Something new for the workbench

Posted on February 6, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

I went and treated myself to a paint agitator.

It was a relatively cheap one from China, my first impressions were not so favourable but it is growing on me. I really wanted a Lab Vortex Mixer, these really are the creme de la creme of mixers. The hundred quid plus was a big decider against. At the bottom end were the Nail Polish Shakers and although I had seen positive reviews I wasn’t sure about their ability to hold G’Dub paint pots. I went for the next rung up which was the Tattoo Pigment Shakers. As I said my first impressions were not favourable, the actual bit where the paint sits is a quite thin rubbery part and may wear out and I felt that the agitation wasn’t as powerful as I expected. I am wondering if I can craft a replacement from silicon. Let’s see how durable the original part will be before I go any further. As to the agitation, I was simply not giving it enough time. Further use has shown that it is sufficient, patience dear boy, patience.

This week has seen the Black Dog snapping on my heels. I am in the Land of Rinse and Repeat. Wake up. Help get the Boys ready for school. Tea. Email, BBC News and Facebook. Let the chickens out. Go and get the milk. Do some little chores. Prep and cook Boys lunches. Help with homework. If I am lucky a bit of painting. Cook dinner. Get them ready for bed. And repeat the next day. And the next. It isn’t helping that I am feeling drained of energy and any motivation. In previous posts I have decribed it as, “The tyranny of Bullet Journalling” but the Bullet Journal has proved invaluable in keeping me moving and not sinking into a morass of self doubt and pity.

I AM keeping up with the 2020 Painting Challenge. I AM keeping up with my resolution of Repair, Make, Strip, Sort.

A resolution for 2020

Posted on January 4, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

I have decided this year to have a resolution. Normally I don’t. They generally last for a couple of weeks and then fizzle out. Like gym attendences after January.

This Year’s Resolution is….

REPAIR, MAKE, STRIP AND SORT.

The plan is to do one of these activities a week throughout the year. I have made fifty two tick boxes in my journal.

There are odd little repair jobs that have been mounting up in my workshop for the last couple of years. Now is the time to get on and do them. Most will only take a couple of hours to do and I have been putting them off. If I do them it will make more working space and earn brownie points with the family.

I have started so many little projects and then left them when something else pops into my little head. Again more space in the workshop.

Figures sitting in jars of Methylated spirits. I have three jars on the go. Some of them haven’t seen the light of day for four years.

Boxes of random stuff from the move from England. Containers full of mixed screws. I have homes for this stuff, now.

If I do more than one of these tasks in a week then I will tick as many boxes as jobs done. The target is fity two tasks by the end of the year and if I do it sooner great!

Open(ish)

Image

Tempus Fug It!

Posted on May 7, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Well so much for my plan to be adding content everyday to this blog. I haven’t quite grasped how time has flown by. Last week I didn’t get round to BuJo-ing and so was very disorganised.

Here is the landscaping I did last year and how it is now.

I have revamped my blog, some of you may have noticed the changes. I had to do this as the theme I had been using was “Retired” so I could not get any techical support for it. I added the Shoppe which has involved a lot of work. Firstly cataloguing all my work. I had to get all my designs organised, they were in a folder marked “Laser” but not properly organised. I didn’t realise how many designs I had made. Then I had to photograph them. This involved recutting many designs as I had painted examples, but not the bare MDF designs. Where am I going to store them all? Then to edit the photos so they were of a consistant size and style. And finally put them on-line. Still more to go!

Regular readers may remember that I made a cunning plan and produced some replacement doors for the Mighty Fortress. These have been very popular and requests have been made for additional parts.

I have about six more designs to make and then I’m done with this project. The cutting is a pain though. Because I’ve made everything to my quality standard each piece takes an hour and a half to cut, that’s on the big Happylab laser. On my little one it would take three or four hours each.

It’s not all been fun and games though……

There has been time to visit the lake.

Fear of the blank page

Posted on January 21, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Well hello there new followers!
Now you may be wondering why I am diverging off piste from my usual fayre of little lead men.
Or not as I think some of you are just randoms and I know for definite that one of you is of canine persuasion.
My more regular readers will know that my Daughter piqued my interest in Bullet Journalling. No more backs of fag packets for me.

I was quite happy with my Tiger notebook, but it didn’t really have much room and if I’m designing for the “pro” Bullet Journal users I thought I should get the real Mc. Coy (“He’s dead Jim!”) to try out my designs and to photograph them for my webstore.
What to buy?
It seemed to be that the Leuchtturm 1917 was the gold standard. So that’s what I went and purchased.
Then I sat for two days staring at the blank pages.

Where do I start?
What if I make a mistake?
I was gripped with indecision.
But I sat down today, after shovelling what seemed several metric tons of snow, and made a start.

The tyranny of Bullet Journaling

Posted on December 12, 2017 by grumpyoldtin

Blame my Daughter.
I am disorganised.
I am untidy.
I am lazy.
In my ideal world I would sit at my desk and paint, all day and everyday.
However in RL there are jobs to be done, kids to be fed, laundry, chickens etc. etc. etc.
I’d never heard of Bullet Journaling before. Go and Goggle it. There are about twelve million results, I just looked. So it must be fairly popular.
My Daughter visited in the summer and spent some time hunched over a notebook. I didn’t really pay any attention.
She came back last month and on a shopping/sightseeing trip (Salzburg is very picturesque if you didn’t know) had wanted to spend a small fortune on rubber stamps for her journal. My Wife told her to talk to me first.
I had some rubber sheet especially for laser cutting and knocked off a set of the stamps she was after. She was delighted and pointed me in the direction of stencils for journaling.
I erm “copied” a stencil sheet that she wanted. Basically traced the image in Illustrator, quite roughly and cut it on my laser.
She was delighted, again, and gave me a shopping list of designs that she wanted. There are a number of stencils on the market, but I want to do better.
The material I used was Kraftplex.
Kraftplex specifications
It’s a softwood pulp pressed into sheets and I had been given some samples to try from Happylab.
Back to the original topic.
I make myself “To Do” lists on the back of envelopes etc, which I proceed to lose or are “tidied” up.
So I considered buying myself a Bullet Journal and start organising myself. I took a peek at Leuchtturm1917 on Amazon which my Daughter stated was the absolute gold standard in Bullet Journals. Not excessively expensive, however it was the size issue. A5. I have a little Man-Bag and I carry around an A6 (ish) book from Tiger (their webshite is excessively annoying). So why not just use what I have and adapt.

Using my own bastardised version I have started making my own daily task lists. In reality this means I am always busy and tasks seem to overflow to the next day, but rarely to the next week.