Friday, November 30, 2012

Koch-ein-düdel-dü!


I'm pondering just what sort of stats to give this guy for use as a PC-chomper, and whether he would have any abilities beyond his ludicrous mandibles. I'm thinking smallish, maybe chicken-sized, and appearing in flocks of up to a couple of hundred.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

More woodwork



I just made this little worktable for Annette, to replace the shitty bargain-warehouse piece of crap she's been using ever since the earthquakes forced us to rearrange our whole lives. It's radiata pine ( a much under-appreciated timber in this country, I feel), and it took me a couple of days of ambling, low-stress endeavour to machine and assemble. It still needs to be oiled up with three or four coats of linseed or tung-based finishing oil; that will take another couple of days at least.




It has a wide, shallow drawer in front for pens and pieces of paper and what-not. It's only 35mm deep, which hopefully will save it from the fate of most drawers, which is to become choked with so much useless crap that nothing can ever be found in them.

The drawer has a cove cut behind its lower edge, to get your fingers into to pull it open. That way it doesn't need any handle sticking out, and the front can stay flush and clean.





The top has a a deep (50mm) splay, leaving only a thin, delicate 8mm edge showing.

That could be a concern; pine being so soft, such a thin edge could be prone to damage. We'll see how it goes; if need be, I can always plane it back a bit.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Sin Was All I Knew

She doesn't seem to be particularly worried about that.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Booty

Today Annette and I went out for a picnic, at a little tarn out towards Arthur's Pass. It was bloody freezing, but nice.

On the way back we called in at a bric-a-brac shop at Darfield, where I found these.

The vice is a Record 52½, in very good nick, and it cost me $128 — about a third of what it would cost me to buy one new. I've been looking for a decent vice for ages, so this is an excellent score for me.

The brace is also in excellent nick. Because nobody much uses them any more, they're a lot more expensive to buy than they used to be... Bunnings has them for $175. This one cost me $24, and the lady threw in the bits for free.

All in all, a very productive picnic.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Blackboard

I just made this blackboard to replace the soulless (yet efficient) whiteboard that hung in our kitchen for writing grocery lists and what-not on.

The frame is pink birch, the little chalk shelves are made from beech. The blackboard itself is just 6mm MDF slathered with blackboard paint.


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Aaaaaaand...... relax.

In spite of his many failings, and in spite of his inability to overcome a gigantic shitpile of obstruction from the lunatic fringe (big, big fringe... like Cousin It's fringe) of the Republicans in Congress (or the Senate? I'm a bit hazy about U.S. political systems), I'm profoundly relieved that Obama has managed to retain the presidency.

That Romney guy, there's something about him that just makes my skin crawl, and whenever he does his "sincere" face I throw up a little bit in my mouth.