Dance of the flowers...

Dance of the flowers...  Via reader Simi L...

Barn progress...

Barn progress...  I did a bunch of wiring yesterday, mostly adding 110V outlets to the south side of the wood shop area.  Now that I have lights (see them at right!), I can see well enough – even before dawn – to install the rest of the wiring.  I'm using plastic junction boxes and conduit (at left),

which are ridiculously easy to install compared with the traditional galvanized steel boxes and conduit. 

Early in the afternoon I had some excitement: my planer arrived!  I spent the rest of the day removing it from its wooden crate, getting it onto the floor, and starting to assemble it.  It's a kit, of course, just like all the other tools I've purchased.  It's another beast of a machine – almost 700 pounds of steel and cast iron.  The manual was packed inside a cardboard box, which in turn was inside the planer itself.  I wrestled the planer off the pallet it was shipped on, onto the barn's concrete floor.  That was challenging to do by myself, because of the weight, but I didn't see any safe place to lift it with the tractor.  After I got it onto the floor (and rested for a bit), I unscrewed the side panel on the planer, pulled out the box, opened it, got the manual, and started reading about unpacking and assembly.  First thing it says: lift the planer off the pallet with a fork lift, using the built in extensible lifting bars.  Dang it!  The manual is available online; I could have read it before I even uncrated the machine.  Next time I get a heavy machine in here, that's exactly what I'm going to do...