Hockey Pucks

Andrew VanOrd commented the other day that you could make spacers from a hockey
puck.  I don’t have access to any pucks and can’t imagine what they are made from,
but I liked the idea of a round spacer.  Mine are all squares and “almost squares.”
(Yes, I know those are probably called “rectangles,” and some of them are, except some
are trapezoids and parallelograms caused by inaccurate cutting. So there, my 10th grade
geometry teacher.)

Here’s how I fashioned my puck-like objects.  

-Cut a four and a half inch square of hardwood.  (I tried 4, but it ends up just a little
small)

-Cut the corners off.  Anything close to an octagon is what you’re going for here.  A bandsaw i
s my weapon of choice if I’m outside in the shop. If I’m in the basement shop, a handsaw is
faster than the walk up the stairs and out.  Let prudence and your need for “getting your steps
in” dictate.

-Draw diagonals on one face to find the center of the square.

-Drill a tiny through-hole through the center.

-Chuck the octagon between centers on a lathe.  I use a roughing gouge to round it and
ease the corners a bit. 

-Sand the edges with 80, then 120 grit sandpaper.  Add some linseed oil if you must.  

-Feel free to run up the grits to 1500 and add a mirror-smooth finish of some expensive

oil/varnish/polyurethane/wax mix you’ve purchased online, but know that I will mock you. It’s
a spacer and we’ve already invested 15 minutes in the thing.  It’s a spacer.

-Hold the puck in a handscrew and drill a  2 ⅛-inch hole through the center- using the tiny hole
as a guide.  If you drill 95% of the way through and flip it, the cut is much cleaner.

-Use it.

-Lose it.

-Make another.

Send me a hockey puck and I’ll compare the two.  

Just Like They Said

Ox equipment suppliers may have us over a barrel.  Admittedly, the market for equipment
and supplies - yokes, bows, pins, etc. - has always been small due to the fact that teamsters
can usually fashion their own.  That keeps competition from jumping into a pretty small
pool. Nobody with solely a profit motive would ever seek their fortunes in the world of oxen.  

So what we’re left with is an oligopoly of sorts by default.  Just a few manufacturers and
retailers, which could leave the customer without any leverage, if this were Economics 101.  

The good thing is this is not Economics 101.  

I ordered a few items from New England Ox Supply about a month ago.  A halter, some
hardware for a yoke I plan to build for the MODA raffle (Don’t hold me to it just yet.  My
hatred of yoke making is well-documented here and here), a pair of antique bow pins.  

They arrived on time.  Packed well. Just like they were described.  Quality items at fair
prices.  

We might get lower prices if Amazon suddenly discovered the vast, untapped oxen market,
but we wouldn’t be better off.  

Full disclosure:  My standard rule is to never make recommendations of any free item.  No
kickbacks, no discounts, no swag. If I like it, I’ll say so. If I don’t, I won't.  I ordered the items
since they were sending me a T-shirt for winning the “what’s the historically accurate name for
a pair of oxen since a team refers to several pairs together?” contest on Facebook.  The T-shirt
was free. No review of that. I paid the shipping and full retail on the other items. They are fair
game.

Scroll down for the answer to the trivia question. . .

“what’s the historically accurate name for a pair of oxen since a team refers to several
pairs together?”

A Span