A minor fix

Since the beginning of the heating season, there's been a minor annoyance that I just couldn't seem to fix. The damper on my furnace flue was getting stuck open. I would go down stairs and knock it loose, but every time I went down there, it was stuck open.

Now, hot air rises. So this stupid thing was sucking the warm(ish) air out of my basement every time this happened.

Dramatic recreation of it being stuck open.
You can't really tell, but my finger is holding it that way.

Last night I went down and stared at it. I got out my bottle of fancy German oil that Ian had given me and squirted some on the pivots. It swung better when it swung, but as I fiddled with it, the blasted thing would still get stuck open. But not all the time. Finally I noticed a little side-to-side play in the swinging plate, and from there I figured out that it was getting hung up on the very tippy-tip of a sheet metal screw that comes in from the side.

The offending screw is called out.

I backed off that screw, and the blasted thing doesn't get stuck any more!

Ta-da!

The bed is done!

And functions precisely as a bed should!

I did have to order a "bunky board" because I was super uncomfortable sleeping so far off the gound after having slept so close to it for so long. I'm sad that I don't have easy access to that window any more. Who knows, maybe by this time next year, I'll be back on the floor. :)

I put together and moved this bed 3 times before I landed here. Had to take the tiny casters off because it was far too wobbly at that height.

With split box spring. Now if I could have just slept on the box spring, it would have been fine.

With mattress.... things are getting tall. Oh dear.

With bed things. you can barely see the bed. Guess it was ok not to worry too much about the finish.

So far away from the ground! At this moment, I grabbed the phone and ordered the Bunky Board so I could get rid of about 3" of height.

I also noted that someone had tacked pieces of 2x4's on to the bed slats, so I got rd of those and managed to lower the how thing by at least 5". There's little visual difference with all the bed stuff on, but you can see a wee bit more of the headboard.

I started window # 12 of 14 for Ian's shop too. I sucked it up and figured out a much better way of designing the window so it matches it's partner better. It can never match 100%, because the opening is a different size (one is fixed, one swings out) and they are also in two different planes - the fixed one sits about 3" further out in the opening then the swinging one.

Dutch windows were made up of glass that starts off 4" x 6". I cut a bunch of them to start.

I reuse all sorts of glass as long as I can cut it. This is a mix of reclaimed Victorian are storm windows (aqua) and turn of the century vestibule windows from a house outside Boston (lime). That one super dark and thin pane is anyone's guess. 

Cut and fitted up.

Soldered. I played solder chicken and won! (I did have a spare roll in case this happened.)

Little wires soldered on.

Cemented and powdered. The white powder ("whiting") helps the cement cure faster, I'm told. It also helps clean the oils off the glass.

I took a minute to clean the basement, include vacuum my filter box. It's not 100%, but at least all this dust wasn't let to float around the basement.

I was able to meet Ian on Sunday, and he took home the window and installed it.

So this was the old design:

Old style. Blegh.

New style. Still not match-y, which drives me nuts, but much better.
I'm told even better in person.

I have to make a second one with the narrow center (there's two sets of these) but then it'll be on to the last window and this project can be done.