A DIY Knife

Well, I finally got a little project done. It only took a few hours, but the time I actually worked on it was stretched out over at least three months.

In the past couple of years I have modified a couple of old paring knives and a butter knife to use as whittling/carving knives. The former butter knife did not work out so well. A plastic-handled Ginsu knife made and okay claw-like blade, but I sharpened the wrong side; the contours on the handle feel funny when I use it.

To this point, my favourite to use is the first one I made - just a nondescript wood-handled paring knife. I carved most of my airplane parts and spaceships with it as well as carrying it around (with a wooden cap on the blade) to use as a general-purpose blade. While it is/was my favourite, it had some drawbacks: the handle is a little too small in my hand and there is a groove where the blade is inset that isn't so comfortable some of the time, especially when removing large bits of wood on the initial shaping of a piece.

My latest attempt at a custom blade goes beyond all my previous productions. I shaped a spent reciprocating saw blade to a knife blade with holes drilled in the tang (yes, I did just look that up). Then I roughed out a handle, which I split. I hollowed out space on the insides of the split pieces to accommodate the tang and drilled holes to match. Following that was a Gorilla Glue treatment to assemble it all with some largish nails set in the holes as my rivets (but not glued so I could remove them to more easily shape the handle).

After shaping the handles, I glued the rivets into place and filed them down to be flush with the handle. Then a stain treatment using a natural stain (I kind of wanted something darker, but natural was what I had and I wasn't going to buy a new tin). Sealed it with a couple coats of polyurethane and here's the result:

Attempted some contouring to fit my fingers. Did it work? I'll find out.

Maybe you can see, maybe you can't, dark spots that sanding just couldn't seem to remedy: rustic, yeah!

I haven't done anything more than cut up a credit card with it yet, but I'm hoping to remedy that soon.

Of the van door, a trashed leotard, and an exciting delivery

This week seemed to be full of DIY projects for me. It's Thursday and I've completed two projects. I guess it only seems like I did more because I have kids to take care of and we all know where the priority usually goes...

So the first thing on my mental list was the second thing I did. The electric lock on the van stuck in the locked position so we couldn't open the door. As luck would have it, it's the door next to Margo's chair (she's one), so we were needing to kneel inside the vehicle while hefting Margo into the seat. Not the worst thing ever, but tough on the knees and/or back. I guess we would have had the same scenario had the other door frozen instead, seeing as how Margo's chair would obstruct the entry of the other kids into the van.

Anyway, I did a short online search to get my bearings and I was off! I proceeded to take the inside panel off the stricken door. I was surprised to find a rubberish plastic shield behind that. Surprised because usually the shield is a heavy paper that one usually must rip through to do anything in the door. With the rubbery stuff peeled away I found the lock motor casing. Had to drill a hole to get at the one screw holding it in place. Did that, took out the screw and promptly dropped it down into the far recesses of the inside of the door. I'd just have to deal with that later.

I didn't have a Torx driver small enough to take the casing apart, but a pair of needlenose were enough to loosen the screws. With the casing open, I removed a worm gear assembly and the lock motor. I took a look in my loose bolts tin and found a bolt to replace the one I dropped (but it's a Philips head, which will make for easy removal if we decide to put a new motor in). With the rest put all back together the door is now openable and lockable, albeit in the old-timey manual fashion.

The project that shouldered its way to the top of the list was the sudden appearance of an error code on our washing machine (F51, for those interested) which means the rotor position sensor was off. Assuming the worst (needing part replacement) I took the washer apart, found the sensor and everything looked okay. No leaks from the tub or the bearing, the sensor circuit board did not look damaged. Looking around some more I found only one anomaly: a pink piece of clothing jammed between the tub and the drum. Long story short, I put the washer back together and got the piece of clothing out. A small ballet leotard is now on its way to a landfill. No! Wait! I can use that to filter the old acrylic paints my sister gave me!

<Queue the Eagles: "[It's] aaaal-ready gone...">

Dang, sometimes my brain is so slow.

In other news, I received a package from amazon.ca yesterday. One that has me kind of excited. It's a race track! More specifically, a BluTrack. But, this one is green...

Anyway, it was cheaper ($/ft) than buying Hot Wheels track and I wanted something more convenient to store than a 10-ft long cardboard channel (as seen here). There will probably be more written about it later. Maybe even a picture or two.

A stitch in time...

One project that has been on my to-do list for quite some time was to patch one of my pairs of jeans. It had developed a hole in the crotch, but the rest of the garment was intact, almost new-looking even! Well, today I finally did it. I had Jenni set up her sewing machine correctly for denim and I got to work. And work it was! Not because I don't know how to sew, I'm actually decent on a Janome. No. The work came from having three other pairs of similarly afflicted denim that I had accumulated under my dresser with the first pair.

And two more under the bed.

But, before you get too wildly impressed with my feat, I didn't actually patch all the pairs of pants. Three pairs were left off. Jenni thought that pair no. 1 was too short in the leg. Pair no. 2 had a hole too close to the zipper, thought it would be too hard to try and fix. Pair no. 3... I can't remember why I left off pair no. 3.

One of those pairs was chosen to be the donor and the back-side of one pant leg was cut off. From this I had enough patch material to repair the other jeans I pulled out plus the pair I was wearing (hole in the knee and one starting in the crotch). I also switched a rivet button on one pair with the one from the donor pair.

It feels great - like I just went on a pants shopping spree but spent no money and tripled the size of my wearable denim.

Now to knock off one of the other items from my list...

Return

With October nearly done. I'll get a little something written. The job change has been good. The new work enjoyable. The only downside is a reduction in the amount of time available after work and family obligations for personal hobbies and pursuits...until the off-season, which has now started.

I've made myself a bit of a list of things I want to finish, continue, or start. Many of these things are viable future entries in these pages. But there is a catch: pretty much every one of the things I've got on my list requires use of our garage at some stage, thus my highest priority is to get the garage cleaned up.

I started last night by tackling the pile of wood in the corner between the big door and the side door. The pile consists of long, skinny bits pulled off of dump finds or left over from table saw rippings. There are also some metal items: conduit, a pipe, and some piece off of our mower deck that I realize I am never going to put back on. So I pulled it all out and started making a dump pile and a keep pile. In the midst of this sorting, well right about the beginning of the sorting, I decided I needed something in that corner to help with organization. So I built a 2' x 2' x 42" frame that I can leave open and continue to store long pieces in that corner, but using the frame to contain the pile such that pieces do not randomly slide out to trip me as I walk in. Or I could make it a stand of shelving. Tonight I decided to go half and half, putting on shelving for half the depth, leaving the back open to stand long-handled tools in. I think it will work out pretty good. I may go so far as to put shelving above it as well.

Also during the start of my clean out, I threw out a long box. Actually, some back story is needed.

About a month ago, I noticed that the paint was flaking off of one of my Matchbox cars from my childhood. I decided to repaint it. But I want to do a good job of it and decided I want to try air-brushing. Again, I want to do a good job on my Porsche 928,

My Easter present of 1988, or how it used to look. (Image from Matchbox wiki).

so I selected a couple of cars from my son's collection that could also use some paint to practice with. I have yet to get beyond the primer coat on the practice cars.

However, as I researched what I can use to repaint, I am seeing all these pictures of die-cast cars people are modifying. Man, now I want to do more than just a paint job!

I need to keep reminding myself to take it one step at a time. Learn the painting. then continue on to more involved stuff. Besides, I need to clean out the garage if I'm going to use it for airbrushing!

Anyways, to continue the story, a couple of weeks ago I showed my family a couple of fun videos of Hot Wheels tracks - a 9' loop and this homemade track. Ever since then, my 3-yr old asks to watch Hot Wheels "movies" whenever I'm on a computer. The times I've played a YouTube video for him have brought up some races done on 4- and 6-lane strips. Now I also want to make up a similar thing that could be used as a fun contest for fairs and such. I even found a website devoted to helping people with Redline Derbies, as they seem to be dubbed.

Again, I need to clean out the garage.

Getting back to the box I'm throwing out. It's long and skinny and I thought, "Hey, I could get a good ramp from this with not much work." I opened it up and found some long u-shaped pieces inside, "Ha! Even better." Taped 'em together and Lawrence was kept busy the rest of the day...

Now I need to go to bed and dream about cleaning out the garage.

Introducing myself to HeroClix

In light of my likely not posting much for the next few months, I thought I'd post this from my practically defunct other blog. It's about my introduction to HeroClix. I should write another post about them later.

**First published May 13, 2014**

An little aside here before launching into this post. I can in no way say that I have ever been a super hero/comic book fan. I could probably count the number of comics I read in my lifetime on my fingers, I might have to borrow a toe or two. Not that I don't like them. I just never 'got into' them.

I did have a Dr. Doom action figure I got as a birthday present from my grade 1 teacher. It was totally by chance because she had a number of potential presents in a big bag and so my pick was quite random. Dr. Doom survived in our household for years and his career would include battles against G.I. Joe and Army Ants. I think he was finally sold at a yard sale in my late teens, his cape and weapons long since lost.

Fast forward to now and the relatively recent conversion of comics to cinema. Each movie has made me a little more interested in the genre. Except for some issues of Hellboy, I still haven't been particularly driven to 'get into' comics. But the interest is started and I'll admit that I have gone to the Marvel wiki to get current on some of the characters' back stories.

Then I found the Stronghold Rebuilt blog while I was looking at pictures of scratch-built airplane miniatures, or maybe for game rules, not sure which any more. The blogger there, calling himself Kaptain Kobald, put together rules for a superheroes fighting game he calls Clobberin' Time. His descriptions and photos from game sessions interested me more and I wanted to try it out, but it would take a third influence to push me to where I would actually do it.

That third influence was my daughter, who, through playmates and mass commercialization, has been exposed to some of the characters featured in the cinema franchises. She has an interest enough to be pleased in herself when she can name the characters appearing on the Avengers DVD case as well as to want to know the names of characters she doesn't recognize. Her current favourites are Spider-Man and Captain America.

My wife and I like to play board games and as parents we want our kids to at least have some experience with them, even if they decide later on that they don't care for them. The Stronghold game seemed simple enough that my daughter, 4, could grasp the concepts of how to play very soon if not right now.

So I bought a lot of 20 Heroclix (HC) figures on ebay for under $20 (including shipping). The lot was a random selection of used pieces, so I got to experience some of the joy that is inherent in the mystery of purchasing them new like the thousands of HC fans out there. Reading well enough about the game, especially complaints, I half-expected maybe getting a couple of heroes, a couple of villains, and the balance made up of various lackeys, red shirts, and other non-descript characters. With my limited comics background, I also expected not to recognize more than two of the characters I would end up with.

In between ordering and receipt of package, I did jump the gun and buy two sets that I spotted in Dollarama. For total of $5, why not? I debated it in my head, but one of the sets had Dr. Doom (the figures were visible in the package), and that triggered the nostalgia part of my reasoning (you know, the part that car manufacturers play on to sell Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, and Beetles). So I came away with the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom, and the Mole Man. The other reasoning decided that this way I would at least have a few characters that I knew who they were. But I mostly did it for Dr. Doom.

The lot arrived almost two weeks ago now. I was wrong in both of my expectations (though in the one, just barely). There were only three characters that I would put in the lackeys category. While I didn't recognize the majority of the others, I did recognize Daredevil and Johann Shmidt (only from having watched Captain America). But I am also counting Hercules, and Mr. Hyde in that while I didn't know their Marvel universe stories, I knew their traditional stories and figure the Marvel stories can't be too far removed.

So yesterday, for those who are interested, I finally played a little skirmish with some of the figures (by myself, which I see a lot of these games being in the future). I played a mix of HC rules and CT rules. I used the official figure values printed on the bases to create a couple of teams (as recommended in the HC rules). The teams were:

Team USSR: Crimson Dynamo and URSA Major (246 points combined) vs.
Team Hydra: Johan Shmidt, Scientist Supreme, a Hydra technician, and Jackal bringing up the points to a comparable sum (244 points combined).

I used the Clobberin' Time rules for movement and the clicky bases to keep track of stats, but I didn't use any kind of buffers or enhancements from powers indicated by the coloured portions of the click dials (might have turned out different if I had). As it was, Team USSR won handily, mainly due their high attack and defence stats and to low attack rolls by Team Hydra. I even forgot Crimson Dynamo's flight ability, allowing anyone to attack him.


Sorry, no pictures.

**End of old content**

I have since played another scenario combining Clobberin' Time movement rules with HeroClix combat rules. This pitted the Fantastic Four against Mister Hyde, Klaw, Mole Man, Cobra, and A.I. Marine Hulk. I played solo (of course) using half my in-laws' pool table (they all think I'm crazy to play by myself). I also decided on a playing card activation system to make the solo experience a little less biased.

The objective was for either side to find Blind Al and bring her back to their respective starting area. Only problem was that she could have been at one of three marked areas on the board, decided by a die roll of 6; die roll took place of a character's action and character must be on the marker token. It's been too long for me to remember a play-by-play of the action, but the bad guys found her first. There was fighting at all three sites. The Thing battled and defeated Mister Hyde, who had Blind Al. Marine Hulk arrived shortly thereafter to pick on the Thing who was now escorting Al. The Thing just barely avoided a K.O. when Invisible Woman showed up to help after leaving her fray with Mole Man undecided. Mr. Fantastic was K.O.ed as was Human Torch. I think only Mister Hyde and Klaw war K.O.ed on by members of the Four before the Thing successfully escorted Al to the Fantastic starting area. So, in all, a very close game and I remember it being quite intense, wondering if the Thing could take the punishment being delivered by two heavy hitters.

I really need to try the full Clobberin' Time rules sometime. I think they would make things very interesting.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

For the last 8 years I have been driving one hour and a bit to get to work every day. Barring the first 2.5 years when I was working on my thesis, my position has been a "soft money" position. Meaning that I could work so long as the company, then center, continued to win projects and receive funding to keep up the staff. This resulted in a number of times not knowing if I would be employed in two months. Then one month. Then at the end of the week.

Thus far, things have always worked out, but it has always been in my mind to get a more stable position, and hopefully one closer to home. That day has come. And with it, a different schedule that will see me with less time for home projects and gaming during the summer. And, with that, less time to write and less material to write about.

However, winter will hopefully see increases in those areas. So this might be my last post for a while (most likely).

I convinced my wife to let us play Conspiracy for our most recent game night with our Hill Spring friend, Andrew. I think I liked the game more than they did. Three spies had their covers blown (can't help but think of it as assassinations). Andrew won the game with some clever pay-offs and patiently biding his time to make his move. He basically waited for me and Jenni to finish killing off enough spies that we used up all our pay-offs and couldn't challenge his moves.

We also played Master Labyrinth, a game I really like. I don't remember who won, I just remember it wasn't me. Not by a long shot. Jenni and Andrew both doubled my final score.


I feel like this entry looks sad, being so short and all. But, the winter could see more detailed reporting, which I think I am looking forward to almost as much as the potential gaming.

Man, I want to win a game some time! Later, all y'all!

One-Pager

I bought a bag of soldier minis while browsing Value Village a couple of weeks ago. All I knew was they were soldiers and that it was a good price for minis. As a bonus (maybe) they were all painted. Got them home and found out that they are from the Warhammer 40K line; Cadian Imperial Guards apparently. WH40K seems to be the common abbreviation, so I'll just continue on that.

I looked into finding out more about the WH40K universe 'cause, you know, I now own a piece of it. I'd heard of it, of course, and knew that it involved space marines, but that was about all. I found the wiki pages for the game and I read a little about the game/story. The back story is interesting, but for a few reasons, some of which I can't even identify yet, I just kind of got turned off. Maybe it's too similar to Starship Troopers, a movie I only saw the first part of and didn't care if I ever finished. Maybe it's all the skulls. Maybe it's the premise of the human civilization/war machine being modeled as a grotesque derivative of the Roman Catholic Church (maybe it's some kind of subtle satire about making war into a religion). Probably some combination including all three and a few other things.

I do like the Spaceships designed to look like the fusion of a Gothic cathedral and a Roman trireme. And there was one of those in the bag too. So it got transferred to live with my scratch-built space fleet.

Of course, another reason not to get involved in the WH40K scene is the cost. Having read the rumours and being curious, I took a look at ebay prices and found that if I were interested, I could get a good WH40K army for about the same amount I spent on my last car purchase. After seeing this, I am now considering trying to sell the minis and use the money to get some that fit a theme that I am more interested in. But, even if I don't unload them, they are at least generic enough to use as any kind of modern/futuristic army.

In the meantime, I figured I should at least try out some game or other with these soldier dudes. So in searching around for some simple rules, I got directed to One Page Rules, a site listing a few rule sets that take up only one page. Other game aides like faction tables and unit strength tables are included in additional pages, but their use in a given game is obviously conditional or optional. Coincidentally, a couple of the games are written with WH40K in mind. I downloaded three rule sets: One Page Fantasy, One Page Skirmish, and One Page Warstuff.

The other two being fantasy-based entries, I printed off Warstuff as the rule set to try out. Sorry, no pictures. It was getting late and I wanted to play.

This was a solo play-through. A few of the dudes were painted grey and the rest were green, so I chose three from each colour to face off in my arena. I assigned each model a number (1-6; kept track with a die beside each model) and used cards numbered 1-6 to decide movement order. Each team consisted of two riflemen and one sergeant. In this rule set, riflemen shoot long range and sergeants shoot short range and have a leadership ability which gives the chance to give up to three near-by friendlies a free turn. There are a number of special abilities listed and they take up roughly half the page of rules, so you know this is a simple game to play.

Here is my "arena":

The Grey side lost, mainly due to a leadership bonus for Green on the second turn that took out the Grey sergeant. I don't remember much of the rest of the plays, but it was fun. I'll have to try it again. And maybe I'll see if Jeanette wants to play.