Making it through another year '21-'23

[aigheadish]

It sounds like you are on the right path Tom, just remember to look for big margins for your projects. You're certainly smart enough to know that but a reminder never hurts and I understand that figuring out big margins on projects that will actually sell is tough too...

Have you considered advertising for refurbishment? I'd imagine there are a decent amount of people who'd love to have their old stuff brought back to functional but don't have the abilities like you do... I'm not sure where that ad is placed? Maybe local bulletin boards or Craig's list? 

Also, I was watching your election returns as well with a hopeful heart, after some of the conversations we had when I was there. I continue to be sad for you and your state that one guy wasn't hired. That being said I was listening to the radio and someone was mentioning the pretty huge incremental steps that NY has taken in Congress this go 'round, so maybe things are looking up, just not as quickly as we'd hope. 

Take care buddy!

[doc henderson]

yes this economy works both ways.  i keep thinking things are expensive, but when you compare lately they all are.  all the sudden paying 38 k for a complete kiln is not much as the truck i need is over 100K.  rates for labor at the cat dealer, diesel mechanic ect are over 200 bucks an hour.  hospitals are suffering cause the amount that is paid is set by CMS (think of government combined with big insurance).  A 3 hour ED visit with a consult and several CTs and or MRIs comes to over 20K.  that is all the hospital and doctor charges.  major money loss across the country.  many hospitals in small towns may close in the next few years.  We get reimburse 28 cents on a dollar.  that is part of why the charges are jacked up, so he hospital gets what they need.  If you are uninsured, they will take 40% off the top of the bill and you are still paying more than the insurance companies.  Called contractual write offs.

[bigblockyeti]

A 3 hour ED visit with a consult and several CTs and or MRIs comes to over 20K.  that is all the hospital and doctor charges.  major money loss across the country.

I hope I'm a long ways away from that but I was under the impression it was usually just a 30 minute visit and prescription for Viagra that got things back into working shape?  At any rate if $20K is the going rate, I'm sure folks will be willing to pay it!

[doc henderson]

sadly it is an inflated price so in the end, we can keep the doors open.  hospital losses across the country are huge.  

[Hilltop366]

ED = emergency department not the other ED  ;) :D

[aigheadish]

Hahahahahaha! Good catch Hilltop and bigblock. I didn't really understand the Viagara reference until Hilltop pointed it out. So funny!

[doc henderson]

OMG!  just to be clear that stands for "oh my God!"   wait_smiley smiley_gorgeous

[Wlmedley]

Doc,I'm not complaining about what hospitals charge.I know it costs a lot to keep them operating and my wife wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the ER a few years ago when she had a major stroke.After I retired I got on Cobra for awhile at $1800 a month for both of us. I'm now on Medicare but my wife isn't old enough so I got her insurance through the marketplace and its not cheap.I paid my copay at the doctors office after giving my insurance card and that should have been it.I can't afford to pay large insurance premiums and doctor bills too.Sometimes it just seems like they test you to see what they can get by with.I spent more time on the telephone on hold than my wife did at the appointment. :-\

[doc henderson]

no offense taken, and my comments were just to let you know, that we are astounded as well.  we get young people that show up for very minor stuff, and it is 400 bucks just to walk in the door and bee seen.  I try to explain that but they either do not care, or think we do not want to take care of them, or do not plan to pay the bill anyway.

[Old Greenhorn]

Boy, turn my back for a few hours and that took off in a couple of directions I didn't expect. ;D

 All I know is that everything is so expensive right now that I can't even afford to pay attention.

[WV Sawmiller]

Happy birthday Eric. Semper Fi.


Correction - that was meant for Old Jarhead, not Old Greenhorn.

[Old Greenhorn]

No problem, that's can happen to folks of advanced age from time to time. But I will take it as a fine reminder of the day, had I realized that this morning I would have enjoyed the day more and as tomorrow is Veteran's day it serves as a timely reminder to give thanks and appreciation for the millions of citizens who have served this country, make it free, and keep it that way so that we all might enjoy our way of life. Their sacrifices can not be over stated and the debt of our general population to these folks can never be fully paid.
usflag

[JD Guy]

No problem, that's can happen to folks of advanced age from time to time. But I will take it as a fine reminder of the day, had I realized that this morning I would have enjoyed the day more and as tomorrow is Veteran's day it serves as a timely reminder to give thanks and appreciation for the millions of citizens who have served this country, make it free, and keep it that way so that we all might enjoy our way of life. Their sacrifices can not be over stated and the debt of our general population to these folks can never be fully paid.
usflag

So well said that the only thing I can add is AMEN!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I seem to be making inroads toward working out of my funk. Having decided I have to 'make stuff' means I have to use to for production of 'something' and figure out how to sell it when it's done. Room for storing stuff has always meant I can't keep much on hand, but I do have a few of those odds and ends things I made as part of my learning process that are certainly saleable. I made some small items to to use up odd wood pieces, probably $30-50 dollar items and I have stock to make more. I figure I will make as much as I can store and work on different outlet ideas as I build the inventory. If nothing else, I will have enough to do a show next year.
 So this week I had this cherry slab which was always slated for a blind spline waterfall bench. I had planed the whole slab a year ago, but doing all the detail work was something I never got to. This week I pulled it out, picked my cut lines and got started. These benches have a lot of steps. First I cut the lines, then set up to do the miter cuts and they have to be dang close to prefect. Then I have to put in the routed pockets for the splines and they have to match exactly. If all that goes well, I next need to set up the epoxy joining. Here is my 'dry fit' setup with perfectly square 4x4's to maintain that 90° joint.


 

The benches are a bunch of work, but it the joints come out right, the grain matches carry through the joint and the overall look and finish look good, they are pretty appealing. But the joints take time.



 

 The thing is, you can take your best shot at guessing how the legs are going to look when you do 'the fold' because you can't adjust after you make those first two cuts, it is what it is.
 This bench has the first epoxy pour done and is curing now. With the legs up and looking at the alignment this is gonna look pretty funky. I am thinking it's either art or it's a bust. I know it's stable, but from the diverging directions the legs are taking I am a bit apprehensive that I might have blown about 8 hours of my time on a discount bench instead of a high dollar one.



 

 The legs are currently 19-1/4" long and that is probably too high for a 36" bench. I cut this one at 36" because I am thinking folks will be able to fit it in more places and the curve in this slab was a bit much for a 48" bench, it would not be as stable.
 I just have to do some supplemental epoxy pours to fill in the small gaps and improve the joint appearance. Then onto the finishing work and we will see how it comes out.

 So I have been working on that since around Wednesday along with parts for a truck tool box and trying to finish off a coat/hat rack thing I started a year ago. I just keep rotating through, and as one gets done, I will add another and try to keep turning stuff out.

 But I still have to keep up at the mill. ;D So Thursday I went to knock out an order for 1x10's, but the toolcat was gone. No way to get logs over on the deck without my forklift. The guys took it along with that 4x8 shed to deliver and finish it. I turned home and back in the shop. Friday I went back before the rains came and everything I touched turned to poo-poo. Just one of those days. The 3 logs I had picked out in my head inventory turned out to be spruce, not ewp. I didn't even really look at the bark until I had the first log dragged out. So I put it back on the pile and went searching for stuff I could drag out with a chain and pick with the forks. Not much could I find, but I did grab two. By that time I was really frustrated and thinking even less. I put them on the deck and got ready to fire the mill up which means checking fuel and filling the lube. Somebody had dumped my 3 gallons of water for the blade lube and I saw there was antifreeze added to the jug on the mill but only about 1.5 gallons. I will just say I was a bit 'miffed'. I did have a gallon jug of water I had hidden away and I dumped that in. It would be fine for 2 logs. SO I out the first log up and opened it up and for some reason I was thinking "1x6" was the target and I got a nice 6x8" cant out of it before I realized I was making 1x10's. DUH! SO I made a stack of 1x6's which will get used someday, likely soonish. I put the second log up, now painfully aware of what was needed and I realized this thing had so many bends and defects I couldn't get a 10" dimension not matter how I cut it over the 12' length. I had some 2x8's and called the whole session a loss. I took two of the 2x6's up to the shop and set them on sawhorses to make a long bed for the miter saw so the next shed build will go a lot faster as we can knock out the repetitive cuts faster.
 I was home by noon and worked in the shop working on that bench layout and the other stuff.
 This morning I went out and started back in on the work at hand, Bill called around 10:30 or so and I went down there and we pulled a bunch of old EWP logs with the forwarder and put them where I can get at them, a bunch went right on the forwarder to head up to the OWB and I will be taking a lot of thick ugly slabs off the logs I will mill for the OWB. It's old stuff that needs to go. Good for fence boards or dunnage, not much else. If I open 'em and they are junk, they will head right for the OWB. We need to clean that old junk out and dress up these piles as we go, so we made some good headway today. I did notice the pile closest to the mill deck has gotten a lot smaller since I started running the mill which gives more working area with every log I use up. This is a good thing. Bill is also kind of 'letting go' on some of the milling decisions and today I warned him that I may start randomly making timbers and lumber for a drying shed whether he likes it or not. He had no objections. Now if I could get him to stop dumping my blade lube because he thinks it old grungy junk we will get things moving better. He's like to use some of the steel 40' trusses he has to make a roof over whatever drying shed we build. I'm not sure how to do that or figure the snow load and column sizes let alone the header sizes or how long the spans can be.  :D ???

 Anyway, today was better than yesterday and I can't ask for more than that. Tomorrow will likely be a home/shop day my Daughter and SIL will likely come and look at my older woodstove and see if it will work in their house. Maybe I should get some help outta them for firewood?

 Anyway, tomorrow is another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

   On bench height I always use 17" as my standard height. Storage space is a big problem for me too and I've gone vertical as much as possible. I assume that is true for all of us. Looks good. Keep on punching.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, when I use regular 2" square legs I figure 19" because I think I read that is a standard somewhere. On this one, I cut the legs at 19.25" leaving a 1/4" for squaring if required. I have a way of adjusting the length on these that seems to work well (which does not involver the sawmill ;D) and it worked on the first one perfectly.  Just based on the proportions (length vs. height) I may shorten this as I go along. I just came back in from the shop and flipped it. It sits flat, so that isn't an issue but this will take a lot of follow up work on the joints and while I am doing all that I will get a feel for what this thing wants to look like.

[Old Greenhorn]

Not much new here. It is now what I would call "November" weather. 20's to 30's at night and not much over 40 during the day. If it were sunny I would enjoy it, but since it has been overcast and damp, well not so much. Had about 2" of snow yesterday that went away by 4pm, today more flurries not even in the forecast, just from the most pregnant clouds I guess. Not cheery weather and Bill is wondering why I am not at the mill. ;D I told him I have anal glaucoma, that is, I just can't see my butt going down there until I get used to the weather...again. Plus it's been pretty windy too.
 SO I have been plugging along on that Cherry Bench, which is going slow with these little epoxy pours to fill small cracks and joints. I am pretty picky on this part, and if it ain't right I sand it and do it again. I had to re-do one pour last night, then flip and do one tiny spot over again today. The epoxy will settle and not stay flush with the surface sometimes and it can take hours to 'drop in' sometimes even though I encourage it as much as possible by lifting out air bubbles with a toothpick, etc.. Tomorrow I expect to be full into final sanding and hitting it with sanding sealer, then getting down to it.
 In the meantime I have been using the extra mixed epoxy on that bar trying to figure out how I want it to look and messing around with colors in layers. I should do some preliminary sanding on that tomorrow too. Right now it's still at the butt ugly stage.



 

 The third piece I was working on was finished a few days ago.



 

I have also been doing small quick maintenance things, like wintering the water pump, fixing odd stuff that has been waiting around, and today I fixed a flat tire on one of my log carts of all things. Who'd think that would happen? :D Well it turns out the chineese tire is splitting in the thin spots. I threw some patches on the inside of the tire, and one on the tube at the actual leak and it seems to be holding. I'll get a new tire, tube, rim and bearings for about 9 bucks next time I am at harbor freight, hopefully the one that will open here in January.  (I see they have a banner up and contractors are working inside the building.)
 
This afternoon I looked around for another job and found some RO pieces I was going to make a tall corner curio shelf out of but abandoned it. I pulled them out and the wood has moved since I stopped 2 years ago and now I think it's settled but no longer flat and one has a long bark inclusion. So I chiseled most of that out but I really don't know where I am going with this one yet. Might make a side table type of thing if I can get the top pieces flat.

 In other news, the stove seems to be working out great. I note the temp is at 58-60 degrees each morning (which is my first smile of the day) when I get up and it really doesn't take long to get the shop up to around 62. So far I am happy. Still having problems with that bypass plate, but I just avoid using it for now, don't really need it. Overall, I think it's a big improvement and properly sized for the top, plus I can throw in bigger chunks for day burns that would never fit through the door of the other stove. Saves me some work. Curious to see how it works when it's 5 outside, but not too curious. ;D

 A couple of days ago my shop TV up and quit. The only reason I have it is because it came out of a cleanout my son did that included like 5 TV's and he was getting rid of them. I tried everything to get it going but finally decided it was done. It's on the dump pile now. Once I had it in the shop I found it was nice for company and noise. I don't have an antenna or cable out there, but I can stream stuff with it like netflix or youtube stuff off my phone with a watchamacallit thingy. I found it keeps me company working alone and I listen 60's & 70's TV shows while I work and the occasional movie, I like TCM, they get some good ones. I have gotten so used to it, that now I miss it. Last night the wife said I should go buy a cheap one to replace it, so I found a 'smart TV' from Wally world for about $100 bucks. I guess I will finally find out what a smart TV is. I think I have to get an ethernet cable to it, so more fiddling around to do I guess. With winter coming (I heard) I figure it will get lonely in the shop, so what the heck?

 I should try to get to the mill tomorrow, but if the wind is blowing and it's cloudy, I think not. I feel a early winter depression coming on. :D

[aigheadish]

If it's a smart TV it should work with wifi, if you've got that out there. Once you've got it set up check out Pluto.tv if you haven't yet. It's free (commercial'd) streaming TV with a ton of content. Lots of old shows and you can do on demand with a lot of stuff too. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well just routine here going from project to project and trying to keep moving. Not moving fast enough. The cold snap has really discouraged me from working outside at least for this past week. I have a lumber order pending and firewood to split and stack. It's just not pleasant out with the cold and that wind blowing pretty insistently. We did the monthly food shopping on Wednesday and then back to work in the shop.
 Friday the replacement TV showed up and I lost some time trying to figure that out. It didn't have an RJ-45 for the network connection as advertised, but it did have WiFi so I worked with that. I found a good John Wayne war movie and let it rip. I ordered a smallish one because I really don't watch it much (17"?), just sorta listen to it. Shoulda got something a little bigger so I can read the menus from down on the floor, the TV hangs off the loft about 15' up. I have some binoculars I can use though. :D
 Those RO pieces I had figured for a corner cabinet, then puled again for a side table are looking like a lost cause because the wood quality just isn't there. For all the work I will put in, they will only look 'interesting'. SO I will either make something quick and easy to sell cheap, or cut them up and throw in the stove what I can't use. Too bad, they have an interesting shape.
 The bench is about done, just adding coats of Danish oil. I had put on the first coat and didn't like the top. So this morning I sanded back to bare wood, plus a little more and started over with the sanding sealer, etc. Got the first top coat on and it's better than before.



 

 Been working on that bar too and had the client stop in tonight for a consult. He'd like it in February but added some 'features', so when we get closer I will have to call RiteLeg and see if I can order up some customization of their bar legs to accommodate a shelf and some rolling casters. I have been messing with the color dyes in epoxy and after 4 or 5 attempts to get the blend style I wanted I have finally figured it out and the coloring is beginning to appeal to me, and apparently the client too. Small victories, right?

 The new stove is doing well. Even with the overnights in the 20's the shop is in good shape in the morning most days. This morning it was at it coldest, around 52° but it only took about 45 minutes to get it back up near 60°. Watching the shop temp from my desk in the house allows me to see the trend and know if it's holding or the stove is burning down. The other night I watched the temp start to go up so I went out and adjusted the stove to hold at idle. In a few more weeks I will have this figured out, but so far so good. Today we only got to 33 for a high so I am starting to get a better feel for it. For instance I see the temp has dropped 1 degree per hour for the last 3 hours and is now down to 59. I know it's trending down, so the fire is dying down. In a little bit I'll go back and load the stove for the night, but probably leave the damper where it's set because it's steady.

 I was up late last night watching the police activity in the road in front of my house. 2 Troopers and a deputy having a 'conversation' with one of my neighbors. Sad to see. He's in his late 70's and has some things going on. I had heard the call for a domestic on the radio a little earlier. He was having a rough day and I just watched in case I could help him out in some way, but the LEOS were doing their job and I let them be and although he wound up in custody for some period, they treated him well and gently. I believe there is some dementia entering into the picture, probably for a couple of years now, his son believes the same. I saw him drive by today and talked to his son briefly and all is as well as can be expected. He's a good man and I judge no one until I can walk a mile in their shoes. I may be there myself someday, who knows?

 Tomorrow I think will be another shop day and i have to get another project started. Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest I will get to the mill and get that order knocked out. The I'll see what the rest of the week brings. One day at a time, right?

[Old Greenhorn]

Well today had some nice surprises that made it a more fun day than the usual work in the shop alone all day and listen to lousy movies, although I did that too.
It started out with a surprise phone call from an old friend Steve Martin, I hadn't spoken with in several months and I thought it odd, but welcome that he would call me before 9 in the morning. He has a syndicated Bluegrass radio show that plays on many stations weekly, had served on the board of directors for the IBMA for a term or two and of course knows a lot of folks in the music business. He is a past IBMA Broadcaster of the year winner. Some of those folks he knows are people I introduced him to which opened some doors to other folks. Steve's radio show is based largely on the interviews he does and they are all available on his website for listening. I can't say he has done 'everyone' but he is getting close. In the early years of our friendship I would 'suggest' folks he should interview. I hooked him up with Bill Keith, Eric Weisberg, and a few others. One guy I knew Steve should talk to is Marc Horowitz. Steve kept demurring because he had never heard of Marc. I kept explaining Marc's pedigree and after several of these conversations, he finally 'humored me' and gave Marc a call. Long story short, that was over 5 years ago and these guys are fast friends and talk on the phone 3-5 times every week. Marc has been on Steve's show several times. Now Marc is a career musician having done studio work for years, toured with Joni Mitchell, John Denver, done orchestra pit jobs for plays and stage shows, TV shows, and any number of there things. He even played a couple of tracks on one of the Monty Python albums. But you never heard of Marc, because he was a sideman. His main ax is a banjo, but he can play most other stringed instruments if needed. He is also a teacher and Bela Fleck was one of his many students.
So Steve called me to let me know that he had been invited to write a biography type article for Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine. He is in the data collection/research phase and getting quotes and comments for a myriad of these well known folks to include in the article. At some point he started to reflect on how he came to be friends with Marc and remembered that I had worked pretty hard at getting them to hook up. He thought he would give me a call and tell me about the project. I (we) are tickled that Marc will finally get a little public recognition. Steve wants to write this as a cover feature article and I hope he pulls it off. Glad it's not me, that's a lot of work covering a 50 year career. ;D
So back to reality. The shop was 51 this morning, not what I had hoped for, but the stove kicked back up without a re-light, so that was good. It was down in the low 20's overnight and never got much over 30 today, so I got to play with maintaining shop heat during the day and nearly had the stove runaway on me in my haste to get the temp up. Lesson learned there.

I had another cherry slab I pulled last evening and today I planed it. I also learned that if I slow the planer feed I get a lot less chipping in the face, making for less epoxy repair work. I can take a little deeper cut too. It planed up nice and I laid out the cut lines after some thought. This time I want to focus on getting that 'knife edge' joint that Tule Peak talks about. SO I spent time trying to get my table saw at EXACTLY 45° and had some difficulty. So   I learned about the limiting stops on the angle swing on the saw and tweaked the stops. The limit was about 1/2 degree or so off. Then figured out how to set up a fence. First try wasn't too good, 2nd try was a better and safer choice. It may be that my fence is not quite square to the blade by a very tiny amount. Anyway, when I was done cutting, I was pretty pleased with the resulting meetups giving me 90°.
So I started to mix up some epoxy to fill minor cracks etc. I don't like to let and overnight go to waste when I can have that stuff curing. Once I pour it really needs 24 hours before I can sand and move on. Just as I began mixing the epoxy I heard some kind of heavy equipment out on the road. It was pretty late in the day for the town guys to be out working and it sure didn't sound like a large truck, it was definatley a machine of some sort and it was in ear shot for longer than a drive by. I was upstairs and couldn't see out the front windows, so with mixing cup in hand I came downstairs and sure enought it was 'something' but I could only see half of it, right at the end of my shop driveway, stopped in the road but running. The Op was climbing out, so I kept mixing and went out and down the driveway. Sure enough it was a friend, a fella I have known since he was about 6 years old, and our Fire Chief. He has a trucking outfit. As I got closer he climbed back in the machine and backed it into my driveway and off to the side. It was smoking. He had the machine down at Bill's place and was driving it back to his shop about 4 miles away. He thinks he just blew up the rear axle. So now I have this parked in my driveway.


 

A very nice little Telehandler. I told him he can leave it there as long as he needs, no problem. Wish I could use it but it's in rough shape. It moves now, so we need to move it as little as possible until we can get it on a trailer and back to his shop. That rear axle housing was hot enough to turn water into steam, so there's your sign. Pretty machine with a 16' reach, 3 4 wheel steering, etc. I never knew he had it. Good to know now in case I am in a bind.

In between all the other stuff I was putting on added coats of danish oil on the first cherry bench and dumping some more epoxy in the bar. Just trying to keep things moving.
A little shop time tomorrow morning than I have to get to the mill. Apparently I now have 2 orders to work on.

[trimguy]

3 wheel steering ? Is that because he blew the rear axle ? 😂

[Old Greenhorn]

 :D My bad, good catch. I fixed it. It DID have 4 wheel steering when he parked it. Tomorrow, who knows? :D

[aigheadish]

4 miles of roading something like that seems kind of miserable. Not as miserable as a couple hundred bucks for transport but... I bet that thing would be quite handy! 

[Old Greenhorn]

Actually not bad at all. A lot less hassle than trailering it. The trick is when he brings it home because he has to cross the 4 lane state road and travel along it for 1/2 mile or so.
 He was rolling along pretty good .... until he wasn't. ;D

 On my road it is not unusual to see all manner of things going by, but it's not everyday. If I need to Toolcat, I just go to Bill's and drive i back here. We used to see horses on the road too, but it's been a long time, as those folks moved out.

[aigheadish]

I've driven the backhoe maybe a bit over 3 miles on 45 mph roads and did not like it one bit. The weight differences on front and back cause the whole thing to rock after going over the slightest bump and at speed (presumably 15-18 mph) it gets scary very quickly. Things are probably a bit more even on the telehandler. Driving the tractor about 14 miles wasn't too bad.