Several events have conspired this past week to limit boat construction progress. A long awaited call from the international freight company informed us that the shipment from Brisbane had finally arrived. This was fortuitous as it contains many tools and other essential items I required in the workshop. There was also other non-essentials like clothes, books, kitchen supplies and personal effects. The transport and unpacking process took several days, but our house is feeling a lot like home now. More importantly, the shed now has a reasonable complement of power and hand tools.
The first job was to install the most crucial item in any shed, a decent stereo and speaker system. My setup consists of British built studio speakers I found in an Op Shop for $8. The amplifier is a very cheap (Chinese sourced) kit that runs on 12V and can deliver 20watts RMS per channel. Now whenever I walk into the shed, an automatic bluetooth connection from my phone streams music. The quality is amazing and I think those speakers would out perform any new mid-range system. A pragmatic mix of old and new!
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| It might not have valves, but it does have a blue light! Simple 20watt amplifiers like this are available in kit form for $10 online |
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| Zip ties! |
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The next essential job was to finally adjust my simple old-style rotary push mower. With a decent set of spanners I was able to tighten up the wheels and drive cogs. Then I removed the cutting blade and sharpened it up with a hand grinder. I am happy to say the mower works a lot easier now, although obviously still harder than a petrol mower. One day, if I ever become physically fit I might consider a labour saving device, but for now mowing the lawn manually is a form of much needed exercise.
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| Hand cranked grinding wheel! |
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| The blade is pretty old, and I did a rubbish job but still got an edge back on |
Around the unpacking, shed organising and lawn mower repairs I also had to go back to work :-( However, I still managed to do a little bit of boat work and finished sanding all four side pieces true!
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| I see more clamps in my future |
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| All four side pieces are now true (or close enough ;-p) |
Hi Damo,
ReplyDeleteThose clamps are pretty handy bits of kit aren't they? And you may need more of them...
The hand crank looks pretty cool, and I assume there is a reduction gear at the top of that main gear? Where did you ever get such a device?
Being at heart a electronics geek from way back, just wanted to say how good the amp looks hanging off the wall. Top stuff, and yeah, the quality of some stuff is amazing.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteYep, a wee little cog at the top so the grinding wheel spins faster than the hand crank. It does mean you have to attend on how much force you put down as it doesn't have much torque as a result.
Thank you, the amp does look good sitting there, true audiophiles would scoff at it though. I feel, since it is using bluetooth (and an internet stream) worrying too much about that could be getting a bit silly.
Damo