Well I was over reading Jens page, and came across a link to this... After picking myself up off the floor once I was done laughing, I started thinking about my own holiday realities...
It starts off like so many others at Thanksgiving... I have a pretty small family, so its nice... I'm not a huge fan of meals with 20 people, so our little group of 5 is just about right... Its after that that the silliness starts... 4 years ago, my sister and I were both too busy to go with my parents to pick out the family christmas tree... We get a 12' tall tree, so it tends to be a bit of a chore to find a nice one in that height, that isn't expensive... (my dad still thinks that a 12' tree should only cost $20.00... but that's a story for another time...) So anyway, they came home with a pretty looking tree, but it had one odd thing about it. The species of the tree was called Con-Color... This sure isn't something I'd heard of before, and I work with wood for a living, but I said hey, fine, its a christmas tree, and it looks good... Well when you bring one of these suckers into your house, and it gets warm, from both the heat, and the big lights we use (non of those little bitty lights for me thank you) it smells like a citrus grove... It took me a while to figure out what was going on, I figured my mom was doing something with fruit first... Then I thought I'd had a few too many gin and tonics with lime... But no, it was the tree... Talk about a strange atmosphere for the season... So it was at that point that my sister and I snapped... We decided that, no matter how far we had to go, or how much it cost, we were going to get the trees from now on, and they would be nothing but Balsam Firs... (they're not sharp, they smell good, and don't drop needles much)
Well we started right off, and found that you simply can not find that height tree around here... You can't find them in eastern Pennsylvania... Not in southern NY state... Where the hell do you have to go to get these things?... Well my sister jumpped online, and found a bunch of farms that will let you cut your own, and they advertise tall trees... Where are these farms?... Wait for it... Maine... There were a couple in New Hampshire too, but they said they only had a few tall trees... So now, one week after thanksgiving every year, my sister and I jump in my truck, and drive to Maine to buy trees... That's 6 hours from my parents house, and my sister and I both live an hour from them in the wrong direction... Yep... Nuts... I know... It is however the one thing my sister and I do together every year now, and its actually kinda fun... Plus as a side trip, we stop by L.L. Bean while we're up there... By the time we're done, the 4 trees we get cost around $50 each... The tree itself is only $20, but then you add fuel, and the hotel room for a night, and it adds up to that... Not too bad actually for the tall trees we get, and they're fresh...
The trees come home, and spend another 3 hours dropping them off to my parents, my sister, my business partner, and my place... There they sit outdoors, waiting for a little while at most of the houses... I put mine up the next day, so I get almost a full month to enjoy the tree... My sister, and parents don't put theirs up untill after the 18th, which is my sister's birthday, so that she doesn't feel like her birthday is a minor afterthought to the holidays... (she's 32 this year, you'd think she'd be beyond this by now... but that's a different tale too...)
Usually on the 19th or 20th, I go up to my parents, and put the tree up in the stand, and do the lights... If my sister can come up then too, then we'll do the whole tree, but my part of the tree is set up, and lights mostly... I also usually do the very high ornaments too since I'm the odd one in the family that doesn't hate heights... By the 22nd, the tree is usually done... (wouldn't want to cut it too close would we)
Somewhere in the month, my dad puts out the lawn decorations... Yes, we're one of those houses... We have a real sleigh that goes on the front lawn, with all the reigndeer harnessed to it... We've got a manger, wise men, etc... We've got a group of carolers... We don't do lights on the house, but we do have lights on the display... Its a bit much at times, but its still nice, and its just part of what "home" is for me during the holidays... (I live in an apartment, so I just do pine ropeing around my bannisters and posts, plus a wreath on the door)
That's the insanity of my holiday season... I'll do the goofy meal we have on Christmas eve later in the month... I need to get a hold of the propper order of courses, and names first...
Happy Holidays!
I have to say, this really is my favorite holiday... Its really nice and simple... No major religious overtones... No complex decorations... No odd, traditional foods (my Christmas Eve meal is weird... trust me)... Its about being with family, eating way too much good food, and then falling asleep on the couch...
My sister has taken over hosting this holiday from my parents... Should be interesting to see how she makes out with that quantity of food...
To my readers, I hope you have or had the most pleasant Thanksging possible! (atleast those of you that celebrate the holiday)
Well if you're a regular here, you have noticed my extreme lack of posting... For that I appologise... My good posts (atleast to me anyway) stem from my getting stressed out or angry over something at work... Lately, it has been slow, though I'm getting glimpses of things in the near future that should set me off on some topic or another... I've been avoiding those projects, but after this weekend, I won't be able to push them off any longer... Stay tuned, rage, venom, and sarcasim can't be too far away now...
Well here we go again... (life intruded on what I should have plowed through earlier this week...)
Back to the saws... Essentially, the last two types are jig saws, and reciprocating saws (saw-z-all)... Simple tools, with their straight blades, that can be delicate, or brutal based on your needs...
I'm not going to go into particular brands today, because honestly, I can't see anyone picking their tool brand based on these tools... They simply aren't the primary reason to go cordless... In fact, I really don't see much point to the cordless jigsaw, but one came with my kit, so I use it now and again... Only after all the corded jig saws are in use first though...
What is important though, are the same qualities that you would look for in their corded brothers... You absolutly want a toolless blade change feature on the reciprocating saw... Doesn't seem like a big deal, but its huge... For the jigsaw, its nice too, (and honestly, I'm not sure anyone makes one without the tool free system at this point... You also want to stay away from "gimmicky" designs... There are units out there that bend and twist (in the reciprocating range) in all manor of directions... Supposedly, this is so you can get into tighter places with the tool... What this really means is you have more joints that can, and will fail... Reciprocating saws are perhaps the most abusive tool I know of when you are useing it... The last thing you want is to try to control one of these beasts when the blade is not in a straight line with your grip... If your are trying to cut around corners with one of these units, then you are doing something wrong, or you've picked the wrong tool...
Another thought... Those little things from makers like Black and Decker, that hold a jigsaw blade like a reciprocating saw, are generally useless... You will not prune your trees with one... You will not do fine detail cutting with one... You will most likely, twist your wrist useing it, or end up getting mad, throwing it, and breaking something you'd rather not have broken... They're trash...
As for the jig saws, as I said, I'm not crazy about them... I can't think of a situation where I need the portability of the cordless option as well as the detail/control of a jigsaw... Remember, cordless tools are often heavy due to the battery... Personally, I don't look for a heavy jigsaw, since usually its about a detail project... If you want one, then look for one with a good balance, and the features you like on a regular jigsaw... I will say, my Dewalt is ok... I'm not crazy about the blade grip system, but its nice in that it can hold two different style blades... The other adjustments are quite simple, though I'm not sure they'd hold up to industrial use for a long period of time...
Now, one last section... Other tools...
On top of the normal selection of cordless gear there are lots of other less common cordless tools...
Milwalkee makes a cordless router... Supposedly it works nicely, but I can't beleave it runs for long... Routers suck down electricity like crazy... Next question is why would you need one?... Routers are pretty much a shop tool, not used for field work...
Nibbler/shear... I've got a Dewalt nibbler... (for cutting sheet metal) It was a gift from my folks, and honestly, I hadn't used it untill this summer... Now that I have, these things are great!... if you do sheet metal work, definatly take a look at one... They cut plastic just as well as sheet metal, and I've used mine on laminate as well...
Stapler... Arrow, and Makita make a cordless staple gun... I had an Arrow for a while, and it served me well... The Makita actually looks like it would be a little better made, though I've never actually used one... You would really need to be doing stapleing frequently to want one of these things... Also, people that have carple-tunnel issues might consider one rather than a regular staple gun...
Radios... Yes, they make radios that charge, and run off cordless tool batteries... I've got a Dewalt version... Nice system, though the tuner isn't quite as good as I'd like... Perhaps if they had a bigger antenna... These things are built like tanks though, so they'll take the beating they're going to get on a job site...
Tile Saws... I don't see the point here, but here, they're out there...
Dry Saw... Thing of a small circular saw, that cuts metal... I'c consider this perhaps if I did steel stud framing for a living...
Lasers... Dewalt makes a variety of job site laser levels that run on their batteries... I suspect they'd run all day on one battery, but haven't played with them...
Vacum... There are different options here... some makers make dust-buster like vacums... I just saw a shop vac style unit from Dewalt... I can't really see the point, but hey, knock yourself out if ya want...
That's about all I can think of that I see on a frequent basis... There are more naturally... I just don't see them around, or even in stores... They're all special order tools...
Well now... You must have actually slogged through Part 1 if you're reading this... If not, then go read that first, or this will likely make even less sence...
Today, I'm going to go and blather on about circular saws...
Most of the rest of the tools in question fall under the heading of Saws... Of the 4 varieties (I'll get to them all) the most usefull and most heavily used one for theatre folks is the circular saw... Let me start with the Dewalt line as that is the core of my small selection... My first Dewalt was the 14.4v circular saw... My parents actually bought it for me while I was in college, and let me tell you, I got nasty looks of jelousy from some of the other carps when I showed up with it... (it had just be put on the market, and damn did it look like a great idea...) Anyway, I found out very quickly, that for once, something was as advertised... That saw rocked!... It carried a blade just over 5", so you can cut 2x material in one pass... Mostly the saw is great for working with panels like luan or other plywoods, but you can do most anything a regular sircular saw can do with that saw... A few years ago when I got the 18v gear, I got another saw, and yep... Same deal, compact unit, uses the same blade as the older saw, and runs a little longer... The added weight of the 18v saw actually is a plus in some cases if the saw starts to bind, its a little harder to have it kick back... Since then, they released an 18v version with a 6-1/2" blade... Why you ask?... Hell I don't honestly know... The bigger blade means to can cut 4x material in 2 passes, but otherwise it doesn't help... In reality, the saws with the bigger blades are less comfortable to work with as you seldomly have much blade exposed below the shoe anyway, so your grip is tilted at a less comfortable angle... They also seem to drain the batteries faster, but that's difficult to really determine... Technically the blade should last a little longer as it will have more teeth, but the 5" blades are so cheap, I've never found replaceing them to be a financial burden. Now, other manufacturers make thes units too... Makita has a good saw out there too... They went with the 6-1/2" blade, jumping over the 5" unit from their previous and long standing 3-3/8" saw that ran on the 9.6v system... I've used the 6" unit now and again, and it is absolutly fine, though I wasn't quite crazy afout the saw blade being on the right side of the saw since I'm right handed. (I prefer to hold the saw in my right hand, and then I can see where the blade is more easily on the Dewalt units since they are left side blades.) Their 3" saw is an excelent little tool for more precise work. I've had one for years, and I tend to use it for things like paneling. It sits on the shelf collecting dust at my shop as we don't do much that we need that precision for, but if you are re-modeling and are going to be putting in a lot of paneling, then this is the tool for you... I have not used the Milwalkee saw, though I have heard good things about it... It probably falls right in with the Dewalt and Makita units... As does the Porter Cable, and the Bosch... What it will come down to is two things... What side do you want the blade on, and what voltage drill do you like... You buy the saws with or after the drill, to match your existing batteries... You do not want to have to start having lots of extra batteries and different chargers...
For the weekend warrior, Ryobi will fill your needs as well... They went with the 5-1/2" sawblade, which I think is a good idea for their line... (or any line really.. but I digress) I'm not even going to go into the Skill and B&D lines here... If you want a saw, the Ryobi is as far down the list as you should go.
As a minor note, the 4th style of saw is also a circular saw of types... Some of the manufacturers have decided to make a cordless miter saw... This has got to be hands down the silliest idea ever... If you need a miter saw, then get a miter saw... You can get solid units, for far less than the cordless versions... You will never be in a place where you need a miter saw where there is no power... If you are, you should have brought a generator, since your batteries are going to need to be charged frequently... Remember... Cordless for mobility... If the tool doesnt move, get a damn cord...
Tommorow, I'm going ot try to wrap this up with type 2 and 3... Jig saws, and Recipricating saws... (Oh I'll just bet you're trembleing with anticipation now... )
So today, I headed down to one of the places I frequently freelance for as they asked me to come down and weld for them... (they really ought to hire a staffer that can weld... I cost them almost as much every year as if they were to get another full time position) Anyway, the project du jour was to weld the frames for some stress skin platforms... For those who may not know what a stress skin platform/door/wall is, let me explain... In order for something to be a stress skin, it requires a few things... It needs the two outside surfaces to be flat, uninterupted sheets of some material... The material only matters in terms of what you are doing with the unit... You would use plywood for a deck/platform... You might use paper, or wood laminate if its a door/wall... The next component of the stress skin is the core... The core needs to be able to be glued extremely well to the outer skins, as well as have a degree of non-compressability... You can use styrofoam, or wood slats, or in my case today, square steel tubeing... In reality, the strength of the unit does not come from the core material, so you can actually make platforms with styrofoam cores that support lots of weight...
If you're still haveing a problem wrapping you head around this think of corrugated cardboard... That's basically a stress skin situation... Now, what happens it you slice through one surface of the cardboard?... You can bend the sheet at that point in one direction easily right?... Ok... Hang on to that thought...
The technical director (the person in charge of a scene shop) tells me what we're doing, and how the units are going to be skined... At this point, my brain starts screaming what the hell?... The intention is to simply glue sheets of plywood to the steel tube core... Ok so far, but the deck is 11'6" x 6'... Plywood generally comes at 4' x 8'... (yes, I know you can get it bigger, but I've never seen 6'x12' plywood, and the price would be insane anyhow...) Not a problem in my mind... instead of useing 3/4" plywood on the top, you use two layers of 3/8" plywood, and offset the seams, and use a ton of glue... Basically you do the same on the bottom with two layers of 1/4" ply... (the bottom can be thiner since nobody is walking on that part) That, however, is not what the intention was... They simply intend to use 3/4" ply on the top, and 3/8" ply on the bottom, with noting overlapping the seams...
Effectively, they have decided to build a deck with two skins, however, it is not a stress skin method, and will not behave in the same manor... All the strength from this unit is going to have to come from the steel frames I made...
Yes, I brought this to their attention... They did decide to go with the double layer on the top skin, but not the bottom skin... I suppose its better than nothing, but it still isn't going to behave like a stress skin...
Stress skins work because the two skins resist stretching and compressing, which means they don't bend... The core simply keeps the skins apart... If the skin isn't one continuous material it doesn't work... Particularly on platforms, the bottom is where the most strain is...
Now, this isn't a new technology... I-beams work in basically the same way... If you decided to use this method, and you didn't know all about it, don't you think you might research it a tad... Or hell at the very least, ask someone that has built and used these units before, before you jump in to a situation that is of structural importance... People have to stand on this thing, elevated off the ground... There are times I wish that TD's had to get certified like they do in most European countries... ('course, then I think about haveing to go back to school to get that certification, and decide that perhaps I'll just keep muddleing through life, fixing other people problems for them...)
Ok... How the heck is it Monday already?... I didn't even get around to looking at the New Blog Showcase last week... (That's my first time not voting since the Axis and Alliance started down the sponsership road)... I clearly remember there being a Friday in my recent past... Saturday and Sunday just seemed to slip by though... For once I can't blame it on work... I was off all weekend... (do you really consider it being "off" when you own the company and there simply is not work?) I finally managed to finish reading a biography of George Patton I've been working on for ages... Usually I'm a pretty quick reader, polishing off a 500 page book is usually a two day commitment... This particular book, however, took me weeks literally... Yes, I didn't have two solid days to pour into it in all that time, but the problem was the way it was written... I've always been interested in WWII history, and certianlly I knew a good deal of the history of Patton already, but I've had this book for some time, and just never got to it... So really that was part of Friday and Saturday to finish it off... Then I picked up one of the other novels I've had lieing around waiting to read, and finished that off Saturday and Sunday... Certianlly no great work of literature, just your garden variety techno-thriller... (ok, I admit it, I have a whole bookshelf of this genre... so what... as long as it passes the time on boring shows...)
Other than that, nothing much exciting on the weekend... I don't suppose making my family's variety of chicken soup on Saturday is worth much of a mention... (come on now... I'm a bachelor... I eat 95% of my meals at my local pub... making anything more exotic than opening a bag of chips is odd around here... (well except grilling... but that's different...))
Today rant was inspired by a conversation I had with someone last week... (hey, nobody said I'd be timely in my posts...)
Insurance is an important part of any business... Realistically, you can't have a business without certian kinds of it around here at any rate... There's Liability, Worker's Comp, Fire, Theft, Veihicle, Etc... Some of it is easy to get, some more difficult, but in the end you can get what you need... There's a problem with it though... It all costs money right?... Sure, I know, it has to cost money, or the insurance company wouldn't pay you when you needed it too... Really, I don't have any problem with that... My problem (this time) is with only one of the types of insurance... Worker's Comp...
Now, I work in a semi dangerous field... There are lots of tools, electrical systems, heavy overhead objects, rough weather conditions, and less than ideal facilities, budgets, and time restraints... So to say people get hurt should not suprise anyone... Honestly, I have always been suprised that more people don't get hurt... Therefor, worker's comp insurance is really important to both the employee, and the employer... Again, I am both as I own, and also work for other people.... Personally I have never (thankfully) personally needed worker's comp, but I am always glad its there... So when I opened my company, we made damn sure we got the worker's comp...
The amount of money you pay for workers comp is based on a few things...
That seems reasonable really right?... So here's how mine breaks down in very general terms... we fall into 3 catagories of type of work... 1) office clerical (incase I slice off my hand with a sheet of paper) which is the cheapest, something like $0.05 / $100 of payroll, 2) carpenter, shop - which covers my people when they are working in my shop, 3) carpenter, other - which covers my crew when they are outside the shop on an event. (there is also a catagory for driver, truck on my policy, but since my partner or I do all the driveing, we've never used that in the fee calculation) The latter two catagories, and far more expensive... If memory serves, they are in the $0.30 - $0.38 range... (I really haven't looked at the actual numbers in months since we re-newed it, so I may be off on those amounts...) Naturally, the majority of my payroll is split between the two carpenter catagories since I do pretty much all the paid office work... So the grand total is lets say $7,000.00 for the year... Now, as we are technically a new company, insurance companies don't want to give you a policy... So what NJ did was to take all new companies, and simply assign them to insurance companies... That certianlly makes it easy to get the policy... Here's the catch though... For the first two years, you can not change to another insurance company, and you have to pay the entire amount when you sign the policy... There's no quarterly payment... 100% up front...
Now, I don't know about other small business owners, but I can tell you that we didn't have $7,000 to just toss to the insurance company... I mean, come on... We were at the time pouring money into setting up our facility, as well as needing operating capital since we didn't have an established credit history anyplace yet... $7,000 spread over a year would have been annoying, but certianlly not like getting mugged in a dark alley like they did to us... Now, fortunatly, my understanding is that this will change after two years... (that'd be March)
Full payment upfront is not, however, what set me off about the insurance... Get this... We got a bill a couple months ago from the insurance company... I recognise the worker's comp company since its different than our other insurance carrier... I'm thinking, wait a second, I paid this bums for the year already... Open the bill and find something that claims I owe them something like another $500.00 for "previous accident, reinjury surcharge" (that may not be worded exactly the same, but its close)... I'm thinking, wait a second, we haven't had any injuries at all, who re-injured themselves?... So I sic my partner on them... (he's much better dealing with these people than I am... I'd get us dropped from the policy for sure) Well he chats with them a few times, and then calls the state, and then a few other business people he knows, and finally tells me we're screwed and have to pay this... It is apparently, a state-wide fee... Someone please explain this one to me please... Why am I paying for someone that has been re-injured when we are injury free, and then tell me why that surcharge is supposedly going to the state, since as far as I know, the insurance companies have to pay for that re-injury, and the state has nothing to do with it... Is NJ simply trying to help with the budget issues they're having?... Possibly... I didn't dig any further than telling my partner about it and let him run with it from there... He's a pit-bull about money, so I know he talked to whoever he needed to to verify this...
I understand why so many companies break insurance laws regarding workers comp... Its a damn shame I can't bring myself to work the same way financially... I just couldn't sleep at night...
Ok... Its tool time folks... Just a few random thought on the cordless variety...
Cordless tools pay a key roll in theatre production... We don't really have any kind of assembly lines that we could have tools on constant tethers like cords, or pneumatic lines... Sure, we use lots of pneumatic nailers and staplers as well as corded tools, but the single most common tool in use by most theatre carpenters, is the cordless drill... Why not use a corded version?... Well cordless is more portable, and frankly, everything in a theatre tech's life is portible... That's just what we do... So that means that we need a good, highly reliable cordless drill... In the last few years, tool manufacturers have introduced a cordless version of almost everything, so you want to consider what else you may want to be cordless when you consider you choice of drill... From personal experience, I have found that the drill and circular saw are the most frequently used cordless tools...
Back in 1993, when I bought my first cordless drill, one brand really rulled to world of cordless tools... Makita... They had been making their drills for years, and they were the staple in virtually every shop I came across... (I was in college then, so I tried to get around to see different shops for a variety of resons) They were simple, rugged, and reliable... So naturally when I went shopping, I looked at the other brands, but I was alread leaning heavily toward a Makita... In the end, I didn't go with Makita's tried and true design, but went for their brand new style... It was a mid grip (tee shape) that has become pretty much the norm these days... It ran with 12v battery rather than their standard 9.6v, and it could stand up on its battery. (that seems like a silly point, but its actually quite convienient if it stands up) Well my choice was both good and bad... The style I had picked was the single most comfortable design out there then... The gun had an outrageous amount of speed and torque... The batteries seemed to hold a charge quite well... The problem came after a year of use when I burned out the motor... It was so expensive to replace the motor, that I simply bought another gun thinking I must have just gotten a bad unit... One year later, I did that one in too... So needless to say, I was pissed and swore off the Makita guns after that... On to chapter two of the quest for the holey grail of cordless tools...
Looking around after Makita #2 burned up, I started seeing Dewalt tools becoming popular... There was only one of them out at college then, but it too was a mid grip, and stood up (something I had learned to love, and still hadn't cought on fully). So biteing the bullet, I went out, and bought one after playing with the one in the shop for a few days... The gun I got was a 14.4v Dewalt, with a 3/8" cordless chuck... (a step down from my Makita's 1/2" chuck, which I soon learned was a mistake) This was now 1995... It is now 2003... I still have that drill... The only thing I have ever had an issue with was that I cracked the plastic case in 1999... I sent it off, and they slapped a new case on it, and its back... The 3/8" chuck is a bit annoying honestly, so all my follow on drills have had the 1/2" variety... The thing is, the 14.4v units are simply the best value drills I can find... The batteries last for years (not on one charge... you do have to keep chargeing them, but batteries wear out after a while and will not accept a charge...) The cases are durable, the balance is good, and they have a very comfortable grip and easy operation for both left and right handed people... Speed is good, torque is good, weight is good... These drills now form the core of my cordless drill selection, taking up 4 of 6 slots...
The other slots are an 18v Dewalt hammer-drill, and a 9.6v Makita right angle drill. (for those annoying close quarters drilling issues) I wouldn't recomend the 18v series from Dewalt... I bought mine as a kit to get a saw-z-all... The 18v gear is nice if you need the added power, but it comes at a cost... they are more pricey, much heavier, and honestly, I've managed to destroy the battery packs pretty much once a year... At $90 per battery, you'd like them to last for a few years... The drill itself is pretty much the same as the 14.4v model in my case, so the gun will certianlly hold up... They have changed the cases in the last couple years, so I can't really speak to what they are today... They look ok, but without torture testing them, I wouldn't venture a guess...
Now, does that mean you should buy nothing bu Dewalt 14.4 volt drills?... Well I'm sure Dewalt would be ok with that... But you need to consider your application... I use mine day in and day out in an industrial way... They get abused, dropped, and asked to drill holes that a corded drill should be used for... (think 4" hole saw at times) They mostly are use as screwguns, and literally drive hundreds of screws a day at times... That said, I have a couple women that work for me now and again, who don't like the Dewalts for one reason... The grip is pretty big... Personally I have big hands, but I understand their issue with something that doesn't fit well in you hand as I have issues with some of the thinner bodied tools... I've seen small handed folks go for mid-grip Makita's (they've gotten way better since I was burning them out) Panasonic (don't laugh, they make a kick ass drill) and lately either Porter Cable, or Milwalkee is making drills with different size grips (I can't recall which one right now). That's a great idea, but unfortunatly, I don't see it as something that will last, I can't see them being able to get places to stock one of each size... Also, you may want to consider what is around you already... If everyone already has Dewalts, then you can be pretty sure, they will hold up in your situation... Plus you can always borrow a battery from someone else if you forget to charge yours... On the other hand, some of my friends specifically buy something different so it is readily identifiable and less likely to grow feet and walk away...
Not thinking of going into the industrial use catagory?... I don't blame you... Need something that is going to get you through the life of a homeowner?... Well then, lets take a step back in price and somewhat in durability... Ryobi is hands down the winner in cordless tools in the next price group down... I see a few people use them in my environment, and they're holding up reasonably well... But they're around half the price or less at times... When I was in Mississippi, we were useing Skill Top-Gun model drills, and I have to say that they held up reasonably well, and were quite cheap... Honestly I don't know if they still make them... I'd have to take a look and see what the story is... I have never liked the Black and Decker line... They have always seemed cheap to me, with uncomfortable grips, and thin plastic bodies... Odd since B & D owns/makes Dewalt...
More next time... I'll go into some of the other non-drill options... After its all said and done, you should be able to consider well what brand/voltage you might want to consider... (hey, the holidays are coming up... Perhaps I'll make this a theme for a time to help people pick out something for their friend/family member that wants tools...)
As always, I'm open to questions, there aren't too many tools I can't discuss at length...
Well I jumpped the gun this morning on that post... I admit it, I was wrong... I gave them too much credit actually... The snow bag that they have made, isn't going to work either... They have taken a system that has been in use basically since theatre moved indoors, and managed to make it wrong... This was not done by someone with no background in theatre... It was done by direction of the technical director, who has atleast 15-20 years more experience than I have... I took one look at it today, and said, hey, that won't work that way... The guy that made it under the TD's direction said, yep, that's what I thought too... So I asked a few other people I trust, and they said, essentially the same thing...
I swear, sometimes it seems like they go out of their way to make life hard for themselves...
So yesterday, (and today actually) I was working for a theatre in the area, because I didn't have anything particularly important to do at my place... Its the same place that threw me off the stage last show, and consistantly does really odd things... So at any rate, not much tends to suprise me when I go there... So this isn't about me being shocked this time... This is about me just venting a bit about the utter stupidity...
This show needs snow to fall at some point, and therefor, they specified a snow bag arrangement... Excellent... Very simple system, and very very reliable... The show also needs leaves to fall at another point... Here is where the sensibility left everyone... The origional design called for this very cool, but incredibly expensive mechinized device... I had never seen this style before, but it would have been my job to make it, so I priced it out, and they promptly choked... So they went in search of other ideas... (incidently, I have been telling them from the start the simple solution to this, but I'll get to that in a minute or two...) They looked at drop boxes (wood box, with a trap door in the bottom to dump the leaves), and they looked at a "snowroller"... Now a snowroller is a round drum made of wire mesh, so that when you spin it, the "snow" tumbles around like in a lotto machine and sifts out through the holes gradually... Its an ok system in the right circumstances, but they tend to be a little noisey, and difficult to rig... So that's the direction they went... Yesterday, I hung the masterpiece, and ran the opperating system, and yep, just as I suspected, it spins about half as much as it should... It gets hung up on the operating system lines because the angles are so severe from the pullies... (they welded the pullies, so I can't move them) Now, there is a problem beyond the issue that the operating lines get tangled... The holes in the mesh are tiny, so they need to cut bigger ones... No big deal, just annoying... The biggest problem however, is that when the unit spins, the leaves get pressed up against the mesh, and they don't move... So rather than tumbling in the drum and filtering through the holes, the leaves just stay in place... Spin it fast, spin it slow, the leaves just stay there...
Now, if I may. (and of course I may since I'm the only one with admin access here...) The solution to this whole issue is this... Make a snowbag, with bigger slots, and the leaves will fall out very nicely... I've done this before incidently... I've done this before in that space incidently... I've done this before in that space, for this director incidently... All I keep hearing is that they need a "high tech" solution to the leave problem... Um... Why?... Nobody sees this damn thing except the opperator... Who are they trying to impress?... So what will happen, is they will spend a lot of time on this, on top of the money they've already spent, and it won't work... They'll have to pull down the snow roller, and put up a snowbag... Incidently, it would take someone about 1 hour to make a snow bag deal... The snowroller thing took 2 whole days for someone apparently...
Oh well... They'll bitch at me for it getting tangled, but they're not able to set the unit up on their own... (well they could, they're just convinced that I sprinkle some magic rigging dust on things and they always work) After they're done bitching, they'll come to their sences and put op the bag, or cut the effect all together... I guess I shouldn't care since it just pads my paycheck, but I hate to be a part of stupidity even when I have tried to steer them in the right direction...
You will note the complete lack of links here... This post is for me, and the people that read my blog... I'm avoiding any trackbacks on this one as I really don't want to get sucked in to the political discussion in any way shape or form...
I've had some time today while sitting around litterally watching paint dry. So I've been reading not only the New Blog Showcase, but also the dialogue between NZ Bear and some of the League of Liberal folks...
Since the League joined in on the sponsership of the New Blog Showcase deal, they have left a bad taste in my mouth... I never really gave it a lot of thought other than, I guess I lean somewhat to the right politacally so that must be it... Now, haveing the time to think it through, and having read the back and forth between the bear and their members, I figured out what it is that bugs me so much about them... I re-read my post when they first showed up, and I can see that this has been in the back of my mind fromt the start, but I just hadn't quite caught it...
From the start, the League has been looking at this as a political fight. While I have always been right up front about hating politics, I will defend to the death their right to blog about whatever they want to, or orginize how they like, or even do the cookie-cutter posts that the bear was somewhat concerned about. (honestly, I have not gone and looked up the posts, since I really have no intrest in going over a politically themed blog) Their blogs are their blogs and they may run them as they like... My problem is this... I don't see the Axis, or the Alliance as politically motivated groups... The Blogwar started before I knew what a blog was, so I can not speak to the absolute origin of either, however, reading the background info on both I have never once seen anything discussing the political leanings of the groups... They were started to either mock Indepundit's huge numbers, or to mock the mockers... That's it folks... Nothing to see here except some people mocking one another... The league was founded to offset the influance of the Axis and the Alliance or something to that effect... I recall reading that in their very early posts... To which I ask, what influance?... What the hell do we influance?.. Laughter?... They're trying to offset laughter?... So here's the thing that sets me off... I don't like being lumpped in with a political group!!!... That's it, plain and simple... Don't label me something I'm not... If the Axis had a political motivation behind it, I'd drop out... No questions... I'd just drop it, and really I doubt anyone would be shocked... Nor would they really mind one way or another... (except of course over at the New Blog Showcase, sinc eI am one of the few Axis members that actually votes...)
As for the League's linking to other liberal blogs, hey, rock on... We all have to set up our blogs the way we want to... I know some of the links I have on TTLB are from Axis members, that probably never read my page... I know some of them are reciprical links from people that I have blogrolled, who possibly also never read my page... There are links though from people that I know read my page, if not every day, then often enough... Those are the links I really cherish... What is the point in haveing a referal from someone who doesn't give a damn about your page?... Do I read all the Axis pages listed on my blogroll?... Yes, though most of them, infrequently... (all depends on my nutty work load) Some of them, I try to read every day... The point is, I read every damn blog on my list... The idea of just slapping up a list of links because they are liberal, or conservative, or green, or pink with blue poka-dots makes me sick... Now, I have not gone through the leagues membership... I don't care to read most liberal blogs honestly... I find that unfortunate really, in that I am sure there are probably some well written blogs in that group, that might provide some interesting topics for me... My problem is that I can't bring myself to go to an advertised politically leaning page...
Oh well... I never said that the thoughts would be well orginised...
Via Freedon Lives... There are plants out there, and I can't really even call them recycleing plants, but these plants can turn anything carbon based into minerals, oil, gas, and water... With no hazardous waste... Let me say that again... NO HAZARDOUS WASTE... The technology involved seems incredibly simple from the basic discription in the article... I wonder if they give tours of this place, its only 30 or 40 miles away.... How cool is this idea...
Just once, that's all I ask... Just once I want a client to call me, tell me what they want, and then be able to deliver that and have them be happy... Somehow it never works out that way, no matter how simple the show is... Right now one of the little events we're doing is a benifit... Ugh... Benifits are always a pain for so many reasons... This event is worse than normal though... They are trying to spend nothing on it, and still want it to be perfect... They are also waiting untill the last second to get their act together... I went to a meeting 2 weeks ago for this show... At that point, we decided on the size of a couple units... They have large printed graphics mounted to them, that the graphic designer was supposed to provide me computer files for, earlier this week... Well the files finally arrived this morning... Only they're wrong because the graphic designer was too busy talking about something else to pay attention to the size the graphics were going to be... So he had to re-do these things today... It took him about 1 hour to go through that process... During which time the sizes of the units got changed twice... I felt bad for the guy, but at the same time, if he had gotten me the files in a timly manor in the first place, we would have caught this back then... He had the nerve to be upset at me for delaying him from starting his weekend... (note: this all happened before noon) Hello?... Its Friday right?... Don't most people have to work on Friday?... I mean I don't really know since I usually work 7 days a week so a weekend is relitive for me, but I'm pretty sure the weekend is Saturday and Sunday, and I'll toss in Friday night for good measure...
Oh well... I hope the printer was ok with his computer files... I couldn't actually open them to check them since he went and compresed them on a Mac with a program I have no PC equivalent for... Worst case is I have to revisit this nightmare Monday, and charge them a lot more money sinc eI'll be getting hit with a rush charge...
So in and amongst the other jumk mail I got in my mailbox over the weekend (real mail, not email... you remember that stuff?... can you beleave we used to actually write letters on paper, and then wait days to mail them to someone?... but I digress...) was a catalog from on of the major tool manufacturers... I admit it, I'm a geek, I love tool catalogs... Some people window shop, or go try on cloths they have no intention of buying, but I drool over the catalog pages of tools I generally can't afford/justify or have enough room for... Anyway...
So they have this big marketing hype this year because they are segmenting their line... Now apparently they are doing this due to massive amounts of requests from their customers... I personally don't know any of these people, but I suspect that they must actually be the people that sell parts, and or raw materials to this manufacturer... This manufacturer has been around for decades, and generally has a good reputation... For the last 7 or so years, they have been selling some equipment that you could buy at Home Depot or Lowes type stores... Basically it was cheap garbage in my opinion... I never personally bought any of it, because I had used a bunch of it at various shops I worked at in the past, and found it performed fair to poorly, untill it usually burned out... (or in 3 cases burned up) Now I know it wasn't intended for industrial use, but then most of what you can buy at those stores isn't... I have a bunch of gear I have bought at places like Home Depot, and have had it for years, so its not the stores, and its not me, so it must be that particular line of equipment...
So whatever... I figured if they wanted to market some disposable tools to homeowners who will use them once or twice a year, fine, it doesn't effect me... Well unfortunatly now it does... They have taken that crap line and re-named it... Then they took the line of gearat the bottom of the industrial line and moved it in to that newly named line of crap.... No big deal if they didn't change anything, but they did... I am seeing lots of "high tech" plastic features... I am seeing lower quality fit and finish of the surfaces that need to be "right"... I'm seeing higher prices for these tools because they represent the "high end" of their new line of tools rather than the cheap end of the industrial line... They have not filled the new void at the bottom of the industrial line... So now they want me to buy either the top of the line garbage for way too much money, or their lowest price industrial gear, which is only lowest in price compared to some very pricey gear...
Do these people not give a damn about their reputation?... I find that hard to beleave, but that sure looks like the way it is going... Will I be buying any of that brand gear in the future?... Right now it sure doesn't look like it... I hope nobody else does either and they take a bath on their new scheme... Unfortunatly, it never seems to work out that way...
Thankfully, there are still a couple other options out there... Not as many as I'd like to be sure, but I'll find someone else to give my money to...
No, I'm not going to tell you the name... I'd really hate to have one of their damn lawyers drop me an email... 'Course, if you know anything about the tool market, you already know who this is directed at...
Damn... I just noticed I hit the 100th post here, with the post on pennies... Ya know, its an ok entry, but I think I would have preferd something a little better... Oh well, I'll have a drink to celebrate the fact that I actually managed to post that many so far... And I managed that in just 77 days of existance... Strangely enough, I average out at 46 and change hits a day... Who in the world is coming in here?... I know I didn't start out with those hit numbers, so I must be above that number now... 50+ per day?... Good lord folks, there are so many other good blogs out there, why are you coming here?... I mean I think I have some good posts, but certianlly not consistantly... How bored are you?...
Just kidding... Thanks to all of you folks that stop by, even though you have to be the quietest group out there... I can hear the crickets chirping constantly in the comments...
I promise to be just as inconsistant, and incohearant in the next 100 posts...
Woke up this morning at 8am... It was 64 degrees outside... The fall leaves are beutifull... So I took my coffee outside when I fed the cats to sit out there and enjoy this last weekend before I'm sure the cold weather will be here to stay... One of the cats decided that she would rather sleep in my lap than have breakfast... So while that delayed coffee mug #2 untill she took off, it is always nice to have a cat in your lap...
Can't I get more weekends like this one?
And now back to your usual reality...
Well here I go again, spouting off about lumber… This time around, I’m off on “engineered lumber” (EL from here on)… EL covers a broad range of materials, but for the most part, they are all made from wood. There seems to be an EL product for almost every use one can imagine. Plywood, Chipboard, and MDF are products most people come across in their daily lives. (Chipboard and MDF you find in cheap furniture, cabinets, etc) For the most part the idea of the EL is a good one, use every little bit of the tree, and get a product that is very consistent from one piece to another. Well there are other kinds that you don’t run across all the time, that have their plusses and minuses… Today’s beef is with something everyone refers to as “Finger Joint” Lumber.
Finger Joint Lumber (FJL) is made in the sizes of regular lumber that is rated on its face appearance, rather than lumber that is strength rated. That translates to mostly the 1x (called one-by) and 5/4 (said as five quarter) series of lumber. There are EL products for the structural grades too (2x, 4x, 6x, etc), but I don’t have much experience with them. What FJL is, is taking lots of short, narrow pieces of lumber, and gluing them together end to end with a finger joint. (hence the name) I was highly leery of this idea when I first saw the material come into the shops around here 4 years ago or so… In the entertainment industry, we use this grade of material for structural applications, which it is naturally not intended for since it is graded on its appearance… So it took some time, but over the years, I have come to love this material, and more importantly, trust it… The manufacturers are now trashing that trust as the quality of the material has gone way down over the last year.
Occasionally you would run across a piece of lumber that had a bad glue joint, and it would simply fall apart at that point. I can accept that, I know the machines that make this stuff aren’t perfect. The problem also was always very evident, you would pick up the stick, and it would snap at the weak point. You can have that same kind of break on regular lumber at a knot, so it really wasn’t a problem… Now, the manufacturers have decided to squeeze some more material out of the tree. They are now using more little pieces, and the parts have gotten narrower. So instead of having two parallel lines of the small pieces glued side by side to make up a board, now you have 6 or 7 parallel runs in the board. That’s a whole lot more glue joint to potentially go bad in the manufacturing process. And surprise, surprise, they’re going bad… The last 3 batches of lumber I’ve gotten in, I have lost almost 25% to bad glue joints. With traditional lumber, the loss due to defects was anywhere from 15-30% on any given show. When I started in with the FJL, I was looking at a loss around 3-4%, which offset the increased cost of the material. If I’m looking at 25% of this material going bad on a constant basis, I’m going to be forced to go back to real lumber. That means more trees getting cut down since regular lumber is far more wasteful in the manufacturing process… I admit freely that I don’t buy material based on saving the environment. I have a responsibility to buy whatever is the best product for a given application. The FJL has been an excellent choice for a few years now, as the price has been equivalent to regular lumber… I beat and scream at my lumber yard about the quality going downhill, and I hope they’re screaming at their supplier, but I suspect not. I am a VERY small portion of the market… The manufacturers don’t care about the structural integrity of a product they are making for appearance reasons. Their solution is that I should be using one of their structural products.
If one of the structural types of EL filled my needs, and was competitive in price, I would be all over it. I do in fact use a few of those products for various applications… The problem with EL is that it is Heavy… In the neighborhood of 30-40% heavier than its real wood equivalent… The FJL weighs almost the same as the material I have replaced with it, because it is made from a slightly lighter wood, which offsets the additional weight of the glue.
They had done such a good job of making the change over to the FJL an easy one, and now, they’re essentially throwing all that away… Fortunately, there isn’t any special equipment involved in working with FJL, so switching back to real wood is very easy… The problem for me is that I have to re-think how much lumber gets lost, how many bits of scenery will go bad in storage due to warping, and how much more storage I need to have to keep an acceptable amount in stock. Oh well… If it means getting something that is consistent again, I’ll switch back to what we all were running away from in the past… At least I could predict what that lumber would do by looking at it… FJL always looks good, until it fails completely…
Somebody bring me the head of the manufacturer, impaled on a pike… And make sure its a solid wood pike...
Have you ever stopped to think about all the fire safety aspects around you?.. You go pretty much anyplace in public, and you will be surrounded with them... Crash Bars on doors, doors that open outwards, exit signs, etc...
Fires were a very common problem in the theatre for a long time... Did that mean that the theatres led the way to safer standards?... Well not exactly... Those features are an expensive addition to a building, and theatre owners are not known for expending any more money than they need to... Countless theatres have burned to the ground over time... The death toll had been kept down by haveing a large number of exits, and training the staff to help get the audience out of the building in some orderly fashion... Considering how much open flame was used in theatres in the past, it is impressive that there were not too many outrageous disasters.
Well December 30, 1903 changed all that... The Iroquis Theater in Chicago was doing a matnee of Mr. Blue Beard, Jr. Apparently this was a popular show at the time, and the theatre was packed. The space was designed for 1724 patrons, but there were 1900 squeezed in there on this day. Well a fire did indeed break out. In this case a backdrop was touching the back of an arc-type lighting unit. (arc lights are the oldest form of electric light, they produce light similar to the light from a welder, and naturally get extremely hot) Well the fabric caught fire, and then a chain reaction went from there... The safety equipment in the theatre was ineffective, or simply failed to operate at all... The staff had not had any training in evacuateing the theatre... Some of the doors had been barred... Doors opened inward...
The reports claim there were corpses piled ten deep at some of the exits that could not be opened... People jumpped from a fire escape into an alley when the fire spread to something under the escape... The first to do so tied from impact, those that came after them were fortunate to land on the first few people and that was enough cushening to let them live...
When the smoke cleared, 575 people had died, with an additional 27 to die as a result of injuries. This was at the time the deadliest fire in Chicago history, second in the US, and 4th in the world. The "great Chicago Fire" only killed 250...
End result... New regulations were put in place, and became standard acorss the nation... The doors could not be barred, they had to open outward, and the crash bar was introduced. (even if you can't operate the bar, the crushing weight of a crowd would activate it allowing the door to open, probably at the expense of the first person or two, but better than nothing) There also had to be a steel fire curtian to seperate the stage from the audience... Exits now had to be clearly marked, even in the dark... Stage employees and ushers had to be trained to get the people out in an emergency... (used to be policy, now it was law)
Supriseingly, the theatre only suffered minor damage from the fire, and was re-opened in less than a year, as the Colonial Theater.