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Demolition and punching
Nov. 26th, 2017 09:03 pmThis morning, I went over to the boathouse reasonably early to try and get the day's erging finished before the dock demolition project was scheduled to start, at 10 am. When I arrived, shortly after 8 am, someone was already out on the dock with a circular saw, making a set of initial cuts. His decision to arrive early seemed wise; rain was in the forecast, and there are certain kinds of projects where having other people around just makes things take longer. So I went back over to the erg.
By the time I finished my main workout, at around 9:30, things were starting to get into full swing, so I hopped off the erg to start taking photos of the process. I wish I could show you photos, but I was asked not to by the club's board, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Just imagine lots of waterlogged, half-rotten boards and pieces of flotation, and you'll have the right mental image. Also imagine that all of the buildup under the dock meant that it was fairly easy for a couple of people to just walk around in the water to attend to things that couldn't be dealt with from on top of the dock. My friend JD, for example, had the fun job of using a pipe cutter underwater to cut down two support pipes that had held the dock in place and were anchored to the bottom in a whole bunch of concrete. Finally, imagine a long bucket brigade of people carrying pieces of wood and chunks of flotation out and up to a spot on the edge of the parking lot.
The whole demolition project was finished by 11:30 am. With the rain and the added grime from the process, I wound up deciding to just head home from there, instead of going in to the lab as I'd originally planned. As soon as I got home, I finished up the last 10 minutes of erging, then showered and spent the afternoon and evening at home.
The main project I completed in the afternoon was the task of punching out some replacement skulls/crossbones for some friends. I still can't believe it has taken me this long to start disassembling craft punches for this purpose. The disassembled skull/crossbones punch still takes a good bit of effort, but WAY less crying than when I used to use it. I'd reached a point where I was starting to wonder whether it was still useable. Thankfully, after disassembly, it is. And it's so much easier to clean, too.
The challenge is that the skull/crossbones shape is a compound shape, with lots of curved edges, so the sticker gets stuck in it and has to be hand-extracted.
Fortunately, with the punch disassembled, there are now six poking holes on the backside to help:
Punching out skulls still takes extra time and is tedious, but is worth it.
By the time I finished my main workout, at around 9:30, things were starting to get into full swing, so I hopped off the erg to start taking photos of the process. I wish I could show you photos, but I was asked not to by the club's board, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Just imagine lots of waterlogged, half-rotten boards and pieces of flotation, and you'll have the right mental image. Also imagine that all of the buildup under the dock meant that it was fairly easy for a couple of people to just walk around in the water to attend to things that couldn't be dealt with from on top of the dock. My friend JD, for example, had the fun job of using a pipe cutter underwater to cut down two support pipes that had held the dock in place and were anchored to the bottom in a whole bunch of concrete. Finally, imagine a long bucket brigade of people carrying pieces of wood and chunks of flotation out and up to a spot on the edge of the parking lot.
The whole demolition project was finished by 11:30 am. With the rain and the added grime from the process, I wound up deciding to just head home from there, instead of going in to the lab as I'd originally planned. As soon as I got home, I finished up the last 10 minutes of erging, then showered and spent the afternoon and evening at home.
The main project I completed in the afternoon was the task of punching out some replacement skulls/crossbones for some friends. I still can't believe it has taken me this long to start disassembling craft punches for this purpose. The disassembled skull/crossbones punch still takes a good bit of effort, but WAY less crying than when I used to use it. I'd reached a point where I was starting to wonder whether it was still useable. Thankfully, after disassembly, it is. And it's so much easier to clean, too.
The challenge is that the skull/crossbones shape is a compound shape, with lots of curved edges, so the sticker gets stuck in it and has to be hand-extracted.
Fortunately, with the punch disassembled, there are now six poking holes on the backside to help:
Punching out skulls still takes extra time and is tedious, but is worth it.
