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Man Hands [projects, boatbuilding]
Oct. 16th, 2024 08:02 pmSo, as I mentioned yesterday, today I went up to Northgate to get more filters for the elastomeric respirator I've been wearing while sanding. But before I did all that, I posted a question to a boatbuilding forum, about being in the sanding doldrums and also asking what everyone's favorite sanding tool or trick is. There have been a lot of great responses, but one in particular led me to a video with the clickbait title of TERRIBLE internet trend for sanding wood, which doesn't do justice to the actual content of the video.
After watching the video, I became possessed by a powerful urge to go forth and obtain a cork yoga block. More on that in a moment. Thankfully, the internet indicated that a national sporting goods store chain that was located 2 blocks away from the woodworking store, had one in stock.
So I set out for Northgate.
Oh, Northgate. When I was a child, the main reason to go anywhere near Northgate was for dentist appointments with Dr. Borrega. I believe she was Venezuelan; she had a very particular accent and was also a very good pediatric dentist. Sometimes after the dentist we would go over to the mall proper and maybe if had been a full hour since the fluoride treatment, we'd get to have an Orange Julius.
Now there's a light rail station at the mall. But I biked up there instead, because I wanted the exercise. The route to get there was of no account, basically just straight north on Roosevelt and then 5th Ave NE. To get in some more interesting miles after shopping, I headed east towards Matthews Beach Park and looped homeward on the Burke Gilman trail.
There's rain in the forecast but it hasn't arrived just yet.
Along the Burke-Gilman, there's a bike stand at the intersection of 25th and Blakeley. The bike stand is an elevated ledge and a rail so that cyclists can rest here comfortably while waiting for the traffic light to change, rather than adopting the traditional stooped-over stopped posture you'll see most cyclists in as they wait. Why aren't there more of these bike stands in more places, you might ask. I might ask that, too. They're all over the place in certain European cities known for their bicyclists and bicycling.
This particular bike stand has an excellent collection of stickers on it. Stickers are the advertising billboards of people who ride bicycles. Except usually the only money spent is by the person who paid for the stickers.
A closer look:
Anyway, about the Man Hands.
When I got home, the temperature was getting just barely warm enough to work with epoxy, so I changed out my respiratory filters, sawed about an inch off the end of the cork yoga block, and headed back to the garage to finish the 120-grit sanding so I could finally work on epoxy patching.
The difference between using this piece of cork as sandpaper backing, compared to all the other things I've been using and trying out, seems to be completely night-and-day.
It's more firm than some of the softer things I've tried, making it easier to hold onto, but it has more give than the harder backings. It might just be exactly what I've been looking for.
Along with that, because it's a chunk of cork sawed off the end of a yoga block, and I still have 9/10ths of an untouched yoga block left, I could make it whatever size I want - specifically, a size that works well for my hands.
You see, as it all turns out, I do not have Man Hands. I don't have disproportionately tiny hands, either, but when I learned about how most smart-o-phones are designed for Man Hands*, a huge lightbulb went off and I was filled with rage about all the things in life I've just dealt with, not realizing that it isn't that I'm just unusual (in that regard!), it's that things are designed around assumptions about bodies that exclude my body.
You have to also understand that this is in the context of an already acknowledged/understood difference, because I'm left-handed. So I generally do have to assume that I've been excluded or marginalized in the design and manufacture of tools and spaces.
These are compounding issues when it comes to working with power tools.
This sanding block below isn't egregiously bad, but it is a "hard" block and it's just a little too big to be useful for the curves of this boat. I can only really effectively hold onto it when it's on a flat surface.
This is a "soft" block, that could be really great.
Except, it's sized for 6" orbital sanding disks. And very much sized for Man Hands. I cannot grip it well enough to make it useful.
One of the challenges with these two sanding blocks is that you can't always tell how useful these things are going to be until you actually try to use them, and they aren't exactly cheap, either.
But at least now it seems like I might finally have something that will work better, and that cost less and that I can use to make a variety of shapes for a variety of purposes.
Once I finally finished sanding, I applied some fillet patches to a handful of low spots, and then rolled on another layer of epoxy on spots where I'd sanded down to the wood.
The bow especially needed another go, just because of all the complex curves.
Tomorrow I want to flip the boat over, so I can get on with sanding the inside to prepare it for its epoxy coats. I have more tools to test out there, and I'll probably make more custom sanding blocks while I'm at it.
*Apple wised up to this and made iPhones that come in different sizes, you might notice.
After watching the video, I became possessed by a powerful urge to go forth and obtain a cork yoga block. More on that in a moment. Thankfully, the internet indicated that a national sporting goods store chain that was located 2 blocks away from the woodworking store, had one in stock.
So I set out for Northgate.
Oh, Northgate. When I was a child, the main reason to go anywhere near Northgate was for dentist appointments with Dr. Borrega. I believe she was Venezuelan; she had a very particular accent and was also a very good pediatric dentist. Sometimes after the dentist we would go over to the mall proper and maybe if had been a full hour since the fluoride treatment, we'd get to have an Orange Julius.
Now there's a light rail station at the mall. But I biked up there instead, because I wanted the exercise. The route to get there was of no account, basically just straight north on Roosevelt and then 5th Ave NE. To get in some more interesting miles after shopping, I headed east towards Matthews Beach Park and looped homeward on the Burke Gilman trail.
There's rain in the forecast but it hasn't arrived just yet.
Along the Burke-Gilman, there's a bike stand at the intersection of 25th and Blakeley. The bike stand is an elevated ledge and a rail so that cyclists can rest here comfortably while waiting for the traffic light to change, rather than adopting the traditional stooped-over stopped posture you'll see most cyclists in as they wait. Why aren't there more of these bike stands in more places, you might ask. I might ask that, too. They're all over the place in certain European cities known for their bicyclists and bicycling.
This particular bike stand has an excellent collection of stickers on it. Stickers are the advertising billboards of people who ride bicycles. Except usually the only money spent is by the person who paid for the stickers.
A closer look:
Anyway, about the Man Hands.
When I got home, the temperature was getting just barely warm enough to work with epoxy, so I changed out my respiratory filters, sawed about an inch off the end of the cork yoga block, and headed back to the garage to finish the 120-grit sanding so I could finally work on epoxy patching.
The difference between using this piece of cork as sandpaper backing, compared to all the other things I've been using and trying out, seems to be completely night-and-day.
It's more firm than some of the softer things I've tried, making it easier to hold onto, but it has more give than the harder backings. It might just be exactly what I've been looking for.
Along with that, because it's a chunk of cork sawed off the end of a yoga block, and I still have 9/10ths of an untouched yoga block left, I could make it whatever size I want - specifically, a size that works well for my hands.
You see, as it all turns out, I do not have Man Hands. I don't have disproportionately tiny hands, either, but when I learned about how most smart-o-phones are designed for Man Hands*, a huge lightbulb went off and I was filled with rage about all the things in life I've just dealt with, not realizing that it isn't that I'm just unusual (in that regard!), it's that things are designed around assumptions about bodies that exclude my body.
You have to also understand that this is in the context of an already acknowledged/understood difference, because I'm left-handed. So I generally do have to assume that I've been excluded or marginalized in the design and manufacture of tools and spaces.
These are compounding issues when it comes to working with power tools.
This sanding block below isn't egregiously bad, but it is a "hard" block and it's just a little too big to be useful for the curves of this boat. I can only really effectively hold onto it when it's on a flat surface.
This is a "soft" block, that could be really great.
Except, it's sized for 6" orbital sanding disks. And very much sized for Man Hands. I cannot grip it well enough to make it useful.
One of the challenges with these two sanding blocks is that you can't always tell how useful these things are going to be until you actually try to use them, and they aren't exactly cheap, either.
But at least now it seems like I might finally have something that will work better, and that cost less and that I can use to make a variety of shapes for a variety of purposes.
Once I finally finished sanding, I applied some fillet patches to a handful of low spots, and then rolled on another layer of epoxy on spots where I'd sanded down to the wood.
The bow especially needed another go, just because of all the complex curves.
Tomorrow I want to flip the boat over, so I can get on with sanding the inside to prepare it for its epoxy coats. I have more tools to test out there, and I'll probably make more custom sanding blocks while I'm at it.
*Apple wised up to this and made iPhones that come in different sizes, you might notice.
