Thursday, July 2, 2009

Designing a Bigger Box

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There I am in the patio, holding steady at 151 pounds. Or 10.8 stone if you hail from across the pond. Or 68.5 kilos. Down a tad from about 235 pounds back before cancer came to call.

My height has also shrunk, apparently due to the destruction of my 3rd lumbar vertebrae; enough so that my height is now 70-1/4" instead of 72", which explains why my trousers are not only too loose but too long. Here again, the cause is due to the tumor munching away on my spine. In fact, even my feet have gotten smaller. Not in length but in most other dimensions. Which means my feet sort of rattle around in my shoes... now that the edema-like swelling is no longer a problem. (For several months the edema forced me to wear an old pair of Uggs that I'd modified with a razor, turning them into enormous slippers.) As a point of interest, the edema was a side-effect of the medication. As I became accustomed to the medication, the edema slowly went away.

Early in the history of this blog is an article about an apprentice's tool box, which was one of those tricky bits used to teach people how to rivet. A number of you, including at least one shop class, have found the tool box of sufficient interest to tackle it as a project. But more than one of you has pointed out that the dimensions of the box, while practical for tools of the 1930's, is a bit too small for tools of the 21s century. Which I pretty much ignored. After all, the project was meant to teach people how to rivet; it's functionality as a box for carrying tools was not its purpose. But when this point was raised by a third person I figured it was time to take another look at it. You can pretend that's what I'm doing in the photo above :-) (I think my wife took the snap shot to show my sister how skinny I've become.)

So I will go ahead and post a set of drawings for a bigger box; something more suitable for a modern-day kit of tools. Personally, I have not yet found the need for such a thing but judging from my mail, several of you have.

-R.S.Hoover

4 comments:

C R said...

Happy 4th of July to you and your family, Mr. Hoover. As always, you're in my prayers.

Anonymous said...

Bob, your generosity is amazing. Looking forward to seeing the plans!
--
Jack

P.S. Noticed from the picture you're smoking a dublin. If you would ever care to share your thoughts on smoking a pipe, I would be part of an attentive audience! Tips on break-in, briar vs meerschaum, favourite tobaccos (straight or aeromatics), pipe styles, storage, rotation, etc.? You've a keen eye for detail and I think we all could learn from your observations and opinions. Cheers.

Oliver said...

Bob, that'll be interesting and I'll probably finally have something practical to work on here while I'm currently limited to buiding Estes model rockets...

While you're at it, would you mind posting "List 2" concerning what belongs in a toolbox after a year of apprenticeship? You posted "List 1" (90 days of appr'ship) a while ago on R.A.H. I'd appreciate it.

Oliver

ekimikem said...

I was really looking forward to following the write up on cylinder head rehab and now it seems to be missing or my memory of where to find it is missing. I'm sure there is plenty of literature on the subject but it doesn't compare.