Gift certificates are a wonderful thing to have in your pocket when they happen to be valid at particular stores where you shop often. Like hardware stores.
The difficult part is finding something that isn't Made in China.
Not that I'm prejudiced, of course. I'm sure they're very nice people. I've met quite a few of them. But it still strikes me right in the panic-bone that it's so difficult to find tools and hardware and things that are actually made in the United States of America. Useful things. Things not plastic or fragile or just plain stupid. Things that represent people and families and lives that are right here in our own neighborhoods, our own towns, our own communities. When I look around the area, I don't see a lot of real manufacturing going on, at least, not out in the open where it's visible or proudly displayed. When I look around the stores, I don't see a lot of things I can afford to buy that aren't labeled as an import.
It's kind of tiring my eyes out to look at all those labels up close so I can identify their country of origin.
There are nice things to buy out there. I just can't afford to buy them. I was out at Lowes today, spending some of that LowesMoney, looking for a bench grinder. There was one I could afford, but it looked like it would fall apart in about a week of use. There was another one that was over twice as much, a bit outside my range, and it looked like it might last six months or so. But it didn't have the wire wheel attachment included, and that made me sad. Why can't I walk into a store and find exactly what I want at the price I can afford to pay?
{I didn't mind the lack of success too much since Adam was there to talk to. He was telling me all about a game he and his friends were up too late playing, and kept the narrative going throughout the entire shopping trip, which made it quite enjoyable.}
In the end, I only purchased a few simple items to make some shelves above my new workbench. Didn't spend much money at all. Made me wonder if my perception of the value of things is still rooted in the prices I was familiar with back in the Seventies when Dad would take me shopping with him. Wouldn't surprise me. Still having trouble with the concept of a car that cost over four thousand dollars.
We got back home and I was able to finish hanging the shelves over the workbench. Now I have a place to put all the Subaru parts without cluttering up my other workbench, the one I'm supposed to be doing all my woodwork on.
The fun part was, of course, seeing how easily it could be made. It wasn't a complex design. Actually, it was prompted not only by the fact that I needed to use the main workbench for other things, but also because there was this spare two-foot-by-four-foot section of OSB that was just sitting around. And a pile of 2x4s I'd purchased last fall. It isn't good to leave 2x4s sitting around as they tend to dry up and warp. So I cogitated up a quickie design for a workbench in my head and started working.
The legs are all 36" as that's the 'standard' height for most of my workbenches, so I took two of the 2x4x96s and cut 'em down to 4-36s with a little bit of spare (which I was going to use for bracing). Then the spare pieces got cut at angle so as to fit in-between the legs of the right and left sides. After the sides were done, I took two four-foot pieces from a third 2x4 and used them for front and back edge. Then one final piece for an angle cut brace in the rear, and it was ready to go.
The OSB fit nicely on top. I covered it with cardboard to keep it from oil damage and then started transferring Subaru parts from the main workbench onto the new one.
And then realized what was lacking. A shelf.
This is where the trip to Lowes happened. {Along with a side trip to pick up Adam.} And then the shelf-hanging. And thus, the completed workbench.
Oh, I was going to tell you about the heads. Not mine (although I've been accused of having two heads before). The Subaru heads.
I took the heads and the engine down to a Napa machine shop near where I work, thinking I'd have them get the bolt out of the engine block so the repair could continue. But when I mentioned the work that needed to be done to the machinist who was there, the words which came out of his mouth totally took me by surprise.
"Nope, not interested."
Not, "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't do that," but "Nope, not interested." What a bizarre way to talk to a customer!
I wasn't quite sure what to do next, having never been told by a machinist that something which appears to be simple, is not. But then he told me how the head bolts are hardened steel and the engine block is relatively soft aluminum, so that when it is torqued properly, the steel actually distorts the aluminum, stretching it so that the bolt is very tightly bonded to the block; and if a bolt breaks down inside, there's really nothing he can do, unless he happened to have a laser and could etch a new slot on it. But even that would be iffy.
He recommended I get a new short block.
Meanwhile, I went ahead and had him do the resurfacing on the heads. He did a really nice job on that, as you can see. But now I have to figure out what to do with the engine block. I really have a problem just getting rid of it, just because of one stubborn bolt.
One of my friends at work suggest that it might be possible to put a short bolt on there, since the break is over an inch and a half inside the core. But I'm not sure about that. Guess I'll have to do more research.
In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my new workbench.
And my shiny new cylinder heads!
The difficult part is finding something that isn't Made in China.
Not that I'm prejudiced, of course. I'm sure they're very nice people. I've met quite a few of them. But it still strikes me right in the panic-bone that it's so difficult to find tools and hardware and things that are actually made in the United States of America. Useful things. Things not plastic or fragile or just plain stupid. Things that represent people and families and lives that are right here in our own neighborhoods, our own towns, our own communities. When I look around the area, I don't see a lot of real manufacturing going on, at least, not out in the open where it's visible or proudly displayed. When I look around the stores, I don't see a lot of things I can afford to buy that aren't labeled as an import.
It's kind of tiring my eyes out to look at all those labels up close so I can identify their country of origin.
There are nice things to buy out there. I just can't afford to buy them. I was out at Lowes today, spending some of that LowesMoney, looking for a bench grinder. There was one I could afford, but it looked like it would fall apart in about a week of use. There was another one that was over twice as much, a bit outside my range, and it looked like it might last six months or so. But it didn't have the wire wheel attachment included, and that made me sad. Why can't I walk into a store and find exactly what I want at the price I can afford to pay?
{I didn't mind the lack of success too much since Adam was there to talk to. He was telling me all about a game he and his friends were up too late playing, and kept the narrative going throughout the entire shopping trip, which made it quite enjoyable.}
In the end, I only purchased a few simple items to make some shelves above my new workbench. Didn't spend much money at all. Made me wonder if my perception of the value of things is still rooted in the prices I was familiar with back in the Seventies when Dad would take me shopping with him. Wouldn't surprise me. Still having trouble with the concept of a car that cost over four thousand dollars.
We got back home and I was able to finish hanging the shelves over the workbench. Now I have a place to put all the Subaru parts without cluttering up my other workbench, the one I'm supposed to be doing all my woodwork on.
The fun part was, of course, seeing how easily it could be made. It wasn't a complex design. Actually, it was prompted not only by the fact that I needed to use the main workbench for other things, but also because there was this spare two-foot-by-four-foot section of OSB that was just sitting around. And a pile of 2x4s I'd purchased last fall. It isn't good to leave 2x4s sitting around as they tend to dry up and warp. So I cogitated up a quickie design for a workbench in my head and started working.
The legs are all 36" as that's the 'standard' height for most of my workbenches, so I took two of the 2x4x96s and cut 'em down to 4-36s with a little bit of spare (which I was going to use for bracing). Then the spare pieces got cut at angle so as to fit in-between the legs of the right and left sides. After the sides were done, I took two four-foot pieces from a third 2x4 and used them for front and back edge. Then one final piece for an angle cut brace in the rear, and it was ready to go.
The OSB fit nicely on top. I covered it with cardboard to keep it from oil damage and then started transferring Subaru parts from the main workbench onto the new one.
And then realized what was lacking. A shelf.
This is where the trip to Lowes happened. {Along with a side trip to pick up Adam.} And then the shelf-hanging. And thus, the completed workbench.
Oh, I was going to tell you about the heads. Not mine (although I've been accused of having two heads before). The Subaru heads.I took the heads and the engine down to a Napa machine shop near where I work, thinking I'd have them get the bolt out of the engine block so the repair could continue. But when I mentioned the work that needed to be done to the machinist who was there, the words which came out of his mouth totally took me by surprise.
"Nope, not interested."
Not, "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't do that," but "Nope, not interested." What a bizarre way to talk to a customer!
I wasn't quite sure what to do next, having never been told by a machinist that something which appears to be simple, is not. But then he told me how the head bolts are hardened steel and the engine block is relatively soft aluminum, so that when it is torqued properly, the steel actually distorts the aluminum, stretching it so that the bolt is very tightly bonded to the block; and if a bolt breaks down inside, there's really nothing he can do, unless he happened to have a laser and could etch a new slot on it. But even that would be iffy.He recommended I get a new short block.
Meanwhile, I went ahead and had him do the resurfacing on the heads. He did a really nice job on that, as you can see. But now I have to figure out what to do with the engine block. I really have a problem just getting rid of it, just because of one stubborn bolt.One of my friends at work suggest that it might be possible to put a short bolt on there, since the break is over an inch and a half inside the core. But I'm not sure about that. Guess I'll have to do more research.
In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my new workbench.
And my shiny new cylinder heads!
