The mill and lathe were both built when we were at RR together.
There’s a wave of CNCery at the moment. Many of YouTube’s rich and famous have been given a CNC router by a start-up company; most are concluding that the set-up and speed of operation limit the thing to specific tasks. One guy who has connected his plasma cutter seems to get good, accurate results easily from stout metal sheet. Many folk are also automating their Myfords and Bridgeports but, if you really need the automation, it would seem easier to get a used CNC machine. So, for repeated, complex parts like lute ribs maybe the effort would be rewarded; for difficult to cut materials, I think I see the value; but I feel that I need to start from the beginning and get the feel for the materials and the tools. So, the apprenticeship starts here.
On Thursday, I’m taking Albert a cake in the hope he lets me loose in his tooling store.
Project Pigsty is officially over, though I’ll still attend to some of its unfinished business over the winter, such as building the forge. My work, now, is to survey the barns and get the Council to agree the changes. While I’m waiting for their responses, I’ll be starting the drainage and water supply work in preparation.
This weekend, for my edification and amusement, I attended the national Food Sovereignty gathering in Hebden Bridge. The attendees discussed many of the issues I bang on about: the power of supermarkets, reclaiming food skills like coffee-roasting and the value of small farms. Today, the young and earnest are preparing an action plan but, having had my say, I’m back to saving this small corner of our planet. Plus, there’s only so much veggie food I can eat. Some of the hippies were starting to look tasty.
I can hear Monica chipping away at the gypsum plaster in the Drawing Room. This week we’ll have our first go at ordering some green oak, with which we’ll make the sub-floor.
Anyway: on to the surveying. There’s a really good grid reference just below the yard wall—53°44’45”; 2°5’5”—that I’ll use as the starting point so that I can locate my Sketchup models onto Google Earth to see them in situ. I just hope that’s not in the middle of the old spring that arises there. After I’ve pounded in that marker, I’ll set up a reference grid as accurately as possible, including the yard corner and the Mickle Barn far corner, inside and out. That should allow me to start laying out and confirming my designs for the New Barn with its Bodger’s Yard, the Mickle Barn’s interior and its landscaping.
Then again, it’s quite nice to sit at the computer for a change!