Furnace not working...again
Thursday night the furnace died. First thing (7:30 am) Friday morning I called the local furnace / AC company, trying not to be all in a lather because this was the day I was due to pick up my completed benchtop and I was envisioning being stuck in the house all day waiting for the furnace repair person. However I did feel that I needed to get it repaired that day if possible--while I might be willing to go a whole weekend without heat when the high temps are 40 degrees in order to have my bench done, I didn't think it was fair to subject Kip to that.
Fortunately, the furnace folks were very kind about arranging things so I could still go to Maryville to pick up my benchtop. They said they needed to order a part (250$ ouch) for a permanent fix, but they'd made a temporary fix that "might last a few months."
Alas, the heat went out again yesterday. I was working in the shop and thought the reason I was so cold is that the shop (former garage) isn't heated the way the rest of the house is. I was a little puzzled about why I couldn't get warm by going into the house and having a cup of hot water, but not puzzled enough to pursue it until evening came, Kip came home, and asked if I minded if he set the heat above 61 degrees. And I thought "wait, shouldn't it be 67 or at least 65?"
And I went outside and checked and sure enough the furnace was roaring away but the air coming out of its little chimney was cool.
So I need to call the furnace people this morning and find out what progress they are making with ordering that part.
In other news, my next step is to make a canoe-lifter. I spent most of Sunday designing it. I spent some time yesterday sorting through my wood and I need a couple of 8 foot 2 x 6s but I have the plywood I need, I think. In a couple of places I'm going to have to use 1/2 inch plywood instead of 3/4 inch--but if it fails it should fail gradually, (hopefully--probably I will leave the completed form on it 24 hours to watch for failure) and I should be able to catch it on sawhorses, I think.
Basically the design is 2 torsion boxes (remember the door explanation of torsion boxes?) to be the ends, and plywood strips between them to hold them relative to each other. I'll have uprights protruding from the torsion boxes, and a cross bar that fits in notches chopped into the uprights. I think this is the best combination of something that 1) will be strong enough, and will have retractable casters (hinged 2 x 4 in the bottoms of the torsion boxes on the ends) 2) can be made in a reasonable amount of time (kept being tempted by mortise-and-tenon construction but that takes *forever* and I'd like to finish my canoe-lifter before I leave to visit my dad and brother) 3) allows the strongback to be held at different heights to make things back-friendly. 4) does not require manufacturing tolerances I can't meet with my tools.
I was hoping to make it this week, but I was planning on getting the wood yesterday, and various other things came up instead. Hopefully I'll start the construction process today. Even if I can't get the wood I can saw the torsion box sides out of the plywood I already have.
Fortunately, the furnace folks were very kind about arranging things so I could still go to Maryville to pick up my benchtop. They said they needed to order a part (250$ ouch) for a permanent fix, but they'd made a temporary fix that "might last a few months."
Alas, the heat went out again yesterday. I was working in the shop and thought the reason I was so cold is that the shop (former garage) isn't heated the way the rest of the house is. I was a little puzzled about why I couldn't get warm by going into the house and having a cup of hot water, but not puzzled enough to pursue it until evening came, Kip came home, and asked if I minded if he set the heat above 61 degrees. And I thought "wait, shouldn't it be 67 or at least 65?"
And I went outside and checked and sure enough the furnace was roaring away but the air coming out of its little chimney was cool.
So I need to call the furnace people this morning and find out what progress they are making with ordering that part.
In other news, my next step is to make a canoe-lifter. I spent most of Sunday designing it. I spent some time yesterday sorting through my wood and I need a couple of 8 foot 2 x 6s but I have the plywood I need, I think. In a couple of places I'm going to have to use 1/2 inch plywood instead of 3/4 inch--but if it fails it should fail gradually, (hopefully--probably I will leave the completed form on it 24 hours to watch for failure) and I should be able to catch it on sawhorses, I think.
Basically the design is 2 torsion boxes (remember the door explanation of torsion boxes?) to be the ends, and plywood strips between them to hold them relative to each other. I'll have uprights protruding from the torsion boxes, and a cross bar that fits in notches chopped into the uprights. I think this is the best combination of something that 1) will be strong enough, and will have retractable casters (hinged 2 x 4 in the bottoms of the torsion boxes on the ends) 2) can be made in a reasonable amount of time (kept being tempted by mortise-and-tenon construction but that takes *forever* and I'd like to finish my canoe-lifter before I leave to visit my dad and brother) 3) allows the strongback to be held at different heights to make things back-friendly. 4) does not require manufacturing tolerances I can't meet with my tools.
I was hoping to make it this week, but I was planning on getting the wood yesterday, and various other things came up instead. Hopefully I'll start the construction process today. Even if I can't get the wood I can saw the torsion box sides out of the plywood I already have.