Maybe Not Wheel Re-Invention

But it often times feels like it to me.

Weather stripping.  I'm talking about around doors.  Seems to me the state of the art is pretty dismal.
Seems they use cheap ass vinyl or something that quickly loses it's resilience and before long it's impotent.
I've had some surgical tubing for decades that I've used in various capacities in photography that is still like it's brand new.  You squeeze it together, it pushes back.  You take off pressure it stands right up again.

So here's an initial trial to see if proof of concept works.
A dovetail slot is cut (in the trial I think the slope of the dovetail is too much) and then a rod is pushed in locking the tubing in the slot.

This is an 1" ID tubing.  Probably too big, I admit, but when pressure is applied it compresses right down.  Check back with me in ten years for my one decade old review.

Once again I needed support to hang the long wood off of a machine.  There's no way the horizontal mortiser could handle the torque as it travels through it's XY route.  I tried hanging it off a Skyhigh Combo Triple Riser with a hank of rope thinking it would allow it to swing as the machine went in and out, left and right.
Worked somewhat.

Didn't know how to re-invent the wheel here.  Had to resort to a sign telling me to watch the bit.  This particular one has the nastiest of habits of working itself out of the machine and causing all kinds of bad shit.

Mostly Past Tense

The Camp Mather salvage wood was delivered.

The cherry aluminum table was delivered.

The Death Valley Fruit was dried.

The initial fly over of the jointer runway was a huge success.  Smooth take off and landing.

The ancient tool, the plumb bob perfectly located the center of the bottom hinge hole.

Two shadows.

And it seems I am always reinventing the wheel.

Welcome Maggie

She plays in two other bands.  Metal Bands.  Standup Bass of all things.

I think she's trying us out rather than the other way round.  She fit right in, making a bowel movement joke right out of the gate.
One of us it seems.

Jules' foot.

Table of Brother of Ken

Some photos of the completed Cherry and Aluminum table over at Ken's studio.  Unstudied photos yet photos nonetheless to provide some documentation.

The two materials look beautiful together, the curves of Ken's legs perfectly compliment the top's curves. All riveted and tapped together. Muy solid. Totally Ken here, I just did the woodworking part.  Being delivered on Saturday. 

Always a bunch of animals watching every single thing that takes place in Ken's space.

Ken's workbench floor with table.

Two more unrelated.

Took down the big piece of steel I've stored in the rafters.  If I'm building the 11' tall doors for our space then I might as well make the hinges for it as well.  Going to cut this up and make large knife hinges.
Wood is being delivered in a couple days.  Salvage stuff out of Camp Mather from the Sierra Nevada Mts.

And as the fruit of the season comes into it's own, drying some for my annual solo trip to Death Valley.

It's been a long time coming

Been struggling for years running long boards on my short bed jointer.  I would jerry rig a short c-stand with a grip head and a baby plate to support the overhang.
It was never ever good.
Basta!  Enough!
 Cut a 12' piece of 1/2" aluminum in half along with some 1"x2" bar stock and tapped it all together.

16' feet of runway.

Four bolts. On and off
 

You Can See This

Ok, this one you had to be there to see it.  Been getting gray for a long long time.  It's got a pedigreed terroir to it though.
Evan....."Feel the hand of it."
That's not a term one normally hears but I knew instantly what he was getting at.

This one.  Come on.  Easy.

This one.
It's about acceptance. Acceptance is one of the big ones.  Really comforting to me how everything hinges upon acceptance.  Blockages open, hard softens, differences become samenesses. 
Acceptance took me awhile to get to.  There are lessons to study before acceptance is accepted.

This one.
Nothing about imposing yourself on it.  Wishing it was this or that,  thinking you could do this or that to it and make it fit in your little world view how something should be.
No.
It's perfect.  As it is. The beautiful thing about it, is Evan applied everything he could think to quiet it's spirit from shouting out but there was a such a strong confidence in itself that it would be accepted and appreciated by not listening.

Signed Off Then Demo-ed

Had been waiting until all the initials had been initialed, the signatures had been signed and the stamps stamped on the permit process so I could tear down what I had put up.

Want to build some big doors for this opening, close to eleven feet high ten feet wide, so I can throw the doors open and wheel anything and everything out of the studio if needed. Easily. There won't be a threshold that I need to grunt stuff over, just a nice level and smooth roll out.  I need the height for a softbox that's real tall.

I couldn't build the doors in time and still pass inspection date so I threw up something temporary, stuccoed and painted it.  Just enough so it looked good.  Expecting some out of town guests so that's why the space is looking like it does at the moment.


Ken's table update.  That's been gone for sometime now, and the finish is being applied so I'll see what I can do about getting a good representative photo of it in his studio soon.  In the meantime.....

There was an 18" taper underneath that I thought I would hand plane.  It'll be awhile before I do that again.  Next time, some router sled will be made to take off the majority of stock.

Used this chamfer plane to break the edges.  It makes this small precise cut that really finishes something off.  Amazing how something so small makes such a big impact.

Although it appears to be two toned, it's not.  It's just how the light is coming off the five surfaces.