Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

22 Feb 2016

Good Morning Everyone,
My mother flew in last week to visit with us. The first time since my dad passed away. We had a really good visit and got to share life with her a bit while she was here. I really hope that she will visit with us again as this was only the 3rd time she had been out here to see us in over 15 years.
Got some cleaning done in the shop and I made a pair of bookshelf speaker stands to go beside our tv. Painted them black to match the tv stand and I made them from wood I had in my scrap bin.

I have a bit of woodturning to do and I'm going to try and get at least one piece done this week as I have a customer who is wanting a bowl.
Car shopping for my youngest son and I was quickly reminded just how much I dislike car shopping. Trying to find a decent Honda Accord / Civic for under $9K is proving to be a real chore.
I go back to the daily grind today and I am thankful for the job I have and the people I work closely with every single day. I am blessed.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Brett Robson]

No woodworking projects currently underway here. This weekend's activities were mostly all motorcycle related.

Saturday my local HOG chapter had a ride - the first one for the year. The weather was beautiful and the ride, although pretty short, was really fun.

Sunday I spent tinkering on the bikes. I replaced the brakes on the old Sportster, took the front wheel in to have a new tire installed, put some shock gators on the front and took it for a bit of a test ride. I had to wire in a new ignition module last weekend and hadn't had a chance to give it a test. So far, so good!

On the Softail, I discovered much to my disgust, the small leather fork bag I had just installed had slipped down the fork legs enough that it was rubbing on the top of the front fender, leaving a 3" scuff across the paint. Fortunately it was just scuffed into the clear coat and I was able to rub it out with a couple hours of elbow grease and some polishing compound.

On the Electra Glide, I gave it a once over and found a couple of loose fasteners, installed some organizer pouches in the saddlebags, and discovered my footboard is touching the exhaust on the right. Harley was supposed to space the footboard out after replacing the header pipes along with a cam upgrade they did last week. They told me they fixed it, but obviously they didn't. So today it's back to the dealer.

I'm really getting antsy for spring!

[Mike Ontko]

I delivered the IKEA styled bookcase to my daughter this weekend, as an addition for her first apartment. She was happy to finally get her favorite books out of boxes, and it received full approval from her new kitten. Two happy customers with one project--what more can a guy ask for?

Then, not quite ready to jump into the next book case project, I spent time making a scratch stock for use in making a piece of duplicate molding for a coworker who's in the middle of a reno job on a 100 year old farm house. The one pictured here is just a quickie version, intended for just this one job. But I found a plan for making a much nicer one that I'll give a try some time later.

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For Christmas last year, I got a couple of books on pyrography (wood burning drawing) and in the time since I've been acquiring the equipment to get me started. Beginning with my next bookcase project (cherry and Doug. fir), I'd like to try adding a small image somewhere discreetly on the pieces I make to reflect something either related to the piece itself or for its intended owner. This first attempt on a piece of scrap is an image of a Doug fir branch and cone.

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[Martin Wasner]

Finished helping a buddy of mine re-wire my whole kitchen. Four new can lights, three new circuits, under cabinet lighting, microwave, dishwasher wiring, pendant light over the sink, added a another switch for the kitchen lights, and moved the previous one to a place that actually made sense, and since we were indulging in the misery of wading around in insulation in the attic we added a light in the stairwell going to the basement since it was pretty much death trap.

Wednesday some sheetrock is getting replaced, and the ceiling is getting floated since it was popcorn, but we want a smooth ceiling. I don't touch sheetrock. It doesn't go well for me. Hopefully we can get everything painted up next weekend and I can get all the boxes hung either next weekend or in the evenings before the following weekend. Two week lead time on countertops, my missus is getting a bit cranky about our kitchen being torn apart.

[Jim Becker]

More time in the shop this weekend working on my buffet/hutch project which is coming along nicely--still focused just on the lower buffet portion. I did have to remake the doors as I just wasn't happy with the original ones relative to, um...squareness and unfortunately sizing. With a beaded design, you really cannot cut them down for fitting after the fact. So remaking them solved that issue. I did some final additions to the carcass to provide drawer stops and primed the doors and drawer fronts. Teaser picture...



Additionally, I retrofitted most of the remaining T12 fixtures in my shop with LED replacement "tubes". TOTALLY worth the effort and cost. My shop is now much brighter and with consistent color temperature. Between these replacement "tubes" in older fixtures and the 6 LED fixtures I already hung, I'm a happy camper in the lighting department.

I do have one more shop modification I need to do this coming weekend and that's to make some fixes/changes to the dust collection setup for my router station. The hose is heavy and things just weren't staying together well. That will be addressed with about an hours work when I get back in the shop.

[Wayne Jolly]

No woodworking for me. I installed 4 new security cameras and relocated two existing cameras. Then spent a lot of time relocating the recorder and cleaning up the wiring.


Wayne

[Sean Troy]

This weekend I started cleaning and reorganizing the shop to make room for a new machine. I didn't get to far as the weather was so nice outside.

[Mike Wilkins]

No shop time for me, as my honey took me to Morehead City, NC for some away time/shopping and eating for birthday number six one. Ate a really fine meal at Ruddy Duck's; best seafood I have eaten in ages/probably ever. I will be back.

Back to the shop later this week; working on a Walnut bench from a Wood magazine article from last year. Not sure if I am going with the woven tape, or some type of upholstery. The tape idea looks neat.

[Sean Troy]

More time in the shop this weekend working on my buffet/hutch project which is coming along nicely--still focused just on the lower buffet portion. I did have to remake the doors as I just wasn't happy with the original ones relative to, um...squareness and unfortunately sizing. With a beaded design, you really cannot cut them down for fitting after the fact. So remaking them solved that issue. I did some final additions to the carcass to provide drawer stops and primed the doors and drawer fronts. Teaser picture...



Additionally, I retrofitted most of the remaining T12 fixtures in my shop with LED replacement "tubes". TOTALLY worth the effort and cost. My shop is now much brighter and with consistent color temperature. Between these replacement "tubes" in older fixtures and the 6 LED fixtures I already hung, I'm a happy camper in the lighting department.

I do have one more shop modification I need to do this coming weekend and that's to make some fixes/changes to the dust collection setup for my router station. The hose is heavy and things just weren't staying together well. That will be addressed with about an hours work when I get back in the shop.

How involved is the retro fit of the lights?

[Bruce Wrenn]

Finished up a box for my sister's ashes. Had memorial service Saturday. Other sister,and brother came in yesterday to start cleaning out her house today. Fixed dinner for them.

[Dale Murray]

I finally started building the work bench I've wanted since I was 8 year old. Its inspired by a picture in one of his fine woodworking magazines.

All the wear points are hard maple, everything else is soft or curly maple with the exception of the twin screw vise and opposite end cape; those will be made from walnut that's been in grand dads basement for more than 40 years.

All I accomplished this weekend was cutting the skirts and squaring and cutting the rough walnut. I don't have a jointer so I did it all by hand with a LN #8.

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[Matt Schrum]

How involved is the retro fit of the lights?

I've done the same with my shop fluorescents. Depending on what LED "tubes" you buy, some are drop in replacement with no changes in wiring, some require you to change a couple of wires in the fixture and/or remove the ballast.

For example, my LED tubes have 2 prongs on each end. The set of prongs on one end is dead/inert and does not need to be wired to anything, on the other side one prong is live, one neutral, and I had to remove the ballast. I've seen other tubes with 2 lives on one end and two neutrals on the other. Pretty easy at the end of the day and one heck of an improvement in my shop.

[Chris Hachet]

I finally started building the work bench I've wanted since I was 8 year old. Its inspired by a picture in one of his fine woodworking magazines.

All the wear points are hard maple, everything else is soft or curly maple with the exception of the twin screw vise and opposite end cape; those will be made from walnut that's been in grand dads basement for more than 40 years.

All I accomplished this weekend was cutting the skirts and squaring and cutting the rough walnut. I don't have a jointer so I did it all by hand with a LN #8.

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I find hand tools to be much nicer in dimensioning wood than powoer tools. I have a # 8 sized Ulmia German jointer....it gets a lot of love in the shop. should be a fantastic bench.

[Chris Hachet]

I've done the same with my shop fluorescents. Depending on what LED "tubes" you buy, some are drop in replacement with no changes in wiring, some require you to change a couple of wires in the fixture and/or remove the ballast.

For example, my LED tubes have 2 prongs on each end. The set of prongs on one end is dead/inert and does not need to be wired to anything, on the other side one prong is live, one neutral, and I had to remove the ballast. I've seen other tubes with 2 lives on one end and two neutrals on the other. Pretty easy at the end of the day and one heck of an improvement in my shop.

I work on a university Campus with a ton of lamps to replace...work in the facilities department...LED is so much nicer and lasts so much longer.

[Raymond Fries]

For the shop part, I spent my time doing stuff for precision and repeatability. I got my saw dialed in to cut exact 45 degree angles for miter joints. YAY. Finally done! I made some ZCI inserts, and some jigs I needed. Time for some real sawdust now.