Diamonds are forever

Blog is doing nothing these days.
What's up?
I don't really know. Time flies. I have been sharpening and tuning tools getting ready for the Hutch project. I managed to get the lawnmower back together, but it isn't working quite right. The new belt has a bit more friction to it and the blades still spin a bit even when disengaged. Not real safe. It also is vibrating more than I remember. This either means I unbalanced the blades or am just noticing the vibration more. More time crawling around on the floor this weekend.

And as the title of this blog indicates I have some new bling in the shop.
A big'Ol monocrystaline diamond bench stone from DMT

http://www.dmtsharp.com/index.html
It's big. It's shiny. It is a pain in the but :-(
Diamond sharpening stones are a love-hate item. If you get a good one and take care of it the thing will stay flat and cut for a long time, like decades. If you get a Monday or a Friday stone you will likely want to throw it out the window. I think I ended up with one in the latter catagory. Figures. Mine showed up flat and cut like heck, but the cutting action is so random and unpredictable that it is of little use for lapping.

After working it over for about 20 minutes I threw in the towel. Despite my best efforts the stone was not breaking in evenly. I called customer service. They suggested I clean the stone. Okay, that is reasonable. Maybe metal particles are clogging it up. The next suggestion was a bit funny. He asks if I have a waterstone. Yeah. He suggests using my waterstone to break in the diamond stone. Great.

Well, that did work in breaking in the stone. It now feels about like a 220g stone. But there are still places that scratch deeper. These scratches are so deep that the rest of the stone can't get them out. Grrr. Back on the phone to customer service. Rep says that I likely have a bad stone, send it in and he will get it replaced. Okie-dokie.

I will let you know if the replacement is any better.

In other news:
- I turned 31 on Wednesday (thanks to those who sent in Birthday cards and wishes, the rest of you guys suck) It was an uneventful day, no new toys, just a couple of beers and dinner out.
- My mom is out visiting for the week
- Austin is all set to turn 7 on Saturday (time flies, seems he was crawling just yesterday)
- Obama has approved additional spending on the NASA side of the fence, so looks like job will continue to be stable

That's all I got. Keep the rubber side down and fingers out of any moving machinery.

So what's next

Well, I am going to dive into the Hutch/Server. So first thing first. Search the web for pictures. Second figure out what I want. Next, figure out what the Mrs. wants. Been through this already.

Now comes time to mock out a concept. Pretty much anything that goes into our home has to get joint approval. I can go on the fly pretty well, but Mrs. Doug can't visualize well since I don't elaborate well. Good thing I speak CAD. I can usually put something together to give her an idea what the heck I am talking about doing. It kind of keeps the surprises to a minimum that way.

So here is the first cut at the lower cabinets (the server portion). Construction will be 3 cabinets. Overall length is about 10ft. So I will need to laminate up a solid wood cabinet top to get that length. The finish will be painted, so no major requirements for the wood to be used. Most likely we are looking at birch plywood and pine, poplar, or ash for the solid wood.

Okay, enough blab. Here are a couple of pictures...





Here is a shot of one of the closest inspirational pieces...


Other news in the house of Doug. Not much. Fricken utilities were $450 this month. Ouch! This house doesn't heat well, so the heat pump and strips are running constantly while we have these 20-40 degree week-long cold spells. I can't wait for the weather to warm back up. Of course that means the mower will need to finish getting fixed up :-)

Faith is really enjoying her preschool. She is liking it so much that she is being a little beast when Erin picks her up in the afternoon. Attitude to spare on this girl. Things are sure to be interesting as she matures.

Austin is reading up a storm. We have gotten the kids in the habbit of taking a couple of books to bed and reading until they get tired. It seems to be working well. They enjoy it and it calms them down so they go to sleep easier. Win-win situation.


That's all I got. Hope all is well with you. Take care and thanks for reading.