Things are starting to heat up in the shop: Summer is here, welding and fabrication projects abound, and I just pulled the trigger on my very own plasma table.

Don’t get me wrong, I love SendCutSend, and will still be using them for really detailed and thick material. This new machine in my shop will be perfect for forge blanks and shop projects in the 0.125″-0.250″ range – I will be cutting them myself! Really excited about the possibilities!

I went with the Langmuir CrossFire PRO with SOME of the bells and whistles: I ordered the THC and the laptop stand. I did not get the packaged plasma cutter though. The math says that my Lincoln Tomahawk plasma torch should be more than enough, but I may need to replace my torch head with a vertical model – we will see.

I am all in for a little over $3k with freight charges and my first planned/booked job should pay for it. shipping is a little nuts as it has 2+ month lead time, but I can wait.

Yes, this is an “entry level” machine and yes, it is not meant for “serious” production work. My answer to why I bought this one is simple: It is an entry level machine and I am an entry level operator, I don’t do full blown production, and it is the perfect size for my tiny shop. It will be a fantastic machine to learn on, tweak, and if it leads me down a path of higher use/greater need, then I will use the profit from the Langmuir to buy a larger one.

This is what $2k of cabinet-grade oak plywood and hardwood looks like in 2021. This is all for a custom library bookcase (with sliding ladder) that I am building for a record shop.

I was worried about being mugged on the way home. a couple of gents in contractor trucks looked at me with jealousy in the hearts and a semi-attractive soccer mom batted her eyes at me, but I knew it was my plywood she wanted and not the contents of my overalls.

I find myself on camera a bunch hawking other peoples’ stuff and brands. Don’t get me wrong, there are some products, services, and people I love to recognize and want to support them both personally and professionally. I will continue to wear their gear both on and off camera. However, companies like GAP, Carhartt, BRCC, Nike, Patagonia, North Face, etc. probably don’t need the little attention I send their way.

Why not wear my own shirts and hoodies? My own logo? Well that is just what I am doing. I have designed and bought a few dad-bod large t-shirts for me and some close friends, two hoodie designs, and a few small and medium women’s v-neck shirts for my wife and a couple friends. Happy with how they have come out and have been wearing the bejesus out of them. No planning on selling any or putting them o my Etsy store though.

I decided to spoil myself and order a set of new nail bags. I had a nicely broken in set of Occidental Leather Pro Framer bags that were stolen about 10 years ago. I didn’t have a bunch of spare cash then, so I replaced them with a decent set of Craftsmen leather bags. They were meant as a stop-gap and I tweaked them a little here and there to fit my needs. I was planning on buying a new set of Occidentals, but I used someone else’s rig that had a diagonal hammer and cat’s paw sheath and was blown away by how much I preferred that set up! I have been eye-balling a set of custom modular Akribis Leather nail bags with the diagonal hammer sheath and some other cool features for about a year and finally was able to hit their once a month online store opening.

I sent my old bags, with a complete set of brand-new tools to my son. He is in college and working a little construction this summer. I hope he gets years of use out of them and that learns to use those tools and that they teach him a few life lessons as well.

Catching up on some projects in the shop: Turned a carving mallet out of hunk of left over granadillo for my son as a gift. Granadillo is a hardwood from the Yucatan that is super dense and stable. It is used as an instrument wood – guitar tops and marimba keys. The mallet is finished with walnut oil and wax.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are having our house painted. It seemed the perfect time for a new mailbox and new house numbers. These are laser cut out of 1/8″ steel and painted to match the new mailbox. They will be set 1″ off the wall and the house wall color (Gettysburg Grey from Benjamin Moore) will show through.

Very happy!

I collected two summers with of rose wine bottles that we and a neighbor indulged in. the bottles has a cast rose parted in the bottom that I thought would make for interesting yard art.

While I had the welder out for another project, I tacked together some re-cycled rebar and turned it all into a little bit of industrial yard art.

I have an airless paint rig, two in-fact. I have painted the exterior of my garage/shop and almost every interior wall in the house. I draw the line at painting the house exterior though. I CAN do it, but it would take me a solid weekend and a day to prep, scrape, caulk, fix, prime. Then a week after work of painting, another weekend of touch up and clean up. I have way too many other things going on in life right now so I decided to hire a professional.

Not the lowest bidder, came recommended, inspected his previous work. all looked good, but apparently you are only as good as your worst employee. Our place is a mess: windows painted shut, overspray, basement windows not touched, color issues, no caulk, too much caulk, loose paint, bare wood showing. We have the company owner out fixing the issues himself. He has not disagreed with one of our findings or punch list items. It will get done, but I hate having to micromanage an contractor.