Caveman Art

Phew, where is summer going?

2008-07-29T09:10:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy summer... Always seem like there was some event going on, or a project to do, or just stuff... ya you know...stuff...

In any case, this summer also eventful in getting a new car ... switching from a Jeep Gr. Cherokee to a sub-compact wagon was surprisingly easy and I rather like my new ride. Also I'm on my 2nd week of biking to work, which hopefully will be able to maintain a M-W-F routine for the next couple weeks, and perhaps step it up to 4/week. The first week I did two days back to back and I think that drained me. Last night (Monday) the way back from work was like a bizarre full of energy ride...I really enjoyed it. Which is good, it'll make this easier if I like it :)

I'm doing the bike to work cuz I really need to exercise more, the "green" aspect of it is secondary, the cost is a distance 3rd as it'll take 2-3 biking seasons to pay for the biking gear in lieu of the auto operating expense. If they get the trail/sidewalk put in along 85th St then small errands to the Northtown Mall area will be within reach. While I ride on the road to work the speed limit is pretty much 30-35 the whole way... on 85th its 50 and no shoulder to speak of so I stay off of that.

And for those who wonder what I got for a bike I picked up a Cannondale Quick 4, with a XR-1 bike rack, a pannier, rear red LED light, and a NiteRider MiNewt.X2 headlamp...oh and one of those dorky bike helmets...yes I'll concede they're a good idea to wear..but still dorky.

In other news, I'm way behind on working on glass projects... but today I cleared off the work benches both in the house and the garage that had been commandeered for misc tasks. Also fired up the torch and practiced a little glass bending and shaping... that's loads of fun. There is really no excuse for me not playing with molten glass! So Thursday will for sure be dedicated to getting a couple projects into the kiln.

Why Thursday and not Wednesday? Cuz Wednesday I'm making Pie... that's right Pie with a capital P cuz my Pie is that damn awesome....

Yakima 42" Rail Roof Rack Permanent install for Honda Fit '08

2008-06-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is a revamp of one of my posts at the Honda Fit Forums at FitFreak.net. I just got a new '08 Honda Fit in May and wanted a roof rack. I wasn't too keen on the clip-ons, not that they wouldn't work and I'm sure they do. I just didn't want to have an ordeal putting them on and off, making sure the landing is clean and accidentally dinging the car or not securing it. But I found very little info on installing a permanent rack on this model car and I didn't want risk with a cheap universal one-fits-all. As the Honda fit has a pretty significant curve across the top and is flared from rear to front. So this is to help anyone looking for another option for a roof rack on a Honda Fit '07-'08 (or earlier if you have a foreign model)... the following is slightly changed from the original post as I was in a discussion with someone installing a Thule system.

I actually had my local body shop install the system as I chickened out in drilling holes into my new car. I got a fair deal and for the piece of mind over a leaky roof was worth it to me. But having seen it done and talking with my installer I would feel comfortable drilling/doing my own when I need to add the next set of landing pads in or if I need to do it to another car. I turned over my minimum specs to him and let him run with it. I stated I wanted the rails as far forward as possible safely, but would understand if they needed to be closer to the rear and for the rails to be as far apart as possible.

He did not remove the headliner for this, he just was careful not to punch through! Also measuring was a little tricky as the roof has the flare to the front and very curved. This picture is a diagram I did up for the installer, original I just had a range of values to fall within, this one I changed to reflect what he actually ended up doing for positioning. We didn't go as far forward as I would have liked since he didn't want to be bending the rail to match that front curve down to the windshield. Which is okay because I can install the stand alone landing pads later.

Note the span between rails is inside edge to inside edge. The front and rear width dimensions of the roof do not include the rain gutter, but the rain gutter is 1" so I think you can handle the math there. And lastly the measurements of the gutters from front to back edges do not include the plastic track cap at the ends. I measured up to the aluminum rail itself.

With the rails as they are placed there is only a little bending of the rail. If you move them forward you would have to bend the rails and probably drill a few more holes to ensure a good secure fit. That and you have to contend with your towers tightening over a curve. It was decided against this since the roof doesn't have that high of a load capacity (125lbs) and didn't want it be pulling up on the roof trying to be straight, especially when this works and I can add another part to make span longer later.

I did look up the Thule rail/instructions to compare and physically it looks like the same thing as Yakima's, the locking bolt is a little different and the Yakima had 2 different washers per hole where Thule has 1, but nothing that looks like it would be significantly different. Noticed the Thule instructions didn't say to paint the exposed metal from drilling (Yakima's did). My installer used a primer/sealer for metal, even though there is silicon seal small amount of moisture could still get in there and steel loves to rust...prime it or paint it.

Getting them straight was tricky.. measure off the first hole at the rear of the car both sides. I didn't include mine since I don't know if the Thule holes are the exact same. Just place the rails/measure/mark where the rear is going to be.. put those holes and retaining bolts in. The instructions have you do one side completely then the other, but this was in mind for parallel roof lines of vehicles. On the nonparallel Fit roof, it works to do the first hole at the rear on both rails and loosely attach them. Now you can line them up straight and measure at diagonals to get close to square/parallel and mark the additional holes. Just move the rails out of the way and finish. ... The fellow posting with the Thule install mentioned assembling the unit and tightening it all in off the vehicle, then setting it up on top to mark the holes. This would probably work too, I'd be a little concern out it moving out of place while marking the holes. Especially since the rail does need to bend somewhat to match the roof profile. Probably a 2-3 man operation, if you can do it solo my hats off to you.

I have seen elsewhere that you don't want to drill into that cross beams for roof support...which was another reason I was leery to do this myself. But there is at least one bolt in either rail at every hole location from front to rear. Each rail has the first and last hole, then they are staggered opposite of each other in between.

I really do like the fast on/off with this setup, I can cruise around with just the little nubs capped and to put the crossbars/towers on takes literally seconds. There is zero wind noise with just the rails and caps. With the Towers/Crossbars on there is a humming starting at 40-45, but never gets louder at higher speeds (tested @65mph). Once I put my cargo carrier on top, wind noise went back down to almost zero even at 65 mph. Only done couple short trips around town here to test it out. I have my first big trip next weekend, so if it rips off and goes flying in northern MN I'll let ya know.

The parts list:
Yakima Rail Set 42" #8001126
Yakima Landing Pad #1 (2 sets)
Yakima Control Towers #8000214 (not the Q-Towers)
Yakima 48" Crossbars #8000408 (but you could use any width you want)
---was charged 3.5 hours shop labor, took him longer but they kept it at quote. Got it all at REI 20% off except the landing pads, cause the rep told me wrong that they were included with the rails and I had to buy them later.

Seriously, I lamented over how to do this for a couple weeks in terms of parts and labor. Changed my mind more often that I care to admit, but in the end it worked out very well.

Installed, but crossbars/towers are off the car.

Crossbars/Towers locked on...

Grand Purge

2008-06-17T22:06:00.001-07:00

Purged a bunch of old blogs. I know ... no sense of nostalgia, or records of the past. I kept one or two and a few others in reserve. Must try to use this more. The past was very irregularly kept up, but will make another effort to post more regularly. So on this day June 18th, we go with a clean slate and move onward.

Show and Tell

2005-11-22T00:15:00.000-08:00

Since I'm here, I might as well shamelessly post a few of the creations I make as I do them. I had a nearly a year off from working in the glass studio as I was working on my business degree. So I felt a little shaky when I started up again. Fortunately I have a bunch of peers that are positive thinking and always are a bunch of help. Also about 1/2 way through this semester my instructor set up a studio time on Fridays to work together on. One-on-one help from a professional doing this for 35+ years is tremendous. Now if I could only find some way to leech info from him via some sort of brain transfer...

The pieces in the upper left is a small vase of a style that I was working on in Fall '03, where just about everything had a spiral design in it. So after having 2 miserable weeks of making less than satisfactory work, I went back to this to help boost the confidence. I don't want to think about would've happen had I flopped this. As it turned out, this turned out even better then some of my stuff from back then. Well blown, even, proportionate, and well just damn nice if I do say so.... I dunno if the picture confuses anyone, but the spiral is only going one way on this. It's transparent and the lines that appear to be crossing are actually just those on the back side, hence the distortion...yadda yadda... (vase: 6 3/8" tall, black)

This one on the right was a little Swedish type (heavy on the bottom, this one to an extreme) one I pulled off last week. Miss A. likes the bold white stripe on it, I'm not all together certain I do, I was originally thinking a smaller thin white line. Although I may be bias since it simply didn't come out quite as planned...which has been a major goal for me. Yet, the form came out as I planned and I ought to be pleased with that. I've become more picky about what I accept as good...unfortunately that leads to me scrapping a lot of semi-good pieces. I feel that I need to demand better of myself.
(vase 8 3.8" tall, cherry apple red w/white)

Last but not least, is this little job on the left. It's actually from Fall '04, but I like this one so much I figure I'd put it up here. This is a style that I was proud to say I developed...although its possible (and likely) there have been artisans in the past that have done this. But I thought of it on my own and it turns out wonderful. The form is nothing new, but the two colors and how the pattern is worked in can be tricky. I received a lot of positive feedback on this style from other students and professional glassworkers alike. I have made quite a few of this type and still have a bunch as this type was all I made for a while.

I plan on going back to this design within the year to start working with them on a larger scale. But in the mean time I'm focusing on some other work and building skills.

(vase: 10", black & yellow(has some green undertones))

I have to try to setup a better way to shoot pictures. I just purchased some nice white cloth to use as a back drop. Now I need to setup some descent lighting, as we use a lot of fluorescents in out home. So I'll put something together and hopefully the pictures in the future will be a little bit nicer. *YAWN* off to bed. have to get up in 5 hours to go to the studio again and get something done...