Just a few Guild-related updates and thoughts in no particular order.
As of today The Guild's cash-on-hand balance in its checking account is $296.88. Since my last e-mailed report we've had four expenses: $17.90; and $17.47 at Campbell's and True Value for bits and pieces related to big tool resto work; $241.21 for the replacement motor for D2; and $25.44 for refreshments at the recent business model brainstorming meeting with Steve Howe.
D2's new (used) motor shipped from Washington state on Monday. The tracking info suggests it will be here mid-week upcoming. Ever since we acquired our first Unisaw, I've been eyeing eBay off and on for a 110 volt replacement motor and had never seen one until the one appeared that we won at auction. Here (below) is a picture of the D2's new motor.
Coincidentally, another 110 volt motor in New Orleans appeared at about the same time. In the interest of cash flow protection I wasn't going to bid on the second one, but did anyway when, within about a minute of the auction close and the high bid of $125, I tossed in a bid of $140-something just to see what would happen. Someone else got it for (as I recall) ~$149 plus $60 to ship it.
D2 is still sitting right where she's been since arriving at my hospital. Been looking for the right combination of free time, sufficiently warm (enough) weather, and -- of course -- Barry's return from Maine. I've had only the most cursory look inside D2 and am pretty sure she'll need -- in addition to the motor that's coming -- everything I bought from Saw Center in Massachusetts (belts, bearings and such). She'll need a few other odds and ends too, no doubt. Will certainly keep everyone posted.
One of the gems we got in Sioux Falls last summer was a jugundo-sized Dremel-like goose neck with an arbor on the business end. One of those things I just set aside without much thought. Fast forward to a couple of months ago when John E. appeared with a disused sump pump motor. Yesterday, I finally managed to put the two together using a section of 3/4" black pipe, a pipe clamp and a homemade bracket-thingy that enables it to clamp to a workbench. The goose neck hangs from the motor and swings about freely. I fitted it with a small wire wheel and she's ready for testing. Methinks it'll come in handy when working on the rest of the big tools we have queued up for restoration. I know Barry and I could have made use of this thing when we were bringing D1 back to life. Thanks, John E. for the wood to make up the motor holder.
John's been spending some time down at the big grain elevator measuring and poking around sussing out the prospects for conversion into a Guild workshop and milling operation for Gene. John and Gene have had a number of conversations around the possibilities. Much of this conversation started around our need to move all of our stuff out of the Tony & Sarah's garage. We need to be doing this soon. February(?). If and when the elevator project launches there will likely be a lot of disruptive dismantling and rehab activity down there until the dust settles. Will has very generously offered to let us park our tool cache in the garage of his mom's recently purchased house on S. Yale. If I recall Will's comment correctly, that space won't be otherwise needed for many months. Something to consider.
More as it happens. Here's looking forward to warmer weather and longer days.
Peace.
Nicely done, John. This format promises to be productive and fun.
ReplyDeleteHats off to you for procuring another saw motor. When Barry gets back from Maine, I recommend that you lock him in your garage.
That Dremel rig is brilliant. Soon everyone will be clamoring for one. I can't wait to take it out for a test drive.
We've been dreaming of a home-base for the Guild ever since that meeting up in my tower, and it seems it was waiting there the whole time. Nick has been making good use of the "shed" (which is twice the size of my house), but ownership of the grain elevator itself is still not clearly established, since there are several distinct lots under that building, some of them owned by ghosts. There's work involved in carving out a work-space there, the electrical situation will be improvised initially, and the legal foundations are indeed somewhat sandy, but I'm still convinced that we should throw our lot in with Nick and Gene down there. There's no rent, just generosity.
There may be some occasions when a work party would be productive and fun, but mostly it'll be me establishing a foothold down there. To begin with, there's a lot of steel and raccoon shit to be removed - but those are both resources in my life.
After some consideration, I'm convinced that the south side of the building is where the Guild shop should be. The northeast corner, the original office, needs serious structural work - and Nick would like that to be his company office eventually. The central drive-through is where Gene's milling operation should end up, we're thinking - and whatever bays are available on either side should be devoted to organized storage of Gene's lumber. I'd like to be able to go in there with a furniture client and pull out any two boards from the vertical racks of planed stock - and ask them if they'd like that book-matched pair to become their dining table. The northwest room has a door out to the road, a nice floor, and a lift down to an extensive dry basement space. I've been thinking of that quarter as a potential fabrication facility to be used for specific large projects - if we can keep it from becoming dead storage. The southwest corner is a big room with doors south and west, which I think I could mostly clear and use to store our herd of tools. The north end of that room, fourteen feet in to the posts, should be opened up to the drive-through and used for lumber racks. The rest could probably be auxiliary Guild space, with a loading dock to the west.
That leaves the east end and center of the south side of the grain elevator, which I see as the Guild's home. There's an east-facing door, leading in through a tunnel between the east "legs" - grain bins built up with 2x8's nailed on the flat. These constructions rise vertically to extend higher than Main Street. There's another issue - those towers lean more than the thickness of the wall, and so qualify as a building code violation. Ferrel could require them to be straightened or dismantled. Easy to say.
The leg to the right going in from that east door should become Gene's office, I think. The one to the left could be ours. That entry tunnel opens into the main space on the south side, which has huge headroom, and double doors out to the railroad tracks. The hulking steel equipment in there might look daunting, but to me it looks like a lucrative scrap metal run. Or five. Again, fourteen feet in from the drive-through should be devoted to Gene's lumber racks, but there's a generous amount of solid hardwood floor left - and room to build lofts for additional work-space. To the left of the sliding door out to the southwest room is the southern part of the west leg - which could be used as a tool vault.
A fully functional shop in that space could thrive as a link between Gen's locally-harvested lumber, and Nick's enlightened job-sites. The future starts now.
John,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found some 3/4 pipe. I have more if you need it.
Will
Also,
ReplyDeleteNice BLOG setup.
Thanks,
Will