Saturday, September 8, 2007
Monetization through AuctionAds may be a way of paying your hosting costs and right now they have an offer where if you sign up as a new member you will automatically receive $25.00 paid into your Paypal account. These relative ads show what is being offered on eBay as a live feed and it’s a perfect compliment to your site if your dealing in products. Even so previously signed up members can also earn the $25.00 if they have never received a payout. The unfortunate thing is, you have to have a PayPal account and the balance has to reach $50.00 before a payout.
If your site is not product driven then the return may not be as lucrative but everyone has an angle where they can add the necessary keywords into the code to drive relevant ads to the blog or website. Even talking on a personal blog allows you to insert keywords for that post. Unlike Adsense, there is no restriction on the amount of ads you use. Once you have an account you can use the code on as many of your blogs or websites that you like, just like Adsense. The beauty of this system is that most people like to browse eBay for deals so why not serve up relevant material to your post and Try AuctionAds. The worse case scenario is, if it’s slow to earn commission your still $25.00 closer to the first payout. (Continued)
Friday, September 7, 2007
The success of erecting the swing beam with swings and hardware paid dividends during the week while I was at work. My children had plenty of playtime testing out the new swings with my young daughter pleading to her brother to push her on her swing, gone was the baby swing as she was a “big girl now.” No mention had been made of putting up the previous baby swing as her new “blue” colored swing gave her the additional thrill of being able to go higher, meanwhile you could hear the cries from her mother, “not too high” ringing from the house.
The task for the weekend was to progress the safety of the decking by erecting the walls. Even though there would be numerous openings for the Monkey Bars, Rock Wall, Slide and Ramp, the remaining openings would have to be filled. The most difficult aspect was to reconfigure the upright supports that would provide support for the cross members. The back wall would be split between a high and a low Rock Wall, I would have to start there with a cross member first. The cross member would span across the back face with a gap of 14 inches between the decking and the bottom of the rail allowing enough room to crawl in from the lower Rock Wall with a hand grip providing additional safety. This part had already been cut, predrilled and coated with redwood stain making it an easy installation. I had also cut enough upright rails that would span the whole back face but as I had decided to do a split level Rock Wall I would also need to install a fixed upright at the center point of the decking to support the boards that would make up the higher Rock Wall. (Continued)
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Today marked a milestone in the life of our son, Jackson, today was his first day at kindergarten. We had already been to the orientation with him yesterday to meet his teacher Mrs. Chalabian and to see what to expect. To be quite honest I think I was more nervous than him, how would he react, how would he take to the new surroundings and the other boys and girls who he had no association with. I’m sure I was not alone with those feelings as I looked around at the other parents. They all had that proud yet apprehensive look about them as the reality started to sink in, “My child is going to school,” that was yesterday, today is the real day.
I had decided that I would take a couple of days vacation after the long Labor Day weekend as those two days would be the beginning of the school year, with Tuesday marked as an orientation day and today, Wednesday, the first day at school. This morning started off sharp with the alarm set for 6 AM, not that I manage much sleep last night so getting up proved easy enough even though my normal routine requires an early 5 AM rise.
First thing is to get showered then get the pot boiling for a wake me up cup of tea. We’re tea drinkers rather than coffee, my wife cannot stand coffee which is fine with me although I do occasionally need one for my early commute.
With the mornings being that much darker the children are sleeping in longer which allows us to get ready before the mad rush. Children have a whole new speed when it comes to getting ready and that is SLOOOOW and knowing that, we made sure that everything was preset to remove as many obstacles as possible. The backpack already had his scissors, crayons and large glue sticks packed. His name had been inked on the scissors to reduce any melt down at school should there be two of the same, which no doubt will be the case. His small cooler that fits in the backpack has his nutritious mid-morning snack and bottled water so with that all set we can wake him up and let the fun begin. (Continued)
With many avid drinkers of the already Classic Coke, the company will roll out a new zero calorie drink called “Coke Zero” this version will have zero calories, nothing, zilch, which means us people who put on weight easily will be able to drink it without fear of the extra poundage that can result with drinking too much pop. With “zero sugar” and the guaranteed “real taste” of Coke how can you go wrong. What better to quench your thirst when your carving your masterpiece and want to keep concentration at a high.
The real taste, coupled with zero sugar, while your working out the next move on your carving, aah! life as it should be, relaxed and enjoyed to the full.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
This is one of the questions that has been nagging me for quite a considerable amount of time, “How do you determine the age of a Welsh Lovespoon that is up for sale?”
I have done a lot of research on the subject but not one website has mentioned determining the age of a Lovespoon, they all point to the earliest example being dated 1667 and displayed at the National Folk Museum of Wales. My main concern is how would you determine a Lovespoons age without carbon dating it. In this instance, they probably did, making sure this National Treasure had full authenticity but what if you were to come across a Lovespoon that was advertised as being a vintage Lovespoon without a date carved on or any paperwork to support the claim. A word of mouth from the seller to the buyer or vice-versa.
I suppose you could rely on the patina that had developed over the years but how much build up per year, would it indicate that the piece was fifty, sixty or one hundred years old. With an item such as a Lovespoon the age would determine the price to be paid but for me I would still have that nagging feeling of, is it really that old. There are many modern day methods of aging wood and much of the time these items are being purchased online rather than at a local antiquity shop so you have no real way of making a determination until you acually have the piece. (Continued)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The previous post saw me constructing the “A Frame” and placing the main swing beam into position and whilst finalizing the swing beam and “A Frame” it did give the swing set a whole new dimension but there is still plenty to do, needless to say I felt that the momentum was back. With the Jungle Fort I had to install extra bracing to compensate for the swing momentum so that would mean an additional four braces installed underneath the decking to reduce lateral sway. I had already cut these items to a set length during the big “cut to size” weekend and now I had to modify the length because of the floor beam interference. I decided to cut the corner off of the brace where it fouled up on the joist hangers which meant cutting off a slice of about 3/4 of an inch.
Each brace was individually marked for position, while the lag bolts, clearance hole and counterbore were drilled on the drill press. The only exception was counterboring the hole that is placed on the edge face of the brace. This will be done in-situ once the lag bolts have secured the brace to the cross member first.
To keep a common look to the fort I made sure to line the bottom edge of the brace to correspond with the height of the bottom edge of the outer brace, then I proceeded to pilot drill and bolt the brace to the cross member with 2 1/2 inch x 3/8 inch lag bolts. Once I had the brace secured to the cross member I found that the twist in the timber would either make the opposite end bend into the fort or bend out beyond the upright. I wanted the brace to remain flush to the 4 inch by 4 inch upright.
To correct this I either pulled the brace flush with a clamp and secured with a decking screw before locking it down tight with the lag bolt. If the brace was sprung inboard I would use a G-clamp placed on the outside of the upright and use this as a means to pull the brace into position with a second clamp, then again securing with a deck screw. Once in the correct position I could counterbore the hole to accept the lag bolt and ratchet down until tight, making sure that the head was sunk beneath surface. (Continued)
Thursday, August 16, 2007
For everyone who has been following this series of posts on my building of the activity come playground set I’m glad to say that I’ve started to get some traction into the build. I’ve continued with the Fort Swing Set wall after last weekends mishap, the progress went forward with no new mind lapses and the spacing of 3 1/4 inches worked out well with the overall width. I made sure that I lined up the bottom edge of the slats with the bottom edge of the cross member which ensured that the top edges of the slats stayed consistent in height. To keep them in place I clamped each slat with quick release clamps that I got from Harbor Freight, again they were very cheap at $1.99 each but the quality just wasn’t there. If you applied too much pressure to clamp the wood in place you just stripped the plastic from the side that retained the trigger, rendering the clamp useless. So I guess, not everything cheap will get you by, if the plastic had been a harder type rather than the ABS that they were made from then they would have held up to the job.
Now that I’ve got over that hurdle, I’ve made sure just to apply enough pressure to hold the part in place then use a framing square to check that they were square to the deck before drilling. I had a set up of three corded drills from a triple socket extension cord, this allowed me to arm each drill with the drill bit, countersink and the screw bit. You may be asking if it would be simplier to have cordless drills instead but the cost of the corded drills from Harbor Freight worked out at $13.00 a piece at sale price. Even at full price they’re under $20.00, so even if they just survived this one project, it’s cheaper than buying one cordless drill. There’s no concern about batteries running flat and consistent torque with the corded drill gives good results every time. (Continued)
With the integrity of the structure now assured I can now strengthen the upper level of the Jungle Fort before placing in the decking. The first task was to bolt in all the upper beams that would provide support for the slats that would make up the walls and provide support for the additional structures such as monkey bars, rock wall and swing set. These cross members were drilled to accept the large 5 inch coach bolts leaving no doubt that they were there to stay.
During the construction I had changed the design so that the largest beam would be on the left side overhanging the front and rear of the Jungle Fort. This would provide enough space for a rope ladder and possibly a disc swing if we decided to go that route but as of now that decision has still not been finalized. I couldn’t ponder on this issue too long with this beam being a structural part of the fort so I just had to make provision for the additional items, on the assumption of, that is what we’ll do. In the event that we decide not to go that way I can either cut off the additional length that overhangs or leave it as it is. The optional length of this beam also needed a brace to prevent sway, this was placed underneath and installed with lag bolts but again this is easily removed if in fact it isn’t used. (Continued)
While I have been constructing the frame work I have been considering the best way to hold this structure in place, that is, stopping it from possibly swaying once the swings are in full flight. The plans suggest using some of the off-cuts of the preserved timber to produce stakes of between 12 and 18 inches in length and pounding them into the ground next to the base frame and securing them with galvanized deck screws. I had on the previous swing set used this method for holding it down but was a little disappointed with the result, the base did move when the swings were in full flight so I decided to use the steel mixer type ground holds. These items are screwed into the ground up to a depth of twelve inches and will need the help of a bar through the eye of the anchor to gain the required torque to get them to the full depth, but once in there, there’s no way that they will pull out.
To provide the best support possible I placed the anchors in each of the corners by the main uprights so that the seat positions would cover the steel end loop. Connecting to the uprights was by using the steel straps provided with several holes punched in so that I could loop it around the eye of the anchor and connect it to the frame with a lag bolt. The effort required to get them to the full depth proved to be harder than I though especially in this tight confinement but once there I feel confident that it will restrict any movement. (Continued)
I’m amazed at how many parts have to be cut, drilled, counterbored and redwood stained to the extent that I’ve decided to start building this puppy. Needless to say there is still the cutting list to go through for making the picnic bench and rock wall but these items are non-structural so that can be done after all the other elements are put together.
I found that even though I marked each piece with a pencil to identify the part, once it was stained it became difficult to read so it’s a question of measuring against the cutting list and marking again. I wouldn’t of bothered but there’s a mountain of parts to go through and I wanted to save a little time rather than measuring each time I needed a piece. I also found that after staining, it may be necessary to rub down with fine sand paper to take the roughness off but this will be done once it’s all assembled, I don’t want the children to get gravel rash from the wood!
Over the course of the past few weeks I’ve ordered the extra hand grips and additional rock wall holds together with two sets of the steel ground anchors. I opted for the steel anchors because I can screw them into the ground to a depth of twelve inches and with the flat mixer type end it would act as an additional resistance if the frame should start to sway. With the wood type anchor, even if they were pounded to a depth greater than twelve inches they still have smooth sides that could become loose over time. Maybe I’m getting concerned over nothing but at least it puts my mind at rest, at the end of the day the weight should be sufficient to prevent it from moving but as the instructions insist, anchor the structure down. (Continued)
