Tool Gloat and shop pics

[Gordy Anderson]

Greetings all,

I started 'finer' woodworking over this past winter. I've completed various woodworking tasks over the years but they weren't furniture. Decks, paneling, trim etc. So I got a new table saw for Christmas and set out to build my wife a jewelry amoire. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted before I chose the table saw, and I already had a 2 HP Sears router and DP visible in the first (grainy) picture. NOWHERE in my research did anyone mention the slippery slope I was about to fall into. I already had a finish nailer but my compressor sprung a leak, hense the new compressor in the second photo. (That's the base of the amoire.) Oh, and don't forget the clamps. Never have enough of those.

Then I glued the drawers (Huh, no new tools??) and then the sides. (Honey, I need more clamps!!) Oh yeah, my shop is in my 24X32 pole barn, and I had some gift certificates from Christmas to burn, so I added a tool box.

Overall so far it's been a rather frustrating experience. The plans I bought pretty much suck, and I've had to redo a few things and make adjustments as a result. Since I'm in Michigan, with our second worst winter ever, I've had to carry stuff between the unheated shop and my basement where I do the glueups. After 5 books and a 3 foot stack of woodworking magazines, my wife won't let me go to Barnes and Nobles any more, but I've learned a lot between that and following this and a couple other forums.

In spite of the frustration of the sucky plans and searching high and low to find some usable wood, and having to fine tune my equipment (after I've cut all the parts for the armoire - Doh!!), and buy more wood and make more adjustments... I'm actually rather enjoying myself. I don't point out most of my mistakes to my wife, and she loves the progress and is pretty excited for me to finish it up. She evens spends time on the Creek looking for my next project.

Stay tuned, more gloats, pics and story to follow....

Gordy

[Travis Gauger]

Does your wife have a sister? My wife should come take lessons from yours or something. You are one lucky man. Welcome to the creek and good luck with your future endeavors.

[Gordy Anderson]

Does your wife have a sister? My wife should come take lessons from yours or something. You are one lucky man. Welcome to the creek and good luck with your future endeavors.

Yeah she's pretty great. She works hard to make money for my toys.

So to continue my saga... I wore out my old Sears sander and needed to upgrade. Due to the curse of the Creek, I was drawn to the Festool ROS. This baby is sweet. I recently redid our main bathroom and had to rent a power drywall sander. $45 for a day of wrestling that monstrosity around was no fun. It worked, but what a pain in a small room.

With the Festool hooked up to my shop vac, I just finished doing some drywall patching in the bedroom, and not a spec of dust on any of the furniture or in the air. Veerrrry nice.

Then I did some work for her nurses organization to help with AV for a conference she put on. Got a $200 gift card to Lowes for that one, and with a little extra of her hard earned cash and 15% off, I picked up a Dewalt planer.

Still looking for a dust collector and jointer, but in the mean time those damn Creekers piped up and put me onto a good deal for a MS stand. Once again the LOML helped me load another piece of equipment into the jeep.

The amoire isn't quite finished, but is ready for hinges and final assembly. Then tear it down for sanding and finishing. Hopefully it'll be ready for stain by the end of this weekend. It's supposed to snow flurry again, so no work outside which should give me time to make decent progress.

The only other thing I need to do this weekend is make a trip to the jewelers. I think she's due...

Gordy