Tuesday, May 05, 2015

sometime this week....

My first through 6th grade students will be camping this week, so I have this day to work in the shop. I'll be drilling matching holes in the tops and bottoms of pen boxes for my book on tiny boxes and will be making a number of them so they can be done in a variety of experimental designs.

This blog is nearing a milestone of sorts. The tracking software indicates that we will reach 1 million page views sometime this week. In the world of internet tracking, a million page views is not a big deal, but it does indicate that some folks are reading, a few folks are reading a lot, or that many stumble through, never to return again, unless by similar mistake.

My plan for this week is to have the first two chapters of the book on tiny boxes written and off to Taunton Press. If I can then get two more done by the middle of June, I will be on track for completion in very early 2016.

The photo above shows the simple set up for drilling holes for 5 mm. mini barrel hinges. They must be absolutely precise, and so to align the stops on left and right and to make dead certain the holes in the lid align with the holes in the body of the box, I use my flipping story stick technique. In it, I take a piece of wood sized to the exact length of the box and drill clear through with one stop in place. That hole is then used to align the other stop. Flip the stick, lower the drill into the hole, and then (it's nearly a three hander), clamp the second stop block in place. Setting the exact depth is the next step.

Human beings have forgotten much more than any one man can learn, and I know the flipping story stick is not a thing of my own invention. It is something I've discovered myself and found useful whenever something needs to be centered or aligned equally from each end on matching parts.

I have been attempting to repair a grandfather clock belonging to a former board member and long time supporter of Clear Spring School. To watch the well crafted mechanism from an earlier age is fascinating. And we know that the excitement that some feel now, over printing plastic geegaws, was once felt by machinists fabricating and assembling more intricate parts.

Make, fix and create...

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