In My "Spare" Time: Year 16, Week 28, Day One (week 860)

Year 16, Week 28, Day One (week 860)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-23-16 Saturday

78 degrees at dawn, 86 at ten, 94 after noon. Mostly blue sky with towers and streaks around the edges in the morning, a line of puffs suddenly appeared starting just before the Everglades, becoming thicker until thunder rolled at around one. One cloud’s diaper leaked a little at that time, but just a little leak. No breeze early morning, with high humidity, then the wind started picking up as the day bore on, and became almost useful after the thunder rolled. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

Getting my computer back is nice. It is hard to catch up though. A lot of stuff I do each night did not get done. It ended up being a loose memory card. Maybe I should go to the doctor and see if my own memory card is loose. It would help if I could remember more.......

I hit one yard sale as I left breakfast. You don’t realize how much stuff are out at some of those yard sales until you do a yard sale yourself. The ones that look like there is nothing, is a lot of work. To set up those big yard sales where they almost cover the front yard is a real test of endurance and determination. At this yard sale, I picked up two of those cast iron pans like what Denny’s uses for their skillet dinners. I also picked up a small muffin pan. No I did not need them, but I do like cast iron. I have seen some interesting techniques for non pastry dishes using muffin pans.
I was driving, so I followed the great loop. I hit all the places I ever normally hit. For all that driving, I did not see too many yard sales. Some areas were vacant of yard sales. There were a few that were interesting to look at. I try to notice patterns in what is in several sales. At first, I saw curling irons at two, then I saw knife block sets at two. In the end, there was no pattern as to what was being offered.
I did find a handful of ladles. Mom was looking for some last week. I then got a little tub of stamps. This goes with all the ink I had gotten previously.
It looks like the woman who had all the art stuff either has moved, or is about to move. It is always sad when someone runs out of stuff to sell......

I was really tired when I got back so I napped for a couple hours and laid, relaxing for a little longer after.

I had fed and petted the cat when I got back from the restaurant, and then did it again when I went out back after my rest. She inhaled my attention.
A year or two ago, I had picked up a chair someone was tossing. It was missing a rung in back and I intended to make a new one. That never happened. Well, the curved wood of the back came loose and several of the rungs were dangling loose because of weathering.
Fixing that chair became my project for the day. It looked easy. (Usually if it looks easy, it is hard, if it looks hard, it is nearly impossible) It was not as hard as I thought it could be. The way this chair was made, was the tenons of the curved back went through the seat and had a screw holding it in place. The wood that the screw was going into on the tenon broke off.
I first figured out what the cause of it coming loose which was easy. I then decided it would be easy to run a couple screws through the seat wood and into the tenon. Now they had used a square slot screw. Phillips screwdrivers don’t work on that. Last year I picked up a set of screwdriver bits. There is like 50 or 60 bits in the box running from square, hex, phillips, flat and so on, with different sizes of each. I just had to find the right one. The first one I found, which looked right, turned out to be too small. The one I thought was way too big, fit right. I had not noticed they are tapered. That got the screw out. I removed the broken pieces out of the hole. I decided that running a long screw into the wood of the seat, up into the wood of the back would be the best way to go. A lot of wood would have to give before it would come loose again.
My original plan was to drill a hole bigger than the screw so as the screw got tight, it would pull the wood down into the hole. Instead, I drilled a tiny pilot hole with a small bit and then drove the screw into it. The original plan would have been better but I got lazy. I would have to dig out more stuff to get to a drill bit the right size. While this chair could be made to look nice, It never will. It is simply to sit on when outside and we let it weather.
I globbed a lot of water-resistant glue into where the holes the rungs fit into the back as a way to help hold things together. I also globbed glue in and around the tenon of the back. Of course, it dripped. Since this chair will never get a finish, I did not bother to clean up the drips, at least this weekend. Anything can happen in the future.

That was a quick and easy project. I was surprised at how easy it turned out to be. I decided to accept that as an accomplishment and call it a day. The weather at this time was kind of questionable and I decided it would be nicer to relax.

I went out a little later to feed and pet the cat. I put her on my lap, which does not happen often, and petted her for a whole eight minutes, which is saying a lot. I think the longest she ever let me pet her while she was on my lap was 12 minutes. She is an outdoor cat and is very flighty. Many times she will dash off with just a wrong move of a foot.

I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I am not expecting much. My brother won’t be coming up.

Year 16, Week 28, Day Two (week 860)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-24-16 Sunday

76 early morning 86 in the afternoon. I am not used to this frigid weather we are having this weekend..... Blue sky overhead ringed with clouds early morning, Some puffs with a little leaking out west before noon, then really high feathers and blobs after noon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I was actually intending to accomplish nothing today, but then got an idea to take a Cigar box and make it to take donations. I first had to dig into Mom’s garage to find the cigar boxes I knew were there. I found some, but they were not the big ones I remembered. Two had slide tops and were all wood. Another had latch and lid with hinges, but was covered in paper on top and the corners. I chose that one. The paper on the corners looks good, but on the lid, the paper field with the artwork should be removed.
Since I was going to remove the paper, I first drew on the slot the money would go in. I then used my carving knife to cut into the paper and wood on my lines. I made several passes on the sides and ends, then levered some of the wood off. I saw that this is a fine plywood, not solid wood. Part way through the thickness, I saw that this was going to take some effort, so I pulled out the Dremmel and put a cutting disk on it. It cut the slots quickly, but they were not straight. I do not know if that was from something I did originally or it happened in the process. Likely the idiot doing the work...
Once I had the slot cut, I started removing the paper on the filed. I cut along the border and then started pealing the paper up. It tore, of course because they used a pretty good glue, I got the worse of it off, I searched for an easy way of removing what was left. I tried 32 grit sand paper and while it was going to do the job eventually, it was not fast enough. I then took out the dremmel with aa worn flap sanding bit on it and that ate the paper off.
The hole was not straight so I used my carving knife to clean up the corners and where one side wandered, thicker in the middle, I shaves with the knife the ends until it was square. It still needs work.
There was paper on the inside of the lid and had to clean that up some while I was at it. Finally I sanded the whole area with 100 grit sand paper, and used it on the edges of the slot to help clean that up.
I cannot remember where I put my varnish, so I gave it an oil finish. Most of the box is varnished. The oil finish can be the final finish, or it could get a can of spray varnish. I will decide that next weekend.

I decided that I had done enough for today and headed home.

I will have to see what I do next weekend.

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