Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

Good Morning
12 May 2008

Cool and crisp outside this morning, flowers all in bloom, garden growing beautifully, and The Creek is a fine place to be.

No woodworking from me....again....due to being short handed on our team at work and I had to pull coverage which made for some very long days at the day job. Sunday was church and the service was the very last service in our old building. Next Sunday will be the 1st service in our new building and what a beauty it is!!!! I'll take some pics next week and post a few here.

Been working a lot in the yard and today I get to go and get my Motorcycle License as I'm getting a 2-wheeler to ride back and forth to work (8 miles one way) that should help reduce my fuel expense by at least $120 per month. 2008 Honda Rebel 250 is what I decided on because it was $2900 on sale at the U.S.'s 3 largest Honda dealership in Russellville, AR. Great people and a wonderful facility they have.
This will be motorcycle #17 for me over the course of my life. I've done some mud racing, hill-climbing, trials biking, and general road riding. This will be quiet different from my 2-stroke power-band days and quiet smaller than my previously own 750 street bike. But...I'm not after speed nor size...just transportation on nice days for the to/from work drive.

Well, gotta get out of here and head out to take my writen exam and if all goes well, I'll have the driving test done this afternoon and then have my Class M license by the end of the day.

So what did YOU do this weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Mike SoRelle]

I spent the better part of saturday at the FIL's cutting down 2 Cedars, 1 pine and 1 apple tree and managed to get a pretty good sunburn in the process on my neck and head (didn't remember I had a cap in the car until noon or so)

And before anyone asks, nope, the wood wasn't harvested for making sawdust, they were long dead in situ and nothing much to save once it was down, I burned the branches in place on top of the stumps, and now I've got logs to burn in the fire pit for a couple of months.

Grats on your cycle gloat, hopefully the idiots in your neck of the woods pay more attention to riders than they do here. I've seen enough near misses to make me never want to ride again. The upside is I telecommute, so I don't really burn any gas making it from the bedroom to the office

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Mike

[Tony Cox]

Saturday morning we done the usual breakfast with my wifes father. After that I dropped my wife off at work for a couple of hours while I went and picked up a jointer and some ash from a guy I work with. The jointer is small but it will get me started. After loading up, I went and got my wife from work and headed for home.

Got home and mowed the yard. My dad helped me unload the jointer and the wife and I were off to the closing Home Depot. I was going there to get some knives for my 4330. They had several sets, but I only got one. It was only 10% off. I just wanted an extra set. If it would have been a better deal I would have bought more. They had a couple jointers and TS3650 table saws. I want that table saw bad, but I can't right now. I have bought enough in the last month. Came back home and watched the Darlington race.

Sunday I worked on the garage cabinets. I had never cut down rough lumber, but everything went great. I have the last two face frames done and can start putting on the finish. By the end of the week I hope to start installing the cabinets. We took the moms to lunch for mothers day and stopped by Kohl's so my wife could look at a couple things. I went to Sears and got some push blocks then we went back home. The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent in the garage working on cabinets.

That is pretty much my weekend in a nutshell.

Tony

[Darrell Jones]

Congrats on the bike. The Rebel is a great bike and been around a long time. Good luck on your test.

I got my first bike in 1959 and have been riding every year until 2 years ago. Between back surgery and the amount of idiots on the roads these days I am reluctant to get another.

Run your light on all the time and invest in one of those flourescent yellow vests like the motor cops wear.

I spent most of the weekend cutting and gluing up pen blanks for turning. I haven't turned any pens for quite a spell and the urge recently hit. I am also going to try my first acryllic blank.

[Matt Meiser]

Friday night I worked out in the shop and glued up the side panels for the bookshelf I'm building my mom. It has a stepped design so instead of gluing up panels and cutting the shape, I cut the shapes and then glued up the panels which worked great, especially since I could use Dominos to assist with the alignment. I also made up a sacrificial fence for my Incra miter gauge. Saturday we went and checked out a new garden center near us--or I should say garden palace. Since their prices are 50% higher than all the other local places, I don't think we'll be back. Then we went on a bus trip up to one of the Detroit casinos. Since the Tigers and Red Wings were both playing, plus the "Downtown Hoedown", which is an outdoor country music festival held downtown, was going on, it was like being in a real city--traffic and people everywhere. I've never seen downtown Detroit like that before. Sunday we spent the day at my parents'. My dad and I did go out to his shop and mill 0.045" off my Incra gauge's miter bar to accommodate the fact that my new Unisaw's top had been reground making the miter slots a little less deep than normal.

[Jim O'Dell]

Friday night I took down my DC drop to the TS, and started reworking it. Sat. am to the dog show in Denton. Good news, we went Best of Opposite Sex to Best in Breed. Bad news, the other class female we were in competition with didn't show, so no points. Same thing happened Sunday. After the Sat show, cruised 2 Lowes to get the 6-6-6 wye I needed, and finished the down drop at the TS to have a port for my RAS that I relocated. Sunday after the show, took my parents out for lunch. Mothers Day, and an early Father's Day outing. It was good to spend some time with them. Got home and took the mower deck off the mower to see what I bent last week...ended up being one of the 2 mandrels. 70.00 from Sears plus shipping. 42.00 from Amazon, shipping included! I'll have to take the deck back off to replace it as the yard had to be mowed yesterday, no matter what. Have a good week everyone!! Jim.

[Randal Cobb]

Saturday, I made a short trip from Canton, GA up to Greenback, TN to pick up my new gloatworthy equipment. Picked up a Steel City 35-640 Titanium TS w/ 50" fence ($850) and a new Steel City 14" Granite top bandsaw ($550). Both of these were "scratch and dent" units and so far I can only find a few small cosmetic scratches on each unit. (Pictures below). Got home, unloaded them, then set about wiring two new 220v outlets. I added both outlets in the same double-gang box and nearly cut my finger off with a razor-knife trying to cut the plastic tabs out of the "custom" face plate for the outlet box. I gave up on things and opted to let the finger rest (It's a deep cut and I really should have gone and gotten a few stitches in it, but a band-aid and some triple-anti-biotic ointment is all I did... 20-20 hindsight).

Sunday, got up and made breakfast in bed for LOML. We took it easy in the morning and basically just sat around and watched a few DVR'ed shows from the week, then LOML went to take a nap, so I went down to the shop and started putting my new toys together. Came up around dinner time, ate, then helped get the munchkins bathed and in bed. Went to bed myself. Eventually, I'll get to actually USE the new toys.

Here's a pic of the tablesaw:



Here's a pic of the bandsaw:

[Tony De Masi]

This weekend was mostly spent moving my 23 yo daughter from our house to her very first house. I'm so proud of her for making this move I can't explain it. She's quite independent, works two jobs, both almost full time, and still finds time to coach a girls volleyball team.

A very proud dad.

Tony

[Nancy Laird]

Randal, first, OUCH on the injury!! Hope it heals nicely. And congratulations on the new toyls in your shop. You're gonna like those new SCTW machines!!

Some shop time on Saturday, as LOML and his friend worked on the night stands for the friend's bedroom. Got a surprise Saturday afternoon, as a local who had been dithering over buying the old 1.5 Oneida system finally came by, bought it and carried it away. Whew!! While they were working in the woodshop, I was working in the laser shop finishing up a couple of jobs and packing them for delivery.

Mother's Day was nice and relaxing. Up and out early for breakfast, a little tour through Lowe's, deliver the two jobs, and then a tour through a wine/quilt/art fest nearby. Home for naps, leisurely dinner (take-out, so I didn't have to cook!! Got calls from the kids and e-cards, and a really lazy day.

Now back to the rat race - working this week in a temp job, but it's only 8 minutes from home and I can come home for lunch. Much better than fighting the lousy Monday morning traffic that I'm hearing about on the radio!!

Have a good week, everyone.

Nancy

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Friday evening we had family and friends over for a cookout. Little Riley our great-granddaughter spent the night with us. Of course, Papa had to help corral her 22 month old antics.

Saturday same scenario...Riley here and Papa and Nanny trying to keep up with her. Saturday evening I did manage to get some of my first shop cabinet cutout.

Sunday, Mother's day obligations. I cooked breakfast brunch and supper. I really ought to do that more often as it gives me insight on what the LOML does for me daily. I did manage to get to the shop and drill 18 holes and that was it.

[Fred Voorhees]

Not a whole lot of stuff done this weekend due to my tablesaw still being backordered and rain in the area kept me from hitting the dirt track stock car races Saturday night. The better half and I simply watched the NASCAR event from Darlington Saturday night by ourselves. Did make a trip to pick up a spare half keg of Coors Light for the bar room and got some powerwashing done of the patio and its furniture as well as a neighbors fence. Pretty much a wasted weekend.

[J. Z. Guest]

Here's my weekend woodworking accomplishment. Also, we had my mom up for the weekend and spoiled her pretty thoroughly.

[Art Mulder]

I'm getting a 2-wheeler to ride back and forth to work (8 miles one way) that should help reduce my fuel expense by at least $120 per month. 2008 Honda Rebel 250 is what I decided on because it was $2900 on sale

Wow, at that savings, it'll be paid for in 2 years, excepting insurance! Long commute?

Not a whole lot of ww'ing here either. Saturday morning I met two friends and biked 80km/50 miles. That took a bit of time. (8-1pm roughly) I'm training for later this summer when I'm cycling two weeks (1260km / 780 miles) in the seatosea cross-continent bike tour -- it's a big bicycle trip, ~220 people, biking from Seattle to New Jersey to raise funds and awareness to help fight the cycle of poverty.

Sunday I did manage an hour to go down and clean up a bit in the shop, and then mill some cherry for the dresser I'm building for #2 son. I'm making a near twin to the dresser I made for #1 son last year. Sometimes I find it a bit tough to make another project so much the same. I'm not used to that, as I usually make one-off's, and it can be tough to motivate myself. (I've got the carcass box mostly done, and now need to work on the face frame parts.)

This morning I picked up a 4x8 sheet of masonite/hardboard -- my wife is on the banner committee at church and I often drafted to help them with any construction type things. This time I'm building a large triangle with curved sides (whatever you call that) for them to paint on. Simple woodworking, but it always gets bumped to the top of the list since they need it "right now"...

[Jim Becker]

Dennis...you should look pretty kewel on that two-wheeler with your trademark overalls! You gonna have to buy black ones now?

My weekend. Well...we got Nastia moved into her new room which is most of our former master bedroom. She's very happy. So are we.

n-br-19.jpg

Of course, that also meant getting Alesya set up in her "new" room which is the one she was sharing with her sister. Because there is no closet, so to speak, I'm "lending" her the nice armoire I built a few years back, patterned after a Thos Moser piece. Unfortunately, that room's ceiling is slightly lower than the room next door where the piece has been living and I had to, umm...shorten the piece by an inch in order to be able to tip it up. Fortunately, the base design is ok with that and cutting in-situ using the Festool guided saw and some hand tools to finish got the job done. But it was still "painful" to take off that inch. Had I made the crown removable, this would not have been necessary.

Then it was off to the great room to vacuum off the barn beams. Yea...14' up on a ladder with a long hose to the CT-22. For about two hours. But that was the first cleaning since we've been in the house and likely the first since that room was constructed back in the 1980s. Add the construction dust and it was pretty, umm...yucky up there. Once that was done, a final cleaning of the floor got done and I moved the "dining room" back in. (This room just had the floor refinished and was painted and had to be empty for the scaffolding) I still have trim work to do in this room, but that can be done with the furniture in place. This combined with the girls' rooms set into motion a major game of "musical rooms" post addition completion.

gr-1.jpg

I also got the 30" LCD (the "old" TV) installed in our new master bedroom and replaced the seatbelts on the Kubota. The karate run to the YMCA was also mine this weekend. Oh, and we celebrated Mother's Day including dinner at Perkins (really...it was perfect after a long day of cleaning/moving) and home-made triple chocolate ice cream. (Professor Dr. SWMBO got the ice cream attachment for our Kitchenaid mixer...yum!)

Someday, I'll get back in the shop; likely to make some needed furniture for the girls' rooms out of some recycled lumber taken out of the former loft/library during the renovation.

[David Epperson]

Still building Bee hives,frames and supers. Maybe we are finally getting ahead of the swarms. We've captured 7 in the past 5 weeks. All have landed in the same yard -weird. And we've identified possibly 4 different strains. no idea where 5 of them came from.