Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Never enough time

 Halfway through my time off, and already I'm running out of time. It's been another world-class trip home, with lots of fun, family, and Christmas spirit to be had. Since I live in Florida, one of the free states of America, there are no restrictions on celebrating Christmas properly. We've been out to dinner, had family over for visits, and decorated, attended church... all those things that the serfs in the Occupied Territories up north are not allowed to do. 

 And since I work up there, still, when I work, it makes me appreciate that people here had the fuckin' balls to say 'no' to the evil fearmongering tyrants. 


    There is a shitpot full of retirees and old timers in Florida. This is Heaven's Waiting Room, after all. On a state level, the odd attempts by would-be dictators are ignored, while the more conservative factions including our governor, note that there are resources available for at-risk people, but those of us in the low-risk cohorts are allowed to carry out our daily economy according to the tenets of the US Constitution, not the extralegal exhortations of fear-mongering assholes with power. 


  I started a major redesign of my shop space in between all my other projects. Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife bought me a monster bandsaw that is still waiting for a place to be put in. Thing's 7 feet tall and somewhere north of 500lbs. Gonna be the centerpiece of my shop for sure, but no way I can rig the thing to be on a mobile base as I do with my other larger tools. I'm going to need a few months, but it's time to put in a full series of cabinets and a more ergonomic workbench along with better tool storage. 


2 comments:

Beans said...

Unfortunately, the people of the Great State of Florida voted in a $15.00/hr min wage, so... well... Florida just killed itself.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

The coming inflation is going to hurt a lot of people.

Will said...

Regarding your bandsaw. Have you determined if it is okay to drill into your floor? Some of the concrete pads are cable tensioned internally, and they shouldn't be drilled. I suspect that this may be do-able if you can define exactly where the lines are, but you will need to do some research on this.

Consider locating it near a window, so long pieces can be fed into it. However, centrally positioned is probably better. If it is intended to be bolted down, you could make a framework with castors to roll it into the location, and then bolt it down for use. If heavy enough to just sit on rubber covered pads, mount jacking pads to the caster base frame. These could be mounted on swing out arms for better stability, and may eliminate the need for bolting to the floor if you have a no-drill concrete pad. Highly recommend rubber pads to handle the vibration and control the tendency to walk under power.

Hopefully, your unit has a builtin blade welder. Having to buy new blades when it breaks is a real pain. IIRC, you can buy them separately to add to a bandsaw. Much cheaper to buy a blade roll in a box, and cut to length needed, if you can weld it. They always break at an inopportune time! This allows you to utilize a wider selection of blade types than the maker normally offers, too. Sometimes you can find broken blades cheap, or free.