Donnie’s Blog

Today I received a really nice flyer for an art display at the Pacific Grove Art Center, all about the interlocking wooden puzzles made by Lee Krasnow. Here is the flyer; very impressive! It’s even more impressive on paper.

Lee has really mastered the technique of creating interlocking wooden puzzles, using a custom-machined sled to make all of his cuts within thousandths of an inch of true. Lee is also really open about how he does all of these things, which is just great; anybody who has the same passion and interest can learn how to do these things as well.

It was two or three years ago when I started getting into woodworking, and I contacted Lee to get some input on good table saw blades. I was having a big problem getting good, clean cuts. He was really helpful; he really spent a lot of time explaining all the details of saw blade tooth configurations and how those affect the cuts you make. It was because of him that I decided to get a Forrest table saw blade; it wasn’t until then that I knew what a really good saw blade is really like. (There are others too - Skarpaz, for example.)

Anyway, maybe I will be able to get up to Lee’s show, since the academic year should have wrapped up by then. It’s just about within driving distance for a long day trip…

At least six months ago, I got a brand new Delta 13″ thickness-planer for my woodworking projects. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to use it at all since I got it, because two small screws weren’t included with the shipment. And, since I have been busy surviving my first term at Caltech, I haven’t had a chance to track down replacements.

Well, this is the last week of the first term, and since I haven’t had any classes to teach, I have been getting some of these things taken care of. And I discovered this pretty nifty website, ServiceNet, that lets you purchase parts for a whole bunch of different power-tools. So, I track down the two small screws that I need. Here is the price breakdown:

Yep, that’s right: $10.35 for two small screws.

So, while on a completely different quest, I happened to check at my local OSH for these screws I need. And, surprise surprise, they have them! (It actually was a surprise - they are metric screws with a hex-socket cap, which I wouldn’t expect are super common.) Total price for five of them, including tax, was just under two bucks.

Saved eight bucks, yay for me! And now I have a brand new way to maim myself.