Creuzer – Page 156 – Random things Creuzer

The extra holes are to cut weight, right?

I got half of the frame assembled tonight. It was getting dark, and I was trying to hurry, and I couldn’t figure out why this thing wasn’t folding very well. I put it down, and the problem jumped right out at me. I drilled one of the aluminum braces incorrectly.

I was trying to get this piece done before dark last night, and measured my 5 inches from the end hole from the wrong hole. Oohps. That is what I get for hurrying, right?

The frame assembled with the hole in the right spot makes the frame look right. I have the wrong hardware for assembling the frame. I got pan headed screws instead of flat headed screws. I have to go find the right screws. Once I counter sink where the screws go, and drill in the nuts so they can be pressed into the braces and stringers, this should fold up nice and tight. Lowe’s didn’t have the right screws, or at least, I didn’t see them 10 minutes from closing time when I bought the ones I have. At least nuts and bolts don’t go bad, and you always seem to need some.

It looks like I am not getting my holes square in the middle and straight. I could either replace the bad pieces, or shave off where they are rubbing. I think I am going to shave them for now. I can always make new braces in the future. I do wish I had a drill press though. I would make a quick jig and I could bang out these holes perfectly so fast. One of these days…

Cutting Corners…

Because I am making this boat low budget, no space, and to have something to do, I am using a lot more hand tools then other people might. To round the corners of the stringers and braces, I am using a blockplane. The blockplane works really well for beveling the edges, but it doesn’t like rounding the corners. So I am cutting the corners off with a cheap hand saw miter box. I made up a jig to I can just drop my pieces in and cut them. The black pieces are cammed locks that hold the piece to be cut.
Cutting the corners off takes a lot of the work out of rounding the corners of the braces. I just hit the shoulders of the cut with the block plane a couple of times, and I have a nice, round corner.
The little piece of wood to the right is my jig and it really makes this a slick process. You can see that this is a cutting jig as well as a drilling jig. The whole is worn out from using it as a template for my centered hole 1/2 inch from the end. I need to make a new drill guide from another scrap piece of wood.

2 weeks notice.

So, 2 weeks ago today, I gave my 2 weeks notice at work. My last day is April 15th (so the 13th really).

Confused Yet?

From the announcement email that went out to staff from the CEO.

It is with a sense of deep regret that I have accepted effective April 15th, 2007 the resignation of Mike Creuzer, Webmaster. Mike has been an influential member of our RAGFL staff and we wish him the very best in his new endeavor in Tampa as a software programmer for iMapp. Mike has agreed to do his best on the projects he has started and we are grateful for the contribution he has made in making www.R-World.com the “go to” resource for our members. Please join me in wishing him the best of luck on his journey. Thank you Mike for all that you have done.

I am going to work for iMapp in Tampa as the email says. They are a vendor for RAGFL (The Realtor Association of Greater Fort Laduerdale), so it was kinda a touchy situation, a company hiring one of their larger client’s employees. That is part of my extra long notice. I will be in Fort Lauderdale for probably another 2 months working on and learning one of the products that iMapp sells. And then it’s packing my bags and finding a new place to make a mess of in Tampa.

I am going to be doing primarily programming, which I have slowly drifted towards really liking in my time at RAGFL. I should be able to take my knowledge and experience from RAGFL and bring a lot of insight and skill to iMapp. I am excited about the new opportunities!

My new job is significantly closer to Katie, my girlfriend. I will only be 25 miles away from here she lives. She works halfway between where she lives and where I will live, so that will be a lot more convenient. I must say, I had never had a relationship that turned into a long distance relationship work out. I am really hoping that this long distance relationship holds together once it isn’t long distance anymore. Another bonus with the new job is that, well… Lets just say I will be able to dig myself out of the hole a whole heck of a lot faster.

It is really tough though. Staying focused at my old job when I really want to get started with the new one. I am working on some pretty cool stuff, so that hopefully if I get it all done the way I want it to be, I go out with a bang.

On the RAGFL Staff Page I am slowly fading out… Hey, I had to do SOME sort of mischief, right?

Power Tools.

I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to cut all the aluminum pieces with a hacksaw. I had at the pieces with my jigsaw, which I picked up last night, and got more work done tonight then I did the whole week. I finished cutting the 10″ mid brace I was working on when I wrecked my hacksaw blade. I made up the other one, and I made up 2 of the 2″ little braces too. I figured out that I want to cut the tab out of the little braces before I cut it off the aluminum stock. I don’t want my fingers that close the blade on the jigsaw. I cut 1 tab off the wrong side of the corner in the angle. Oohps. So now I need to re-cut that piece. I will worry about it later when I do the finish work on the aluminum. I am anxious to see this boat come together, well at least the frame, so a lot of the corners aren’t being rounded and so forth. A lot of that is because I am only getting an hour, hour and a half of work time in before it gets dark. People, if you have a workshop, appreciate it! Working in the dark sucks.

So now I think I have half the frame done. That does not mean I have the frame half done though. The “half” that I show here unfolded needs to get the braces all put in. That is where it looks to get really fun. Being able to fold and unfold this thing to my hearts content. So tomorrow night, I think I am going to drill the holes in the 2 flat bar pieces of aluminum for this half, and assemble all the braces. Then hopefully this weekend I can build the other half of the frame.

I might need to find my canvas for the skin sooner than I had thought!

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

This is a follow up to a post I made 26 days ago. The author of the video has released the final version today. i was the 250th person to view it. I like the video.