In My "Spare" Time: Year 16, Week 20, Day One (week 854)

Year 16, Week 20, Day One (week 854)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-28-16 Saturday

76 degrees early morning 88 late afternoon, showers early morning, a space with nothing right after breakfast, then showers after we got home. At about two, a torrential downpour hit, then things dried up a few hours later. Cloudy all day until around four when some sun showed up. This Weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

Because of the forecasted and experienced weather, we did not expect to see any yard sales. Heading home from Breakfast, we saw a sign for a Garage sale and stopped rather than going home first. It was under an awning in the back yard. He had a lot of tools including as for working tile, and said these were from a previous business. I saw a few things I would like to have but would never be able to put them to use at least right now, or have room to keep them until I was ready.
After we got home, the sky decided to water Mom’s plants. We chose to sit back and relax. I dug out my tablet and played games while relaxing on the couch.
At about two, I decided to go out and do something. Right then, the sky opened up and gave Mom’s plants the soaking they really needed. I laid back and relaxed with my tablet the rest of the day. Other than going out to pet and feed and pet the cat a couple times, I accomplished less than nothing.

I hope to do something tomorrow. I plan to spend Monday working on some projects at home.

Year 16, Week 20, Day Two (week 854)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-29-16 Sunday

88 degrees late morning, 93 at noon. A lone tower to the east over the ocean at about ten and a single tower to the west over the Everglades at about noon. This Weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

Mom told me that My brother was coming tomorrow. I decided to head directly home and doing tomorrow’s projects today.

I started a crock pot of chicken bones I had collected from several rotisserie chickens. A couple times, Mom gave me the bones with some meat still on them, I would put the bones in the freezer after I picked the best of the meat off. I decided to use the crock pot I got last week at a yard sale for this.
I took a loaf of bread out of the freezer and stuck it into the fridge in the morning to thaw. When I got home, I kneaded it well before placing it into a pan.
When I made the dough, I rose it, and then placed the risen dough into the freezer. The last time I baked a frozen loaf, it did not rise. I decided that I would try kneading it and then let the yeast in it work to raise it.
One project I had was to replace a screen on my porch. I had gotten some screen from Mom from her project. I unrolled it and held it up to the space I needed to fill. It was just a trimming in comparison. The screen replacement project was off for another day.
I sliced some boneless chicken breasts with my meat slicer. I expected to come up with full width slices but it had gaps which became strips. I had it way too thin for the first one, made it thicker and was still too thin. I will use them in a different way than planned. My idea was to stuff them and bake them as a roll. I will use them in a way that is appropriate for the piece I take out.

Other than taking a lot of time doing little, that was my accomplished for the day. Tomorrow I go to Mom’s house to be with my brother for a while.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 16, Week 20, Day Three (week 854)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-30-16 Monday

88 degrees at about eleven, 94 at about one. Thunder towers first developed over the Everglades to the north in Palm Beach County. The towers spread south and headed west, still over the Everglades and became one giant grey wall with a flat shield up high that spread just across the sky to just over us. Blue skies to the East over the ocean. Since the sun was to the west, it was in essence, cloudy. There was a nice breeze that took away the worst of the heat when one felt it. This Weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

I left home earlier than planned. Since I was early, I headed to Home Depot to pick up two items. I walked all the good isles seeing if there was anything that I needed. The more isles I went, the more I remembered I needed a few things (ahead of when I got there, by the way with two exceptions).
With the window screen that I needed to replace, I turned near the end of an isle (there was a jog in the wall and one end isle teed into the other, about fifteen feet before it ended), walked by an employee who was talking to a couple people and saw another walking toward me. I asked where the screen was, He said he was not of this department and I should ask the guy who was talking. I did not want to interrupt him because I dislike it when that happens to me. I walked past him and continued up the isle. Right there on the building wall, was the screen. Had I gone straight, I would have seen them!!!! “Where is the screen?” “Right there,” I prefer to try to find what I am after first unless I am in a really big hurry.
I decided that when I get back to the belt loom repair, I should use a smaller rod, that would allow more wood around rod so it will be stronger. I picked up a 1/4 threaded rod and a nut/washer kit (I had a 5/8 inch rod before). I don’t know if you remember, The belt loom is missing a tensioning knob and a shuttle. My first concentration is the tensioning rod. My first attempt did not work. I had the wrong drills for the project and used the wrong techniques. The rod itself cracked when I forced the nut into a slightly too small hole, and I had made the knob off center accidentally. By using a smaller rod, it will allow more wood to be around it, hence stronger. The rod and nuts were the impulse buy.
I picked up a few other items I needed before I got to the lumber section. The lumber section might have been a mistake except I had a “plan”. Two 2"x12" by ten-foot boards attacked me and I struggled with them in an all out fight. The straight grained one ran out of energy and rejoined the rest of the lumber. I only subdued the one with the pretty knots once it was laying across my basket. I tried to put it back but it hung on, so I had to take it home.
I spent more than I planned, but was happy with what came home with me.

I got to Mom’s and after saying hi, I went out back. I set up the folding table to give me more space to work and laid the 2x12 board on it. With a tall 45 degree angle square and a pencil, I marked the board with squares. I put the angle on a corner and drew a line to the other side. I did this from both end corners. I then drew a line where the two lines met the edges. That is where the first cut would come. I marked from the ends of that straight line with the 45 and then did a straight line where the two 45 lines met the edge. I did this all the way down the board. This gave me all my cut lines.
I had a choice of using a circular saw or the Saws-All and decided against the circular saw as I needed to cut corners off after I cut the boards.
I knew I could do a straight line with the Saws-All, but the question was whether I actually would. I put the saw blade in upside down so the handle pointed up. This would allow me to lay the blade down flatter on the wood with less saw in the way. My first cut wandered toward the end as I adjusted how I held the saw during the cut. I got the second cut nice and straight. As I went, I had some straight, some wandered. When I had the last four, I had to clamp the board down on the table to hold it.
I am not sure how I did it, but I got eleven blanks out of a ten foot board. It might be because the board is not quite twelve inches wide and also could be drawing errors adding up.
My brother arrived as I marked the actual center (the crisscross was not accurate now that my cuts were not accurate) I could have done it with a regular ruler, with a tiny bit more calculation work, but I used a centering rule to find and marked the center. I worked first from the factory edge to find the center and marked that with a line, then measured along that line to mark the other center line.
I then took the compass and drew the largest circle I could on both faces. After I had marked all boards, I then took each board and put it in the vice with the corners to be cut sticking to the side of the vice. I sawed off the worst of the wood from both corners, but sometimes I wandered a bit too much. I was finishing the forth blank when we were called for lunch. There might be some light trimming needed if the corners stick out too much on the lathe. That is a fairly minor thing to do, usually.

One blank had three knots in it. I thought it was interesting and showed it to my brother. He said it looked like some creature where the knots that were cut long ways looked like ears. Talking, I drew a head to match the ears and the center knot was a nose. I guess I will have to carve that into a relief carving sometime. Another one, he said, looked like Alien eyes. I will have to see if I can find that one. Hopefully it was not one I knocked the corners off yet. I don’t remember seeing the knots when cutting. It might need to be carved also. They would be carved with dremmel most likely.

After lunch, my brother had to head out. I cleaned up and put the blanks out of the way for now. I will put them in a better location next week, hopefully.

One thing the Gold Coast Wood Turning Club president said is that it is hard to find people to demonstrate. Many years ago, I demonstrated making a platter. I got the idea that I should practice making platters and possibly offer to demonstrate my method of platter makings. That was why I got the two by twelve board. It would be good practice for me period, and if I demonstrate, it would help the club. Of course, I will tell them that I am demonstrating the wrong way of doing it....

I got home and had a blithering idiot replace the screen. I pointed out all the things he did wrong, and explained to him how it should have been done, and demanded that he take it down and do it right.
He talked about pigeons, chickens, turkeys, doves, crows and Eagles. I hate it when he uses fowl language. He refused to redo it and said it was good enough for now and that was that. He said he had no time to work on it now. I will have to accept it for now until I get a lot more gumption to do it right.
Since I was all alone, I was the one who did the work. It was about as good as the last time I replaced the screen and that lasted several years. It would have been easier if I had a third hand or a whole lot more practice. Since it did not take a whole lot less time than expected to put it up, taking it down and putting it up right should not take any time at all.

Next weekend I kind of expect to remove corners off the rest of the blanks, and possibly turn one of them for practice. I also have that tensioning rod for the belt loom to redo, and I have a lot of half done projects begging to be made.

I will see what I do next weekend.
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