For the first time in a long time, I actually have a post ready to go when I thought I would. It’s been a long week, between finishing the assembly of my desktop & recording and editing video, but that’s all done with now, and my first video post is ready to go. I had originally planed on starting a cutting board project, but since it was so hot last weekend, I thought an obligatory shop tour would be a better idea. I know I have lots of room for improvement, but I’m pretty happy with my first attempt.
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It’s been a few weeks since my last post, so it’s about time for an update. It’s been too hot (heat index approaching 110) the last several weeks to do anything meaningful in the shop, so I’ve been working on some new features for the site. Two new simple features are the links & contact pages. The final new feature is a custom flash video player, that I wrote and can be see in action on this old post. The player is nothing great, but it’s significantly cleaner than the free one I used previously.
Ok, now for the preview part.
I recently purchased a new Nikon P100 camera, to replace my ancient Cannon S1. Since the new camera takes both 720P & 1080P video, I’ve decided to start incorporating video posts into my blog. I’m psyched about this because I really enjoy posting about the trials & tribulations of my various projects, and then hearing back from people about how my post helped them with one of their projects. Additionally video opens a whole new realm of possibilities when it come to explaining something, because some things just can’t be adequately expressed with words & pictures alone. Now for the catch, my desktop died last week, and my laptop isn’t up to the task of processing video. I have parts for a new machine on order from Newegg, but it will probably be another week until I can get it built. So check back in a week or so and I should have my first video post up.
Image courtesy of MSA
PPE isn’t normally a topic I get all worked up about, but after using these glasses for almost a year, I can say these are by far the best pair I have ever owned. The lenses are large, and perfectly contoured to fit my head.
This is really beneficial for two reasons. One, because they are so large I rarely see the sides in my peripheral vision, so I often don’t realize I have them on, and thus I’m less likely to take them off. Secondly, because they are so well contoured they set really close to my face, and thus do a better job than most at protecting my eyes from flying debris.
If you’ve ever worn earmuffs and cheap safety glasses together, you know that the glasses ear pieces get forced into your head by the earmuffs. At best, it’s annoying; at worst, it causes pressure points and headaches.
Since the ear pieces on these are wide and thin, they spread the force out over a greater area, thus reducing the likely hood of a headache (at least for me). I originally got my pair at Woodcraft, but they don’t appear to carry them anymore, however you can pick them up on Amazon.
I painfully learned the lesson(again) tonight that blue chips are hot! I was turning down some 8620 to make threaded inserts, and a 2″ long helix flew up over my head, and landed on the back of my neck. After a quick “hot hot” dance, and a bandage I was back to making chips. Five minutes later I took a 9 to the chin that left a nice little mark.
So remember everyone, if you’re making chips that look like this, don’t let them land on bare skin.
