The Whole Garage Catalogue: A Wallpaper Seam Roller

Thursday, June 13, 2013

A Wallpaper Seam Roller

I already have one of these, but this tool conjures up a memory; a memory that's very apropos to today's date -- June 13th is my son's birthday.

Some twenty-three years ago, my wife and I were preparing a bedroom of our home for the arrival of our first (and only) child. Full blown wallpapering was not on, but we wanted to apply a cheerful border to the walls up by the ceiling, around the perimeter of the room.

We didn't know whether we'd be getting a boy or a girl, so we chose a pattern that was about equally blue and pink.

For a couple of novices, the job turned out well, but wallpapering is not a line-of-work that my wife and I are ever likely to want to return to.

So, I'll retire this to the toolbox in which a couple of other wallpapering tools reside in retirement.

May they enjoy one another's company.

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'Found A New Use -- TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

I was meaning to tear a sheet of coarse sandpaper into quarters to fit my palm sander. It was '60D' paper, and it didn't want to fold and crease nicely for tearing.

I used the roller to roll down my folds and force them to crease sharply. The paper then tore cleanly and easily.

I'll drill a hole through the tool's handle, and hang it on a nail on a toolboard.

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Introduction

This blog is in honour of my deceased father, Nick Gaspick.

It sprang from what had started out as merely a post on my workshop blog, Rouge River Workshop. Here's my introduction to that post:

"My son has been clearing out my deceased father's garage, so he'll have a place to restore an old car, and he's been finding all manner of stuff. I've begun one post about an old woodworking vise that I mean to restore. This weekend, my son brought me four toolboxes full of items. As a small honour to my father, I'll 'catalogue' them in this post, in no particular order, little-by-little as I go through the boxes."

The nature of the post was for it to grow ever longer, and that can be dangerous. Blogger has some quirks that I've experienced in the past, and I was getting tired of always backing up the entire post so I wouldn't lose it should Blogger vapourize an editing session. I finally decided to make a full-blown blog with an index out of the post. Here it is.

I'll leave the original post as it is, where it is, but I'll bring over all the items in it so far as individual, indexed posts here as well. Needless to say, new material will only appear here.

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A Little About My Father:

My father emigrated to Canada with his family from Croatia at about the age of seven. His family took on a homestead up Sudbury, Ontario way, and made a living there through the great depression.

My father loved school, and yearned to continue his schooling past grade eight, but that was not on. He had to leave school to make a living -- trapping, mining, whatever. Eventually, he and his made their way to Toronto -- the big smoke in Canada.

My father was built like a brick shit-house; he was a sturdy guy, unlike scrawny me. My father was a guy who could clear an acre of Canadian bush before breakfast, have it tilled and planted before lunchtime, with the plants sprouting before dinnertime.

Jesus H. Christ!-- a guy like my father ought to have lived forever!