Category: projects

Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – 2019

/ Matt Talley / 2 Comments

Another fine year for the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.  It is one of the weekends that I look forward to all summer.  My plan was to go early this year, like leaving the house at 6:00 AM and fueling up on coffee and energy bars for the 2+ hour trip from Seattle early.  The best laid plans of mice and men…

After a REALLY late start and failing to meet up with a boat builder friend at the show, my wife and I still managed to have a great day at the Festival. I think she went with me to keep me from buying a boat that “ Just needs just a little bit of work…”  Unbeknownst to her, I went to but a boat that needed a LOT of work: I am building a boat this year and had 90% decided on the Pygmy Wineglass Wherry.  I showed up planning to row the boat to make that number 100% and on taking one of their stitch&glue kits home with me.  It was ON! 

The Pygmy shop was really short staffed that afternoon and the person I spoke with initially didn’t really have the answers to show pricing, additional fiberglass, material for a sculling notch, etc…  I was told to speak with someone else, but they were not available.  Fine.  I wondered down to the water for a test row and the boat was booked out with folks in line for hours. Ok.  I am patient, I can wait.

I toured a few boats on the water and there was some stunners!  Conspicuously absent though, was my favorite Puget Sound pocket-yacht, OPUS, an Ian Oughtred Wee Seal II design.  I hope to see her later this month at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Fest.

After touring a few boats, we walked down to the Connecticut Light Craft booth and I happened into Jon Harris, the owner/designer for CLC.  Even while tearing down the mast and sails for a customer to row a boat (talked to the guy later and he bought a kit) Mr. Harris took his time to discuss his design and answer my questions.  His Northeaster Dory is everything I want the Wineglass Wherry to have after modifications (dagger board, sails, and notch) but is a little longer and is more money.  After rowing it and watching how fast the sail and mast came down, I started looking hard at the Northeaster.  My wife likes the Dory more, as does the boat builder friend we failed to meet up with earlier in the day, but I am not 100% sold (it is the additional cash and the kit delivery fee in all honesty), so I bought the Dory scale model and will build and paint if this winter to help me decide.  In the end, I did buy a boat, just a 1/8” wooden scale model.

This year was Laurel’s first time seeing the CLC teardrop camper.  She was all giddy and crawled around the thing like it was a big fluffy warm dag: all smiles.  She has a new plan: She wants to split the cost of a kit and help me build it this spring. Really, she said those words.  She is super into it! I guess we are now building a camper, but she stopped short of buying the kit right there.  It was touch and go and I could see her Alaska Miles Credit Card vibrating in her pocket.  The plan it to wait and save the cash up and build this spring for summer adventures.

In addition to buying a boat, my other hope/plan was to pick up another Clamptite from AKcooltools.  They did not have a booth there last year, but I saw them on the vendor list this year.  I looked for them some, but figured they hadn’t made it.  My wife noticed their booth in a back corner, hidden away and asked me, “That booth says clamps, it is strange that we haven’t been there today.”  (YOU CAN’T OWN TOO MANY CLAMPS!)  Well, we/I ran right over, plopped my money down and now have a new stainless Clamptite to replace the one I dropped into Lake Union.

Like I said, These folks didn’t have a great vendor spot and I don’t think it was a great show for them, which isn’t really fair in relation to their level of customer cervicce, general attitude, and awesome products.  Look them up, see if it is something you can’t live without. I am not affiliated in any way with the sellers, festival, tool, etc. and get nothing from this. I just really like what they are doing and don’t think they were getting the foot traffic they deserve.  I made a YouTube video on using the tools as well.

At the VERY end of the day Saturday, I caught the two ladies manning the Pygmy test paddle area just before they put the boats up for the night and they were awesome about letting me take the Wineglass Wherry and my sweet wife out for a spin. The boat was really stable and tracked well. The wind pushed her a bit when not rowing, but that is to be expected from a 90 pound rowboat. I still really like this boat I love the lines and the transom.  Like I said above, was almost sure I was going to build one with an added sculling notch, but I really want a daggerboard and a small sail. Both it and the dory are great boats. I have a decision to make…

Urban Lumberjacking

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Every homeowner in the middle of a city really needs 3.5 chainsaws.  Well… maybe you only need 1, but having multiple saw options makes things a lot easier when a truck load of logs shows in in the driveway or when a tree in your yard needs to come down. 

I have a neighbor who heats with wood and buys a couple loads of loads (5-8 cords) of wood a year.  He bucks the logs and does all the splitting in his driveway.  He is a great guy and hooked me up with a cord+ of free maple (and ¾ a cord of cedar for camp fires) last year.  We have heated the house during all the really cold and snowy nights this winter with that free wood.  As a way to be a good neighbor and to say ‘thank you’, I spent a few hours one recent weekend helping him cut a load of fir into rounds and prep for splitting.  I took one saw over to his place with a bit of gas and bar oil and cut for 3+ hours on one chain sharpening.  That would not have been possible with oak, cherry, or walnut, but the dry-ish fir cut like butter.

Speaking of saws, I currently have a stable that includes a semi-shitty Homelite 16” bar that was a $10 garage sale score that I couldn’t pass up.  I put a good chain on it and use it for limbing trees, blackberry vine annihilation, and general yard/garden jobs.  Years ago, I was given a battery powered Homelite polesaw when a neighbor moved away that I keep sharp and use it 3-4 times a year. The long reach makes pruning and trimming branches along the fence a breeze.

I scored a free (paid for with sweat equity) 50cc Dolmar last year, which is a fine little German saw, and it is my go-to for lopping up logs/firewood rounds and for lathe bowl prep.  The Dolmar is probably my favorite saw currently and the very first one I will take if I have to lend a hand with a tree or firewood in the neighborhood.  The beast in my quiver is a new Husqvarna 576 that I paid full retail price for and meant only to be used for serious ‘bidnes like dropping trees or for milling slabs.  I have two different length bars and three types of chain for it: Rip, felling, and skip.  When the chain is fresh, you can set this baby on a log and it will eat through it just using its own weight.

You will find all sorts of uses and projects that require a chainsaw when you own one:  For instance, instead of paying an arborist serious $$ last year, I dropped a 40’ tall holly tree that stood on the fence between me and a neighbor.  I had to put on a harness and rope up to top the thing, which I have done many times and once did it for a living for a short time. 

This time I was like 4 months post-op from hip reconstruction though and my wife forbade me from “doing anything stupid” before she left the house to run errands. I seized the opportunity and started the cutting.  She came home earlier than I had expected and caught me 20’ up in the tree, sitting in the harness with the saw running.  Apparently, that was “something stupid” and I got in trouble. No, like real trouble and she had a fit in front of all my friends and neighbors.  I had to go inside for the day and wasn’t allowed to come out and play with the other 40-something children. 

This was after I got caught as was putting up my toys before I had to go inside for a proper ass-chewing.

Couple of quick points:

A chain saw will maim or kill you if you do not use it correctly.  If you have never operated one, take a class or find a mentor, not Bob down the street that drinks beer in the front yard all summer and has a dusty saw up on a shelf in the garage. Someone that that handles a saw often and who is super safety conscience.

Buy and use safety equipment:

  1.          Saw chaps/pants
  2.          Helmet
  3.      Ear protection
  4.          Safety glasses AND a face shield.  Wear at the same time.  Really.
  5.      Leather Gloves
  6.      Good boots – preferable steel toed ones with
    thick lugged soles.  I am a Danner man, but to each his own.
  7. Know your saw, read the fuel and oil requirements – keep the manual in your shop/garage where you can refer to it.
  8. Buy a gallon of bar oil.
  9. Grab a chain sharpener and a guide and try to sharpen your chain BEFORE it needs it.
  10. Buy a gas can for your fuel/oil mix. Label it and only use it for that. a gallon can is the most practical.
  11. YouTube is your friend on a sharpening how-to.
  12. Buy a spare chain when you buy your saw and write the part number on the manual – the one that you keep as noted above.

Three hours worth of cutting rounds and stacking.

A fine start to prepping for splitting
Log Truck
3 hours worth of sawdust

2019 News Year’s Resolutions:

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A year ago, to the day, I said that I would do a bunch of stuff in 2018.  Well, if you want to hear God Laugh, tell him your plans…

Life was sort of turn upside down this year with continuing hip issues, an unplanned knee surgery, a job change, house rebuild craziness.  If you factor in my own laziness, stubbornness, and my A+ skill level of procrastination I did not get even half of my list ticked off. From that list of 50 Things, the items below are what I actually did get done:

Organize my chaos in the shop and basement. – Basement done!
Sell, donate, recycle, or throw away shit that I do not use.
Use my planner and notebooks as tools not as something that I “have” to use.
Take my desk at home back and make it a conducive writing space.
Fly my drones more
Finish my CJ-7 Jeep restoration
Sign up for a letterpress class at SVC Downtown
Take another blacksmithing class at The Pratt
Give some $$ to Heifer and MFS
Be involved in politics more: financially and with a time commitment
Finish the house remodel –  even if I have to pay a contractor to do it (shudder…)
Make.More.Stuff!!
Ride my snowboard and skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
Road trip in WA and on West Coast more
Take my wife on vacation

For 2019, I am going to keep it a little simpler:

  1. Work really hard to stay healthy and avoid any more orthopedic surgery
  2. Quit Twitter for good this time.
  3. Get on my bike
  4. Lose the extra weight
  5. Be a great engineer
  6. Make better and better YouTube videos.
  7. Read more
  8. Spend more time with Family
  9. Worry about the house less
  10. Finish and USE my shop to its fullest.
  11. Be happier and remove negative folks and situations from my day to day.
  12. Take some more classes
  13. Make more friends
  14. Be involved in my community
  15. Buy and consume less
  16. Simplify

Film Friday – Canoe Paddle Build Part I

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Earlier this year, while we were finishing the attic, I took a weekend and built a cherry and ash laminated canoe paddle at the Camp Beach Center For Wooden Boats shop – as my own wood shop was in full use for the attic/storage. It was a little bit of a rush build and after paddling with it once, I decided to rebuild and reform it into a better performing paddle. This video will take you through all the steps of the initial build and the refit. The next video in in this series will show the finish steps and some on-water testing.

Film Friday – 3D Printing a Pen Case

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Being a pen geek and needing to practice on some new 3D design software I need for my new J-O-B (another post about that later), I decided to build some small parts that held my interest, one of them being a pen case for my Kaweco Lilliput pens and my Fisher Space Pens that would fit in one of the tin boxes that the Kawecos come in. I spent a little time in CREO and used an over-worked and not well loved/cleaned 3D printer (not my personal printer) with some REALLY old PLA, which you can see by the gaps and gobs in the printed pieces – not perfect, but they will do. I spent about 40 minutes drawing the two versions and spent maybe $4.00 in electricity and material. At the end of it all, I know where all the needed tools are in CREO, I have a new pen case, and I have leveled up in my nerdiness.

Doing a little recording

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I am working on a recording a few songs and clips – mostly for background music on my own YouTube vids. It is going OK as I feel that I am set up pretty well – I have Apple Logic Pro X and Garage Band, a focite audio interface, 3 mics, a couple of amps, and 7-8 instruments that I can sort of get by on.  I have no delusions of even adequacy as a musician, but recording the songs has made me take a few momentary flight of fantasy: What if I were a recording artist…….

 

Artist name:  Snugnutz, which is double entendre that references my life as a working enginerd AND is mildly, yet socially acceptable, provocative.  It will always be displayed in a proper Tag Font.

 

Genre: I will call it thrash hillbilly trance EDM nerdcore. With a focus on clog dancing goths in any and all supporting music video projects. 

 

Album titles:

  1. Yes, there IS rum in my coffee cup
  2. Don’t Tell my Wife about the New Motorcycle
  3. Just Nerdy Enough
  4. You can do anything you want on your last muther fuckin’ day! 

 Possible song titles:

Torqued

Bottomed out

Mitutoyo

Pipe Threadin’

Huffin’ Sawdust

Reamed

Splinters Suck

Tailings

Higher than Elon 

No Capes!

Simple Math

Comic Books and Hand Lotion

Strap Wrench

Not Safety Glasses

Tap Magic

Donut Fridays

Medium Shop Pimpn’

Lathe Loving

My Mom Says I Am Smart

Locktight

Moonshine Bubbles

Tail Stock

6061 HRc60

Thread Cutter

DRO

OG Anvil Rebound

Gots Both My Thumbs

Friction Weld

Jeeps and Mudholes

Tight Collet

Arcade SME

Dust Co-lector

 

Film Friday – BEES!!

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My wife bought me a package bee hive box kit for Christmas last year, which reinforces the fact that I have a wife that is kind and considerate and pretty damn adorable.

Anywho, I thought that installing a new hive would be a terrific opportunity to document all the steps to install bees into a new hive box.  I went with a nuc hive instead of packaged bees and a new queen. That is for a later video. The whole process of bringing a new hive into the apiary also allowed me to show all the steps in prepping the pre-built hive boxes/parts and I was able to build and showcase a couple of steel hive stands that I have been thinking about and designing in my head for years.  I will also make a video on the design and build of the hive boxes and parts, but that will have to wait until this winter.

I love bees and I love being a beekeeper. The honey isn’t bad either…

House Painting – Attic Installment

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I documented the process to paint the attic conversion that we have spent a couple of months working on. I am using a Graco airless spray rig that I bought a few years ago at a big box store. It has paid for itself MANY times over. This is part 1 of a 2 part video series. In this one, I sprayed the drywall primer and the trim paint. For paint I only use Benjamin Moore. It is my favorite to use and it wears amazing – not cheap though. Wear your mask and keep your lungs healthy!

Catching up and writing more

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I have not been writing as much in the last few months as I should.  I have lots of excuses:

  1. House Remodel
  2. Hectic Work Schedule
  3. Jeep Rebuild
  4. A focus on film making and growing my YouTube presence
  5. Lawn and Garden care – seriously, this takes up a lot of my time.
  6. Too much TV and interwebs…
  7. Blah, Blah, Blah…

When you get to the base of it all though, the answer is that I have made time for all the other things that keep me sane/make me crazy except for writing.  I am renewing my focus and will be posting more words to go along with all of the pictures and video.

Let’s start with an update of current stuff:

The Attic

We are so close to being done with the attic conversion.  I have to put a couple of coats on the closet door and one on the stair railing and paint the 4 walls with a couple coats of the almond eggshell that my wife picked out.  The new hardwood flooring is being delivered today and it will be installed on Friday.  I will spend the weekend installing the stair treads and kickers/risers.  The receptacles, switches and lights are the last serious items that will go in before I touch-up a little paint here & there and I will be done and can focus on the basement.

Basement

We are 75% there.  All tiled laid, grout done and a functioning toilet!!  I need to finish the trim install, hang two doors and then paint EVERYTHING!  I am having a custom shower rod TIG welded together and will be building the double sink vanity.  I have to tack together & paint the medicine cabinet door and mirror frames as well.  After all is in, we will have a plumber come out for the sink install and shower hook up.  I don’t plumb.  I am afraid of flooding my house with water or sewage.  I leave that job to the professionals.

Main Level Bath

The tube tile surround is being replaced in two weeks with 6” subway and small hex tile.  The new bathroom mirror will be going in this week, and I have to have the exhaust fan switch rewired.

Jeep

I had a solid weekend working on the Jeep.  The taillights are installed, the winch is re-wired, mirrors installed, windshield back on with new gasket and PLENTY on extra silicone.  The upper KC spotlights are re-installed, and an issue with the front speakers if fixed.  I still need to paint and install the spare tire rack, as well as the CB, megaphone speaker, 2nd battery, air compressor, lower KC spot lights, passenger headlight, rub rails, whip antenna, headlight trim rings, and polish the rear tube bumper.

The current plan is to leave the top COMPLETELY off until fall when I re-install the soft top.  I need to finish the Hi-Lift Jack rebuild project, have the speedometer serviced, and replace my tube pads as well before the cold winter wind blows.

Garage

The shop of me dreams is packed full of everyone else’s crap right now.  It is all leaving by the last weekend in July if I have to put it all out on the road.  I need to finish wiring in my 40K lumens of LED lighting, a 50AMP plug, a couple of 220/30amp plugs and have an electrician connect all into my service panel.

House Exterior

  1. Downspout in back needs attention
  2. A section of soffit need looking at and possibly repaired
  3. I need to weld together the Juliet Balcony outside the dining room
  4. Weld railing for rear steps
  5. The new front windows need a little trim and paint
  6. Dining room window needs trim and paint
  7. The rear steps need to be painted
  8. The chimney needs to be repointed before fall/winter
  9. Basement railing needs to be installed
  10. Both front railings need to be sanded and repainted.
  11. External security alarm siren need to be installed
  12. A tiny bit of concrete need to be pouted
  13. Two security cameras need to be swapped out for the lower profile ones

The yard

Man, the front yard is good, a little weeding and bush trimming maybe.  The back yard though…  It is still a disaster, or at least ½ a disaster.  I want to fill 3-4 gabion baskets with all the rocks left over from a previous owner’s attempt at pond-scaping and make benches around out fire pit.  We will be adding a steel arbor from the garage to the patio this fall that I am welding up on-site.  The patio table and chairs will get a proper sanding and oiling this weekend and we need/want an umbrella of it this year.  I want to add a tool shed and additional firewood racks to the side yard.   And finally, the small yard next to the garage is my makeshift apiary and I would like to make that both permanent and presentable with some additional hives, gravel and flower plants in narrow garden boxes.

Health

Stamps-With-Foot, my mom, and the kids are good.  I am feeling all of my 40+ years lately though.  My hip is still painful a full year after reconstruction.  I may have torn the meniscus in my left knee, AND I have Fucking Tennis elbow from chopping firewood!!  Not being able to run and bike, coupled with my love of cookies, has left me with a classic “Dad-bod” and even my fat pants are tight right now.  Eating better now.  Trying to get between 7 and 10K steps in a day, having the knee looked at, and working on the elbow.  We are going to Hawaii in February and I need at least a 2-pac as there will be MANY shirtless days in and under the water, for my arm to feel better, and my knee and hip to be like 70%.

Other

Work is work, but I have really traveled at all this year and that is awesome!  Still wish I was building cabinets for a living, covered in man-glitter, smiling but that will have to wait.  I will be traveling to Arkansas this fall to see my daughter and her family.  My son will be here in Seattle for a couple of weeks this summer.  I hope to tour a couple of colleges with him.  My wife and I have a couple of road trips planned and I want to get out on my bike, kayak, and skate board a little (don’t tell my wife or knee Dr. about the board…) I have started recording for a monthly Podcast.  A friend conned me into it after a few years of asking.  I am going to just sit and tell stories without naming names or implicating myself in any illegal activities that are not past the statute of limitations.  As a reward for losing weight I will go ahead and finish out both of my tattooed arm sleeves and my wife and I are planning matching bee tattoos for our anniversary.  I still have not bought a boat or a motorcycle, so she will keep me for a while longer

Film Friday – Double Feature: Attic and Bath Remodel Status

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I spent two FULL days, with a little help from my wife, instaling the baseboard, door, skylight, stair, and window trim in the new attic space. This video includes a few tips and tricks along the way. As this will be my wife’s studio space, she put in some sweat equity filling nail holes, doing a little sanding, and she chose the paint scheme. I will be painting next and will document that whole process as well.

This is Part 1 of our basement bathroom build/finish. We decided to add a basement bathroom when we replumbed the house a couple of years ago. 6 months of chaos insued and we took a two year break before diving back into the bathroom build. This time has been SO much better. We went with white subway tile for the walls, black and while hex tiles for the floor, and charcoal grout. The next step is trim, paint and fixture install.

Film Friday – Attic Remodel: Week 7

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This is the last of the weekly updates for the Attic Remodel Project. The heavy work and drywall is complete and I will start trimming and painting the space this week (nights and weekends as I have a real J-O-B) so that my wife will have a studio that is full of light and opportunity. The next and final installment of the attic build will show all the paint and trim steps, some tips & tricks, and will be a few weeks away.

Film Friday – Week 2 of the Attic Rebuild

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I know… I have been posting a bunch of videos lately and not a lot of travel, Jeep, Puppy, garden, music, building, or other normal posts.  That will change with the coming of Spring and the completion of our attic remodel/rebuild.  In that vain, below is the short video documenting week 2 of the process.  It looks like it will be a 5-part series.

Mid-week Update

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So, this week has been crazy at work and at home. On the home-front, there were birthdays, shopping, it is Income Tax time, we have 3-4 guys showing up every morning at 7:00 with tools in hand to work in and on the attic.

My shop is full.  I can’t even get to my table saw and my bench is stacked 5′ high with insulation.   I need a little shop time to keep me sane or at least saner…  So, I took a little me time and signed up for some classes for spring and early summer where I will get use other folks shops and build/make stuff:

  1. Canoe Paddle Making
  2. Claw and Ball Foot Carving
  3. A 10-Week Letter Press Workshop
  4. Woodcarving Figures
  5. Spoon Carving
  6. Block Printing
  7. Industrial Sewing: canvas and leather

The Jeep Rebuild After Paint

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As you know, I got the Jeep back from paint about a month ago and it has been sitting on the lift in the garage – letting the paint cure. I am not 100% happy with the paint… It took 4 tries for them to get the hood and fenders right and there are little spots and dings on the tailgate. There is also some mess just above the nerf bars and a run on the rear fender that makes me twitch, but they will be covered by some trim and the fender flairs, so… I included the Jeep’s homecoming in a video here, but skip to 5:09 as I spent way too much time blabbing about other non-Jeep related crap in the 1st part of the Video.

Anyway, I have been collecting small cardboard boxes full of goodies since last October for the after-paint re-fit. That installation process begins this coming weekend. I am giddy with anticipation.

The part additions and changes from Morris, Amazon, ARB, and Northridge4X4 include:

Duel Battery tray
Halogen headlight Lamp Conversion Kit (wanted LEDs, but don’t want to pay $600+ for headlight!!)
Black Rugged Ridge Fender Flare Kit
Stainless Fender Flair Hardware
Front Side Amber Marker Lights
New Wiper Blades
New thick rubber floor mats
BestTop Bikini Top (uses existing soft top channel) for the 2 months of sun in Seattle this summer
Rugged Ridge LED Tail Lights
Front Parking Lamp/Lens
Black Factor 55 FlatLink Winch Cable Shackle
Burnt Orange Jeep Fender Decals
New Frame to Cowl Weather Seal
Black Powder Coated Stainless Steel Side Mirrors
New Winch Cover
Warn Winch bumper with D-Rings
Black Vinyl Spare Tire Cover
New Aviation-Style Light Switches for front spots and reverse lights
Stainless Steel License Plate Holder (I had it powder coated black)
Second set of D-rings (Powder Coated Burnt Orange to match Jeep Logo)
Hi-Lift Jack Rebuild Kit (sandblasting and repainting origional)
Bronze Door Hinge Bushings (sourced at McMaster-Carr)
Warrior Pipe ½ doors (because I can)
ARB Recovery Tools Bag to organize my off-road gear
ARB Compact Onboard Air Compressor (Got a SMOKING Deal at the ARB booth at a recent Jeep Swap Meet!!)

Getting new bar covers made as well

Film Friday – Framing Double Feature

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We are remodeling and rebuilding a 90+ year old attic into a master bedroom. This required completely rewiring to electrical in the attic, moving/fixing plumbing, building a complete floating floor, adding roof supports, etc… Below is thew documentation of the 1st week of the build.

Part I of a 2 part video on the replacement of a falling down 90+ year old shack of a carriage shed with a modern 24X24 garage. This was not a flat mono-slab, green field build. Lots of digging was required and a rebar-filled retaining wall and slab had to be poured in the middle of winter before the first wall could go up.

Film Friday – 3D Printing Projects

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I have been doing some medium-serious designing, borrowing, appropriating, and just plain stealing some 3D designs and printing useful stuff this winter in between shop time, my J-O-B, building projects, and remodel projects. The video below details the printing and use of a couple of safety razor cases, SD card holders, and GoPro Session4 case.

President’s Day 2018

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President’s Day is here and it is time to prune the fruit trees, roses, and lavender. Or at least that was my plan for yesterday. Instead, I spent WAY TOO MUCH time on Twitter – ranting about sensible gun laws and the current US administration. I also spent a couple of hours cleaning the house, washing dishes, working on 2 videos, walking the puppies, and working in the shop. So the entire day was not wasted on-line.

In the shop, I am building a Screen Printers Workbench for a local artist, Amy M. Douglas. She does some pretty amazing prints and oil/acrylic work. We are trading my time for art, so it is a win/win for both of us. Below are a couple of shots taken during the build and I will have a whole YouTube video about the build in a week or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will spend an afternoon this coming weekend pruning, re-stacking firewood, and cleaning the yard – I see a dump run in my future.

3/4/2018 Update:

The bench is done and delivered.

Film Friday – An Update and a Little Ranting

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A quick update about why I have not posted here on my blog or been on YouTube for a few weeks and how I have been spending my time: Roadtrippin’, some slight ranting, obscene gestures, naughty words, snowboarding, beer, some boats, a little 3D printing, and a sneak peak at the Jeep’s homecoming after 12 weeks in the body shop are all to follow.

 

YouTube Partnership Program Rule Change Rant

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So, I am going to rant for just a bit, bear with me…

-Mounts Soapbox –

“Ahem… I set a goal to be a better filmmaker, content provider, and maker five months ago.  Part of that goal was to reach the 10,000 view threshold to monetize my YouTube account.  I did not plan to quit my J-O-B, or be internet famous, I just wanted to use it as a milestone for progress toward the goal and I nailed it on January 4th!  10,000 views!!  I was so stoked that I woke my wife up way too late one night to tell her.  My account was under review for 2 weeks and I was finally officially monetized for two days – two WHOLE days – before BAM!!  I was demonetized with a huge group of small and smaller content providers.  Son of a…

While this was a while in coming, it looks like the process/decision was sped up when a guy with 15+ million subscribers named Logan Paul posted a video of a suicide victim. 1st, what a fucking privileged asshat.  WTF is wrong with people?!  He should be forever ashamed, and spend a great deal of his YouTube revenue on suicide prevention and advocacy.  What should’ve happened following the public and advertiser outrage was YouTube suspending or deleting his channel, but that dude generates SERIOUS ad revenue, so… What happened instead was that YouTube took him off the top-tier ad group and YouTube punished the SHIT out of the small folks by demonetizing channels with less than 4000 hours of watch-time AND less than1000 subscribers to ‘protect their core values’? Makes zero sense and this guy will continue to post and earn $$$ even at the lower tier.

OK, fine, fuck’em.  I was not doing this for some mythical pot of gold.  This setback is just going to make me dig deeper.  I am 10% to the new threshold and I will keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. Post better and better content.  This will make me leaner, stronger, bigger, better, more… A better speaker, better filmmaker, I will get lighting and sound for my videos dialed, have awesome content, and be a better person from it all. Success doesn’t teach half as much as adversity.

To all effected by the YouTube demonetization BS: Don’t quit! Keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. You too will be all the better for it. Send me your channel and I will follow you and help with the watch hour threshold. As I said, I had just hit the monetization before all of this and we will get there again.  It will take some hard work but, we can all help each other out.”

– Dismount Soapbox –

 

Film Friday – Double Feature

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I had a found (fly-away issue) DJI Phantom 3Pro sent to me as a gift by an awesome buddy – a SERIOUSLY awesome friend! I took a look and decided to rebuild the thing and see if I could get it back in the air. Here is that process:

From my second You Tube Channel – the one I use to share vacation videos and miscellaneous stuff – I present for your viewing pleasure: Snowboarding at Loveland and Winterpark in Colorado with great friends on MLK weekend 2018

As always, PLEASE hit the subscribe button if you like my content on YouTube. Thank you!

2018 News Year’s Resolutions:

/ Matt Talley / 3 Comments

A year ago, to the day, I said that I would do a bunch of stuff in 2017.  I did OK, but not great. I could blame it on my old man hip, the surgery, or the recovery time, but mostly not getting stuff on the list done was all me. All my own laziness, stuborness, or my A+ skill level of procrastination. These are the promises I made to myself that I kept:

Take a pottery class
Take a Blacksmithing class at the Pratt
Read 1 book every 2 weeks – minimum
Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
Make movies and post: Adventure, craftsmanship, and family.
Make Stuff!!
Ride my skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
Road trip in WA more
Take my wife on vacation
Plant a spring garden
Fix up the front and back yards

The following is what I am committing myself to do in 2018:

  1. Organize my chaos in the shop and basement.
  2. Sell, donate, recycle, or throw away shit that I do not use.
  3. Use my planner and notebooks as tools not as something that I “have” to use.
  4. Eat my veggies.  Seriously.  Salads in my future.
  5. Take my desk at home back and make it a conducive writing space.
  6. Cut WAY back on sugar and carb intake!
  7. Lose weight – back to 175! and put on 5-7lbs of muscle
  8. Go to the gym 3-4 time a week – minimum.
  9. Box more at the gym and at home
  10. Write more: Blog posts, REAL letters, Thank you notes, fiction, and non-fiction
  11. Take more great pictures
  12. Fly my drones more
  13. Take at least a 45 minute lunch at least 4 days a week at work
  14. Show up to yoga at least once a week
  15. Take another pottery class
  16. Finish my CJ-7 Jeep restoration
  17. Look into getting back into the judo dojo
  18. Sign up and compete in the Gambler 500 car race
  19. Sign up for a letterpress class at SVC Downtown
  20. Take another blacksmithing class at The Pratt
  21. Read 1 book every 2 weeks!
  22. Learn how to play the mandolin and banjo better!
  23. Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
  24. Build a skin-on-frame canoe for two
  25. Road and mountain bike
  26. Take the puppies to Lincoln Park for a walk at least once a week
  27. Ride the living shit out of my Single -Speed
  28. Bike to work at least 5 times this year (12 miles each way)
  29. Volunteer more at the Center for Wooden Boats
  30. Pay off all credit cards
  31. Go sailing in Puget Sound
  32. Turn some amazing and useful stuff on my lathe
  33. Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
  34. Make at least 1 movie a week for YouTube and post: Adventure and craftsmanship
  35. Monetize my YouTube account and increase my presence and standing in that community
  36. Lessen my Twitter and social media activity…
  37. See my kids and grandchildren more
  38. Be involved in politics more: financally and with a time commitment
  39. Work on my Genealogy database and organize all my info.
  40. Finish the house remodel –  even if I have to pay a contractor to do it (…shudder…)
  41. Finish the garage/shop/GROP build
  42. Make.More.Stuff!!
  43. Ride my snowboard and skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
  44. Road trip in WA and on West Coast more
  45. Have two hives of healthy, happy bees
  46. Kayak lots!
  47. See my friends more
  48. Take my wife on vacation
  49. Plant a spring garden and have a really bountiful fall harvest
  50. Have an awesome Griswald-like Christmas light display!

I am printing this list out and pasting copies in my notebook, work planner, in the shop, at my desk at work, on the fridge, and in the basement above my warranty voiding workbench.

Film Friday – Oak and Maple Pizza Peel Build

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My Father-in-Law, The Chatty Buddha,  wanted me to make him a pizza peel and while I have built cutting boards and boat paddles, I hadn’t yet made a peel. I agreed, sourced the lumber from a local salvege store. It used to be flooring, but after some magic with the table saw, jointer, some glue, and a hand plane or three – he has a pizza peel that I gave to him for Christmas.  I hope to be enjoying pizza from it for years to come.

Film Friday – Offering Candle Stand Build

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As the weather has cooled down, there are some welding and fabrication projects that I need/want to take care of during the short, cold, dark days of winter. This short video details the fabrication of a steel votive candle or offering candle stand that I am built for my wife/our house. It is made to fit on top of the Prie-dieu that we brought back from France. The stand is made from 1/8″ steel channel and plate, though looking back at the video the plate might have been more like 5/16″ ish…

Film Friday – Another Hammer Re-Work/Repair

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I had a tired, old, home-made, second-hand chipping hammer that was broken and had been so for years.  So, I MIG-welded the busted joint, ground the transition, and added a reclaimed hickory handle, which came from a hatchet rebuild shown in a previous video that I posted on YouTube. With the re-weld and addition of copper handle rivets, it should last a few decades now.

Weekend in the shop

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I got some serious crap done in the garage and at home this weekend:

Cleaned, swept, and put away tools for over an hour Saturday morning
Added wheels to my screw-clamp stand
Built a hammer stand – I have a lot of hammers
Organized 4 drawers on my tool cabinet
Organized a drawer for just camera mounts and cables
Hung 22 small blue U-Line organization bins
Cleaned off table saw
Installed new table saw blade
Re-tensioned bandsaw
Cleaned off bench for 1st time in MONTHS!
Put all the miscellaneous screws, bolts, and hardware in the proper organization bin
Sanded the carcass for a bathroom cabinet installation
Moved some angle-iron into the metal storage rack
Carried 2 of the 3 cabinet sections in the house
Cranked on the lathe to reduce the diameter of a dowel
Blew 30 amp breaker
Said the f-word at least 3 times
Took a look and original electrician did not fully terminate one of the “hot” wire legs, which led to the failure.
Said dirty words
Drove to Home Depot and back for breaker
Swapped out a blown breaker
Ran 75 linier feet of 12-2 Romex wiring
Installed 12 electrical boxes
Only dropped 1 on my head/face
Installed a couple of runs of CAT-6 ethernet cable for the PoE camera system
Jesus, CAT-6 is expensive!!
Moved some firewood into the house
Built and installed butcher paper roll noteboard on a cabinet front
Re-set wall clock
Worked on chipping hammer re-build
Shot a couple of videos
Sanded a couple spots on the jeep under windshield
Wished I had a bathroom in the garage at 3 different points during the weekend
Started on pizza peel build for Father-in-law

Film Friday – Blacksmithing and Forging

/ Matt Talley / 2 Comments

I am a novice smith and that is being generous. I do like to forge though and it is awesome when I get a little time to make things for myself. This short film details a couple of the different type of hold fasts (metal work and word work) that I recently made at the Pratt Center for Fine Arts forge in Seattle. If you live in Seattle, have a single maker bone in your body, and haven’t checked them out – do so immediately and sign up for a class or two.

Garage sidewalk now poured with a side of cat-related drama

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The sidewalk to the garage is finally poured – 8 weeks after I put the forms in…   To recap, it is 20’X4′ and 4″ deep.  I used 3500PSI with fiber added and lots of steel, because I hate cracking sidewalks. I paid a guy working on the house next door give me a hand with the wheel barrow concrete moving and to move-hold the other side of the scree board.  It took two hours from the minute the truck rolled up until I was cleaning up my tools and I saved >$1500 doing it myself, even with the cost of material, delivery and a couple of new tools.

I was super happy with the results when I went inside at 5:30. When I went back out to check on it at 9:30, the cat had walked up one side all the way to the garage, walked across, and back down the other side. I now have cat prints in my “perfect” sidewalk until the end of days…

I am not anthropomorphizing, she did it as a “Fuck You bald monkey!” because I would not let her in the house. It was too dry to re-float. This morning, to add insult, the hate-cat dropped a giant turd in the middle of the thing up by the garage door.  I said such dirty words!  This is the last straw!

Who would like an overweight white fluffy cat that is passive aggressive and shits on the things I love? I will throw in 2 bags of food, a carrier, shot records, box of band-aids, half eaten mouse, and 3 cat-nip impregnated toys. It is an awesome deal! Won’t last! Act now before someone else snatches her up!

Film Friday – Jeep Paint Prep

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…And so begins my plan for interweb domination… This is the 1st in a series of videos detailing my Jeep re-painting project. I am doing the prep work and getting ready for my 1986 CJ-7 to go into the shop for a little cosmetic make-over. It was painted black at the factory in Toledo, has been black ever since, and will stay black until they make something darker. I also give a little bit of an update to what I have been up to of late, some projects that are in the works, and a quick pan view of part of a dirty, disorganized, and cluttered shop.

Forging and Fabricating

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I can do and make bunches of stuff: Everything from joinery to electronics, from wood turning to machining, from bookbinding to electrical, from carving to heavy machine operation, but there are certain things that I have never really been able to do in the world of hand-craft, mostly due to lack of exposure or instruction. Chiefly among these things are/were forging/blacksmithing and metal shaping. The latter composed of shaping and bending sheet metal into forms and objects.

I decided this year to work on those deficits and have been taking some forging and fabrication classes at The Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. A couple nights a week, I leave work and hammer, shape, weld, grind, and make stuff out of steel. I have been at it for 5 weeks and am really please with both The Pratt and all that I am learning. I have also learned that while I have dipped my toe in these waters, that there is a ocean of knowledge out there. I do not have any want to be a full-time blacksmith or fabricator, but I want to keep learning, so I can add some of the techniques and pieces to stuff that I already build and add to my repertoire of ability and understanding. Below are some of the pieces that I have made, tools I am using, and some stuff that I am working on. I am putting together a little video as well.