Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

Good Morning!!
14 Jan 2008

I'm sorry to say that I didn't do any woodworking this weekend due to some extremely long work hours for the day job. I just don't do well on 20 hour work day any more. Seems like the older I get the less tolerant I am of very long working hours in the IT industry. But, it still pays the bills, and helps support my woodworking hobby.

Spent some lengthy time talking with the LOML about family stuff and we also made some plans for both our families (my parents and her parents) as they both will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversaries this year AND my FIL celebrates his 75th birthday. I admire my FIL a great deal because he has gradually been loosing his eyesite over the last 3 years. Just recently has he been declared legally blind and now can only read the large headline print of the local newspaper. He's a very good man with a huge heart and I love him. I just wish I could make his eyesite better for him.

If there's anything that I would ask of my fellow Creekers? It would be to always remember and make it a priority to spend time with your families.

Before I sign off, I'll leave you with this:
"There's no success in life that can compensate for failure at home".

So what did YOU do this weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Matt Meiser]

Put in about a full day working on raised panels for the cabinets for my parents. Got the panels glued up, trimmed to size, and raised as well as making all the rail and stile stock, getting it cut to size, put the dado in it and cut the stub tenons on the ends of all the rails. Hopefull one of them is going to bring me over a sample piece of the pre-finished wainscoating we are going to be using so that I can match up the stain and get the panels stained so I can do the assembly tonight and tomorrow since I won't have time after that to work on them for about a weeek.

[Gary Ratajczak]

No direct shop time, but attend Woodworks show In Springfield MA.

Local shows in UpState NY have really taken a down turn in the last few years. This weekends show, to me, seemed to be the start of a turn around.

There was very good attendance on Sat. Not much in "big iron," but I think those days are over. There were some great walk up demos, and some nice turnings on exhibit.

I bought some jigs from the Tormek (Advanced Machinery) guy. At 10:00 on Sat he had 7 machines stacked up - by 2:00 there were only 2.

I have also heard that the competing show is in an upswing, as the new owners have had a chance to get settled in. I'll be attending that one in NJ in Feb.


GR

[Brad Peterson]

Built me a panel breakdown table (built sawhorses, 2x4 stringers, 1/2" OSB, rigid insulation panel) and trimmed my new guides for my TS55 and "put together" my new CT22. Not a whole lot got done after that, but I spent an hour with my 5 y.o. son in the shop, which was time well spent. Hope to spend the next few weeks building out my shop cabinetry as I move my tools/stuff from the third car garage to the new shop.

Brad

[Mike Goetzke]

Almost completed hood/canopy for my son's 55-gal aquarium. I tried only using my Eurekazone PBB:

Pictures here -
http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.goe...Hood2008_01_11

http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.goe...AquariumCanopy


Manufacturers section post link with comments here -

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=73582




Mike

[Nathan Conner]

I spent a good 3 or 4 hours on a design idea I had for a display/jewelry box. Found a REALLY nice piece of 6', 10" 5/4 black walnut sitting way up high on the shelf. Really dense, nice feel, nice grain...almost waxy. Resawed it, planed, sanded, got the angles and curves cut and the legs tapered. Everything laid out for glue-up on Saturday.

Good day's work on Friday. Got up Saturday morning and I couldn't see. My eyes were swollen shut, my hands and arms and face were burning. CRAP!

That wasn't walnut. That was that piece of Cocobolo I bought for pens 5 years ago, and then stopped using when I realized I was really, really allergic.

So, with the respirator on, gloves on, and fully covered, I went back down to the shop, spent several hours vacuuming, dusting, leaf-blowing, wiping down surfaces, bagging all the dust and then wiping out the vacuum.

I think I have the majority of the dust out, and the cocobolo is double-bagged, in the garage. I won't forget next time. (He says...again) But hey, I can see a little by now.

[Thomas Knighton]

Mostly, I just blew money. Won a #45 combinatin plane on the Bay. Paid for a few saws I won earlier in the week. Ordered a set of water stones from Rockler. Got a couple of books from Amazon, including Chris Schwarz's book.

So, I'm far, far broker than I was Friday morning...but that's OK

Tom

[JayStPeter]

I forgot to report last weekend that I hauled some Cherry logs to a sawmill. This weekend I hauled the resulting 146BF to a guy to kiln dry it. Overall cost for the wood will come out to $0.40/bf.

[Dennis Lindhorst]

Dennis- sorry to hear of your FIL's eyesight. I have a client that has very limited vision and it is amazing the aids available to help. Make sure your FIL is taking advantage of these- magnifiers, talking books and even a talking computer. Ain't technology wonderful!

As for weekend doin's- working on a step stool for LOML- not that she's short or anything- more like vertically challenged. Didn't get as much time as I wanted in the shop- the son's hockey games got in the way. That's ok- he won't be around much longer, and the wood will wait. His last year to play high school sports.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Saturday......Moved stuff in the shop for preparation for putting the 2nd finish coat on 1/2 the walls.

Sunday.....baby sat the great-granddaughter as the the granddaughter and spouse had the flue and were cleaning up after each other. Did manage to get the 2nd coat of paint on the last half of the walls! The painting is done! Now on with installing the DC.

[Todd Franks]

Not much shop time this weekend. I finished the electrical on my CV1800 install. I put in my ear plugs and hit the start button. It is still wide open, no filters, and a nothing connected to the bottom. I hope it quiets down some with filters.

I also spent some time in my favorite room of the house, the attic. My master bath exhaust fan vent was installed with uninsulated flex duct. So I spent a few hours in the attic replacing it with smooth wall metal duct and insulating the crap out of it. I hope this stops the condensation and dripping problem.

[Andrew Mason]

I took off work on Friday, started putting my '53 Unisaw back together. Got the internals in Friday, Saturday was the motor and table top, and yesterday built an extension table and mounted the fence. The table was made from a counter top that I was ripping out of my parents house at the time, long enough and only an inch too narrow... fixed that with some 1/2 ply. Not a long term solution, but it'll get me through a few projects that will make my wife happy.

Few details, its a 53, 1 HP RI motor. The fence is a 50 inch Beise from a PM66, hence the color.


I would have taken a better picture, but it was getting late and I was under orders to get home sooner rather than later. Going to get it all aligned tonight and start in on some built in shelves and free standing shelves for the laundry room.

oh yeah, I guess you could count the prep work for my parents granite counter tops an accomplishment. Just some demo and framing to reinforce the cabinets, should be installed this afternoon.

[Nancy Laird]

Ran errands on Friday (you know: bank, post office, grocery, etc.) while LOML finished up the kitchen job - and got paid!! He came home wanting to reconfigure the shop, so we worked well into the evening on moving stuff around - fortunately, all the peripherals (save one) were on mobile bases so it was pretty easy to move things. Saturday was his company's annual management meeting, so he was gone all day while I ran MORE errands and bought a mobile base for the last big machine. All day yesterday we worked in the shop finishing up the reconfiguring, putting together the mobile base and putting the edge sander on it, building some roll-out drawers/shelves for cabinets to make things more accessible, and just cleaning up and tossing some old junk. The entire shop looks 100% better and we gained some floor space as well.

And on Saturday night was the company's annual dinner/dance for the employees, and he got his 10-year award, and we had a nice dinner - sat with the boss!! It was a good, but cold, weekend.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Nancy

[Jim Becker]

Saturday, I had the YMCA karate and swimming run and then I demolished the other barn wood cabinets in the great room and started to fix the drywall that was behind them. We watched Oceans 11 as our family movie that evening. (Unfortunately, there were a couple of F-bombs in that one that were not in the second movie which we watched first. Fortunately, the girlie-girls didn't really notice them)

Sunday, I was back in the shop after a run to the 'depot for a few things I needed as well as the bookstore. Before getting back on the nightstands, I milled some spline material for my GC to use with the wide-pine flooring they are putting down in the addition. (for reversing direction) Then it was some final fitting and sanding of the drawers, prep of the drawer fronts and tops and a nice coat of BLO to bring out the wonderful figure in the maple. I should be able to get them done in the next shop session with the shellac on the purpleheart and the USL on the maple.

I then proceeded to get sick...must be a 24 hour bug. Oh, well....

[Thom Sturgill]

Finished fabricating the last piece for my daughter's PC cabinet. Just have to fit the door then sand, stain, and poly. Pictures when finished. This will be the first major piece (non-shop related) since I got my shop set up.

Also worked on a wooden hand-plane I'm building, as my Hock blade came in Friday.