90 degrees as a high, nice breeze, blue sky with thin puffs moving by. I did not notice the sunlight dim so they were very thin. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
DURING THE WEEK
There is a one of those square wheeled garbage cans that someone left right at the edge of the road. the hinge sticks out about six inches farther. The road there is not wide so it is common to move closer to the edge of the road when there is a car coming the other way. Last week, My mirror hit that thing twice, the first time was a warning shot. The second time broke the mount slightly. Thursday, My mirror hit it again, breaking the glass.
A bit later, I bumped an insulated pump coffee dispenser with my knuckle. I turned around and watched it tip over and hit the floor. The shatter told the whole story. I had been filling that with ice coffee and taking it with me when I went to Mom's house. Oh well.
FRIDAY
I finished a washcloth I was making in the truck. I would do a couple stitches at a long light, at laundry mats and at doctor's offices. I started this near the beginning of the year. it will be nice to work on something else.
Front of latest wash cloth
Rear of latest wash cloth
I visited the antique shop. I was just a mile away when I realized I left my camera at home. I wanted to get pictures of the blacksmith tongs. Oh well, Next time.
I left my Sea grape bowl with inlay, at the store there.
SATURDAY
We stopped only at one yard sale. I stopped there twice. I went alone the first time and picked up some bolts and some tap-con screws. the second time we went, I picked up a bunch of conduit fittings and a belt sander.
Belt sander in case with spare belts.
fittings and such got at yard sale. Pieces in boxes shown in no particular order.
Mom had a "little" project for me. With the construction going on, the planter out front had taken a beating. She had them pull a palm tree out and the root ball was still in there. She and I dug and pulled the roots out, then filled in the hole. she had removed what was left of the gravel before I attacked the root ball so once we leveled the area, she laid down some weed fabric and put that gravel back over it, mainly to hold it in place.
I made two trips getting five buckets of gravel each and dumped them into the planter. You know, that is a lot of work. The road construction had a small pile of small gravel and my mom got permission to get some so I went to the pile and filled the buckets.
Front planter with gravel. It was bigger before the sidewalk was put in.
I finally had a chance to work on my stuff.
I got all my tools and equipment out and set up the metal working lathe into a milling machine. I stuck a grinding bit into it and mounted a block of metal into place. I was going to true it up.
I came to a surprising discovery. This two inch piece of metal is the maximum this machine can handle. I played with the setup, changing things around, re-aligning it, to find that it will be a challenge. I will be milling it later into a cross slide. Right now, I just had some fun moving things around.
I picked up some pieces of plywood cut-offs a while ago. it dawned on me that I had a good project for them. I measured carefully, and cut carefully, and found that I am not good at cutting and measuring.
Mom has a child's wheel borrow she got at a yard sale. The plastic has been breaking up over the past year. It started by my "tapping" it upside down to knock some stuff out of it, and then another time, dropping something heavy onto it, then the plastic just started degrading so now pieces of coming off very easily.
I took the pieces of plywood out. I measured the wheel borrow, cut the wood and fitted them together. I had some small nails I planned to use to make a new box for my mini lathe. I drove them in and besides bending them and kinking them, I found they don't hold too well in plywood.
I dug out screws and put them in to hold it in place. They were fairly long screws and probably half of them came out on one side or another.
I realized it was not as strong as I would like, so I cut some plywood strips and attached them as braces. Where the screws went into the edge of the plywood, I put the strips so they went through the center. Then I drilled also into the edge of the strips.
Once I had the sides and ends all together "nicely, I did a search through our stock and found one more sheet of the same plywood. The bottom of the box was bigger than one sheet, so I put both sheets in place with one side down the center of the box and the edges overlapping. I drew around the box so I could cut the bottom to fit.
I turned to the bandsaw and decided to cut both sheets at the same time. When I returned to the box, I somehow was slightly off. Luckily, there was enough overlap to be able to screw it in place.
I showed my results to my mom and she was so delighted. I still have to remove the old box from the wheel borrow and put the new one on. I might see if I can get my brother to do it for me. Will see how things go. If he does not come up tomorrow, I will do it.
It is slightly smaller than the old one, but not horribly smaller. I might add more screws underneath and might even add some bracing along the bottom just to be sure it won't come apart. I will make that decision tomorrow. Considering how weak the original plastic was even when it was new, this box should last quite a while.
New box inside existing wheel borrow.
I went to pick up some screws at Ace Hardware that is nearby. I got the wrong screws. I got out to my truck and turned the key. there was nothing. I messed with the battery a couple times, brushing the terminals with my finger, before reattaching it. It finally started and started ever since.
Tomorrow, I will see that the wheel borrow is finished. I have the Bougainvillea bowl to sand. That belt sander might come in handy. I have a number of projects partly started that needs to be finished.
I could also set up the metal lathe into a milling machine and start on my cross slide since I have the metal. I just have to draw on it exactly where the metal needs to be removed.
I could also grab a piece of wood I have laying around and make something new. I do have a turning club meeting week after next.
I will see what I actually will do tomorrow.
year 11, Week 21, Day Two (week 595) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 06-05-11 Sunday
90 degrees, blue sky with horizon puffs now and then, nice breeze to carry away the heat. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
Before I left home, Mom called me with a "help." She uses Juno and it crashed on her again. The E-mail folder gets corrupted and the program won't load, just tries to solve the E-mail problem. I had to re-name directories and re-install the program. I did a search for where the program (Windows 7) hid the file. It was still searching when I left. I left a note for her with instructions.
Mom had me get some more gravel. I worked a bit more intelligently this time, parking on the same side of the road so I did not have as far to carry them, and set them directly on the wagon so there was also no carrying. I gathered all the buckets she had and filled twelve five gallon buckets. I had the wheel borrow box with me and filled it with a five gallon bucket of gravel. That is a good size.
I reinforced the bottom of the wheel borrow box, and then removed the old plastic box that was on it. It broke some more just trying to twist the nuts off.
My brother did not show up so I could not pawn the job of replacing the bin onto him. This became my project from beginning to end. A couple years ago, he replaced the wooden handles with bent metal tubing so we don't have to bend over as far to lift it up.
I got the bin off the frame and then carefully measured for where the box was supposed to go. It has four bolts that go into the bottom and two that go to brackets in front. I settled it where I thought it needed to be, and then bolted the brackets in place, after I got longer bolts as the wood was thicker than the plastic.
I turned the thing over upside down to work the bottom bolts and then saw that it was not seated quite right. It was held up slightly. I removed the bolts from the bracket, and worked from the bottom first, drilling and running bolts through. I had to hunt for longer bolts, again because the plywood was thicker and I had two thicknesses of the plywood to go through as I had added reinforcing.
The two brackets were not quite right, but they will have to do for now. My bolts are too long, and I have screw points sticking into the box. I could fix that, but that will be something to talk about whether it is worth it first.
Once I got the thing completely assembled, I found that a bit of the bottom wood rubbed against the tire. I used my carving knife to remove a little wood, and then got one of my ruffler rasps out and used that to clean up the edge and make sure it was far enough from the wheel. I will have to see how it works under a load, but it actually came out better than I expected.
Finished wheel borrow
Because I was spending time inside on the computer, I really only sanded a little bit on my bougainvillea bowl. It is about as good as it is going to be. I will do light sanding, but mostly just building up a good gloss coat of varnish.
The beast of the back yard has really impressed me. If I did not know better, I would say he was a domestic cat. I do know better though. Yesterday, I was rubbing his head with my thumb, and had my fingers under his chin and HE WAS ACTUALLY PURRING!!! There are times when I am attending him, he will close his eyes as if saying, "This is so good."
I was in and out quite a bit during the day and he got plenty of attention. There are times when I wish I could spend all day giving him attention.
The first of three Alamanda blossoms to show up this year.
For next week, I have a number of projects in mind. I do expect, though, that Mom will have plans for me. She is starting to work on her yard. Her shoulder is not up to power yet but she feels it really needs to be done. She will be dragging all the potted plants in the planter on the side in front, and weeding it. She will then be putting gravel down again. This means she will have lots of work for me to do. she will do what she can.
I had a number of projects in process that I should apply myself to, which includes two vases I am carving. I have plenty of wood that demands to be used for projects. I have to get started on my ornaments, making old ones that I am out of, and coming up with new designs. I should make some shaving flowers all I have are at the antique shop and should have some at home if I need them.
I also have the cross slide I want to start making. I have the metal and the design. I have to mark my cuts on the metal and start removing shavings. There are a number of other projects waiting for me and new ones I can come up with.
I will see what I actually do next week.
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