Clearing

Yesterday afternoon I was working at the drill press, which faces the broad shop windows, when suddenly the sun came out, a sight I hadn't seen in what seemed like weeks. What a weird season this has been. Mom said April 15 was the first time in 74 years she remembers snow on the ground on her birthday. But in a matter of hours, with one vast, impatient gesture, a great arm has swept away gloom and cold. Today is wondrously mild, and the clear sky catches in my throat. I step outside to hear a song sparrow staking its territory in a deformed spruce next door.

Les has flown out West until a week from Sunday and left me with a few days of work. The past few weeks have been hectic, and I'm taking the opportunity today to be just a little slack, but only for a few minutes; there's much to do. I'll post more about that later, from home.

ubermunkey should be in transit today. I will take Monday to Wednesday off to spend with him. I suppose we have him to thank for this gust of warmth.

Toe boards

As Les prepared to leave for 10 days, he set me up with work to do while he is away. Sunday evening he left a phone message for me: "Bring a notebook tomorrow. I have a lot of information to pass on to you in the next few days. I have an encyclopedic knowledge, and strong opinions on some things. But I want you to start forming opinions of your own."

Could this job be turning into an apprenticeship?

This week I've been on my feet eight hours a day, every day, drilling hundreds upon hundreds of holes. We're constructing toe boards, so called because the toes of all the organ pipes insert into them. They form the upper surface of the wind chests, channelling pressurized air to the pipes. These channels are complex, each with an expansion chamber called a cell. In this image the cells are exposed, but they'll be covered with a wood veneer drilled with smaller holes for the toes. For each channel, I have drilled as many as seven holes. The size of each cell varies according to the size of the pipe. These are the largest holes I drilled: 75 mm. The steel bit is designed to operate at high speeds and temperatures. It gives off palpable heat when operating. It works at about 1,000 rpm. In other words, the outer edge of the drill is moving at 850 kph.

The lumber is known as poplar here, elsewhere as American whitewood. It actually comes from the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. It has a smooth, buttery texture when planed smooth.