Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

21 Mar 2011

Good Morning Everyone,
Well, the weather broke here and we are having some really nice weather. Airing the shop out and just that general "spring cleaning" type sense is in the air.

No woodworking for me this past weekend as I took the MIL back to Alabama where she lives and got back late last night. The great news? The Wedding Dress Is Finished For The LOML Jr.!!!!!! Yea!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry, no pics until after the wedding day.)

Road tired, exhausted from the day job and I slept late today to rest for the first time in 3 days.

That's it for me, so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[David Hostetler]

Had a relatively light weekend. Took LOML out shopping to stock up the house for the next couple of weeks, washed my truck and LOML's car, while she was cleaning / armor all-ing the interiors. Man it's nice looking at a dashboard that doesn't have dust bunnies!

I ripped some 1.25" square stock out of a 2x10 scrap for my Harbor Freight mobile base that I am putting together for my drill press. I assembled the base, and tightened it up well, now for the next stage. I am building the base somewhat big (24" square) in order to provide a much more stable base for the DP than the 12" x 18" base it has. So I need to make up the space difference with a plywood lamination to keep from, well just not having anything under the DP. I need to get to Home Depot and pick up some of their 3/4" "Hardwood" sanded ply. I need to laminate 2 24" x 24" pieces together, trim up any straggling overhangs, and trim out a relief at each corner for the bolt heads. This will get screwed together from the bottom to the base with #12 x 1" FS Stainless steel screws. (Stainless due to the proximity to the concrete floor). 3/8" x 3" carriage bolts through the bottom, and countersunk will bolt the drill press foot to the base. A removable cabinet will be fashioned to occupy the space above the foot, and below the typical working height of the table. This will house my drill bits, Forstner bits, hole saws, dowel jig, pocket hole jig etc...

I mowed, both front and back yards, still need to trim the hedges though. (I know, lots of folks are still snowed in, I am in coastal Texas after all, so mowing season has already started...)

Yesterday, LOML and I took her brother, and our dog to my SIL's place and grilled up a mess of Fajitas, and roasted corn. SIL made home made tortillas and Frijoles a la charra. We spent a little bit of time at the pool trying to encourage the dog to swim. He is shy around water... We made progress...

All in all, a good weekend. Great weather, good company, plenty of relaxing...

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Dennis, last Thursday Diann had 3 girls from her Pathfinder troup over to use the shop to make an Intarsia whale.

They had a great time, didn't break a single scroll or band saw blade, and no band Aids were required.

On the weekend I applied the first coat of Polymerised Tung oil to the two A&C foot stools I'm making for a wedding present for a friends daughter......Weather was nice here also about 8C and sunny........Regards, Rod.

[Jerome Hanby]

Actually worked in the shop. Took a long weekend. Pulled all my lumber and sheet goods out of the shop. Built and installed a lumber rack. racked all my lumber. Reassembled my sheet goods cart and loaded it. In the process I burned an etch off the controller board for the garage door opener and repaired that. I can actually reach the table saw, Shopsmith, and router table so with another couple of hours of cleanup/rearranging I should be setup to finish my wife's lathe stand. Maybe next weekend...

[Matt Meiser]

Lots of yard work. We spent about 5 hours on Saturday cleaning up all the downed limbs from an ice storm a few weeks back. This was weekend where the ground has been dry enough to get to some of them. I bought the chipper late last summer and have found it to be really handy instead of continuing to feed an ever-growing brush pile at the back of our property. And I only managed to jam it twice, and only once required removing the chute--I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Also got our hot tub started back up after it was shut off for the winter which was a bit of work since I found some cabling that had a deteriorated rubber jacket that I replaced, requiring a trip to the hardware store, and the circulator pump was making a funny noise so I ended up pulling it out to bench test (found the noise was because it wasn't primed.) My shop is also cleaned back up again and this week I need to get going on a jewelry box for LOML jr's birthday which is less than a month away.

[John Towns]

Was busy enough, but not in the shop. While LOML was away, visiting her Mother, I painted the bedroom. 12 x 26 with a vaulted ceiling. Lots of trim, lots of effort. When she got home yesterday, she approved and life is good. Glad that is done, now have to move the furniture back in.

[glenn bradley]

Did some electrical work for LOML's mom who is having her kitchen remodeled (not by me). Spent a little time on some small boxes that will hold snapshots for mom.

[Chris True]

Got my latest project sanded and glued up.


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[Jim Rimmer]

I found some cabling that had a deteriorated rubber jacket that I replaced, requiring a trip to the hardware store, .

Only one trip? :D

LOML is on a trip through Greece and Italy (the footsteps of St. Paul) so I got a lot of little items done. I'm midway through refinishing a chest for her so I put 3 coats of finish on it over 3 days which meant no shop work (DUST!). I replaced a couple of boards on the garage 2 years ago and finally got them painted and did a lot of yard work.

Not a weekend activity but I took the grandkids and daughter to Louisiana last week for an air boat ride through the swamp. They live in Lubbock (west Texas for those who don't know) so seeing a swamp was a new experience for flat landers. They got to hold baby alligators, too.
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[William Hamilton]

I finished my redwood burl coffee table. There are also 4 rosewood keys in it; 2 larger and 2 small. I'll have to take some quality photos of it. These were taken with my cell. I finished it with bartley's gel varnish (4 coats, satin) and let that cure and then wet sanded it, and finally buffed it out with 3m polishing compound. This was my first time working with redwood burl. I learned a lot... mostly that I like working with hardwoods (walnut) better. You have to be careful with this stuff!
The base is teak, which I actually bought off craigslist, sanded and refinished. It just happened to be a good fit for this top. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

[Craig Ryder]

Wow, nice looking coffee table!

I just wired a couple 220 lines into my new shop area.

Cheers,

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Saturday.....Helped the youngest son around his house. While he and his lovely bride went to a Brad Paisley concert Saturday evening and then to dinner to celebrate their annivesary, Sharon and I babysat the twin 1 year old granddaughters. Had a great time! After being there for 5 days, the twins were comfortable enough with Sharon to tease "Nanny" breaking her rule and smile before, during and after doing it. It was a riot. We departed the Houston area this morning with heavy hearts. We thoroughly enjoyed our son, his lovely bride and the twins.

[Andy Haney]

I've been wanting a bandsaw for a long time. This weekend I took advantage of the sale and bought a Powermatic 14". Whoopeee! Been real busy since I got it home, so it isn't together yet. I've only managed time to get the mobile base assembled and the base section on that. I've just finished reviewing the riser block instructions. Slow, but steady. I know, no pix, didn't happen. I'm photo challenged.

Andy

[Ruhi Arslan]

Had my first kickback injury Saturday from a cutoff piece left to the right of the blade (no fence involved). Since I make an effort to stay to the left of the blade, I took the hit on my upper right chest as the piece rolled over off my shoulder instead of squaring me on the face. It still hurts but I learned to be more patient to wait for the blade to stop before I touch anything around the spinning blade.

Took an hour drive to meet Wilbur at his home Sunday afternoon. He thought me how to sharpen blades and adjust planes. I cannot thank him enough for spending all his afternoon with me. I also learned about the Japanese planes. When I came back home, I made a copy of his sharpening tray/station. It was a very productive weekend for me.

[John Sanford]

Had a whole crew of folks over in my shop on Saturday. Two of them were from my N-Trak club, and we were working on dialing in the gate module I built. Another was a buddy of mine and his son, they came over to work on Pinewood Derby cars. And finally another friend came buy to use the lathe (it's actually his), but never got around to using it. We did knock together a Sawpony stable for him before he left, taking his 4 Sawponies and their stable.

All in all a good social day, but I actually got almost nothing (save a bit of reorginazation) done. Sunday was some organizing and chopping out a mortise in a table by hand, then wondering "where the heck is my DP's mortising attachment?" I found the chisels, but fear that while reorganizing, the attachment has been buried. Sigh....