Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

18 Jan 2010

Good Morning,
I'm glad to say that it's been much better weather here lately...at least on the cold temp side. It's been a little rainy but still it's been nice because the temps aren't sitting in the teens all week. Supposed to be around 62º F here today and I'm planning on being outside for a change.

Been a busy and steady week at the day job. Lots of stuff going on at work and I'm getting to enjoy some of the more advanced things we are working on. No pain? No gain as they say.

Spent the weekend working, playing music, attending church, and playing some games with the kids. It's so nice to spend time with my family. I love them greatly.

No woodworking for me this past weekend. I have 1 chair to repair for a lady at church with only 5 more to go. I guess we'll see how this "chair repair" stuff goes. If you have ANY advice as to repairs loose joints for dining chairs? Please chime in.

Well, that's it for me...so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim O'Dell]

'Mornin Dennis!
Yeah, the warmer temps are nice, aren't they. And it looks like we'll hit 72 the rest of the week! Warm enough this weekend that I did get to spend some time in the shop. After a late Sat am start, (I've been fighting sinus problems all week, in fact missed 1 3/4 days of work with little to no voice!) I got my run to HD and Lowes for supplies done and back to the house for lunch. Started cutting the wood to length for the mobile base for the new saw. I got quite a bit done by Sunday evening. Would have been less if the Cowboys had made a game of it. Congrats to the Vikes! Took the Boys right out of their game and they couldn't adjust to recover. Hope everyone has a great week! Jim.

[Matt Meiser]

I'm recovering from eye surgery last week so other than taking some stuff out to the shop and pouring some EM6000 from a 5 gallon pail into gallon cans, I didn't do anything in the shop. I figured double vision and power tools is a bad combination. I did dedicate a day to woodworking though as Saturday a group of us went down to Columbus and went to Woodwerks and The Woodworking Show. I picked up some DC hose and some ZCI's at Woowerks and all the hardware to build a Kreg Klamp Table at The Woodworking Show. Sunday was spent relaxing, planning the Klamp Table, and running some errands with LOML and LOMLjr.

[Chris Kehl]

Finally, I was able to get all the wood I purchased from Craigslist sorted and put on racks. Was worried I was going to have room for all of it there for a while. Got that mess cleaned up, and finished tuning my new GO555 Band saw. I am ready to make some more saw dust, and actually start making projects, the wife has a list already. :) Saturday evening got together with friends and cheered on the Colts! :D Bring on the Jets! Have a good week everyone.

[Kirk Simmons]

I crunched out Birdhouse #3 for my wife's Kindergarten class.

Back in December she came to me and said, "Honey, I'd like to do a project with the kids in the spring where they all paint a birdhouse."

I said, "That sounds great dear. How many do I need to make?"

She said, "Twenty-seven."

Gasping, I said, "Twenty-seven? OK dear I can do that. How much classroom budget money do you have available?"

"Zero."

"Hmm. Zero you say. OK - does a bird need to be able to live in this thing? Or does it just need to LOOK like a birdhouse?"

"Fully functional!"

"OK, ok let me see what I can do."

---------

I decided to make Wren birdhouses, because they're fairly small and have the classic peaked roof appearance. Wood quality is not terribly important because the kids are going to paint them, probably in wierd colours (they're six years old).

What I am using for wood is cheap 2x4 studs out of the Borg scrap pile, costs 51 cents each for a 4-5 footer. Add in some Titebond II, an eye hook and a few brad nails and thats it for materials.

Edge joint, face joint, rip square and dimension on the table saw so that I have a piece of wood that is 1 3/32" x 3" x random length, then I rip it in half to get two boards which are 1/2" x 3". Glue the two boards together and I end up with a plank which is 1/2" x 6".

After the glue sets I machine the boards again to remove whatever warping took place as stress was released (these are crappy studs, they move a LOT) and plane them down to 3/8" thick. Glue, some nails and voila! One birdhouse, total cash expenditure approximately 75 cents. Lots of labour, but I'm working with wood because it's FUN so that's OK by me.

Note the bottom is a cleanout - I made a sliding piece of wood that stays in place fairly well, but which is removable to clean out last year's residue.

[Jim Becker]

I also didn't get in the shop this weekend...it just turned out to be very busy with a bunch of things around our equestrian activities, some shopping and my re-doing my computer with Windows 7 64-bit. I do need to get back out there and finish my cleanup and "shop adjustments" so I can move on to whatever will be my next project. I'm probably going to put real heat in there, too.

[Derek Gilmer]

Saturday was mostly shop clean up and planning the layout for how I want the shop to look now that it has a big ole table saw in it.

Sunday was a relaxation day. A marine buddy, another guy and myself spent the afternoon after church doing some shooting and a little hiking. It may be the most relaxed I've been after a weekend in a long time. So I made one picture from the afternoon into my avatar :D
138938

[Wayne Hendrix]

I went snowmobiling and studied for an interview later this week. I did walk into my shop once does that count for something?

[James Jackson]

First few nice days in several weeks here in my part of Virgina, the last of the remaining 24in of snow has not melted yet, but I am hopeful.

Worked on turning the new Lab/Shepard puppy into a member of the family, this required constant attention and many slow trips outside. Albert “Stinky” Einstein finally caught on to the concept of orbiting his people and going back inside.

Re-wired the house with new coax cable for the C-TV feed. Grounding rod, grounding block, drilled a hole so the crawl space vent can be closed for the first time in 30 years. Cable routed to server closet and 70’s cable-TV Cox removed, new wide band splitters installed for feeding the Internet Modem, DVR’s & TV’s.
Big jump in throughput speed of cable modem, 25% increase in speed/bandwidth.
(If you live in an older home and have coax installed prior to the late 90’s you may want to look at refreshing your wiring, at least to the modem, to match the today’s standards.)

Cleaned up the wiring for the big flat screen in the media room. 2.5in bundle of cables going from the display over fireplace to the amplifier, which I will need to hide with a new mantel. Dropped to rear speaker wires, Cat-5, coax, phone line into the crawlspace, and off the floor.

Oh’ what did I do in the shop?

Organized & put away what was “cleaned” out of the house by putting it in the center of my workshop. (one day the loft will fill up)
Broke down and re-organized by collection of drill bits and cleaned off the ready-rack under the cordless station.
Cleaned off the benches, tools and project parts stored.
Stocked up on latex gloves at HF 50% off

All in all, a productive weekend, back to work.

jrj

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Worked on my router table, sledding with the kids :)

Sledding with the kids was the best part! :)

[Cliff Holmes]

I figured double vision and power tools is a bad combination

Doesn't that just mean you'll get twice as much done? ;)

[Cliff Holmes]

Jim Becker, Join Date: Mar 2003, Posts: 34,964

You're averaging over 400 posts per month :eek:

[Dave Gaul]

Friday night LOML took me to get my early birthday present... the Ridgid R4511 Table Saw... and how I spent the rest of my weekend should be obvious!