The bandsaw died.

Perhaps you were expecting an update about the bartered woman syndrome?
Hah!
The paint has to dry first. Actually it has to be applied first. So the pics will have to wait, and the story will continue later.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the bandsaw stopped starting.
At first it was thought to be a problem with the switch.
The saw is twenty um years old and the switch was maybe getting tired?

So we took it apart and saw that it was literally choked with decades of fine dust and the lever arms could no longer travel far enough for the contacts to meet and pass electricity.

The air compressor took care of the dust problem, and the switch was reassembled.

But it was installed in  an inconvenient location so we decided to put it up where it was easier to find and switch off if needed.

Here is the tale of relocating the switch from the lower stand to the back of the casting that holds the upper wheel.

Phase one was to acquire an electrical box to hold the switch. And step two was to drill and tap a couple of holes in the cast iron frame to hold the surface mount box.  Look at the pretty picture and see the tap. Click on it for a bigger image.

I used a # 10 by 24 thread machine screw with 5/64 drill to tap the threads.
Here is the box installed.

You can see the box has plenty of holes and cracks to let dust in, so the next phase was a bit of sealing with a hot glue gun.

Here is the gun. A cheap one but it does the job.

After sealing around all the cracks and extra holes with nylon glue, the whole box was covered with silvery duct tape.

Next the wire from the motor was lead through the stand and shielded with a plastic fitting so it wouldn't chafe.
I rewired the switch and assembled the interior by attaching the ground wires first.

When I connect wires I try to arrange the stripping and sconnectors so that there is no naked wire available to make accidental contact.

After testing the switch, the final assembly proceeds, sealing the cracks with duct tape on top of the glue seals.

And there it is. A relocated switch that is safer because the machine operator does not have to seek at belt level for the thing is he or she wants to switch off quickly.

Barter Building

So in the actual construction of the vague drawing, there are a few steps that are obvious.
First - make the measurements of the location for installation,  and determine critical dimensions.
Then figure out a way to make the item in such a way that it can be easily transported to the job site and erected with little difficulty.

Make a cutting list of all the materials needed to be assembled. Figure out how to assemble it at the job site while making allowances for the uneven floor, and the baseboards, the existing pipes, the queer angles and assorted randomness of the job site.
Preview the available stock and decide which bits to cut from which stock lengths.
The idea is to avoid waste, make the best stuff the most visible bits, cut the knots out and use the clear, straight bits to maximum advantage.

Amazingly enough, this takes time. I have learned to charge this time at the same rate as the other time I spend doing work like shopping, cutting, assembling, transporting and installing. At the end of the day - all I sell is my valuable time. And my time is valuable according to my education, skill, and experience in doing what I do.

So here is a picture of the trial assembly of the bathroom vanity concept: It is a trial assembly held together with a few clamps to see if the assembly theory will work, and to see it in three D for the first time.

Click on the image to get a bigger picture.

And the three quarter view

It looks mostly white because the wood is pale, and the picture is over exposed.

Check back for pics of the completed install and other cool stuff.

Sensible Spending Spruce Up

The first thing we discussed was the eternal and infernal choices between wallpaper and paint for low budget renovating.
Paint is almost always cheaper because of this:
Wallpaper needs a good flat surface to show well, and also takes a lot of skilled labor to hang in spaces where the walls are not flat and the corners are awry. Lumps underneath have to be smoothed, and the walls need to be clean enough for the glue to stick. Wallpaper in bathrooms is always challenged by a steamy warm humid atmosphere. (Sorta what commercial wallpaper removers do to get the stuff to fall off the walls.)

Next we discussed the obsession over smooth flat surfaces in relation to several of my years' experience renovating in France where the 200 year old village houses I mostly worked on never had plumb, flat walls that met at right angles.

So:
Paint goes on any texture of finished wall.
Paint is cheap.
There is no need to have only one wall color in a single room.
You can even do stripes, shadow effects, murals, abstract, and more wild ideas like trompe l'oeil art effects.
A primer coat solves most difficulties.
Even large cracks and dents, and holes can be filled easily with several quick setting compounds.

So after I let her off the floor and released the choke hold she agreed that paint would be used rather than wallpaper.

So we raced off to the Home Depot for supplies.

Where she got Shocker Number Two:

There was nuttin' in the flat pack industry that would accept the (non returnable) sink she already had at a price she wanted to afford, and in a style that went with the existing mashup of style in her rented space.

So I drew her a picture of something I could build her for the same price as one of the upscale flatpacks. So we scored the materials for the counter, the repair of the walls and paint for the room at under a hundred bucks.

Here is the drawing:

We bought a four foot piece of counter top and six pieces of knotty pine 1x4 which I was allowed to pick over and arrive at six pieces of pretty well clear pine for the frame of the sink counter, and I had some recyclable panels for the rest back at the shop I hauled in from the trash pile at our loading dock.

Here is the first trial fit of the sink in the counter top:

Tune in tomorrow as we continue the adventure.

Barter Bathroom Bettering

So - here was the problem.  My barter partner has this bathroom she wanted to refresh and it had some really bad problems. Plus she did a Bad Thing.

On impulse she purchased this gorgeous multicolored made in Mexico bathroom sink. Without considering how it would be inserted into the bathroom at minimal cost.

The bathroom had the following 'features':

An uneven hardwood floor with several very old coats of paint on its wavy, cupped board surface.
The walls did not meet at right angles.
The floor was neither flat nor level.
There were a multitude of serious cracks in the plaster (not sheet rock) walls which had a sort of horsehair layer under the plaster against the lath.
That plus a large number of nails and other fasteners in the material that had held other decorations over the years.
The full size claw foot bath tub with a shower curtain surrounding it was OK but the sink, a relic from the original construction was well past eighty years old. The enamel in its cast iron bowl was mostly worn through, the replacement faucet handles were scummy beyond repair, and the under sink pipes were a hodgepodge of replacements from galvanized originals to copper replacements - all still in place.

And now a nice shiny new ceramic sink intended for a counter drop in type of installation and the original install being a Harvey Wall Hanger. Made me want to bang a few walls and have a Harvey Wall Banger to boot.

And a really tight budget plus she is talking WALLPAPER and an off the shelf el cheapo melamine flatpack counter to hold the sink off the floor...

What to do?

Tune in tomorrow and see how your guesses match what I counseled and later implemented for a refreshing low budget improvement.

Barter Mania

So - I confess its been a while, but I have been busy expanding my hobby operation to a small studio in the Mile End part of the Plateau area in Montreal.

And all that activity has me in need of the occasional massage for therapeutic purposes.

And that in turn brought my attention to a great masseuse who is an addict of the barter system who was advertising on Craig's List - a source of many goodies..

So we struck a deal.
She buys the materials. I do the work, and barter the work value I do for the massage value she does.

Her rented studio is a couple blocks from mine and needed a substantial makeover from the shabbily neglected apartment it used to be. A first focus was the kitchen which it seemed had not been touched or visited by the landlord since before World War Two.

Check out the before pictures to get a look at the state of affairs with the kitchen counter. Yes a new top, but under the counter successive paint jobs had prevented drawers from closing, and two doors were now missing, the openings covered by really gross red cloth.

So I did a quick measure and used some recycled wood hanging around along with some used plywood from a packing crate to make some quick n dirty reproductions of the original doors.  The middle door had jammed inside the casing, and had not been opened in two years until I applied my magic. See what was in there in the picture.

I also used a trick of the trade and shifted one of the original doors to the end of the three and inserted the new door into the space between. Subtle differences become less apparent using this method. The doors are actually plywood with thin pine glued to the surface to simulate the look of the original panel doors. A bit of gyprock mud simulates several coats of paint in the inside edges, fills gaps and softens the look.

I then recycled the old hinges and hardware to mount the new doors, and viola, after a coat of paint and removing some of the excess paint from decades past - a sorta retro look refurbished kitchen will appear.

Check back in a couple weeks to see the stuff all painted retro white and when the top bit to hide the too big sink is placed into position. The sink actually overhangs the door under it.

Does this mean I am getting Bartered Woman Syndrome?