Too Quiet

It's quiet in here. Too quiet. Page views are down. New comments are almost non-existent, and there hasn't been a new follower added in over a year. If it weren't for two prominent links (from Propnomicon and Eric Hart), and more recently the popularity of Pinterest, I don't think I would be getting any traffic here at all. I know that the inconsistency and recent dearth of new posts has hurt me in that regard (and I have an explanation for that, if you care to read this post to the end). I also realize that what little material I have been publishing lately has been of a nature that is not really in line with what brought most people to this blog in the first place.

But, I've also been getting the feeling lately that Blogger may be a dying platform. With the exception of Propnomicon, who's tireless dedication to publishing is an inspiration and an invaluable resource to the Mythos and prop making communities- the extent to which can not be over stated, most of the blogs that I used to follow are dying off. Many have slowed their publishing schedule, quite a few have migrated to other websites or other media, and a lot have just vanished. I, myself, find that I now spend a lot less time reading blogs and a lot more time watching YouTube videos.

Which brings me to me second point- YouTube videos. Lately I've been feeling the urge to branch out into new media. Maybe it's just that I'm a little bored with blogs, or that I'm disheartened by the falling numbers. Or maybe I just want to do what the "cool kids" are doing. But it looks like YouTube is going strong, where Blogger and even Instructables are flagging. I don't even know if I will like making videos. It will obviously be a lot more work than posting to a blog. And I don't really relish the idea of appearing on camera. But the draw of being a part of that thriving community is so enticing. So, I'm curious. What do any of you think? I invite everyone who reads this to weigh in on the topic in the comments. It would be nice to get some feedback.

YouTube is really the only other outlet, at the moment, that appeals to me. I have a number of issues with Facebook. I absolutely despise Twitter. I don't really see the appeal of Snapchat, or Instagram. Deviant Art, and the various php forums (with the exception of the RPF) seem to be past their prime. Pinterest is kind of "meh", but has some value. I'll admit that I am a bit of a curmudgeon, and I don't adapt to new technology very quickly, and usually only begrudgingly. I refuse to chase trends, and most of these types of services are ephemeral. YouTube has at least been around for a while, and doesn't look like it is going anywhere anytime soon. But I'd also like to hear your feedback on these other media. If you think I've overlooked something, or have underrated something, let me know in the comments.

To be clear, I'm not chasing traffic. Well, not just for the sake of having traffic, anyway. I don't want to switch to YouTube just to get more views, but I also don't want to be the last guy updating his MySpace page all alone either. Which brings me to my third point- what is this all for and why did I start it in the first place. Well, I started out by wanting to post some pictures of some of the things I had made. I had made quite a few cool little props items and thought that it would be a good idea to keep some kind of a portfolio of my work. I started by just posting a few pictures on a static page that was attached to the Rogue Cthulhu web page. Within a year, that started to feel a bit inadequate. I wanted to give more commentary on the items, what they were, why I made them, etc. Then I stumbled upon Blogger.  It seemed like it had some legs under it. I would be able to post my pictures, and write a little bit about each piece, without having to write html code. It was convenient and seemed more robust of a format than what I was already doing. It was only ever meant to be a place to catalog pictures of my creations. In retrospect, a Flickr account probably would have done the trick. I never really expected anyone to look at it besides myself.

But I can remember the rush that I got the first time I saw one of my blog posts copied on another site. It was either Propnomicon, or Old Fool (whom I believe has since passed away- RIP, brother), I can't remember now which was first. I had just posted an image of one of my prop tomes the night before. Then, I was flipping through some blogs I had begun reading and I saw my tome- and I froze. I was stunned, and confused for a moment. I was pretty sure that I was not on my blog page, but there was the picture I had just posted. I literally had to take a moment to figure out what was happening. Was I on the right webpage? Why was I seeing a picture of my prop on this blog? It honestly took several moments before it even dawned on me that someone had seen my blog and reposted one of my images. Then after the initial confusion, came a deep satisfaction and the joy that comes from knowing that someone recognized something you did as having worth. I was hooked.

Then, after a short while, largely due to the nature of the format, I started writing more and more about each piece, and I started taking more than just snap shots of the finished pieces. I started taking a lot of picture of the building process. I honestly started doing it for my own reference. It's good to chronicle the creation process so that you can learn from it or recreate it later on. My blog posts became more tutorial in nature, and that really seemed to appeal to people. And I enjoyed writing about the creation process too.

Point four- content. I never tried to pander to the audience. I don't post (when I do post) for the traffic. But there is certainly an undeniable surge of pride and a feeling of purpose and self esteem one gets when one receives positive feedback. I have a lot of different things that interest me, and my focus wanders from one field of interest to another. I know that the people who came here for the bookbinding tutorials may not necessarily be interested in the Mythos props, and the Steampunk fans are probably not terribly interested in the Pagan crafts. The woodworking projects probably have little appeal to any of those crowds, and nobody gives a flying fuck about my DIY shop furniture or the metal fabrication I did at my old job. If you came to this blog for one type of thing, and I'm not posting about that currently, all I can say is, stick around. I will probably come back to it one day.

And that brings me to my final point- consistency. Anyone who has followed this blog will note that in addition to content theme variation, there has been wide fluctuation in the publishing schedule of that content. The public likes consistency. Regular and frequent updates to content- grist for the mill, as it were. But anyone who runs a blog anything like this one, also knows that production schedules do not always mesh well with an ideal publishing schedule. But that's only part of the story...

Ok, if you're still reading this, it means that you are either extremely bored or you have an interest in the affairs of people, whom you don't know, akin to an avid 'Reality TV' viewer. So, now I'm going to lay some very personal crap out there- which is something I have never really done here, and likely won't do again. So, if baggage isn't your cup of tea, fare thee well, and tune in for the next post, which will be more akin to my regular posts. I have a few cool projects that I am finishing up.

      ------------------------------((...bail out now. you have been warned...))-------------------------------

So, when this blog first started in 2009, I had a back catalog of projects that needed to be uploaded. Plus, I had recently been laid off from my job in private security, so I had time to write blog posts- 67 of them that first year. For the next two years I remained unemployed (which is to say, I didn't have a second job, in addition to running my store), so I had lots of time to create in my workshop, as well as time to post updates, though as the back catalog was exhausted, things did slow down.

Then, I got another second full time job, and my free time dropped to almost zero- and so did my posts to this blog. For about four years, in addition to running my store, I worked at a soul crushing, physically brutal, relentlessly exhausting job that crippled my hands for the first several months, and  took up about 70 hours a week of my time. I couldn't make anything at all in my workshop for a lot of that time, and I was usually too tired to blog about it if I did.

Then, in 2015, my father passed. He had been very sick for about a year, and then he finally succumbed to cancer. My father and I never really got along well, so as cold as it sounds, I didn't really think his passing would hurt terribly much. Sure, I would miss him, and mourn his loss to some extent, but we didn't really have much of a relationship. Plus, anyone who knows me knows that I'm emotionally distant where most personal relationships are concerned. Even still, his passing has affected my life in ways I had not imagined. And since his passing, I have come to realize that he and I were more alike than I care to admit. Maybe that's why we didn't get along.

*As to why I am known to be emotionally distant, that stems from having my heart broken about 25 years ago. It was my fault. I was young and immature. I took her for granted. I failed her on multiple occasions, and I even cheated. I did love her, but I understand now that I treated her poorly (though I never intended to and didn't realize it at the time). She deserved better, and when she finally figured that out, she left me for another man. I was devastated by her leaving. I had an emotional breakdown, got suicidal, and then curled up into a ball for the next 20 odd years. Broken. Everything I have done since then (with the exception of my daughter, whom I love)- my store, my crafts, my jobs, my few friends, my gaming club, this blog, all of it- has just been me killing time, looking for distractions, waiting to die.

Back to the present. Shortly after my father passed, my work situation became intolerable, and so I quit. Still, even though quitting my job freed up some time, my father's passing still had things pretty chaotic, and there was a lot of family stuff to deal with in his wake. So, still not much crafting or blogging getting done.

Then, just as I was getting bored with being alone, and thinking that I had wasted my life feeling sorry for myself, and wondering why life never gave me a second chance, and thinking that the scars over my heart had finally healed enough that I could love somebody again, but begrudgingly accepting that I probably never would- then, the impossible happened.

In the past 25 years, since my heart was broken, exactly three women have caught my attention. I'm not saying that I have never found anyone else attractive- I'm saying only three times in that period have I looked at someone and my heart stood up and pointed at them and said "That one. I want that one". I never said anything to any of them. Partly because they were all married, but mostly because I am a coward with almost no social skills. Two of them moved away shortly after we met. The third, I saw only briefly each year at a convention. For ten years I watched her, longingly- careful never to let on that I harbored feelings for her, for fear that she would react negatively and I would never see her again. All the while, my infatuation and attraction to her growing to distracting levels.

In October of 2015, just a few months after my father had passed away and I quit my job, she and I were both at a party, and one of my friends let slip to her that I had feelings for her. She was just drunk enough to not find this revelation revolting. And I was just drunk enough to not screw it up too badly when she confronted me about it (which is to say, we were both completely hammered). It's worth noting at this point, that she is in an 'open marriage', so at least from her perspective, her being married was not an impediment.

For the next few months, we dated- and I was deliriously happy. For the first time in 25 years, I felt joy. I felt purpose. I felt powerful. I felt love. I wanted to start living again. I wasn't just killing time anymore. I was ready to reinvent myself. Eager to start over. Regretful of the time I had wasted. Of course, no crafting or blogging, or much of anything else got done during this period, as I was understandably very distracted. All of my attention was focused on this new love in my life- and therein lay the tragic flaw.

 Without delving into excruciating detail of the roller coaster that ensued, it will suffice to say that there was no happily-ever-after. Not for me, anyway. Misrepresentations were made. Expectations were misconstrued. Missteps were taken. Promises went unfulfilled. Emotions rose and fell. Things ended- abruptly.
 
In the end, my hart was broken once again. My emotional cataclysm, which followed in the aftermath of this brief and ill-fated romance, took me right back to where I was 25 years ago; despondency, dejection, heartache, confusion, crippling depression, misery, tears, suicidal ideation. To say that I was invested would be the understatement of the decade. She, however, was not.  For her, it was just another in a long list of extramarital dalliances; shorter than most, easily dismissed, and quickly forgotten. For me, it was the death of hope.

It has been just over a year now since it ended. Though she has said that everything is cool between us, it isn't. We don't talk at all anymore. She has distanced herself from me in the few social circles where our lives once crossed, and it is likely that I will never see or speak to her again. Last year's convention was so unbearable, I doubt I will ever go back. As a result of my being broken again, all of my other friendships have ended as well. Some of those friendships ended with bad blood. Some of them just ended. I am no longer even a member of the gaming club that I founded and lead for 16 years. Now that a year has passed, I'm just starting to be able to function again. That's why there have been very few recent projects or posts, even though I currently have plenty of time on my hands.

 As I said, I don't make a habit of dumping my purse out on the couch like this, and you won't see me do it again- at least not here. The Old Man has a secret blog for that ;) But it goes to my fifth point, concerning consistency. At first, I had plenty of time for projects and blogging, then no time, then father died, then quit job, then too much happiness, then too much sadness, now broken- again. I'd like to say that the consistency will start to improve now that I am semi-functional, but frankly I don't really know from one day to the next whether or not I will want to continue living, let alone continue making or blogging. I can only take one day at a time. But now, at least I can say most days are a little less awful than the previous one.  ...Most days.

/baggage

So, feel free to comment. I'm curious to see if anyone is still reading this blog, or if all my current traffic numbers are just from google image searches and spam bots. Let me know what you think about the new woodworking stuff, or your thoughts on making YouTube videos. Anything really. Just looking for a little feedback.

Until next time...

.

Dust Deputy

More shop improvements. Until now, the table saw was connected to a very old and somewhat crappy Craftsman shop vacuum. It did a barely adequate job of dust collection and its joke of a filter clogged laughably quickly. Still, it is the only tool in the shop that had any kind of dust collection.

I recently purchased a small plastic cyclone separator (the Oneida, Dust Deputy) to turn it into a two-stage unit. The purpose of a cyclone is to separate out as much of the sawdust and wood chips from the air stream as possible before it gets to the filter. This makes for cleaner air, longer lasting filters and better air flow. However, converting it would take a little modification and a fair bit of fabrication.

Unless you buy one of their rather expensive kits, the Dust Deputy does not come with any accessories, gaskets or hardware. What you get is a molded plastic cone with an air intake on the side and an air outlet at the top and a mounting flange at the bottom. That's it. A single piece of molded plastic, and it costs about $50. That means I will have to find my own way to connect it to my shop vacuum system.

I started by removing the motor from the lid of the main dust canister of my Craftsman vacuum. The lid fits the canister with an air tight seal, and it has a hole in the top (where the motor mounted) which is just about the right size for the Dust  Deputy's mounting flange. Unfortunately, it is not centered, and there are some other issues that prompt me to make my own flange out of MDF. My MDF flange attaches to the metal canister lid with four bolts and an EVA foam (2mm craft foam) gasket. The Dust Deputy attaches to the MDF flange with six bolts and another EVA foam gasket. I also had to plug up the old air intake hole in the metal lid with a piece of luan.

Next I turned toward the motor. I took the housing off the motor and removed the old crappy filter bag and cage. I planned to replace it with a high efficiency aftermarket filter for shop-vacs.

Since the motor used to mount directly to the canister lid, I would now need a new housing for the motor and filter. It doesn't need to be very big, because the bulk of the sawdust will go into the main canister out the bottom of the cyclone separator. Only a little very fine dust will make it to the filter and motor. A three gallon bucket with nice ridged walls (it will be under vacuum) and a lid will make a fine housing. This too required a flange to be fabricated, as the plastic bucket lid was far too flimsy. So I made a flange out of hard board on the top and a ring of MDF on the bottom and bolted them together, sandwiching the bucket lid in between. The hardboard was screwed into the motor mounting holes and also the MDF ring grips the bottom of the motor, around the impeller and acts as a backstop for the filter.

I got lucky in so far as the bottom of the bucket had a little ring molded into it at the center, which fit just perfectly into a PVC reducer coupling. The other end of the coupling fit perfectly onto the Dust Deputy's air outlet. I cut out the bottom of the bucket in the center of the ring and fit the coupler between the bucket and cyclone. I could have just cut the hole and pushed the cyclone's air outlet pipe directly in it, but I was worried about getting an airtight fit.

At this point, with the motor wired back up, the system was functional, but the whole affair was wobbly and top heavy. It needed more support. Still, I took this opportunity to do a test. I sucked up a mess of sawdust with it to see how much dust got past the cyclone, and to make sure the system was airtight.

As you can see from the pictures above, nearly all the sawdust ended up in the main canister under the cyclone, and only a small amount of very fine dust ended up in the bucket or on the filter. Even this short test generated a significant amount of static electricity from friction between the sawdust and the cyclone. In the near future, I will need to add a ground wire to the system to prevent static buildup.

I disassembled the unit and set about making a support structure. This support structure was made from 3/8" threaded rod, four sticks of it, each about 16" long. They would bolt through the lower flange where the cyclone mounts to the canister lid, and again through an upper flange that the bucket will sit on, taking a significant portion of the weight of the bucket and motor off of the cyclone itself, and providing a wider, more stable base.

And that's it! A working two-stage cyclone separator shop vacuum. Aside from that one test, I have yet to put it to use ( just finished it a couple of days ago). It will likely get re-attached to the table saw, and may end up doing some general shop cleaning, until I get my big centralized dust collection system installed. Then it will get used like a regular shop vac, as the table saw, and most of the other machines, will get connected to the centralized system. But that could be quite a while yet before that system is installed.

 It is still a bit tall and ungainly, but that is the price you pay for efficient dust collection.

Pointy Pendulums

A couple of weeks ago I made another batch of hardwood pendulums on the lathe. This time, I used the scroll chuck, so I was able to get them to end in a nice sharp point (which is something I can't really do with a drive spur and live center).

I also started using some more exotic wood species than I had in the past. Now I am using walnut, jatoba, sapele, soft maple, and black ebony. Oh, and I finally got them down to a more reasonable size.

DIY Drum Sander v1

I like watching YouTube videos that show how to make your own jigs, and even full fledged tools, for wood working. I don't have a large collection of woodworking tools, and I can't afford to buy everything that I want, so I find myself dreaming of making some of the things I want, and these videos make me think that I can.

One of the tools I covet is a drum sander. I certainly can't afford to buy a drum sander, so I considered trying to make one. I had grand ambitions, and even selected some plans to purchase to start my project, and bought a couple of the critical components. And I was almost ready to get started when I stumbled across another video that featured a much simpler solution. So simple in fact, that I wanted to smack myself for not thinking of it myself.

So here is my first attempt at building a drum sander.

I intend to use my ShopSmith Mark V as the power and the frame for the sander. So I need to build a drum and a deck which will become accessories for the ShopSmith.

I started with the drum. I like the idea proffered by Stumpy Nubs of using interchangeable drums rather than trying to peal the paper off of one drum to change the grit. So I made a drum out of very cheap and easy to use PVC pipe. I'm pretty sure I used 2 inch (inner diameter) pipe. I also made sure I used the kind with the thick walls, so that the pipe would be nice and stiff.

I turned two wooden plugs on the lathe that would fit into the ends of the PVC pipe.

One end would have a piece of metal rod sticking out the center of it. This rod would be gripped by my Jacobs Chuck on my ShopSmith, which would power the sander.

 The other end would have a small divot in the center, and would sit on the live center of my tail stock

 The fit of these plugs was VERY snug. Still, I used a small screw to make sure it didn't spin or come loose. I had to countersink the screw head to make sure the surface of the drum stayed nice and even and smooth.

 I bought a long 80 grit sanding belt on clearance for $1.75. I cut the belt and wrapped it around the pipe and held it in place with electrical tape. When I was happy with the fit, I unwrapped half of it and attached it to the pvc with spray adhesive. Then I wrapped it back up with tape to make sure it stayed put, and then I did the same to the other half, from the other end. Once glued, I wrapped it all tightly with electrical tape until the glue was good and set.

Next came the deck. I set a piece of 3/4 inch plywood on the ShopSmith to get my size and spacing.

 I used a series of stacked wooden blocks and a pivot screw to create friction locks that would mount the deck to the way-tubes of the ShopSmith.

 This is a fairly simple setup. The blocks are stacked to the thickness of the way-tubes. Then the top block is attached with a screw on one end so that it can pivot on that screw and swing out under the way-tube, locking onto it.

 With the main deck now locked onto the way-tubes, I could start working on the tilting top deck. This would be attached to the main deck with a couple of heavy hinges at the front edge.

When in use, the top deck would be raised up close to the drum. The work piece would be slid along the top deck, under the drum, and fed through by hand (very carefully). The distance between the drum and the top deck would determine the thickness of the work piece, working sort of like a thickness planer.

 To set and hold that distance, I used posts made from 5/8 inch threaded rod, and a nut. The nut sets the height by determining the length of the rod from the top deck to the main deck. The excess rod pokes down through a hole in the main deck. 

 The top of the rod rests in a little pocket on the underside of the top deck. It is made from hardwood (oak) and reinforced with a metal washer, so the rod doesn't wear away at the top deck. In these pictures you see me using two rods. I thought this would give me greater stability, but it just made it impossible to adjust the deck height evenly, so I later switched to just one rod set in the center.

 Here is the finished sander. It is crude, and may need some refining, but it does function. I need to make some adjustments to get the top deck to rest perfectly parallel to the drum, so it sands perfectly evenly all the way across. I think that will involve putting some thin shims under one of the hinges, but I haven't got that far yet.

 I also think I'm going to double up the material on the top deck to make it stiffer. I thought 3/4 inch plywood would be stiff enough, but with only one support in the center, I am now getting a little bit of flex across its width. That might also be caused by some play in the hinges, though they are about as tight as I could hope for. Maybe I should replace them with a length of piano hinge. I will update when I get it all tweaked.

Rose Quartz and Jatoba Wand

Just a quick pic of my latest wand. It is a short wand, made of Jatoba wood (Brazilian Cherry) with a polished Rose Quartz point at the tip.

I was originally trying to make a full sized wand, like my usual (around 16 inches or so long), but I had an issue during the turning. The wood blank split on me just as I was finishing up the handle. I managed to salvage the handle , which will become a 2-part wand, and this was the left over part, which would have become the shaft. I decided to salvage the broken piece and make it into a smaller wand. Later, I added the quartz tip.

Jatoba wood is very beautiful, but seems a bit brittle and splintery. It seems to crack easily. I will have to keep that in mind when using it in the future.