AC Window Frame Progress - Lath & Plexi Cut

Continuing with the A/C Window panel project for our third story (attic) I started here.

Of course, at every conceivable opportunity I try out my ideas, try the fitting of pieces to cut down on the opportunities for a nasty surprise. What works on paper never exactly pans out when you get to cutting. For instance, cutting any kind of frame with 45deg corners is tricky business, even with a miter guide (bought special for the occasion, I might add.) Also, in an attempt to get the frame just a little shorter because it had too much wiggle, I cut just a hair too much off and had to trim the long pieces. This made the long pieces too short and to fit the window, so I had to dremel the edge with a sanding attachment until I got it to fit. So yeah, trying to out with dry runs are important.

Got to gluing. Remember to take caution when screwing through lath, it's weak stuff and prone to crack and if you don't have your driver set to the lowest torque setting you're going to strip the hole. To clamp all the pieces in place I used wood screws (with pilot holes) to keep everything locked tight while the glue set. It also helped to hold in one side while precisely placing the others. When I was ready to glue I'd unscrew one side, spread the glue in, screw it back in pace and then unscrew the next section. I left the top unglued to fit in the plexiglass as findal step.

Air Conditioner Window Mount

Portable air conditioner for our 3rd floor/finished attic.





We've had this portable air conditioner for a number of years, and for years I've been trying half baked ideas for overcoming some of the challenges it presents. One such challenge is to mount the ducts to vent air outside. The idea has been to replace the screen in the window with something that holds the vents securely but lets the light in. Last year I just put up a sheet of plexiglass and held it in place with silicone. It was ugly. So I'm building window mount from wood with a plexiglass window (recycled from last year's project).

Once again Adobe Ideas on the iPad serves as a great application for drawing up plans.






Got the materials at Menards and wound up buying a bundle of 50 pieces of lath and a 4'x4' sheet of 1/4" birch ply.

UPS Suck Becomes Endemic

I couple days ago I mentioned that UPS Has Some Sucky Drivers and that's true, but it turns out that the company kind of sucks too. Precisely, it has one sucky policy.

When the Joby Gorillapod finally showed up, both packages were delivered, the replacement order and the original both. So, although I could have kept it and nobody would have been the wiser, the right thing to do was return it to Amazon. When I took the return to UPS to send it back to Amazon the clerk at the UPS office asks me, "Do you have tape?" I say, "no" and she tells me that it will cost a dollar to have them tape it up. Seriously? UPS can't afford to take half a second and a couple feet of clear packing tape and just do that for customers as a courtesy? Really? UPS, you suck.

So it cost me not only the time and trouble of a trip to the UPS store to do the right thing, but also a dollar. Does it ever pay to do the right thing when corporations are involved, or should I just say, "screw 'em" and keep the extra $60 order next time?

I guess Amazon needs to strike a deal with UPS to include packing tape service with their

Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Rocks

I finally received the Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom I needed to complete my overhead rig for the Mendel shoot. I hadn't been sure it would work until I set it up. As you can see, even with the full rig of of the matt box and french flag to ward off glare it holds firm in on the horizontal bar. I'm glad I got the ball head with it, though, or getting it lined up would be a bit of a challenge.

UPS Has Some Sucky Drivers

I was supposed to receive my Joby SLR-Zoom order from Amazon today and I was really looking forward to getting started with shooting for the Mendel project. However, UPS screwed up and must have delivered it to the wrong address.

We have a bad history with UPS at this house. Sometimes their tracking says "no such address" even though they've delivered here before. I really think that the UPS drivers who don't normally deliver here may sometimes feel like they don't want to go to the trouble, and they put "no such address" as an excuse and leave. I get it, we are hard to find, but seriously! Once someone at UPS has figured out where we are is there no way to share that information with the rest of UPS, like put it in our record or something and not have this problem any more.

Apparently not. Amazon's online help says to call the carrier, and I did. According to them the only way to get something added to our record is for the shipper to complain, and when I finally did figure out how to contact Amazon by phone they said they can't do the thing that UPS wants to get them to note the record.

Amazon Tip: If you don't receive your order from Amazon even though UPS tracking says it's been "delivered", you need to go to the "returns" process at Amazon. That's counter-intuitive, clearly, and it threw me off for a while. In the "returns" process there is a place to indicate that you did not receive your order, and then from there you follow the yellow brick road. It ends up, optionally, that instead of calling them you input your number and they call you. They were prompt and the customer service agent could be easily understood. They are sending me a fresh box. If there are no more f**k-UPS then it will be here Friday.

So, no shooting until Friday at the earliest, but realistically I'll probably get started next week.