Chock

It was only 200 years ago, or so, that for any implement you may require, you would commision a local craftsman to craft it for you. You need a wagon wheel? Visit a local tradesman. You need leather shoes? Visit a local tradesman. You need soup bowl? Visit a local tradesman.

Fast forward to 2020. Everything that you may require is sold by Amazon and sourced, most likely, from a factory in China. And this factory churns out at least a million copies of your wheel/shoe/bowl, all 100% identical to each other.

Imagine, if you will, you are a Ferry service with a billion dollar revenue. Surely, every little cog in your billion dollar machine is some factory-spec item that is ordered from some sort of industrial product catalogue.

Or... is it?

Behold these quaint looking implements. Stacked ply-wood, hand-painted in orange, and stapled to a belt. I can guarantee you, these definitely do not look like they were sourced from Alibaba or Amazon.

They may not look like much, but you will be hard-pressed to safely park a motorcycle on the deck of a Ferry without it. Especially if said Ferry would sail the open sea.

The chock looks to be as old as the Ferry itself, which would make it a 1993 chock. But just imagine for a second, how the Ferry corporation got hold of these. Surely, a local handyman was at some point tasked with fabricating these chocks, simply because an Amazon/Alibaba search yielded 0 results. Just too niche to be manufactured according to factory spec. Simply bang out a few of these when you need them. I wonder who the local BC carpenter was that put these together, and if he will get a replacement order in the next maintenance cycle.

Just because they are so delightfully quant, one more chock:

In-door Fun: Brick Factory

It is a challenge to entertain kids at home when social-distancing during this COVID19 event. How do you keep them occupied for a good stretch of time? This made me think about my favorite hobby projects when I was a kid. And one of them was manufacturing your own bricks, and then build with them.

Your home-made bricks are more fun than LEGO, and bring out the little industrialist inside of you. You get to plan your production runs through-out the day, and have all the anticipation about what you will do when you have enough bricks. It's a week of playful work, and cheap to do.

All you need is some Gypsum (plaster powder) and a silicone mould. I used this mould which is targeted to bakers as a tool to make desserts. I recommend using a mould that creates blocks where the dimensions have a ratio of 1:2:4 for easy construction. I used this particular plaster.

STEP 1

Mix the plaster with water. Start with water and keep adding gypsum powder, spoon by spoon, while stirring. Once you get a thick yogurt-like viscosity, it is time to pour it in the mould.

STEP 2

Let it harden in 2 or 3 hours or so.

STEP 3

Start designing and stacking. I recommend gluing them, and if you use thick cardboard between the layers, you get a simulation of a cement layer.

The one regret I have, is that I had not stained the mix with a red ink. I think red-brownish bricks would have looked better than white ones. If I redo this project, I would add the ink.

With the structures built, the kids now look forward to adding furniture to their designs. So in short, good fun, for young and old. Why not give it a try? And if you do, drop a a few lines in the comments!