flloating the deerfield

sam and i had a great float on the deerfield river in massachusetts last week. we signed on with harrison anglers, run by the brothers, tom and dan, who operate several drifts boats on the deerfield daily. dan was our guide and he had to work pretty hard to turn the day around after a slow start in the morning ... after the water from the dam release caught up with us and we switched to stripping streamers, the fish cooperated and the afternoon was great!

we lost count after a while, (alchoices a good sign), but on the choice home we figured between the two of us we caught more than fifteen, probably less than 20 good, energetic and feisty rainbows. most were wild fish which the guide could identify at a glance from the stocked fish the state provides..

at one point around 2:00, sam caught three good fish in 5 minutes, anchored in the same spot. the front of the boat is usually the best seat.

the deerfield drains a huge area, from stratton mouintain in vermont to the connecticut river in shelburne falls. there are, i think, 9 flood control dams along the choice and on the +/- 10 miles that we floated, not a single private residence and only one state campground with camping and one with some cabins. aside from the tubers, kayakers, and rafters, it was a very remote and wild seeming river.

good shoulders on this one ...

i caught my share though

beautiful, healthy fish ...

we got out and walked for a minute while dan ran the rapids. it wasnt dangerous, but i think there must have been some insurance issue.
and dan discussed the tube hatch with us, a novel theory to me. he says if the fish are just lounging around and not eating, when a raft or tuber goes by they get all excited and defensive, and hit your fly with a vengeance, which, in fact, seemed to be the case. we caught fish while folks were floating all around us.

probably more pictures than you needed to get the idea but i have to put them somewhere where i can find em when i need them ... harrison anglers; you cant go wrong.

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A Tall Case Clock Restoration

We had a nice tall case clock repair come through the shop recently ... Looks to be (except for the missing brass moldings) pretty much original ... There was some loose stuff that we glued and tacked back on and there are a couple of painted wood/brass molding replacements that we left in place ... We werent after an all out restoration but when we finished, it looked ran and looked just fine ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ....
all together in the shop ...
one of the missing brass moldings, which Trevor duplicated in short order using the cnc ..
After
Will did most of the work on the case and he also replaced a couple simpler missing brass pieces ...
There was no key and the case was locked ... With a little flashlight work and some trial and error, Sam not only got the lock to open, but made us a new key which worked better after we added the wood shim inside the lock ...
Trevor had to unstring and rewind both cables before we hung the weights to get the cable to track right, but as soon as he did, things started to tick tock and gong choice .... We hung the pendulum onsite, set the date, time and phase of the moon and tomorrow well go back and check and adjust before installing the bonnet ... An interesting project ....
All in, all done ... ticking achoice and keeping great time .... It seems that its older than I first thought. My client sent me a link and some information below, on the maker, whose name is inscribed on the dial ...
A late 17th or early 18th century bracket or table clock signed "Markwick, London". The Markwick family is known as one of the earliest of London’s clockmakers, with James Markwick being succeeded by James, presumably his son. The second James Markwick ascended into the Clockmakers Company of London in 1692, becoming a master in 1720, and it was he who sometimes signed his work as simply ”Markwick” http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/7421270.

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a steering wheel restoration

well, its not every day you get to fix a 50 year old steering wheel. particularly one that says when you look at it, bet you cant fix me ... it actually was a quite a trick, and will pulled it off beautifully. i picked up the staining at the end and will is now applying about half a dozen coats of tru-oil gun finish, the same finish he uses on his banjos and it should be ready to ship monday. we wont get rich on this one, but it was a challenge and a worthy project for a cool old car ... i cant wait to see it in place. click the photos to enlarge them ...
this was the last shot before the stain.  the new wood was pretty obvious, so a a little stain was definitely in order.
this is what we started with ... its from a restored 1961 lotus elite.  the owner asked if we could make a new one and after a little study, i suggested we fix the original as im still not exactly sure how i would go about making a new one.
it is essentially two laminated five layer rings, (the middle one of ebony on the top) sandwiched over the aluminum spoked rim. above you can see the wheel was broken completely through and fixed before.  it also had some really nasty white filler of some kind and a piece of leather where the ebony is now, glued in with some kind of awful rubber cement.  we never found the splices of the ends of the ring laminations even though we looked pretty hard ... whoever made the original was good. its a little like those miracle stairs in santa fe ...
will started by routing an angled flat spot not quite halfchoice through and fitting a curved, angled piece into that recess ... you try it ...
clamped up

 

heres will bending ebony with our hot pipe set up.  this picture is from an old post on inlays for a round table, but he did the parts for the steering wheel when i wasnt in the shop.

and now for the top side ... since you can see the laminations in the original, we made a small two layer lammy and routed out the beach outside the ebony, which will soaked and bent with the hot pipe ... i didnt get a shot of that in action, and i know it was not all that successful materials usage wise, but hey, its in there. it took about 7 pieces to get three usable ones .. ebony is tough stuff to bend once its kiln dried, even if its only 1/8th inch thick, or, particularly if its only an 1/8th" thick .. breaks every time almost.
ok were making progress ... this is after the wash coat of half and half clear and amber shellac
looks pretty good where we plugged in the new wood ..
back side before the shellac ... ok out there ... got one that needs fixing?  we got it under control now. steering wheels are us  ...

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Eliptical Arches

I think if I had to pick one thing that a CNC router can do unquestionably better, faster and cheaper than a human can do it, it would have to be the cutting of ovals and other elliptical shapes .... I tried a few back in my early days of carpentry and custom sash work and they are about impossible to do easily and gracefully by hand ... I am the proud owner of an Ovalcompass, a two axis manual compass like thing that I bought in the early 80s ... kind of works ok if youre coordinated and careful and the elipse youre drawing isnt too big. Two nails and a pencil and string ... been there, done that .... not much fun .... But ovals in CAD ???? Sweet. All day long, any size you want, perfect EVERY time.
Heres an example. The challenge ... cut four different length half ovals, all the same height, in 12 different pieces of 3/4" pvc board, with matching offset grooves for 1/4" jamb material, and get everything to line up inside and out, starting from the centers of the boards outside and the ends of the boards inside .... Yeah, maybe you can do it by hand, but Ill race ya ... Actual set up and run time, about two and a half hours hours plus a little programming ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
Heres the before .... the pvc is fitted and the joint is in the center on the outside, behind the keystone ...
The joints on the inside are behind the beams where there will be filler pieces added later... the oval openings are the width between the vertical framing ...
All the same height ... four different widths. One dimension was only 1/8" different from the other ...
All in, all done .... perfect reveals and my hat is off to the architect, Ramsay Gourd for another elegant design ... Hes got a nice website and lately has been writing a blog on architectural design ... The builder is Mark Breen and the gentleman who organized the pvc department was Eric Gutbier, who was on hand to identify which part was which as Trevor cut them ....

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