Tuning Pianos

Tuned the pianos. And bob's new piano.

Process: Using the trial of piano tuner 1.7 and a tuning hammer, the piano were tuned. I learned you must tune them several times if they are way off... and tuning a piano takes a long time.

Happy Windows

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brynnb/sets/72157614041613323/

If we suddenly hit the Powerball jackpot my first act (well, after helping my kids erase their student loans) would be to hire a tribe of artisans to work on every aspect of my house. I’d want everything stain-glassed, wood-worked and ceramitized. But since we do not have the wherewithal to become patrons of the arts, we must make do.
The celestory windows over the closet in our bedroom have been a source of irritation for a long time. We’d gotten into the terrible habit of parking junk up there (suitcases, the big bowls from Bob and Steph’s wedding we didn’t know what to do with, Bob’s hatboxes, a Rubbermaid tub or two of off-season clothes). It looked junky from the inside, and even worse, you could see it from outside when our lights were on.
I decided to do a faux stained glass treatment.

Bob cut me four pieces of Plexi-glass the exact size of the panes of glass (or as we like to say in the Witchger household “more-or-less” the size of the panes).

I drew up a pattern–an homage to Frank Lloyd Wright–and marked each section as to whether I wanted it clear, textured or milky-white.

Leaving the plexi-glass on the pattern I first cut away the protective plastic in the areas I wanted frosted and peeled it off, using the remaining plastic as a masque and spray painted those with aerosol stained-glass paint. When that had dried I pulled off the rest of the protective plastic and “drew” on the fake leading which I’d purchased in plastic squeeze bottles and let that dry overnight.

The next day I filled in each secton according to the opacity I’d assigned it and let it dry for 48 hours.

Bob then installed the panes right over the old glass using glazing points. When we get tired of them we can just take them down. But right now I like how they look, especially when the sun streams in late in the afternoon. I think this will be the motivation we need to keep the junk from gathering up there again. Now the only question is where do we put it all if Kate needs to use her old room again?

Lessons learned:
This can’t be rushed--a fan pushes the stained glass paint to one side so that you get a leeward effect.
The paint needs to dry absolutely flat-it has a high viscosity, but after hours it will run and if you don’t catch it in time it will overrun the “leading”.


Supplies:
Thin Plexi-glass
Fake “leading” for stained glass from the craft store
Stained glass “paint” in clear and frosted
Elmer’s glue (the cheaper the better, I used three bottles that were 25¢ each during the back-to-school sales) for the white milky sections.
Glazing points
A screwdriver for pushing the glazing points into the molding

S-10 Clutch

Gallery link:

We replaced the clutch in the family S-10. If you remember, we already replaced the master cylinder, but that didn't solve the problem. The clutch gave out and we had to push it into the drive in order to work on it.

Bob, Dad and I took two days and replaced the clutch.

WITCH-GEAR:

• Craftsman sockets (broke a universal joint, lifetime warranty!)
  
• Universal 3/8" drive joints (tight spots around the transmission)
  
• 18mm allen (made out of a bolt, an 18mm wrench and tape)
  
• Jack
  
• Jack stands (bricks)
  
• Straps
• ratcheting come-along
  
• 3 cameras
  

SAWZALLS: 4.5

TIME: 8 hours the first day, 4 hours the second

WHAT I LEARNED:

Replacing the clutch in this truck is a lot of work. The tolerances around the transmission are tight so removing it and getting it back in is tricky.


s-10 clutch, chevy s-10, s10, s-10, Chevrolet s-10, Chevrolet s10, clutch master cylinder

Handmade Christmas 2008

Homebrewing-Step 3

Homebrewing-Step 2

New Favorite Old Favorite Jacket by Salvage Jobs by Mom TM

I purchased this jacket when I was in high school round about age 16 from a thrift store in Cary. (whoa... I have articles of clothing over a decade old) It was my favorite jacket for along time and made it with me to college where one of the pockets was ripped off in some kind of biking fiasco I believe. Recently my mother fixed the pocket and embroidered a beautiful tree with bluebird on the back of it for me. It is now officially my new favorite old favorite jacket and will heretofore have all my favorite jackets embroidered with various things courtesy of mom. (So long as I stay pathetically unemployed and all alone on the other side of the world I feel certain I can guilt her into many many more elaborate craft projects dedicated to me! A small price to pay for fashion.)

She forgot to take pictures of the masterpiece for our blog so I will post some below or possibly above if I can figure out how to embed a flickr album.

Ill let mom add all the painstaking details on the equipment, hours of labor etc.