What's Going On and Tool Purchases

A gift to me on the front porch, of course its on its side contrary to directions on the box.

Its been quiet on the blog, to quiet, and its been going on for most of the year. I have mentioned a couple of times that things have been busy and there is probably a bit of depression to go along with it. Nothing like a pandemic to steal all your enthusiasm. Not going to Reaper Con this year has certainly played into it, there just wasn't any reason to get stuff in the painting que ready for the show. Heck the BFG has been was intended to be an entry for 2019 and its still not ready. I think the hardest has been dealing with Lani our Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd mix being ill with cancer.

Her particular cancer is a sarcoma and it started in her nasal cavity on her right side. Even though we found it early, it was already in the bone and inoperable. We changed her to a raw diet, that has helped a lot, but the other treatments (we didn't want to do radiation therapy, she wouldn't have survived the treatment I don't think) were not as effective. But here she is as stubborn as ever, she could put a mule to shame, and feisty just not as active as the other dogs and her poor face is distorted by the growing tumor. She is three months past the best estimate by the vets with radiation therapy but it still makes my heart cry to look at her and know the inevitable cannot be put off. So we spoil her absolutely rotten.

Back to the title though. A new tool arrived this week a Jet 1221 "midi" lathe. Weighing in at 115#s I can't wait to get it fired up and start turning some wood with it. I need to build a stand for it first and, hopefully, get rid of the small craftsman 10" table saw that is just taking up space now. I'll need to re-arrange the garage a bit as well to get it in a good spot. Naturally, this tool is one of those that requires a whole raft of other tools to make it usable so my wife and I ended up dropping quite a bit more on those things as well as kits for some of the projects we anticipate needing the lathe for. Hopefully good news on that front in the near future.

The traditional in the box shot. There was enough damage to the exterior box that I was worry the lathe itself may have been damaged in transit.

Wrestled it out of the box and, temporarily, set it up on my little assembly table. I have spun it up to make sure everything was in working order but the chisels hadn't arrived when I took this photo.