Frustrating day- long rant

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dalemcginnis

dalemcginnis

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Apr 18, 2007
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Daphne, Al. USA
Finally had some nice weather, so a perfect day to work in the shop. Making a segmented pen with a corian centerband my band saw stops cutting in the middle of the corian, just makes a rattling noise. (less than 6 months old:() Open it up and bend over to see what's wrong and when I stand up again I am extremely light headed:(:(:(:(:(:(, stumble into the bedroom and sit down and get my blood pressure monitor out, by now I'm in a cold sweat, pressure 161/83.:(:( go back to bed, wife starts giving me gatorade. Couple hours later pressure still up, still dizzy. Finally about dinner time pressure returns to normal and light headedness fades enought to actually stay upright.
Eventually make my way back to the shop to check out the band saw. NO, I do NOT intend to operate any power equipment or handle any sharp object, just want to find out what happened to the band saw. Of course the owner manual has no exploded drawings of the saw so I have to guess how to take the lower wheel off. Fortunately it turns out to be simple, (getting the wheel off, not fixing it;)) Found out the pulley for the wheel broke off the wheel (cheap plastic![V][V][V]) Of course the warranty line is closed on the weekend and you can't order warrenty parts online and even if you could it's backordered till the middle of October. :(:(:(:(:(!:(:(:(:(!

Another perfect shop day shot to hell. :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(
 
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Hope you're feeling better. Guess I'll hang on to my 50+ year old Walker Turner. An old neighbor gave it to me over 25 years ago. I did have to change a few blades over the years and just last week changed the frayed power cord but for sure they don't make them like they used to. No reason why it shouldn't last another 50.
 
Dale, I can imagine what you are going through, but don't let your hobby stress you out (words I wish I could live by, and completely plan to ignore my own following advice, but here you have it...). The saw's not going anywhere, it's fixable, and you'll be up and running in no time! The most important thing obviously is to get yourself better so you can perform at 100% in the shop, otherwise you're just wasting time banging your head on the wall.

I've been going through hell here with all the international shipping processes I've been trying to learn with this dumb box elder tree that I'm getting so fed up with (mana, anyone?) [B)], and I decided today to get back to what I love, making pens, and I can't tell you how many things have gone wrong. I spent 5 hours on a pen today, only to end up making one small mistake at the end, making the pen a candidate for my 'seconds' drawer.

Some days, I think we're just not meant to spend in the shop. I've had so many things go wrong in my shop this past week that I can't believe I voluntarily decide to make pens for fun! Seems like I can't even make a Slimline work or sharpen a chisel anymore. But I keep trying to force it to work out, and ended up spending the whole weekend sorta stressing and not enjoying myself. That's not a hobby, it's a job, and now I have to get up before the sun and go hammer nails and sweat all week. Gah.

Get dressed up, take your wife somewhere you've never gone, eat something weird and all cultural-like, and enjoy some time out of the shop. It'll be waiting there when you get home, and at least with a busted tool, you've got an excuse for doing something fun and spontaneous with your girl. Eat sushi, go dancing, play bingo, go to the bookstore and get a latte/biscotti/book, heck, go bowling or play mini golf

By all means, take it easy, get yourself well, and remember that pens are what you do for fun!

Now that I've said all this, I'm going to head back to the shop and bang my head on the wall for a while.

[:(]
 
Karl,
What international shipping process are you trying to learn and what does it have to do with box elder.. I've been out of the business a couple of years, but that was my profession for about 40 years before I retired... I'm sure lots has changed in last couple of years, but maybe I can give you pointers..
 
Well, Oz, I'm in the process of trying to figure out the customs forms and what to put on them to help the recipients avoid duty fees. For instance, if I declare the blanks as 'hobby wood' as opposed to 'pen blanks' to some countries (that export pens, I guess?), my customers won't have to pay extra, but the other way around and they do, from what they've told me.

The box elder is from my backyard, and my whole life has started to revolve around it. At first it was just a nifty source of wood for me (it's really pretty), but after knocking the rest of the tree down, I've been totally focused on selling it, and I've got about 3/4 cord to get rid of. At this point, it's living in racks in my living room drying out, in various stages of milling.

The tricky part is, since most of the really figured stuff is spalted and has some worm tracks, my friends in Australia are concerned that it won't get through customs, so I'm having to jump through some prep hoops.

Couple all of that with the fact that I'm at work for 55-60 hours a week, and my small-town post office has very short hours on Saturdays, and you can see my trouble. Not enough time! Gah.

I've got the customs forms I need finally, it's just a matter of filling them out so that my Aussie customers won't end up losing their purchases to customs.

I'd really appreciate any advice you can give me!
 
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