Scattered Thoughts . . .

A fter five or six half days of cutting, sanding and painting shelves, on Saturday morning, I got started right away on installing these new shelves.   I  started installing at the top shelf and worked my way down the wall installing one shelf at a time.  I had to refine the shape of a couple of the shelves with the belt sander so they fit the wonky wall perfectly but, other than that, this job went relatively quickly.  The only casualty is a long drill bit that ended up bent at sharp angles in two places.  (Hmmm...  I'm not sure I ordered a new set of long drill bits yet...)   Now, when you enter this room, there are display shelves on both sides of the door.  These new shelves can be hidden safely behind the open door to the room.  I might even add a latch to keep that door secured to the shelves when I don't want curious little fingers and hands near my fragile trains.  The new shelves can be seen in the photo below.   After completing these shelves, I spent an entire aftern

The nine feet of used track that I had ordered online the other day arrived today so I was finally able to run this large Fn3 scale steam locomotive on some track for the first time.  A couple of days ago, I spent a little time cleaning and lubricating this old steam locomotive.  I had tested it, running, while it was lying on its side but I had yet to run it on any track...  until today.  When the track arrived, it was in need of cleaning.  The rails were a solid dark brown color indicating they would not conduct nearly enough of the low voltage electricity needed to power any locomotive.  The rails appeared to be completely oxidized.  Actually, it appears as though this track was barely used and probably spent most of its life on a display shelf which is likely what its primary use will be at our home too (along with occasional test runs).  After a few minutes of cleaning, the tops of the rails were nice and shiny again. I didn't clean any of the rail joiners nor where the rail j

My plan for today was to rip lumber to use as crown molding and baseboard molding as well as build two hollow 'L' shaped beams to cover exposed rough plumbing... I started with measuring for the 'L' shaped beam in the new half bath.  I measured again to make sure I had the correct measurements and then I went outside to the tablesaw to start cutting. I even made a little diagram to go with all my measurements. I reviewed the measurements again before cutting. Before fastening the pieces together to form the 'L' shaped cedar beam, I thought that maybe I should test my measurements by doing a dry fit of each piece... The moment I tried placing these two pieces up on the ceiling where the plumbing is located, I immediately noticed that I somehow screwed up. It turns out that my measurements were fine but I screwed up on what those measurements were truly measuring. What I thought I wrote down were outside, total measurements but, in reality, the measurement

As I wrote in my previous blog entry, I am in need of a few days of recovery after yesterday's bout with poor health. It is Day 1 of recovery and I am already bored. My boredom and need to accomplish something overruled my need to rest and recover (I may pay for this tomorrow). I pulled the new large scale steam locomotive and its tender down to the floor... grabbed some tools... plugged in a DC transformer from my O scale narrow gauge trains... and started to unscrew hidden screws... No task is simple, especially when trying to recover from anaphylaxis the day before, but I quickly realized that the first four screws I needed to remove were a bit stripped and none of my screwdrivers could hold well enough to be effective. Quickest solution... grind down one of my screwdrivers to make it fit well enough... After some grinding, one of my screwdrivers fit well and I managed to disassemble the tender which houses the sound card. The battery contacts powering the sound card wer