Author: John

One sheet of very inexpensive, workshop-grade plywood is now a prototype of a 23″ x 47″ coffee table.

So, now it’s clear why I had a bit of India ink. I’d heard last summer that it seemed to be gaining popularity in use so had to give it a go. If you’re looking for a pure-black stain, this is a good choice.

I think on the next, presentation-version of the coffee-table, I’ll use finished Baltic Birch plywood as it has fewer voids and more robust surfaces. Maybe red-oak for the legs, still stained black of course.

After an absolutely abysmal effort at an assessment of an older skill, it occurs to me that either I was over-interpreting the questions or that it’s definitely time to clear out the proverbial skills fridge and delete the much older skills from it.

Nah, I’m not going to delete bash from the Skills list. In retrospect, I’m quite certain that I was overanalyzing it.

Also, bash isn’t dead yet and there aren’t many left who can use it.

On the eleventh hour
Of the eleventh day
Of the eleventh month
The guns fell silent

Take two minutes silence to observe and contemplate the sacrifices that we’d made then, now, and in the future.

There, solved. Both the fixture and the bulb. Good for another 65 years of life.

To whomever inherits the result, you’re welcome.

Gosh, I can’t imagine why it may not have been working when I simply unscrewed the incandescent bulb to put in an LED.

Now that’s some ancient tech! Varnished cloth insulators were phased out back in the 1960s a few years after this house was built.

Looking more closely at it in some proper light, I’m rather astonished that it was even capable of sustaining voltage sufficient for the 60w incandescent bulb that was in it.

Yeah, I know, it’s a rental. Don’t care. Going to fix it. It’s part of my pay-it-forward policy of leaving a place in a better condition than when I arrive — in this case, I’ll replace every bulb with far more efficient LEDs.

How many?

Well…

Upstairs

• 26 incandescent bulbs around 60w.
• A few first-gen CFLs. Heh, remember those things? When they were cold?! Outside?!?

Basement

• Nine ancient ballast-driven, 4-bulb, fluorescent fixtures (yep, 36 bulbs). A few of the fixtures have failing and failed ballasts.
• Another eight BR30 (60- to 120-watts) flood lights.

Outside

• Oh, we’re not done yet — nine incandescent BR30 and BR40 flood lights between 60 and 120-watts.
• The bulb that was in that fixture itself.
• And a few of those flood fixtures are broken (unusable).

Total wattage? Honestly I don’t know. Didn’t keep track of exactly what wattage each bulb was. But with more than a few lights on, I don’t even want to think about what the previous tenants’ electric bills would’ve been.