summer patriot, winter soldier: now, just what in the hell am i up to .... the "industrial machine" needed to manufacture your own stuff ....

now, we'll see in a couple weeks if i can make good on the brag.

but, the lead picture below is taken at my little project on my kitchen table. i am working there, because it is simply to cold to work in the basement. it shows the final two pieces of wood going into the little gizmo i am making. the pictures following will show the whole thing coming apart, and some very rudimentary sanding done to more or less square the whole mess up.

the "manufacturing kit" includes a bottle of carnauba wax, some gorilla glue liquid epoxy, miscellaneous pieces of hobby craft slices of wood, ranging in thickness from 3/16"'s to 3/8"'s, and a couple of "c" clamps, as they are referred to in my neck of the woods.

all the "objects of wood" made by my hands, ... , well, you know, except for mother nature's involvement. and, the fact that a hobby company very obligingly cut the little pieces of wood out to various thicknesses.

in a couple of days i am going over to a little shop in town, and have a fellow cut some pieces of 16-gauge stainless steel for me on his plasma cutter. i will take some scrap steel with me, and a couple templates drawn by me, and the measurements, along with the finished wood laminate. i will epoxy the steel to my laminate, probably securing it with some screws for good measure. (i am, at heart, a belt and suspenders sort of guy.)

at that point i will drill some square holes, using a mortising bit, some chisels to dress things up, and some small files to square things, assuming i can find a sharp one in my pile of junker files. voila, something will emerge from the whole process. i am doing this for two reasons: 1.)to see if i can, and 2.)to show you the absolutely rudimentary tools and methods you can use to make stuff, as your muse may take you.

you really don't need too damned much stuff, ... , certainly not a shop with all the latest power appliances. if you are willing to spend a little time and effort to make things. i have roughly a day's complete labor involved in the fabrication of the piece show, ... , and, lots of sawdust. everywhere. oh, well. that's the price you pay for curiosity.

caption: wood, wax, square, calipers and the object being pressed by the "c" clamps between two blocks of walnut generously smeared w/ the carnauba wax. you can see the epoxy bubbling from between the wafers of walnut. actually, a bit of mahogany going being placed in the laminate in this picture.

caption: just out of the blocks in this picture. take off the "c" clamps, whack the compression blocks gently, and they fall away. you may take it from me, after many adventures w/ expoxy, that the stuff sticks to everything except good carnauba. i don't know why, ask a chemical engineer, ... , it just doesn't.

caption: last layer of wood, out of the "c" clamps. compression block lying below.

caption: next job, clean the mess up a little. high tech here, again. sand paper laid over a piece of scrap stainless steel plate, about 16 gauge.

caption: trim excess goop with high tech paring knife. the gorilla glue, which i've never used before, is a bit different from other epoxies i have used, in that it foams as it sets and cures. curious. seems to work well, and clean up well. (i suggest that you not used this "methodology" if you are married, especially the use of the paring knife. such can get you divorced, quickly.)

caption: there, the basic component is all hogged out. not finished by any means, but now a "blank," reasonably true and square, and given the simplicity of the build, pretty consistent in thickness all the way through the piece. how did i do that? i haven't a clue. life is like that, pretty much serendipity.

john jay @ 12. .2013

p.s. how is this all done, if you've never done it before. just jump in the deep end. for instance, to use the epoxy, just follow the directions on the bottle. don't use too much, as you will have an unholy mess on your hands. laughing.

believe it or not, a british two engined night fighter, was made by hand in small home shop hangars all over england, by methods not entirely dissimilar. very simple "technology," a very sophisticated weapon in the aircraft known as the mosquito.

now, i've kept this all as simple as i can. when placing the various wood pieces of wet wood in the "c" clamps, e.g., "wet" means coated in epoxy per directions, to glue them, i have "aligned" them only by hand, chaos and cussing. a smarter worker would have indexed them by pegs or even small brads (in places to be trimmed or never to encounter a tool) to avoid the damn things moving all over the place as pressure is applied by the clamping. not me. i simply cussed, and moved them around by hand, until all was reasonably aligned. sorta. then, i cleaned it all up w/ scrapers and sanding blocks.

there is a method to my madness. i wanted to see if this could be done by the neophyte. i also wanted to see how far i could get without the noise, bulk and hassle of power tools. so far, so good. but, as previously intimated, i am going to have to cut some metal pieces w/ a plasma cutter. i could remain true to my purpose, and hack them out with a hacksaw and file, but, quite frankly, i don't want the bother.

more to follow.