Kate

@katef.bsky.social

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If I unfollowed you, it's because you keep posting things without alt text

whoa boy we gots us some 41x21 slotted c-channel mild steel again!! now bolted inside a wall. that's inside, in a space i raggled into the plasterwork, so it can be anchored directly onto the underlying brick. now with four bits of steel cut to the right sizes, fixed together with sprung channel nuts and M10 hex-head bolts, the entire thing looks like a cantilevered toy crane made out of meccano. except this is human sized. as always it is not entirely clear what i am trying to achieve, but i sure am having a good time
here we have one mild steel 21x41 slotted c-channel (that is, a small steel beam with slots in it, where the sides are folded forward to make a U-shape, and then folded again to make a small lip), M10 hex head sleeve anchors (that is, bolts through the slots), anchored into exposed brickwork. and me holding a socket wrench nearby the bolt head. i can't fit the socket wrench into the space between the walls of the steel channel, so i can't use it to actually tighten any of these bolts. it is not clear from the photo what i am trying to achieve
top-down view of a right proper mess, we have several 21x41 slotted steel C-channels, they're either 2.1 or 2.3mm thick, i forget which. two of these have been cut off between the slots. the culprit here is a small cordless jigsaw, which makes surprisingly quick work of something that took me half an hour by hand. the trick is to use a lot of cutting oil, and keep enough pressure that the hss blade actually cuts, and doesn't rub and heat up. i guess if you're reading alt text cutting through steel beams is going to take a bit more care than i'm using here
an extremely homemade router sled, using small offcuts of pine. there's a space labelled "router goes here" with an arrow, and a small cordless trim router has gone there, and slid along the sled and is now being held in by a piece of timber along the side. the sled itself runs on rails going perpendicularly; these are currently standing on an extremely not-flat floor. everything is covered in dust and wood chips
wooden panel beading, mitred at not *quite* 90° because the panel it's set in is victorian and has shifted over time, so the internal corners are no longer quite square. which means it's hard to use a square clamp for this!
we got a top-down view of a floorboard that is clamped in all kinds of exciting ways; glue dribbles down the side of her face. i have attempted to draw a mid-orgasm horny sort of face. unfortunately i am ace and haven't done this sort of thing nearly often enough to be able to capture the expression just so. however! it is clear this floorboard it into some kinky shit, they are for sure having a good time
a group photo or a family portrait; a collection of partially restored victorian floorboards of various lengths propped upright against a wall, cartoon googly eyes and handdrawn arms, mouths interpreted from the patterns of the grain in the wood, features and expressions cleverly reflect the condition for each floorboard. annette you're very good at this sort of thing. they're all slightly rough, all similar wood grains, each board is different in their own way. character by character, we have a parent and child (an extremely short floorboard, holding a lollipop), one with a bruised eye, missing a corresponding chunk of wood on one side. one plain and direct and flat and square, looking straight at us with shock. one partially hiding behind another, hand covering her mouth in shyness. one standing alone, hands clasped. one larger floorboard standing behind their partner, smaller, to the foreground; she has her hands on her hips, her eyes mirror a slightly beaten-up edge. a characterful extended family
a thermal selfie in IR heat vision, reflected in a bay window of an empty room. the whole room is glowing hot in the thermal spectrum; the bay windows have dark cold gaps around all sides. i have my hand on my hip like i am judging the construction quality. which i am
a surfacing bit with ATS-coated tungsten cutting inserts. this bit has four inserts, set as two horizontally (at a slight angle), and two vertically. these are attached with torx machine screws
a stick figure rendition of yours truly drawn to the approximate best of my ability, rendered horizontally in place of the Juno 60 while Au Revoir Simone successfully perform in concert, allowing only in part to my efforts. I have a matching hairstyle, a sad face due entirely to the necessary situation, and of course a suitably thrifted dress
the same, but slowed four times. we are hearing aliasing from a poor choice of algorithm at stretching the audio
it's me peeling out a long strip of painter's tape from the roll
uploading the video with firefox using bsky's web ui, same error i've seen through the API: "Video failed to process. Error". fantastic, thank you bluesky
two bits of molded wooden trim mitred at 45° and clamped together with a corner clamp. there's a small bit of wood glue visible at the join, the mitre isn't perfect. but it's good enough for my door
two corner clamps holding together sections of wooden trim with a joint at 45° in the middle. i know i can do this with only one clamp. don't @ me
from the old site, when it was fun if not good. yours truly, with uppercase for set elements writing in screenplay style: SCENE: we open on a PICTURESQUE VALLEY nestled amidst MOUNTAINS. smash cut to NAUSICAÄ, a PRINCESS probably, who is BEARING THE CRUSHING WEIGHT OF HER DESTINY. NAUSICAÄ: it fucken WIMDY
a small length of victorian period floorboard that has broken lengthways, along the grain. i would like to glue it back together, and to clamp it across the width while the glue sets. to illustrate this, i have laid an F-type clamp on top of the board, opened fully to 150mm. my floorboard is 167mm wide. the clamp looks helplessly short.
this is indeed a flat thing being sawed. i am using a jeweler's piercing saw to cut a small squareish hole in a 2mm brass sheet, clamped with soft jaws in a baby kurt-style metal vice. the brass is marked up with layout fluid, lines indicated show that it will eventually become a keep + strike plate for a door. the squareish hole i'm cutting it where the latch will catch
speech bubble meme, little dog being interviewed. there's a microphone in shot, and the dog is giving an earnest and well-considered opinion, slightly pleading eyes, on a subject that is nuanced and difficult. the bones in question are likely bigger than he is. he's doing great
dubiously poor javascript code half written by yours truly. this grabs a random colour from a list as a base, produces a "pastel" or a "light" variation courtesy of the "color-scheme" node package, blends them to produce a mid-way point. and repeats the entire thing while the "nearest colour" is in a list of colours that i don't thing work in this context
a foreshortened drawing of a snake, mouth open, sketched over the current WIP logo drawing of an extremely rectangular tron-like path on a grid. this is extremely not what we are going for
two airplane dual-TS to TRS 3.5mm audio adapters, connected with a TRS cable. which I am experimenting with using for patching stereo signals in eurorack. okay, so the dual TS adapters have a socket coming out at a right angle, and this looks awfully like the little nose plug moisture harvesting thingies from dune, where they have a pipe coming out to the side. it's an iconic part of dune cosplay, and these airplane audio adapters would fit right into your nostrils.
still from The Little Mermaid, the cartoon version, not the book version. mid Ursula singing, with a glimpse of merfolk who fell short of their contractual obligations. reduced to helpless, pathetic seaweed-like creatures, cowering beneath her shadow. oh hey the ones to the right all have hairstyles, one has glasses. i bet they're caricature of the animators, aren't they? anyway yes they have the same hunched arch shape that the monitorless VESA mounts have
Stock image of a UK pedestrian crossing, the bit where you push a button and wait a bit and then the lights go green and you can cross. Underneath, near the button, a small splined cone protrudes. It rotates! I have indicated this with a helpful arrow, and labelled it "spinny thing".
my laptop status, showing 0% battery charge. but it is plugged in now, hooray. and there's three clocks, in various exciting time zones
we are close up on an unsuspecting bluebell, holding an RAL standard colour swatch card alongside. despite the name, RAL 4005 Blue Lilac is an exact match. Nothing else is close
a RAL colour swatch card, held up against a sky that is the colour of a televsion tuned to a dead channel. which is to say, pretty much the same grey standardised for use in traffic signage
our slide hammer on the floor, resting, amidst a graveyard of pulled nails. they all have the same slight curve; none of them have nailheads
the same hole, filled with wood filler and scraped smooth. it's a little rectangle, rather than a little circle, as one might usually expect for nail holes
one small nail hole, and above and below are two small rectangular indentations made by the tool. they're surprisingly shallow
jaws pinched into a headless nail shaft, pulling down against the lever part, the nail has moved out of the wood by a few mm
an awkward photo at a strange angle, the tool is placed around a nail. and the slide hammer is pulled back ready to go
the fairly brutal working end of the tool, this is surprisingly small, it's a pincer-like claw, like pincer pliers. but with a large lever attached to one of the jaws
pictured: me wearing gloves, holding the tool. you can't really see it, but it's heavy af. i am not holding it above my feet
our slide hammer in sunlight, against an RAL colour swatch. it's a match! the slidey handle is a deliciously solid red with a hint of orange
the same tools, now in a patch of sunlight. the Estwing catspaw is like a small crowbar, but with a scooped-out paw-like shape at one end, slotted to pull nails. it has a moulded rubber grip, and a square profile body
two tools on the floor, some pulled nails scattered around. these are a catspaw made by Estwing and a slide hammer nail puller made by Crescent. both are extremely smashy types of tools. aesthetically they complement each other quite well
it's a rare kate selfie! enthusiastic thumbs up, as if reviewing your PR. unable to see anything through safety goggles thick with dust. with smiley eyes, which we cannot see, and grinning, which we cannot see. covered in PPE, some kind of dust mask, work gloves, and absolutely covered in what looks like plaster dust. it's making my hair look white. it actually isn't plaster dust, but whatever it is shall remain a mystery. there's a window with wooden panelling in the background that's clearly WIP
good evening. this is an awkward photo of me holding an extremely long cardboard tube in one hand. distantly, at the other end, there's a hint of a postage label visible. foreshortened, it is difficult to judge scale here. the tube is much longer than one might expect to be deliverable through the postal system. i have included some things nearby that annette knows the scale of; an extremely large ikea lamp, and a large doorway, and some art. the ceilings in this room are way higher than one might expect from a ceiling. although that's difficult to tell from a photo at this angle. i can easily poke them with this tube
the same swatch booklet on the same cutting mat, now open to RAL 6000 Patina Green. you were paying attention earlier, right? it's a close match! but not exact
RAL K7 "Classic" standardised colour swatches, spread on a green cutting mat. we're looking at various greens and browns, Mouse Grey and Squirrel Grey in particular. The names seem to bear little resemblance to the actual colours. but you know, gotta name 'em something
here i am pointing at a framing pin stuck into some absolutely beautiful victorian pine, that is currently hiding under some patchy layers of partially-removed varnish. the pin is not quite flush with the surface of the wood. nearby are some holes, evidence of several previous pins that have been removed already
./garden in a terminal, it generates a colourful rendering of a simple randomly constructed garden, utf8 characters for flowers with varying length stems, and in this case a single bee hovering above. it is extremely calming, for something so simple looking
same image of the sun's corona visible as a ghostly aura around the moon, where the quoted post has labelled a bunch of interesting stars and planets and stuff in the background. I have helpfully added "Moon" over the giant sphere dominating the image in the foreground
okay. we got four holes in a wooden door frame, each jammed with rounded scraps of wood, hammered in to the holes. wood glue is oozing out, and dribbling suggestively down the frame. where a hinge used to be. we're looking at the holes where the hinge was screwed against the frame. i would say nailed against the wall, which is technically incorrect on both parts, but better conveys the spirit i'm going for here
one steel beam across the front of an old building, with a row of holes across the middle, and these have each been filled with painted wrought iron flower shapes. perhaps daises or sunflowers, i am not sure. the beam is supporting what used to be an archway, but is now since filled in. we are wandering around outside! sunlight picks out harsh edges on crumbling brickwork, patched up with smatterings of modern brick of mismatched sizes and textures; the edge of an circle and the top of a window are simple decorative brickwork, both filled in. there's also a sandstone column here! this wall has got it going on. it's all a very mismatched beautiful mess. but aren't we all
a smattering of victorian door hinges laid out to rest; as uniformly black as one can expect, with a patina from age, and oiled. they're quite pretty, in the way that metal can be pretty
our three hinges standing on a paper towel, now a deep black, and oiled
our hinges are darker grey! but not by an awful lot. the liquid is pretty, it looks like copper sulphate, but it isn't
it's a different blue liquid. the metal hinges are immediately darker grey, and a bit blotchy looking
the same shallow plastic container is filled with just enough degreaser to cover the hinges. this is why i switched out of the metal saucepan; it would get used up working on the pan. i want it to work on the hinges. it's a pale liquid, it looks a bit like thin dishsoap. but the difference is it would probably dissolve your hands
three hinges at a time now, placed in a plastic container
all my hinges in a small pile, clean and dry. they're pitted and dulled metal, they're in good shape but they don't look nice. they can move again, though!
same again; fresh water, hinges stacked more neatly now, and a new dishwasher tablet. everything is looking much, much cleaner
now we can see these metal hinges are rusted, but most of the paint is gone. sitting on top is a dishwasher tablet, it's not dissolved into the water yet
hinges removed from the pan, these still have lots of paint attached. what remains in the pan is absolutely disgusting, a mass of peeled-off paint, gooped together in curls as if it were layers of skin or seaweed or some organic mass. the water is brown and opaque; we can't see the bottom of the pan
some of the older hinges, thick with paint, emerging from a pan of water. the paint is all fluffed up and loose now, but still awfully thick
hinges in a pan. only the top layer is really visible, these are the freshest looking ones. that is, they have only 20 years of paint
one hinge removed. the wooden door underneath is obviously old, probably a mixture of varnishes beneath the layers of paint. despite all this, it looks like it's potentially in decent condition
a hinge on the edge of a removed door, into which i have excavated a slot where i think a screwhead might be. it's not clear at all if a screw is actually there or not, the adjacent spaces show no evidence of screws