Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

17 Jan 2011

Good Morning Everyone,
I realize that some of you have a work "holiday" today and many of you are currently at work because you don't get today as a holiday...like me. It's raining here today and I'm ready for the rain to stop and the temps to get back in the 40's & 50's.

Worked in the shop with #3 son on Saturday. A friend of mine came by needing some repair work done on a pair of bed rails that one of his boys had on his bed. Said that his son jumped on the bed and it snapped both bed rails at the metal bracket that holds the rails to the head & foot board. Needless to say that all that was in there was a pair of short metal posts that were only held in with a small hole in the plywood rails and a stapled piece of cardboard on the inside rail to keep them from coming out. What a mess that was.

In short, it took #3 son and I about 3 hours to get the old stuff out and drilled new holed all the way through the bed rails, used solid brass rod to put everything back in the and glued it all up with epoxy.

I don't know what today holds in store for me, but I'm sure it's going to be stuff needing to get done for the LOML while I'm off work.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Ryan Hellmer]

Well in the breakneck quest of trying to get my cabinets done by February 11, my dad and I broke down 11 sheets of plywood. I think I have all the cases cut to size, now all I need to do it get all the dadoes cut in them for form the joints. After the plywood we ran most of the stiles and rails through the shaper for all the doors and decorative raised panel ends. I'm hoping tonight to get out and finish the rails and stiles, which will include the arched rails for all the upper cabinets. I have all the panels glued up but am waiting to get final dimensions from the doors before cutting and "raising. "I've been working pretty hard on this since mid-december and think I'm doing pretty well so far.

Ryan

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Spent a lot of time Saturday continuing to pack up and ship out old unused or used parts and test equipment from my office and my shop.

I have 2 weeks before my impending retirement. It's truly amazing how much "stuff" one can accumulate in 27 years of working out of a home office. FedEx Grd is loving me right now as I am returning stuff for recycle or test equipment back to the tool pool.

Sunday I chilled and watched football.

[Shawn Pixley]

The previous week I had prepped stock for leg fabrication on new design project I have. So, this week I fabricated the legs and stretchers for the table. Each leg is sloped with two compound curves, tapered, mortised, and notched to receive the cabinet. All in all, it took me the better part of two days to finish these.

As a celebration LOML & I went to a movie last night. "The King's Speech" was great. I recommend it highly.

[Matt Meiser]

I finished up a few details in the iGaging install on my J/P and made a quick little shelf for on top of our dresser that goes over our DVD player and DirecTV box to somewhat hide them. Gave me a chance to try out the new J/P (liking it) and some Miller Dowels I bought a while back (OK, but I think next time I'd just use Dominos or screws and plugs on this particular project.) I also tried for the first time using an oil based stain with a WB top coat. I did the stain Saturday, let it dry 24 hours, then wiped the piece down with DNA before spraying with Target's shellac and EM2000 varnish. The results are great.

[Bob Winkler]

I was a good weekend for me- things seemed to just go well for a change:

- installed line-level thermostat for my shop's Dayton heater
- finished shellacing and installing the knotty pine ceiling of my shop
- ripped and shellac'd plywood to be used as shop baseboard molding
- routered 45° chamfer on knotty pine 1x3's to dress it up a bit to be used as ceiling trim / crown molding
-installed new sink and accessories in my daughter's new house, and taught my son-in-law how to use a basin wrench

Glad to be back at work to rest...

Bob

[Kyle Kaldor]

Sadly, I cleaned up my garage and moved everthing to one side so my wife can park her car in there. I'm happy that it's clean, but not too happy that I probably won't get to work out there until it warms up a little. It's way too cold out there anyways with no heat to be out there for more than an hour.

[Jay Maiers]

This weekend I finished a basic router table top and cabinet, made a ZCI for my portable table saw, and finished the CAD modeling for a few furniture projects for my wife; a second sewing table, a cutting table, and a rolling drawer unit. I also squeezed in a couple of shelves and dividers for our kitchen cabinets.

[Kevin Lucas]

Not exactly wood working but I woke up Saturday to a honey do list. While I slept in the wife was searching Bunny Condos online. After getting the plans and dimensions figured we went for materials... one sheet of 1/2 ply, 2 boxes of 6 cube box metal shelving, a box of linoleum floor tiles and 300 zip ties. You end up with 9 panels front and back and 6 for the sides, a plywood bottom, a center shelf with a 14 x 14 cut out (hand saw) and 2 small shelves 1/3 of the way up for resting areas. I still need to make 2 ramps to go between levels. So in from the cold porch he came into the living room to the cats great amusement )

[Matt Woessner]

Hit the shop a little this weekend. (about an hour). In that time I routed out the space on a front rail where 2 drawers will go. I learned that I really hate my router (Skil), and will no doubt be on the lookout for a new one at the woodworking show next month. Other than that I celebrated my bday with friends and family.

[Rod Sheridan]

I completed the top perimeter frame for my A&C coffee table.

Mortises and tenons cut, rebate for the plywood substrate cut, now I have to glue the ceramic tiles onto the plywood base.

I'm in Virginia on business so no more shop time this week, although I'm enjoying the weather.

This morning in Toronto it was -20, in Woodstock Va it's +2.............Sweet.

Regards, Rod.

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, I finally got Alesya, my 11 year old, moved into her new room after I completed a bit of electrical work to insure there were enough outlets available and installed some serious locks. (her older sister has "issues" and we do everything we can to insure the younger's safety) It's a bit bigger room than the one she's been in for a long time and much better for her needs as she heads way too quickly toward teenager-hood and middle school. There was room for a full size desk and she now has a full sized bed...more room for her and Clifford, her trusty St Bernard. (he's a stuffed animal, but...) She's still in the 250 year old portion of the house with nice wide pine floors and "pie crust" window openings in the 18" thick stone walls.

I still have more painting to do downstairs from there, but finishing the finishing of that new wide pine floor will be waiting until warm weather. So...I hope to be back in the shop soon and making some furniture. Of course, I have to clean the darn thing first...it's a real mess!

[BOB OLINGER]

After buying my new SawStop over new years weekend, I decided to upgrade lighting in my basement shop. So, I just finished (over the weekend) installation of 11 2-bulb florescent fixtures on one side. Then, my wonderful wife made a great suggestion - why don't you put the new saw "over there." That was a pretty good idea, but will take more lights. So, the upgrading will continue - more trips to Lowes for more fixtures, then to Theisens for wire (considerably cheaper there). Progress report next week. By-the-way, great weekend for good football games.

[David Hostetler]

A couple of piddly little things got accomplished this weekend...

#1. Rearranged the peg board yet again to make room for incoming baskets.
#2. Made and tested a light tent / box for digital photography. The box is great, the light source stinks.
#3. Adjusted, tested, adjusted, tested, and locked down the calibration on my 12" SCMS.
#4. Shot and started editing video for my video shop tour. I did something I promised myself I wouldn't do, which was tried to narrate it while shooting it. The audio is LOUSY... I am going to reshoot it and edit the thing with a tack on audio track this upcoming week...
#5. Spent way too much time on LOML's whimsy being dragged from store A to B to C to... oh you get the idea...
#6. Vacuum packaged up 24lbs of London Broil we got on sale at Randalls. Something about $1.99 London Broil LOML couldn't decline, and our freezer was getting low...
#7. Took down the Christmas decor. I know it is late, but we have a January birthday in the family, and the tradition is the decor doesn't come down until after the Jan B-day...
#8. Went out to the shop to marvel at how great it feels to have a CLEAN shop for once... Realized I had a screwdriver out of place and I HAD to correct it!
#9. Went through the house to the battery operated junk and replaced rechargeable batteries with ones with a fresh charge. Put the discharged batteries on the charger and got them ready for next time...
#10. Puppy sat my neighbors 7 month old Lab Puppy along with ours. They got each other so tired they simply fell over...
#11. Designed a makers mark branding iron head, and submitted it to the CNC shop for manufacturing.

I guess I had a busy weekend after all!

[Bo McCorkle]

got most of the way finished with a router table made from a piece of kitchen countertop(way cheap) with a phenolic insert and got started on some zero clearance inserts for the table saw im making out of lexan. going to get started on dust filtration system this week just got ahold of the squirrel cage for it today.

[John Cavanaugh]

Put a second coat of paint on the workbench base. Trimmed up the 4 layer mdf top & mounted it to the base. Built some drawers for the drill press cabinet/stand. Purchased and cut the angle iron for my customized HF shop cart Im building. Did the sketchup work for the cabinet that will go under my workbench.

Yep, that is 4 different projects Im working on at the same time. No wonder it feels like Im doing a lot but not seeing much progress....

Oh yeah, I also realized that my Delta 1HP dust collector just isnt doing it. Im looking for an upgrade. Im thinking the 2HP Penn State Industries unit. Any recommendations from crowd??

[David Hostetler]

John, What's your budget? If I were to upgrade from my 2HP HF DC, I would go with at least a 2HP cyclone, probably more like an Oneida 3HP Super Dust Gorilla, but that is way out of my reach for now...

[John Towns]

I have been working on a console for my sister-in-law for the past several months. Only get a precious few hours each week to work in it. Even harder in the winter since my shop is in the garage. Even with a small heater, it takes a while to heat up to the point where it is comfortable.

Wasn't satisfied with the doors I had made, so I made a new set.
Came to the realization that my Craftsman router was, indeed, a piece of ...um...well, you know... so I went out and got a new router. The old one would not hold a depth setting. In the meantime, I put my backup router under the table so I could finish the doors.
Sanded the console, then put the first coat of stain on it. She wants it jet black, so I had previously applied some black Transtint dye. Looks like I will put on one final coat of stain. I am happy with it so far.

[Jon McElwain]

Good weekend all around.

1) Wired a new set of lights above the workbench area on a new circuit - we now have 1000w of lighting power!!
2) Wired a new dedicated 220v outlet for the lathe.
3) Changed the oil in both my vehicles and my father-in-law's vehicle.
4) Fixed the squeaky rear wheel on my Subaru - super easy car to work on.
5) Helped my brother-in-law troubleshoot a rear window motor malfunction, power steering power loss, and seat heat malfunction.
6) Signed up for spring classes and bough books (oops, how did that Jimmy Clewes wood turning video get in with the book order? Oh well.)
7) Took my wife square dancing. I was totally guilted into going by my brother-in-law. But, in the end we all had fun and my wife was super stoked to go dancing, even if it was square dancing.
8) Went to church Sunday morning for a great service.
9) Went to a friends house to play cards with a few other couples - great time.
10) Took the family down to Colorado Springs on Monday to visit Garden of the Gods and Whit's End (for those of you who are familiar with Adventures In Odyssey).
11) Put a few coats of finish on a bowl that I recently completed.
12) Even got a few hours of work in on Monday evening.

Nice to have the three day week end - although, taking a holiday is totally different when you work for yourself!

[John Sanford]

Some (okay, most) of you folks are a whole lot more disciplined than I am when it comes to getting things done!


Assembled drawers for a friend's built-in entertainment center. These are the second set of drawers, after several years of use he decided that taller sides and backs were in order. I'll be getting the old drawers and will repurpose them for something or other in my shop.
Mobilated a "repurposed" cabinet (kitchen cabinet style) from a hospital for another friend to use as a general purpose garage workbench / tool storage. Got to hack away at the thing using a Sawzall. Any day using a Sawzall is a good day! "Bench" is now mobile, with two double locking swivel casters on one end, fixed casters on the other.
Mobilated my Delta 14" BS.
Discovered just how thin and runny Titebond II Extend is!

[Neil Brooks]

Bought that 1956 DeWalt MBF Radial Arm Saw (that I posted about).

Spent a fair bit of time just thinking ... how cool it's going to be working on that saw.

An equal amount of time learning about ... how to learn about ... that saw (Mister Sawdust, the Delphi group, OWWM, Wolfe Machinery).

Made an offer on a CraigsList ad -- three oak cabinets -- that would be PERFECT as tool stands.

Picked and milled boards for a dovetailed box with hand-cut hinges that ... I'm beginning to work on.

Found out that a phenomenal woodworker -- at it for probably almost 50yrs -- is having BIG financial troubles (nothing but hot dogs....).

Got a Wally World gift card for him.
Went to Sams Club, and bought a boat-load of non-perishable food for him.
Heading out in the a.m., to spend a few days with him (6.5hrs away), help him with some of his home improvement projects, and ... deliver the food.

Flipped through the latest issue of "WOOD."

Flipped through my newly-arrived copy of Sandor Nagyszalanczy's "Woodshop Dust Control"

Noticed that ... just flipping through that book ... does amazingly little to improve dust collection ;)

Had an out-of-town woodworker stop by. Yakked about woodworking. Listened to him tell me of his new 3HP Oneida cyclone, and the bit fat mess of ductwork he's setting up. Got rather envious, and threw him out of the house :D

Good weekend !

[Chris Jackson]

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Organized a couple of cabinets with plastic rubbermaid containers and labels (fasteners, HVLP Sprayer gear, Jig Parts, Cast Iron Cleaning Gear, etc...). Then I wrapped up my drill press table project...I borrowed several creekers ideas from a couple of threads seen here, planning on a future modification to put a small drawer underneath. The wife termed my progress as "my OCD relaxation...".