Today's Vinyl, Pebbles Vol. 2- -01.04.15

I assume I bought this album in Las Vegas.
Many of the people I was friends with were 60's surf punk lovers and I bought in to some of that.

This album is awesome.
A great overview of underground/little known punkish tunes from the 60's.

Today's Vinyl, XTC 10" Single (Ball and Chain/No Thugs In Our House- -01.04.15c

I bought this bad boy in Austin ca. 1983/4 with Kathleen.
It was released in 1982.

We used to tell our folks we were going to the movies and drive the hour down to Austin, hang out for a while and drive back in plenty of time.

This is one of the things from my High School days that tells me I wasn't a complete twat.
XTC was fantastic then and is fucking awesome now.

Today's Vinyl, The Bessie Smith Story--01.04.15b

My second go round today is actually a 4 album set.
A Bessie Smith collection called "The Bessie Smith Story"

This is AWESOME! Much better than my earlier listen.
The albums came out in 1951 and contain 47 cuts ranging from 1923-33.

I think I got this at an estate sale in Las Vegas. Someone who had been an early program person at KUNV had passed away and his kids were selling all of his vinyl. I went early and they wanted all kinds of crazy money per album, went back on the last afternoon and offered something for what was left ($20 or $30 for 100+ albums). It turned out to be mostly classical with some early jazz and blues.

To be honest, I don't know that I've ever listened to all of these at once. Beautiful, beautiful music.

Today's Vinyl, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band- -01.04.15

I suppose I'll get back in to this.
I have recently been going back through all of my old vinyl (I try to randomly choose, clean, listen to then plastic sleeve them) and I try to listen to at least one a day.

As I do this, I suppose I may as well review the album in an effort to keep this blog going and to share. Because I am all about sharing.
I have already listened to some,  so I may go back and list those here as well. Or I may not.

This morning's choice was Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's first album, aptly titled "The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band" which came out in 1967.

I had a book at one point that talked about 60's country/rock and had this huge list of "Must Have" albums in the back. I think this was one of them.

If you like Jug Band music, please go get this.
If you like their later stuff, you can let this one go.

I'm going to keep this one just because, but I doubt I'll ever listen to it again.

Rockwell Hinge Butt Template

This is some old school, finish carpenter technology. I'm not sure if this was my father's original one or if he wore that one out/sold it and bought this second one.

While doors and jambs are today manufactured in a shop on a door machine and sent out as door units (meaning the door and the jamb are cut down, beveled and prefit all together in one unit). The way carpenters used to get their doors was in a big stack, door slabs only, along with a big pile of 1x material for jambs. 
The doors were "book" meaning they were full height (a 6'8 door was a full 80"), full width (a 2'6 door was a full 30" wide, not beveled) and without prep for the doorknob or the hinges.

Before this insidious device was made, all of the hinge preparation was done by hand. Along with cutting the door to height (usually 78 1/2-79" to allow an "undercut" or a gap between the bottom of the door and the floor) and beveling to width (angled on the sides to a width of about 1/4" under the "call out" size to allow for ease of closing and a tighter fit on the door), the door also had to be chiseled out on the edge or "dapped" so that the hinge would fit flush to the edge of the door and jamb.

The Hinge Butt Template allowed one to preset a router and, with the correct bit, consistently dap for the hinges on all of the doors and jambs throughout the house.  The three templates in the lowest photo above are attached to a series of short bars (still in the box in the photo above) which is in turn attached to the door or jamb to allow for a more automated process.

I think this is a fantastic tool and, lest I make it seem totally outdated, is very useful in remodeling projects where you need a consistent route for your doors and jambs. If you are replacing only a few doors in a project, rather than pull out your chisel or order everything from a door shop, you can pull this bad boy out and do it all yourself.

Reasons I Still Have and Use This

1. My rule is if there are only one or two doors, pull out the chisel (the set up time on this thing is kind of a pain). If there are three or more doors, I pull out the template. 
2. Sometimes door shops are cost prohibitive. If they are too far away or too proud of their doors (too much $) they can be cost prohibitive. Bid jobs have a tendency to leave you time rich but cash poor meaning you would rather spend a little extra time on a job than pay out money to have something done.
3. This template is more versatile than a door machine. While door machines allow one to bust out a lot of doors in a short amount of time and exactly alike, they are not so great on odd sized doors or odd hinge prep locations. Once this is set up, it is easy to make small adjustments.

A Note on Hinges

Hinges have three standard corner radius' (radii?)

Square (which I suppose isn't technically a radius), 1/4" and 5/8" radius. 

Square hinges are "old school" meaning they aren't really used as much any more in residential construction. They are mostly used for replacing old hinges and sometimes in high end homes. The reason for the square butt hinge is that it is terribly difficult to cut a radius with a chisel. Before routers, this is what was used.

Radius hinges, as alluded to above, came along with the wider use of routers. But why two sizes? The 5/8" radius hinge demands a larger router bit. With this bit you can dap for the hinge in three passes of the router instead of the many more passes it takes with the 1/4" radius bit. It saves time. My guess is that the invention of the door machine and the more automated process in general helped move this along.

 

I suppose my next post should be my boring jigs that drill the door for the doorknob. Along with the Hinge Butt Template, a boring jig and a planer make you a one man door shop.

 

Let me know what you think.

Leather Bag

Famous for their overpriced, retro looking goods, The J. Peterman Co. (actually here) really does make some cool looking stuff.

Thankfully, this bag did not cost me $349, I think it cost my old man about $20 at the Broadacres Swap Meet in Las Vegas sometime in the late '80s or early '90s. Some guy used to come in from California in a 13 Window Microbus selling army surplus gear and bags. My old man beat me to this find by a few booths.

Unlike Peterman's fingernail scratching aging process, this bag was pretty beat up when Dad bought it. He carried for several years before David either stole or was given it which was actually a pretty amazing feat seeing as how much my old man loved this bag. David helped the aging process by carrying it to art school meaning it has several India Ink stains (a process I intend to share with Mr. Peterman and his Co.).

In turn I either stole or was given it by David. Honestly, I think he gave it to me. I have used it for everything from hauling files to and from work to carrying tools. I love the look of the bag and it hauls a bunch of stuff.

Three problems with this bag:

1. The strap is to short
2. The strap is too thin 
3. The bag holds too much (which, in conjunction with #2 kind of sucks) 

All in all, a GREAT $20 bag.
A sucky  $349 bag.

Electrician's Knives

I've heard these called other names but I prefer electrician's knives.

The top one is a Camillus that my father bought for me many years ago.
The bottom one is actually made by M. Klein and Sons (maker of many fine electricians tools) which was bought at a garage sale a couple of years ago for $2.

I have a third (another Camillus) but it's in my tool bags and I don't feel like going out to the truck to get it. I bought it for about $10 at some weird junk store in San Marcos or New Braunfels. It looked brand new but, unlike the one pictured above, it has a smooth black handle.

I use the top one almost daily. The flat blade is perfect for stripping wires and unscrewing slotted screws. It locks into place which saves the knuckles. I don't keep this blade real sharp.
The "cutting" blade is perfect for cutting. I keep it sharp. For cutting.
The knife is heavy and well made and perfect for general to heavy pocket knife use (meaning you can kind of beat the shit out of it, but don't use a heavy hammer).

To be clear, this is not my pretty knife (that post comes later), this is my beater knife.

I have used this knife for...

1. Cutting stuff
2. Stripping Wires
3. Opening paint cans
4. Gripping closed in my fist (like a roll of quarters) when I thought some drunk asshole was going to try to beat up this drunk asshole
5. Opening a can of beans (in conjunction with a hammer, that post comes later)
6. Other knife type stuff

All in all, a great knife.
In my opinion, a very utilitarian and pragmatic purchase.


 Let me know if you have one of these knives and how you like it.


Electrician's Knife on Amazon
Electrician's Knives on eBay