Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

3 Mar 2014

Good Morning Everyone,
Woke up this morning with sleet, freezing rain, and snow on the ground. Yesterdays temps were warm enough to wear shorts outside but today is 16 degrees F with a windchill that is in the single digits. I hope all of you are safe, warm, and with power.

Been working on making some wooden spoons and since I'm just learning this, I'm less than excited about the ones I've made so far. I call them ugly and the LOML says "they are spoons and I like them". No matter, I still need to learn the process and get the vision in my head of how they need to look and be in my mind's eye.

Off work today....and I'm happy about that. I gave away my Powermatic 15S spiral cutter head to another woodworker who wanted it. I will get that shipped out this week to him so he can get it installed quickly.

Well, that's it for me, so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim O'Dell]

Dennis, you woke up to what we watched all day yesterday! I trimmed trees Saturday...81 degrees. By 2:00 Sunday we were in the mid to lower 20s. I'll have all the firewood I have cut burned by 2:00 this afternoon. Better not be any more winter this year! I lucked out on the work front for today too. Friday was my last day at the last job, and I start the new one on Wednesday, so saved working on the service drive this am in low teen temps! Sometimes we just get lucky!! Jim.

[james glenn]

Man, you southern folk. We had wind chills in the -20 range, and that is dang cold at 4am in the dark. Haha. But I do know that the sudden shifts you all get in weather is hard to take, a person's body can't adjust fast enough.

It was a productive weekend for me. Finished up the installation of my General Int. cast iron router wing extension with a Jessem Mast-R Lift II, the GI dust enclosure box, Wixley Digital Readout, shop built fence, and hooked up to the dust collection. I love this thing. And I am finally getting to really use the Milwaukee 5625 router.

I do not spend a lot of time in the woodshop, as working a full time job and then running a cattle farm with my brother does not leave much free time for outside interests. But, my 21month old daughter started to venture down to the basement shop with my this weekend, and loves to play with the wood cut offs and CLEAN!!!! We even bought her a small plastic tool set equipped with a battery operated drill. She is thrilled and always wants to go down stairs with me. It melts my heart and thrills me each time.I pay very close attention to her and teach her little things and work mostly on layouts and planning things. But she does love pressing the button for the dust collector.

[Matt Meiser]

The only woodworking was cutting a piece of 1/2" baltic birch. I had my truck in the shop most of the weekend for an audio upgrade. Really wanted the factory high end sound system on my next truck but the one I found had everything I wanted but. Instead I added my own and I'm really happy with the results. Things have changed a lot since the last time I installed a car stereo--this one uses a web-programmable module to interface to the factory voice features and steering wheel controls. While I had it in there I also installed some LED lighting in the bed so I can see under the tonneau cover at night.

Also spent an hour or two diagnosing a no-start issue on my tractor. Luckily it started fine and I plowed Saturday night's snow. When I put it away I realized the blade was pointing the wrong direction (has to be just right or a door hits it) and when I tried to restart the tractor it would crank but not fire. Of course the problem is be the $180 fuel cutoff solenoid not the $35 fuel cutoff solenoid relay! My Deere dealer doesn't have the solenoid in stock so I'm trying the $80 aftermarket one since I have to be down a couple days either way. I also discovered that some welds on my back blade have broken so I have to either replace it or grind out the old welds, somehow straighten it back out, and reweld it because I'm betting we aren't done with snow yet.

[Shane Copps]

40 below wind chill all weekend, but should be in the 20's above today. I just spent all weekend cleaning mold out of the Rental and scheming and dreaming about the new shop I get in June!!!!!

[Craig Shilling]

I cut 2 pieces of 1/4" baltic birch and that was the only wood I cut over the weekend. I did get an email from a supplier that I do quite a bit of business with, they were offering Festool T18 Drill Sets for $287.75 so I jumped on that in a hurry. I been needing a new drill anyway. Great weekend.

[David Hostetler]

I got the SCMS dust hood ductwork / plumbing installed and everything tied into the main trunk line. Not everything lines up perfectly, but it works as designed, so no big deal.

Spent some quality time rearranging where the hand held power tools go, and spent yet more time cleaning the shop. I also took the router screw heads to the grinder to make them sit flush, or below the top of the Bench Dog router plate. From what I have seen, these plates don't have big enough counter sinks to accommodate the large screw heads on the Hitachi routers. Oh well, problem fixed... All is smooth, for now.

Yesterday was supposed to be paint the shop door and trim, build a clamp rack, swap out an old almost standard outlet for a white Decora unit, but weather changes, and a failing furnace at my father in laws place changed plans for me... We ended up bringing him to our place until the weather calms down and an HVAC guy can get over and look at his heat...

Scary thing is, now that I have gone through all this time, expense and trouble, my wife is posing the possibility of a free standing building for a shop... Oh well, I can do that too, but I was figuring on making the stand alone building storage for yard tools and supplies...

[Kevin Womer]

I had a piece of wood in my hand the entire weekend, only problem it was attached to a brush with paint on it. Painting wainscot for the LOML. Need to make a couple of Adirondack chairs soon so all will be well again.

[Brian W Smith]

Cut a Powermatic TS extension....don't know what model,31"x10"....asymmetrically.One is a few inches longer than the other,to serve as infeed and outfeed extensions on a 5HP shaper.Cleaned/straightened/squared the cut on a Bridgeport.........."ahhhh,the smell of cast iron in the morning".This has been on the "to-do" list for 6 months.Hope to get some welding/fabrication,seat time today at lunch.

Note;this was an extremely "clean" extension,but orphaned because of a "bow down" condition.Wasn't any measurable twist however.The risk of straightening it was more than PO wanted to bare.

[Shawn Pixley]

Still working... It'll be 19 days straight on Friday. But I get to head for home tomorrow- happy day!

[Bill McNiel]

Saturday- put more Waterlox on the Boat Desk top, transom face and drawer faces. Took a client to look at hardwoods for the " breadboard extensions" to his live edge dining table.

Sunday- more Waterlox and agonizing over the realities of how to construct the dining table extensions. I may end up with a seperate posting on this table design/construct.

[Drew Pavlak]

Had Friday off - Took my daughter up for some Pitching Practice, she is getting pretty good. She is 10 years old and only been pitching Since September. Every pitch isn't a strike, but she is learning to place pitches. Then after that took the family skiing and tubing for roughly 6 hours. I am one of those crazies that likes the cold. So does the family thankfully.

Saturday - Helped my brother get a load of wood for my uncle. That ended up taking most of the day, kind of hard to get an old diesel started when it has been sitting for 6 months. 2' to 3' of snow in the way didn't help a whole lot either. Then went home and worked on the barn a little.

Sunday - Barn Day! Insulated the ceiling, 24' x 30' cathedral ceiling. and one small section of flat ceiling that butted up to the cathedral.

I had to come back to work to rest and relax.

[Bud Ackerman]

after two days of cleaning found out what color my shop floor is (actually found out I had one)