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Showing posts with the label wax

Ready For Playing

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O ur homemade Giant Jenga game is now ready for playing in our backyard! After I finished sanding all the 2x4 pieces with 220 grit sandpaper (which was after 80 grit and 120 grit), I waxed every piece and then polished the wax until it was smooth and slick.  I also waxed the top of the leveling base.  Now every piece is very smooth and looks nothing like a typical framing 2x4 which is how this wood started!  Each of these pieces started very rough when I first cut the 2x4s to length.  Now they are looking nothing like a typical framing 2x4. For some reason, I thought that the relatively easy process of applying wax and then polishing it would go very quickly but, as usual as my health worsens and I get older, I was very wrong in my time estimate.   I think the waxing required even more of my time than sanding with the last grit of sandpaper did and that took far longer than I anticipated!   I found that I could only wax and polish 12 of the pieces in an hour.  There are 54 pieces so th

The Boats Are Ready For Summer

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Over the weekend, Sheila and I tackled getting the boats ready for our very short summer season. I ran into some issues with the sailboat... I left the sailboat sitting upright on a homemade dolly with the mast in place. The sleeve for the mast filled with water while the mast sat in this wet sleeve...  probably froze, thawed, froze, thawed, etc, over and over through the winter... and when I lifted out the mast the other day, it fell apart. I won't make that mistake again. The sailboat will be disassembled and put away for winter this year! I managed to make do with spare parts I have on hand but the mast will need to be replaced eventually. It should be okay for this season though. Everything else looked pretty good and functional. That being said, I still would not be surprised if I find a new problem when we put the boat in the water at the lake house. While I fixed, cleaned, waxed and re-rigged the sailboat (replaced some old, worn rope), Sheila cleaned up and waxed the

You Wax, It Will Rain

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I spent the day, yesterday, cleaning and waxing the kayaks and our Minifish sailboat. It never fails... if you wax something, it will rain. Before we even made it to bed last night, heavy rain and thunderstorms began and continued through the night.  Fortunately, as the first few drops splattered on the pavement, I quickly found room for the mast, boom and sail in the shed. I didn't think they would fit in our relatively small shed but I somehow managed to get them in there! I definitely didn't want that sail getting dirty again before we even had a chance to sail nor did I want to have a lightning rod in the form of a sailboat sitting in our yard next to our bedroom. On the positive side... It appears as though I did a good job with my cleaning and waxing... the white sailboat is still clean and is only covered in crystal clear beads of water. That really is a nice sight! Today is a day of laundry... mostly... while the washing machine is doing its thing, I will be cle