, I download shows, watch them at my convenience, and then delete them. In essence, I am using my PC like a VCR when it comes to Torrents. A long time ago the TV and movie industries were against VCRs.

Guess I'll stop for now. Sometime soon I will give some more details and post some pictures. Take care all, and thanks for stopping by. Will do my best to get back into blogging.

WTF is that??

2009-01-11T11:44:00.005-05:00

I just KNOW you're going to see this and think that.

OK,I'm going to be making some small turnings on the lathe in the coming weeks (details later) and need to store them. Things that come off the lathe are round-ish, and if you put them on a flat table they could roll away. I decided to hang them instead. Each one will have a ribbon tied at the top, so I needed a sort of "tree."

Just happened to have 4 wooden coat hangers...the kind for a jacket. Notice the notch at the ends. I think those are suppose to hold straps for womens's blouses so they don't slip off the hanger. They will be used to keep my "things" from sliding off the arcs as well.

I removed the wires, leaving holes. Then stacked these. Note at this point some of them didn't have notches, and I wanted a total of 16 notches. Later on, I marked and cut the notches on the bandsaw.

Then a test. Sat one hanger on top of a wine bottle (which makes the trunk). The height from the notch to the table is sufficient for the items I will make (and hang), and this is the lowest arm, so when displayed there will be a sort of "spiralling upward" effect.

Then a test of 2 arms sitting on top. I couldn't test all because I didn't have the bolt yet, and they are so narrow that I couldn't keep them stacked for a picture.

Finally I cut all the needed notches and bolted these "arms" or "branches" together. To hold them in the wine bottle I drilled a hole in a cork and put the bolt through that as well. Snugged up nuts and splayed the branches again. Poured sand in an empty wine bottle and shoved the cork in. Voila, a display "tree."

Cost: nothing!!

Lord of the Geeks

2009-01-07T22:17:00.004-05:00

Look at the picture.

Now, you ask "What the HECK is that?"

I often find that my cell phone has around a half charge when I go to bed, then the next day it is almost run out of charge. I sit in the office all day where it could be charging, but the charger is plugged into my home office at home. Knowing that a second charger costs some money, I wondered if one could charge a cell phone using a trickle charge from a PCs USB port. Did a quick Google check and found instructions on how to "hack" one.

The picture shows the end result. I used a car charger (you can see the cut off cigarette lighter plug) that I got from the Dollar store months ago. I already HAD a charger for the car and this one came in a package for a belt holster for the cell phone. So this cord was extra. I also used a USB mouse that was not tracking well (the cord was good but the innards of the mouse were shot...you can see the cut off mouse). I stripped the insulation and wires, and using a multimeter I determined that the red and black wires on the USB cable were what I needed. Just so happens that the wires in the car adapter were also red and black. Soldered up the wires, and sealed with heat shrink tubing. Plugged it in and VOILA!!! It actually works and I didn't have to go out and buy anything.

Now I have a home charger, a car charger, and an office charger. I can charge up the phone in any of the 3 places where I spend the most time.

If any of you family members want one, send me your parts and I will make it for you.

Anyone want a mouse or cigarette lighter paperweight?

Still Employed!

2008-11-30T18:24:00.002-05:00

Greetings,

I have completed 2 weeks with the new company. There is a LOT to learn and there is a lot of business. I am the new kid on the block, but it is amazing that MANY of the people that work near me have been there a year or less.

They all speak the acronyms of the employee benefits world (LTD, STD, LOA, QMSCO, etc). These are all things I need to learn. However, I do understand databases, and this is a business that is rich in databases. Already I have demonstrated the ability to remap a data stream and import data, and I was tasked with creating a couple of simple queries that needed to be done for a some analysis.

One of my coworkers has been there about 8 months. He, like me, was laid off from an IT job, then came to work for this company. He does pretty well after 8 months and thinks it will take a year or more to be pretty proficient in the company. And he knew nothing about the benefits world either.

Got my first pay check on Friday (auto deposit). Sure, it is lower than what I was making, but is MUCH better than unemployment. I think I can even put money away like before, though not as much per payday.

Revisiting an old "friend"

2008-11-18T20:56:00.005-05:00

Anybody remember my barrel refurbish project? (Dec 06 and Jan 07)

Well here are the links to the blog entries.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

The barrel has been sitting in place for over a year and a half. Because it no longer holds fluid and has been opened up to air inside, the staves have shrunk in that time. Barrel hoops are normally held in place with pressure, not nails, screws, or rivets. To add any of those could compromise its ability to hold liquid. SO the hoops started falling off after about a year.

I lived with it, but finally decided to do something about it. So this past weekend I drilled a bunch of holes in the hoops, put them back in place, and added screws. Each stave has a screw in the top hoop. I felt that was critical. Then about half of the bottom has screws. Finally, each of the 4 middle hoops have 4 screws each. Now the barrel is rock solid again.

The only tough thing about this was drilling the holes in the metal. I had to experiment with drill speed and amount of force to use. It took several hours, but the end result is so pleasing. Should never have to do it again. Now the question is, should I paint the screw heads black or leave them as they are? If you want to see better, click on the picture to enlarge it.

Extortion at the opera

2008-11-10T02:45:00.002-05:00

I have a dilemma gnawing at me and would love to get your input.

First, let me lay some groundwork. I am part of a group of people that get together several times a month for various activities...it started as dining out, but is "dining out and more" now. We recently went gem mining on a Saturday and yesterday 10 of us went to the opera. To be a member, we each pay the organizer $12 per year which goes to the fee required by Meetup.com to host group planning. Also part of the fee goes to supplies and decorations. Since I am a regular member and enjoy these, that comes to $1 per month. Very reasonable.

For the past few weeks the organizer and I worked on getting together a group of people for the opera. We got a group discount where $40 tickets were purchased for $25 each provided that we had 10 people. The way meetup.com works is that you can sign up to attend an event, but that doesn't mean you need to show up. Indeed, some people regularly sign up and don't show up. Think of the $12 dollar membership as a "pay to play" and this discourages people from signing up and failing to show. To get this group discount we needed 10 people...not just 10 possibilities. There were a lot of "NO"s but we managed to get 10 "YES"ses. Each person was given a phone number to call to get their ticket.

There was a new woman that joined us. The dilemma is coming...I promise. This woman, "T McD", joined several of us for dinner the other night at a Lone Star steakhouse. That was her first get together. She was warmly greeted and everyone was nice to her. I had noticed that she was signed up for the opera. So I asked her if she had gotten her ticket yet. She said yes, but she was having second thoughts. I asked why. She said because she was afraid it would run too long and that she had to work at 5. The opera started at 2. I had asked how long it ran and was told 2 hours, so I told "T McD" this. She said if that was the case she would go, since she lived and worked relatively close it wouldn't be a problem...even if it ended at 4:30.

So, at the opera, she shows up just moments before the curtain rises. Everyone was thinking she cancelled her ticket. As things go, the performance started at 10 after, rather than at 2. The first act was over at 3:20. During intermission I looked at the group members behind me and T McD was clearly agitated. She pointed at me and said something like she knew she should have gone with her better judgement, and that it was my fault...blah blah.

A few minutes before act 2 she asks that the organizer and I speak with her in the lobby. We get out there and she asks for 2 things. First, she wants ME to give her back half her ticket price. She had to leave and paid for a full show. Since I "talked her into" going against her better judgement, I was responsible. Second she still wants to be a group member, and as an act of good faith she would like the $12 fee waived for her because of something that happened at the restaurant on Thursday.

So let me fill you in on that grievance. The dinner was CLEARLY posted as to time and location. The dinner was clearly listed as 6:30. They are always at 6:30. Before I went I double checked because I pick up my son at 5:30 on Thursdays and wanted to make sure that we would be milling about until 6:30, so I know for a FACT that it said 6:30. The restaurant was NEAR a mall called Hanes Mall, and the address was listed as on Hanes Mall Blvd. But it was clearly listed in the Pavillions shopping center, which is not IN Hanes Mall. T McD comes from a neighboring town and doesn't know this area. My son and me arrived at 6:20, shortly after she did. She was the first there and later described her difficulty in finding the place. She said it was LISTED as being ON THE HANES MALL property, so she drove around in there and was lost. She had to ask several places how to find the restaurant. She was upset because she would be arriving AFTER the 5:30 starting time. I perked up at that because I KNEW it was listed as 6:30. So I called her on that. She was adamant that it said 5:30. To keep the peace I dropped it (but I KNEW for a fact it was 6:30 and later confirmed it, and that it said nothing about being Hanes Mall property).

During the dinner she kept up a running joke with the wait staff about her meal being "comped" because she was an employee with the chain, or she knew the manager, or whatever. It turns out T McD is a waitress herself. Maybe this is something "they" do...I don't know. In any case I had to leave before everyone else so I don't know if she actually got her "comped" meal...but I doubt it.

Back at the opera. At first I was feeling guilty. Attending the opera was my idea. And she was on the fence about attending. I gave her the information she asked for as I understood it. So I immediately went into "solve her problem and make her happy" mode. I thought "well, what's $12.50 in the long run? If it makes her happy and keeps the peace, then it is a small price to pay." So I TOLD her that I would pay for half her ticket. The organizer did not agree to waive the $12 membership fee. Intermission was almost over and we HAD to get back inside before they closed the doors. T McD did not go back in to watch any of act 2.

On the way home we all discussed the situation (we carpooled there and back). The general concensus was that I don't owe this woman a dime. I remained quiet, but started to agree for 2 reasons. First, unknown to me, she had said to the woman sitting next to her "that guy LIED to me" (meaning me "lying" to her about how long the show would run). I told her only what I was told. Is that a lie? Second, that little situation about comping her meal. Is this a woman who wants to get a lot for a little? It started sounding to me like she has champagne taste (opera and fancy dinner) on beer income (waitress). And she also started to seem like an expert at complaining and bullying to get what she wants.

So, the dilemma is this. Should I give her the $12.50 to keep the peace, or should I stand up to the bullying? After all, she is an adult, she was presented with information to the best of my ability, and she made her choice. Yes I may have helped her to get off the fence, but does that make me responsible? And why didn't she stay until she absolutely HAD to leave during act 2. She could have watched 45 more minutes of the show and gotten more of her money's worth. It's possible that she just decided that she didn't like opera and wanted to get out of there and recoup some loss for a bad choice. She had a choice. Nobody held a gun to her head.

I hope to read opinions from my friends and family on this. What do you think I should do? I will tell you that I am now leaning toward NOT giving her half her ticket money. And if she never comes to group events again I wouldn't miss her...perhaps our group isn't the group for her and there are plenty of others. And if she harbors a grudge against me, well, I can live with that too. I didn't do anything wrong and don't have to have everyone like me.

BTW, everyone else that went had a fabulous time, save 1. She had an ok time. She is a long time friend who prefers rock concerts (ala KISS). She probably won't go to another opera, but was not asking me for a refund...and money is tight for her too.

Thanks in advance.

While I still have time...part 2

2008-11-06T15:53:00.004-05:00

Continuing on with the tiling for the woodstove platform.

Picture 5 shows the edge tiles after cutting and installing. The duct tape at the top holds them in place until the adhesive sets.

Picture 6 shows the edge tiles after the adhesive has set and all the top tiles have been removed.

Picture 7 shows all the field tiles installed and a few of the cut edge tiles. The ones with 2 pieces of blue tape were installed yesterday and the ones with one piece of tape were installed today.

Hopefully, I can finish the cutting and installation tomorrow. Then early next week I can grout.

Two questions and answers:
1. Won't the stove be too close to the walls? No. I have carefully looked at the requirements and the platform is right.
2. Are you going to put a fire retardant material on the walls, to be up to code? Yes, but that will be later before the wood stove is fired up for the first time.

While I still have time...part 1

2008-11-03T18:03:00.003-05:00

I spent this afternoon working on a shop project. I have been wanting to install a wood stove in the corner to the left of the lathe. A couple of years ago I bought the woodstove and built the platform, 4 ft by 4 ft with a "clipped" corner that will parallel the face of the woodstove (placed 45 degrees on the platform). Then I put this project on the back burner, but have thought about it a lot over the years.

A friend recently gave me some cement hexagon tiles that will be great for this application, so now before it gets too cold (and I go back to full time work) I'd like to get the platform finished and the stove sitting on top. I may not actually hook it up this year, but don't know that for sure.

Picture 1 shows the platform after I moved junk off of it.

Picture 2 shows the "dry laying" of the cement backer board.

Picture 3 shows all the backer board cut and installed...those vertical pieces took a long time.

Picture 4 shows a VERY rough layout of the cement tiles, which are terra cotta colored.

Coming up:
I will put tiles along the vertical edges first, then the platform tiles will lay on top of those cut edges, perhaps overhanging by just a smidgen. My friend loaned me a wet saw, so cutting will be dust free and should be accurate. I have used it before, when I tiled the laundry room.

Halloween treats

2008-10-23T12:58:00.004-04:00

I have a costume party (slash "game night") to go to on Saturday. For awhile I had been wanting to try my hand at "candy sushi" which I saw Rachael Ray make once. It turned out ok, really cute in fact, but I don't like the mess involved. Rolling the log of Rice Krispies was a sticky mess. Once that set up for a few minutes, the wrapping and cutting of the "Fruit by the Foot" was so much easier. Inside there are strips of licorice. On the ones that they call "nigiri" I put on a Swedish Fish and cut the Fruit by the Foot into strips for wrapping.

As desert number 2, I made a key lime pie and simply decorated it with a spider web and spider. Didn't want to go to much expense with the decorating stuff because I will not be making a hobby of this. So I simply got the icing that is already in a small tube. It didn't come out perfect, but certainly passable.

Employed!

2008-10-22T10:08:00.002-04:00

On Monday I received the offer to work for a company named AON. They are pretty large and have a dot com site if you care to look into it. I will be a senior benefits analyst. I understand the data processing part I will need to use and they will just have to educate me on the benefits aspect of the job. One of the things this company does is put together benefits packages for other companies. They work with the companies to define what they will offer to the employees, then gather the payroll information, convert that to a format that is understood by their software, and open up web sites that allow the employees of those other companies to manage their benefits online.

Having worked for a company that had benefits administration online, I am a little famiiar with some of the processes as a user. I have database experience and have written plenty of data conversion programs over the years.

The nice thing is that I will work in a real office building with LIVE people. I feel that teamwork and comraderie are very important, and you just don't have that working at home. The office building is just a 15 minute drive. It will probably be long hours to begin with, since this is the busy part of the year (benefits open enrollment time) and I have a lot to learn up front.

Starting date is Nov 17, so I have time to do other stuff around the house too.

Hiddenite

2008-10-13T10:34:00.006-04:00

No, it isn't a member of a cult...it's a gem stone!

On Saturday I joined approximately 20 other people for a trip to a town called Hiddenite, NC. There is a gem mine there open to the public (Google it...you'll find it easily). You do one or more activities to collect stones. The most popular is sitting at a bench and "sluicing". This is putting dirt into a screen and brushing that along with a stream of water. They can pretty much guarantee that you will get gem stones. Another activity is wading in a creek, where water has moved dirt and stones off the mountainside, revealing the gems.

I got a nice little collection of stones while sluicing. Maybe nothing spectacular. I did not step in the creek because I knew the water would be cold and I didn't want to take off my shoes and socks. But from the side of the creek I spotted two interesting stones, and a lady friend went and picked them up for me.

Now I have a little container with various colored stones. I don't really know how to identify what I have, but one thing I would like to do is grind a little material off a small one as a test. Not that I will become a diamond cutter. The only diamond cutting I will do is if I get hired to mow the lawn at the local baseball field.

Including a picture of the variety. I'm hoping the light green one is Hiddenite and that the dark green one is emerald. Don't know what the light blue one is but I kept calling it "bluejeanite" because it was exactly the color of a friend's blue jeans. The penny is just there for a size reference. Maybe some day I will have someone cut and polish these. Or maybe I'll just put them away and never think about them again. A bit blurry as it was taken indoors without enough light.

Hurry up and wait.

2008-10-06T10:48:00.002-04:00

Job hunting is maddening. I find all these positions open and submit my resume. 9 times out of 10 there is NEVER a reply, even though an email address is required. I don't get why a canned response of "You do not fit our critera" would be so difficult.

Of the 1 in 10 replies, 9 out of 10 are to say that someone else has already gotten the position..."but keep searching..we may have another position you'd fit".

I find it amazing that jobs are posted, and just sit there seemingly inactive. I have seen them listed as "open until filled" and for some reason they don't call on me for an interview. How are they going to fill the job? Or why post it if it's going to sit around?

But 2 weeks ago I did have an interview with a local company. It is a job that I am certain I can do, but would need a few weeks to come up to speed for them. Two days after the interview the HR rep called me, said the manager really liked me, and sent an email with an invitation to submit an online application. One cannot get there without the interview and access codes. So that seemed like a step in the right direction. At the interview I was told that since this is their busy time, they want to fill that position quickly, but that it would take 2-3 weeks. Is that quickly? Aren't we in a technology age?

Well, something should happen pretty soon. Just a matter of what the definition of "soon" is.

TKD forms

2008-09-18T12:56:00.002-04:00

Along with the sword demo and the board breaking, we needed to do 3 choreographed forms. Palgwe Paljang, Taeguk Paljang, and Kumgang. We were prepared to do several more and the first two here were called somewhat randomly among those that we prepared for. Just so you know, I was "spot on".

Breaking boards

2008-09-17T23:14:00.004-04:00

August 30, 2008. We had to break 7 boards in 4 or more stations. For myself I decided to do this with 4 stations. Only the second one (side kick) was a single board. The other 3 stations were 2 boards each. "Nailed" em.

Sword Play

2008-09-17T09:42:00.000-04:00

Our sword demo form, August 30, 2008.

Working on the blog agent

2008-09-15T22:58:00.004-04:00

I'm working on Phase 2 a little bit at a time because I'm learning how to do this. I want to make the interface easy to understand and use. So I present each blog in a selection list. If the list is longer than the (current) display of up to 10 items, then there will be a scroll bar on the right of the list. For test purposes I am only playing with 6 blogs in the list.

Here is a sample picture.

When the list is shown, there will be an asterisk to the left of the blogs that the agent thinks that you haven't read. This will be based on a comparison of your saved date and title for that blog and the actual most recent post date and title. The list is in a "Courier" font so it looks more tidy. The leftmost column is an asterisk or a blank.

Only one item in the list may be selected at any time (as you can see, I selected "marcelymca"). Once selected, the user can click the "View blog" or "Save blog data" button. When the "View" button is clicked then I may try to pop up a new browser window with that blog (again...still learning). However, since by that point I will have ALREADY collected the blog web page contents, this would be a little wasteful/slow. So, instead I may just pop up a different text window and paste in the web page contents. When the "Save" button is clicked then the most recent post data (date and title) will be saved into the file (and the asterisk should go away, indicating you are current on that blog).

For those of you that are reading this, interested, and get the whole idea/concept, let me know what you think.

The job hunt (only for humor)

2008-09-15T09:00:00.002-04:00

I had a job working in an Orange Juice factory, but I got canned. I couldn't concentrate.

Then I worked in the woods as a Lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the axe.

After that, I tried to be a Tailor, but I just wasn't suited for it - mainly because it was a sew-sew job.

Next, I tried working in a Muffler Factory, but that was too exhausting.

Then, I tried to be a Chef - figured it would add a little spice to my life, but I just didn't have the thyme.

I attempted to be a Deli Worker, but any way I sliced it, I couldn't cut the mustard.

My best job was being a Musician, but eventually I found I wasn't noteworthy.

I studied a long time to become a Doctor, but I didn't have any patience.

Next, was a job in a Shoe Factory. I tried but I just didn't fit in.

I became a Professional Fisherman, but discovered that I couldn't live on my net income.

I managed to get a good job working for a Pool Maintenance Company, but the work was just too draining.

So then I got a job in a Workout Center, but they said I wasn't fit for the job.

I finally got a job as a Historian - until I realized there was no future in it.

My last job was working in Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.

Hello bloggers!

2008-09-09T22:51:00.002-04:00

Howdy,

Been awhile since my last blog post. I have some bad news, some indifferent news, and some good news.

Bad news:
On April 22, I was laid off after 21 years of continuous employment. Company downsizing. Weak economy. Who knows what else goes into those decisions.

Indifferent news:
I'm searching for a new position. It is a pain because opportunities are few and far between, and hardly anyone gives you the courtesy of acknowledging your resume and/or telling you whether you are turned down. So it is a lot of looking, applying, and waiting. There MAY be something positive later this week, though.

Good news:
1. I took and passed 2 online programming courses. The first was in Java and the second was Perl. These two are used a lot these days and I felt that everything I used for 21 years was mostly stone age. So, to get a new position I needed to become more current.
2. On August 30, I did my final test to earn third degree black belt. It was a grueling test but I did very well. Will receive the belt in December.
3. To get real (non-classroom) experience using Perl and Java, I started writing a program that I call a "blog agent". It will be done in 2 phases and phase 1 is complete.

The blog agent:

If you are like me, you want to keep up with what a lot of people write in their blogs, so you bookmark all your favorite ones and visit them once a day, or every couple of days. If there is nothing new, you go to the next one. Just calling up the web site and scanning manually uses up time. And if there IS indeed nothing new, it is basically wasted time. So, the agent will do all that scanning for me (and perhaps you some day).

Phase 1:

I built a list of my favorite blog sites, keeping the URL, the last read post date, and the last read post title. The program reads the file and builds a table of your blog URLs. Then, for each, it retrieves the web page and finds the most recent blog date and blog title. It compares those to what you have saved. If either the date or title is different, you get a notice, meaning that you should go read that blog.

example:

My test list currently looks like this:

[http://patfixer.blogspot.com/] [Sunday, January 27, 2008] [The Valance]
[http://marcelymca.blogspot.com/] [Tuesday, August 26, 2008] [Weather]
[http://chusbands.blogspot.com/] [Friday, July 11, 2008] [WORK]
[http://jgbeau.blogspot.com/] [?] [?]

the individual fields are bracketed.

The output after running the agent looks like this:

[http://patfixer.blogspot.com/] DATESAME TITLESAME
[http://marcelymca.blogspot.com/] DATEDIFF TITLEDIFF <=== go read this one.
[http://chusbands.blogspot.com/] DATESAME TITLESAME
[http://jgbeau.blogspot.com/] DATEDIFF TITLEDIFF <=== go read this one.

So, as you can see, in this list of 4 blogs, I only should go out and read 2 of them.

Phase 2 is yet to be written, but I want to add interactivity. I intend to present the list as a table of links (and the indicator of which ones should be read). Then, to read a blog, you'd just click on the link and it would show. After you read it and browse back to the table, I want to have a button that you click on to indicate that you have just read the blog. When you do that, it will use the most recent date and title of the blog post, and will overlay the old info in the save file. That way, the NEXT time you run the agent it will do it's work against the items that you have "told it" that you have already read.

At first I wrote this with Perl, but I think the interactivity will be better with Java, because I can get it to run in a browser window by making it a thing called and "applet". We played with applets in the class that I took.

So, now that Phase 1 is complete I can start on Phase 2.

Will put up another post soon on the trials and tribulations of job searching.

So long for now.

MAME locks and late Christmas gift

2008-06-21T22:23:00.002-04:00

The locks on the MAME cabinet were actually simpler to do than I thought. In order to see how much the lock bars needed to be modified I removed the entire coin door area. This allowed me to see from behind rather than looking at a closed door. The amount of bend needed was so small that just a few whacks with a hammer were all that was necessary. Same for the cabinet back. I removed the two mating parts and was able to see how much bend was needed...again, just a small bit. It took longer to remove and replace the parts then it did to do the bending. Now all of the locks are installed and working. Because there are 3 locks and individual keys, I put labels next to each lock, using the numbers engraved on the keys. The locks did not have an engraved number.

So now I need a final control panel and the MAME system will be complete.

On a different project, I had run out of time before Christmas, so I gave "IOUs", rather than handmade gifts, to 3 nephews. Not going to say what these are, but I have now completed the construction and staining. I will be going to Atlanta next week, so I am focusing on finishing the one for Cheryl and Scott's son Daniel. I can hand deliver that one. It has 2 coats of finish now and needs one more (tomorrow). Then I can add the hardware (fairly simple). Then hand deliver on Thursday. Will take pictures and post them after they are all done and delivered.

MAME coin door and slots

2008-06-12T22:02:00.003-04:00

Today I took a little break from woodworking and spent a little more time on my arcade system (aka "MAME").

A while back I had disassembled the coin door. This was once a real working system and vandals had tried to kick in the door to steal the coins or tokens. I wanted to hammer out the dents and make it look more respectable, which I did. The trouble was that I had long forgotten how to put the coin slot mechanisms back together again.

I contacted the man that I bought the cabinet from and went for a visit. During my visit I brought back the old monitor and a transformer. Both worked, but I didn't need them, and since he is in "the biz" I figured that he could use them as spare parts. In return I asked if one of his people could reassemble my coin door. None of his workers were there, so he gave me another coin door from a different cabinet. I used that as a pattern to reassemble my own.

Next up was to do some wiring. The coin slots have lights, to show you where the coins go. I had done some research and found that I could run these off a 12V source. When I got the PC I also got a Y-type splitter for internal drive components. I modified this and installed it in the PC, then ran my new wire out the back. I had to extend the coin door light wires, but that wasn't a problem When done I turned it on. Only 1 light came on, but I knew that it was wired ok. I pulled the bulb and found a broken filament. This bulb is commonly used in automotive trailer marker lights. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought a package of 2. Plugged one in and it worked, but the brightness was not the same as the original. Since it was a pack of 2 I changed out the original and they both glow the same now.

Finally, I did some more extension wiring and made another little Y adapter so that I could activate the coin door switches. When you put in a coin it rolls past a switch and that is wired to the computer to add "credit" to a game. If you look at my previous pictures you can see a green button on the console. That button was and still is wired to add credit. For now I hooked up the coin slots in parallel, so that credit could be added with a coin or a push of the green button. When I powered it up I started up Donkey Kong, and then inserted a coin. It was so pleasing to see it add credit. I tested both slots and they both work. Fantastic.

The green button still works, but it is temporary until the entire system is complete. When I build and install the permanent control panel the machine and keyboard will all be locked up. Then the only way to add credit will be with coins (ok, and with a black button that I will hide on top of the cabinet).

Here is how it looks with the coin slots illuminated:

Note that the locks are still not done. Those will be next. I wanted new locks but for some reason, store bought locks fit the holes right, but the locking bars do not engage their slots correctly. That will require a little lock bar bending (heat + anvil).

Tequila Sunrise pen

2008-06-10T09:17:00.005-04:00

Recently at a group dinner I brought some of the recent pens I made. I gave one to one of the ladies who had a birthday in January. Another one of these lady friends had a birthday in March and said "How come I don't get a pen?" teasingly. I said I didn't know about her birthday and that I would make her one.

This lady likes to wear bright colors. She even buys reading glasses with unique, colorful frames. At the woodworking store I found a pen blank that was made as a glue up of many thin strips of colorful dyed wood. The manufacturer calls this particular blank "Tequila Sunrise."

I had trouble with a "blow out" while doing a trimming task, and it ruined one end of one of the barrels. I tried to fix it with the blown out wood chips and Super Glue. But it blew out again, even worse. So I bought another pen blank and had more success.

Here is the Tequila Sunrise pen. I took two pictures...one where I rotated the pen 90 degrees. These I cropped and merged into one picture.

Boat bookcase complete

2008-06-06T10:11:00.003-04:00

And now the conclusion.

I milled up some red oak strips to cover the front edge of the shelves. I made them a little long and rounded over the front edges, then stained them. Laid them in place, marked the ends, cut to size and nailed in place. In the picture only the two closest to the stern are done.

Then the rope edging. Cut to length and "whipped" the ends, then nailed in place.

That completed construction. I still would like to do some faux weathering, but it's good enough for now, so I moved it in place. For the picture I wanted to include the chest of drawers and the bamboo floor lamp with it's simulated crate base. Had to pull way back so you don't get a good idea of the size. The boat is almost 6 feet tall and at it's widest it is just under 3 feet. It's heavy and rock solid, but not too heavy...I was able to bring it upstairs by myself.

One more project to mark off of the unfinished list!

The rope chair/A-frame "thingy"

2008-06-04T17:10:00.006-04:00

Thought some of you might like to see this. Taking a little detour while the paint dries on the boat/bookcase.

Back in April I made this device for my son's "Tropical Room". The rope chair was given to me by someone I dated a few times. But it needed something to hang from. Using a bunch of 2x4s, that I took apart from other things that once were used for garage storage, I made a frame. The frame had to be wider than the top bar of the rope swing, and only come out from the wall about 3 feet.

First, I made a giant carpenter's square using 2 of the 8 foot 2x4s and making marks at 3 and 4 feet. When these marks were 5 feet apart...

I attached a diagonal brace and some more blocking to make it secure. Now it was ready to use.

Under this I laid one of my diagonal legs for marking. I put pieces of tape on the "square" to aid in the layout. Since I wanted it to have no more than a 3 foot span, the bottom piece of tape is 1.5 feet from the edge of the square. At the top of the picture you can see a small piece of 2x4 clamped in place to simulate the top beam.

I traced around the simulated top beam and the bottom of the leg...

...and cut out one leg. Then I used that leg to trace onto the 3 others and cut them all out. Here is a rough layout of one side of the frame.

And here is how the tops of the legs come together for the beam, which will be 2 pieces of 2x4 screwed together.

In this picture I simulated the beam and the floor.

Then I added a small angled block at the top and a brace in about the middle to make it an "A". The middle brace is drilled from underneath and bolted on. Makes for a smooth look when standing up.

Then I made the beam (just 2 pieces of 2x4 screwed together and cut to length)and put everything in place held with clamps.

After bolting the beam in place I set the rope swing in for a test run. It worked fine but at this point the entire frame had some side to side wobble.

I needed diagonal braces. For fun I wanted to use metal, copper in fact, but that was just too darn expensive. I got 1/2 inch galvanized electrical conduit instead. A 10 foot piece was about 2 bucks, as I recall. This I cut into 4 equal pieces and temporarily clamped them in place to get a visually appealing angle that did not interfere with the swing rotation.

For permanent fastening I first added temporary wood bracing to keep things plumb and level.

Then I went to work on the metal. Using a hand sledge and piece of 2x4 as an anvil I flattened the ends of each piece. I set thse in place and made marks, then bent them in a vice (using the sledge. Then drilled for screws.

In this pic you see:
Left - One diagonal brace before work done.
Right - One brace, flattened, bent, and drilled
Center - Test of faux painting. I wanted them to look rusty so I spray painted with rust colored primer paint, but not full coverage.

When all the pieces were fitted I removed the temporary bracing and painted each. Here is the unit with all the construction completed.

At this point I want to faux paint the wood to make it look weathered. My sister Cheryl did this for the small chest of drawers in the Tropical Room. I want to do the same thing, so that they will go together.

Here is that chest of drawers, which simulates a packing crate.

That's all for now!

Boat bookcase 6

2008-06-03T16:24:00.003-04:00

Continuing on...

I decided to decorate the top edge (which will really be the front edge) with 3/4 inch rope, rather than solid wood. This edge is curved and it would be too much trouble to make solid wood edging for it. But in order to attach the rope I needed a 3/4 inch edge, so I glued a thin strip of 1/4 inch plywood to the edge. Here you see a short pice of rope set on the edge, as a test.

At the bow I made a sort of boomerang shaped piece, to add more boat-like detailing. To do this I glued up 3 pieces of 1/4 inch plywood into a rectangular plank (I didn't have any 3/4 inch big enough), laid it in place and traced it with a pencil. Then cut it on the bandsaw, glued and nailed it on, then sanded to exact size. Two things you can see in this picture is how the rope will come "up to" this boomerang piece, and that the plywood shelves will need solid wood edging equal to the thickness of the boomerang.

And I got busy painting. First, 3.5 hours of applying primer/sealer to the entire boat. Then I started on the outer hull with blue, at the suggestion of Cheryl, 15 months ago. I had only about a half can of spray paint and applied a few thin coats on each side. You can still see white through it, BUT I am intending to make it look weathered, so this should be sufficient. Next will be to start painting the interior...plain white. And I will mill up some solid wood for the plywood edges.

Boat bookcase 5

2008-05-29T16:21:00.004-04:00

Well, 15 months of down time and I'm back to work on the boat bookcase.
For a recap see:
1. here,

2. here,

3. here,

4. and here,

I left off needing to contour the sides of the shelves so that they match the curve of the boat, defined by the plywood back (er, bottom?). I thought this was going to take a long time because all I had was a belt sander. Well, recently I bought a cheap angle grinder and this thing removes wood pretty quickly. So I used the grinder and sander and had the shelves ready in about 45 minutes.

Now I needed a bow support. I marked and cut a piece of 2x4, screwed it to the bow and contoured it as well.

The strip running down the length on top is only temporary. It is nailed into each shelf so that the front edge of the shelves are the same distance apart as the back edges, which are screwed to the plywood back.

On to the boat sides. I wanted something at least 1/2 inch thick, and painted, but knew that I wasn't going to be able to bend 1/2 inch plywood. The answer was to use 2 pieces of 1/4 inch plywood for each side and make a sandwich with glue in between. Here is the plywood marked and ready to cut. The piece closest to the camera is extra.

With the plywood cut to width I applied glue down the shelf edges and fastened the first side. Here it is from the inside:

And here it is from the outside:

Then I applied the other side. I had to hold my camera a little high to snap this pic, so it doesn't do it justice.

Finally, using a spray adhesive, I applied a liberal coat to the second pieces and installed them on top of the first. Then I removed the long strip for the front edge spacing. I didn't take a picture, but it looks like a boat at this point.

Next up will be sanding, painting, and applying solid wood strips to cover the plywood edges.

Couple of things going on.

2008-05-06T19:48:00.003-04:00

Hello there.

I can't believe that it has been more than a month since my last blog entry. Since then I have been working on two things.

I put together a sort of "A-frame" thingy to suspend a rope chair from. The construction is complete and only needs some faux-weathering (paint job). It took about a week to build and was sort of fun. In order to do it (I had no plans, just knew what it should look like) I first built a HUGE carpenter's square out of two 2x4s. Used the 3 foot/4 foot/5 foot right triangle to lay out the angled legs. Once I had one leg made I was able to take apart the jig and use those as 2 of the other 3 legs. You'll see when I post pictures. The thing is tremendously sturdy and made entirely from wood I had laying around plus 10 feet of electrical conduit (less than 3 bucks!!) for braces.

The other thing I have been doing is tiling my basement laundry room/half bath. No easy chore, this area had 2 layers of vinyl flooring, separated by 1/4 inch plywood and all glued down to cement. The plywood and top layer (done by me, too hastily, about 15 years ago) had bubbles under it and popped when you stepped over one. This would not make for a good tile base. So I used a heat gun and removed EVERYTHING down to the concrete. It took 5 days to do the removal of 66 square feet. Yes, I know, asbestos potential. But from what I read, asbestos is a problem when you are exposed to it for LONG periods of time (read: miners of asbestos came down with lung diseases). I wore a respirator and worked slowly and carefully. Anyway, I just finished laying the tile and now I need to put in the grout. When that is done I will add tile baseboards that match. Then it will be complete and hopefully last a VERY long time.

Pictures pending...I've been taking them as I go. Just too busy to format and upload them.

Next post sooner.

Wrenching complete!

2008-03-28T19:47:00.002-04:00

That last bolt was stubborn. So I cut it off using a Dremel and cutting wheels. First I had to wait for the battery to charge, then I went through 3 cutting wheels. With that the draw bar came right off the trailer hitch. I cleaned it up a little and took it to the welder. I thought I would be dropping it off and picking it up next week, but he took it right away and about 10 minutes later the new receiver tube was welded nicely to the draw bar...only cost $20.

Back at home I used a wire wheel to clean up the draw bar and welds, then primed and painted with a couple of coats of black RustOleum ($4). Before I could remount the drawbar I cleaned up all the bolts and nuts with a wire wheel and lubricated the nuts with PB Blaster. When they were sufficiently clean I could run them most of the way up the bolts just by hand. Then, I had to remove the remainder of the bolt that I had cut off. It required more cutting to make it shorter, then it slipped out of the hole.

I decided that 3 bolts out of 4 will be sufficient for the time being. So I remounted the draw bar with the 3 bolts. Some time in the future I will probably get 4 new bolts. It was amazing how many tools were needed to use to get this job done. I cleaned them all up and put them away.

The hitch looks and works great now. I can mount anything without the spare tire interfering. And my back feels perfectly fine now too! Total cost was about $45, compared to buying a new hitch for about $170 plus shipping.

Wrenching update.

2008-03-27T11:55:00.003-04:00

Two more of the stubborn bolts are now free, thanks to PB Blaster, a blow torch, and some more wrenching. Thankfully not enough to hurt my back.

That makes 3 out of 4. Hopefully that last one will let go soon.

Wrenching

2008-03-27T09:27:00.002-04:00

Last week I did a little back yard cleanup. There were some logs to cut up into firewood length, then split for firewood. That went fine. I have a nice gas powered logsplitter which I rolled down to the backyard using a trailer dolly placed under the coupler. But I couldn't get it back uphill to the garage...too heavy. Luckily, a neighbor with a pickup truck came by and he pulled it up for me.

See, last year I had two vehicles, with trailer hitches...both died. One went to a junk yard and the other was donated to the Kidney Foundation. That left me with a minivan with no trailer hitch, and the other Jeep that HAS a trailer hitch that can't be used. Why can't it be used? Because the spare tire mounted on the back of the Jeep renders the hitch ball inaccessible. Weird, but true!

I have a need to pull the logsplitter or a trailer from time to time, so it would be nice to have a useable trailer hitch. The one on the Jeep has a FIXED ball mount. I really like "receiver" type hitches so you can easily slide in a "mount" that has the hitch ball of a desired size. I still have 3 mounts with 3 different size balls...just no receiver hitch.

A new receiver hitch for that old Jeep would cost upwards of $170. But I found a receiver TUBE ($20) that is designed to be welded to farm equipment. It looks like it could easily be welded to the draw bar of the current hitch, so I bought that. In order to get it welded (hopefully only about $50) I need to take either the hitch or the drawbar to a welder. I carefully measured and clamped the receiver tube in place on the draw bar so that the spare tire would not interfere. Then I decided to remove the draw bar to take it to the welder (ligher and not as unwieldy as the entire hitch).

The nuts and bolts are rusty and are holding very well. To remove the fixed ball so that I could clamp the tube in place, I had to use a torch to heat the nut. Then with a pipe wrench and an adjustable wrench I was able to take that off. It took a lot of wrenching. Then there are 4 bolts holding the drawbar on. With heat and persuasion I got one off. Moved to the next one and instead of wrenching IT off I ended up wrenching my BACK. I was in pain, but luckily had some Doan's pills. Took those and rested for a few hours and am much better now.

So now it's chemical persuasion time. I spray the remaining bolts with "PB Blaster" and tap them in the hope that rust adhesion breaks free. This needs to be repeated a couple times a day. Sooner or later the bolts should come off. Since I'm not in a hurry I can do this at a leisurely pace. Don't want to get hurt again.

MAME control

2008-03-03T18:33:00.004-05:00

On Saturday I was sitting around thinking, well, the biggest thing left is to make the pretty control panel. I wish it were done already so we could play games nicely with joysticks and buttons, rather than just a keyboard.

Then it hit me. Why not make a TEMPORARY control panel, so we can experience the real thing, and use that UNTIL the real control panel is done.

So we whipped up a control panel.

First, we cut a piece of 3/4 inch plywood to fit between the cabinet sides...basically the exact same size as the "mockup" panel. Then thought about the games to play. I wanted something that would play a lot of games, but didn't need to play every single one. So I came up with a layout of 8 controls. I marked these and showed my son how to drill them. He did all of the drilling except for 1 hole.

Then we attached the controls.
1 joystick, 2 buttons for actions (red and orange), a 1 and 2 player start, an "escape" (blue) to get out of a game back to the menu, a "pause" (black), and a "coin added" button (green...for money). This is just temporary, mind you.

I attached the wires after consulting a diagram that came with the wiring harness. The only tricky thing is the joystick. When you move a joystick UP, it actually presses a switch in the DOWN orientation...so everything wired on the bottom is reversed. I knew this ahead of time and had no problem.

Then I simply used 4 L-shaped corner braces to screw it in place. Hooked it up to the computer and keyboard and it all worked great!

With a little more reading, I found that the "Escape" and "Pause" functions had no corresponding switch...but they are accomodated by pressing and holding the "Player 1 start" button in combination with another button or joystick movement. So, to that end I put some blue tape in place OVER the top of those buttons (could have removed them) and a couple of strips of tape with writing that reminds us how to activate those 2 functions.

It couldn't work any better. We played the rest of the weekend and had a LOT of fun. A joystick and regular arcade buttons make a HUGE difference, and it eliminates the possibility of mishit keys on a keyboard.

I could live with it like this for a long time, but it would be nice to have the real control panel equipped with trackball, spinner, and controls for 2 players simultaneously. So I'll start to work on that right away.

MAME cabinet...working top down.

2008-02-29T08:43:00.008-05:00

Here's a top down progress update.

No good arcade machine is complete without the marquee to draw you in. I wanted mine to reflect that it is running MAME and all my favorite games from yesterday. I took measurements and calculated sizes, then printed a montage of old game marquees. The pictures came from the internet and I used Powerpoint to do the work.

I cut out the 3 parts and taped together. Then I cut two pieces of plexiglass and put the paper between them, making a sandwich. Then set in place and held with the retainer strips. I like it, and it wasn't difficult. If and when I want a new marquee, or if this one fades, I can just reprint.

Next, working down, is making the monitor area look nicer.

Not easy to tell what is going on in the picture. I'm using black foam board to surround the monitor and need to cut out a rectangle that exactly matches the frame of the monitor. The first time I did this just measuring and it did not come out good at all. So this was my second attempt. Using scraps of the foam board I made an exact replica of the monitor frame. I traced this on light colored paper and cut that out, so I have an exact template of the glass area of the monitor (inside the frame). Using the light paper I taped it to the foam board and cut out the rectangle. Then I took measurements from the edges of the rectangle outward to trim off the ends so it would fit inside the cabinet. That worked perfectly.

It turned this:

into this:

The foam board is held in place with rubber cement, applied to the monitor frame and the back of the foam board. When it dried, I pressed the 2 pieces together. The foam board can come off easily if needed, and rubbing the cement with a finger makes it come off...I like that.

To complete the monitor area I cut a sheet of Lexan to fit, trimmed off 3 inches on all 4 edges of the paper cover, and painted with 4 coats of black spray paint (formulated for plastic).

When the paint was dry I peeled off all the paper...

and and set in place.

Here it is displaying Ms. Pac Man...
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...and Burger Time.

As you can see, the foam board and black paint don't make for a seamless transition into the monitor, but it looks good enough for me.

The next step will be to build the new control panel, and box it in. In some of the above pictures you can see the old blue and red metal control panel, sitting on the floor. That panel/box fit between the sides of the machine correctly and matched the side angles just right, so I am going to use it as a pattern, but replicate it in wood.

Stay tuned.

Good MAME progress

2008-02-18T09:30:00.008-05:00

Made wonderful progress over the weekend.

Power switch.
The toggle switch is installed and turns everything on. Here are the parts needed. A power strip, electrical box and cover plate, orange extension cord (8 ft), toggle switch, and heat shrink tubing. Look carefully at the connector on the orange cord. That's why I no longer used it, but just knew that one day I would have use for the wire.

Fisrt thing I did was strip some of the wire in the orange cord...the white and the black. There is no ground connection needed so I cut the green wire flush. I then soldered the wires to the toggle switch and covered the connections with heat shrink tubing. I've now brushed up on my soldering skills...not to be used for another 20 years?

Then I cut the power cord on the power strip leaving about 8 inches. I mounted the blue plastic box to the base of the cabinet, then pushed the 3 cables (2 blacks and one orange) into the box. Made all the connections and closed it up. The picture confuses...you have to mentally block out any wire that is plugged into the power strip. There are 4 things plugged into the power strip...2 black wires and 2 white.

Then I mounted the toggle switch in the top. In this picture the switch is on ( because the fluorescent light is on).

Monitor.
I removed the old monitor and cut a board to fit. Drilled finger holes in the corners for if and when I need to pull it out (have already done that several times).

To mount the monitor I needed 4 threaded studs to fit into holes on the back of the monitor. I got a threaded rod and used a Dremel to cut it into 4 pieces. The nuts in the picture are to "clean up" the thread after the cutting is done.

Then I put on nice little brass Knurled nuts.

I made a template of the mounting holes on the back of the monitor, drilled the holes in the board, put the studs into the monitor holes, laid the board onto the studs (so they come through the holes, and then secured with the knurled nuts. Getting ahead with this picture, but you now see the completed monitor installation.

Windows XP boots up sideways, but the arcade front end launches at startup time and the games come up in the correct orientation. When this is all done there will not be a keyboard and mouse in easy reach, so it is important to start up right to the arcade front end and exit that into shut down.

If you look closely you see a white button coming through the bottom left hole of the monitor board.

Power button.
Today's PCs have a power button on front of the tower. If you turn off a power strip, then turn it back on, the PC goes into a standby mode...not ON. So you have to push the button. Well, in this system that tower is inside a cabinet. So I did a little research. Found that the power button is a switch that is "normally open". When you press the button the switch "closes" and the power supply detects the little 5 Volts that are sent along the two small wires.

No problem!! The arcade buttons are set up with normally open switches and 5V is nothing! So I mounted a white button on the front of the cabinet, way up above the monitor, by the speakers. The picture above shows how I had it when I was getting it all to work. The picture below shows it in it's final location.

Then I used some old telephone wire to hook it up. I cut the power button wires inside the PC and hooked the other end of the phone wires to those wires. Works absolutely perfect! To turn on my system I now flip the toggle switch and press the button. The tan colored wire in the picture below is the one that runs from the new white power button and into the back of the PC tower.

So you can see in this picture where the button is mounted (by the left speaker above the monitor) and my son playing PacMan.

NEW PC !!!
At the flea market I found a Pentium 4 tower for $150. Brought it home, dumped the software onto it, and rigged up the power button. It runs perfectly. The system works so well that I have placed all the components inside and started bundling the wires. I am going to staple wires to the cabinet sides later for neatness, but for now just wanted to have them untangled and fairly neat.

Tokens.
The arcade cabinet had 14 brass tokens in the bottom. They were very dirty and tarnished. Since I want this machine to be run by tokens I thought these could use a cleanup. We soaked them in "Tarn-X" for a little bit. Most of the discoloration came off and they look vastly improved. But I think they can use some more cleaning (the picture shows the best 2). Here's a before and after.

What's next.
So next up will be to start working on the control panel and also a monitor "bezel". A bezel is the trim piece that masks all the ugliness behind. For raw material, I picked up a piece of black foam board at an arts and crafts store. It isn't the exact dimensions needed, but the bezel will also be covered by a piece of plastic that will be painted black around the edges, so together they should make for a nice screen appearance.

Progress on the MAME arcade cabinet

2008-02-14T22:24:00.003-05:00

I've had successes and failures.
First, I could not interface the arcade monitor to the computer that I have. I've tried two video boards and disabling the video on the mother board...no luck. So I punted and bought a nice 19 inch rectangular LCD monitor. I noticed, in a movie theater, that older games tend to have the monitor set up in "portrait" mode. And I learned that MAME will play the games in portrait mode. But Windows will not play that way. Since everything will be all closed up it would be impossible to rotate the monitor at will.

So I did some research and found a "front end" program called "MaLa". It will display in portrait mode and it will kick off the games in portrait mode as well. If I put this into the Windows Startup folder then one will see some sideways Windows stuff UNTIL Mala gets going. This will only be if the machine is ever turned off. But booting in this manner is hands free anyway, so it is not even a problem. Once MaLa is going, operation is done using a joystick to select a game from a menu and then the player 1 start button to load it. To run, one then will put in a token, then press player 1 start again. Pretty simple.

Was having difficulty with some of the games regarding sound and video, but I found out that I was using TOO current of a version of MAME. The current versions rely on newer and better hardware. When I installed an older version all of the problems went away, except for one game, Joust 2. I will keep my eyes and ears open for a newer FREE computer to swap out in the future. Swapping out should be pretty simple if and when the time comes.

On top of the cabinet is a toggle switch for the OLD arcade system. I would like to utilize that for a 6 outlet power strip that will have all the plugs for the new hardware...computer, speakers, monitor, marquee light. I thought about it a little and figured that I could wire the switch in SERIES with the switch that is ALREADY on the power strip. The power strip will be permanently enclosed in the cabinet and will always be set to ON. So the toggle switch, in series will interrupt the power going to the power strip. But I looked and the old toggle switch is only rated for 3 amps (it was connected to a transformer). I need to get a new toggle switch rated for 15 amps because that is what the power strip needs. Also I need to get a length of wire that is good for 15 amps in order to hook it up.

I removed the old arcade monitor and cut a piece of plywood to match the space. Next I will mount the new monitor to that plywood and can actually put all the computer hardware in the cabinet at that point. It will be a self contained, playable system at that point, but will still need a control panel to replace the keyboard. Then several touchups.

Pictures once I get the monitor mounted.

MAME

2008-02-05T09:23:00.000-05:00

This may not interest you, but I am putting together an arcade system called a "MAME cabinet." MAME (google it) is a piece of software that runs on your computer and emulates different video game systems, including the arcade systems of the past few dacades. It runs the actual game software from chips that were on the original equipment. So PacMan "IS" PacMan, not some clone of PacMan. etc.

I currently have MAME and about 28 old arcade games on my PC but they don't quite have the same arcade "feel." My son loves the games too and I have found that I can bargain with him for play time. So I did some research and found that there is a whole "slew" of people who either build or renovate their own home arcade system.

There are two ways to do it. Start from scratch, or start with an existing system. I chose the latter.

I got a used, non-working arcade machine, and the fellow that I bought it from delivered it. Too heavy to move around I laid it down and modified the bottom to have recessed casters. Now it looks the same but rolls nicely.

I removed a good deal of the guts and control panel. I got an older computer from a friend. That PC needed a new power supply, but it is now working and running the same games as my normal home PC. It will be dedicated to the MAME cabinet.

I designed a new control panel that is flexible enough to play dozens, if not hundreds of games. This is important because a game like PacMan only had a joystick, Donkey Kong had a joystick and a "jump" button, and Missile Command had a trackball and 3 "base fire" buttons. Most games are a joystick and one button, but I wanted to provide for more. The plan is complete, but I needed to figure out the spacing. When all the controls arrived, my son and I built a "mockup" of the panel using a drill and a piece of thin plywood. It looks neat, but pointed out that the spacing needs work. So we will soon make mockup 2. When that is all figured out we can make the real panel and do the wiring.

Now, that wiring thing may sound difficult, but I am standing on the shoulders of giants. I am not the first person to do this, and there is a ton of reference information on the web. I actually bought a kit and a little circuit board that will make it all simple.

I need to adjust the video output of the PC to sync with the monitor in the arcade cabinet. It is not your typical VGA monitor. I modified a VGA cable so that I can plug it into the PC and the monitor, but I need to make sure that the video output of the PC graphics card syncs up correctly. Again, lots of information on the internet.

The machine will actually be coin operated. This is where the motivation comes in with my son. Like I said, I have already determined that I can bargain with him for behavior when it comes to games. He will earn tokens to use in the arcade machine. I currently have 14 tokens (they were actually in the cabinet on the floor) and can easily go exchange some dollars at a game room to get some more. When my son does something good he'll get a token. After he uses it, I can reclaim it from inside the machine. In that way we both get what we want.

I figure this will take a few more weeks and will be done. Nothing is particularly difficult and I have experience with PCs, soldering, woodworking, and a little bit of metal working. I'm keeping a journal on this, rather than blogging all the little details. Later on I will copy the journal into blogs.

The original non-working game machine.

Modification to the bottom for recessed casters.

Gutted machine with mockup of new control panel.

Adult Mancala

2008-01-21T15:50:00.001-05:00

How many of you play "Adult Mancala"?
The thought came to me as I was filling up the little pill containers with vitamins.

A good fix

2008-01-15T21:30:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you have a problem and the solution doesn’t have to cost any money if you think about it long enough.

Case in point. I work from home and my office window faces West. In the morning the room benefits by opening the blinds. In the afternoon the sun comes through and is so bright that I have to close the blinds. I angle the slats up so that stray rays don’t cause extra glare…they are deflected downward. So I still get light but without it being too bright. The problem is that there are tiny oval holes in the blinds, which are inherent in the construction. Unfortunately the sun often hits me right in the eye through these little holes.

The expensive solution would be to buy and install a different kind of shade. I looked and didn’t want to do that. A cheap possibility would be to hang up a pillowcase for the short time when I close the blinds…a pain because of the way blinds are made with all the strings.

Then today it hit me. All I needed was a thin strip of fabric to block those holes. It only has to hang for about 2 hours each day and not be permanently attached to the blind. So I cut a long piece of fabric from the leg of an old pair of work slacks that were destined for the trash, and fashioned two thinner strips at one end, so I could tie it around the top of the shade. This hangs in front of the holes and is PERFECT. I consider this an experiment…Phase 1.

Phase 2 will be to redo it so the strip looks nicer and is held in place at the top with a piece of Velcro. Then I can put it up and take it down with ease each day. It cost NOTHING and does the job perfectly.

Here is a pic with the filtered light and strip in place down the right side.

A little closer up. Notice the bright spots on the fabric? That is what is being filtered.

Resolutions

2008-01-02T08:18:00.000-05:00

These are things I want to do this year. There may be more but these are off the top of my head.

Finish the things I am making for Sean, Ryan, and Danny.
Finish next year's Christmas gifts BEFORE it gets cold.
Complete the installation of my dust collection duct work.
Complete the construction of the boat bookcase.
Buy a special panel sanding machine.
Organize the work shop more.
Complete the construction of the trash can and recycling bin pull out cabinet.
Build the plate rack for over the microwave.
Build the pull out bin for the narrow cabinet left of the dishwasher.
Cook for myself more often.
Attend Tae Kwon Do more often.
Test for my third degree black belt.

...and then there was light.

2007-12-10T18:18:00.001-05:00

Over the years I have run cable TV, phone wires, done insulating, and stored and retrieved boxes. I've done duct work for bathroom vents and installed a ceiling van. Almost every time I go into the attic I need a flashlight and drill and extension cord. Most of the time the flashlight is low on batteries. The extension cord is cumbersome.

I finally solved all of that. The "attic lighting and electricity" project was about 10 years in the making.

Years ago I thought it would be nice to pull down the attic steps, climb up, and have a switch RIGHT THERE that would turn on fluorescent lights. These lights would be plugged into "wall outlets" so that I would have a convenient place to plug in my drill or any other tool I might use. Back then I had some spare electrical boxes, a switch and receptacles, and some wire. I nailed the boxes to the rafters and ran what wire I had to connect two receptacles, then ran out of wire. I closed the door and put the project on the back burner. Every now and then I would go up and say "one of these days I will get this done."

This past week I went and bought a box of wire and finished all the wiring of receptacles and the switch. The other "problem" I had back then was where to tap into for power. The other day the solution came to me. The switch was directly across from where I tapped in for the ceiling fan in my bedroom. I ran a wire across the roof ridge along the truss members and patched into the connector box I put there (so many years ago). Before hooking up those wires I had my son help me identify the correct circuit breaker to turn off.

We located the breaker by using a high tech solution. I used my cell phone to call my home phone. I went to the breaker box and talked to my son on the phone. For each breaker I asked if the bedroom light went off. We used modern technology to act like a pair of walkie talkies. Actually sent a signal MILES into space to talk to someone upstairs.

After the final connection I installed two new overhead shop fixtures. These cost about 9 bucks each and a pair of bulbs is about 3 bucks. Plugged them in, put in the bulbs, hung them, and voila. OOPS, one light fell out and smashed. Cleaned it up and installed another bulb and voila!!

The last thing to do is not a rush thing but requires another trip to the store. I'm going to get some LONG plastic ties to circle around the bulbs and fluorescent fixtures. I will connect these a little loosely (because I Love Loosely), 2 per fixture. That way, if I'm working around up there and accidentally nudge a bulb, it can fall out and be retained by the plastic ties without smashing. I'll wrap them loosely enough so that I can still remove and replace bulbs intentionally.

Anyway, cool job finished! In fact, I can even take a plug in radio up there with me if I so desire.

Finished the "Holy Family rework" project

2007-11-30T14:22:00.001-05:00

I finished the project over lunch today. The pen turned BEAUTIFULLY. At first I was concerned with some cracks in the wood, but all of that came off "outside" the diameter at the thickest part of the pen blanks.

One side.

The other side.

For a fun reference, compare the next two pictures. The first shows the approximate relationship to the original damaged piece. The pen (Joseph) could have been placed a little more upright. Also I am not sure about the grain orientation on the pen, but you get the idea.

The original damaged piece.

Finished the "Holy Grail" wine bottle stopper.

2007-11-30T11:44:00.001-05:00

Can you believe it? I completed something.

It is so shiny that it is hard to make out that it really is hollowed inside, like a drinking vessel.

From "Holy Family" to "Holy Grail"

2007-11-26T20:59:00.001-05:00

Here is the finished wine bottle stopper "finial". It is a grail cup. Appropriate for the top of a wine bottle, wouldn't you say? Didn't bother with more pictures, but it is, indeed, hollowed inside as if it were a miniature drinking vessel.

The stainless steel stopper has been ordered and I should get it in a week.

Holy Family rework

2007-11-26T15:45:00.000-05:00

I have a good friend who had a little problem. She had a figurine of the "Holy Family" which was carved from Jerusalem Olive wood. Her dog got to it and left teeth marks and bit off Joseph's head, which was then lost. She loved that figurine. I love the wood. She didn't want to just throw it away and I thought I could make something out of it. Joseph seemed to be long and wide enough for a pen and the rest for a wine bottle stopper.

So, after she got a replacement figurine she reluctantly parted with the original. Of course, she called me a "heathen" for what I wanted to do, but I reminded her that it was a BLOCK OF WOOD. It could have originally been carved into anything. I then called her an "idol worshipper" and she gave in.

Here is what I've done so far.

Original damaged figurine.

Cut apart with bandsaw.

Useable parts cut and drilled.

Wine bottle stopper mounted on lathe.

Started turning it down.

Continuing to remove what it once was.

Now just a block for final shaping. Need to decide how to make it look.

I still need to get a pen kit and a stainless steel wine bottle stopper part to finish these off. But it's easy work from here on.

Rigoletto

2007-11-07T19:01:00.000-05:00

What a great opera that was.

We got to the theater with about 20 minutes to spare before the pre-show lecture that they call the "Operalogue". This was given by the former president of the GSO Opera Company...a fellow by the name of G.W. "Trey" Aycock, the third. (I was reminded of a literature class and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot..."In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.") "The third" was accompanied by his 5 year old opera expert son named "Grant" (Could this be GW the 4th ?) Grant was very well behaved, but his Transformer toy wanted to perform one of the tenor arias..."Questa o Quella".

The lecture was not what I expected, but it was ok. In the past these lectures did not focus on the scene by scene goings on in the opera. Rather they set the mood of the composer and the times he lived in. His frame of mind, his rivals and inspirarions. "The third" ran out of time before he got through his interpretation of Act II. He used the same joke twice...asking "the fourth" to cover his ears when he mentioned a certain aspect of Gilda's character (virginity).

Anyway, TONIGHT, 3 days later, I recalled that I have a book called "Opera 101" by Fred Plotkin. I pulled this off the shelf and started reading his discussion of "Rigoletto". Guess what I found. I'm sure that some of you have guessed that "the third's" description sounded very much like Fred's. So much so that I am willing to bet that "the third" read it over and over before giving his talk. BTW, he's a lawyer.

Well, after the Operalogue we made our way to our seats. The opera started shortly after. It was tremendously appealing, visually and orchestrally. The stage designer did a beautiful job. The vocal parts and acting were top notch. I got chills listening to the "Caro Nome" sung by Gilda. The "La Donna e Mobile" was terrific (but Pavarotti used to show off, holding some of the notes longer). Of course, being a Verdi (or even a Puccini) opera, it was not over until the "heroine" died. She was not a fat lady in this one.

If you have never seen an opera, "Rigoletto" is pretty much a perfect first opera. It has great characters, great emotions, human weaknesses, joy and sorrow, lust, etc. And all without a lot of time spent dragging it out.

Afterward we had an invitation for a little snack before hitting the road. There were some finger sandwiches, crackers, brownies, and punch. The pizza flavored crackers opened my eyes and I hope to find them in the store. Nobody knew the name.

We made our way to Carrabba's for dinner. Boy was THAT good. I even locked eyes with a 20-something cutie pie at another table...twice. She smiled and shook her head as if to say she would rather be with me then with the guy she was with. All I needed was a good aria to serenade her.

Both my mom and I had a wonderful time.

Mom is here...projects in progress

2007-10-31T14:28:00.001-04:00

My mom is here for a week. She already has straightened out the kitchen and I asked her if she would focus on the garage.

So today she started on that. It's just mostly disorganized and needs a sifting through for stuff that has been kept that could go. I helped a little today. It will probably take another day or so, then I can take pictures. I found a small skeleton but wasn't sure what it had once been...mouse, bird, or frog. Anyway, today was spent putting shelves and power equipment in better places and sweeping up. Then will be the task of organizing what is on the shelves.

On Saturday we will likely go to a Renaissance Faire.

On Sunday we are definitely going to the opera...Rigormortis (by Joe Green) in Greensboro. (OK, Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. Joe Green to YOU.)

Then she leaves on Monday.

Ahhh, La Traviataaaaah!

2007-10-17T09:36:00.000-04:00

Last night was "La Traviata".
Wow, what a beautiful performance. The costumes lighting, and stage were top notch. Violetta was GORGEOUS, a terrific actress, and what a powerful voice. She could sing standing, sitting, lying on her side or back, and slumped over...all perfect. Look for this gal if you can...Cristina Nassif.
http://www.cristinanassif.com/

Giorgio was also wonderful. He was played by Robert Overman, who has performed here a few times in other roles.

The ONLY thing I would criticize was that the (VERY FAMOUS) "libiamo..." toast seemed just a little fast. It was great, but just a little too quick.

http://www.piedmontopera.org/traviata.html

Ahhh, Rio Sambaaaaaah!

2007-10-10T15:08:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I forget to stop and smell (or even look at) the roses. This morning I looked out the kitchen window and was reminded of why I love my Rio Samba rose. All those colors.

Marcel Marceau dies

2007-09-25T09:18:00.000-04:00

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy mime. But we all must pass sooner or later and people will make jokes to deal with the loss.

A moment of silence please for Marcel Marceau.
May the wind be at his feet from now on.
He has been practicing being in a coffin for many years.

Part 3: Sculpting

2007-09-11T09:50:00.000-04:00

Haven't had any time for actual carving, but I was able to obtain some pictures from a nice guy on the web who has one of the mugs that is my inspiration. He provided me with 8 shots of the mug, rotated 1/8 turn each with the camera on a tripod. So I have a perfect starting point. For now I have put grids on the 4 that I think are most critical. But I will print out all 8 for reference when I start the real work.

Also I still want to get the Moai mug on Ebay. I think I still have the bid. More practice to come soon, hopefully.

Part 2: Sculpting

2007-09-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

A little easy progress. First I used the computer to crop down to the face I want. It is a little dark so I will need to do some lightening later. Then I drew a grid using powerpoint and put the two together. The grid squares represent 1 square inch, so this will be about 22 inches tall and the correct proportion in width. I need to find some side views to get the depth right as well.

Next I cut and glued my foam block. Then, using a half sheet leftover, I made a small cube, 6 inches on each side, and started practicing. All I was doing was working from memory and imagination. As you can see I didn't leave any room for the mouth and chin. Also, I just noticed, I made the forehead upside down. Remember, this is just practice.

And here is the opposite profile. What tool am I using? Anybody see it? Yes, a Ginsu knife! This freehand work took me about 30 minutes. The styrofoam is very easy to carve.

So what's next? Well, I want a real mug to have in my hand so I can look all around it, plus take pictures from all 4 sides at the same elevation and face on. That way I can make a consistent grid for all 4 sides. Where to get a mug? There is one that I am watching on Ebay. The guy has a starting price of $7.50, there are no bids yet, and the auction ends in about 6 days. So I'll just continue practicing my carving for now. I'll finish the nose and mouth on the small piece, turn it around and practice a mouth and chin on the back side. Ears as well.

Going to try my hand at sculpting

2007-09-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

Those of you who know me well know that I don't finish much before starting on something else. What is important to me is learning and trying something new. I love the whole process.

So, why not sculpting? Yep, I'm going to try it. If it doesn't work I'll only be out a few bucks. If it does work then I'll be able to make all kinds of neat things that I like.

To start with, I need a table base. I have a small round tabletop for an end table lamp, in the basement. Currently it sits on a stool because I wanted something cooler and could not find anything.

I've long been fascinated with sculpture, Michelangelo and Bernini are my favorites. And I have also been drawn to the Moai heads of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). So, why not combine these two likes into a base for my downstairs table. Yes, it's eclectic, but I will like it.

There are many pictures to choose from on the internet, but I like the shape of the black one on the right. Note how it gets a little bigger at the base, which would do well for a table.

What I want is that, in concrete...only about 2 feet tall. As a beginning sculptor I am not going to try to emulate Michelangelo and Bernini. They "took away" stone to reveal what's inside. I'm going to make a "positive" by building up using styrofoam clay, etc. Then will make a fiberglass mold (negative), then pour the concrete to make the final positive. There will be a lot of things to learn along the way and probably successes and failures. But it's all for fun in my spare time. There's no time limit and when done I can reuse the mold (already thinking of an eclectic birdbath for the backyard).

So, where to start.

First, I need a block of styrofoam. I found a pack of 6 sheets that are 4 feet long, at Lowe's. Very inexpensive. I need to cut them in half, glue together into a block and start working it down.

Of course there are two things I needed to know. How to glue them together and how to cut without making a huge mess. If you've ever snapped apart a piece of styrofoam or cut it with a knife you know what a mess it can be...little bits everywhere that are statically charged and hard to clean up.

Both answers were readily available online. Use spray adhesive, and make a wire cutting device. What is that??? First a picture:

I cut 3 pieces of wood, screwed them together, put in two eye screws, and strung a piece of wire across. Then hooked up a car battery charger to each eye screw (set to 6 volts and 6 amps...VERY low and safe). Wherever I want to cut I can lay the wire down, plug in the charger, and pull the wire through. It actually cuts like a hot knife through room temperature butter and almost no mess !! See the strip on top that I did as a test?? It leaves little foam hairs, very fine, that stay attached, but these clean off very easily.

That's it for today.
In my next post I intend to have the block all prepared and start the sculpting. But I think I need to play with a small piece of leftovers for practice. The head I want will be put into a Powerpoint slide and superimposed with a grid. I will label the grid according to the height and width I want so I get the proportions right. Then I will mark key points and start playing. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck.

Last pen specimen for a little while

2007-08-24T09:33:00.000-04:00

My friends in California sent me 4 different species of wood. I only had pen parts to do 3 pens. Already did one of Lignum Vitae and one of Honduran Rosewood. Last night I made this one, of East India Rosewood. It sanded and finished beautifully and the picture does not do it justice. But I must say that I think I turned it a little thin, for my taste, especially near the middle.

So I have one more specimen wood, ebony, left to do. Need to order some more pen kits.

Pen specimen and cherry comparison

2007-08-23T15:44:00.000-04:00

This first pen is Honduran Rosewood. It feels like a tough wood. It sanded very nicely and gave me probably the best finished pen I've done so far. I really like this pen...the picture doesn't do it enough justice.

This next picture is a comparison of cherry, specifically for a friend named Jamie in wine country. The middle is freshly rounded barrels. On the right is a pen I made 2 months ago and finished. On the left is the first pen I ever made, which was not finished. I wanted to see how light and finger oil would change it...this pen is now about 2 years old. All of these were from the same cherry tree. For 'barfle' in Virginia, the lines are the maximum diameter...7/16ths.

What kind of wood doesn't float?

2007-08-22T14:33:00.000-04:00

This was once one of my favorite jokes, the joke answer being "Natalie Wood." No offense to Natalie or her family...I thought she was a beauty and a wonderful entertainer and passed away too soon. But a joke is a joke.

Anyway, today my answer is "Lignum Vitae". See: this link for some good information.

The wood actually sinks. Two pen blanks of this wood were sent to me by friends in California. I had heard the name but was not familiar with the wood, and was surprised by the green color. Anxious to see what a pen of it would look like I made one today. As I started turning it on the lathe it reminded me of teak...very dense and resinous. It has a strange aroma that is not extremely unpleasant, but I wouldn't want to work with it often. It turned very well and I have found that professionals really like it. It did clog up sandpaper to the point that it is simpler to throw away bits of sandpaper then try to salvage them.

I think that it made a wonderful pen. I'm pleased with how well it sanded and polished. The finish masks the aroma and even if it didn't I know that would pass because the second blank doesn't smell bad at all.

Here is a picture of my "lignum vitae" pen...the densest I've done so far, plus the second blank for comparison.

...and it isn't even spring.

2007-08-20T14:39:00.000-04:00

Beautiful song from the movie "State Fair."

I am notorious for not putting things away. Sure I am CAPABLE of doing it but rarely put the careful thought into it. So paperwork and tools pile up, and every now and then I get into a situation where SOMETHING must be done to control the clutter. Spring Fever.

In my dining room there was no space on the table for using it as a dining room. Done.

In my home office I had papers and audio/video equipment on every surface. Done.

The workshop needs a cleanup, but I have been keeping that under reasonable control.

The garage needs a good once-over and that has already been started. On Saturday I can take old paint, pesticides, etc. to the hazardous materials drop off and that will be a tremendous improvement.

Now, if only I can KEEP things this way!! I know the solution is to examine the way I store things and continuously think of improvements. May take me a lifetime to think that way.

Making panels for the wine cabinet

2007-08-09T13:25:00.001-04:00

The new edge jointer has been great for making the panels I need for the wine cabinet. Here is a picture of the machine.

Now I’ll show you how to make a panel. I started off many months ago by milling a bunch of pieces to ¾ inch thick and a few random widths, and a few inches longer than the finished length. These sat in the shop for a long time and the stresses in the wood equalized. Here is a picture of where I left off...wow, about 11 months ago!

Now the edges need to be worked a little more to make panels.

Lay out the pieces so they are a little wider than finished width. I want a 19.5 inch wide panel so at this point I shoot for around 22 inches wide. Then I move the pieces around until the grain patterns are pleasing. Determine which is the good face and turn any defects down. Note how the pieces are butted on the edges but there are gaps.

Now work on the gaps. If there is an obvious bow I clamp the piece into a homemade jig that runs against the tablesaw rip fence. I let the entire bow overhang the edge of the jig and cut it off.

This leaves a very true edge that just needs a pass through the jointer. If the amount of bow is miniscule I can sometimes skip the tablesaw step above. Those of you that know this stuff will probably say "hey, that piece on the jointer doesn't sit flat on the infeed and outfeed table." Right. The picture is just a mock-up/demo.

The process is repeated until all the pieces are true. Then I make an approximate mark on each end for removal. The planer leaves little scooped out areas called “snipe” and it is easier to cut this off as waste than try to eliminate snipe. Snipe can be around 1.5 inches, so I usually add about 4 inches (both ends + a fudge factor) to a desired finished length and then cut about 2 inches off each end. That’s why you start by making things a little longer.

About every 8 inches between the cutoff marks I make a little line across each joint. This is an alignment mark for cutting biscuit slots. Biscuits help with board face alignment during glue up and are supposed to make a stronger joint.

There’s a lot going on in this picture. Lines drawn across both ends for cutoff. Biscuit marks drawn. The biscuit slot cutting tool with the pencil pointing to the red alignment mark. And a couple of biscuits set down to show how they go. The football shaped biscuits get installed in the board edges and will not be seen.

At each mark I cut the biscuit slot. Here I show a few edges with the slots and put in a couple of biscuits for show. For this panel there are 24 biscuits to install, which meant cutting 48 biscuit slots.

Each joint was numbered way in the beginning…1-1, 2-2, etc. I glue and clamp all the odd numbered joints. Glue is spread along each edge, into the biscuit slots and onto the biscuits.

When cured I do the even numbered joints except the middle. And when that is cured I do the middle. The reason I do this as a number of glue-up steps is that I am not an expert and the working time of the glue isn’t very long. There is a lot of glue to spread before assembling the joints. SO I only do a small amount at a time. Here is a picture of the panel in the clamps.

Curing time is about ½ hour in the clamps, and 24 hours before you can stress a joint. Using the above methods I was making a couple of panels a day with the majority of time truing the edges.

Here are all the panels comprising the cabinet sides, middle, backs, and bottoms. Only 6 are shown. The 7th is still in the clamps.

Next will be to do a lot of scraping and sanding, then cutting to size, and assembly. But for now I'm going to tease with one mock-up picture of the cabinet. I didn't feel like going out to the shop to get some clamps to hold things together, so I just propped these parts together, like making a house of cards. The parts fell over several times before I got it right. You have to use a little imagination. Both sides will look like the left side. There will be a back on the left side, but open on the right. Both sides will have bottom panels at the height of the bottom face frame. The left side will have a glass door and shelves. The right side will hold a wine chilling refrigerator. The top will be one giant wine cork trivet. Of course, this is all rough size right now. It will look better soon.

Ahhhhh, new tools!

2007-07-26T15:22:00.000-04:00

The little edge jointer that I have used for almost 20 years is good for pieces of wood that are about 2 inches wide and up to maybe 16 inches long. But I have to make some large panels and this tool did not give me true enough edges on longer pieces of wood.

So I just purchased and setup a new edge jointer. The cutter head/knives are 6 inches wide and the bed is over 40 inches long. That will be good for all the projects I will probably ever make.

I have already run some pieces through it and am gluing them up into panels. The edges are coming together nicely, with just a slight turn of the clamp head.

I need to make 7 panels for the wine cabinet that was started last year. Will have some progress pictures coming soon.

Minor chess board update

2007-07-24T11:14:00.000-04:00

Not much to report since I had my son for the weekend and have been reading the new Harry Potter book.

I "ripped" all the alternating color strips, selected the best ones and glued them up into the chess board.

In the picture you can see that some of the cherry has darkened from sitting near sunlight. That is normal and expected. In fact, you can even see circles where the chess men were sitting and the sunlight did not reach. Pretty sure that will sand out.

Anyway, the board is 16 inches on each side. It needs sanding and attaching to something thicker so it remains flat. Also needs a frame, maybe walnut. And I want to build a box, with drawers for the pieces. Lots to do, but this was the tricky part.

Back to the chess board.

2007-07-18T22:38:00.000-04:00

I'm ready to work on the chess board again. Refer to this first post:
http://treebeau.blogspot.com/2006/02/anatomy-of-chess-board.html

The last 4 pictures there are "mock ups" and not really glued together. The chess board parts have been sitting around for a LONG time because it has always been difficult for me to accurately glue up thin strips of wood. I finally solved that problem with THIS setup...a makeshift glue up table.

On the bottom is a nice flat work table.

Above that are two plywood platforms that are exactly the same height.

The strips go ACROSS those platforms and extend off the sides, so I can put the clamps on.

On top of that are two pieces of plywood to hold the strips flat.

On top of that is a larger piece of plywood to evenly distribute weight.

On top of that is the weight...in this case a benchtop belt and disk sander. Wyle E. Coyote would use an Acme anvil, but I don't have one.

Here's how it works.
1. Set up the flat work table and plywood platforms (see pics 1 and 2).
2. Apply glue to the edges of the strips.
3. Lay them flat and next to each other (see pic 3).
4. Put all the plywood and weight on top (see pics 4, 5, and 6).
5. THEN apply the clamps, watching the edges come together so nicely.
It would be a mistake to reverse steps 4 and 5.

More to come.

My little hunter

2007-07-18T10:01:00.001-04:00

For several weeks there has been a little black and white cat that I see in my yard every now and then. I like cats and don't want to scare him away. I'll go near and indicate that I'm friendly. He'll come nearer and have a chat with me, but rarely wants a petting. Then he'll walk away. He wears a flea collar so I'm pretty sure he's not a stray.

So, why does he come and spend time in my yard? I certainly don't feed him or give him water. Today I realized why. My yard is a hunting ground. I looked out the bathroom window this morning and the cat was laying in the natural area where I have noticed several holes in the ground. Also, this year I have seen an increase in chipmunks. This cat must be hunting the chipmunks. Good for him!

The chipmunks aren't really a nuisance and they're really cute. Fast little buggers too. But the holes. I'm concerned that the holes will make easy homes for yellow jackets, who make their colonies in the ground. Hopefully the size of the holes is too big for the yellow jackets liking.

The happy recipients

2007-07-16T10:15:00.001-04:00

On Saturday I went to lunch with my two lady friends and they each received their "Pretty tool boxes." They were so excited and pleased. Both were amazed with the detail that went into them and were curious how I got the grain to line up between the tops and bottoms (they thought that I made the tops and bottoms separately, rather than make a box and cut it in half).

Anyway, here is a picture of my two best friends and their gifts.

Finale: Pretty Tools and Boxes

2007-07-05T15:19:00.000-04:00

The final post on this project.

The flocking of the box tops went ok. It was my first time applying this stuff, so I tried to be extra careful. You apply the glue with a brush then pump the fibers onto the glue. The directions tell you to apply more than you think you need and only the stuff that hits the glue will stay on. The rest can be recycled for later. The fibers are TINY and light. There is a lot of overspray and they are easily airborne, so there is a LOT of cleanup involved. Not difficult, just not enjoyable. Also, I used a large clean plastic box as a spray booth to help collect the overspray easier. I masked the box edges, applied the flocking, let them sit about 15 hours, and unveiled. Looks pretty good to me.

Now for the bottoms. I had repairs to do and decided on Durham's Water Putty. The first time I think I mixed it a little too soupy and didn't have good adhesion. So I tried again a little thicker and had decent success. After sanding I used a primer paint on the trays so that the flocking glue wouldn't dry too quickly by being absorbed into the wood. That's why they are white.

The trays were glued into the box bottoms and the edges sealed with more Water Putty. Once sanded they were given another coat of primer paint. Then the flocking was applied, same as to the tops, but there were a lot more nooks and crannies to take into account.

Lastly, I matched the bottoms and tops and installed the hinges, clasps, and a small personally customized name plate. I had a trophy/engraving place make them earlier in the year.

Empty:

One set of floral tools:

Another set of tools:

All 3 stacked showing name plates:

Two boxes are for close friends and the third is for one of my sisters, Dawn, who already has the tools. Her tool box will be mailed. I will try to get a picture of my friends with their gifts. They live here and I hope to get together with them this weekend.

And now it's on to work on another project. This one was a lot of steps over many days. It would be nice to do something that has more immediate satisfaction.

Part 5: Pretty tools and boxes

2007-07-02T14:02:00.000-04:00

Getting really close to the end now.

All of the boxes have been cut in half, stained, and finished.

The inner trays have been shaped, cut to size, and sanded. There was still some chipout to repair. To do this I wanted to try the "Durham's Water Putty" as recommended by Uncle Marty. I found that this product was easy to use and it seems to make a good repair. Using a popsicle stick I built up the damaged areas higher than necessary then, after it dried, I ground and sanded it down as needed.
One tray before grinding/sanding:

And after:

When all the chipout is repaired the trays will be glued into the box bottoms. I'll use a silicone based adhesive to allow for seasonal movement of the wood. A small gap around the edge of the tray will be filled with more "Water Putty" so the flocking will be good around the edges.

When that is set I will mask the inner edges of the box bottoms and lids, and apply the glue and flocking. When the flocking is set up I can install the hinges and clasps and call them finished!

Should conclude with the next post.

Part 4: Pretty tools and boxes

2007-06-27T12:26:00.000-04:00

Continuing on.

I made a dumb mistake that set me back a little. The 4 part frames for the boxes were a little bit off in the corners. I tried passing them through the thickness planer to true them up and ended up making a tear-out mess. Very unsatisfactory. So I carefully cut out the torn up pieces, made some replacements, and glued up new frames.

Then I glued up all 6 panels to make the tops and bottoms of the 3 boxes. These were planed to 1/4 inch thick. I have glued the bottom onto all 3 boxes, trimmed them close to exact, and trued them up with on the router table using a straight "pattern" bit. This bit has two cutting edges that are lined up perfectly with a bearing. The box side runs along the bearing and the cutters remove the excess. Does a GREAT job.

Two bottoms done and getting ready to do the third.

Shows the pattern bit in the router table and the wood to cut off.

All three bottoms done.

Next was to glue on the tops and then do the same router magic. Look how many clamps it takes.

So like mentioned before they now look like cigar boxes that can't be opened.

Then some sanding, then cutting the tops off. There is a method to cutting boxes. First, do the two ends, then tape the ends and put shims into the saw kerf, then do the front and back.

Works like a charm if one keeps the same face of the box against the fence for all four cuts AND does not move the fence. ALMOST made that mistake.

Next will be more sanding, staining, and then finishing. Still need to work on the tray inserts a little (bondo/filler/grinding/smoothing) then install and spray in the flocking. Probably a few more easy days and this will be done.