A Foggy Change of Plans
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 measurements I recorded were the inside measurements. Each of these two pieces of wood needed to be larger now.
Cutting a piece of wook smaller is possible and oftentimes and easy fix but stretching a piece that has been cut too small is impossible.
I briefly thought about joining extra pieces of wood to make this beam... no... that would bother me every time I looked at it. I decided that I just need to buy another piece of cedar and start over.
So, now I had a full eight foot piece of 1x6 cedar cut into pieces... cedar is a bit pricey and my budget is very tight... I needed to figure out where to use this stuff...
I then decided to abort today's plans... It was now obvious that I wasn't thinking clearly enough to be doing any fine woodworking. I was screwing up measurements left and right. As I was attempting to do some math in my head, I realized that I was having difficulty here as well... a clear sign of "brain fog" which is another symptom of my illness.
I switched gears and decided that I could use this cedar to cut a bunch of large scale railroad ties! I need about eight feet of F scale, narrow gauge track to lay and the first part of that is cutting about 100 ties. This cedar would be perfect!
Cutting these small railroad ties was repetitive... set one dimension on the table saw... rip all the wood to that dimension. Set the next dimension... rip all of the wood to this new dimension so that it is now sporting two new dimensions. Next I would just need to set up my miter gauge with a stopper clamped to it at 4-1/8" for the length of each tie and then cut as many 4-1/8" pieces as I could to be the ties. Easy stuff, just repetitive.
I haven't counted all the ties that I managed to cut but I think I have around 150 ties and it only took about 45 minutes. That should be more than enough ties to make a single eight foot display track.
Of course, I am nowhere near ready to start building this display but as long as I accomplish whatever I can, whenever I am feeling up to it, we should continue moving forward on our home renovation plans... slowly, but surely. More importantly, as I knock off each little task, I will feel like I am being productive which is something my health makes very difficult.
Even though I aborted my original plan, at least I accomplished something this morning!
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 measurements I recorded were the inside measurements. Each of these two pieces of wood needed to be larger now.
Cutting a piece of wook smaller is possible and oftentimes and easy fix but stretching a piece that has been cut too small is impossible.
I briefly thought about joining extra pieces of wood to make this beam... no... that would bother me every time I looked at it. I decided that I just need to buy another piece of cedar and start over.
So, now I had a full eight foot piece of 1x6 cedar cut into pieces... cedar is a bit pricey and my budget is very tight... I needed to figure out where to use this stuff...
I then decided to abort today's plans... It was now obvious that I wasn't thinking clearly enough to be doing any fine woodworking. I was screwing up measurements left and right. As I was attempting to do some math in my head, I realized that I was having difficulty here as well... a clear sign of "brain fog" which is another symptom of my illness.
I switched gears and decided that I could use this cedar to cut a bunch of large scale railroad ties! I need about eight feet of F scale, narrow gauge track to lay and the first part of that is cutting about 100 ties. This cedar would be perfect!
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| A bucket of cedar railroad ties cut to dimensions consistent with Fn3 scale track. Now I just need to order some lengths of rail, spikes, and tie plates... Should be nice! |
I haven't counted all the ties that I managed to cut but I think I have around 150 ties and it only took about 45 minutes. That should be more than enough ties to make a single eight foot display track.
Of course, I am nowhere near ready to start building this display but as long as I accomplish whatever I can, whenever I am feeling up to it, we should continue moving forward on our home renovation plans... slowly, but surely. More importantly, as I knock off each little task, I will feel like I am being productive which is something my health makes very difficult.
Even though I aborted my original plan, at least I accomplished something this morning!
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