Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

18 Apr 2011

Good Morning Everyone,
Been spending a lot of time at the day job, but that's ok, it pays the bills and allows me to provide for my family.

I now have a plan for making a wooden ladle for the LOML's soups and stews (I think). I really won't know if it's a good design or not until I get one made. The one thing I like about kitchen utensils is that they are quick and easy to make (so far). I think I will make several extras so I can share a few of them with others.

Been keeping daily contact with my parents to see how my dad is doing. His cancer is still there and he's lost a LOT of weight and very weak. I'm making plans for another visit with him very soon.

The LOML Jr is getting anxious about her wedding next month. I suppose we will get more and more busy as that time approaches.

Please remember all those that have suffered damage to home and those that have lost loved ones in the recent tornado outbreaks across our nation.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Shawn Pixley]

Iwas traveling for work all last week. I worked again on Saturday and then started flying home on Saturday night. Arrived home at Two O'clock in afternoon. But got to see LOML and DS in the afternoon. We went and plyed minature golf to avoid the beach fog we had at home. It was good to be back. Back to work for me....

Good thoughts go out to thoses affected by the weekend storms.

[David Hostetler]

I finished off a project for the BT3Central 2x6 challenge. Since there are other BT3Central members here, y'all are going to have to wait to see it though. I won't post any info or pics until right before judging. I don't want to give anyone ideas and give them time to build a better whatever it is than what I did...

I installed a steering wheel wrap on my BILs car, the wheel is getting funky, and LOML uses it to drive my BIL to his Dr. appointments and such, so I kind of got drafted...

I started on the leather wheel wrap for my Saturn. Again, steering wheel getting funky in the Texas sun. I opted for a Gray leather wrap for my car. The dash / wheel are black, but the rest of the interior is gray. Unfortunately LOML threw out the thread, so I need to run by JoAnne Fabrics on the way home tonight to get a spool of that heavy leather thread to finish the job...

Drug the smoker out of the shop and smoked up a mess of BBQ over the weekend. We did Fajita Chicken, chicken wings, a tenderized and rubbed roast, Kielbasa, french onion burgers, hot dogs, and country style ribs. Yes I pre-cooked for the majority of this week... Guess what I am having for lunch today?

I have been lazy about shop cleanup for the last 3 projects, and I have a TON of shavings on the floor, not to mention equipment out of place. I started with shop cleanup, but only got about halfway done...

I took a trip to Pasadena (Texas not California) to the Harbor Freight on Spencer, and grabbed some Evaporust for the washing machine, the area by the bleach cup is going bad... While I was there, I grabbed a free 1" x 25' tape measure, as well as the mini moisture meter. I don't have to be dead on accurate, but close enough is, well... close enough for around here... I also grabbed the large size hole saw set. Mind you, those that have read my reviews and blog entries here there and everywhere, you know I hate Harbor Freight hole saws. But I have 2 5" dia holes for AC ducting I have to punch into some Hardi Siding, and I am NOT going to spend good money on a decent hole saw set to do a job that is going to destroy the hole saws by the time I am done!

Speaking of the Hardi siding, yes that is a job that I am working on. The masonite siding and trim around my garage door openings is dying. I have picked up the Hardi siding, I ripped the 1x4 stock into 1x2 which is what I need, I have crosscut the horizontal pieces of 1x6, I now need the verticals, as well as the large panel, which will get those 5" holes. I am ducting my portable A/C unit through the wall with some 5" louvered ducts. The intake duct has a shop made actuating lever / ring assembly sort of thing to open the vents and keep them open. Hopefully with paint on it, it won't be too bug ugly...

I am touching up the control panel / back panel of my Whirlpool stove, it seems the oven self cleaning feature which I never used, but LOML tried out recently, destroys the paint right above the vent... And discolors the plastic knobs something fierce... The touch up paint is doing a great job fixing that, except the knobs. I am opting to simply re-color the existing knobs using Krylon Fusion. I have had excellent results with that stuff in Automotive applications...

And to top it off, I spent about 4 hours working on CSS, XHTML, and PHP code not to mention a flash movie for a hobby web site of mine. And I spent about 2 hours working on test prep labs for my RHCE exam. Things are coming along quite nicely...

[Ryan Hellmer]

Well, a busy weekend for me. Headed out to my folks' house Friday night after work. Dad and I had a tool errand on Saturday, left at 5am picked up a Woodmaster 718 in Greensburg, KS, headed to Pueblo, CO and picked up a Delta RC-51 20" planer and Wadkin SP12 sliding table saw and turned around and came home. 945 miles round trip, pulled in just before midnight. Stealth gloat!

Sunday morning after church we cleaned up a couple tools in my dad's shop (he recently moved his shop so a few things are yet unassembled and there's some neglected cast iron in there) then we fired up the sawmill. Only got 3 logs cut up but one of them was a 30" veneer quality walnut log. I almost felt bad cutting it up, but we ended up with about 300 Bd ft of walnut, some in nice slabs about 2 feet wide. We hit a nail in there that was about 3 inches from the pith, probably been in there 50+ years.

I got back on the road last night at about 8:30, 100 miles home. With rain in the forecast I figured I better get the machines under cover so I decided to unload the machines by myslef. An hour and a half later I have 2000 lbs of new (to me) machines in my shop and I'm in bed by a little after midnight.

Busy busy weekend, but super productive!

Ryan

[BOB OLINGER]

Well, work continued on the remodeling of the first of 3 bathrooms. We finished hanging new drywall, rough wired for a switch for the pump on the whirlpool tub, made wiring provisions for the heated floor mat that will be installed under the floor tile. Hung a good number of wall tile around the tub, made enough cuts with the garage sale small tile saw to determine the blade was too dull. Took a trip to Lowes to talk to the tile guy on saw options for the porcelin ceramic tile we are laying. Being a conventional cutter (score, then break) wasn't recommended for these tile, I broke down and purchased a medium priced tile wet saw. Figured it would be worth it for the number of cuts coming up. My wife started taping and mudding dry wall. So, progress was made, more in store.

[Matt Meiser]

I finished up my daughter's jewelry box, cleaned up the shop, and finished up a major overhaul on my bandsaw. I also changed the sparkplugs on my wife's car. Its getting close to 100K so I figured it was time. Turns out it should have been done a long time ago despite the recommended change interval.

[Mark Amato]

I installed a new WWII blade in my saw, installed a Microjig TK splitter, and tablesaw-ripped my first ever piece of wood. Made two stiles and three cross members for a wall clock. Also glued up the outfeed side of a new router fence and made a taper/edging jig to put a straight edge on shorter or narrow stock; the EZ-Guide doesn't work particularly well for that application.

I have a question in terms of workflow for sizing stock: I do not own a jointer or planer, so I buy my lumber pre-thicknessed. Up until now I have simply sized my projects such that off the shelf widths could be used. Now that I have the ability and confidence to size pieces correctly, I wanted to make sure that my workflow was correct: first, I crosscut with about 1/4" additional overhead, ensure the edge is straight by using the taper/edge jig, use that edge as the reference for the final rip width, then crosscut to the final dimensions. Is this the correct way?

[Mike Wilkins]

No woodworking here. I work in insurance claims in eastern North Carolina so Sunday was spent making a survey of the area for storm damages. We don't get many tornados in this part of the country, so the devastation was huge. Lots of people lost their lives so much prayer is needed. As for the shop; I did get to start sanding the finish of a large table top I am refinishing with 400 grit before the gel finish.

[Dale Osowski]

This weekend I was part of the Urban Wood Encounter exhibit: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/artcity.html?tag=Urban(wood)+Encounter I posted a few photos on my blog: http://djofurnituremaker.wordpress.com/ It really was a great time and I'm looking forward to participating again next year. This year I had a table and bench on display.

[james glenn]

I got a little shop time in this weekend and installed most of my metal dust collector piping.
Just waiting for the rest of my blast gates to come in along with the 6" flex hose now.

All in all, it is starting to look good and hopefully work as designed. Fingers crossed.