Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

6 July 2015

Good Morning Everyone,
I hope that this finds each of you doing well and that you had a nice Independence Day with family and friends.

No woodworking for me for the past week. It's been a lot of work stuff at the day job and the heat in the shop is too hot for my liking. Now I remember why I usually closed my shop for woodworking in the summer months and worked inside the shop during fall, winter, and spring months.

I did get some landscaping work done for the LOML on Saturday morning and then played bass guitar at church yesterday and then relaxed with family Sunday evening. We did cook out burgers, hotdogs, and such on Saturday afternoon along with some homemade ice cream. All in all, it was a good weekend.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[daryl moses]

Too wet to mow the grass, been raining for a solid week.
Did get in the garden and slogged around in the mud. Picked a bunch of cukes, ten gallons of green beans and some yellow squash. Helped the wife break and string beans, she did the canning chores she also made a bunch of bread and butter pickles.
Finally got in the shop and turned a piece of Sycamore that I accidently knocked down a couple of weeks ago. cut a dead standing red oak and my aim wasn't very good and it landed on the Sycamore.
Made my first wooden goblet and had enough left on the lathe to turn a lidded box. Turned out pretty well if I think, still need to put some finish on it.
Pretty much it for me.....

[Matt Meiser]

Hard to believe its been a year since I've had a shop. This time last year we were busy packing the house and my shop was all but empty as we were about 2 weeks away from turning the keys for that over to the new owner.

We had a pretty busy weekend. Since half the house will be resided in the near future I took the opportunity to knock a project to vent the microwave outside off my list. Lot less nerve wracking to cut siding with holes already in it than cutting pristine . Easier to paint the vent too when you don't care about getting paint on the siding (not that you can see it anyway since Sherwin Williams matched it so exactly.) Friday we spent half the day hanging around home while our new AC system was installed. After some errands we spent the rest of the day doing some grilling, playing the new ladderball game my daughter and I made over the last week, and having a bonfire. Saturday we went to a flea market in Tiffin, OH which was kind of a bust for us but not a bad way to spend the day. Then it was church, more grilling, more ladderball, more bonfire, and some time across the street watching the neighbors' fireworks. Sunday we got up late and went to work out. I decided it was time to try running "for real" instead of on a treadmill and successfully, albeit slowly, ran 5K for the first time in my life. We're planning to register for a 5K in mid September and I want to run it at a non-embarrassing pace. Went to my parents for our usual Sunday dinner and checked out the progress on their construction projects to add (back) the front porch on their 1860's farmhouse, convert my dad's old shop to a garage, put in a concrete driveway, expand their deck and incorporate a ramp, and more. The porch has been on my mom's wishlist since they bought the house in the summer of 1979. They've hit a number of obstacles figuratively and literally. They'd planned to rehab an old barn-turned-garage but found it was too far gone to save which necessitated a major change in plans. Then while digging the post holes for the porch they hit the original porch foundation (it had collpased by the time the local paper published a picture in the 1960's) and had to bring in an excavator. Hopefully they will be getting that project wrapped up as the contractor is slated to move on to my roof, siding, gutters, etc next.

[Mike Ontko]

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on my platform bed project. Over the long weekend I was able to complete the outer frame (side rails and head/foot boards). Just have the center support and slats to complete before I can start finishing.

1-platformBed_outerFrame3.JPG platformBed_cornerPost_1_sm.JPG platformBed_rails_sm.JPG

[Garth Almgren]

I actually got some work in the shop done this weekend, despite record high temps. With the barn doors and back window open I got a decent cross breeze going through the shop. Other than having to mop my forehead with a shop towel every few minutes, it wasn't too bad. I was able to finish the main structure on a twin XL platform bed based on Steve Ramsey's design. I still need to cut slats and make drawers, but it's all coming together. I used the cheapest wood I could find - doug fir 1x4 furring strips so I've only got about $25 into it so far. Also, I got a new set of lathe chisels for my birthday last week, and picked up a really cheap Skil belt sander at a garage sale so I'm very happy right now.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Helped son replace siding and window on his in laws house (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.) He started this project last summer. It was three stories up, so we wound up putting 32' ladder in bed of truck to make it reach. Now we only lack window in east wall, and some siding on chimney. Then we get to go back and replace all the other windows, which we can do off ladders with no problem.

[Earl McLain]

After several weekends of working my part-time job or family outings--i was able to finally (after 10 years) build a front porch on my house. Still need to add the railings and steps--but the three day weekend was non-stop. I've only been woodworking for about 4 years, but this is my first home carpentry job since i started woodworking. I have much better tools, that are much better tuned than the last time i built a deck. And--realizing that it was treated lumber that's going to move a lot--the tolerances and miters were much tighter. It was really fun to blast through something where a 64th of an inch was plenty close!! And...my wife was trying to find a way to help, so i put her on the drill and impact driver, was fun to work with her and she loved it. To keep from having to lug the miter saw to/from the shop, she agreed to the purchase of a Bosch Gravity Rise stand--saved a ton of lifting and handled the gravel driveway just fine.

Next up will be a similar deck off the back of the bedroom--it's had a sliding door to nowhere for a long time!! Mama is a happy camper, and will be a great help on the next deck!!

earl

[Kent Adams]

After several weekends of working my part-time job or family outings--i was able to finally (after 10 years) build a front porch on my house. Still need to add the railings and steps--but the three day weekend was non-stop. I've only been woodworking for about 4 years, but this is my first home carpentry job since i started woodworking. I have much better tools, that are much better tuned than the last time i built a deck. And--realizing that it was treated lumber that's going to move a lot--the tolerances and miters were much tighter. It was really fun to blast through something where a 64th of an inch was plenty close!! And...my wife was trying to find a way to help, so i put her on the drill and impact driver, was fun to work with her and she loved it. To keep from having to lug the miter saw to/from the shop, she agreed to the purchase of a Bosch Gravity Rise stand--saved a ton of lifting and handled the gravel driveway just fine.

Next up will be a similar deck off the back of the bedroom--it's had a sliding door to nowhere for a long time!! Mama is a happy camper, and will be a great help on the next deck!!

earl

Kudos for getting the wife involved. I wish I could say the same on any project.

[David Ragan]

Worked on niece's hope chest
Built some easels for ma in law for art display @ flea market
Watched a lot of TV
Thought about working in yard with wife--but talked my self out of it.
Started reading Michener's 'Chesapeake'
Spent lots of time on this forum

[Charles Taylor]

It was a four-day weekend for me. Friday I relocated the motor on a vintage jointer I had bought the Friday prior. The jointer was made in the 1920s for line shaft/flat belt operation, so the motor that came with it was a user add-on. It had been mounted to an outrigger frame of angle iron that took up more room behind the jointer than I wanted, so I flipped the motor around, reversed it electrically, and fastened it underneath the machine. After that, I worked on a repair to a cutting board a coworker friend had asked me to fix.

Saturday my wife and I made a day trip to Nashville and did some browsing of antiques and salvage, as well as the goodies at Woodcraft. Ate a nice dinner before heading home.

Sunday afternoon I milled up some material for the workshop cabinet I'm trying to complete (I've mentioned it before. It still isn't done.) and wrapped up the work I'm going to do to that cutting board.

Monday I attached that material to the cabinet--spacers to which drawer slides are to be attached--and applied some sanding sealer, followed by some Minwhacks water-based poly-ish stuff to the open storage bays that will be visible. I got a third of the 12 pairs of drawer slides installed when I called it a day.

[Jim Becker]

This weekend was a continuation of the previous week where I took leave and did a kitchen refresh...which mostly involved a lot of painting. My hats off to all the pro painters and others who regularly paint for a living...it's incredibly tedious work to do it "correctly" and my body was darn tired after over 8 days of work. The project included some minor alterations of the island to make two internal drawers directly accessible from the outside (fixing a functional design issue that has existed since I built the thing in 2003) and two new doors under the sink to deal with moisture damage to the original doors. I haven't taken photos yet, but it really does look nice, "new" and refreshed.