In My "Spare" Time: Year 17, Week 02, Day One (week 888)

Year 17, Week 02, Day One (week 888)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-21-17 Saturday

68 early morning, 81 late after noon. Blue skies most of the day. A herd of puffs lined up over the edge of the Everglades and then disappeared later in the day. The brisk wind blew things all over the place. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

THURSDAY

I went to the Turning club meeting ( http://www.goldcoastwoodturners.org/ ). They had someone with the Woodworking club
( http://sfwg.org/South_Florida_Woodworking_Guild/SFWG.html ) to show how to make segmented containers, where you cut up pieces of wood and put them into stacked rings for various effects into a vase or bowl. With this process, you don’t need big chunks of wood for an even large vessel. One can interchange different kinds of woods and, with planning, create intricate designs in the process. Most of the work is in the glue-up, leaving just a little more wood beyond the final surfaces to allow for removing corners and irregularities. The turning is mainly just evening out the surfaces and coming to the final finish.
Part of his demonstration was showing the sled he uses to cut the pieces in six, eight, or twelve sided rings for circles. Many wood workers have to glue the rings in two parts, then adjust the final mating surfaces to meet flat. He said that if you get the sled set exactly, one can glue up the whole ring at one time. He added a pointer to his sled to show the exact point that he needs to set it for each sided piece. This type of project leaves me out as I cannot cut straight even if you set it up so I just push the wood through the blade.

I brought two boxes of carving and scroll saw magazines and a rack (I am told it was from an auto parts store when they went to computer rather than catalogues) filled with carving and scroll saw patterns my dad collected. I had hoped the woodworker guy would be interested, but he said they all now go on line instead. I did find one guy in the club that was interested and I used my hand cart to take it out to his truck. If no one wanted them, I would have kept them. Just finding a place for them would have been a challenge. I would have definitely kept the patterns, but it is better to pass them on to someone who might actually use them.

SATURDAY

I visited a three yard sales early morning. There were a few interesting things, but nothing I had to have. The most interesting things is stuff I better not buy such as cook books.... I saw three signs, one I could not find, and the other two I was in too big a hurry to stop at. I only did a portion of the northern loop of my circuit.

A friend of mine had a sectional couch he needed to get rid of as he had new furniture coming in. He either was to give it away or set it out for the bulk pickup garbage truck to get it. I found someone who would make use of it. I had a truck so I went to get it.
My friend is in worse condition than I am, but he had a good healthy son who was an electrician. My friend did a lot of remodeling of his house and showed me what he did.
His doors were narrow so each piece of the couch had to be maneuvered by two people. I held one end and his son held the other. None of them were really heavy, but they were bulky. We considered having to take them in trips, but figured out how to stack them so it could be handled by one trip. I tied the load in place, figuring on front to back movement since the tail gate had to be down. After I left, but before I hit the turnpike to go home, the thought crossed my mind to check the load, but the thought left me in a second.

As I had to take the turnpike, I was pulling into the toll booth plaza when a woman said I lost a section “back there.” There was almost no traffic, so I drove back to the section, which was destroyed, and put it back in the truck. It was then that I realized I should have also considered up and down movements of the load. Apparently, the section rose up on the ropes and fell out. I had no further problems getting home.
Unloading the couch sections was easy. I literally dropped them onto the handcart, and pulled the handcart to the door of the house, which was wider than my friend’s door. The handcart wheels did not want to rise up the step-down of the house when I tried to pull it up, so I just slid the pieces down the handle of the handcart and dragged them on the carpet. I got them in with little effort. I did get someone to handle the middle curved section which was just too bulky for one person.

A bit later, I removed parts and pieces from the broken section. The back padding was made up of two attached pillows. Those were cut off. One has to be sewn but the other is usable as it is. Some of the fabric was recoverable and they might become arm covers to improve the look. I took off some good wood. I think the woods were oak for the base that the legs were stuck into, plywood for the sides to hold the shape, maple for the cross members. There might have been one or two other woods in it. I am not a wood expert.
There were lots of staples and tack strips. After getting the main pieces, the remains of the hulk, which was about half the piece, sat to be taken out for the garbage. All the wood will have to be cleaned of staples but they can be used for some project, (like I need more wood....)
The rest of the couch looks great. The damaged section is not missed as there really was not enough room for it.

Having done enough work, I took things easy

I will see what I do tomorrow.

Year 17, Week 02, Day Two (week 888)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-22-17 Saturday

69 degrees early morning, 85 in the afternoon. Really brisk wind with stronger gusts. Loads of puffs overhead that stopped at the beach and went no farther. A front is coming this afternoon seeding the weather we are getting. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I helped rearrange the furniture in the house. There was a bar and buffet that were not where they were needed to be for the couch. The buffet, which is smaller, was easy to move. It was only after I moved it into position that I realized that a carpeted board that filled in the space beneath the buffet was removable. I simply lifted on the handcart on the end and it slipped out from beneath the buffet so it could be placed properly. It would have been nice to know that first off. I thought it was nailed to the bottom of the piece.
I had help for the bar. It took some effort to remove the filler but once it was out, the maker of the bar had put small wheels under it so it was easy to move. It did take some lugging and cutting some wires that were connected to the wall. It appears to have an outlet and a switch to something, possibly a light they had elsewhere. I did not have time to figure out what that was.
We then tried a few more arrangements of the couch sectionals. What we came up with was better, but might be done better later. Will have to see how it looks and feels.

A bit later, we finished disassembling the damaged section. The fabric back had came off with what looked like a long line of brads. Examining it, I found there was a metal plate with tongs punched and bent down beneath the seam. They came out easily. Along another edge was cardboard with staples stuck into it beneath the seam. They also came out easily. I have ideas for the metal strips. I got a couple more pieces of wood, but one nice looking piece was so well attached that I decided it was not worth getting out. All that was left went into the garbage. I would say we did well on our salvage.

I decided I over-did it the past two days and took the rest of the day off. A good weekend is one where you go to work to recover (that is what I tell the guys who do construction work anyway).

The weather looks like it might be fairly good next weekend. I need to finish emptying the shed and see the condition of the shelving and get the thing completely clean, then start re-packing it in an “intelligent” arrangement.
I would also like to make some sawdust. I need to finish the platters I started last year, and make some more. I have lots of wonderful wood that demands to be made into sawdust.

I will see what I accomplish next weekend.

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