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What did you do today?


riceboy

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:-( Sorry for your friend's loss, Vicki. That's brutal. I can't imagine how screwed up must be someone having a 10 month old kid to do that.

Best wishes Shelly, I hope your mom recovers soon. For your explanation it seems a pneumonia. Hopefully antibiotics do their thing quickly.

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Vicki, Vicki's friend, Shelly, and Shelly's mom - you'll all be in my thoughts.

Absurdly busy day for me. Exam @ 11, turn in film analysis @ 1, case presentation @5, leave Peoria @ 9:30, hopefully arrive in Chicago around midnight. At least my thanksgiving break starts tonight.

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Played with my bandsaw. Had to completely dial it in, but at the end I was able to make some nice accurate cuts, including a veneer that was 1/32" thick x 4" x 12". There was a bit of taper, but that is probably normal but I don't think I could dial it in more if I tried.

After that was finished I cut some material for a tweeter enclosure and it's glueing up now.

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Thanks for all the support. We still don't know what is causing the fluid in her lungs. Doesn't seem to be pneumonia since her white blood cell count is normal, and she doesn't have a cough or fever. Nevertheless, they are still pumping her full of antibiotics, sigh. We did find out that it wasn't a blood clot via CAT scan. They also took an echocardiogram but didn't get the results yet. We should know more tomorrow. I spent a lot of the day pacing in the hallways of the hospital. I was supposed to go back tomorrow morning but changed my flight to Friday. Hopefully she will be home by then. Unfortunately, it means my poor husband has to spend Thanksgiving alone. :(

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Sending good wishes to Shelly's mom. Hang in there, Shelly. You're a good daughter.

Ditto on thanking you guys for the support, but I'm fine and situations like this make me realize that all my "problems" are luxuries.

Went to work yesterday, then over to my friend's house, where his parents now were, along with her brother and sister, a neighbor, a couple co-workers, and lots of food. One of those weird phases where everyone was talking about "everything but," and lots of weird coincidences between everyone kept popping up. Her brother is a lawyer, who represents lots of well-known photographers and their estates, and has worked with people I know and have worked with in NY. Her neighbor had flown up to a show at The Met Museum he put together years ago and had probably met him, and one of my co-workers had lived almost next door to both his step-father's home in North Carolina in the 70s and my friend's sister in upstate NY in the 80s. Lots of other connections, weirdness and laughter. It was kind of a necessary break in a day of ugly details and organizing. They decided on a memorial service after the holiday, and my friend is going up to NY with her family for Thanksgiving, which is good.

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Bought a backsaw, coping saw blades, a set of chisels! I'm going to start making dovetail joints by hand, wish me luck! Dr Wood, any useful tips?

Follow the method set out by Rob Cosman. Apart from being a fine hand tool craftsman, he has got blisteringly fast demos on YouTube doing a through dovetail joint in two minutes, and half lap dovetails in seven minutes. Google his name - you'll quickly get the drift.

Buy his various DVD's - covers tuning and sharpening your dovetail back saw etc etc. Use his method of using hockey tape to bind your coping saw which gives it a whole lot better grip in your hand.

With true deference to grawk, a dovetail jig gives really boring joints with wide roots to the tails. They have to be wide because of stength of the router bits. And you have yet another woodworking operation accompanied to the scream of a router. With a finely tuned saw you can produce tails limited only by the width of your saw kerf.

I've got nowt against routers and power tools - I have two big and chunky deWalt half inch chuck ones and a lightweight Bosch, plus bandsaw and planer/thicknesser. But there is nothing more satisfying than doing a finely hand crafted dovetail or mortice and tenon joint without power tools.

Because I'm a bit of a hand tool freak, I have an expanding collection of back saws. Most recent addition arrived today - a Diston apple wood handled dovetail back saw made sometime between 1896 and 1917 (from the rivet design). Once I joint it and resharpen it rip tooth it will be a fine and practical saw.

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Bought a backsaw, coping saw blades, a set of chisels! I'm going to start making dovetail joints by hand, wish me luck! Dr Wood, any useful tips?

Grawk is a wise man. Buy a dovetail jig and router. Ben Franklin invented electricity you know! :P

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Made a round trip visit to Arizona to close the door on another chapter. Had a very interesting lunch with some Albanian and Romanian small business owners. Nicolae CeauÅŸescu's government was evidently much more brutal than I had thought, even more brutal than the polish government. Fascinating stories about the Romanian secret police and all.

Oh, and the TSA hates the LaRocco PRII paired with JH13s.

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More good news today... my mom does not have congestive heart failure! :) They have also taken her off the antibiotics finally and are going to watch her for a day. If she is still improving tomorrow, they are going to let her go home. I will be happy to not have to go to the hospital for a while. My fingers are crossed.

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More good news today... my mom does not have congestive heart failure! :) They have also taken her off the antibiotics finally and are going to watch her for a day. If she is still improving tomorrow, they are going to let her go home. I will be happy to not have to go to the hospital for a while. My fingers are crossed.

That is great news! Truly great news.

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great news! in not so good news, the crown on my right front tooth broke earlier, so i have to go to the dentist. :(

My dentist is good at extractions - extracting money from my wallet in unholy amounts that is. Drives around in a huge BMW land cruiser and lives near Henley-on-Thames in a high-end village called Christmas Common.

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Craig, any difference between a "regular" backsaw and one made for dovetailing?

Just length and number of teeth per inch. For fine dovetailing you want something with an 8" blade, filed rip tooth since cutting dovetails is a ripping rather than a cross-cutting operation; most cheapo saws bewilderingly come filed crosscut. For small stuff like jewellery boxes you really want 20 teeth per inch. For larger stuff like dresser drawers I'd go as high as 15 teeth per inch - but getting that started in the cut takes a bit of practice. The nicest handles are open or "pistol grip" rather than closed. Steer clear of the so-called "gents" saw, which has a round handle and has no good control as a result.

There are several sources for really fine dovetail saws. I use

Dovetail Saw - Pax Range from Thomas Flinn & Co Saw and Hand Tools Manufacturers

Lie Nielsen are also good, and Rob Cosman has made his own (although it is punishingly expensive). I used the Cosman at a woodwork demo last year, and it really is stunning. Some saws are what is called "progressive pitch" where the teeth are very fine near the tip, and get coarser towards the handle to overcome the starting problem (Flinn Garlick and Lie Nielsen do these too). Rob's has two discrete pitches - 22tpi at the tip to get started and then 15tpi for the remainder. His theory is that you really want a coarse pitch to do the cut, since the faster you cut the more accurate it tends to be. Most fine makers ensure that there is only a few thou of set to the teeth - you want a minimum clearance just to prevent the blade from binding and no more. Too much set and the blade can wander in the cut.

Then there is the entirely opposite approach of using a japanese style saw. These are used on the pull stroke and take a bit of practice to get used to. Super-fine kerf, so could be worth a bash for jewellery box joints. You want the Ikedame, which is the dovetail variety. A whole lot cheaper than traditional western pattern back saws. I use both types depending on the work. I also use the Hassunme crosscut and ripcut saws for cutting panels (although I last used them for trimming the bottom off our bedroom doors when we recently had a new carpet fitted!).

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