I did not blog on Thursday. I was working outside attempting to finish the wood burning on the walking stick. I wanted to complete the wood burning this week because a coastal storm was forecast to come in this weekend and bring rain. Unfortunately, it did not get completed.
I was about half-way through with the remaining Celtic Knot Work when I had a tool malfunction. The tip for the wood burning tool screws into the stylus. As the tip is moved along the wood, it loosens the tip and it has to be tightened from time to time. I use a pair of needle nose pliers to tighten it; no need to wait for it to cool down that way. Anyway, on this occasion the tip seemed wobblier than usual. I picked up the pliers and tightened the tool as usual. The tip broke off from the screw base and the screw shaft was still down in the stylus.
I was going to head out to buy a new tool, but my husband wanted to try to get the screw piece out of the old tool first. So I waited while he tried to drill down into the stylus and pull the broken bit of screw out. He had tools called an Easy Out which are made for the specific purpose of pulling out broken screws. I did not think it was going to work because the piece was just too small. By the time he drilled through the screw, there was really nothing left for the Easy Out to grab hold of. So I was off to the craft store to purchase a new wood burning tool. Waiting for the drilling out of the screw took a bit of time. It always takes extra time when working with small parts. So that took up a good twenty to thirty minutes.
Then I went to the craft store and spent more time. I can't walk into a craft store during a fifty percent off sale and not look around, so that was more time wasted. And of course there is the time to get there and back to account for as well. So there went more of the day.
Once back from the craft store I headed outside to do more wood burning. I wood burned another section of the remaining knot work, but it took longer than normal to do the same amount of work. Here is why. I purchased the same wood burning tool, a Versa Tool, which has wood burning tips, a hot blade, and a soldering tip. I wanted to purchase the same tool, because I wanted to make sure that my tips that I already owned were going to fit. I would not want to be changing to a different manufacturer's wood burning tip in the middle of a project. I purchased the same tool made by the same manufacturer. However, the manufacturer had made an improvement that was not all that great of an improvement.
My old Versa Tool was great. It had a long electrical cord on it and the switch was set well back from the stylus. From the base of the stylus to the beginning of the switch was nineteen inches of cord and a long cord between the back of the switch and the plug. The long cord length from the base of the stylus to the switch meant that the switch was well out of the way of the project. The new Versa Tool was a different story. Instead of just an on and off switch, they had improved the switch by making it a rheostat. A rheostat switch is one that has variable settings. This allowed the heat setting to be set to varying temperatures according to what is needed for various materials. That actually was an improvement. The problem with the new Versa Tool was where the switch was positioned. As I wrote earlier, there used to be nineteen inches between the stylus and the switch. The new Versa Tool only has ten and a half inches of cord between the two points.
The shorter length of the cord between stylus and switch can cause problems. My projects do not lie flat. They are generally three dimensional. The problem is that I am at times holding the stylus above the flat surface. With the reduced cord length, it means that the switch is sometimes hanging from the cord above the surface rather than lying on the surface. When the cord is above the surface, the switch adds weight and puts tension on the wrist. The cord and switch may also be swaying back and forth which makes it difficult to make accurate marks. On some projects, such as my wood burning project, I may be able to sand out a mistake. In other cases, a burnt mark on a project could be a fatal error and the project would have to be revamped from the artist's original intention or scrapped entirely. It took much longer and much more effort to wood burn on my project with the new Versa Tool.
Another problem with the shortened cord is that as I was moving along with the wood burning the switch would catch on part of the project. When the switch would catch, it would jerk my hand, causing an error in the wood burning. As I said above, in this project an error can be sanded out. I have plenty of errors I made on my own that needed correcting. They happen. It is even more annoying to have to correct errors that were caused by a deficiency in the tool. If the tool was properly designed, the switch would not be catching on the project or swinging in the air.
I worked as long as I could, but the morning was pretty much shot. My hand and wrist were tired. It is better to stop when you get tired. Once your hand and eyes get tired, you are more likely to make mistakes. I had to get on with my day in any case. As much as I would like to spend more time on my projects, my responsibilities await me. I had to put my things away and get going.
Since I was unhappy with the way the new Versa Tool was made, I took the time to send a nicely worded email to the manufacturer. I explained the problem with the shortened cord and how it affected my work. So far, I have had no response from them. I will let my readers know if I do hear back from them. It is unlikely that I will get any response, but I do try to politely address a problem if I see one. I expect that the savings of eight and a half inches of copper wire on every project saves them some money, or at least keeps the tool at the same price as before. Copper prices have been going up. I am really tired of this whole downsizing the product but charging the same price model that has been in evidence the last couple of years. The product price is not a value if the product is no longer what I need.
Friday I was up early. The rain had not yet started and was forecast to begin around eleven am. I hoped I would be able to complete the wood burning before the rain started. I was out wood burning before eight o'clock. Unfortunately, the forecast was a little off. The rain began a little after nine. With only three and a half inches of know work left to be wood burned, I had to pack it in to wait out the storm.
As storms go, it was not a bad storm here. It was mainly coastal flooding. It rained on and off all day yesterday. There may be some rain today, but it is mostly just cloudy. In a day or so it will be dry enough that I can go out and complete the wood burning. I will show a new photo once the wood burning is complete.
Check back on Thursday for a new blog post.
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