Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Tyler Howell]

Good advice Dennis,
I'll take it to heart.
Could a PC help your FIL?
I know they have software for the blind that will reproduce print in a large font.
Good Luck

I did spend time in the new shop.
Unloading toyls and working on the tractor. Had to change out the FEL for the plow blade.
About 12 " of fresh snow to move.
It's still a lot of fun. A lot to learn about moving and piling that stuff economically.
TJH

[Justin McCurdy]

I had a little bit of shop time this weekend that was well overdue. In watching two of Rob Cosman's videos, I was inspired to construct a waterstone holder jig which works decent. I see now that I should have spent a little extra money on the wider Norton stones that I felt were too expensive before. I also tried cutting out a few patterns with a new/old scroll saw. I seemed to get better as the day progressed, but I am still horrible. I finally sharpened the blade for a Groz bench plane which I have had for quite awhile. Man, what a POS (either me or the plane, I still haven't figured out which one yet). I also came up with a rigging for the Hegner scroll saw which allows you to use the existing hold down mount casting to revert the dust blower so that it blows the dust away from the user, and not at the user. I would post pics, but it is UGLY, yet somehow works beautifully. The biggest problem was figuring out how to keep the blower out of the way of my hands, which I finally did after about 10 minutes of head scratching. I did manage not to spend any money over the weekend, which was necessary after the damage I did to my credit cards last week on various woodworking accessories. Now, if I can just stay away from buying LN hand planes I will be alright.

[Eric DeSilva]

Slightly frustrating w/e... I was experimenting w/frameless wall cabinets and my Festool LR32 system, and figured I'd build a test set for the garage w/Borg 3/4" maple ply. When I built the sides, I had ordered some FastEdge, which went on nicely, until I stained--turns out I got sent birch, not maple. So, ordered some maple. Well, this w/e I went down and cut a bunch of shelves for the cabinets, pulled out the maple, slapped it on even though it felt a little strange, and started finishing... Lo and behold my astonishment as the grain on the maple disappeared with a swipe of 0000 steel wool. Turns out this time I got maple PVC, not real wood. I guess this is why we build test cabinets before building things that matter. Even with all the strange edgebanding, the cabinets look fine--they are garage cabinets, after all.

Anyway, I did at least get 'em on the wall, along with some Storewall, unpacked the automotive tools and garage stuff into them, freeing more space in the garage. I also managed to get one fitting away from completing the DC system in my basement, and managed quite a bit of organization--consolidating the six boxes/bags of electrical romex/outlets/wire nuts/etc materials, the five bags/boxes of random plumbing materials, and the 4 bags/boxes of painting supplies. As soon as I finish that, of course, I find another box of random electrical outlets, plugs, copper joints, flux, and other oddities in the garage. *sigh*

[Eric Haycraft]

More of a home improvement weekend than anything. I had severe air infultration problems in my house's lower level because of a previous owner's creative home improvement skills. Long story short, I had to gut the entire basement. This weekend was time to insulate. I did spray foam to get rid of the air leaks. Lots of nooks and crannies and fiberglass + plastic seemed like a nightmare to get tight. Tyvek jumpsuits, respirators, goggles..It looked like I was in a bad virus outbreak movie. I ran out of chemicals minutes after finishing, so I didn't waste a drop. It is a bit early to tell as the concrete floor needs to warm up a bit, but this morning it was 68 degrees down there which is much warmer than I have ever seen it

I also started converting an old short+wide dresser into a mobile workbench by adding a commercial wood door as a top and some wheels to the base. Still need to modify the height of the top and attach a vice, but it should be a good nearly free workbench. This was the first real test of the TS55; it powered through the door like a champ. I am quite happy with the festool guide...it worked great and I didn't need to clamp.

[Robert foster]

Well, I decided if I'm going to get started in working wood I should learn something. I decided to try some small frame and panel doors. I made some mistakes on the first one and did better on the second one. After I had two doors I thought I would build a small tool cupboard for my bits, chisels etc to hang on the wall over my bench. More mistakes but also more learning as well.
Sunday I taught my Bible study at church and stayed for worship. The new pastor (from Korea) announced that I would be the Associate pastor now. I don't have to "work" but about 10 hrs a week so I'll have plenty of time in the shop.
After church I worked more on my tool cupboard- mostly fixing mistakes but I also drilled about 150 5/16ths holes 1" apart for the bits etc. This morning I went to town and bought some hinges, knobs and catches. I did some more fixing, installed the hinges and mounted it to my poured concrete basement wall.
All in all it was a good weekend. I have a lot to learn but that's what I retired for.
Bob

[Scott Schwake]

Finished storage units for the toyroom.

[Rod Sheridan]

Amazingly I had some shop time, for the shop.

I made 6 drawer fronts and one door for the BB cabinet I made a while ago.

The drawer front/door is BB ply, with 6mm walnut edging, looks very nice now that it's had 4 coats of semi gloss polyurethane.

I even made pulls by sandwiching a piece of 6mm birch between two scraps of 6mm walnut left over from the banding exercise. I carved a slight rounded groove in the top and bottom grip area of the pulls with a gouge, they have a very nice feel when gripped.

Unfortunately the shop cabinets are beginning to look nicer than the kitchen cabinets, hope Diann doesn't notice!

regards, Rod.