My wife, an avid knitter, asked me to help her with an excel spreadsheet the other day. She was tracking her 'stash' (that is all the skeins of yarn she has), I simply formatted her rows of 'stash' into a nice table and while I was at it, I added an autosum to one of the columns. It showed me that she has over 67,000 yards of yarn!!! Granted, she has accumulated the yarn over the past 15 years of so. But it did make me wonder...what's the equivalent board feet to yards of yarn? Has anyone dared to do that calculation (and survive)? My calculat!on was at least some new clamps.
Now, I am the reason I don't have dust collection or a new ROS or any of the other items in the shop. I just can't pull the trigger. But today I did and got a pair of Bessey 31" parallel clamps. I have struggled mightily with glue-ups using my pony clamps and a few other sets of clamps. I was so happy with how my glue up went today. I made some hickory and purpleheart coasters. Those are 2 very hard woods and just doing a dry glue up, without really using a lot of strength, I was blown away by the clamping pressure and the ease in which you could use them. I actually glued up 2 sets of coasters (~4x17 - 14 pieces of wood) at once. I'm really excited to make my next chess board as that has been challenging. I've been happy with the boards but the glue-up has been extremely stressful!
Nice equipment makes the 'work' so much more enjoyable...
** Note - I do not begrudge my wife one bit for her yarn stash and it is not the reason I splurged on some clamps. We each have found something we enjoy and are extremely fortunate that we have been able to enjoy our hobby. It's funny how, like woodworking, she can find her knitting mistakes that nobody else would even notice.
Now, I am the reason I don't have dust collection or a new ROS or any of the other items in the shop. I just can't pull the trigger. But today I did and got a pair of Bessey 31" parallel clamps. I have struggled mightily with glue-ups using my pony clamps and a few other sets of clamps. I was so happy with how my glue up went today. I made some hickory and purpleheart coasters. Those are 2 very hard woods and just doing a dry glue up, without really using a lot of strength, I was blown away by the clamping pressure and the ease in which you could use them. I actually glued up 2 sets of coasters (~4x17 - 14 pieces of wood) at once. I'm really excited to make my next chess board as that has been challenging. I've been happy with the boards but the glue-up has been extremely stressful!
Nice equipment makes the 'work' so much more enjoyable...
** Note - I do not begrudge my wife one bit for her yarn stash and it is not the reason I splurged on some clamps. We each have found something we enjoy and are extremely fortunate that we have been able to enjoy our hobby. It's funny how, like woodworking, she can find her knitting mistakes that nobody else would even notice.