Saturday, March 19, 2005
It occurred to me today that perhaps no one reads every word of what I write. Not that I feel you ought to read every word that I write as if it's the most important bit of information ever to have been written down, it's just that I wonder if I ought to write less sometimes. Mostly it's when I describe, in detail, how a doser on an espresso grinder works, or how the burrs work. Things like that. Sure, I went into excruciating detail on how to put letters on a sign a while back, but I found that one humourous rather than just tedious. I mean, I like tedious detail; but I'm odd.
Actually, I don't care if any of you read every word I write in a post like that; I enjoy writing it. And that is mostly what this blog is about: me.
Blogging is an interesting, self-centered thing, eh? :)
I fixed it!
(the espresso grinder)
(actually, I fixed two of them today)
We have three, actually, and I have fixed two of them before. Most of the time fixing it simply involves cleaning out the burrs. See, a good grinder works by having two burrs, one is stationary and one spins at a high rate of speed. The burrs can be moved closer together or farther apart by screwing the top one down or up, making the ground coffee finer or coarser respectively. When ground coffee gets built up on the teeth or whatever you'd call them of the burrs it will no longer grind properly. (Interestingly enough, it seems you also must have SOME ground coffee between the burrs before it will grind at the fineness required for espresso.)
So I simply cleaned one of the,. The other one was working for the most part but the leaver that turns the little carousel like dosing mechanism wasn't returning to the position it was supposed to and thus resetting the mechanism that causes it to catch and turn to a specific point and stop. So you had to push it back into place. A small hassle and frustration, to say the least.
I took the doser apart today at work and made a huge mess all over myself and the counter of old, ground espresso and grease. I figured it needed some more grease and so I brought it home with me. When I took it apart at home I noticed that about an inch of the spring that makes it snap back into place was two springs. Then I noticed that one end of each of those springs was sharp and pointed - obviously the spring had broken at some point and wasn't as long as it should be. I put a washer between the two spring bits to keep them separated, as well as about 5 extra washers just to give it some more space. It works now. Woo. I'm handy!
I've also fixed the fan of the roaster vent, and the knobs for the milk wands (Becca has done this, too, we go MacGuver and use paperclips to fix those). It's nice to know that there are mechanical things in this world that I understand. Cars just are a few steps beyond me. I can fix something if someone tells me what is wrong with it and exactly how to fix it. But these things I fix on my own and it's a nice feeling.
Friday, March 18, 2005
I have undertaken a new project. (And a turn away from the recent boring posts of meems and semi-pyramid schemes.)
I have started cleaning the basement workshop. It's a workshop that is about 12 feet wide by probably 25 feet long (just a random guess, I'm terrible with sizes) and has been in disarray for a number of years now. My grandfather never kept it immaculate, and on towards the end of his life it went worse as he wasn't able to do as much with it. And then over the past few years my uncle has used the space when working on things around here but usually ends up having to leave before cleaning up. Also my dad and I have used it in much the same way and so it just became a huge mess.
So I have started cleaning it for some reason.
It's going to take a while. A long while. And it's going to be really interesting as I don't know what half the stuff down there is. I don't claim to be a handyman, I claim to be a guy with an undergraduate music degree who works on cars from time to time because he can't afford to pay someone else to do it. Also there's the fact that so much of the stuff down there is older than me to make things interesting.
I'm sure I'll throw away things that could be useful to someone, but they have been buried in rubble for years now so they have been of no use to anyone and if anyone needed them they went out and bought another. So they go in the trash.
Today I cleared off the worktable at the very back of the shop. There is still a royal mess beneath it and to the sides, and all the stuff that was on top of it has been moved to another workbench. But it's a start. There is a computer monitor I need to remember to put on the curb Tuesday night as well as a trash can full of stuff that needs to go out on Tuesday as well. The trash can has been full for at least two years now.
This project will be done in small one or two hour blocks a few times a week for as long as I have motivation. I won't feel bad if I don't complete it because at least things will be better than when I started. There is at least a worktable to do stuff on now, which is more than I could say before. Before you just shoved the last three projects aside to make a spot for the one at hand. I think the main reason I started this today is because last Saturday my dad and I left a pile of metal shavings in there from working on my car. I dislike metal shavings as they cut my skin easily, and I'm not a fan of cut skin. Nope. Never.
I may keep you updated on the status of this project. I know I will let you know when the monumental effort is complete. I will probably also inform you of interesting things I find hiding down there - be it a tool, project, or strange creature. If I do find any strange creatures the project will likely be halted as I have no love of being around strange creatures.
Hmm... This time last year I started hacking at roots in a raised dirt bed with a hoe and eventually planted a garden. That garden saw much neglect and didn't yield much crop as a result due to the menace to the south known as the mosquito. I don't mind working with my hands, digging, sweating, and all that. But when I spend more than 10 minutes outside and am surrounded by a swarm of mosquitos that bite me regardless of what foul chemicals I spray on my skin I just can't handle it.
This year's project will be spend indoors, in a cool basement. The roach problem was taken care of today as I sprayed the entire house with Ortho Home Defense. (Seriously good stuff, it lasts for three months and you don't see anything but dead roaches during that time, and it has almost no smell.)
Now I am trying to decide what to have for dinner. May end up doing sushi or possibly Thai. Maybe Indian.
Klasinc&Loncar Duo (Just trying to help it get picked up by Google spiders, I maintain it for them)