Stuff and more stuff...

Well...
When last we left off...I was hoping that the brother would come pick up the mini-lathes and tools before I left.
That happened yesterday and it was good to see him one last time before I leave. One day he may show up at my door a State away and catch a boat load of little Golden's, but for now I have to expect I might never see him in my lifetime. Crap goes that way sometimes eh? If I ever see him again, it will only be a bonus for me. I loves the brother.

Today, a bench and numerous power tools are being loaded onto the truck.
Drill press, Tormek, disk sander, sewing machine, attachments for all these tools, etc. I hope to make at least two runs to the shed to drop stuff off but I don't know how that is going to play out.

After those loads are dropped off, I'll hook up the trailer again and pack the stuff around the propane tank, fill the back of the truck and get ready to make the first load up the mountain tomorrow morning. Stuff going tomorrow will be stuff that has to be there before we are. Toilet paper, etc ya know? It will also be the first time I've seen the place in almost ten years.
I really don't know what I will be in for until then. At best...it's quite an adventure.

I called my propane dealer gyrl, Janine, yesterday and asked about if they got my app and was everything OK. It wasn't.
No where on their credit app did they ask for my social. She told me I didn't exist. I gave her my social and in about five seconds she told me all deliveries to me would be COD.
I'm quite sure she thought this would be derogatory as I detected a slight smirk over the phone.
In fact it is exactly what I wanted.
There will be no routine propane delivery to the cabin unless I call and pay for what they deliver. That's just fooking perfect! NO monthly bill, propane when I want and need it. Perfect! I mean...just fooking PERFECT!

So I'm off to the dump (storage unit) and then I'll be gone for a couple days. Seven hours up, seven hours back and a little time to smell wood smoke in between...again...fooking perfect...

water, gas, phone.

Well, I'm elated and depressed. Does that make me manic/depressive? I'm not sure. Quite possibly.

Yesterday I got some long distance stuff accomplished.

First off...I reached a brother who kindly bought my mini-lathes and tools and put some cash in my pocket. He didn't show up for two appointments to pick it up. No big, but now I'm worrying he won't get here before I have to be out. I called him, let him know that either he comes and gets them soon or they get stuck in storage with me seven hours drive and $350 bucks in fuel from there to get him what he rightfully owns. Makes me worry a bit. I tried to express this to him. I don't know if it got through. If he's a smart as I know he is...he'll show up soon.

Second...I gave the go ahead to Ducor Telephone to install the phone line. Had a wonderful (as always) conversation with Melany (the customer service girl) and am getting hooked up. I like Melany. She sounds like she is on a constant caffiene high and can't wait to do something...anything. I also called Bill (the lone employee who works for Ducor and is in KM) and asked if he had word on when it could happen. Bill told me that there is currently 4" of snow on the ground and don't hold my breath. I asked if he thought it could be installed by the first of March. He sounded relieved and said he would get on it when he could. I told him that I probably wouldn't be there when he hooked it up and if he would please install it the best I could describe. Gave me a positive answer. I always get positive answers from folks employed by Ducor. Really a quite wonderful company to do biddness with so far.

Third...the last post had me elated that a water company might deliver water AND beer to my door step.
That fell through...pisser. No, really. They did recommend Sparkletts.
I called Sparkletts Water and let them make friends.
They will deliver 60 gallons of water to my porch for 75 bucks a month. Now that is still some pricey water ($1.25 a gallon) but there is going to be 30 gallons of water sitting on my porch on March 2 with a dispenser. I will be a big customer as far as they are concerned. 12-5 gallon bottles a month delivered every two weeks. A base price changeable due to requirements on my end without changing per bottle price.
I gave the customer service rep every chance to back out including calling or emailing me if the local guy doesn't want to drive up that ungodly grade to deliver water. She sounded quite positive as well.
A day later, no call or email so I'm thinking I'm good to go without having to drive to the river to fill water bottles I don't have.
I tried to explain that my zip code was based on a small town 25 mountain miles away plus and additional 25 desert miles, gave them the name of the "community" and asked them to be certain, make sure. She went through all the data base for that zip code and assured me that the water will be there. We'll see. Also since the weather report yesterday indicated the the high temp was 19 degrees (with a 47 mph wind and 83% humidity making the temp feel like -3F), hopefully I won't have 30 gallons of water frozen solid waiting for me...we'll see about that as well.

Fourth...I sent in my "credit" app for propane. Not happy about doing that, not that my credit is horrible. I just hate making aggreements like the one I had to sign. Not much was working in my favor in that aggreement but they are the only game in town and I need the fuel.

I am considering making a trip up quite soon. I need to see what shape the cabin is actually in, drop off my 'new' propane tank and get ready for the propane guy to drive up and fill the tank ( $270.00 ) and run a system check, fill the tank (at a slightly discounted rate) so when I get there I can light a couple of pilots and lamps and make soup for dinner, coffee for the morning and not eat in the dark. Then beat it back to Congress and continue moving on with getting the fuck out.

Still...the most important thing for me right now is to get my gotam truck fixed. I gotta come up with a chunk of change for that to happen...I'm stymied and yet have no choice. I need my truck to make this move and I need 500 bucks more than I have and even after getting the truck fixed I will still need dollars to buy fuel. I might well be camping in the middle of the sonoran desert for a while until I can manage this but all the critters here are not going to be able to deal with this. I NEED to make the move happen and it has to happen now.

So...this is the latest update...still wordy as all hell, but I'm not Hemingway and I can't spend a month trying to come up with a four word sentence that conveys all this crap ya know?

Maybe I can...let's see.."I'm broke, I'm fucked." That sums it up pretty much in four words. Yes, two of the words are contractions so I 'spose that might be considered six words...I don't know. I shoud spend another week and see if I can get that down to a true four word sentence.
Oh wait I can!
Me broke, me fucked.

onward...

Since my last post, things have moved forward a bit. Only measurable in geologic time, but measurable.
Last Saturday, my ceiling was 'finished.'

Beauty eh?

I don't care. I'm leaving and don't have to live with it.

Last week also brought good things...

Fully half of the friends I've made while living in the great State of AZ.
Mr. Twoshoes (Mike Johnson) left and Perry right. I will miss them both dearly.

Goodbye brothers. I loves ya both.

Mike is a brother. Period.
I have taught more than a few good folks to make bamboo in my life and it has always been my pleasure. Mike is one of the very few who took it and ran. Mike makes some of the finest rods one could hope to own...again, period. I wish I had one.

Perry is a kid. LOL. He's like 28 or something but a good heart, easy smile, and makes a damn fine bamboo rod. I was once 28...no really.

I feel like I can leave this State knowing that it's in good hands. If only one of them was the guberner instead of some nazi.

Perry leaves the shop with my set of quad forms. Mike leaves the shop with my very first set of forms.
The wall where they leaned is empty except for the one set I use(d) almost everyday.

I will miss both sets of forms for different reasons...see below...

The quad forms I bought from Kyle Druery when I lived in CA. Kyle was a most excellent rodmaker and made some of the finest quads (hollow and solid) one could purchase...again, period. I haven't heard from Kyle in about ten years. He was going to start back teaching. He lived in Bakersfield. I have no idea where he is now. Kyle made these forms from scratch in his garage. By hand and file, sweat of his brow, strength of his back. In case you don't know...quad forms consist of THREE bars. All three have to be flat and square. The middle bar has no taper to it. The outer bars have a 45 degree bevel cut in them on two sides, tip and flip for butt. The two outer bars MUST be square and equal to each other and the middle bar. Sounds easy...it ain't...and he did it by hand. With a freaking file...just beauty forms. I miss them already. Not that I make or made quads, just that a friend and contemporary made them, used them, and I got to have them.

The set that Mike took were my first set. They aren't perfect. They were made by Lon Blauvelt in Maine. He's made definite improvements to them over the years. I was able to buy these when I first started about 15 years ago. I likely never would have finished (not that I'm anywhere close to being finished) this bamboo journey if it had not been for Lon and a reasonable price for a set of forms which are essential.

Those two sets of forms meant two things to me... both purely sentimental.
First, they were my first set so...you know...close to (or over) a hundred rods on those forms. That's some time and energy, I can't get either of those back. Now the forms are gone as well.
Second...those were the only forms I could make the Lil Debbie on.

Debbie is a real person who lives in Florida. There's a story there that can't be put on paper...sorry.

...And they had to be modified to even make that happen. The first 20 or 25 inches of the tip were modified to make a tip that could go down small enough (.022") to make the ought through 2 wt taper required. It's a modification I hope I make to my Bellinger's, which I love for their smoothness and consistency of taper.

Fwiw...I had to make adjustments with a hammer on the Blauvelt's. It's all about where you place the pins in the forms. The forms would hang up in between stations because the pins were set between each set of adjustment bolts (instead of between the push/pull bolts at each adjustment station) and you have to smack them with a hammer to set set them.

Mike really didn't need the forms and I know that. He just bought a set of nice Bellinger's which I guess he hasn't received yet. He only bought them to put a couple of bucks in my pocket, but he did it out of the kindness of his big damn heart. So did Perry I think.

So...thank you both for some needed cash...I hope you both think of me when you decide to use them and I hope this hell hole of a State treats you fine for the rest of your days. Never forget to pay it forward.
I will miss you both...I look forward to visits whenever either of you can make it up to paradise. Until then...have fun fishin' in the gutter.

Little Goldens (and I) await you.

So...OK!

Moving on with stuff. No one complains if I don't post everyday so why bother? I mean the only two persons reading this crap are in Russia and Serbia looking for stuff to lift and download, stealing stuff if you will... so here's a bit of fodder for those two guys. Knock yer self out.

I think the last post where I actually put a pic up of any sort of progress were three bamboo culms cut and on the bench.

Since then, the culms have had the nodes sanded, been flamed (heat tempered) and split in halves. The damns knocked out and the splits re-taped into a single piece again.

Once this is done, then the halves are ready to be split. The halves are split into sixths, the sixths split into halves and those halves are split into halves. Giving you 24 strips of more or less equal widths.

Once you have 24 strips, you need to pick out the best 18 strips. 6 for the butt and 12 (6 for each tip section) for the tips. Sort them and get them aligned.

Once you get your eighteen strips, one of the tricky parts rears it's head...knowing where your ferrules and tip top will fall on the rod.

The general rule of thumb is no node closer than two inches to a ferrule or tip top. That means you need to know how much longer you need to cut your strips, how much of that length will ultimately be cut off and removed and that your ferrules and tip tops will be in the proper portion of the rod section.

Now this particular rod is is going to be a 7'6" 4wt. The finished length of each rod section is approximately 45" long. Since that length depends on the length of the male and female ferrules and length of the tip top, to make each section 45" long now means something is going to be long or short when the time comes to mount the tip top and ferrule, so...the thing to do here is make the sections longer. In my case 5" longer as the adjusting stations on my planing forms are 5" on center. This actually makes life MUCH easier.

SO...I slide around the groups of 3 strips. The first thing is to get the nodes even spaced out.

There are quite a few different methods and reasons to space out one's nodes in a particular way. I'm not going into why you should or shouldn't space your nodes in any way in particular. I'm just going to leave you with I space mine 2x2x2. I have my reasons and if you want to know, ask.

After I get the nodes spaced, it's time to decide where to make your cuts for section length. Again this depends on where your tip top and ferrules are ultimately going to end up on the glued up rod sections.

I decide on this piece of bamboo, it's going to be here...

Now on this end (butt end) the actual end of the rod section is going to be about 5" to the left of my red cut off mark...5" from the mark will put my final cut-off between the first and second sets of nodes on the left. At least two inches from any male ferrules and on the tip side it works out the same. No node closer than two inches from the tip top.

Many times it's not anywheres near as easy as this rod and you have to do some finagling...but this one is just fine!

More or less later...

Mike

Little things

Well, after yesterday's tragedy, having the wind taken out of one's sail's takes a toll. I get depressed and have a hard time moving on. I have to actually have a stupid conversation to buck meself up and move on. A "pep talk" if that makes any sense to you. I have these with my self quite often. I mutter, swear, ask, complain, plead, and apparently there still is no god.
Yes I have little gods on the bench to help the process, but often they do NOT earn their keep. Still, there they are.

So yesterday, after a dismal failure at bluing, I pondered (again) the idea of making my own solution for oxidizing.

Now I've tried a bunch of oxidizers. I mean really.
I have never found, and expect to NEVER find anything that works as well as the product Dave LeClair made and sold. In fact, I love it so much that I drove a total of 4,000 miles to buy three ounces of this magic juice. 2000 miles round trip to northern California for one ounce and 2000 miles round trip to Denver for two ounces. Both trips quite enjoyable. It probably cost me $2000.00 after fuel (when it was five bucks a gallon driving an F-150 with the big motor,) motel bills, food, etc.

Anyway...I'm currently on a quest to find out just what the hell this juice is and how I can make it for myself.
The stuff last nights dreams were made of...and rats. I had rat dreams too. Don't ask.

So this mornings stuff was pretty much at a stand still. I have a blank that needs to go to a brother in Hawaii. The blank (a Dickerson 8013) is finished, bag made, and I needed to make the tube up for it.
Done. Now to obsess over the secret formula...enough obsessing for now and I get back to work.


Day before yesterday I think, I made up the bag and tube for the brother in NY.

I'm really finicky I guess about the fit of a rod, bag, tube. I never thought I was until someone pointed out that I seemed to go to a lot of trouble to make things fit properly. This was brought home by another rodmaking brother, Harry Boyd. Apparently Harry is as finicky as I am.
A few years back I actually had the pleasure of finally shaking Harry's hand in Colorado at the Colorado Rodmaker's Reunion. We swapped rods for a test cast. When he unscrewed the cap off of mine the first thing he said was "WOW, someone actually knows how to make a bag and tube!" Hell the rod was still, obviously, in the tube and bag and, unfortunately, I don't recall if he actually liked the rod itself, but he damn well liked the fit! Was that a run-on sentence or what? I'm still trying to pare my words, sorry.

Anyway...today...the topic is proper fit. I'll leave proper finish up to your discretion. To each their own.

But a proper fit of rod section to bag, imho, is a bag that "just" covers the rod sections. You don't want the bag too long. If it is other problems will rear their ugly head when you make the tube.
As for length of rod sections...the current train of thought is that all sections MUST be equal length.
Well I guess that shows attention to detail and if they aren't the same length, the maker was sloughin' and going through the motions.
But "what if" your maker had something else in mind? What if your maker wanted a stout butt section to protect a delicate set of mirrored tips? Would he maybe make the butt section just a smidge longer than the tips? Say 1/16" or so? So the butt would protect the tips? Maybe.
I do. Sure the rod still assembles at the prescribed length. An 8 footer is going to be an 8 footer not an 8' 1/2" rod.
But figuring this number out ahead of time takes a bit of thought and measuring and measuring again.
Then it's time to make the bag.
Most all tube maker's stick a little piece of neoprene on the caps, butt and tip. But, it's a skimpy cushion at best. Not much there really.
SO...I like my bags to slightly cover, be longer, than the finished rod sections. Since I make the butts of my rods to be slightly longer than the tips, I like the bags to be slightly longer than the longest piece in the bag. Just a smidge longer.
When the bag is in the tube, I like the bag to slightly fold over the top of the rod or, at the least, be even with it. I prefer the bag be just a bit longer than the sections so that when the bag is in the tube, the bag folds ever so slightly over the sections when the tube cap is screwed on. Friction does the rest of the job. The bag helps keep the sections from sliding much up and down in the tube and there is no slop between bag and tube.

In other words...I "think" it should look like this when assembled;

Mundane crap? Yep!

But I think you should know that your rodmaker is thinking of mundane crap regarding the rod he makes for you. You are after all paying through the nose for it.

Sorry my posts seem to always be so wordy...there's just stuff to write about and why one does what they do ya know?

There always seems to be a reason for everything.

I'll eventually run out of stuff to write about but for now, this place is new for me, I'm having a bit of fun, and if you don't wish to read it...well, screw me.

Mike

This could well be...

...my first and last post.

Glamour shot

I'm not a "blogger." I am also not a blooger, booger, or bugger, etc.

I'm here only because this is apparently "free" though I understand that nothing one does through Google is free and everything seems to have a price. If I am proven wrong...well...there ya go. If you get a lot of weird ads after leaving here, I appologize in advance.

The site is obviously under construction. There could well be a flurry of activity at first. It's not because I lost (or am losing) interest in the site.
I don't know how this place works and I need to learn things, such as how to post a freaking picture. So please consider this as what it is, a first post by a stranger in a strange land.

This post will eventually be buried (I hope) under layers of ditrimous.

What this place is...

This place was created because I can no longer afford to keep up a real website...pure and simple. Real websites actually cost money to publish on the web. I'm assuming that since this doesn't cost money, it isn't a real website.

What the hell am I?
I am (like you) defined by my work.
I make split bamboo flyrods. I'm a rodmaker.
If you teach kids...you're a 'teacher.' If you sue people you probably are a lawyer, though not necessarily.
There...I said it.

The market is less than a "niche" market at this point. The depression has taken the wind right out of my sails. We all know it's a depression right? Not 'merely' a recession?
Many of you good folks (millions!) lost their jobs within a month. I personally lost five years of business in a month. This is mostly my fault. I refused to take a payment until I actually started your rod. Your word that you wanted one was 'good enough.' I was shown the foolishness of my foly. Now life is a struggle as I'm more than sure it is for most folks who find themselves here, reading this dribble.
Still, here it is 2011 almost 2012. Fifteen years after I started making split bamboo. I started my first bamboo rod in 1997. Yeah...big deal.
I mention it because I haven't been doing this a year or two in my garage. I am a devoted slave to the craft. It's what defines me, what I have more than sacraficed for (two marriages, three kids, yes, I bred) three houses, god knows how many cars and trucks, and still I live in my shop. I don't have my children, I don't have the houses (or money from them). I DO have Bonnie the dog, who I'm pretty sure will be featured here from time to time, and I have a truck that is destined to live out it's life with me already pushing 12 years old. And I have my shop. And that is life, and that's OK by me. IT's my life and I get to live it.

Where I am...do you really care?

I am in the freaking middle of the Sonoran Desert, Congress AZ. My shop is in a freaking rat hole. I don't really have running water, no cooler to speak of presently and summer temps easily push 120 for weeks and months on end. Saudi Arabia's got nuttin' on me.
A simply horrible place to live if you flyfish. I mean really.
A simply wonderful place to live if you make bamboo flyrods. Yeah it's pure hell and torture making one but the bamboo loves it and who am I to argue?
Why the 'f' am I here, ten goddamn feet from hell where there ain't no fish?
Simple...I was spawning. The fish goes where the river flows. I dried up on a gravel bank here when the river went down. I'm waiting for a bear to eat my head.

Anyway...enough for today...
I'll try and write more tomorrow...don't hold yer breath...

Mike