A quick tuneup.

I thought I'd stop in and type a few things to get my hands and mind working this fine summer morning. I plan to go over to the shop and do a little woodcarving today. Or at least as close as I can come to it.

My shop is a good deal cleaner and more organized than it was a few weeks ago but I've yet to attempt any meaningful projects in it since its resurfacing. It was about a week ago that I moved out the diesel engine and its associated parts, thus freeing up a lot more storage working space. I need to take advantage of that move and liberate my mind to consider rearranging things and making a better and more convenient workspace or workspaces.

Right now there are a lot of jacks and stands and lifts in the front of the shop that are taking up room. One of the engine stands has the huge chunk of wood on it that I started to carve about 15 years ago. I figured that the best place to start would be to carve that wood in the way I originally planned and get it out of the shop, freeing up more space.

My original idea was to use mostly hand-tools to work the piece. But a decade of thoughtful consideration has awakened in me the urge to speed things up, (Yes, I see the irony there) at least in the initial stages and skip straight to the chainsaw for forming it up. Even though I already own two chainsaws, I decided to buy another for this project, an electric one. I thought it might be more convenient for starting and stopping and also less noisy and stinky in an enclosed space.

So yesterday I bought an electric chainsaw with a 16 inch bar from Lowes. It's not exactly what I was looking for but I'm hoping it's up to the task. It's a 12 amp I think. I would have preferred a 16 amp but I checked two stores and this was the pick of the litter.

I will have to move my car out and set up the big fan behind me as I work. I'm hoping to find a way to keep the mess to a minimum and make clean up easy. I just went to amazon and ordered a mesh mask because I forgot to get one at the store yesterday. I need to be careful because I'm alone here at the house for a couple more days and I would prefer not driving to the ER with a a bleeding arm or leg.

Other than that I'm looking forward to getting to work on it. I still don't have a clear picture in my mind what I want it to look like in the end but there's a rough idea there.

A couple more things to take care of in here and off to the shop.

More later,