Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

30 Jan 2012

Good Morning,
I hope that this finds each of you doing well because my household has been a sick one with bronchitis and sinus infections. I just pray that we are all "on the mend" now and that I don't come down with it as my schedule is over full for the next 3 weeks.

I had an invitation to go do some woodworking shopping with Mark Cothren and friends on Saturday but I needed to stay home because I was the chief cook, cleaner, patient minder, and bottle washer. So maybe next time Mark.

You know, sometimes life throws us several "curve balls" and we struggle with what to do. Due to many things happening in my life, I've given a lot of thought about selling all my woodworking tools and moving on, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. I fought, scraped, and struggled for 25 years to get to where I am today in my woodworking shop and I've been able to accomplish several things in my woodworking skillset along the way and I've learned a ton from all my internet woodworking friends. I guess I've said all this to say....I'm not selling out. I've just needed some time to sort things out, settle into a manner of living that is different than what I've been used to over the past 52 years. I am really, just now, starting to understand all the life changes that we've had over the past 2 years and the financial weight of carrying some of that weighs heavy and causes us to think about selling all that we've fought for....in hopes that we can survive, love, and move on. Thanks to some close woodworking friends that keeps asking me questions about woodworking things....I'm beginning to see some saw dust sparks fluttering about in my minds eye once again.

Thanks for listening to me and putting up with all my babble. That's it for me, so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all from Conway, AR......

[Matt Meiser]

LOMLjr went to my parents for the entire weekend, LOML worked Saturday and went to a home shopping party Sunday afternoon so I got LOTS of time in my shop. But first, Friday night LOML and I went to Cabelas because she was looking for some shoes and I went to Tractor Supply to look at tool chests. Our TSC only had a damaged one they wouldn't sell for anything but full price so we went to a different store where I found an older-stock heavier duty one so I got that and we had dinner.

Saturday I got the storage unit under my extension table done and got my tool storage all moved around. I got a bunch of shop cleanup done including finding some jigs and stuff like that I forgot I had (and should have given the guy who bought my old Unisaw) and got a bunch of stuff listed on a local forum's classifieds.

Sunday morning bright and early a guy showed up to take one of the items I was getting rid of. I worked on a storage unit for a 16" wide space between the saw and tool chests under my outfeed table to hold my sled and miter gauges. I also did a little more reorg (including more reorg of the tools in the chests I'd moved around Saturday) and cleaned up a bunch of scrap generated by building all the stuff around the saw. I finished by cutting all the parts for a second hardware organizer to match the one I made a couple years back to hold a bunch of the Plano plastic boxes since that system is working out so well for me.

Along the way I seem to have injured my shoulder--hopefully just sore muscles or something like that. :(

[Jerome Hanby]

I'm working on my cabinet lift. Had previously received my rollers and winch, picked up the pulley Friday evening. Verified that a single 3/4" plywood thickness wouldn't leave enough room for the pulley, so I added a slice of 1/4" on either side and glued up my beam. Actually got lucky for once, looking at the project last night I realized that I should have calculated the width I cut each of the slices for my beam, since that same glue up should also have made a couple of pieces in the base. Turns out the width I used was right on the money. Of course I didn't account for those base pieces when I was cutting the slices for the beam, but I used a piece of hardwood as a guide for setting my track saw to cut them, so it'll be easy to slice a few more... In the course of building this thing, I've come to realize that the shop grade plywood I've been buying is pretty much crap. I've hit some pretty big voids and seen some hinky things inside the plywood. Think I'm going to spend a little more money and buy a better grade of ply next trip to the lumber yard. This stuff I can live with for shop cabinets, so I should be able to use it up.

[Larry Browning]

Not much shop time this weekend. We had my oldest grandson most o f the weekend (8 years old). He lives is the city so he doesn't get out much. He loves to do a burn pile when here. I had been needing to burn the contents of a couple of cutoff barrels and a few downed tree limbs. So we gather that all up and set it on fire. While digging thru the cutoff barrel I was describing the different types of wood to him and he seemed interested. He would ask "what kind of wood is this?" He found a couple of pieces of spalted ash, so I proceeded to tell him how those funny black lines got into the wood. He thought it was pretty cool! All this really gave me much pleasure. Then he says: "Grandpa, you are the best woodworker in the world! I'd bet you would win every woodworking contest there ever was!" Now I know that is not even close to being true. Heck I never even entered a single contest. And I am very confident my stuff wouldn't even come close to winning anything. But to have my grandson think that of me is way better anyway. Life is good!

[Mike Heidrick]

Built a buddies 4'X4' steel and aluminum CNC machine Friday - Part boxes to running in 9 hours as the base and controller were already done. Picture and Video in the CNC section.
Cherry and Walnut Panels glued up Saturday for a couple CNC signs I am going to make.
Sleep and Skyrim Sunday. Was not feeling all that great.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Hi Buce - I hope everyone in your house recovers quickly.

Aside from normal kids' activities, I got some shop time to work on and almost complete my outfeed table. I had built the frame after work last week, but this weekend I got the ply for the top cut and mounted, and milled some hard maple I had for the sides. Got it all assembled and sanded, and applied the first coat of an oil/varnish mix last night. I hope to get the second coat on tonight and see how it looks. I'll continue with the oil/varnish until I like the look, and then switch to thinned varnish for a few wiped-on coats.

[Steve Kohn]

I was still fighting a very bad cold and didn't plan on doing much this weekend. However on Saturday morning a machinist friend called and asked if I wanted to work on the old bandsaw. I had bought a Homecraft 10 inch bandsaw months ago and was restoring it to put a 1/8 inch blade on it. After getting the saw apart I realized it needed new bushings, and ergo the call to my friend. Not wanting to lose the opportunity I warned him about my cold and then told him to come over. We got the new bushings in, and after a trip to a machine shop to borrow a reaming tool we got the shaft installed. I assembled the saw on Sunday and placed an order for some blades with Highland Woodworking. I also sent an email to Carter asking which one of the guides will fit the saw. So now I'm back waiting.

[Mark Denovich]

Some plumbing and electrical to install my new Japanese super-toilet, which features warm water jet wash, heated seat, hot-air dryer and deodorizer. Finding a way to get power to where the toilet was, was a struggle, but worth it in the end. Clean as a whistle (although, still a rather funny sounding whistle.)

Also cut an inch off the bottom of my split top roubo (bringing the height down to just less than 34") and flattened/trued the top, before applying a coat of BLO.

[David Hostetler]

Didn't get much shop time beyond Shop Cleanup time, and very little of that... Too much going on is all... I finally had the weather to strip down the rear brakes on my '01 Saturn SL2, only to find out the swishy squeal out of the rear brakes was just a buildup of dust in the drums. Plenty of brake cleaner and a few dabs of anti sieze between the shoes and the backing plates, the they are dead quiet... Now mind you, this car has 96K miles on the original shoes, and they are at about 40% remaining. So I adjusted the shoes out a hair as that is a pretty good giveaway that the rear brakes haven't been doing their job all that well... Took the wife to the nail salon, dropped her off, and then went to the inspection station to get my tags... No dice. Failed on Catalytic Converter and O2 Sensor "not ready" in the computer. The car had been sitting for a couple of months, so I had the battery disconnected to keep it from draining too much, I need to run the car through a drive / learn cycle to clear that and get it into the shop again... What a pain in the butt...

I spent a bit of time mudding in some new drywall on the water heater stand extension I built in last month. Going to sand it down, and tape it tonight. Get it ready for the trim, that has yet to be cut...

Spent some quality time painting the custom shop built replacement trim for the door casings in the main bathroom, have some touch up to do with the caulk as I found a gap that I didn't expect, so caulk gun, trimmer, dry, sand, prime paint some more...

Got the first 2 pieces of Attic Foil cut, and stuffed up into the attic, Now I need to go up there with the stapler and actually install them. I need to cut around some bracing as well... The good thing is the garage, where I am working, is a pretty straight and easy run, the bad thing, I have to do the rest of the house after that!. I need HELP!

Started a new couples class with LOML at church on Friday... Good speaker. Having fun with it... LOML seems to enjoy it too!

And lastly, I did get started on organizing the pieces I need to build my shop built wide drum sander. So far I have all the pieces / parts except the motor. I have...

5/8" pillow block bearings with grease fittings.These bearings also have set screws to secure the axle in place on them. Or them on the axle however you want to say it...
5/8" x 36" steel rod for the axle.
Link Belt. I have lots of spare HF link belt left over from other projects.
New Work / hammer on single gang electrical box with knockouts and grommets for the electrical.
"Safety" power tool motor switch.
12 ga 110V extension cord with no female end. (Used to be a neighbors until he ran his electric edger over it... I salvaged the good parts, probably 20' of cable there and a good molded male end.)
Large assortment of nuts, washers, screws, all thread, star knobs, S&D PVC segments (For the dust port) etc...

What I lack is a good working 110V 1725 RPM motor.

Anyone have any clues where I can get a good motor, on the cheap?

[Rob Holcomb]

No shop time this past weekend. Well at least not for its normal purpose. I did spend some time on Sunday using my work bench to put together some "knock down" furniture for my 18 year old son's first apartment. God help us all! He couldn't wait for Dad to make him a TV stand, Night Stand, Table, etc. He just HAD to have the cheap particle board crap found in most department stores that is put together with nothing more than a screwdriver. Oh to be young and just starting out in life. What a wonderful time with so many ups and downs and lessons to learn. He is a lot like I was back then. Knew it all, wouldn't listen, and stubborn as all get out. If I had it all to do over again, and knew then what I know now, I would have listened more and been more receptive to what others warned me about but I had to learn on my own, just as he will. It's going to kill me to see him make mistakes that could be avoided but I guess many parents go through this with their kids. It's a right of passage I guess. I'm just really looking forward to the day in a few years when he wakes up one morning and says...How did my parents get so smart overnight!

[Michael Mayo]

I brought home a new to me Delta DC 380 15" planer that is an absolute beast to move around. Got right to disassembly and cleaning as it was in storage for a while and I like clean machines that I know what all the adjustments are and that they are perfect. Got the whole machine broken down but could not get the darn cutterhead out of the casting. I saw a post by Ron Bontz and PMed him and he has been very helpful bt I still cannot get the cutterhead to budge. I have rebuilt entire truck engines so this isn't new but the castings are cast iron and that stff freaks me out because if you look at it funny it will crack or break. So my normal operation of support and big hammer isn't going to be employed on this baby. If I cannot get it out no big deal as the bearings seem to be fine i just wanted to get it out to make cleaning it up easier. I can get to all of the cutterhead with everything else already out so i won't lose sleep over not getting it out of the machine. I am super excited to power this monster up and run some stock through it. But that will have to wait until I get the parts she needs. I broke one of the chain sprockets in the move, it still actually works but the part was only $6.50 plus it need a knob for locking the head, a gearbox gasket and the knife setting jig. All of these have been ordered and should be here before the weekend. I also found a herculift for my TS 3650 saw from another member here today and he lives right here in my own state and works very close to me so it has been an awesome couple of days and I can't wait till this weekend to get back to work.

[Shawn Pixley]

No shop time at all. Saturday, I spent catching up on things at work thatI didn't get done during the week - reviews for my staff. Sunday, I went to a memorial service for my friend, Mark. Afterwards, I got a migraine. Sort of a downer weekend.

[Terry Hatfield]

I blew...I mean..invested a few hundred bucks at the KC Woodworking show and had a great time hanging out with my KC boys. I got the new PC560 pocket hole jig wghich is super cool and I also bought a PC4212 dovetail jig along with a mini square, adjustable feather boards and a 24" rule from Woodpeckers. Of couse I needed all of that. LOL....

[Steve Clardy]

Took off a few days after being gone from home 4 weeks.
I've mostly been a couch potato (darn TV :o )

I did stand around in my shop fer a bit, seeing things I need to do. Maybe tomorrow, since my truck is in for repairs.
Called in today, and they sent it to the body shop to get some cracks fixed in the fiberglass hood.
So I may be home for a while yet. :D