One year ago today: June 10, 2016, $3k and it scratches.
Five years ago today: June 10, 2012, Maserati = I same rat.
Nine years ago today: June 10, 2008, it wasn’t really a gig.
Random years ago today: June 10, 2010, it’s a “scoot coupe”.
Here, does this give a better perspective of how the lantern jig works? At this stage, the assembly is not rigid. Instead, another jig (not shown) lies flat on top of what you see here, and four dowel holes are drilled precisely into the center of the uprights. This the point at which certain, um, discrepancies began to emerge.
Thusforth, I proceeded with due obedience to the rules, even using shoe polish to stain the wood. The jig string is true hemp, the jig wood is Georgia pine. No metal braces or nails or pins inside the wood. The jig as shown here is glue and wood only, partly because I knew doing it that way would cause me to at least try to think like they did in 1860. I was right, read on.
Didn’t I say a template has to contain all the mistakes that would normally emerge further into the process? Well, I began to notice things the other builder was not doing or could not do in legitimate fashion to the era. Note, the chestnut-stained pieces shown here are NOT authentic, they are leftover pieces coated in urethane, I’m only using them to test the jig. That headache of a jig.
Markedly difficult was the drilling and centering of the dowel pin holes. I went through four failures of increasing complexity until by the time of success, I knew the other guy had not done it this way. It’s similar to robot metal work, but strongly restricted by the need to follow somebody else’s design. Another example is how the glass needs to be fitted from the bottom (can you think of why) so the jig as seen is not horizontally oriented. I need to be able to turn it over several times during the process. But by now, I knew the other builders either had three arms or had been taking shortcuts.
Accompanying is an example of things I found. Authentic, my eye. I chiseled out one of the dowel caps (buttons) of the original and look what I found. To the left is my shoe-polish bona fide dowel pin fastener. On the right, if I’m not mistaken, is a distinctly non-19th century Phillips head deck screw. Mind you, this does not mean my efforts have been in vain.
You see, the jigs are already made. I would have no qualms pointing out things like that metal screw to a buyer seeking the real McCoy. Except for obvious small trim, my units contain no metal parts at all.
Smithsonian magazine. It goes on record that I do not like their new approach to publishing articles. I’ve mentioned the emerging weakness before but I keep giving them another chance. This same goes for Scientific American, so I’m not on about some isolated article. I’m talking about publications I used to read cover to cover, including the ads. Both have gone downhill and have now resorted to misleading titles and cheap articles to boost sagging sales. It’s clear their target audience has declined from the discerning academic to a demographic whose reading skills center around check-out counter celebrity rags.
The flashy cover fooled me into thinking there would an article on recent finds and new scientific thinking. Instead I got six pages of filler about the archeologist, like I care what school she attended or how excited she was that one day. I don’t see the relevance of her granddaughter’s asthma condition or need to be lectured that opening graves has a “human element”. I can grasp how some people’s lives orbit around gossip and their genuine concern over who’s pregnant. But does that blather belong in a magazine that purports to be scholarly?
Rapeseed field (canola oil seed).
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The forecast tells me I may be heading to Miami in a rainstorm. It’s not that bad if once you learn to read the weather patterns. The rain is rather predictable when it comes across the Gulf. I’ll head straight south until I hit the thermocline and take it easy after that. It’s an average 18°F difference this time of year. Like today, it was 75°F here and 92°F in Miami. The summer heat in Miami is wicked. This time I’ll be there a few days, but it is no longer a major expense thanks to the Rebel. Yeah, it’s the Rebel that is the major expense, ha!
Up at the north library, I found this representative picture of the passive heater I have in mind. This is around the simplest type possible and I chose it because of the color. The two holding tanks are again shown at the same level, which is at least a foot above the heater, that small diagonal piece on the lower left. The principle is the same as anyone who has shot water out of a garden hose that has been lying in the sun a while. I’ll give you some numbers you can toy with. Your house hot water tank may be hotter, but usually the water comes out at 120°F. If you use water faster than the tank can heat, you run out of hot water. But the cold water keeps running as you know, if you don’t get out of the shower fast enough.
The concept is that the holding tank uses the sun’s energy to preheat the cold water so it is already reasonably warm when it hits the regular heater, meaning it can supply hot water a lot longer than if it was drawing in cold water from the city supply line. This diagram shows the basics, but the reality is the water can get so hot in the sun it reaches 150°F, which can scald you. It’s hard to see, but there are seven carefully placed shutoff valves that can control and/or drain the solar heater. In my system, these valves would all be controlled from a switch panel by solenoids.
Momentarily study the bigger tank on the left. When water is not flowing, gravity fills the heater with water, which heats in the sun and rises due to convection. That’s the red input into the top of the tank. As long as there is an adequate temperature differential, this water will circulate by itself. In the Florida summer, you can expect it to supply all the hot water you need during the day. Since it never freezes in Florida, the system does not have to be monitored and drained in the winter. My new kitchen will have two dead corners of precisely the right size for the tanks.
The drawbacks of this system are not important to me. For example, most people would want the panels to be on the roof, meaning the tanks must be even higher. I have a south facing wall that just bakes in the summer heat. Placing the panels there would also shade that part of the house, another advantage. But this is all down the line. I have not even finished my drywall yet. That’s slated for tomorrow.
“People haven't always been there for me but music always has.”
~ Taylor Swift.
Cancel the jam session, it looks too much like rain. It’s a quiet Saturday for me. Like the DVD, “Relative Evil” put it, growing up is realizing it gets harder to have a good time. So as not to depress myself, I bought a bag of cookies that claims to be Europe’s favorite with coffee. The name is Biscoff and they are delicious. Add them to my budget. From Lotus company, they are a biscuit-like cookie that was formerly served with coffee on airlines, where they were called “Speculoos”. No artificial nutmegpreservatives or flavorings, the taste is from brown sugar and spices like.
I took the evening off and worked in the shed. I read some statistics about home projects. Apparently only 1 in 900 ever gets completed. There are several stages which include gather the materials, getting started, and so on. Around a quarter of the total stalls at each stage until the rinal round. At that point there remains a 50% chance of completion. So overall, my blog-reading buddies, I’m not doing too bad at all.
Tonight’s progress was messing with the jig to find the efficient ways to work with it. My available clamps don’t cinch things tight enough, but the drill holes work fine. Remind me to make the glass groves a bit loose, then lightly glue the glass if it rattles. It also turns out the drill holes in the rails don’t have to be as exact as the plates. It is easier to vary the length of the dowels than to drill precise holes. I’ve begun referring to the assembled frame minus the door, the glass, and the hardware as just “the box”. From an accounting standpoint, there is still a long ways to go before the production of these articles will produce a worthwhile profit.
After rehearsal (y’day), I dropped by the old club and watched the guitar player for a set. By the standards of entertainment, the guy bombed out. He strummed nothing but obscure guitar-oriented acoustic music. His sound was smooth and polished, but not one person in the place was paying any attention to him. The house could have plugged $50 in the jukebox and gotten a better crowd reaction. I don’t claim to be a guitar player, but at least if I play for an hour, people will listen to me. This guy, an accomplished musician by the prevailing standards, was a dud of an entertainer. Yet this scenario is so unrelentingly common in Florida that many guitar players aspire to that. I mean, it’s hardly their fault the crowds have such lousy taste in music.
I know a lot of guitar players who outright think the crowd does not know what they like, so it is up to the guitarist to educated them. You know what I’m talking about, Eddie. I put a dollar in the guys tip jar because it was empty. When I left an hour later, it was still the only money in the can. For me, that situation would have been a sobering wake-up call.
ADDENDUM
This could be good news or not. You remember those shark’s teeth I found on day one? I was looking for agates and nuggets and picked the teeth out as curiosities. I set them to one side, but the next rain that came along splattered them into the grass somewhere, like who cares? Well, that’s a good question. You see, I didn’t know other people had spent half their childhood trying unsuccessfully to find these things. Then I stumble along and find fifteen of them. Agt. R was really attached to those darn teeth and now they are lost. Hey, don’t blame me. He could have put them off to one side, too, you know. So now, his first collection of shark teeth has become shark tooth. Like.
Aha, everybody tells me not to try working with the cast iron piping under the house. I wasn’t sleepy so I read several articles on this type of pipe. It turns out there are several effective techniques. Examining the drain pipe, I have one long section that goes from the kitchen to the bathroom. The drain pipe is the only one that could be a problem. And if it comes to that, I’ll replace the entire section and be done with it. The word is that the pipe will crack easily. The solution appears to be solved by clamps that fit around the pipe. You then cut away the segment between the clamps and install a section of PVC with special rubber adaptors.
Then once you have a place to connect PVC, there’s only three more things you need to know to be a plumber.
1) Shit flows downhill.
2) The boss is an asshole.
3) Don’t bit your nails.
Last Laugh
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