Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   You mention it being hard to read the screen. I had that same problem several times last week when I could not read the screen in the bright sunlight.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, it can be a pain sometimes. On the Accuset II you can adjust the contrast during the as soon as you power it up with the up/down buttons. But that first day, it so so bright out I couldn't even see where it was on max contrast. Yesterday it was a little better and I could just barely make things out.
 We have often talked about extending the roof overhang in the mill head area, but it's on the list with a LOT of other things.

[SwampDonkey]

This time of the year , fall and into winter, it gets bad for sun in your eyes all day. Even cutting brush, that glare on the wood chip screen. Got to tilt the hard hat foreword to see anything. Thankfully hornets aren't bad up here this year.

I'm pretty much self sufficient for this year with the jams, pasta/pizza sauce, ketchup, and BBQ sauce. There's still enough tomatoes for another run next weekend, but there's a point where it becomes too much. Right now it is just enough and maybe a small bit more, so most practical.    And all that stuff is nearly $10 a jar in the store for the good stuff. I only make the good stuff. :D

[doc henderson]

I think you are going to need a bigger hat!  

[SawyerTed]

Do you have room to put up a pop up canopy or temporary umbrella?  

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I only do a few hours each day and try to work around the sun, but it is dropping in the sky these days. It's too cluttered around the mill head area for a canopy and would impede my moving around with canopy legs in the way. Someday we will get enough logs out of the way to re-grade and set it up proper, but as I said, there is a long list. First we have to drop ibn a trench and lay a drainage pipe to allow the ground seepage a run off point, then we will regrade with all gravel. This should eliminate the ice in the winter and water in the spring.
 Gotta pick your battles and work on them one at a time.

[Old Greenhorn]

Just 2.5 hours at the mill yesterday (and very little wood to show for it, but other stuff got done) and with that heat, I couldn't wait to get home, have lunch and get a shower. I don't know why the heat is sapping me so much, it was worse in June and I got more done then, but I was pooped. I worked in the shop doing some more finishes, ran errands, and quit for the day by 4pm.
 So tired last night, I went to bed by 9pm. Then I couldn't sleep past 5am, so I am off to today's show in less than an hour. We'll see how I hold up today. The Humidity  will peak around 3pm today when we are closing up.  Hopefully I find that special City Sucker Slicker that likes one of my higher end benches today.
 It's another day.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well we had perfect weather for the show today and a good bunch of vendors, but it was a total bust for me except some 'possible' future custom orders. One seemed probable, just a simple rustic bench, but a long one, around 8 or 9 feet. Let's just see if they follow up. Someone else wanted me to make a larger version of the board game 'Battle Ship' for her son who is in the Navy. 
 A nice day anyway and I clearly set a new record for packing up, 1 hour and 15 minutes, things are coming together on that score, but I forgot to cinch one strap and had a little bit of a mess when the high shelf spilled on a turn. No damage though.
 All I know is, I ain't paying my taxes with show money from this one.
 Hopefully the big show next Saturday is a good one. I'll give it my best shot.

[Old Greenhorn]

One more (scheduled) show to go on Saturday to close out the season. This one is my most expensive ($100)and also the largest show. Since the prior show was a bust and I have not done all that great through the whole season I am beginning to get concerned about this one and trying to maximize the return in anyway I can. I keep checking the weather. Last year we had rain and drizzle most of the day through this show and it kept the crowds way down. This year, so far, the weather looks to be a perfect September day with clear skies and temps in the mid 70's.
 About a week or so ago, I got an idea for a shelf I can build and attach to the side of the trailer on the security bars that keep the doors closed for travel. It's a bit of work and I don't have any dry wood ready to build it, so I thunk on it for a week. But after moving money around in the bank to pay the $3500 tax bill and looking at what was left, my stress went up a bunch.
 So last night after dinner I went back out in the shop for a couple of hours and started on that shelf (actually making two). I got most of the grunt work done and most of the wood is fresh milled so I can't plane it for a while, but it's just for this one show, so I'll just sand it and put no finish on it until later. I can disassemble and finish it over the winter and probably refine it. I am designing it as I go I I have the basics all figured out, but some of the details, like how it is clamped on, I am still figuring out. I also have to dig up some material for the shelves themselves. It's the mechanism (support and attachment) that is the tricky part for now. (Photos when it's done.) I have to do a hardware run this morning after I do a test fit of last night's work.
 Hopefully I can get the trailer positioned at this show so that I can use them, or else the work and materials are all for nothing.
-----------------------------
Yesterday I did some finishes in the shop in the morning and more epoxy work, then headed to the mill until my shirt was well soaked through. I brought home a small stack of odd-sized hemlock side boards and stacked and stickered them in the shed with a small fan for air movement.

 I gotta get at it and make the most of the day, hopefully I'll have something to show by this evening.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Hurry up and get those pictures and drawings out there. You know the design committee has been idle for a while and are just aching for a big project to work on.

(I know - you did not think of this as a big project but you will see more clearly when we are done. )

[Nebraska]

Is it going to be brown????

[Old Greenhorn]

This is in every sense a 'quick and dirty' project just to make it functional and get more products at a better viewing height. I was going to leave it 'as sawn' wood, but as I was coming in for lunch I noticed how very bright it is in the sun. So I am going to throw on a quick coat of black paint if I can find enough around.
 Howard, on this one, given my time constraints, I am going to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.  I fully intend to re-work and refine it after the wood dries a bit and I have thought it through, so feel free to make lots of suggestions for me to ignore, or not.

Photos tonight. Back to work.

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, per request, here we go. Again, this is quick and dirty. 2 separate shelves, the first (top) one lays flat, and the lower is sloped. It's adjustable with a piece of rope and a taught line hitch hung from the top shelf. All photos are in the white. I took it down, trimmed off the long screws and hit it with black spray paint anywhere that is visible when I have the blankets on it.



I have yet to figure out or have time to make, some kind of clamping system, so I just used 6" beam clamps for now. Here is the attachment and alignment method to the torsion bars.



After those photos, I added a firring strip to the front edge of the lower shelf to hold stuff on and I threw on some moving blankets and put up a few things just to see about how they could look and adjusted the angle on the lower shelf a bit higher.



So I took it down, painted and trimmed screws. It's not as easy as I would like to put up alone, but it adds a lot of space in and otherwise wasted area. I might eliminate a table. We'll see.

 OK, let the corrections begin.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Nice concept. As a permanent coating could you use something like spray on bed liner material that would cover/protect the wood and also provide some cushioning and traction especially on that lower, sloped shelf to help reduce the risk of something sliding off? That way you would not have to use the moving blanket.

[Resonator]

You do know Tom, if you cut a little take out window over that counter, you could sell cold drinks to the thirsty crowds...

[GRANITEstateMP]

As a junior member of the design committee, I move that this project has come far enough along that it will now need a proprietary name.  Tom,  feel free to throw out a name suggestion that the design committee would take into consideration.

[Old Greenhorn]

I have no idea, I didn't think was much of anything, I just wanted to get some stuff up a little bit higher into peoples sight plane, save some booth space by using air space that was previously empty and possibly eliminating a table. This could still be a really dumb idea in that it does not help, but if I think of something that may help, I have to give it a try. I did a poor job, it's not fancy. I am concerned about doing well at this show, my 10th of the season and so far the numbers are not what I had hoped for. This show could make the difference.
 You could call this "Project In Your Face.".
 I'll be doing a lot of thinking on this show thing over the winter months, looking at the data I collected and trying to come up with a new plan that is more effective.

 Howard, I like moving blankets, if they get dirty or damaged it's easy to grab a clean one. Easy on the wood too. I use them on my plain flat tables too, so it all matches.

[Ljohnsaw]

To get away from the clamps, how about a piece of steel bar. Drilled with one screw on one end and a slot on the other that gets clamped with a wing nut?

You would need either a piece of rope to support the bottom shelf at the back or another piece of steel?

Alternatively, you could remove the cleats and use one or two hole conduit straps with wing nuts.

[aigheadish]

As another junior member of the design committee I have a somewhat irrelevant safety suggestion. Can you turn those clamps around so the eye-pokey bits are on the back side? I realize the shelves themselves are a bit eye-pokey, but the shelves are a bit easier to see that the clamp bars and handles.

I think the shelves look great and should be a great way to save some floor space. It would've taken me a hundred hours to figure out a way to hang them.

[doc henderson]

for contrast, I will claim to be a senior design committee member.  I think the shelf idea in general adds interest to your booth.  It makes you look like a pro and seems more like shopping in a store.  folks from the city will like this.  If everything is spread low to the ground, it looks more like a garage sale.  I assume you plan to paint the whole thing, your favorite color, and not show any more pics.  thanks for sharing.

[Nebraska]

Looks pretty good to me.. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I can't flip those clamps around because there is less than 3" between the torsion bars and the body of the trailer. If put on the outside facing back, thy will prevent the door from opening. It's only for one show, then I will assess how it works and either re-design, make clamps pretty much like John is suggesting (my first plan, but no steel on hand and no time to fab it up), or re-do it another way.
 Since the shelves are not for sale, I wanted them to 'disappear'. I painted all exposed areas black to match the trailer and moving blankets. I have no thoughts of changing the colors.
 Hopefully when I get home from the monthly food shopping trip today they will be dry and I will work on an easier way to get them hung working alone, then pack them away and move on. I don't have a lot of time and still have product to finish.

[Hilltop366]

If it was made with 2 full length uprights with built in shelf brackets (brackets made from wood) and then you could hook the end pieces from the top of the pipes assuming they are hollow if not hollow then hook around hinge plate at top and drop in place 

The shelves would sit on the brackets but would need some cleats on both sides of the bracket on the under side of shelf to prevent racking and the bracket would need a hook shape on the front to prevent them from sliding forward.

Set up and tear down with no tools required would only take seconds and it would be fully locked together by gravity.

[Old Greenhorn]

Hilltop, I think you have a great idea there. I didn't understand your bracket hanging description completely, but I got the general idea. I can't put a full length vertical on those bars because of the sing handle in the middle,  (see photo in prior post) or maybe I mis understood that part. But attaching the brackets and laying captive shelf boards on would be a lot easier and would likely store flatter.
 I would need a pair brackets for each shelf, but that's fine, I can adjust the heights separately. I would also have to settle in on a fixed angle for the lower one. 
 When I read your idea this morning while grocery shopping I almost wanted to change it today, but then I realized I need longer shelf boards. I believe I will start over during the winter and make it new after I mill up some more lumber for it.

 I rehung it today after the paint dried and it went on a little faster, but it made me realize how much better your idea is. But first, I also want to see how this works at a show as far as appeal and sales go. That's the bottom line.

Oh and for the color cops:

[doc henderson]

i like the blankets, but maybe a bit of low pile indoor outdoor carpet to match the brown shelves...