Weekend Sundries: 10-11 September 2022

Desmodromic

I’ve just spent a week with Ms Desmo in the South Australian mallee and far western NSW, with a short break in Broken Hill. Western NSW is as green as I’ve seen it, the Menindee Lakes are full and the Darling River is flooding. In contrast to the lush green across the border, the SA mallee is under severe attack from caterpillars. The eucalypts have sprouted from epicormic buds under the bark but their canopies are mostly bare. Broken Hill is in a steady population decline but remains an interesting destination. The views from the ‘line of lode’ are worthwhile, and the miners’ memorial a sobering reminder of the cost in human lives. The roadside vegetation was prolific on the road to Menindee. The purple pea flower is Swainsona. A couple of days at the lakes included a wild and wet night. Next day was spent on the bicycle exploring old haunts. Any trip that results in observing new bird species is a good one, this time Gilbert’s Whistler in the SA mallee and Red-lored Whistler by the lakes. The nest in the tree hollow is of a Chestnut-rumped Thornbill.

KMac

View over Fort Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia, with flag at half mast on day of Queen Elizabeth’s death.

A Nony Mous

Springthorpe Memorial, Boroondara General Cemetry, Kew Melbourne

Geoff McVeigh

Buffalo swimming in dam and eating reed near Mogo Wildlife Park

Willie Wagtail on Buffalo near Mogo Wildlife Park

Mural on back of building at Braidwood

Seagulls at Surf Beach

Striated Thornbill with nesting material at Tidbinbilla

Kookaburras in Roma Mitchell Crescent Watson

Skippy

So just a bit of my festool gear which makes what was once a hard job fun and allows me to deliver better quality finishes in less time. I can prep without the huge mess and this gear is designed at inception for particulate removal, I use M class extractors, not to mention their sanding gear is for all fine finishes from C/RE to cars and furniture etc. It is precision gear with options of 3mm to 5mm throws in sanding, not to mention the 150mm does both rotary for heavy removal and then random orbital for finishes or flatting of coatings. The new addition is the Planex 2 sander which is primarily a plaster sander, although has sanding pads available from P26 up to P400 so it has a wide array of uses for coatings preparations. Out of the box it comes with 3 pieces, lower control section, extension section of which you can get two more for extended reach but then requires a harness [similar to a salt water fishing one] and the head/sanding section. Festool positions the DC motor on the head to negate torque issues that others have with the motor in the control section and then a flex drive shaft to the head. It is also slow start and has an elliptical sanding action vs the rotary of most others – start up is so smooth and almost orgasmic. Best bit is it’s the only one with a LED light ring around the pad which magnifies imperfections on the surface being sanded, albeit one has to resist the urge to scream like a little girl when you first use it because it shows so much and then once removed looks good to the naked eye. Not to mention how good is it that Festool provides all the pictograms of everything the tool has on offer in the top of the lid, so much attention to detail compared to other tools.

So a quick recap on the state of this early post war house and this bedroom that had not been painted in decades and complicated by movement due to the way foundations were laid back then, even for a solid brikkie like this one with internal masonry walls. As mentioned before the man of the house works in the hospital construction industry as a project manager, but loves his carpentry and has some mad tools for a backyard guy. He replaced all the window frames and skirtings with quality timber and great joinery considering nothing was plumb after years of movement. I had to chase the big vertical cracks and the lower walls to floor with a diamond cup on my shrouded festool angle grinder to profile it before applying premium wet area base coat. Then everything got sanded with P80 in random orbital to remove all the imperfections from past jobs and just all the life it had. So for a not even 4m x 4 m room with high ceilings [fiberious plaster no less] I used almost a full bag of base coat and almost a full 15l of topping plaster to remediate all that past bad. That then all got sanded with P150 grit and finally P240 grit, primed with 3 in 1, and 3 coats of wash and wear on walls and one coat of 1 step oil on ceilings before plaster, 3 in 1 after plaster and 2 coats premium dulux ceiling paint. Timber was all sanded to P150 and hit with 1 step oil base primer, 1 coat of 3 in one water based primer, one coat of wash and wear, and 2 coats of aqua gloss top cat after a final intermediary hand sand with P240. BTW brush lines matter lol, have a look at how they are full length and not choppy slap dash.

So this is what it looks like now. I would only add that they do have internal white timber louvered shutters which I had not reinstalled at the time of these photos, so that adds another dynamic to the finished works. For those that notice the built-ins on the left hand side those are going to be reworked by the owner so none of the timber was touched, although the owner will recycle it as it is old slow growth pine you cant get anymore. I actually was very concerned about this project as they were past great client’s, did the exterior next door [1930s deco brikkie – the door I summitted in sundries] and all the interior windows plus bespoke fittings. It was so bad, so neglected, needed everything, and still needed to bring in in on quote. The best part of this was the wife is a doctor at the ED my youngest daughter works at, wife and I had a chat about that and she respected my girls work ethics and mannerisms at work. I then texted my daughter and she is never one to text back right away let alone call, but dang, she called back right away. It was pretty funny and all good in the end. The best bit about all this was the wife took before and after photos, room all set back up, to work and showed all the other doctors and older ED staff what I had done and said if you want any painting done to get me by name and the guy I work for in to do it. My daughter was the one that told me about this, she was impressed. How bloody good is it to make money and then on top of that have clients that are so chuffed at the service you deliver to them without a lot of BS dramas. I actually walk them through every process and why I do it to both protect their investment and to deliver a high quality finish for Money = Value. I don’t engage in games to take advantage of others ignorance, but give them the information to make sound decisions on how they would like to proceed so they get exactly what they want and which then translates into more word of mouth references e.g. we don’t seek work anymore as it comes to us … not because of price or quality but a multivariate social dynamic were both parties are satisfied with the outcome/s.

Boomengineering

Don’t ever want to work on road vehicles again. All this just for oil cooler seals