It's raining and I've things to do

I love the rain. Rain changes everything. When it's raining hard the
colors all soften and blend together toward the pastel part of the
spectrum. After the rain every color moves up in hue, is brighter and
cleaner, and more intense. The air is noticably fresher--maybe it's an
effect of the colors, but the world seems rejuvenated. But I went
inside. I had things to do.

A quarter inch bandsaw blade allows a turn of 5/8" radius, so if you
have something tighter than that, you have to plan out your cuts and
provide relief to the blade in the tight corners. So my brash blade
struck out across the open spaces outside the pattern and slashed
through beautiful wood that, without necessity's unmoving dictate, would
serve as a handle, a knob, a pull tab, for some future project. Lord
that's cheesy. I did it for Tom.

Using some CAD software (qcad) I put together some lines separated by
exactly one fourteenth of an inch o.c., and printed them out on a sheet
of paper. I cut two strips from that and taped them together, lines
facing eachother and registered. I slipped this into the jaws of a saw
vise and clamped (cramped, Jeff) down on a sheet of blue spring steel
tucked between them. Opening up the sheets, I taped them to the jaws of
the vise, and used them as a guide for a slim triangular file, and then
a double X slim triangular file with a coffee stirring stick tied to one
face to demonstrate which way is up. I peered around the file to see if
the file was on the line, and *stroke*. six strokes per line or more, I
don't remember. Three teeth ended up looking funny. I once knew a girl
with a mouth like that, and sweeter than honey. She stole my cat.

The fence on my tiny table saw sucks, so I clamped a stick of wood
behind it to underscore its position, and clamped another stick an equal
distance from the other side of the blade. The blade is the exact width
of the spring steel, 0.02", but as I push it in with a stick it grows
hot inside the cocobolo and the wood swells to compress it and make it
still hotter. Withdraw the wood, and the blade (less than three inches
in diameter) is warped and wriggles out a wider kerf for a few seconds,
then narrows back into its normal profile. Crap. But the slot in the
wood is okay. I want to see what Micromark thinks of that... but it
worked well on brass.

Two hacksaw blades, and a corner is removed from the spring steel.
Mcmaster Carr's "HSS" blades are crap. I use the spring steel, with its
new teeth, to finish the cut in the cocobolo. No set to the teeth, but
it's okay.

I don't have a 1/8" chisel, and my 1/4" chisel is actually more than
that. Cutting a 1/4" slot in the cocobolo is therefore risky business.
I shouldn't have. I did. I regret it. I need to let in a slot for
some quarter inch brass bar. Maybe tomorrow I'll cut out a chisel from
some O-1 steel leaning against the bookshelf, but I hate the hacksaw.
It screams. Maybe I'll grind on the edge of my current chisel. But
then I won't get to use the Oxy-Ac torch. C2H4, it's what's for dinner.

Tomorrow, the sawnuts. Tonight, a glass of wine, and an apple.

er
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