One year ago today: October 2, 2016, examining the new cabin.
Five years ago today: October 2, 2012, California, the end product.
Nine years ago today: October 2, 2008, and business is slow.
Random years ago today: October 2, 2006, border wall.
The car has wiped out my birthday and Xmas. Next month house taxes are due and the next month, my income drops 25%. Yes, folks, that is due to a decision I made ten years ago, when it seemed unlikely I would live this long. I took a larger amount earlier, and I’m glad I did. I got to Colorado and bought a nice cabin, so the remaining worry is inflation. And don’t forget, I bought a car, too. That almost slipped my mind. I know what you want, a progress report on the living room floor. When will I finally fix that and myself a FWB in there? Never, if today was any indication. (I’m not saying I’m in constant pain, but I’m saying I can’t lift anything without pain.)
And that explains why it took so many hours to stack this lumber, one piece at a time. This is what a 1946 oak floor looks like 71 years later. I’d estimate around 65% of this wood is salvageable, but it would need a layer of support, like plywood to ensure it does not weaken internally. I found a few soft spots that were not evident by looking. In the background are my transplanted African spike plants and in the foreground, the birdbath (with a blue tarp in the package photobombing).
Here’s one for you. While I have not tamed the northern cardinals, I seem to have spoiled them. I read about and confirm that special warning chatter they have when feeding. Since I’ve moved to the back room, I don’t see the birds every morning and sometime miss filling the feeder. So while they still fly away as soon as I round the corner, they will park outside that front window and make a healthy racket until I hobble out there with the scoop.
Palm oil plantation.
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The living room itself, I finally hired some help. However, take a peek at this photo. While practically nothing got done in the month of October, this shows that we are far better equipped to do the job this year. And with infinitely more experience. Here’s your lousy Vivitar picture, those bastards can’t seem to make a camera without at least one major feature that does not work right.
That spider web wiring under the floor, well, it has to go. I could work around it but it is not good enough, nor is it safe with several pieces of old wiring and splices exposed to the elements. Allow for two days to pull the wire for that, maybe more because I’m judging by how fast the work proceeded in August. The corner shown in the photo is the worst spot of the building, where the foundation has sunk almost 4”. That’s a guess, but I’ll run some string lines in the next short while to find out exactly what’s going on.
Microscopic inspection of the band saw guide shows there is something wrong, possibly the previous owner did not ever set the back roller correctly. There is a diagonal score mark between the widest setting and where the blade should travel between the side rollers. That would also explain why I sometimes got a warped cut and also the reason wide blades regularly snap on me. These things are now easier to find and correct now that I have that work shed. (I may have figured the problem out, see today's addendum.)
“I’m not anti-social,
I’m anti-stupid.”
~ wish it had been me.
The wonderful work shed I brag about is not perfect. Never let me give you that impression. I had to cut four shelves today. The big accomplishment was the car trim. The guy who was going to do it for $25 never returned my calls, but he described it so well, I did the job myself. Shown here was the robot-grade cleaning process. I don’t know what automotive standards are, but you can see the reflection of my fingers in the spick and span rail for the side trim. It was originally so bad [that] I spent more than a half-hour with a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol to get it to what you see here.
The building is not a separate parcel, but part of the whole south segment of that block. There is a single owner and he will not subdivide. He paid $410,000 for the property back in 1986 and now wants $1.2 million for the whole shebang. Good luck. Unless there is a major development nobody knows about at street level, his idea is impractical. But, it represents the way the outdated American accounting system works. What’s the incentive to make it into productive property when it can be used for a write-off? Seems to me that is so similar to what was going on in Egypt and Venezuela before Nassar and Chavez wised up.
ADDENDUM
I can’t tell you what a joy it is to have that workshed. It’s far from perfect and already too small. The point is I never had one before and it brings back memories of the difficulties that entails. One vivid series of events is how, in my childhood, there was only one good table in the house, and it was the one in the kitchen. If there was anything needed doing, like writing a letter or fixing a small device, it had to be timed between meals. You see, that table was also the only prep space in the kitchen, houses of that era often lacked counters.
The best way was to pretend you were as useless as the rest and wait for them to be momentarily distracted. That’s no mean feat when there’s seven of them and one of you. Then set up your work and proceed as quickly as possible, even if that is not a formula for good habits. I mean, work really fast, because you have until the first one comes banging in the screen door and sees you working. Then the up-wailing starts. They will quickly find a need for the exact table space you are using, gotta start peeling potatoes right now.
Like all peasant households, the nature of the excuse they come up with is irrelevant. You think you’re so smart, you’re just doing that to prove you’re better than us, whatever, the net effect is always the same. You’d best pack up your project and get lost before rest detect the commotion and come bellering in. Funny, innit, how some of you think I’m making this up.
What was I going to say? Oh yes, see the picture of the band saw guide rollers. That’s the best Vivitar can do, I hope you appreciate the hoops I go through to get you the variety of illustrations this blog covers. If you can make it out, there is a small groove cut into the metal bracket, I’m pointing at it with an Allen wrench. The orange arrows show the start and end. Notice the upper roller? It keeps the saw blade pressed into the work.
But I’ve never had any band saw lessons, so following the rule book exactly, I set the guides to the path the blade took by itself, since there were no directions saying otherwise. And I cut that groove by not paying attention. I was following the book to set the rollers, and the book did not say the blade could and most often will shift position when it is running and cutting into your medium. Bizarrely, not one of the experts even mentioned that.
What an expensive error, since I’ve ruined at least 15 blades. What was happening is the blade sat too far to the left and often fell into the narrow space between the roller and the bracket, can you see it under my finger? Instead of pressing into the roller, my blades were pushing into the shaft, which in turn was enough to cut that groove. Now I’ve learned, set the guides to where the blade is supposed to go, not where it emerges from the saw casing. Cost of this lesson was probably $150. Thanks to poorly written and poorly illustrated manuals by the experts, this is what you get. What? No I don’t blame myself. I know how to read and regularly do so several hours per day.
Technically, somebody by now should have invented a guide mechanism that sets the blade path under the ideal situation: when it is running. But then I got to thinking about today’s college grads who cannot even spell correctly. You want them running a machine in your factory, make sure you got your insurance paid up.
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