Side Scan Radar of the inside of my right knee. Okay, Okay, it’s not really the inside of my knee, but it looks like what my knee feels like…

TDAY –

As in Physical Therapy, which the benevolence of the Social Welfare State has permitted me, but only twice a week for four weeks.

I’m early, complete the paperwork and become grumpy when Allison, my handler is 20 minutes late in starting.

I cheer up once we hit the recumbent bike where I enjoyed the 6 minutes at low to moderate resistance.  What followed was a gentle, but insistent set of exercises designed both to strengthen the muscles surrounding the afflicted joint, and commence to re-build confidence in that joint.  A confidence that is found wanting.  My take away includes a set of at-home exercises, and a giant rubber band.

DOMINGO –

I make the effort to find Jim Ream’s address and then trundle over to 18^th Street to see how he is recovering from his bladder cancer surgery.  He and Ben are emerging from under the house; they’ve extracted a contractor extension cord, saw horse bracket, pipe clamps, a short handled mallet and an eight foot saw guide with clamps.  Jim offers then to Ben, who doesn’t want them. Apparently Mr. Ream is recovered fully – he looks just the same as ever I’ve seen him.  I ask him how he is doing and he says fine.  I ask Ben how he is doing.  He says fine.  Neither asks me how I a doing.  None of the tools are offered me.  Shows I am still capable of having my feelings injured.

To The Shop where I dry fit the Oak Display Case.  It’s not immediately square in three dimensions, but close, and can be convinced at glue up.  We suppose.

Next: cut the glass for the four sides.  This is next because I want to know: am I using 3.0 mm thick or 2.5 mm thick?

After a couple of false starts cut all four sides with salvaged 3.0 mm thick, probably from the Eastfield Horror demo job.

Next next kerf the parts of the case to accept the glass.  This is straight forward: set the fence on the table saw just off center, and then make two passes.  The first pass with one side of the part to the fence; and then the second pass flipping the part so that the other side is to the fence.  This centers the kerf.

The legs of the case, on the left of the pile, show the blind kerf.

But the legs, each of which require two kerfs are not so easy AND they must be blind kerfs on the lower end so that the groove does not extend beyond the horizontal frames.

This is effected by running in two passes.  The first in from top to bottom but stopping at the mortise.  The second is to position the leg with the far side to the fence and dropping it onto the blade just at the mortise.

It’s easier then it reads.  Finally, some chisel and a gouge remove the remnants where the radius of the saw cut wasn’t quite deep enough at the mortise.

1112DAY –

This morning’s consultation at Drive-Thru Doctor’s On Duty was as fruitful as hunting snipe, although I did overhear a patient conversation where the entry fee just for a drive-thru of $300 was revealed.  Seems on par with today’s cost of a $5 motel room.

Dr. Pryci was his usual solicitatious self, Stay The Course was his guidance, let the physical therapy and next week’s orthopaedic barber surgeon review play out – plan to invite him to the next Last Saturday.

In the flowering of the sunny day, rappel to The Shop with no cogent plan in mind.

Oh yes, the Oak Display Case.  Dry fit with glass.  Dry fit: BAH!

I cut the glass too close to tolerance when I should have cut the glass a couple of millimeters shy.

Rework ensues.  Specifically, back out to the table saw, which I left with blade and fence unchanged from when I first cut the kerfs, to raise the blade the few millimeters demanded by the Dry Fit Not.

Just as I’ve satisfied myself that the front and two sides (will be using sliding thin ply on the back of the case instead of a glass pane) will come together sneaks up on The Castle The Prof fresh from Spokane and a funeral of a good friend’s father.  Commiseration of a liquid sort ensues.

GARAGESALEDAY –

Some observations of the human condition, as presented by the traffic in and out of The Garage this day:

Humans take comfort in objects familiar to them, and are frightened and confused by those strange to them.  Take me, Please.

This in spite of my admonition on Craig’s List, reproduced here:

Antiques, Vintagaina, and Curiosities Garage Sale  Pacific Grove

This is not your typical garage sale – there will be no orphan cutlery, no mis-matched dinnerware, no kitchen gizmos, and no cheap (or even expensive) shiny jewelry.

What will be offered for your delectation will be antique phonographs, items of curiosity, whimsy, function and (mostly) elegance including hand-crafted furniture, cabinets, and curios.

No unreasonably large offers will be refused.

In spite of this and accolades concerning my larger, more interesting pieces, such as the Flat File and the Travel Bar, no wallets were opened, or even prices asked.

Model airplanes, no matter how dusty, sell.

Someone always wants glass telephone pole insulators.

There will always be traffic in search of The Philosopher’s Stone for a dollar.

Marketing by the crack JohnsonArts advertising team needs a fresh look.

Antique phonographs are a dead commodity, although everyone likes hearing Charles Lindbergh crack some jokes (not really all that funny jokes, but hey, it’s the Lone Eagle…)

DOMINGO –

The attentive reader might ask, “Tom, why did you not just design in a single roll-down tambour door?”

After statusing the inventive Mr. Long at Homtek about my knee progress, my task to form a top for the oak tall display case.

Mr. Long was absorbed in trying to make the hold-open cam locks for the tambour door function.  This door rises from underneath the monarch butterfly chrysalis case to meet a corresponding tambour door which rolls down from the top of the case. He had already been at it, so he said, for hours before discarding the rolling cam locks (FEH) and turning to Plan B – window security locks.

I meet his wife who brings lunch, I didn’t tarry.

Display case top in glue up – Up the Merle Band Clamp!

To The Shop and to oak.  I had just enough oak mantle salvaged from the Eastfield Horror to form the frame for the top of the case, encasing glass.

JIGDAY –

As Poseidon (in whom we trust) offers us rain anon, ran out of town to The Dump and Grocery Cheaplet for provisioning so as to not offend the god or earn his wrath.

This seen to (Neptune Be Praised!) it is down the stalactite stairs to The Shop for to make a jig.

I need to drill a hole.

Four holes, actually.  And in the top end of a four foot long leg for the Oak Display Case.

A Real Goy would own a floor size drill press into which he could easily shank and bore a ¼” hole in the end of a 4 foot long anything.  Or he could use his lathe.  Neither shown here.

And as I have faced this need before and STILL not having a floor drill press or a lathe, must needs form a work-around in the true Harvey Fashion.

Horizontal boring jig concept on paper.

Thus, today’s jig making exercise.  From plywood (mostly) fashion a horizontally sliding appurtenance which sports a drill that, when properly adjusted to bore perfectly horizontal, I can mount the case leg and the jig on the workbench and am freed from the tyranny of insufficient leg drilling.

Artemis Be Praised!

As envisioned, it is a two-part jig: a base and a sliding superstructure that holds the ½” drill.  Task One is to craft the two main parts such that the runners that will be affixed to the sliding dingus will nest neatly and tightly (but not too tightly) into the corresponding grooves in the base.

Router tables, when they do not tear off your digits, are your friend.

Fingers still unmangled, Task Two is to form the structure of the sliding bit.  I opted for a front end mount for the drill and an adjustable back yoke.  This adjustable back yoke will be able to move up and down so as to ordinate the drill bit perfectly (or as near as art will allow, Zeus Be Praised!) horizontal.

The front end mount will be a circular cutout with lashing screws, in this case, since I could not counterbore for T-nuts inside the circular hole, the lashing screws would be 5/16” bolts via brass inserts.

Naturally, I didn’t have the proper 5/16” bolts all-thread long enough, so I had to thread out ones of the desired length.  Harvey envies my tap and die set, but we’re even, I stole his wretched hole saw which is still serving ably.

Once the side strakes were glued and screwed to the sliding superstructure, I could size, drill and then install the hardware for the front mount.  Thanks be to Odin.  And so it was.

Using maple runners, I sized them and then installed same on the bottom of the sliding dingus and a mere bit of sanding and the spray on application of silicon rendered the moving parts movable.  Mostly.

DRIZZLEDAY –

Poseidon was angry with us, did not favor us with his sky-borne grace.

I had a few hours before SuperSmith showed – my role in his grand drama this day was to help him shift a 4 x 8’ sheet of polycarbonate from Homely Depot to Belle Umbra, his leafy estate and wild gopher preserve in Pebble Beach.

His intentions are noble: block the furniture and book bleaching UV from the skylight above his main salon.  His approach: somehow nail this sheet of polycarbonate to the undersides of the exposed, angled rafters just under the skylight.  It’s a cockamamie scheme.  He could simply install a roller shade, a pulley and a string.  But my design team was not engaged when he hatched his wild plan….

So I had a few hours which I devoted to completing the bench-top horizontal drilling jig.

What was wanted was a support for the underside of the drill that would effect a horizontal situation for any bits put into the chuck and prevent yaw; and two sides braces that would prevent roll.  This done, I’m ready for the Full-Up Test when SS arrives.

We disappoint the day-laborer’s in the HD parking lot, tough way to make a go of it – they were disporting themselves playing catch with a gull carcass.  The sheet of polycarb was ready at the Service Desk and it was a simple matter to truck it out to the truck, and avoid the dead bird hail mary.

We stopped in at Randy’s Sandwich Shop as SS had never.  Dissuaded against the …. ahem, cheese steak.  As we all know, or should know, there is no such thing as an authentic (or even loose approx) to a Philly Cheese Steak west of the Schuylkill River.  Two Jaw’s II, no mayo.

Take the scenic route via the Route 1 Gate into PB and wander the paths less taken, mostly because I was making it up.

At his manse, we stow the polycarb and then tuck into the sammies on his deck, which has an expansive view of the pines trees in his back 40.  Plenty of room for an archery range, two-lane lap pool with space leftover for the boche court and a tree house pied-a-terre.

We drive back to Castle Slackton and he decamps.

Full Up Test.

Clutch is figuring out how to no kidding dead bang secure the Oak Display Case legs so that they can be bored by the jig/drill.

Once leg securement was hokked up, it was let ‘er rip.

A Note On Horizontal Boring:  Oak is Hard.  Very Hard.  It required all my manly strength to advance the drill into the end of the legs.  Jig needs power assist.  Send Windmill.

In the end: success, and near hernia.

CONSULTDAY –

Re-injured the afflicted knee.

Just the same GLERK as the original trauma.  Cause: I had the temerity to walk into my own bathroom

And this, the day of the long-awaited consultation with the orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Kantor.  He was remorseless.  My Options:

Be permanently disabled, or

Go back to work and hope for the best, or

Get a partial knee replacement, and/or (to his credit),

Get a job that doesn’t require horsing 200 lb doors out from the parking lot.

Gormed, I get his prescript for another four weeks of physical therapy from the competent lads and lassies at Bay Therapy.

Needing something to call (chew) my own, dropped $6/lb for sirloin at Ka-nob Hill and hence to Castle Infirmary where after sufficient brooding, strapped on a knee brace and limped down the rabbit hole to The Shop.

Spec: the big spender at last weekend’s garage sale was Matt, who needs a plaque on which to display a pair of small, circular nautical clocks.  As I invited him to this Saturday’s Last (not) Saturday, might be a competent gesture if I had a plaque to offer.

Walnut.  8 x 11”.  Rounded short ends.  Round over all sides.  Spacing to offset the wall mounting cleats.  Shellac.

Just as I’m shifting into Oak Display Case Gear arrives the Doctor.  The Doctor of Guinness delivery.  Strength much needed.

And the steak, marinated half in cheap wine and glazed with onion powder, salt and pepper: Worth the $6/lb.

ENDWEEKDAY –

Shop endeavors orbited the Oak Display Case, the seemingly endless slog toward casefulness.  Call it a greater attention to detail, call it working with greater precision, and call it OCD.

The case frame for the back needed to have the grooves widened to provide clearance for the two sliding 3 mm thick plywood leaves that will form the back of the case and once slid, allow access.  Groove widening was implemented by my High-Powered Groove Widening Machine, otherwise known as a table saw.

Dry fit of the crucial front of the case with glass is a GO!

Following this, cut out the two ply leaves and glued on bolsters to one edge both to stiffen the leaf, and maintain right of way as the two leaves shift past one another in the course of their future case lives.

After recovering from last night’s Last Saturday, dry fit all four sides and made slight adjustments to the parts, and then covered the mate surfaces with tape and gave it the first coat of shellac.

I really am almost finished.  Really.

Postscript – the glam shots of the Spectacles Case were still in the dark room as the prior post was pushed, all can now be revealed.

This view of the case shows the spectacles inside and the hinged top flap. When the sliding front door, which slides vertically, is in the Down closed position, this flap conceals the naked top edge of the sliding glass front.