I’m happy to report that my thumb is healing quite nicely. After about 10 days, I’m down from an oversize gauze bandage that stuck out like, well, a sore thumb and just using a band-aid. Other than some minor annoyances, it’s been a non-issue, and which makes me happy as I recently made a list of upcoming (woodworking) projects.
Coffee table #1 — This one’s for Dina and me, made primarily from a small cherry tree trunk cut down by my friend Mike in the course of his landscaping job.
Coffee table #2 — Another commission, this one is for some friends who recently moved in to a new house. Size, style, material all TBD.
Frame for lacework — As we sorted through my grandmother’s apartment after she passed away a couple years ago, we discovered a cache of beautiful, hand-crocheted (or tatted?) lace. I took a few of them, and aim to make a big, hexagonal frame from some oak I have in the shop. A good project to get good on the router table.
Door — Another friend is in the middle of a renovation and hasn’t had a bathroom door for months, so I’m making him a barn-style sliding door.
Robot arm table — Now that it’s closer to ready for the big time, the robot arm needs a platform worthy of its bar tending future. I’m thinking veneer over plywood for robust but attractive construction. I’ve also got some brass sheets cut for the bottle holders.
Benches — The same folks who host my workshop took out a few trees a couple years back, and saved some big slabs to turn into benches for their backyard. I’m gonna weld up some steel bases and varnish the heck out of the wood.
Rocking chair(s) — Jared and I have had visions for years of building a small run of rocking chairs as gifts for close friends. We actually have the inklings of a design and a couple prototypes, but there’s plenty of work left, even before we start “production.”
This all made me think back to the last time I publicly listed the projects I was considering and/or working on. Again, I’m happy to report quite a bit of progress on most of them, and even a few completed altogether! Although the sweater languishes, there’s been movement on everything else. Since October 2010, the robot arm has poured its first drink, I made (and frequently use) a sous vide cooker, and I built a workbench and then a dining room table for my friends. The last project, the photography one, is just getting underway. I’ll post something here when it’s ready for primetime. Not bad, all in all!
posted August 3, 2012 – 8:02 am
You’ll have to grant me, it’d been a while since I’d been to the ER.
I do understand that the ultimate goal is zero ER visits, period, but spacing them out as much as possible seems like a good backup, right?
So what happened? This was an accident borne purely of negligence, I’m afraid (almost my second of the week, after nearly being picked off by a texting driver as I crossed the street a few days ago), and it happened on the table saw in my workshop.
I was putzing around the shop yesterday, not really working on anything in particular / working on a few things at once, and I was pretty distracted. After I ripped a small-ish piece of wood, I brought my hand back over the (spinning at full-speed) blade and it caught my thumb. No good.
What should have happened instead? A few things:
- I shouldn’t have been working on the saw to begin with (since I was distracted)
- I should have had the rip guard installed (it was off because I was lazy and had been crosscutting with the sled)
- I should have used a push stick (instead of having my hand so close to the blade)
I’ll spare the gory pictures and details, but I’m happy to say I didn’t need surgery, there was no damage to the bone, I have full sensation at the fingertip, the nail bed is nearly completely intact, and though it might look just a little funny in the long run, the doctors expect everything to grow back.
I thought I had a pretty healthy fear of the table saw before, but this accident has kicked that up several notches, and no question I’ll be even more on guard for a good long time.
posted July 23, 2012 – 11:02 am
For my birthday, Dina took me on a short scenic flight over Seattle in a seaplane. Neither of us had flown in one before, and it was, as they say, on the list. We lucked out with beautiful weather on a mid-April evening (took me a while to get the pics off the camera and write about it), and we got some great views of the city.
I also took my first ever video with the D90, during takeoff:
A few more photos are up here.
posted June 20, 2012 – 1:21 pm
Looks like I have a solid backup plan if the whole bartender thing doesn’t work out for the robot arm:
But, I still have a good feeling about it becoming a bartender. The latest progress is that following on the success of the prototype bottle gripper (which was wood and though attractive, pretty weak in key areas), I’ve made a permanent one thanks to some friends with… a 3d printer.
Looking forward to attaching it to the wrist and giving it a try…
posted June 20, 2012 – 8:21 am
Though I finished the table part of the project a while back, it was just this weekend that I wrapped up work on the matching bench for Faye and Nick:
It did take a good while (a little less than a year) to build, but obviously I had a few other things going on in the meantime, and I’m pretty happy with how it came out. I’m also happy that Faye & Nick are happy with how it came out!
I posted some photos and a description of the making-of process here.
posted May 29, 2012 – 1:03 pm
