Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....New Years Edition

[Dennis Peacock]

3 Jan 2011

Good Morning, Happy New Year & welcome to 2011.

The temp is 21º F here this morning and a nice warm fire in the stove and breakfast is cooking. Nice way to start the day.

Did some woodworking for the LOML this past weekend. I took her old thrown together sewing table and remade it to be what she wanted it to be for now. So I took it all apart, just it down and remade it. Of course this required a reorganization of the entire master bedroom. (wink wink)
It was nice to sling some sawdust after being away from it for a while.

New Years Eve was the kids having their friends over and we had our 12th annual New Years Eve Junk Food Party. It's the only time of year that the kids (and their friends) get to have any junk food they want and as much as they want. We do this to provide fun, fellowship, and safety for kids through adults. It's a fun time every year.

Well, that's it for me....welcome to 2011 and may each of you be blessed and prosperous throughout this entire year and the years ahead.

So what did YOU do this past holiday weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[BOB OLINGER]

I sacrificially burned the wooden pallet and shipping box my new Sawstop came in (which I purchased over the weekend)!!!!!!!
I got the saw unloaded from my pick-up (using an appliance mover and help from my wife), but decided it was too heavy to move further downstairs to my basement shop without additional help. So, it's sitting in my garage on the appliance mover until I get some help, hopefully tonight. So, I moved to installing new flourescent light fixtures in my basement shop.

[Derek Gilmer]

Finally cut a nice some nice tight fitting dovetails on BOTH ends of a board. Only to realize one set was upside down...

I think I'm to absent minded for this dovetail gig :)

[Matt Meiser]

A friend and I got together and made vacuum bags on Friday, then I built the mobile base for my J/P which spent a lonely Holiday weekend just 15 miles away. I spoke to the freight company this morning and scheduled delivery for tomorrow. Friday night we had some family over for NYE. Spent Saturday watching some TV, playing Wii, and watching a couple movies with a run to the coal-fired pizza joint in the late afternoon. Sunday not much other than that I ran to borrow another friend's trailer so I can take my tractor in for service for an oil leak (more like an oil seep) since the weather is supposed to be good for at least a week here and the dealer is very slow and able to give it their full attention in order to get it back to me.

[Paul Greathouse]

Friday morning, I cut some rough Black Walnut to length for a desk I will be building for my wife. Saturday afternoon, I got the Walnut jointed and planed. After doing so, I realized I will need to machine a few more pieces to get the grain match I want for panels. Sunday after church I watched the Saints lose to Tampa Bay, then spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with my parents out on their front porch. We had some hot coffee to warm up the cool afternoon a little.

[Matt Woessner]

Saturday, went and scored a free wood stove! So that is my newest project. Cleaned out the shop Saturday and Sunday some. Attempted to work some wood, but ran out of time. Next project is a small train table for my son for his birthday. I got three months left, so I better get a movin!

[Richard Galloway]

I helped a neighbor work in his first handle project for a knife blank he had purchased over the holidays and made an insert for our dining room table that allows my wife to drop her sewing machine into the center of the table and have the whole table to use for sewing, cutting, ironing, etc. while making quilts. OH, and in the process of doing the table insert (with her help) discovered that my old Rockwell TS has stripped gears on the raising handle and the parts are no longer available... SO, she has given me permission to purchase a new cabinet saw as soon as we can save up the $$!!! I figure about March or April there will be a new saw in my shop!

[Belinda Barfield]

Started on my resolution for the new year of being less of a pack rat and getting more organized. Cleared out some things from the guest room and moved them to the garage. Went through a stack of recipes I cut out of holiday magazines and trashed the ones I'm never going to try but thought I would the first time I read them.:rolleyes: Got distracted and starting designing a jewelery work bench/table so that I don't have to pull out my tools and supplies every time I get a design idea. Got distracted from that trying to decide how to rearrange the sun room so the work bench/table will fit, and what flavor of wood would look best. Got distracted from that by a call from a friend who had left over champagne and needed help drinking mimosas. Gave up on my resolution to get less distracted this year!

[Bob Riefer]

My dad and I dropped a dead tree in front of the house and then I stacked it by the summer fire pit.

And, I purchased my dust collector (hf 2 hp was all I could afford) and built a thien baffle. Ducting next!

Oh, and took down christmas decorations.

[Brian Tymchak]

We got some really nice weather Thursday and Friday so I was able to get the last bit of finish work done on my new workbench. "New"?, well, it almost doesn't seem like it. It's taken an embarassingly long time to do this project (started Thanksgiving, 2009..:o), albeit I really only worked on it a couple hours here and there. And there were weeks I didn't work on it all, and a (small) basement flood when our sump died put me out of action for about a month in June. Really taught myself a lot about how to handle large stock. It's certainly the largest woodworking project I've ever done.

The bench is a fairly close reproduction of the 21st Century Workbench from PWW October, 2008, with just a few tweaks. A little thicker top - 3.5", and the bottom rails are the same dimension as the leg assembly stock. My aim was to build in as much mass as I could. Veritas 24" twin screw vise in the face position, a Jorgy 9" quick release in the tail. Solid ash finished with Watco Teak Oil. Kudos to Bob Lang for the design. The thing is a rock! :D Absolutely no movement in any direction when I gave it several full body shoves at all angles. I estimate it weighs close to 450 lbs with the vises. I calculated each top piece to weigh 115 lbs.

Took me a while to accept the split top design before I started building it, but I'm pretty happy with it now. In fact, I've clamped work several times already through the middle.

All that's left is it to turn some dogs sometime this winter. But the new router table :) and fence/rails upgrade :) on the TS is the next bit of business (and is actually what I really worked on over the weekend... ). Trying to get it mostly finished before I have to go back to work :( after a 12 day break.

Brian