04 March 2009

Hawaiin Cast-Iron

I'm coming up to that time in life when the end of my working days doesn't seem to be far away and I can then concentrate on some serious woodwork. I've still got about three years or so to do but I've already started to grind the wheels together up-top to attempt to sort out what sort of income I'll be on. SWIMBO had been quietly pestering me for some time now to find out what my retirement benefit (at 60) from 20 years teaching would be, so the other night I dug out some details and 'phoned up to get some figures. I thought it would be quite irksome and prolonged to get hold of the information (which is why I hadn't done it) but after about three minutes I had the exact figures, both for the lump sum and the pension... and I have to say that I nearly fell of my chair when I saw the amounts! Then of course they'll be something similar (though not as much) from about 10 years as a Civil Servant when I do eventually retire.
I can see that you're quietly chundering to yourself about what all this has to do with woodwork, apart from the prolonged time factor? In answer, part of the lump sum(s) will be used to upgrade all the equipment in the 'shop as I've had my existing stuff for about ten years and whilst it's good kit, it's a bit limiting regarding the size of stuff I can tackle, so the Axminster website has been taking a bit of a hammering over the last few days. It's difficult to quantify what I do want but in essence it's going to be all Jet stuff, such as the SuperSaw, a 10"doc bandsaw, the 10" planer (and extractors to suit) a decent bench mounted pillar drill, decent router fence and a new slightly smaller lathe. I'm hoping to get all this lovely stuff from Axminster as I'll hopefully be able to wangle a reasonable discount and some other 'hand tool inducements' but the other useful feature of using them is that they will deliver into the 'shop rather than dump a load of very heavy cast-iron pallets in the road outside...definite bonus!
The only down side to this little escapade is that when I built the 'shop a few years ago, I didn't make the suspended floor robust enough, so the plan is for the existing machinery to be sold to create some space, the floor will come up and a couple of new sleeper walls laid to take the additional weight.
The upside is also that we're going to have a bloody good holiday that year as well...might even go back to Hawaii!

1 comment:

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