Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

1 Feb 2010

Good Morning,
Happy February and yes, we have snow and ice...and enough snow to feed the family snow ice cream yesterday.

Nothing from me except I worked day and night across the entire weekend for the day job.

Pretty boring report eh?!!

That's it for me...so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Dave Gaul]

Made a ZCI for my TS. Worked on the Bakugan (kids toys) display case for my step-son-to-be's birthday present. Used a rail and stile bit set for the first time.. have to practice that a little more!!! Spent most of the weekend in the shop.. very productive dust making weekend!

[Dale Osowski]

It was a busy and cold weekend milling logs. Milled 3 maple, 2 walnut and 1 ash log. Feeling a little sore today.

[Laurie Brown]

We got buried under another foot of snow this weekend, too cold to work in the unheated shop, so I spent the weekend cooking and washing dishes. Bleh!

[Dan Gill]

I managed to make two cuts and plane one board before the cold ran me back inside.

[Rob Young]

I recently acquired a new-old-stock Record #044C plough plane with all 10 of the stock blades present. Very happy. But the crummy little plastic pouch that holds the blades isn't going to cut it in the shop.

So decided to make a blade box. A friend showed me one he made for his #55 blades so I borrowed the idea for the interior holder block. The block is not glued in, but instead has a slight taper so it wedges at the bottom.

Feeling too lazy to dig through all my stock I just pulled out some pine. Everybody says don't cut dovetails in soft pine, and for good reason. It crumbles and can be rather frustrating. Sharp tools help. So being lazy isn't always a good way to start out.

However in the end it worked out. Another chance to play with my new bag of hide glue and cobbled together glue pot (small electric kettle from Target plus mason jar).

Other than using the table saw to rip and cross cut to rough size, all other dimensioning and work was hand tools. All sorts of good practice. If it self destructs after a while, no big deal. I'll just be less lazy about stock selection and use some hardwood.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Not a lot of shop time this weekend - which seems to be a recurring theme these days however, I did manage to get some in last night. I had started a renovation of all the posts and railings on my deck last summer but only got half of them done. I want to get the other ones finished before the nice weather rolls around, so I can get them installed and not have to worry about them for the rest of the summer. I'm re-making the post sleeves out of Azek, so they won't rot like the old ones. I made the boxes and face-frames for the remaining 5 posts, and tonight I'll start attaching the frames to the boxes. After that they'll need to have profiles routed and then be painted to match the house trim, but I don't expect to get to that till next weekend.

[John Shaffner]

With temps in the minus teens at night, it was too much for my woodstove to heat the shop up through the day. Today, I finally am going to spend some time out there after it does warm up a bit.

BUT, I did pick up a new tool (kinda) yesterday. I got a new ASUS laptop. My ancient Dell desktop has seen its' better days and would barely run (512k RAM/60G HD). SWMBO even picked up half the tab for it out of her tax check! Tool? Maybe...I might not be here without it!

John

[Jim O'Dell]

I walked into the shop and took 3 pictures of the 4 tools my Dad gave me at Christmas that I hadn't posted until yesterday. Does that count? Too cold here too, but not in the teens much less the minus teens. Jim.

[Jeremy Killingbeck]

I was able to get 28 - 1/2" x 4" mortise cut for my night stands legs on Sat. It was going well until I stripped the teeth off of the piece that holds the arm to the vertical gear drive. After some improvising we were able to get it working again so I could finish the remaining mortises.

Just a note to anyone that has the Powermatic bench top mortise. The piece that connects the arm to the vertical gear drive is made of cast iron & breaks easily. I found out the hard way.

[Bob Haskett]

I got my shop DC plumbing complete, the DC setup, the Thien Separator built, and the TS hooked up to the ducting. Hopefully this weekend I will get the router table hooked in to the system, and get started on my Flip Top planer station.

[Will Boulware]

Had a fair amount of snow-related problems this weekend (I live in the south. Why was I snowed in? It was bad enough that I'm starting to believe in hockey. Maybe it's not just a Canadian myth...)

That being said, I did put in some work on my open-top tool tote. It's my first woodworking project (first non-construction related one, anyway), and I've finally gotten to the finishing stage. Quite the humbling experience. I've built decks, framed walls, and done numerous remodeling projects, but "fine" woodworking is a whole new ballgame. Numerous evenings of work have yeilded me a treasure that looks like a 5th grade art project. All it has to do is hold my meager collection of hand tools, so it should perform quite well, but compared to the amazing work I see on here on a regular basis, I won't be posting any pics. I cleaned up the edges, hit a few spots on the box with wood filler, and prepped the handle for stain. I also put the first coat of "gunstock" stain on it. Entirely too red, but it should darken up with a few more applications. More to come tonight. Probably primer the box for paint and stain the handle some more. Lots of fun!

[Dave Gaul]

Made a coping/crosscut sled for the router table, based on a WOOD mag design... HATE IT!!! it uses the 500lb toggle clamps to hold the piece down, once you engage the clamps, the WHOLE sled bows up in the middle! Gonna have to modify it to make the base more sturdy

[Wayne Hendrix]

Two trips to Woodcraft, one to get parts to work in shop and one to pick up a wallet that got left during the first trip. Wouldnt be bad but Woodcraft is an hour away. My wife did mamage to get one pen turned and I got several blanks drilled and glued and made some UMHW plastic jaws for my vice. Next weekend should be alot better, we already have the stuff to work.

[Rod Sheridan]

Made a coping/crosscut sled for the router table, based on a WOOD mag design... HATE IT!!! it uses the 500lb toggle clamps to hold the piece down, once you engage the clamps, the WHOLE sled bows up in the middle! Gonna have to modify it to make the base more sturdy

Or adjust the clamps so they don't put as much force on the work piece......Regards, Rod.