Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

16 Jan 2017

Good Morning Everyone,
It's been a foggy and wet weekend here with more rain / storms today. I don't mind the warmer temps from the single digits before but I'm past ready for some dryer weather with sunshine. Dreary and grey every day is not for me.
No woodworking this week but I do have some plan to get out there and make a few more things. I start oncall today and I'm not ready for it. Seems like it comes around faster and faster all the time.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Dennis, weird weather here as it's above zero and the snow is melting.

Diann and I went to see Rogue One in the theatre, good movie, the story is now up to 1978 which is when I saw the first Star Wars movie.

On the shop front, I bought what I thought was an Excalibur overarm guard for my saw, turns out to be a King product now called Excelsior. It's almost identical to the Excalibur guard. Now I need to cut the main outer tube and telescoping inner tube to length, as well as the internal keystock.

I had to do that with my General saw as well as I only had the 30 inch rip capacity saw.

The Excelsior guard is nicer than the Ecalibur as the guard portion fits up to 14 inch saws, which I need as mine has a scoring saw.

Regards, Rod.

[Chris True]

Saturday I stained and finished the treads for section two of four on my 'replace the carpet on the stairs' project, installed on Sunday.

Ran the drum sander for a couple hours on the final 12 treads. In case anyone doubts a Grizz cyclones ability to separate out fine dust, the drum was emptied before and the pile of dust in the corner of the drum is 6" deep!

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, I hope you have a "quiet" on-call period this week! (and can spend more time cooking )

I had a relatively quiet weekend. My shop time was largely focused on completing closing up the band joist area for better heat retention in the shop. That was followed by general clean-up and a small amount of re-organization...I'm ready for whatever project(s) get the nod next. I also continued the small amount of drywall/mud work to button up the kitchen and powder room ceilings that were open due to the recent mini-renovation of my daughter's bathroom upstairs. Lastly, Professor Dr SWMBO and I were finally able to have a conversation with "the younger" relative to college choices...she's accepted at six and it's narrowed down to two. The challenge remaining is the balance between "best education" and some cost factors around "parental preference" versus her desire to be more independent and live away from home. We think we made some progress with a few extra "dangling carrots"...time will tell.

[Bill Adamsen]

Should have gone sailboat (frostbiting) racing but made this "tabletop" for the new laundry room instead. Not sure how to finish it. Thinking conversion varnish would be the most durable and moisture-proof? This covers the washer/dryer and functions as a folding counter.

[Jim Dwight]

I haven't reached the stage of closing up the kitchen ceiling, I need to open it to finish a bathroom project. Last weekend I went and got the shower base my wife has picked out to determine if I really needed to move the back wall. I did. So I tore it out and rebuilt it less than 1/2 inch further away from the other wall so the base will fit. Now I need to open the ceiling and cut the cast iron waste pipe so I can put the new base in place. The opening will be in an area with popcorn so I will also need to remove more of that so I can tape it. This project is the kind that drives my wife crazy so I may need to take a day off.

At least I got to use some woodworking tools. My cordless Ryobi reciprocating saw was used to cut out the old wall. My cordless Ryobi circular saw and multitool cut back the oak flooring so the wall could move. The multi tool also cut drywall. The top of this wall is on the slope of the roof so the top plate needed to be ripped at 38 degrees. Not hard on a table saw. The top of each stud also had to be cut at this angle - but that is easy on a CMS. I fastened everything in place with 3 inch drywall screws using my Ryobi cordless drill and impact driver.

I enjoy woodworking more but these home projects need to be done and are interesting too. One of the last steps, hopefully only a couple weekends away, will be to make a little cabinet for this bathroom. That will be a nice way to end.

[Jim Becker]

Jim, your project is very similar to what I just did for my daughter's bathroom!

[Jay Larson]

This weekend I got the window seat installed in my office. I already had the bookshelves installed in the corners and this fits in between them. Took a little bit of scribing to get a good fit, especially using solid maple for the seat. The last couple of sheets of maple plywood were not to my liking, and the maple was just slightly more expensive from the local lumber yard, so I went with that. And since it was wider than my lunch box planer, it got hand planed and scraped. Yeah, I was in a t-shirt with the shop at 55-60*.

On to the three drawers.

[Keith Westfall]

I’ll try to keep this as short as I can…

A company in town that takes down trees, started a bit of a new venture. Rather than cut the tree down, chip it and haul it to the dump, he said there has to be a better way..

So he bought a WoodMizer Mill, converted two 40 foot C-cans (with side doors) into a dry kiln, and is producing some lumber. Local stuff – Willow, Poplar, Ash, Elm, Broad Leaf Maple and produces some really good looking wood.

Then he saw an article about a program that had been done in Oregon, and said this is it. So “Sawing for Schools” was started. He cuts wood, Produces lumber and gives it to the school where is daughter goes.

So Monday, (we are doing it Monday's & Tuesdays after school) we started the 1st of many days on our projects. We are building a table, chairs, benches, coffee tables (heavy post and beam style) in an ‘after school’ program called – “Sawing for Schools”.

Can’t begin to describe the feelings experienced, while seeing these youth (grade 6,7,&8) get into this. The goal is to have them do ALL they can (and maybe more) while having the patience to let them work. Helping them plan, teaching how to run power tools etc; = a BLAST!!!

We’ve got a home show coming up in March where the stuff will be displayed and raffled off to (hopefully) continue to fund the program. As well, our group will compete in the shed build (he shed = man cave; she-shed = feminine touch!; and a wee-shed = kids sports theme) competition at the Home Show. Sponsorship is beyond good, and we are going to do great things for this school and these kids. So nice to see a school wood shop actually working! Depending on the day due to other student commitments, we've got about 16 - 20 kids involved so far.

Busy and aggressive? Yes, but we’ve got excited people on board and running just past top speed!!

Will try to remember to post some pictures as we move forward.

[Jim Becker]

Keith, that sounds like a wonderful program. I really like hearing about any of the "urban trees" type projects where lumber is produced rather than waste and your program goes so much further in a positive way with the school connection!