Dulcimer Tuning Wrench

I found this dulcimer at a garage sale for a good price, but it was all out of tune and had no way to tune it.  The strings attach to these square pegs that can be tightened or loosened to adjust the tension.  As I was considering how to make a tuning wrench, I decided I might as well use the most wrench-shaped item to begin with to avoid having to do extra work.  I had this extra chuck key and tool post wrench lying around from when I had my machine re-shipped to me with an extra box of tools, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to get used.

Super Fast Vise Handle

One day I found this 19mm socket in the street thinking, "When am I ever gonna need a 19mm socket?" It didn't come to my attention until I remembered that at work I had used a 19mm wrench to tighten the draw bar on a milling machine which is usually 3/4".  After measuring the socket and realizing that 19mm is just so slightly larger than 3/4" I realized this would be an excellent opportunity to make a "speed handle" for a milling machine vise.
The story: when having to open the vise up a lot to accommodate a different sized workpiece, the original handle takes forever since it is so cumbersome.  Several people and companies have offered an alternative called a speed handle, but they are usually made of CNC'd aluminum and look lame. >So what are you saying Todd?

A (somewhat) Midsummer Garden Update

Let's take a look at the garden. It's been quite a hot summer so far, with several days reaching all the way up to 107! This week will be significantly cooler than that (but still pretty hot) which should provide some relief to these babies (I only need to be careful in case Mr. Jerry Brown decides to ration watering personal gardens.)

Joe's Ancient Orange Mead completion

Approximately 2 months after starting my first batch of mead, it was time to bottle it.

The nectar, she glows