GABF

Thursday night Marlys and I went to the Great American Beer Festival at the Denver Convention Center. We had tried to go last year but found out after standing in line for about an hour that if you didn't already have a ticket you were out of luck.

This year we bought our tickets early and living downtown made for a simple walk over and home without needing a designated driver.

We showed up early but still ended up at the end of a line that stretched around the convention center. Once in, with our official GABF glasses for the 1oz pours, there were 406 brewery's from which to select. We came no where near trying all of the brewery's let alone the 1884 different brews that were there, but we did learn a few things.

• Marlys is not an ale drinker, especially India Pale Ales (IPA).
• Many of the stouts almost tasted like a whiskey.
• Apricot Wheat is my favorite fruit beer.
• There are a lot of bad beers.
• This was a real friendly crowd.
• It is possible to get beered out.

Most of the time the tasting was one or two sips then throw the rest in a slop bucket and rinse the glass out for the next brew. Even with the crowds we rarely waited more then a 1 or 2 minutes to try a brew.

Out of the ~40 brews (of 1884) we tried here are the brewery's (of 408) we thought would be worth a second look.

• Alltech's Lexington Brewing Co.
• Great Adirondack Brewing Co.
• Hale's Ales Brewing
• Redrock Brewing Co.
• Rooters Brewing Co.
• Smugglers Brewpub and Grill
• Trumer Brauerei

We didn't try those that are local and/or easily available, e.g. New Belgium, Breckenridge, Flying Dog, Tommy Knocker, Sierra Nevada etc.

It was also sometimes hard to smile when someone would tell you they mortgaged the house and spent the savings to start their brewery, when the brew was bad. In fact, I thought that the brews I made back in the 80's were better then some of ones I tried.

Hey maybe I should get back into it...and start a brewpub ;>

Wind Storm

The wind blew and blew this weekend as a cold front decided to park over the Collegiate's putting AC in a big pressure gradient. One indicators of the gradient was a 40 degree temperature difference between Aspen, Gunnison and west of the divide and Canon City and the Teller County area.

When we get wind storms at AC they generally are post frontal out of the NW, but this one has a steady southerly component. It started on Friday and didn’t end until front passage Sunday morning.

Many of the Aspen groves were at peak so this served to strip the trees bare ending some of the more colorful views in the area. It is/was still a good weekend for colors with gold, rust and reds. Most of the Ponderosa’s have dropped there needles also, so the look of an early stage beetle bit tree is ending.

On Friday night as the front would waver there would be times when the quiet was deafening, and then you could hear the train a-coming round the bend. When it would hit the house, beyond the boom of impact there was not the shutter, which had been our experience in previous homes, e.g. Parker, Eagan and Omaha. I guess the engineering on Pinon Rock, although a bit of a pain in the arse last year (4/9/06 post) is paying off…knock on wood. If you remember we ended up putting a steel I-beam in the floor of the great room to support the prow against just these types of forces.

This was a four day weekend for me and my goal was to get a few things marked complete on my project list. I also wanted to work on some none house projects like setting up a new table saw, assembling the legs for the coffee table and smoothing the carved bowls on the key/change table. Since last weekend we spent in town, there were also a couple of things that needed installation. But the main reason for the long weekend was the installation of a propane direct vent free standing stove in the lower level family room.

The stove went in without much of a hassle and the remote control thermostat and controller is pretty cool. This should more them take the chill of the lower level this winter. Now I can measure the space for a big screen to go in beside it.

Herb and I also wanted to do some work on the snow fences, e.g. repairing, moving and figure out how much more should be put installed. Eventually Jim would also show up to help and bring the end of day beer. This would turn into some real Keystone Cop scenes with the wind rolling up the fence as fast as we laid it out and the need for Jim to “gauge” the setting of each t-post before we could move on. The joke telling also got kind of dangerous when the punch line coincided with the lifting of the t-bar driver. We were lucky there were no on the job accidents that a set of Depends couldn’t resolve.

Over that last few weeks I have been researching the purchase of a new table saw. I have had a Makita 2703 since 1999 and it has served us well, but I had out grown its capabilities and a larger saw (read heavier) would be needed for a few up coming projects (e.g. cowboy sideboard). I would have loved to have a full cabinet saw, like BK’s Delta Unisaw, but it didn’t appear that I could find a cabinet shop that selling off its equipment. The new hybrid saws were still out of my price range, so a contractor’s saw seemed to be type I would be looking at. I read up on many of the brands like the Jet, Delta, Powermatic, General, Grizzly and on and on. All seemed to be good. So I listed what I wanted, it was a short list; a cast iron table with double cast iron wings, a belt drive motor (vs. direct drive) and a substantial fence system that would accommodate sheet wood. I started thinking that a Jet fit the picture and Rockler was having a sale, but I still kept looking around until I could come up with a good rationalization to tell Marlys on the “need” this saw would fill.

After a few weeks I was pretty confused, after reading numerous reviews it was clear each saw had good and less good points and unless there was a sale they were not in range of my price point of $500. When I have run into this before “tools of the trade.com” helps me get back to the basics of what I want. This is a web site that reviews tools people actually work with, not just sit and admire. Many of the high-end woodworking sites will do a great review, but there tends to not be any room for compromise (ah, the real world) so their picks tend to be high-end tools with a matching high-end price. My price point was very much in the bottom feeder range for this type of saw.

TOTT had a comparison review of contractor saws that caught my eye. After reading it they pretty much said that the Rigid TS 3650 even though it had a low end price its features were that of a saw at the higher end of the range. This was not a saw on my radar screen. I have seen them plenty of times in Home Depot; they are hard to miss because they are pumpkin orange.

I started to look into them and about the only complaint on one forum was that someone thought they wobbled and wouldn’t handle large sheet goods well, which was one of the reason I wanted a larger saw. A number of other folks said this must have been a poorly assembled saw, because they used it for large pieces day in and day out. So last weekend I did my own survey. First I went to Home Depot and butt checked the end of the front rail to get a feel for my baseline wobble index. Then over the course of the next two days I butt checked a number of Deltas, two Jets, a Powermatic, a Hitachi and a General. Of all of these the Powermatic was the most solid, the cast iron Jet was about like the Rigid and all of the other seemed to wobble more, but let me put this in context, none of them moved much and the leveler adjustment on the legs was the most critical item (if the table was assembled correctly).

So I went over to buy a saw.

They had a scratch and dent model for $50 off the list price, but that didn’t move me off of a brand new one in the box. I asked if there was any type of discount if a HD card was used and they said only if it was a new account, damn I had used that discount up when I bought the miter saw 5 years ago. Then a voice from the Contractors Desk said come over here for a minute, which I did. I was told that if I signed up for a Commercial Account I would get a credit and a discount applied to my first purchase. Sold!

One of the other items mentioned on the review forums was that you should plan to spend about 6-8 hours assembling the saw, and to get some help because with a complete cast iron top it could be a beast to stand up. No problem I figured I could call Mike or Herb, if I got stuck. Plus, no tools had ever taken me more then an hour to setup, so this must have been written by a woos.

Well, it took me right around 8 hours spread over two days, and I just about blew a gasket lifting it on to its legs; only to find out that since I had assembled it upside down, I had assembled the integrated wheel lift assemble…upside down. Now it sat in the middle of the floor and I couldn’t move it. It took some finagling, but I got the wheel lift off and repositioned correctly, so that with one step on a pedal the saw is raised off the floor so I can move it around. Even with the 40TPI Rigid blade this saw makes some sweet cuts.

So what did I give up; a magnetic on/off switch (safety) and a Biesmeyer Fence (the gold standard and costs as much as the saw), either of which I could retro at a later date.

So what else did I accomplish this weekend?
- Re-trimmed the garage doors after the door installers scratched the crap out of the trim putting in the doors last fall. I also painted the trim green, so I figured I was done with painting until Marlys said the doors themselves need to painted to match the house and oh BTW the trim on the rear of the house (that no one will see) has to be painted green also…when will the painting nightmare end.
- Installed the Hot Water Lobster underneath the utility sink to stop the cold water line freeze up experienced last winter. This would have been easier done last year before the washer and dryer where installed, but hey I enjoy a challenge. As I squeezed my 217#’s under the sink and after getting a shot of water as I disconnected the feed line I jerked and smacked my head. From there on out I only needed the flexibility of a contortionist to get everything in, along with being irritated by water dripping down my ear and neck. When I evacuated my frame from the seemingly shrinking space I found that the dripping water was actually blood and the puddle of water my head was in fact not water and was staining the grout in the tile floor…which had not yet been sealed. As you can see from the picture I did get it installed and set for a cool down temp of around 100F before the cross over opens on the hot water line and allows the warm water to move down the cold water line via convection.
- I also finally got around to sealing the coax entry point on the rear gable where the satellite dish cabling comes into the house.
- I also vacuumed up a number of wasps and crickets that moved inside from the change in temperature…I hope. For insurance I bug bombed the entire house when we left on Sunday.
- I also shooed a number of large Angus cows away that kept moving in on me as worked down near the barn on Sunday. This was accomplished by waving my arms and saving shoo doggie. As they meandered a few feet away I noticed from the rear that they had intact swinging appendages. I also remembered that bulls attacked the movement, not the color of the cape. So I stopped, and let them watch whatever it is they though I was doing that was so interesting. I should have taken a clue from Dusty, who the day before when finding “real cows” by the barn barked a few time to move them away, but on this day didn’t do anything, but look at these bovine bulls.
- Let’s see we also got the flat screen for over the fireplace, now I need to get the right bracket to hang it. We had planned to suspend it from the ceiling, but Marlys thinks an articulated arm attached to the wall would look better and I agree, so off to find one that lets the TV swing for viewing in the kitchen and the great room.
- We also bought a coat rack for the front door that is made out of a wagon tongue and harness horns. It must weigh in at 30-40# so I doubt it will be tipsy. It sure looks great and yes that is an authentic lasso and a hat dusty from the trail hanging on it.

I think that’s enough for now. Until next time.