errantember

The bamboo floor project, which had previously been stalled since Crossmas, is almost complete. We're half way across the kitchen, with everything else completely finished, and all the tricky cutting and joinery behind us. One or two more days and we will be orgasmically finished laying planks. A day or two more and we should be able to finish the trim, which will be in a dark coffee to match the rest of the house and make the light bamboo floor pop. We've been slowed down by the necessity of running the tablesaw outside at a time that:

1) Won't piss of the neighbors
2) Isn't over 100 degrees
3) Allows us to see visually the relative positions of fingers and the blade

I finally got tired of only working for 2 hours a day, so tonight I attacked the woodshop, which had become so disorganized it was no longer safe to work in. I got about 2/3 finished cleaning it up, including making an organizer for the extra wood, and removing about half of what may well be the ugliest shag carpet in human history.

Once the floor is done we'll be throwing a snack-and-movie party to christen it.

After my friend Chris was forced to recall his long-borrowed Ridgid TS2400LS portable table saw, the woodshop that had sprung up around it in my garage suddenly felt...

Empty.

So I fired up the old Manifestation Engine, and went through the following steps: For reference, the saw retails for $450.

Day 1) Found similar saw at pawn shop for $320. Seemed to be in pretty good condition. Left $200 offer, which they threw away.

Put add on Craigslist for $250.

Day 2) Discovered Home Depot offered refurbished saw for $350! Tried to order one. Discovered that, after tax and non-negotiable shipping, the saw cost more refurbished than new! And with no warranty!

Called both their online people and a local store, plus sent e-mail. First two attempts yielded the expected "we understand it's stupid but will do nothing."

Day 3) Pawned some Goodwill-level stuff to get extra money for saw. Went to visit Pawn Shop saw, discovered it's fence was slightly bent, meaning it won't cut straight.

Got home to discover e-mail from Craigslist asking $350 for exactly the saw I want in good working order.

Hoping seller won't notice "little details" of shipping and tax, go to Home Depot website in search of "hey, I can get it refurbished for $350" link. Discover that *SHIPPING ON THIS ITEM IS NOW FREE*! Would still have to pay tax for a total of $375.

Forward link to seller. He replies with "will go no lower than $325 before Craigslisting own ad." For $50 difference and saw I can *see* before *buying* it, I figure it's worth a try.

Day 4) Investigate saw. Buy saw for $325. Get great advise from and make good contact with long-time woodworking contractor, plus get a free Porter-Cable 14V drill, because the Universe wasn't done with me yet.

The $500 I'm winning for completing the 5-minute pawn shop phone survey should arrive any day.

My good friend Chris finally had time to show me how his table saw, which I'm currently providing a home for, works. We rounded out this momentous event with a > $200 trip to the Home Despot for various pokey-things, clampages, and other wood-diddling paraphernalia, and some nice high-end pine to which to apply them. For greater men it would clearly have been Miller Time, but we rejoiced with simple tea and cider instead.

Along with arrival of my Japanese hammer, chisels, and saws, I now have everything I need to start my first Japanese Shoji screen project. I'm going to add screens to the windows in my bathroom, whose current exclusive purpose is for spying on my neighbors' pool area while dripping wet. Not only will the shoji greatly improve light usage, they will also reside in an area seen mainly by myself and people who are already sleeping with me *despite* knowing what a slob I am, thusly reducing the likelihood that someone might be put off by the mistakes I'll likely make in my first-ever real woodworking project.

Finally, now that I have a small SUV, my life-long wet dream of randomly picking up huge pieces of garbage off the street with which to clutter my home has finally come true. Even without examining too closely the irony this event's simultaneity with my project to get rid of 3/4ths of what I own, there still remains the ethical dilemma of exactly how done with something someone needs to be before I can "recycle" it. Case in point, modifications to a local restaurant proceed apace, and large amounts of used wood litter the area near the back dumpster. However, the wood isn't *in* the dumpster, and could clearly be used for other purposes, either by myself or someone *not* myself. I thought about, well, *asking* someone, but not only was no one there when I showed up to pinch some of the pieces at 2 AM, but what if they had said "no?"

Seemed like a bit too much of risk to me.