Calista's here

Just a quick note to say our first granddaughter, Calista Huesch, has arrived safely in Hawaii. Born Wednesday evening local time, she weighed in at 3700 g. Mother Puay (Nathalie), brother Rocco Hanserren (also born in Hawaii) and father Marco are well and happy. So are we! As is our wont, we celebrated after the call from Hawaii, drinking a toast to Calista et al. with a bottle of our household vintage bubbly (Killawarra Pinot Noir Chardonnay).

Still expecting our fifth grandchild, a son for Isaac and Giulia Mamott, due mid-May... luckily, there's some bottles of K left in the cellar!

Meanwhile the saga of the nursery furniture has taken some more twists: I finally located ten 29 mm dia. 'broom handles' made from Australian hardwood at a local hardware store, to be sawn into 400 mm pieces that will link the waiting marine plywood sides of little chairs and desks. Small problem: how to drill 29 mm holes in six (eight) positions on each piece accurately so they will match up?

I considered my trusty old DeWalt radial arm saw, which I thought might take a drill chuck on the free end of the arbor opposite the daw blade. Consulted DeWalt (no luck) and The Original Saw Company in the U.S. It appears Black & Decker destroyed all tooling etc. for the saws when it discontinued the DeWalt range...

Fortunately, an 81-year-old neighbour, Keith Taylor - who tells me he'd started on his brother's production lathe at age nine! - still had his old lathe and offered to turn me a custom chuck adapter in return for my best bottle of wine...

So yesterday Keith got his Edwards & Chaffey 1999 Margaret River Shiraz (plus a bonus of Nastro Azurro beer, a bit of an insult to a home brewer!), and I got a beautifully machined steel bolt and custom-made thrust washer to join the rear of the DeWalt arbor with a chuck I'd bought for the purpose.

Small problem: I now have to build a little work table to take the plywood, because when I swing the saw motor vertically, I can't fit a drill bit that will clear the work bench! And of course I had to go on the Internet to order a set of 16 Forstner-type drill bits to get the bit I wanted... Ah well.

Cheers to all!