In My "Spare" Time: Year 16, Week 18, Day One (week 852)

Year 16, Week 18, Day One (week 852)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-14-16 Saturday

Sunny, 78 early morning, 91 late afternoon. Comfortable breeze, blue skies with some high feathers over the ocean. Around eleven, Indian clouds showed up (Apache) Others came to keep them company until some towers appeared over the Everglades. Most of the sky over the ocean was still clear most of the late day. This weather report was brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach department Of Tourism.

I was bright and chipper until after I got to Mom’s house. Then the Sand Man tapped me on the shoulder while listening to a really interesting tape mom wanted me to hear. After breakfast, we went yard sailing. I was drowsy while mom drove, but was wide awake the instant my foot hit the ground.
A friend had a yard sale in a warehouse district. In trying to find the place, we found three other yard sales. One had some fine carved works. They were absolutely gorgeous, highly polished and that makes my best stuff look like garbage. I carve a different style though so mine might not be quite that bad.
The third had jewelry at a price we could not resist. I saw two different earrings that I knew someone specific would love, but could not find the mates.
At my friend’s place, he showed me his shop. Put in “watchman’s quarters and I would move there to work. Of course no one would ever see me again.....Two of my friends had stuff. I would snap up several of the items except I already have something like them or know I will never use them. I will never use an underwater metal detector, and already have a table saw.
Mom got me an electric drum set. This is a battery powered unit that one gets for kids. It is nice that it has a base peddle. Unless one plugs it into speakers, one can only hear it through headsets that came with it. How dare a company take parent’s sanity into account. That is horrible!!! [Reminds me of the joke, “the nerve. My neighbor was banging on my door at three AM. Really, At Three AM!!! I ignored him and continued to practice my drums”]
One woman was moving. She had some sea horse door pulls. I had to have them. I am thinking about how best to turn them into dragons. Most people who move while down here, based on the yard sales I have gone to, are moving from one city to another in the tri county area. This family was going to Boca Raton. About one in five are leaving the state (the fools.....).
One guy had a level gauge for machining. The surface of the thick granite base is machine to be perpendicular to the post. He had no idea what it was and I told him, but he let me take it for a song anyway. I am surprised that he did not double the price because of the way I sing.... these come in kits with several attachments for accurate machining. This one, though, only had a depth guage. You set the pin on the work, zero it out, then move the work around on the surface. If it is not level and true, the needle will go up or down, and the guage moves. You can see where and how much correction you have to do.
There were a good number of yard sales we hit and they all had interesting items. My main problem is I would need to open a museum and a couple warehouses if I were to get all the interesting stuff I saw.

After a long nap, I went out back. I tested the drum set, took pictures, then pulled out the lathe. I have a chip-&-dip plate that I made a while back. It really needed sanding. I had run across a palm sander recently in the shed so decided to use that to help sand the platter.
Of course, the cup, which was added after the fact, was not square to the dish. When it spun, the platter wobbled badly. I put the lathe on the slowest setting and attempted to fix the platter’s surface.
A thought on using a palm sander. Make sure the sandpaper covers the entire bottom of the sander and possibly the sides. When the rubber touches the wood, usuallly in a corner, the rubber will leave marks and they take more sanding to clear. For some reason, rotating the corner of the palm sander off the work, does not seem keep the sander from marking the wood.
There were some ridges you could feel on the platter when you ran your fingers from center to edge and back and the sander removed them, but there was some tear-out, from bad tool use, running around the platter that sanding does not remove. I had to use a lot of hand sanding in spite the use of power. That is always the case. Power always adds its own kind of marks that have to be removed manually. The palm sander basically vibrates so it is not like a sanding disk. You really don’t know if you got the surface absolutely right unless you hand sand anyway as you can feel problems as your hand, on top the sand paper, moves across the surface.
Having done “something” I decided to pack up. It was 90 and I was not getting results I was after.

My brother showed up later and we went out back. I showed him a bunch of things I got over the past month or so and he snapped them up. The clamps I got recently, the gauge I got today, a chuck I received from a turning club meeting. Something else I cannot remember as I type this. He had use for them and got them. I am glad he could use them.
When he left, my day was done. I rested with my feet up until it was time to leave.

Today, I wore one of the pairs of pants I repaired last week. The repair itself held, but I hitched up the leg a little when I sat down and tore the fabric below my repair. By the end of the day, the repaired leg had three new tears and two tears were appearing on the other. Oh well, I got practice on sewing. When pant legs tear, not from damage like you catch it on something, the chances are that the fabric has become bad.

[Sunday Note]
I got to Mom’s house and she said, “let’s go out to eat” That ended any thought of accomplishing anything.

I have a turning club meeting Thursday. I had hoped to have something new to show off but it did not happen.

I will see what I do next weekend.
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