In My "Spare" Time: Year 17, Week 17, Day One (week 903)

Year 17, Week 17, Day One (week 903)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-07-17 Saturday

    64 early morning, 81 late afternoon, blue skies as far as you could see. This was a haze free blue sky. Winds with gusts strong enough to tug on hats and knock things over. This is from a front that passed over us at the end of the week which watered our plants well. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

    I headed out to check out some yard sales. I drove the whole route and found only four yard sales. One was all kids stuff, one had a lot of collectibles, which were interesting, but I don’t have room for anything like that stuff. I tend toward usable things. There was a multi family sale where I picked up a tie rack for my dad, who still wears ties. The last yard sale was of someone I had seen before. She had mostly outdoor furniture. Most of the drive was enjoyable.

    I took a short nap when I got back, then started moving around some wood in mom’s back yard. I saw some needed trimming so I headed out to HOME DEPOT. We have two dead saws-alls and I could use one. I decided I would buy one. LOWES has more varieties but when I looked at them several months ago, I had no clue what I was looking at.
    We have a display shelf project that has been looking at us and I decided to pick up some stuff for that.
    I walked part of the store. They had a limited selection of saws-alls and I quickly learned what the differences between them. AMPS is how much power the saw has. Some saws have a switch where the blade can go straight as it goes in and out, or one can have the blade sort of circles, where it will pull with the blade low, and rise up when it pulls back (I have not read the instructions so that is what I assumes it does. This is more aggressive a cut. One can get a corded unit or a battery unit. Then there is the weight of the machine. Some also are also set up to reduce vibration in the handle, with either a cushion/spring handle, or with a counter weight that goes opposite the blade. They all now have quick release chucks rather than using an allen wrench. You simply turn a knurled knob around the chuck, and slip the blade in and turn the knob the other way. Some have a lever on the outside that you lift and that moves the quick release.
    I picked one that was inexpensive, but powerful.
    I then got some hardware and a few shelves for the shelving.

    I got home and showed mom what I got and she said the shelving stuff I got was not right, in any way, shape, or form. We decided to go back. She needed some mulch for her garden anyway.
    We went back and selected peg board and had it cut there for us. We got the brackets for that, and a couple shelves which we will cut in half. We may instead get some one by ten boards as it will be the right blond color, and a whole lot cheaper. We are not quite ready for shelving yet. The shelving we got would have to be cut anyway so getting two by tens might well work better.

    We got home and using a wheel borrow, I unloaded the truck (the guy at the store loaded the truck). I put two of the bags of mulch in the wheel borrow, over the wheel, and found there was no effort to tip it up. I added two more and then took them out back. Balancing them was no trouble, pushing them was no trouble, but when I got them out back, I was puffing. (They keep telling me to get into shape. I always thought round was a shape). Mom wanted them in several places. I brought the second batch out back and placed them where mom wanted them. When she gets to work, she is going to be the one to be moving them if they need to be some place else....

    I messed around a little bit on some things, then napped until it was time to get ready and leave.

    I had good exercise today and accomplished some things that will lead to future projects. I intended to make sawdust, not move it around. I will see if I accomplish something tomorrow.

Year 17, Week 17, Day One (week 903)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-07-17 Saturday

    63 degrees early Morning, 80 late afternoon. All sun and blue sky through the whole day. A breeze strong enough to move hair and leaves, but light enough to be comfortable.

    I found a yard sale on the way to Mom’s house.. One guy is a contractor who is shifting his equipment from plug-in, to battery. He had a saws-all at a good price so I picked it up. I am not sure what got into me. I found a bin of Easter stuff there for a pittance. There are some ceramic rabbits and other things. I got it and questioned my decision when I drove away, and as I took it into the house. The bin, itself, is almost worth what I paid.

    When I got to Mom’s I told her about the Saws-all I found. While I was taking a nap, she went out side and played around a little. She took my old saws-all, which decided not to run, and removed the screws and opened the case. She found the armature clocked with my hair! She got her long tweezers and took the hair out and now it works!!!!
    It has never “caught” my hair, so it must have, over the years, sucked in one hair at a time until it was too much to turn.
    It appears that some problems with machinery are easy to repair “IF YOU CAN GET IT BACK TOGETHER” which is not my best skill.
    We now have three working saws-alls. The new one will be Mom’s personal saws-all which she will have put away. I decided that the quick release blade of the last one I bought is nicer to use than the allen wrench of the old one so the old one is set on a shelf for now. I am using the old case with the last unit. The space in the plastic case is not the same, but it closes and that is all that matters.

    After a quick nap, I went out back to do some wood working. I took out the saws-all and trimmed some of the Mango wood I received from the tree next door when they trimmed it. It already has fruit coming on. One large, almost ripe one fell, but most that have fallen are tiny and won’t ripen.
    When they cut the branches, they had no consideration for cutting them straight, and there was pieces near the bark where the wood broke rather than cut. I cut a small piece closer to being square, as I figure I will make a banana bowl out of that. That is a bowl that is longer than it is wide. It ends up more like a wing, than a bowl.
    I had one branch where it was trimmed a number of times so it is a knob with a bunch of branches coming out. I removed the branch stubs sticking out. I am not sure how I am going to turn it. I may have one of the experts in the turning club give me some ideas as how to get the most out of it.
    Another piece had split down quite a ways. They cut below the split so I have a piece that is partially flat on one side. Anyway I trimmed off the split.

    Later in the day, Mom decided she had to do something about the shelving unit we picked up hardware for. It had some long screws sticking out. We used the Saws-all to trim the screws off. They are just long enough to put cap nuts on. I figure we will glue them on as there really are not much in the way of threads holding them on. We fit the cap nuts on and it looks good, almost finished. We discussed how to go about supporting the shelving and finishing it up. I decided I was not up to doing that today. Maybe next week. Will see.

    While I did not do any turning this weekend. I did do some work with wood.
    I hope to be more productive next weekend.

    1482