January 18, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 18, 2020, red shift, my eye.
Five years ago today: January 18, 2016, darn tootin’.
Nine years ago today: January 18, 2012, the definition of conscription.
Random years ago today: January 18, 2004, “a new car soon”.

           Yep, the Kreg pocket hole maker is a new dimension. I’m sold. If you are doing joinery and want real production speed, go spend the money. The whole kit is well-thought out, from the storage slots in the base for you screw and drill, a pocket for the Allen wrench, and the base is the same height as a 2x4”. That’s important when you need to cut holes in a long piece that needs to rest flush. Even the plastic boxes the screws come in are reusable and stackable.

           It takes thought to make this thing work, like making sure you never drill into the end grain and the pieces need to be clamped if you are going for precision. Otherwise, the wood tends to creep as the screws drive in at an angle. Other than that, there are few restrictions. The narrowest wood it words with is ½”, but that is pretty thin. This jig is plainly best used on ¾” material and first thing I’ll try it on is a box for the kit. There are custom clamps and other parts available, but since you are paying for a brand name, don’t buy them until you are sure you need them.

           And before anybody says I spent money frivolously during a time when most Americans are hurting, I remind you the government has given me nothing, ever. The stimulus is my own money and the system is giving some of it back. It’s the people who have never paid in that are getting the free ride. The government that started taxing me the year I turned 13 will never be able to make good on the hardships they imposed. I’ve slept under bridges and begged in the streets—but I got myself out of it and so can the others. They simply have to be given the incentive.

           Paperwork took me to town for two hours and the Sally Ann (Salvation Army) was open. They are normally closed Mondays, so I stopped in for a browse. I saw this beautiful accordion, most people don’t know I used to play accordion. This unit sported a price tag of $700 so I didn’t even touch it. In my twenties, I met a guy who could play rock accordion. He’s actually memorized all the common base lines on the buttons, that was real talent. And he could right-hand incredible piano licks. Yeah, but otherwise a dud peronality, he played maybe once a year when coaxed.

           The window frames are both warped and brittle, restricting the amount I can clamp them back into shape. Thus, I’m going to try simple cutting bigger runners or glides or whatever you call the pieces that hold the frame that moves up and down in place. This will force me to finally make cutouts for the table saw so I can cut indoors and have the pieces slide outside. Hey, it’s Florida and I’m allowed Florida-style shortcuts. This double-window alteration is not for the idle hobbyist, it has consumed a week of my life already, but since that’s the spot I’m likely to see last, why not have a decent view.
           What a bewildering assortment of chain saws out there, each claiming to be the best. My impression is go by the price. And that price can easily be over $400. And all the stores are sold out of any type of heaters. Electric or propane, all gone and none on the way. This is a sign of the downfall taking place in America. This type of shortage was unheard of back when America did things their own way. Maybe by Ugandan standards I’ve got a lot, but by American standards, I’ve only got what I worked for. No, Ken, the neighbors only appear to have more because they borrowed money.
           Let this be a warning to anyone who things a global community will result in overall improvement. You cannot comfort the afflicted by afflicting the comfortable. The way my life has been I have every reason to be a card-carrying commie. But I was always smart enough to know that was not the answer to anything. There is too much living to get done. Which I would like to do, but in central Florida it gets cold overnight, something rare in Miami. Think of about a 25°F difference when the sun is shining, it was like 40°F this morning and 70°F by mid-afternoon

Picture of the day.
Scuba tank refill adapter.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           Here’s a look into the van deck before it is fastened, a process intended to use just 8 wood screws. That’s the foam mattress folded in the background, I’m seeking ways to cut it without making a mess. I watched videos and the best method is something I don’t have, an electric carving knife. I had a couple tradeoffs when opting to place this mattress down on the deck, when so many van conversions show a frame placing the full width mattress above the wheel wells. That method required some center bracing, which cut off valuable space if you need to more materials. Either rip the bed out or lift everything up on to the new deck height.

           Also, most vans had solid sidewalls, where I have tinted windows all around. I prefer to be sleeping down and out of direct sight. I’ve noticed often enough that when you find a quiet place to park overnight, it attracts others doing the same. And a couple times I found myself in the middle of cars during a shift change beside Wal*Mart. I like peace and quiet enough that I carry a good supply of real earplugs on all travel. Learned that trick from United Airlines, who derive a sick pleasure from sitting single men next to families with crying babies.

           I could not get enough of my jig, I decided to build a box with the thinnest wood possible, a half-inch. This meant trying a few new methods, such as using thin panels instead of boards for the top and bottom. This meant figuring out how to use a router to make the slots and generally finding out fifty things that can go wrong, most of them from inexperience. Here’s a view of the assembly being glued and clamped.

           IIt was an all-afternoon job, though not entirely on the box. For example, I had to modify an old crescent wrench for the bench router collette, which meant grinding the thumbwheel. Feeding the stock has to be learned, like how when you get near the end of a board, stop pushing it and pull the last few inches through. Wrong, it very slightly makes the groove bow up ever so slightly.

           The on-line videos were hipster-grade, where they brag up what can be done, which in itself is natural, but they use it to fake you out. They show plenty of footage of people building cases and shelves and drawers. The point is stressed that these box-shaped objects are the basis of most furniture and buildings. Have you spotted the con? Neither did I. The fleece is reverse misdirection. You see, “box-shaped” is not the same as box. When you build a box with anything but exterior panels, such as the one I just did, there is no way to fit the panels in and use pocket holes from the interior, where they are generally hidden from view.

           Boxes with lids cannot be built in the regular way, which is to make the whole box, then cut around the upper perimeter to form the lid. You cannot fasten the last set of inside pocket screws. There are workarounds, such as glue and clamp, which I did, or making the last set of holes project from the exterior which can look funny. Tomorrow I may find time to make such a box, since I discovered how it is all too easy to over drive these screws through thin materials.

           The neighbor was over again, he’s always asking questions but has not caught on that I have prepared answers for most of that. I think he is on about how little he uses his barn full of tools. He nearly fell over when I mentioned on a nice day, I can spend 9 hours in the shed and yard. Then, he asked if I knew I had a papaya tree. Huh? Sure enough, back by the chicken coop, within the last month at most, there is a strange new tree growing at a jaunty angle. Pictures tomorrow. I’m no fan of papaya but he says the way it is growing, I’ll have fruit this year. Good, my peach tree shed all the leaves, I don’t know if that is normal. The pecan tree, despite formal watering and strict fertilizer turned spindly and stopped growing. But spring is on the way.

ADDENDUM
           My sextant readings have been showing an error pattern that is taking time to figure out. I get three or four consistent readings, then the next set are out by a degree in the wrong direction, but the pattern is correct. Is it the sextant or the way I’m reading the gauge. With that in mind, I decided to read a paper on optics, or the way the eye behaves. I know from testing my blind spot is worst at the “10:00 o’clock” position. I know lot of research goes into eye movement patterns, which is why you get things like the speedometer on your dash tending to be on the left of the steering column.
           I once saw a chart of the view a helicopter pilot had to pay attention to both with the blades and the turbulence. This is different research than optics, so if I find anything interesting, I’ll report, even if it gets technical. I once learned that the eye is never really at rest, and that it actually moves more when it finds nothing to focus on, as in dense fog.

           I found my misplaced lottery ticket, but the cheap-arse Flalottery.com site won’t list winning numbers over a month back. Since I buy any ticket when I feel lucky, I don’t know what the prizes are much of the time. This says Fantasy 5, if I get five numbers, they shoot me $200,000. Okay, I’ll go get the number checked tomorrow. We don’t want to wind up like that bitCoin bozo who forgot his own password. He says he’s given up, but now that he has stopped worrying, watch the number pop into his head.
           Searching for the history, which was futile, I found a national site of statistics. The most commonly picked and drawn number is 6. The same page had a link to your lucky astrology numbers. The least drawn single number is 8. It’s their stated odds I find curious. Out of 36 numbers, you pick 5. That means the first number is drawn from a pool of 36, the second number from the 35 remaining and so on. That means there are 45,234,040 possible ways to draw those 5 numbers.

           You have 1 chance in over 45 million of picking the winning combination, yet their web page says your odds are 1:376,992. Have I forgotten my statistics courses from disuse over the years. Or is it possible not one person in the entire pari-mutuel betting pool has asked any questions about these odds? Pari-mutuel is where you bet against all the other bettors rather than against a bookie or a riverboat gambler. I know the odds are calculated funny, but my calculation is still ten times as unlikely as what they say.
           To check my work, I ran the factorials on Excel. The function doesn’t seen to work except to calculated single totals. If I try to subtract, that is 36! – 31! (that’s 36 factorial minus 31 factorial), I get strange results, including the original number right back. Am I overloading the system? Maybe Excel can’t do 36!, yet it seems to display in scientific notation.

Last Laugh