offcntr | Entries tagged with repairs

Furnace guys are coming back today to install the new unit. We've been blowing circuit breakers, running the space heaters, so have had to be super aware of power usage--who knew the dishwasher and dining room outlet were on the same circuit? But heat, lovely heat...

I can hardly wait.

So the furnace replacement crew arrived on schedule Wednesday morning. Denise and the cats removed to the bedroom while they tore out the old unit, climbed up the roof to bang on the chimney and install the new flue liner. I left them to it around 11 am, went down to Club Mud to handle casseroles, from there at 2 pm over to the fairgrounds to set up for Holiday Market.

I was up on the step ladder hanging my booth sign at 3:40 pm when my cell rang. It was our contact from Marshall's Heating and Air Conditioning, saying they couldn't install our furnace.

He'd made a mistake; he'd quoted a unit, 80% efficient, that wasn't legal to install in our situation, a furnace closet adjoining a bedroom. His boss had caught the error on a site visit, and shut the whole process down. He'd have to send us a revised quote on a different, more efficient system that met the current building code.

I was good. I didn't swear. I did nearly cry. We'd been without heat for twenty days at this point, and the thought of Thanksgiving in the cold just about broke me. He promised to send over some space heaters for us to use, which i didn't have high hopes for. The one I have now will barely heat a small bathroom with the door closed. But I said thank you, and that I couldn't talk about this now, I was tired, my knee hurt, and I needed to focus on getting my booth set up. Called Denise to break the news, but she was at physical therapy and it went to voice mail.

The space heaters are rather better than I expected. Higher power, and they have a safety switch that shuts them down if they go off vertical; if, say, you pick one up to move it, or the cats knock them over. So we can leave them on all day. With one in the bedroom, one in the kitchen, and the radiant heater by the table, Thanksgiving was almost cosy.

Got the new proposal(s) Wednesday night, for a 95% one-stage furnace and a 96% two-stage, although the numbers didn't make sense. The one he said was between the original unit and the more efficient two-stage in cost seemed to actually be about $500 more. Confusing. Finally talked to him today and discovered he'd got the prices reversed, so we settled on the one-stage unit, he'd put in an order, and hopefully could install it on Tuesday. Thursday at latest.

Fingers crossed. Toes crossed.

Had the repair guy out yesterday afternoon to see why our furnace wouldn't work. After poking around for a bit, and borrowing a lighter from me, he gave me the bad news: the heat exchanger is cracked. This means exhaust gases were getting into the heating ducts, and back pressure from the blower was also smothering the burners, both of which could cause carbon monoxide.

Unfortunately for us, the replacement part is no longer being manufactured, not surprising, considering that the furnace was old 24 years ago, when we bought the house. They're sending someone out tomorrow to give us a quote on a replacement unit. I asked about the timeline for replacement, and was told that, as we're without heat in the cold season, we get moved toward the top of the list. It could be as early as the end of next week--when we'll be away at Clayfolk. But certainly within two weeks.

Brrr.

My furnace tried to kill us this morning.

Was awakened at 5:30 am by four piercing electronic tones. And while we were muzzily trying to figure out the source, they repeated. My first thought was the smoke detector "low battery" signal, but that's a different pitch and tone. But we have a CO detector in the bedroom; maybe it needs new batteries?

Pulled it off of the wall, took it into the bathroom, where there's better light, to try and read the tiny type, and it sounded again. Finally had to take my glasses off--I really need to update my bifocal prescription--to read that one tone means low battery, five tones means replace the unit. Four tones means carbon monoxide is detected.

We have a natural gas furnace, in a small closet off the TV room, so I shifted boxes to open the door, and switched off the power to the blowers. The burners looked yellow and fuzzy, so I figured they needed to be cleaned out, but as long as they weren't circulating to the house, we'd be okay. Just to be sure, I opened the bedroom window a few inches and turned on the fan to pull in some kinda foggy but fresh-ish air from outdoors. Must have worked, the CO detector stopped shouting at us.

This morning, I turned off the gas, blew out large quantities of dust with a can of compressed air, vacuumed the space for good measure. Figuring out how to restart it was a challenge, the instructions are on a sticker underneath the pilot system, not easily visible without standing on your head. Finally got my phone in a position to snap a couple of pics and puzzled out the sequence.

And the pilot wouldn't light. Not even sure gas was coming in to the burner, as flicking a lighter didn't catch the flame either. After three unsuccessful tries, I called our furnace repair place.

They're coming out next Tuesday. Thank goodness for good insulation. And possibly flannel sheets.

Well, that was... unexpected.

Sometime last month, the heater in Denise's bathroom failed. It's a built-in Cadet model, with a thermostat knob, but also wired to a light switch on a shared plate with the exhaust fan. Sparked when she turned it on, made a burning smell. Thought it might just need cleaning out, so I took it apart, vacuumed the elements, and put it back together. On testing, the elements heated up, but the fan didn't turn on, so I took it apart again. Didn't see any obvious shorts, arc damage or loose wires, nor did it seem possible to remove and replace the motor. I put it back and reattached the cover, said she'd have to use a portable heater until after Holiday Market.

This afternoon, I took the face plate off to photograph the model number and specs, then went off to Jerry's to get a replacement. They didn't have the exact replacement model--the original was a 1600 watt, 120 volt unit. They had a 1000 watt model, or a 1500 watt that took 240 volts. Since I wasn't willing to rewire all the way to the breaker panel, I bought the smaller unit. It was the same size as the previous one, so I didn't have to cut drywall or install the "can"--the heater equivalent of a switch box. Just unscrew the cover, swap out the heater, connect the wires, and put it all together. Simple, right?

Except this time, when I pulled out the heater, I noticed something I'd missed before: a nail sticking into the back of the can. Closer examination revealed a corresponding puncture mark in the electric motor's transformer. Sometime last summer, the crew installing our new siding put a stake through the heart of our wall heater.

I got out my Dremel with cutting disk and a pair of pliers, clipped it off flush before installing the new heater. And now Denise can dry off from her shower without freezing to death.

...it's six or eight.

I was running low on clay last week, four boxes (200 lbs) left. So the first thing I did was run my recycle through the pug mill. I had a bunch backed up, so wound up with about 350 lbs of reclaimed clay, probably enough to get me through this firing cycle. I know from past experience, though, that if I wait until September to order clay, I'll land right in the middle of all the schools and colleges getting their fall semester supplies. Last year, I had to wait two or three weeks, and was down to literally my last 5 lbs when the order came. So I went ahead and called Clay Art Center.

Naturally, when I'm not in a hurry, they have everything I need ready to go. The freight company picked up my pallet yesterday, delivered it 11:30 this morning.

I get a ton of clay at a time, so when they drop the pallet on my driveway, I break it down into manageable loads, 5 boxes at a time, and roll them up the ramp into my studio. This time, first load, my hand truck failed going over the door jamb. Both wheels split.

They're lawn mower wheels. When they wear down, they can't handle the weight and come apart. I normally get replacements from Coastal Farm and Home, but Denise had the car at a doctor's appointment and I couldn't use the van, because, ton of clay blocking the driveway.

Fortunately, a call to BiMart confirmed that they had 8-inch, steel hub lawnmower wheels, and they're a manageable bike ride away.

Unless you get a flat tire coming down River Road.

I managed to limp into the Chevron station at the corner next to BiMart, and their air pump now takes debit cards. Got it to work on the third try, super high-pressure inflated the tire almost instantly. Hoping it would hold me 'til I got home, I finished my ride to BiMart, bought two hand-truck wheels and a bike inner tube, and managed to get home about half past 12. Took a lunch break, replaced the wheels, and opened the studio at the exact moment the sun finally burned through the smoky haze, and the temp jumped to 100°.

I couldn't leave the clay out in the sun; it'd bake. So instead, I baked, hauling it into the studio, eight trips, at which point, I was melting.

Cold shower. Flop on bed. Going down the dentist for teeth cleaning at 4 was a luxury, reclining in the chair in an air conditioned office. I very nearly fell asleep.

Things I expected to be doing the week after a big road show: inventory. Sorting and restocking the van. Updating my ledger and In Stock list. Making more pots to replace the ones sold. Ordering clay and catching up on my recycling, because I'm down to four boxes of clay.

Things I wasn't expecting to do: drive around town trying to source a drive belt for a broken potter's wheel.

My wheel is old. I bought it used twenty years ago, and it was probably over 20 then. It's an early model Soldner wheel with a bodged in reversing switch, and a wooden foot paddle/spring-loaded chain speed control. It's a geezer.

I was finishing up some trimming Thursday, pasta dinner and serving bowls, when it started making a dinging noise, like something was banging on the wheel head. Then it made a flapping noise, but only at highest speed. Very strange. I finished the last couple of bowls, turned it off, and started poking around, blind, in the belt guard.

I fairly quickly found strips of rubber wrapped around the motor shaft. Judging from the shape and taper, they had delaminated from the inner surface of the v-belt. Messy, but I was able to clean them out. The wheel ought to still work, albeit with less belt surface on the pulleys. But as I rotating the wheel head to unwind the straps, I found a much more worrisome problem: a spot where the rubber was entirely broken, and only the canvas outer layer was holding the belt together.

It took me a while to figure out how to get the belt loose. On the motor side, it was easy to pop the belt off over the top of the drive shaft, but the wheel axle was supported on both ends with collar bearings, pulley in between. I had to unbolt the bottom bearing, loosen the top, to get the belt free.

My three-stage list for any equipment repair is: 1. Specialty supplier 2. General-purpose retailer and 3. Jerry's. (If Jerry's fails me, I go to the nuclear option, 4. Order off the internet, but it takes much longer, and I'd rather have my money stay local.) When my bike needed set screws, I went to a bike shop first, then Eugene Fastener (which turned out no longer to do retail, only wholesale), then out to Jerry's, where the sales assistant guessed a bike would take metric, and found me the screws I needed in about two minutes.

So this time, I started by calling Georgies Ceramic Supply. Turns out they don't stock wheel parts, have to order them in, and they're not a Soldner dealer. My local auto parts store, Knechts, recently went out of business, but there's an AutoZone a few blocks further out. I'd normally bike, but was fully expecting to have to continue to Jerry's, so took the car.

Fortunately, the belt had a cryptic number on the outer surface:15445. I didn't know what it meant, but Leon, behind the counter, did. Unfortunately, he didn't have that size; 15440 was a good half-inch shorter circumference, which I did not think would work. He checked the inventory online and saw that their Barger location might have one, and called over to confirm. Wouldn't want to send you chasing a wild goose with no golden egg at the end, he said, which might be the most delightfully mixed metaphor I've heard in ages. Finally got Brian, who confirmed he had it in hand, and did I know how to find them?

In fact, I did. They're right across the parking lot from the Winco where I get my groceries. $7.99 later, I had the replacement belt, had it installed half an hour later. It's a little louder than the old one, but I expect that to settle down as the belt wears in.

And I didn't even have to go to Jerry's.

We discovered, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, that our phone line was out. The DSL/internet still worked, but there was no dial tone on the land line. Not a huge problem, as we both have cells, but still, it'd be nice to have the service we're paying for. I went through online chat hell trying to get a service call, finally had one scheduled for the following Friday... which they promptly cancelled on Sunday when I didn't answer their confirmation text fast enough. So back online Monday, finally get the service call rescheduled.

Come Friday, Baylee comes by, confirms we're not getting dial tone to the kitchen jack, eventually determines that two of the conductors in the line are broken (possibly by the siding guys, but not sure), but there are still two good wires in the line, so she switches the signal over, tests it with her pigtail and now there's a dial tone. I plug in my phone, which admittedly, we bought back in 2000, and it doesn't work. She say's i'll need to get a new phone, packs up her tools and rides off into the afternoon sunlight.

I bike down to BiMart, drop $49.99 on a new phone (I wanted cordless with answering machine, like the old one), bring it home, plug it in, and still get no dial tone. In addition, Denise tells me she now doesn't have internet on her tablet.

So this time, I don't bother with chat, I call CenturyLink, wade through the unhelpful choices in their phone menu (Whaddya mean, "Is it phone or internet?" What if it's both?) and finally connect with a human being. He confirms that their test says there's a problem with the internet, thinks it may have to do with the switched conductors, but doesn't know why the phone. He does promise to push us to the head of the cue, which I take with a massive grain of salt, as it took a full week the first time. But he's true to his word, and I get a text scheduling for the next day.

The next day is Market, of course, so I give them Denise's cell number and she stays home. So of course, they text me with updates...

Baylee arrives a little late, but not by much, and with back-up. Her supervisor walks her through what went wrong--apparently, modern phones only use the center two (broken) conductors, she had to wire in an adaptor? Don't know how they fixed the internet, but Denise confirmed all was working by about 3 pm.

Still haven't decided whether to return the phone. The old one is pretty grody, kitchen grease and a broken antenna cover. We'll probably send it off to NextStep.

The folks from Weather Built stopped by today to have us sign off on the project, and give them the final payment. Gotta say, they did solid work, cleaned up their mess, and even remembered to return the saw horses they accidentally packed up with their tools. One small rose bush got trampled, but as it's the one that burned down and grew back from the roots last year, I'm hopefully watering the spot and waiting for another resurrection.

But how does the house look, you ask?

It's gorgeous.

We've been living in one for a week now, getting new siding on our house. They dropped supplies last Monday, began tearing off the old shingles Wednesday. I've been parking the van at the Lutheran Church lot up the street (with their permission), the car in the neighbor's drive.

Tear down went fairly smoothly, very little dry rot to fix. I had to dash around the inside a couple of times, rescuing artwork and pots before they vibrated off their hooks or shelves, and I did lose a one-inch kiln post that fell off the shelf and broke, but otherwise all survived. The phone went out briefly on Thursday; turned out hammering in the shingle nails vibrated the power block out of its outlet. Similar problem yesterday, when the microwave and freezer failed. The Ground Fault Interrupter plug on the same circuit the bathroom kept popping, and junior installer, working the weekend, assumed he'd hit it with a nail. He took down some siding, tore open the wall and found the wire, but not the damage. He disconnected the plug, which made the microwave and work again. Senior installer, who did electrical work in the air force, brought in his kit and eventually determined that the ground wire had worked loose of the socket. Vibration again.

Some progress pictures:

It's starting to come together.

About two weeks ago, my desktop computer fritzed out. It had been progressively less reliable, not wanting to boot up when I pressed the On button. It'd flash, but not start; except, occasionally, it would. Sometimes even long enough to get a project done. Sometimes it'd quit again just as I sat down to work. Very frustrating.

It's not my only computer. I have two MacBooks, one that has MS Office and Adobe Creative Suite from the days when you could buy them, and another newer model that I got just because I could no longer do my taxes on my laptop or Denise's. Which will probably not be used for much more than that, because I refuse to rent ("subscribe" to) software I already own, I'm looking at you MS and Adobe. I've also got an Android tablet and cell phone, for internet browsing and photo references for glazing, and of course, processing card payments for the pottery business.

The desktop, though, is important because it can still run OS 9 Classic, which is what I need to use Freehand 7, my preferred graphics software. (Don't talk to me about Illustrator. Freehand was so much better. Which is probably why Adobe bought the parent company and killed it.)

So I'm on my second Mac G4 tower, the first having died in much the same way. Last time, I just bought a used replacement online, but that seemed wasteful, given that the carcass of v. 1 is still in my storage unit. So I took it to MacTonic, my local repair shop, where they had it a week, and told me it needed a $295 power supply, and maybe I should just get a replacement.

I took it home and went online to my supplier, DV Warehouse, where they indeed had the $295 part. They also had an early G4 for the same price, a later model for $395, and a Mirrored Door (my current) for $495. I thought about getting the cheaper machine. I thought about the dead computer in storage, that probably only needed the same part.

I bought the part.

It landed on my doorstep this morning, a long grey box with multiple cables and connectors, copiously swaddled in bubble wrap. I opened up my machine, taking pictures of every connection. Started unplugging cables, but couldn't figure out how to snake them out from behind all the other bits. Just at the point of hauling it all down to MacTonic, I remembered the internet. Googled "taking apart a Mac G4."

The first video was basically useless: badly lit, badly focused, music but no voice instruction. A dismantling music video. Second one was better, shorter and with specific instructions. I also found another fix-it site with photos and step-by-steps. Between the two, I was able to:

1. Disconnect ribbon cables and power leads from the mother board and drives.
2. Remove the primary hard drive.
3. Remove the back-up hard drive.
4. Unseat and remove the CD drive (and empty Zip Drive bay. Remember Zip drives?)
5. Disconnect and remove the cooling fan.

Which finally allowed me to unthread the power cables, unscrew the anchor, and slide out the power source.

Then I had to put it all back together. So glad I took pictures. I finally got everything reassembled in time for a lunch break; came back and plugged all the peripherals--keyboard, mouse, monitor. CD-R, flash drive, floppy drive. USB extension so I can plug in a thumb drive without reaching around the back of the machine (the one thing I envy about Windows boxes is the front USB port). Ethernet cable.

And, finally, the power cord. And then, heart in mouth, I pressed the "Start" button.

And it booted up first try.

I've turned it on twice since then, every time with a progressively smaller jolt of adrenaline, but it keeps working. Was able to send off a vector version of a logo to a banner maker, find and copy an artist statement for a gallery, download my email (200 items, I'll sort it out this weekend) and update the back-up copy of my pottery ledger.

Damn, it feels good.

Discovered just before our trip that the deadbolt on my studio door was broken. Knob turned, but the bolt didn't. Took it apart to find what was wrong. See that little round hole with what looks like half of a plus sign? That should be a whole plus sign, that a bar from the lock goes through. It's a little cam, held in place by a spring. Should be an easy fix, right?

The first locksmith I went to--highly rated online, been in business 40 years!--kinda sniffed at it. It's an Ultra, a bargain brand that I installed because a) our homeowners insurance would be cheaper if I had deadbolts on all the doors, and b) Keith Brown's Bargain Shed had 'em in four-packs, two doorknobs and two deadbolts, all on the same key. Well, he said, I can only fix it if it's [major brand] or [other major brand]. Could you re-key a new lock to my existing key? Sure, that's easy. I said I'd think about it.

I actually was going to swing by Bring Recycling over the weekend, see if they had any used locks I could scavenge for parts, but Friday I had to drive out to west Eugene to pick up a bale of grocery bags, and Emerald City Locksmith was only two blocks off my route, so I threw the locks in the car and stopped in. Put the bolt on the counter, said, It's broke. He agreed it was; I told him previous locksmith couldn't fix it because wrong brand. He took it in back, and two minutes later, brought out an identical, unbroken bolt, set them both on the counter. Delighted, I took out my card to pay, and he wouldn't accept it. Said it was free.

So I gave him an Off Center Ceramics business card, told him if he was ever at Saturday Market, he should stop by my booth and pick out a piece of pottery. Says he just might.

Got a call from my mechanic yesterday. My van is fixed!

Of course, I was in Seattle at the time. But at least it will be waiting for me when I get home.

I spent the rest of Monday sorting pots, restocking the Market boxes, and adding a few just for Anacortes: extra plates, bowls, tall mugs; boxes with pastas/bakers/pie plates and casserole/batter bowls, and one just full of extra crab and octopus pots. I also pulled out the display hardware I need to swap out. With a ten-by-ten booth, I can put in a larger bench and shelves, put out a few more things.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering if I should be looking at van rentals.

I mean, Ron thought he knew where the problem was--apparently, Astros are notorious for arcing where the cables cross over the distributor cap, it's a known design flaw. He also knew I needed to drive up to Washington on Wednesday, and promised to bump me up the queue a little. But what if he can't fix it?

Yeah, I'm always a little anxious right before shows.

This morning, I still hadn't heard anything. Today I'm doing all the little jobs: empty the dishwasher, clean up the kitchen, bake quiche crust for supper and cookies for the trip (and a few for the cat sitter). Fold the laundry, set out the table covers to go in the van. If the van gets done. Take Denise to physical therapy. Run down to the bank, the pharmacy, pick up some trip food. Sweep the floor, empty the litter boxes, worry about the van.

It's a circle.

I finally share my worries with Denise around 11 am. Why don't you call them? she sensibly asks. (Because I'm a middle kid, full of Catholic guilt, who never wants to be a bother to anyone.) But I do call.

I get the receptionist, who says she'll get one of the guys, and puts me on hold.

Wouldn't you know it? Hall of the Mountain King, though a rather better recording.

On about the second repeat, Ron comes on. It's running, he replaced the throttle body and plenum and several other things I don't understand. Take about an hour to get it back together. I offer to pick it up after Denise's PT this afternoon.

And finally, I can breathe again.

1. I ran two loads of laundry yesterday. The washing machine remains fixed.

2. The replacement Great Harvest stamp arrived in yesterday's mail. Too tired to work on them last night, but the mugs were still nicely pliable this morning, so I smoothed and stamped and pulled handles, which I will attach sometime after lunch.
a good stamp makes...

3. I finally got my booth assignment for this weekend's art fair in Roseburg. They gave me the booth I wanted, but renumbered the map! So this morning I spent an hour or two updating and re-sending my e-card and the Find Us link on my website. Nothing I can do about the physical postcards. Even if I wanted to hand-update and resend, there's no way they'd arrive in time.
same bat place, *different* bat channel

I'm gonna have words on the after-show evaluation form, I tell ya.

Doing laundry Friday, jeans in the dryer, went to check on a load of towels and... the selector dial said "Done," but the tub was still full of water. Cranked it back around to Drain/Spin, with no result. Fortunately, there are three different cycles on the dial, Normal, PermPress and Delicate, and it did still drain, rinse and spin on Permanent Press.

Took apart the panel yesterday, didn't see anything obviously scorched or broken behind the dial, just a big enclosed galvanized box with no obvious way to remove it. So I did what I should have done first.

I consulted the internet.

Googling "Whirlpool washer doesn't drain or spin" gave me a number of hits, all agreeing that the problem was with the lid switch, a little gizmo that registers whether the lid is open or closed. I watched two different vids, with two different styles of switch, both assuring me it was a 5-minute repair.

Readers, it was not a five minute repair.

Firstly, my washer was much older than both of the models shown, so the lid switch didn't resemble either. Mine is actually in four parts: the switch itself, a little bakelite box with a button on top; the frame, which holds a lever that transfers the impulse from the lid pin to the button; the lever; and a plastic cowl that keeps water out. The parts can all move independently of each other unless held in place by the mounting screws.

I got the little bugger out, confirmed with my circuit tester that the switch in fact still switched. Then I had to put it back together.

Problem is, the switch is under the inside rim of the frame, invisible and hard to hold in place when putting in the screws from outside. Keeping everything aligned is nearly impossible. I tried a trick that worked the last time I had this apart, putting short bamboo skewers into the holes to line everything up with the screw holes, then pulling them out one at a time. Problem was, the cowling didn't have holes, it had slots, open at the top, and the damn thing kept falling out as I was tightening the screws. I tried running strips of tape across the openings, but they didn't want to stick.

Finally figured out that I could partially screw in parts one through three, push the assembly back far enough to make space, then push the cowl up from beneath to fit slots over screws, and tighten everything up again.

But when I tested it, the spin cycle worked perfectly. Success!

Less than a week before Denise's knee surgery. The living/dining room, hall and kitchen are mostly cleared. Still working on the bathroom with the walk-in shower, rather than the tub, and she's picking up meds--what she can, Walgreens seems to be out of oxycodone--trying to arrange for physical therapist, and plotting out schedule of pre-surgery prep--showers, anti-microbial wipes, nose swabs. Wondering how to explain to the cats that they can't sleep on the bed with us Tuesday night. And dreading the 5 am check-in on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, I've been building ramps.
it sturdy!

I researched on-line, and found that a standard, ADA-compliant ramp has a rise of no more than one inch per foot, so our three-step front porch would have required a monster, with switchbacks. The side door, where I already had a home-brew ramp for moving clay into the studio, was only eight inches high. Crowded, though, ware boards and tool storage and the slab roller cart. In addition, there's another four-inch step in the hallway, just outside the kitchen door.

So again, I had to start by moving a bunch of stuff. My power tools are currently all in pottery totes, piled up in the studio, and I'll have to do some serious reorganizing before I can make pots again, but for now, there's a navigable path. All it needs are ramps.

And here they are! An eight-foot, straight-line ramp from the studio door that'll be a permanent feature--much easier to roll in clay--and a four-foot ramp in the hallway that'll probably come out once Denise can manage steps again. Special thanks to Jack Craven, husband of Saturday Market jeweler Teri, for design help and tool borrowing. I'd never heard of textured porch and deck paint, and he helped me figure out how to cut 2x8s on the diagonal to make the supports. Also loaned me his SkilSaw, after I'd made a perfect cut, only to discover that mine only cut three-quarters of the way through the board.
so, the decluttering still needs work...

so, the decluttering still needs work...

Also thanks to Jerrys, for the supplies. Two eight-foot 2x8s, three eight-foot 2x3s (for curbs), a 4x8' sheet of 3/4" shop sanded plywood, conveniently cut into three pieces, two 33" wide for the big ramp, one 30" for the smaller one. And the paint, $39 for a gallon--and that's cheap. Had I been building an ADA-approved ramp for a business, I'd have had to use the $149/gallon stuff, with about eight steps in the application process. As it was, I paid just under $140 for everything, though I sourced all the screws and a couple of short lengths of 2x4 from around the house.

I still need to paint the walking surface of the small ramp, and sometime this summer, I'll flip over the big one and give it a good coating of paint, for long-term waterproofing, but for tonight, I can check this off the list and go back to getting ready for Saturday Market tomorrow.

The big gas kiln at Club Mud had a problem. Concentrated heat in the fireboxes had baked the softbrick walls to the point where they were cracked, shrunken, or in worst case, curling like potato chips. Pieces were leaning out, blocking the flame path into the kiln, or threatening to fall out entirely. Obviously, something needed to be done.

I budgeted a week for kiln repairs. It took both more and less time than I expected.

I'd actually planned to tackle this earlier, working with Jon, the other potter who fires the kiln regularly. Then COVID set me back a week, and he volunteered to coach high school track in Portland and things got terribly complicated. Fortunately our treasurer, Don, had done a similar project on our previous small gas kiln, and he volunteered to help me out.

I did an estimate on brick needed--nine dozen--and ran up to Hi-Temp in Portland to collect them, just before my quarantine. Now it was time to take the beast apart. We took apart the bag walls--hard brick walls that take the burner flame and deflect it up into the top of the kiln--placing the two sides separately on the kiln car so we'd be able to reassemble them again later. Then it was time to attack the problem.

The walls of the kiln are two bricks deep. Most of the courses are stretchers--laid flat, running parallel to the wall, joins staggered. Every five or six courses, though we had headers--brick laid the short way, running through the wall, tying the inner and outer layers together. Replacing the stretchers was easy. Replacing the headers was like some reverse Jenga: tap the old brick out with a hammer and piece of two-by-four, slide in the new piece, all the while hoping the whole stack doesn't collapse. Then there were complications: the fully-loaded kiln furniture shelf that blocked the first three headers on one side, bricks too tight to shift on the other. We wound up cutting bricks flush and piecing in bits to fill awkward spots. Fortunately, Don is very good at cutting softbrick. I'm not; the saw tends to wander when I try.
out comes the bad brick...

It only took us three hours on Monday to do the entire right wall; another three on Tuesday for the left. (We could probably have continued working Monday--it was only 1 pm--but decided tired and stupid wasn't a good idea. I'm glad--the left side was the one with the too-tight bricks. I'm glad we came at it fresh.

Wednesday was a day off--Don had a standing appointment, and we were waiting the the ITC to arrive.

ITC 100 is a high-temperature kiln coating that reflects heat away from the surface it's on. It's amazing stuff--I saw someone make a firebox door for a wood kiln by slathering the stuff on a sheet of plywood. Coating our brick will help prevent it from overheating, cracking and shrinking again. It took two pints, diluted with 50% water (to make three pints total) to cover the entire new firebox surface, with a quarter cup left over.
like whitewashing a fence

I did it on Thursday in about an hour, then spent another hour with the shop vac, cleaning up scraps and brick dust. Friday, after everything had dried, I put the bag walls back together, did a little last clean-up, and put the extra bricks away. I'd overestimated, had three dozen left, but there's always need for repairs.

One of my favorite Ann Reed songs from back in my radio days was a fast-paced ditty listing all the things going on in the songwriter's life. I don't remember the lyrics in detail, but the hook has stayed with me: "More complications to a simple life!"

It me.

So the plan was, I'd finish Holiday Market, take a few days for Christmas. Pack and ship presents to family in the midwest. Spend a week relaxing and reading and eating cookies, then head back into the studio at the point when my hands couldn't stay away from the clay any longer.

I was going to take it easy, limit myself to 50 lbs. throwing a day, spend three weeks on wet work, throwing and trimming, instead of the two that I raced through before the Holidays, then a long week glazing. Fire on the first of February.

It mostly worked? I mean, I also had to recycle 400 lbs. of clay, before it got too dry, but that means I had 400 lbs. more clay, right? And the extra three special orders that popped up on email were fine, I was gonna throw pasta bowls and dessert plates and little tiny toddler mugs... well, one outta three ain't bad.

But I finally got everything done, trimmed the last three dozen soup bowls last Friday morning, so I could run errands in the afternoon, buy bread... and Great Harvest Bakery was down to nine mugs (out of the 45 I took them in December). So I came home and used up the last of my recycled clay making two dozen mugs to carry them over to my next firing in April. It's fine, right?

Then the kiln blew a circuit breaker while firing Friday afternoon. I caught it before we'd lost too much heat, reset, restarted and it continued to completion. But the following firing blew the breaker twice, and that was the firing that had the ball clay I had to calcine to mix glaze because I ran out last month and only made two buckets, which weren't enough for this glaze run so I needed to mix more. And I got an email from someone wanting to pick up some stew mugs for her daughter-in-law's birthday and could she get six? (Including one in a pattern I'd run out of at Holiday Market.)

I've been getting very little sleep lately.

But things are slowly getting better. I went over the trouble-shooting flow chart at the Skutt Kilns website, and talked to one of their support techs, and we both concluded that it wasn't the kiln (whew!) but might well be the breaker, which is frustrating, because it's only been... oh lord, five years? since I got my kiln and had to rewire the studio with a heavier-duty breaker. Still, it's an easy fix, requiring only two trips for parts (Jerry's didn't have 80 amp breakers, only 70 and 90, so I had to drive down to Garfield Street to get the one I needed. Had it back together by lunchtime, left Denise to keep an eye on it while I went and glazed pots, staying until almost 8 pm to catch up on forty tall mugs.

The firing went fine, as did today's follow-up, so I guess it was the breaker. And I took the van to the studio, mixed up a 10,000-gram batch of glaze this morning, and pulled out stew mugs while the glaze was slaking, just in time for my customer. I didn't get that much glazing done--32 stew mugs and the last batter bowl--but I'm hoping once tomorrow's Club Mud meeting is over, the complications will slack off a bit and I can just paint pots for a few days.

Pictures tomorrow, I promise.

It's been a full week since we unloaded the glaze kiln. In that time, I've:

1. Packed and shipped eight boxes of pottery to customers from Connecticut to California.
2. Driven to Olympia and back delivering pottery to a gallery.
3. Had my most successful Saturday Market ever.

I've made forty mugs for Great Harvest Bakery, twenty pasta service bowls for a special order, as well as pie plates, dessert plates, casseroles, squared bakers, and small covered crocks. And a cookie jar.

It's been a busy week.

Denise and I also braved public spaces Wednesday night for a month-late birthday celebration, going to see Post Modern Jukebox at the Hult Center. We had our masks and ID and vaccination cards, tickets... and totally forgot to bring teddy bears. (Guess I'll just have to play them some YouTube videos.) The show was great, six-piece band, emcee and three soloists and a tap dancer, doing everything from a Cab Calloway cover of "Thriller" to "Dancing Queen" in hot jazz. The final encore was the "Friends" theme, evolving over the decades from 1920 to 1990. Much fun, highly recommended.

On the less fun side, my trike's got a flat tire. I fixed the tube, only to have it go flat on me again down at Santa Clara Square, necessitating a walk home. On the upside, I was able to stop and collect Denise's arthritis meds at Walgreen on the way home. On the downside, it took the better part of an hour, between waiting in line, getting the insurance sorted, and finally having the prescription made up. I really miss BiMart Pharmacy, where everybody knew our names.

Also less fun, Wednesday, the van's horn went off for no reason. It was in the carport, where I can't access the hood to open, and in backing out, I backed into the car. No real damage, just a bent license plate, but it didn't help nerves already jangled by the horn. Finally got the hood open and the battery disconnected, so I could hear myself think, read the manual and found the correct fuse to remove. Unfortunately, it's also the fuse for the tail lights, so I'll have to run it down to my mechanic on Monday to have it fixed properly; we'll definitely be driving after dark during Holiday Market.

Not doing Saturday Market tomorrow, because Denise and I are going to a bookbinding workshop at Maude Kerns Art Center. Will try to get some pictures to post. Meanwhile, here are some pictures from last Sunday's Great Pottery Boxing Marathon.