It's funny how seemingly unrelated things can ignite a moment of reflection ....

The summer of 1971 I was 18 about to be 19.  I had just completed my Freshman year at Trinity University and was back home in Midland for the summer.  The previous 9 months while at Trinity had a significant impact on my future ,,, I didn't have a clue at the time, of the magnitude of change and personal growth those nine months would ultimately have. 

It was during that time that I discovered I really did have a penchant for computers on a large scale and more significantly, I had the opportunity to explore what that could mean to my future.  That nine months cemented for me my future career.   I was much better with computers than I was with physics ... and I began to see that I could possibly make money programming computers and not just have to nail my degree in physics to the service station wall where I would be pumping gas. 

In my first ever "programming class" (COBOL for those that remember such archaic languages) I met a young lady that later in the year I began to pursue with some serious intent.  Basically I was happily trapped by my love of computers and the heart stopping power of long blond hair and deep grey eyes and a girl that wanted to know how to get a Snoopy Calendar out of the computer for her dorm room wall..  I never had a chance.

During that nine months I also discovered that my long affair with very loud "electrified" music was over and I wanted to "go acoustic".   So in the summer of 1971, I sold every bit of electric guitar equipment I owned and bought a shiny new Martin D-18 guitar.  I'm pretty sure I owed additional money besides my trade-in but hey it was a "Martin" and there simply wasn't anything better ... it was worth the price! 

Flash forward now to present day ...

Yesterday was June 2, 2009 ... a milestone in my life ... Carolyn and I celebrated 36 years of marriage.
Today is June 3, 2009 ... another milestone .  Today I celebrate 35 completed years working for IBM.

... and yesterday I spent a couple of hours in a small guitar shop talking to the resident guitar repairman ... we talked about the fact that the 1970's were basically the absolute bottom of the Martin Guitar Company's quality control ... and that D-18 I had bought almost 38 years ago needed some fairly serious repair work to get it in "playable" shape ... it never played or sounded quite right ... but hey ... it was a Martin and I was 19 years old and just starting to find myself ... it never occurred to me to file registration papers ... so on the suggestion of the shop owner, I contacted Martin Guitar to see if I had actually registered the guitar those many years ago ... I hadn't ... but the customer service representative suggested if I could send some pictures of me with the guitar from those long ago days I could still possibly be recorded as the registered owner and thus qualify for warranty coverage on the repairs.

and that brings me to the REFLECTIONS ...

I did in fact find a photograph of me and that guitar back in the 1970's ... I had lots of hair then, and I was very young ... looking at that picture I realized several things ... many years have passed, I have had a great career and will be one of the last of the generations that will retire from a job having only worked for one company and with a defined benefit pension.  I have been very happily married to one woman with blond hair and deep grey eyes for 36 years.  We have children and grandchildren that are healthy and happy with what I expect to be safe and secure futures in front of them and ... if I don't look too closely in the mirror I still see that 19 year old kid with the shiny new Martin ... so ... to me at least, it's amazing how so many critical circumstances can be traced back to a certain point in time in one's life ... and how looking at just one old photograph can bring all of the various threads together into a single tapestry.

Well this post really has a twofold purpose ...

#1 to show what little progress I have made on the sewing machine restoration project
and
#2 to try out a new blogging tool that is imbedded in a new web browser ...

So first ...

On the Sewing machine ... I took the whole thing completely (and I do mean completely) apart ... then I cleaned up a few of the pieces and started trying to decide what I was going to do about the "top" since that is where the damage is most prevalent.  I had thought I was going to replace the veneer on the top but after further consideration AND after doing some reading about veneer and how it is done I decided that working with what I was given would be best ... it would maintain the integrity of the piece and at the same time mean I didn't have to learn a whole new skill and experiment on a valued piece ... so I did some stripping, some sanding , lottsa re-gluing some more sanding a bit of ill advised staining ... more sanding ... more re-gluing ... and well here's what some of the pieces I have completed look like at this point ...









So ... still a long way to go on that but SOME progress is being made ...

Now about "FLOCK" ... this is a new web browser that integrates web browsing, networking, blogging, pictures and a bunch of other "stuff" ... this post is being written with the FLOCK blog editor, the pictures are dragged and dropped into the post using the FLOCK Picasa interface and hopefully I will now be able to include a link where you can learn more about Flock

Well, the crib/bed project is finished and delivered and in fact "broken in" by the newest Millsap clan member "Zoey Bade Corban Millsap" ... and she is indeed a cutie!
(For those interested that haven't already been button holed to look you can see pictures here ... Zoey.

Now that the shop has been cleared of that project and more or less put back together ... it's time to start something "new" ... or "old" as the case may be.

Several months ago my Auntie Pug Millsap gave me a cherished family heirloom ... and asked me if I could try and do some restoration work on it. I was both honored and humbled with the offer and promised that as soon as the "crib" was complete I would give it my undivided attention.

Sew ... uh ... So ... here are some pictures of the project in its "as delivered to me" state ... they give a pretty good idea of the condition of the piece and what I have ahead of me.

From SewingMachine

From SewingMachine

From SewingMachine

From SewingMachine

From SewingMachine

and there are several other pictures at this web album => Sewing Machine pics

As you can see it is a wonderful old treadle sewing machine. This one belonged to my Aunts's Mother if I have the family history straight. It's had a little time "in the barn" and that contributed to the weathering visible in its current state.

I rented some videos on veneer and restoring old antique radios that included some basic instruction on the repair of those cabinets ... and since I believe the sewing machine cabinet is of similar ilk I hope that those will give me some much needed guidance for this restoration project.

As you can see in these pictures there is some fairly "knarly" veneer separation on the top of the machine that I had thought might require actual replacement but after viewing the videos and stewing over it a bit I have decided to try and just recover what is there and see how that looks.

From SewingMachine

From SewingMachine

I'll try and post some "progress" reports as I go along ... that is of course making the hopeful assumption there is "progress" to report ...

I'm looking forward to the learning experience ... later ...
Bade

... sooooo ... let's paint the darn thing on the inside ... only been about 27 years since these walls were constructed and painted their one and only time! We have had the downstairs ceilings painted due to water damage and we DID go nuts a while back and take it upon ourselves to paint the kid's bedrooms and our bedroom ... but Carolyn was never happy with the walls in our bedroom and then there is this tacky (very 1980's) wallpaper in the kid's bathroom, the master bathroom and in the wet bar area ... Carolyn NOW really hates wallpaper ... and hey ... those kitchen cabinets look dated as well ... so ... let's paint it all ... we'll add some accent wall colors, get the wallpaper removed ... it'll be swell ... uh huh ...

So ... got a recommendation from my buddy Pete about a good painter ... called 'em up, owner came out to see what we wanted, exchanged a buncha emails with modifications and negotiations on the bid ... signed the final bid ... agreed on the date the painters would arrive ... and ... "... got hung up on another job so will start a week later than planned ... oh, by the way ... the kitchen cabinets we are gonna paint ... ya'll have to empty those completely before we can start ... see you next week..."

Oh crap ... these cabinets have been 'collecting' things for 27 years ... particularly the lower cabinets that have about a zillion 'collector's plates' my grandmother had and we are afraid to get rid of 'cause sure as hell when we do we'll discover one of them is worth $1,000,000 at auction ... so ... two days of boxing up all our kitchen cabinets and cramming stuff in the craftroom, the music room, all over the place ... done ...

Next day painter is supposed to come ... I'll call to confirm ... "... oh no sorry ... still hung up on that other job BUT he'll be there Monday for sure ... " ... uh huh ... Sunday night .. RINGGGGGGG ... "... painter is sick ... he'll be there Tuesday for sure ..." ^&*(*&^&*()(*&*() ... uh huh ...

Steamed a bit and then called painter office ... "have owner call me .. I ain't happy!!' .... RINGGGGGGGG ..." Mr Millsap?..." "... I ain't happy ... here's what we're gonna do ... we're going to ADD the kitchen fur down, behind the refrigerator AND the cabinets in the master bath ... and all this will be at the same price as already agreed to ... " ... "ok they will be there tomorrow!" ...

And they were ... but we're now about 13 days behind our planned schedule and through no fault of her own Carolyn had planned a trip to visit Brandi to coincide with the end of the painting project ... so now ... it will be in the middle of the project and oh joy it'll be me, the cat and the painters for a few days ...

The photo's below show the mess as the wall paper comes down and the kitchen cabinets are empty and primed ... more to follow as progress is made ...

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

From Painting

... and the new Grand Baby will be delivered shortly as well ...

Well ... after what seems like an eternity ... the "crib" part of this project is finished and will be delivered to it's new home next week ... I still have the rail for the "toddler bed" and the footboard for the "full bed" to make but those aren't under the time crunch the crib portion was. So .... deep breath ... hold ... exhale slowly ... again ... ahhhhhhhhhhh ....

The pictures here show the finished crib in both it's "undressed" and "dressed" states ... the "dressed" state shown here is using "store bought" accoutrement's vs the beautiful handmade quilts and blankets from grandmothers, great-grandmothers and friends with which it will be ultimately adorned.

For the interested woodworkers viewing, I used this Crib plan on Rockler and then modified it substantially to suit my particular taste.

So ... here's the photo's

UNDRESSED

From The Crib

From The Crib

From The Crib

and ...

DRESSED

From The Crib

From The Crib

I have to say I am very happy with the results ...

When a luthier builds a stringed instrument there comes a moment greatly cherished ... it is the magic moment when the build is "complete" except for the finish and any adjustments that need to be made before the instrument is delivered to the owner ... at this magic moment the builder strings the instrument, tunes it to proper pitch and plucks the first notes, hearing for the first time the "voice" of the instrument he has created.  This is referred to as "stringing it in the white".  A luthier has toiled long and hard, usually in complete solitude to bring the instrument to life and there is simply no more joyous moment than hearing the first notes "in the white".

I had a similar experience today with the crib ... the pictures show the crib "in the white" ... no finish applied, final sanding still to be done, some knot holes need filling ... but all of the cutting, shaping, drilling, gluing is done the hardware is temporarily installed and I have verified the fit and square of the whole thing ...

It's a good day ...

From The Crib

From The Crib

From The Crib

From The Crib

Well ... progress IS being made ... it's amazing how long it takes me to accomplish basically ANYTHING nowadays ... I start to do something that should realistically take 2 hours ... and 5 hours later I'm still dealing with "issues" that have come up on the effort ... I'm not really sure why this happens ... but it does with enough regularity that I have simply come to accept it as "the way things are" ...

Here are some pictures of the crib laid out on my workbench and "clamped" together to check several things:

1. Is it "square" ? ... You see "squareness" for me is a bit of an issue ... just look at the garden gate or any other thing I have had a hand in building ... "square" is one of those "goals" that I keep reaching for ... happily in this case the crib IS in fact "square" ... .... ... 'enough'

2. Does the mattress spring (and thus the future to be had mattress) actually fit inside the crib (to be) as it is supposed to?  This has been one of those things that keeps me up at night ... did I measure correctly? ... did I cut correctly? ... knowing me as I do ... did I measure AND cut correctly and then find some other way to screw things up? ... again I am happy to report that "so far" (and we have a long way to go affording I am sure MANY opportunities to screw it up) the springs do in fact fit inside as they should.

3. What about the "leg length"?  I've been concerned about this for several reasons the biggest of which being that I have modified the "plan" as it came to accommodate a different more "mission style" look and that meant changing the shape and size of the "headboard" which in turn changed several of the measurements that effect height and leg length ... AND ... when I was dimensioning the wood on the planer I was faced with several 'decisions' about how to get the longest possible piece of useable wood out of the rough lumber I had bought ... these decisions too had an impact on how long the "leg" pieces got cut.  After the dry clamp up shown in the pictures I took several measurements and determined that I skated by with a whole 1.5 inches to spare ... whew!!!

So .... these pictures are just a dry clamp up showing progress to date as I took the measurements for the next critical steps of drilling holes for dowels and construction screws.

From The Crib

From The Crib

From The Crib