I came across a 2×6 scrap of what I’ve been told is maple. I sawed it up into a few dice boxes that I’m using my router to hollow. Each is going to be finished with linseed oil, but constructed in slightly different manners. This one is the first time I’ve used brass threaded inserts, which are surprisingly fragile.
I enjoy the look of the separation that exposed the grain.
And three magnets seem to keep it closed well enough. I might use more or use bigger magnets on the next ones.
Jesse worked hard on the Bass from morning to night, with some long interruptions to build fencing around the chicken run. We started off the morning by soldering the knobs and and the pickups.
It took filing a rough spot on the bridge and flux to get the ground wire soldered to the bridge. Then we used a chisel to carve a spot for the solder bump.
Before I knew it, Jesse had punded in the peg post collars and had put the neck on the body.
He was really excited to get his first string on a peg!
After dinner, Jesse had screwed most of the pickups on. He unfortunately broke a drill bit of in the body when sinking pilot holes for the low pickup. We had to drill some surrounding area out and use needle nose to back out the bit. And when we did, Jesse got right on to adjusting his bridge.
We finished off the evening listening to Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Primus.
Jesse carefully masked the body of the bass and we primed and sprayed two coats of silver paint on it.
And I created a way to stop the body from spinning in the breeze
I’ve been making nesting dice trays as one of my latest projects.
These wheels will save my back. Made out of a 2×6 and 6in wheels with 6in iron rods as axles.
Making the wooden brackets was fun. They could be more secure, but I didn’t have time to snip up some nail plate and dig up small sheet metal screws.
The more frustrating part of this saw is that the bevel alignment is the weakest part. The BPS15 model has a really weak attachment between the bevel handle and the pinion gear. I drilled opposing holes through the back of the knob and screwed it in place.
Next the bevel adjustment bolts to make 0 and 45 angles correct are also kind of a joke. You loosen them and it actually just frees part if the saw bracing from the housing. I would really rather have seen a better mechanism, like an offset screw. Crappy.
Made these out of a reclaimed piece of 4×10. Threw out quite a bit of eaten wood and threw out the ones that started to issue termites.
Next time, I will use forstner bits or drill ahead of time and trim them down on the table saw to correct the chip out.
Ugly but it works
Up cycled license plates are a perfectly reasonable piece of metal to re-purpose.
Some notes on making rain barrels. First: I decided that the most likely way for a self-installed bib to fail would be to drill and install it myself. The barrels I got lacked lids, so I couldn’t reach into them to hold a backing nut in place. Bellingham doesn’t have a place that stocks bung caps, so I ordered them on line. I got the brass fittings at hardware sales. I decided to go with a ball valve. Simple, quick to get maximum flow.
So the top of the barrels are now the rounded bottoms. I drilled a four-inch hole in there, pretty close to the middle. This is because the elbows on the downspout go out to about six-inches.
The overflows are a pair of 1.5″ holes with 1.5in-1.25in threaded iron transitions. I used a linoleum knife to carve the holes wider. Do not use a spade bit, use a 1″ hole saw.
The barrels are white now because I primed them. I’ll paint them soon. I wanted to put some screen into the inlet to try and keep leaf and moss garbage out of it. I’m also going to screen off the overflows, but I suspect that normal window screen is not going to keep mosquitoes out.
There is not a good way to put screen inside the four inch downspout transition, so I decided to cut the bottom out of some small deli tubs which happened to be about 4 inches wide. there is a pretty tight fit between the transition and these ad hoc screen brackets. The trick to getting the screen to fit in is to cut triangular gaps out of the sides of the screen squares.
