renaissance man
Yesterday I put two coats of gloss lacquer and orange sparkle glitter on my pancake snare.
Today I intend to put down several more layers of gloss varnish. And perhaps work on my ‘Hannibal’ lectern, as well? That needs sanding, staining, etc.
It’s amazing how quickly things in the US appear to be ‘going south’, right now.
I remember posting on my mini-military blog, a book review, in which I lament the rise of right wing ‘plopulist’ politics, as a dangerous step towards political and social fragmentation, and thereby possible conflict.
I’ve also coined a few expressions, two of which I’m particularly pleased with: the ‘shelfie’ (now in popular use), and ‘plopulism’. The latter being shit ideas that gain socio-political traction.
Trump, Farage, Bojo, are all ‘plopulists’. And the danger they represent covers a spectrum, from – at best – the continued and increasingly unbridled ascendancy of rapine disaster crapitalism (more from Seb’s word-mint!) to – at worst – world war three, and even potential anthropocide, through self-immolation.
As Noam Chomsky points out, the word evil is just nowhere near strong enough to describe these kind of folks; the kind who will gladly sacrifice huge swathes of fellow humans to long slow painful deaths, via poverty, ill-health, and suchlike, or more quickly (but no less traumatically) in war, and poison our very life support system – Earth, herself – in pursuit of immeasurable personal wealth and power.
Several movies seem prescient right now: Idiocracy (2006), for starters. And, more scarily, Civil War (2024). I’ve thought many times exactly what this reviews’ byline states: Idiocracy looks more and more like a tragic documentary, as opposed to a comedic ‘mockumentary’.
And Trump et al’s vigorous efforts at provoking their ‘enemies’ look shamefully and blatantly like an attempt to precipitate civil unrest/war. We haven’t reached the bodies burned in pits stage yet. But Republican use of naked and unaccountable force already resembles Hitler’s use of the SA and SS, against their chosen scapegoats.
If those Americans who can see these fascist goons for what they are – and there seem to be plenty who do – don’t act en masse, decisively and immediately, Trump, and his lunatic enablers and moron minions, might drag all of us into very dark times.
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At present I have three wooden snares on the go.
The newest addition to the workbench is the Pancake Snare. I was inspired by the video below, to try this. And I just happened to have a leftover ring of shell, from making some hand drums.
Step one was cutting bearing edges. I did that a while back. Poss’ at S&F? There was some tear-out, of the outermost plus, inside and out. So I filled anything like that in, this morning.
After sanding the filler, I taped the inside and bearing edges, ready for an orange sparkle coating.
This video is helpful:
Today, at S&F, I made two tools for sanding and smoothing internal facets of snare #1.
Above: making the sanding tools. And Teresa, looking adorable, in one of my caps!
One was designed to follow the bevelled curve of the inner bearing-edge, and neaten that up. The other is to make the interior face of the drum smoother and more regular.
As ever, these simple things took absolutely ages! They are also drum size (or diameter) specific. So I’ll prob’ need to make them again for snare #2!
My two current snare builds had kind of stalled. Foundering on my inability to cut a neat/smooth inner bearing edge…
I finally got around to addressing this issue. And the results, whilst far from perfect, are both tolerable and encouraging.
Snare #1, above, is probably coming along better, in this respect. Both require a lot more fiddling and fettling. But snare #2 needs much more.
The shell wall thickness and the smoothness of the inner bearing-edge bevel, on snare #2, are much more varied. I’m thinking about what kind of jigs or tools I might make to help sort this out.
Snare #2 also needs the outer bearing-edge enlarging a bit, so the two bevels meet in a ‘sharp’ edge…
The reason I was finally able to get these inner bearing-edges cut, is that I was able to mount my new Katsu palm-router in the jig originally made for my older Titan plunge-router. As pictured below:
Experimenting with a bearing and various stops, I finally came up with a method that appears to work. Albeit, as already noted, far from perfectly.
I bought this old lectern, most likely originally from a church, from a reclamation place, in Three Holes.
The guy that runs that place asked for £50. I believe I paid £25. It was in a pretty sorry state. Evidently it’s been outdoors a good long while.
Made of oak. It’s been heavily weathered. Some of the timbers have dried out, bowed, and even cracked.
Originally, or at least when I first got it, it had a kind of platform, for standing on. I didn’t like this; it made the whole piece both unwieldy and space-consuming.
So the first thing I did, today, was cut that off, and use part of it to strengthen what remained, resulting in a new and smaller footprint.
Evidence of earlier modifications? One side has the original … , whilst the other has been replaced with dowels, and their corresponding holes.
The above images show the ‘feet’. These were very damaged. And held in place wi’ ancient rusted screws. Getting these screws out was hard work. Indeed, the attempt caused all but one of the ‘feet’ to split and break. So I’ve had to glue them all back together.
The two carved side panels have lost a few bits. And at their bases, there are some splits. I tried gluing these together, before reassembly. With mixed success!
Above: the damage…
I decided I’d try and rescue this, my recent first attempt at a bevel-plane.
Before addressing the damaged sole, I tidied up and enlarged the waste vent, above. After that I thought about how I could retrieve this tool. A wider angle on the sole, perhaps?
Marking up for the new wider sole.
I also used my second more successful bevel-plane to knock the edges off the first one. I think the results look fab!
I then used my Kity table saw to cut the new wider angle on the sole. There’s still a wee bit of visible damage on the sole. But it’s tolerable.
I’ll need to make a new iron and wedge for this one, soon.
Lid for the air filter in my 2009 Nissan Qashqai has gone AWOL. No idea when it disappeared!?
I’m driving around without any air to cover. But I read up about it. Don’t know if it can do any serious damage? But it seems you certainly do…
Anyway, I thought I’d best make a temporary cover until such time as I can source a replacement. Which isn’t easy by the way.
Card and gaffer tape!
I learned about this particular combo’ thanks, I believe, to James Wright, of YouTube channel Wood by Wright. It’s his go to method for finishing most wooden stuff.
Googling the subject ‘linseed oil paste wax’ this morning brought in a result from lostartpress.com, whom I also learned of via James Wright.
I think I’d like to try this finish.