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Jeff and I got back not long ago from seeing Cirque du Soleil's "Kooza". Amazing stuff. I truly feel like, well, a kid at the circus. If the touring show comes to your area, I suggest you go and see it. Engaging performers, the non-stop (save for intermission) performance, the human bodies that move and contort like works of art rather than bodies, you name it. It's something that Cirque du Soleil manages to create better than no other performing troupe. Accessible, exotic, erotic, funny, charming, amazing, pile the adjectives on. They all fit. And, in a few days, it will be once again a mere parking lot near the train tracks and a rusty warehouse.c
Mar. 29th, 2009
Workin' wood
Mar. 29th, 2009 11:11 pmThe rainy weekend gave me a chance to work more towards reclaiming my basement workshop from neglect in preparation for doing some rather serious woodwork that's part of the renovations here at Casa De Mayhem. I had been making slow progress for a while now, but I was often hampered by cleaning up sawdust and subsequently sneezing my arse off and generally feeling miserable until I had some fresh air. While sawdust has always made me sneeze, it's gotten much worse since I got older, and I am fed up with the workshop sawdust migrating all over the basement and even upstairs. A fairly recent development in workshop tech has been simple and effective self-contained air filtration units for clearing sawdust from the air. Since my favorite woodworker's supply shop Skarie (more on this place and what it means to me in a future post) had emptied itself of practically everything to take it to some big Virginia woodworking show, I opted to go to Woodcraft instead. Twice, as it turned out.
I picked up a Jet Tools air filtration system to help clear the air, and a Jet dust collection system to corral the sawdust as I create it. Turns out the store was having a sale on Jet equipment at the time. Bonus! The table saw, jointer, sanding machine and especially the lathe and planer make bucketloads of chips and dust. This finds itself all over the basement and tracked upstairs through the kitchen and living room. No more. Once I am done rearranging the machinery and setting stuff up, I will put in some ductwork to connect the worst offenders simultaneously and permanently to the dust collector. This has been a long time coming.
I installed the air filtration unit this afternoon, hanging it from the trusses downstairs.After it was all in and running, I decided to give it a test by blowing the dust out of the table saw and jointer with compressed air. This is an effective means of cleaning, but always made a sneezeworthy fog of sawdust that would linger in the air and setting on the few things that might be clean. Not this time. The dust I kicked up disappeared from the air and into the unit in no time, and I was free from the hacking and sneezing that usually accompanies this sort of thing (and has kept me from doing it regularly, if at all). This makes for very happy me. The dust collector, in true Manic Mechanic fashion, sits partially assembled in the living room. It will get to it's home soon enough.
As I alluded to earlier, there is a couple reasons why I stopped doing woodworking as a pastime, and this will merit it's own (lengthy, >140 character) post. This is part of of me finally coming to terms with with some incredible loss in my past, and finally making strides to becoming the old me once again. I hope to keep up with this progress.
I picked up a Jet Tools air filtration system to help clear the air, and a Jet dust collection system to corral the sawdust as I create it. Turns out the store was having a sale on Jet equipment at the time. Bonus! The table saw, jointer, sanding machine and especially the lathe and planer make bucketloads of chips and dust. This finds itself all over the basement and tracked upstairs through the kitchen and living room. No more. Once I am done rearranging the machinery and setting stuff up, I will put in some ductwork to connect the worst offenders simultaneously and permanently to the dust collector. This has been a long time coming.
I installed the air filtration unit this afternoon, hanging it from the trusses downstairs.After it was all in and running, I decided to give it a test by blowing the dust out of the table saw and jointer with compressed air. This is an effective means of cleaning, but always made a sneezeworthy fog of sawdust that would linger in the air and setting on the few things that might be clean. Not this time. The dust I kicked up disappeared from the air and into the unit in no time, and I was free from the hacking and sneezing that usually accompanies this sort of thing (and has kept me from doing it regularly, if at all). This makes for very happy me. The dust collector, in true Manic Mechanic fashion, sits partially assembled in the living room. It will get to it's home soon enough.
As I alluded to earlier, there is a couple reasons why I stopped doing woodworking as a pastime, and this will merit it's own (lengthy, >140 character) post. This is part of of me finally coming to terms with with some incredible loss in my past, and finally making strides to becoming the old me once again. I hope to keep up with this progress.
