Island Sunrise #11

Island Sunrise #10

The Fuzz never gets tired of the pilings under the pier.

Leg Vise (of sorts)

While The Fuzz makes no claims as to his joinery, he does find himself involved in various projects at times.  And many of these involve wood working.  He has learned through experience that having the piece in question firmly secured goes a long way toward making the job more successful and enjoyable.

And so the other day he decided to add a leg vise to his workbench.

In researching this project, he discovered that one aspect of a real leg vise is a way to keep the jaws alined vertically parallel to each other.

It seems that there are a number of ways to achieve this.

Here we see a couple of ways this can be done.

On the left there are a multitude of holes with a pin to adjust for the thickness of the work piece.

On the right we see a set of 2 screws linked by a chain and sprocket system to keep thing lined up.

But in his research, The Fuzz had happened upon a post where a guy had used an alternate, much less complex method to achieve this.
It seems that in his research this guy misread another post, and developed an alternative system of his own.
(The fact that he had been drinking a bit of beer could have contributed to this!)
Anyway, rather than using a complicated arrangement, he simply used a spacer at the foot (3), corresponding to the size of the work piece.  He further refined this by utilizing a tapered spacer - thus making the whole thing adjustable as well!
Great idea, and definitely compatible with The Fuzz's style.

Naturally, The Fuzz had his own way of doing things.
Because of the offset of the leg (1)...

He thought it best to mount the "jaw" at a corresponding angle.

This block (2) is only temporary for test purposes and will be replaced with some tapered pieces later.
He hit the Home Improvement Store for some threaded rod, nuts and a couple of pieces of pipe.

Holes were then drilled through the "vise" and a corresponding spot on the leg of the workbench - being careful to keep everything lined up and level. 

The pipes were threaded into these holes...

And a nut welded to the one in the leg.

The Fuzz had driven a piece of a hex shaped socket* on the other end of the threaded rod foolishly thinking it would hold...

Of course it didn't once it was screwed down and pressure applied.

So he ended up welding that one as well.

He finished up by carving out a hardwood handle to fit over the hex shaped end.

If this thing seems to be just a little bit tilted, that's because it is.

But this was intentional in order to allow for a slightly wider jaw.  This slight angle shouldn't have any affect on the griping power of the thing.

*This was like one of those old sparkplug wrenches...

Kinda  like this one.

 

Island Sunrise #9

1st Broad River Trail

Gotta backtrack just a bit for this one.

The Fuzz had been watching this area lately crossing the river on trips into town.  Then he saw in a local publication that it was a new walking/biking trail along the river.  So he suggested to His Sweetie that they check it out.

They didn't realize that they had picked the day of the "Grand Opening" but that turned out not to matter since they got there early, ahead of the crowd.

It turned out that it was pretty nice.

This trail follows a stretch of the 1st Broad River and will be part of the Carolina Thread Trail when finished.  But for now it's just a nice place to walk.

In a previous post we talked about Falls Park and their fancy suspension bridge.

Well our local folks have our own version of that!

Maybe not quite as elaborate, but cool just the same.

There are some nice views overlooking the river.

And a few places to get down to it as well.

The trail passes under highway 74...

And continues on for a bit more.

But, as was mentioned, is unfinished.

Here's a lady enjoying it this morning.

The Fuzz's Sweetie was so impressed that she wanted to come back and do a bit of painting there some morning.

So they went back a couple days later.

Now what had The Fuzz's interest, was the Kayak & Canoe access, being a bit of a puddleduck himself.

Admittedly, it's nothing fancy, but we're not talking about blue water cruisers here anyway.

And since the river was high enough, he brought his little kayak along.

First he made his way upstream a bit toward this dam.

It's for the local water plant.

Now that he was confident that he could make progress against the current, he headed downstream, along the trail.

Toward the abandoned Southern Railroad Trestle;

And on, under the Grover St bridge, new suspension footbridge and Seaboard RR Trestle.

He stopped for a bit where this stream flows over the rocks and into the river.

Of course things look different from down in the river.

Under the Seaboard Trestle.

Tree roots in the riverbank.

The Fuzz stopped just above these rapids.  He figured it was time to go back and meet up with His Sweetie.  Maybe next time...

Then off for a bit of lunch.

They both enjoyed the morning so much that there are already plans to go back!

Falls Park on the Reedy

Another year had flown by for The Fuzz.  At this point it's no big deal.  Turning 18 might be - or 21 to be sure.  But that was a long time ago.  And at Our Fuzz's time of life - it's just one more.

Still....

This day only comes once a year and His Sweetie asked him if he wanted to do anything special to mark the occasion.

After some thought he mentioned a movie he had been wanting to see, and if it was in town, he would kinda like that.  But, being a "limited release" of course it wasn't.

That's one drawback to living out here in the country.

But she had been wanting to take him down to South Carolina ever since she had been to Greenville with some of her friends.  So she suggested that he check online to see if it was playing there.

Having internet makes living in the sticks not quite as bad as some might expect.

Greenville S.C. is a pretty big place, The Fuzz would call it a "Big City".  And the flick was playing there.  And they both enjoyed it.

But that's not the subject of this post.

One reason His Sweetie wanted to get The Fuzz down there was to see Falls Park.

And it was worth the trip.

The Park is right there in the middle of the Big City.

This will be mostly pix-

In case you haven't guessed that by now.

Like a lot of American cities this one was originally built along the Reedy River which provided a handy source of power.

And like a lot of other places, when industrialization came, this area went down.

But as can be seen, eventually people realized what they had lost and decided to try and turn things around.

But why "Falls Park"?

Of Course!

These next shots of the falls were made from the Liberty Bridge.

This is a cool suspension across the gorge with a great view.

And...

The Fuzz had to get a few pix of the bridge as well.

It seems to be a pretty popular place.

And interesting with the curve...

And the cables.

Falls Park is a nice place to pass an afternoon.

The gardens are beautiful.

This small stream flows in from one side.

How about these natural stone stairways?

Then it was time for a burger & beer before getting back to the woods, and home.

 

Island Sunrise #8

With Beach Birds of course.

Wheat Field

While The Fuzz and His Sweetie were out for a morning walk out here in the country, he stopped to admire this wheat field.

And since he did have his camera, he couldn't resist a pix!

Island Sunrise #7

The Fuzz says there might be a few more of these coming.