Working slowly in the rain
It rained all day today. The rain started last night, and by this morning it had become quite heavy. It has been a long time since we had this much rain. Yesterday, the news was often talking about water shortages in many areas, and people were being asked to save water. The situation seems quite serious. I hope this rain will help bring some water back to the dams.
Today I stayed in the workshop all day, but it was a slower and more relaxed work process. Because of the rain, I did not glue the sliding key panels on the 14-steps puzzle boxes. Tomorrow will be sunny, but the humidity will still be a little high, so I think it is better to wait a bit longer. If I decide to continue, I may glue the side with the larger bonding area out of the two surfaces. This side is clearly less affected by humidity. The difference in bonding area between the two sides is only about 3 to 4 millimeters, but in this kind of work, that small difference is actually very big.
Even though it was a rainy day, I carried out the mechanism check for the finished 4-sun 27-steps puzzle boxes. After the coating process is completed, the mechanisms are completely stuck because of the paint. I carefully separate them and make them move again. I have mentioned this step many times before, but it is always a difficult process. In order to do this step well, many kinds of preparation are done in advance. All of that preparation is to make sure I do not ruin everything at this final stage. Today the work went safely, but because of the rain, there is a chance that the mechanisms have absorbed some humidity. So for now, I will not do the packaging work, such as putting the boxes into plastic bags and then into their presentation boxes. I will wait until tomorrow, or maybe the day after tomorrow, when the humidity has fully gone down. At that time, I will gently move the mechanisms once more and then pack them. Until then, I will store them in a humidity-controlled case.
I just realized I did not write about this, but I already glued the top and bottom panels of the 14-steps puzzle boxes yesterday. Before going out yesterday, I had a little time, and I thought, “It will rain tomorrow, so the humidity might be high…” So I decided to do the gluing while the weather was still clear. That turned out to be the right decision. I carefully cut the panels, but with today’s weather, I would hesitate to glue them. The photo shows the process of that step.
Today I stayed in the workshop all day, but it was a slower and more relaxed work process. Because of the rain, I did not glue the sliding key panels on the 14-steps puzzle boxes. Tomorrow will be sunny, but the humidity will still be a little high, so I think it is better to wait a bit longer. If I decide to continue, I may glue the side with the larger bonding area out of the two surfaces. This side is clearly less affected by humidity. The difference in bonding area between the two sides is only about 3 to 4 millimeters, but in this kind of work, that small difference is actually very big.
Even though it was a rainy day, I carried out the mechanism check for the finished 4-sun 27-steps puzzle boxes. After the coating process is completed, the mechanisms are completely stuck because of the paint. I carefully separate them and make them move again. I have mentioned this step many times before, but it is always a difficult process. In order to do this step well, many kinds of preparation are done in advance. All of that preparation is to make sure I do not ruin everything at this final stage. Today the work went safely, but because of the rain, there is a chance that the mechanisms have absorbed some humidity. So for now, I will not do the packaging work, such as putting the boxes into plastic bags and then into their presentation boxes. I will wait until tomorrow, or maybe the day after tomorrow, when the humidity has fully gone down. At that time, I will gently move the mechanisms once more and then pack them. Until then, I will store them in a humidity-controlled case.
I just realized I did not write about this, but I already glued the top and bottom panels of the 14-steps puzzle boxes yesterday. Before going out yesterday, I had a little time, and I thought, “It will rain tomorrow, so the humidity might be high…” So I decided to do the gluing while the weather was still clear. That turned out to be the right decision. I carefully cut the panels, but with today’s weather, I would hesitate to glue them. The photo shows the process of that step.