What did you do today?

[nicer20]

Well technically not today but yesterday marked my first day at office after 2+ years. I left office on Feb 24th 2020 for a family vacation to Hawaii. Came back on March 8th night and our offices were proactively shutdown from the 9th. So never had a chance or reason to go back in.

First day after 2+ years - luckily there was no coffee left on the table growing mold

[nicer20]

Does the online Sketchup have a free version? I thought the only way to get a free version is the 2017 downloaded one and online versions are all paid subscriptions. Want to learn Sketchup for hobby projects and not going to be regular user able to justify ongoing subscription. TIA

[dbhost]

Lots of meetings, calls etc... Busy day. What time I had fo rme I spent cleaning in the shop and posting my surplus dust collection ducting to Craigslist. I was NOT kidding when I said I wanted the stuff gone. You'd be shocked how much space a bunch of DWV fittings and pipe take up.

I left none of the 4" ABS fittings, none of the 4" DWV fittings, and only a small amount of pipe for non related shop use. I.e. dowel storage...

Been a frustrating week. Hoping things will get better soon...

[dbhost]

There, moved the clamshell cabinets excluding one to over the workbench / table saw, which probably makes more sense. And the open cabinet, my current workshop library over the AC in the far narrow wall.

This configuration leaves me with a nice open middle space, and considering almsot everything is on wheels, if I need more room to handle a workpiece just wheel it in and around... I need to keep tweaking the upper cabinets but I am close, oh so close. This actually looks like it could work..



Pretty sure I have mentioned whomever built my house was an imbecile. The attic stairs over the shop literally were dropping the bolts for the spring / hinges, and the brackets bent. Apparently when they built it they figured 5/16 x 3/4 lab bolts would hold up. Well they did for 38 years, but today was not a good day for them. I need some 1.5" long lags but I got them bolted down nice and tight, and the brackets straightened out. I am NOT happy though. I managed to get my thumb caught between the bracket and the boards when the spring let go and it tore up my thumb nail away from the nail bed.

Oh well, it'll heal somewhat quickly and I now know what needed to be fixed.

I need to actually take this attic stairs setup off, and re-frame it. Not going to go into the explanation other than to say it's done VERY stupidly and is really only supported on one side... How the f$#% this ever passed anything resembling an inspection I will never know...

[dbhost]

Spent some time forcing myself to use Sketchup Free online. I have NOT had good experiences with it up to now and stuck kind of stubbornly to the old Sketchup local installation from 2017. Well updates have been made to the online platform and while there is a slight learning curve of where did they move my cheese sort of thing, it isn't bad, and seems actually snappier than the local installation. Mostly because it now has the option to import existing models as components stripping out a LOT of file attributes etc... and thus making it a LOT easier to work with large models while not exhausting memory...

I digress though.

I cleaned up the concept sketchup of the BT3100 with just the regular rails and a shop made router table. Sorry for those that love the Ryobi router table accessory for the BT, but the offset center hole REALLY rubs me in an OCD way I wasn't aware was there... Just can't do it... I am sure it's great but, well, you know...

I modelled up a plan for a 2x4 based M&T workbench. Basically my existing bench dimensions but, wel, better construction...

And I threw together another concept sketchup for a 10x20 shed workshop. This time using hte shortened back to pretty much stock width + about 10", outfeed onto the workbench sideways and bench against the wall, and of course lose the Chicago Electric slider for either a fixed miter saw, or a front slide like a Hitachi / Metabo HPT.

The results were actually pretty impressive, and it looks like I will not only have plenty of room for tools in there, but my big backside will fit comfortably this way... Having the entry door all the way on the right gives me a LOT more continuous wall to put the lathe on and suddenly things aren't quote so crowded. I don't have the sharpening station there but there is way more than enough room. And yes I have the following tool changes from what I currently have.

Home BT3100 wide table kit removed. 10" of extension rails maintained, and router table wing retained but shortened massively. Not in this sketchup but I am thinking just a simple roller box base with a few drawers for the table saw and router accessories, and a keep the kitty litter tub router box. I just need to figure out a better door and I think I am there...
Forum Sell off the Chicago Electric 12" sliding miter saw, replace it with either a used Hitachi 12" front slide, or a new Metabo HPT 12" front slide. Cut down the miter saw cabinet by 12" of depth. Dust hood concepts still being considered. Blogs Sell the Northern Industrial floor model drill press in favor of a Wen 4212T bench top model, and flip top stand mount it with the mortiser on the other side. I probably have enough room for the mortiser cabinet and the floor model drill press, just had the model handy...

I already see one functional issue with the layout model though. The clamshell cabinets over the lathe are too close to the wall. The outer doors need to swing open 180 degress in order to clear the inner doors. I forgot to save space for them...

[capncarl]

You are correct, the Sago palm is a thorny sponge. I think it is the same species as corn.

[twistsol]

My dad's 99th birthday is today. Yesterday the family got together and went out to lunch, toured a Parade of Homes $1.9 million dream home and then went to tour my daughter's much more modest new 1950's house and have pie and cheesecake.

[dbhost]

It's definately spring here in Texas, meaning it is going to be intolerable up in the attic before too long. I need to chuck the 4" DWV stuff up in the attic since I got no local takers for it...

[dbhost]

I am not certain this is all palms, but at least with the Sago palm I cut out of my yard, the trunk was basically like a stiff sponge. It is not a woody tree in the slightest. I don't belive you can get usable lumber out of a palm tree...

[capncarl]

I swing through one or 2 small sawmills every trip and don’t think I’ve ever seen a palm on their grounds. I’ll talk to my neighbor this week to see if he has encountered any, he owns a tree service here, and I’ll also be going to one of the local nurseries soon, they always have palms, usually windmill palms. I’ll see if he has one that is damaged and couldn’t sell.

[leehljp]

Had to make the 8 hour, 400 mile round trip to Apalachicola Fla. to restock the gallery with Tiny Tables, Trees and Mushrooms. We went through Mexico Beach Fla., it is building back nicely but sadly it will never again be the old time Florida town on the beach again. On the roads home all of the pine forests are still broke down and strewn all over.

CapnCarl, is there ever any palm tree wood or logs available for purchase in the coastal area? Just curious. I would like some if I know where it is available and when we go back to Orlando to visit LOML's Sister.

[dbhost]

Woke up, did the email thing. Tried waking a stubborn wife up for Sunday services. Guess we are gonna stream the replay...

Fired up the BBQ grill, cut up marinated, skewered and grilled Turkish Taouk and I am probably misspelling that but it is all sorts of tasty... Currently using same coals for grilling burgers and brats.

[capncarl]

Had to make the 8 hour, 400 mile round trip to Apalachicola Fla. to restock the gallery with Tiny Tables, Trees and Mushrooms. We went through Mexico Beach Fla., it is building back nicely but sadly it will never again be the old time Florida town on the beach again. On the roads home all of the pine forests are still broke down and strewn all over.

[LCHIEN]

Income Tax. Ugh.

[dbhost]

I *can* do Debian, but very few enterprises that pay decently use it, so I steer clear. However Ubuntu is Debian based so there is that... My bread and butter is Red Hat Enterprise Linux. After Red Hat bone headed CentOS, and instead of setting it out as an unsupported variant, it is the development branch for RHEL, if that is the case though, what is Fedora for right? So Rocky stepped in with the original team that did CentOS and basically replaced it. I like their tag line that they aim to be bug for bug compatible with the upstream. They are, including some VERY stupid removals of important storage drivers. I.E. I lost access to my eSATA storage controller.

So long winded explaination aside. For desktop I prefer Ubuntu, but for servers, I kind of have to go where the money is...