Various things make a post.
1. House concert: After a Friday during which time I heard a splendid singer-songerwriter named Julian Dawson in Marin, I spent the balance of the weekend cleaning and fixing various bits of equipment, interspersed with work phone calls.
2. The work phone calls can be summarized as you can't fix stupid. So, no need to expand further on that topic, other than to note that people hired to act intelligently on companies' behalf seldom live up to their responsibilities. Enough said.
3. Cleaning: The cleaning was interesting. The house, well, housecleaning is just one of those things one does, and I did what could be done quietly; Beth has a cold. I have learned that black slate is extremely difficult to clean well, that I can chip a porcelain sink just by looking at it, and that the cat takes pains to shed hair immediately in the wake of the cleaning entity. And that the cat will sleep in the bathroom sink immediately after it's been cleaned.
The shop was another matter. After the recent work, there was a low-level coating of dust on everything, including the interiors of some storage drawers. It took a while to get everything cleaned up to the point where the floor looked reasonable, and tools were back in their assigned places, and then the reorganization started. Some equipment moved outside into the covered area behind the shop, and I now have a list of items to put on Craigslist.....for example, a radial-arm saw. I'd love to set it up and use it, but there's simply no room, and it's of marginal use for much of what I do.
4: Repair and Maintenance: I've just finished repairing a small Taiwanese-made Delta sander. I bought it in pieces at a tag sale for a dollar, having determined that a bit of effort would return it to service, and I've done so. It was fun to fix but I don't know that I need it, so if I can get forty or fifty dollars on CL for it, I will.
The cleaning allowed for some maintenance on the sixty-year-old lathe. Once I'd unearthed it from beneath a fairly heavy layer of dust and shavings from recent turning, it became possible to look at the headstock bearings closely, at which point it became clear that they were on their last legs. I've been struggling with the lathe of late, as it's vibrated quite a bit and made turning a challenge, but the cause was unclear until today, when the bearings actually ground when turned by hand, which is, by most accounts, a Bad Thing.
The diagnosis of failed bearings led to a bit of a mechanick adventure! wherein our hero attempts to figure out the methodology by which crafty designers of sixty years ago installed and - currently more pressing - removed the bearings. It was a scene out of Girl Genius comics, but without the Sparks who intuitively understand how devices are assembled. Fortunately, Google is our friend, and so I found an original exploded diagram of the lathe in question from 1948. There are three set-screws, a bushing ring, and a snap-ring holding each bearing in place. Clearly, when this was created, the designers hadn't quite stepped down from a design-for-war-durability model....it's built like a tank. It weighs a lot and it's built so that the bits and pieces comprising it can't fall apart under conditions less dynamic than being dropped from high orbit and heating up during up during re-entry. It's almost Victorian design, but without the curlicues and ornament; with proper care (and replacement bearings) it could last another sixty years without difficulty. As with almost all of the large tools in my shop, it's belt-driven, so in theory it could be powered by any source of rotary power, meaning they can be used beyond peak oil and its effects. This is hopeful.
5. Design: A friend recently came into possession of a *lot* of live-edge walnut, in dimensions too small for most furniture, but fun to play with, and he's shared some with me. It's great thick slabs, two or three feet across and up to six inches thick, with fissures and cracks running through it. I'm studying George Nakashima's approach to live-edge work, and am going to see if I can use any of what I have in such designs....