Archive for December, 2009
Veggie Order: Placed
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Food, Homesteading on December 23rd, 2009
Placed my Seeds of Change order today. Will be starting the earliest plants, the onions and leeks, in late January, so I figured it’s time. When I originally posted my gardening plans, some people suggested I “start small.” Given my aspirations, this is starting small!
Merry Christmas
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Religion and other Woo on December 23rd, 2009
I feel flustered when people wish me a Merry Christmas. I haven’t been any sort of Christian for a long time. I never know what to say. One time, I stammered, “No. None for me, thanks.” Another time, I said, “No thank you. But no hard feelings!”
When I respond these ways, the store clerk or cashier often looks confused, and I kind of feel bad. Then I thought, “That way they feel when I say, ‘no thanks,’ is exactly how I feel every time I’m wished a Merry Christmas. Confused. Not knowing what to say.”
People have said to me, “They’re just being friendly.” I think that’s the superficial intent, but the person’s response when they’re told, “no thanks,” reveals the true intent. If they say, “Oh, my mistake,” that’s fine, but if they get angry or outraged, then something else was in play, other than just friendliness.
And what was that thing that was in play? In my opinion, it’s the unspoken desire to perpetuate the fantasy that everyone in the world shares your religious beliefs and cultural practices. This is expressed in the question, “Why don’t you just say, ‘you too,’ or, ‘thanks,’ and leave it at that?” What this question asks me to do is to “pass“—to pretend to be something that I’m not—in order to save you the discomfort that would come from acknowledging me authentically.
When people say, “All you have to do is say, ‘thanks,’ or, ‘you too,’” what I hear is, “All you have to do is continue to support my incorrect belief that you are just like me in your religious beliefs and practices.” But doing that has effects beyond just December greetings. I have a whole lot of opinions that probably differ dramatically from the common conception of the “mainstream.” So do you. So does everybody! When I inform people that I’m not Christian and I don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope that I’m helping to break down the incorrect idea that everyone is just like them. I hope that plays out when it comes time to set public policy on issues like abortion, support for the military and police, drug prohibition, and so forth. If you believe that everyone is just like you, then it makes it easy to marginalize the “few outspoken” who disagree. But if people who are not like you expose that fact, it will turn out that most people are not like you in some significant ways, and I think that makes it harder to marginalize dissenting opinions.
Like Tyler Durden said, “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.” You and I are probably more similar than we are different. If that wasn’t true, marketing and demographics wouldn’t be so effective. But we are also different in dramatic and significant ways, and by participating in the fantasy that we’re the same, we not only erode others’ ability to be themselves, we deny ourselves the ability to do the same.
“Safe” vs. “Dangerous” Environments
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Burning Man on December 16th, 2009
There’s a school of thought in road design that goes something like this: designing “safe” roads and cars actually makes them more dangerous because drivers are encouraged not to pay attention. This article makes the point very eloquently.
Vanderbilt describes driving along a narrow, twisting road in Spain, where he navigated hairpin turns with few guardrails or warning signs over steep drop-offs. The result: “I drove as if my life depended on it.” But when he reached a four-lane highway with gentle curves, good visibility and little traffic, “I just about fell asleep and ran off the road … Lulled by safety, I’d acted more dangerously.”
I had an experience that reminded me of this today, while boarding the plane. I was reading a web page on my phone as I passed through the gate. I expected to enter the jetway, which is such a well-contained environment that I just kept reading. But because this was a regional shuttle jet, there was just a set of stairs down to a cordoned-off walkway. I had to stop reading and pay attention.
And of course, the whole thing made me think of Burning Man, which is the epitome of environments where you have to pay attention. “Safe” environments usually result in people to turning their attention inwards, which means that we not only fail to see our environment, we fail to see each other. This is one reason why I resist efforts to make the environment at burns safer. When the environment is known to be moderately dangerous, not only are people actually safer, they are more extroverted as well.
Drivers in traffic circles … communicate more with hand signals and eye contact. As Vanderbilt notes, when a traditional four-way intersection with lights was turned into a traffic square, “The responsibility for getting through the intersection was now up to the users, and they responded by communicating among themselves. The result was that the system was safer, even though the majority of users, polled in local surveys, felt that the system was more dangerous!”
Here are some related links:
- Popular Mechanics: Does High-Tech Higway Design Make Us Less Safe?
- Wired Magazine: Roads Gone Wild
Power Tools: Drills
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading, Technology on December 13th, 2009
In response to my post about building a chest, Pauly asked, “I am considering making an investment in more power tools. What tools did you need to make it?” I thought that would be a good topic for a post.
If I had to pick just a few basic power tools, I would probably start with an electric circular saw and a battery-powered drill. In this post, I’ll discuss the drill.
When I wrote about circular saws, I recommended an electric one. For drills, I strongly prefer cordless. For whatever the reason, I have found 18v battery-powered drills to have more than enough power and endurance for my tasks. That, combined with the convenience of a cordless tool, mean that I’ve never wished I had a corded drill.
Drills are used for two things: driving screws and drilling holes. For driving screws, the most basic accessory that I use is a modular driver-head with sleeve. The driver-head has interchangeable bits that allow me to easily switch from flat-head to various sizes of phillips to hex-head, without loosening the drill’s chuck. The extended driver shaft makes it easier to get the drill into tight spaces. The sleeve makes it easy to get long screws started.
For drilling holes, I start with a set of bits in various sizes from 1/16″ up to 1/2″, such as Milwaukee 48-89-1105 1/16-to-1/2-Inch Titanium Coated Twist Drill Bit Assortment in Plastic Index, 20-Piece
For holes larger than 1/2″, of course, traditional drill bits aren’t really even an option, as they pretty much top out at that size. Here’s a decent set of spade bits: DeWalt DW1587 6 Bit 3/8-Inch to 1-Inch Spade Drill Bit Assortment
Lastly, I have occasionally found a set of hole-saw bits to be useful. For one thing, they’re the easiest and fastest way to cut holes up to about 4″ in diameter. I started using mine when I was making self-watering planters and needed to cut a bunch of holes for 4″ PVC in the tops of plastic containers. I had been drawing the circles and cutting them with a jigsaw, which was slow and messy. When I switched to a hole saw, my life got a lot easier.
Shopping for hole saw sets can give a bit of sticker shock. Basically, a hole saw set consists of two mandrels (one for smaller saws and one for larger) and various sizes of saw. They easily run $50 to $100 depending on how many sizes of saw come with the set. The thing is, if you’ve got a specific project in mind, you can save a lot of money in the short term by buying a mandrel and the exact size of saw you need, but you will pay much more in the long run buying the saws individually compared to a set. For example, this set (Milwaukee 49-22-4095 Electricians Ice Hardened Hole Saw Kit, 10-Piece
Oh, and let’s not forget that when you buy the hole saw blades in a set, you get a nice plastic carrying case for them. Now, if only I could figure out how to get the 3.5″ blade that I bought separately into that case. Hmm… maybe I’ll drill a hole in it.
There are lots of different types of drill bits out there, but those are the ones that I use. Actually, after my first big woodworking project, I bought one more set. In soft-wood, it’s a good idea to pre-drill screw and nail-holes, and in hardwood, it’s mandatory. For the best-looking projects, screw heads should be countersunk below the surface. Screws can simply be driven below the surface of soft-wood, but this sometimes results in stripping the screw and/or breaking off its head, which is a mess. I had this happen enough during the building of the chest that I ordered a set of countersink bits
Finally, here is one accessory for the drill that I have not yet bought, although I have been sorely tempted.
One of the most basic problems I have with a hand drill is getting it to go in perpendicular to the wood. This is, of course, what a drill press is good at, but you can’t always maneuver a piece under construction over to the drill press’s work surface. This drill guide attachment
In the next post, I’ll get to some of the real power tools: table saw and miter saw.
Power Tools: Circular Saws
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading, Technology on December 9th, 2009
In response to my post about building a chest, Pauly asked, “I am considering making an investment in more power tools. What tools did you need to make it?” I thought that would be a good topic for a post.
If I had to pick just a few basic power tools, I would probably start with an electric circular saw and a battery-powered drill. In this post, I’ll discuss the circular saw.
The precision and speed of use with a circular saw is not the same as with a table saw and miter saw, but the value for the money is immense. You can get a good circular saw new in the $150-200 range, and used for half that, and be able to do almost any cut you would ever need. By comparison, a miter saw and table saw can easily run $200-300 each, and that’s for bottom-of-the-line models. Table saws especially can run into the thousands.
I would choose an electric saw because I have a little battery-powered one and it dies after, literally just a few cuts through a sheet of plywood. It is clearly under-powered for the job. I think it was intended more for cross-cuts on lumber and trim pieces. Speaking of power, don’t skimp. Cutting through big pieces of 3/4″ plywood takes a bit of “oomph,” and you don’t want the blade binding or the motor struggling.
The value of a circular saw is dramatically increased if you have a cutting guide. The problem with circular saws is that they don’t cut as straight a line as a table or miter saw. When doing long rip cuts, such as down the length of a board or across a sheet of plywood, a little bit of wandering off your line can add up to a lot of inaccuracy. When doing cross-cuts, it can be hard to get the end of the board exactly square.
For cross-cuts, I recommend a Speed Square
For the record, speed squares are actually very versatile and useful tools, that are much more than a straight-edge. Here’s a video describing more.
For rip-cuts, I recommend two different types of guides. If you’re doing a long rip-cut along the length of a board, such as cutting a 2×4 down to a pair of (approximate) 2x2s, or cutting strips of 1/8″ trim off of a piece of 1×4, I suggest a Rip Fence like the one shown below.
This device attaches to the baseplate of your circular saw and runs along the edge of the board, ensuring a straight cut… well, ensuring that the cut is as straight as the edge of the board, anyway. Rip fences like these may be custom-fit to a particular make or model of saw, and not all saws may accept them, so you should look into this before you buy.
For long cuts down sheet stock like plywood, I would choose a clamp-down cutting guide.This is, basically a straightedge between 4′ and 8′ long that you clamp to the sheet of plywood, and then you run your saw against it to make a straight cut. Not too complicated, right?
Now, this is a link to a clamp-down cutting guide that costs about $35, but I don’t recommend it and that’s why I’m not going to put in a picture. I just want you to see what NOT to buy. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with that particular device, it’s just that it costs $35 and you can easily make your own for much, much cheaper. Here are two links (1) (2) to online instructions.
These cutting guides can be as complicated as you want to make them, but I took the simple route. I bought a piece of 4′ long x 1″ square metal stock at the hardware store. This was about $10. The reason I used a metal bar was I wanted to be as sure as possible that my guide was a straight line, and a piece of wood might not accomplish that.
Then I took a left-over piece of 1/4″ thick plywood. I used self-tapping screws to screw the piece of plywood to the piece of metal stock so that one end of the plywood was flush with one edge of the stock. Then I ran the circular saw down the length of the plywood, with the baseplate pressed up against the metal guide bar. This addresses a problem with cutting guides, which is that you have to compensate for the distance between the edge of the baseplate and the blade when you set the guide in place. Putting on a larger piece of plywood and then cutting it off using the metal guide bar itself means that the edge of the plywood is exactly where the saw’s blade is going to cut. Now, when I want to line up a cut, I just place the edge of the plywood where the cut should go, place the saw’s baseplate against the metal guide, and cut. Piece of cake!
With a 4′ guide I can cut across the full width of a sheet of plywood. If I ever needed to cut the length of a sheet, I could easily make an 8′ guide, but I haven’t yet had to do that. For an 8′ guide, I probably would not buy metal bar stock. I probably would just cut off a piece of plywood and use the factory edge as the guide.
Incidentally, if you’re going to use a clamp-down guide, or if you’re going to do much carpentry at all, you’re going to need clamps. I recommend these as a starting point: Irwin Industrial 12-Inch Quick-Grip Bar Clamp with Bonus 6-Inch Mini Bar Clamp
Next post: the power drill.
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