Friday, November 14, 2008

Shopping


I got back to the shop based work today jointing up a couple of boards to make a wider bottom shelf. I also sharpened up the spare planer knives and fitted them. I had made the mistake of assuming old vegetable oil was the same as the fossil based variety, but it isn't. The rags I had wrapped the blades in had turned to a sticky mass that had also attracted moisture and therefore rust, so I will not be using that again. I suppose there must be some kind of refinement that needs to be performed on the stuff before it can be compared to the geological extract.
I hadn't really appreciated the difference in efficiency when burning well dried wood. I had thought the skimpy sticks would disappear in no time, but because they are so dry we can shut up the main vent almost completely and things just smolder away happily for several hours. I keep the window vent open. That allows a curtain of cold air to drop down over the glass and keeps it pretty clean with anything half way dry burning.
Points of interest among the chaos. The planer with its ducting removed and lid open for surgery. The board in clamps in the foreground. The general sense of more airiness down the other end of the shop, which I hope to keep through the addition of some large windows. It is pretty breezy down there as the evening draws in, so I am trying to get little bits of work done on walls and such in between other stuff. The tiny bit of studding I put in over the glass doors the other day is one such.