No assembly required!

These arrived yesterday at our port.  They come across the ocean fully assembled (yes from China).  As some of the largest container handling cranes in the world, they are 267 feet high.  I know it doesn’t look like it, but they’re big!

So what does that have to do with woodworking.  Well, nothing really.  Except that this woodworker works at the port and had a great opportunity to take the picture.

Helicopter shots here.

But good news, I’m still working on my workbench.  Hopefully, by the weekend, I’ll have the base assembled.

Ribbon Cutting on the fence .. finally!

So today, I finished the final gate in the fence project.  The neighbors were so excited that I finally finished, they were setting off fire works .. ok .. maybe they were doing that for some other thing.

According to my fence guy, when building a large gate (12 feet in this case), you build the whole gate as a single panel.  After it’s all complete and hung as a single panel (you’ve probably guessed by now), you cut the ribbon.

So after half lapping the joints on my gate, adding corner bracing and wheels at the bottom of the gate I finally cut the ribbon.  The true test on this gate will be to see if it sags.  But, for now, minus a few pickets and some touch up paint; I’m done.  Let’s hope the belt and suspenders hold up for the long haul.

Bartholomew Brace

I really have a lot of fun finding old tools that I can use, rehabbing them and putting them to use.  Last week, we were in Winthrop, WA and I found this little guy in a flea market store for $12.

I took it home, cleaned it up and was able to read the stamp on it.

I also get a kick out of researching the story behind these tools and here’s what I found.

Nos. 117 – 119

Bartholmew brace
Bartholomew Brace

Hardwood head and handle; Bartholomew’s jaws.

An inexpensive brace manufactured by the H.S. Bartholomew Company of Bristol, Connecticut, and sold by the Millers Falls Company. Features jaws patented by Harry. S. Bartholomew on May 24, 1870.

Illustration from 1878 catalog.

Model No. Sweep Start Date End Date
No. 117 8 inch by 1878 by 1885
No. 118 9 1/2 inch by 1878 by 1885
No. 199 10 1/2 inch by 1878 by 1885

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