Gyrogami Blog - Precious Metals, Jewelry, Artwork

Clothesing Time

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Categories: Experiences and daily life; Projects and equipment

Word count/read time: 811 words; 3 minutes

When hindsight pokes into the current moment and says "Go for it!" then I will buy a hoarding amount of anything. The one thing that constantly bites me is clothing. I would literally buy a lifetime supply if I had known X about Y. By the time you figure out what's good, the product is now last year's news or sold out. It prompted me to buy 80 identical pairs of wool socks (nearly a lifetime supply, they're all I wear, and no mismatched pairs), 25 pairs of pants (and I would have bought 100 of them but I bought all they had).

For that matter I probably have a lifetime some clothes. They protect us and keep us warm. We don't need them but if we want to live more than a stone's throw from the equator, best of luck. We clothe our animals, outdoor plants during winter, cars, boats, and electronic devices. Some are fashionable and some are functional. Whatever floats your boat.

Dust is the enemy of electronics. It's not pretty seeing a herd of dustlings playing pattycake. Precision equipment doesn't like it either. Dust attracts more dust and then moisture and eventually it can harden into a deposit or oxidize the surface. Normal household dust, that is....

In a shop there are countless species of things flying through the air. They include grinding wheel tidbits, sawdust, and metal filings. These are not typical dust particles since they have teeth, the power to crush and scratch and gouge. Plus they're produced in prodigious amounts with a velocity and direction unimaginable by non-supercharged debris.

Walking into my shop for the first time is like seeing that vacation home with furniture covered in blankets. I've made blankets for select equipment out of thick plastic sheet. My landlord probably thinks there are nefarious deeds afoot, hidden equipment and all.

UPDATE 5/10/2021: All of my efforts to date only saved some! An irresponsible landlord decided to do some illegal work on my shop ceiling in nine places without telling me beforehand so I could prepare. No permit, no authorized plumbers or electricians, definitely no professionals. Every location had a puddle of nasty water under it. Puddles, ceiling tiles hanging and on the floor, nails embedded in the carpet, water and ceiling residue on everything within an 8ft radius if each drill location.

They did move my wet tile saw, a tool designed to be splashed with water. They didn't move the $7000 worth of Dahle paper cutters, body panel set I was painting for an antique motorcycle that I'll have to redo...and that's in just one area and not even everything!

I showed my landlord and he said the workers told him it was cleaned up. So they're liars, too. He said he was going to do something about it and then he did...he promptly left.

Some of the damaged stuff was literally moved in hours ago when I came back to find them partying in my shop. You'd think with the nutty I threw they'd have been more cautious with the next 15 ceiling holes they made. This isn't the first time these guys have damaged my property or left the place a mess so all of their get-out-of-jail-free cards have been used up.

If I hadn't planned on moving already, things are going to explode when the building inspector cites him for illegal work and I file a claim with his insurance company. They will investigate further and discover more shenanigans. It will be costly. I know what it means for me. Hopefully I can hang on long enough to win the prize: freedom.

They replaced sewer pipes, too. Same mess underneath. "At least they're consistent!" says the optimist. Less than three hours earlier, my sister visited my shop for the first time. "Your shop is SO clean!" seemed such a distant memory.

A large plastic funnel is MIA. It would be the perfect funnel if you had a problem, like, say, you were doing illegal work on someone's ceiling and water was pouring everywhere and you didn't bring the proper equipment so you had to grab anything that was around, and what better thing than a friggin' huge funnel?! Since they were using other tools and equipment of mine, I have to assume the same fate befell some, what we in the trades call acci-purposely missing since it's easy to confuse who owns what...honest mistake, they say. Checking everything would literally take weeks. Even though there was absolutely nothing I could do to prevent this, I have to suck it up because it ultimately rests on me to fix.

How did the wet tile saw fare after its harrowing ordeal, you're wondering? It still got covered in crap anyway, but at least they can say they moved something. And they only moved it because it was in their way.

Posted by M: April 3, 2021

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