Oh Ho Ho Ho Ho! Daddy Scored.

It's going to take some fucking around but eventually I am going to wind up with this,

The Wifely Unit did good.

She started asking me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her I wanted a new windshield for the El Camino.

Nope, she wasn't having none of that, too much hassle.
That would have been a piece of cake in hindsight.
I rattled off a couple of other minor thing and she kept shooting me down so I finally told her, what I really want is...

Blink blink.

A what?

Yeah, a mini lathe, I just happen to have a picture of one right here.

So I showed her and then went about my day.
Then I got a 25% off Harbor Freight coupon in my Email that was only good for one more day so I sent that to her. Come to find out she had already got me a bunch of gift cards so she had to drive back down there, use those and get the lathe.
One problem, they didn't have the 7X12 model.
It's an order only item. They gave her some song and dance about it being something they don't even carry in their warehouse.

So she got me the 7X10 unit.

She's a good woman that girl.

It's sitting out in the garage, still in the crate.
I also scored on another $150 worth of Harbor Freight gift cards from various members of the family.

Those are going towards the other item I have been wanting for two years that she keeps shooting down.

My current work bench consists of three 2X6's sitting on a couple of plastic saw horses.
Not exactly top of the line but it works to a point. Very much in the way though.


So tomorrow bright and early, say Noonish when I finally get woke up, I am loading up the 7X10 and hauling it back to them and getting the 7X12 ordered. According to my miscalculations using their numbers from the ads, it's only going to be another $30 difference to get the longer unit.

It's like sex, those extra two inches make all the difference in the world.

When it finally shows up then the real fun begins. I have been watching YouTube videos for a week that deal with those units specifically and they have..... issues.

The very first thing that needs to happen is to tear the thing apart.
The wife is going to freak, the fuck, out.

They are covered in grease everywhere to keep them from rusting while in storage and the tolerances leave much to be desired.
Everything will have to be checked for clearances, alignment, loose fasteners and damage. While it is apart I will be going to NAPA and getting an Industrial belt right from the get go so I won't have to replace the cheap Chinese one in it in two months anyway.

Then there is the not so small issue of tooling and upgrades that are in the immediate future.
It is very easy to surpass the cost of the lathe to begin with just getting upgrades and tooling.

That is going to be a little here, a little there thing.

But, I am pretty stoked about it.

The very first order of business today is to get my sorry ass out in that disaster of a garage and start getting crap piled up to go away, something I have been working on slowly ever since we moved into this joint.
I know for a fact that I have already made six trips to the dump and I am going to bite the bullet hard this time and get rid of some shit that I am never going to use but hate to get rid of.

There is only so much square footage out there and some of it needs to be reclaimed.

I certainly hope you all had a nice Christmas as well, friends and family are always a big part of the season and I think that is the one thing I do like about it.
I do know that I am glad it's over though.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Thanks for stopping by .