The black art of shimming

October 19, 2005 D. H. McKee

Off

Got the top sill of the rough opening chiseled out. Weird thing: you buy the right tools, and everything goes a whole lot easier. Not that there’s a specialized chiselling-out-the-top-of a-door’s-rough-opening-tool (I wish there were…), but I bought a nice broad chisel, and a 2.5lb sledgehammer, and we’re golden. Mind you, the neighbours are probably pissed at me, with all the late evening hammering.
So the door’s in the space now, with a little more than a half an inch on all sides (in some spots, more than .75 of an inch). It’s a weird situation because the opening’s too small to put in an actual jamb of any kind, and the opening’s not even plumb on one side — the door kind of looks crooked, even when it’s not.
BTW, anyone know how to shim a door? It seems to open and close fine, but when I put the shims into place, the door starts to rub. If I shim too lightly, the shims fall out as soon as I open the door. I’ve got to read up on this a bit, and see if I can get this to work properly. I’m thinking it’s twisting in it’s own frame, or the frame’s normally not square, or something weird.

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About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.