Wednesday 14 July 2010

Torrents of the wet stuff

We have had a pretty dry spring and summer so far, all corrected in the last hour by torrents of the wet stuff being flung from the heavens along with thunderbolts and lightning.

♪♫♪ "Very very frightening me." ♫♪♫

Ahem. Got a little carried away there. The dog is glued to my heel, and the cat is hiding in the basement.

The afternoon was spent investigating how I’m going to shave 12mm from two cupboard doors I’m installing in the basement to cover the electricity meter & consumer unit. I can either take 3mm off each side of both doors, or take 6mm of one edge of both doors.

I bought a Black & Decker Workmate a few months ago, and I’d just like to state for the record that I whole heartedly regret ever laying eyes on it. I feel my fingers are at risk of being sliced off every time I have to unfold or collapse it. Whatever I’m trying to do the holes for the orange plastic material clamps are in the wrong place. The two wood surfaces don’t seem to be flat and level. Even with two ratchet clamps I’m not able to tightly secure whatever timber I’m cutting/sanding. For each task I’ve undertaken I’ve spent three times longer scratching my head as to how I’m going to secure my work than it eventually took me to perform the task.

Checking the internet, I discovered that the received wisdom for 2-3mm is to plane the wood off. I bought a plane, spent some time watching online tutorials, took the plane to bits and set it up properly, then went to practice on an old knackered cupboard door. It took a while to get anything resembling a reasonable technique going, and I’m going to have trouble clamping the doors securely enough to be able to get a decent straight finish.

Putting that option on the back burner (I really don’t want to end up with a pair of wobbly edged doors) I then got the jigsaw out, which the internet recommended for cuts of 3mm upwards. Again the primary issue was my inability to clamp the door tightly enough (there is nothing more disconcerting than a jigsaw kicking back.)

My practice door is only a third the length of the ones I need to alter so I’m quite dubious about both of these methods. I think I’ll take these doors down to B&Q, and put myself at the mercy of whoever is operating the timber cutting service. I’d just come to this conclusion when the cat & dog suddenly appeared in the basement heralding the arrival of the aforementioned storm. Perhaps not the best day to be ferrying timber from house to car, car to store, and back, so scratch the B&Q plan for today.

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