Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

25 June 2012

Good Morning Everyone,
Well...it's been hot and extremely dry here. We could really use some rain. No matter how much I water, it just doesn't seem to do any good....so if some of you folks that are getting plenty of rain could send some my way? I'd greatly appreciate it. :)

Well, I worked for the day job this weekend and I managed to have some time to get my 2 sons to help me with cleaning up 2 bays of my shop. We worked all afternoon Saturday and got the cleaning done for a great first attempt of cleaning up the shop. I have a project or 2 that I need to get busy with but I have to get my shop cleaned up first.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[David Hostetler]

I started out wanting to get some spraying done for the living room ceiling, trying to make the work go faster, but I haven't changed the oil in my compressor for about 3 years and was well past due. So I went ahead and changed the oil, only to find out that the paint all over the tank was flaking off. The handles, the leg for the wheels etc... So I went to partially disassemble the tank from what couldn't be easily masked, and got stupid about the whole right versus left thing, and managed to crack my regulator housing... So I finished the sanding, priming, and painting of the tank, mostly to keep the rust beasties away, and went to Home Depot. I picked up an assortment of brass fittings, including a 200 PSI regulator, 2 heavy duty brass ball valves, an assortment of pipe nipples and such, and went about replacing the regulator, the pile of junk OEM shut off / ball valve, and the pile of junk OEM petcock valve for my tank drain was replaced with a street elbow, a 3" mipple, and a ball valve. Dumping the contents of the tank is now more along the lines of what I experienced as a younger man working as a mechanic. Every day at the end of the shift we would dump the compressor tanks after powering them off. In the case of my little home 8 gallon compressor that takes all of 15 seconds for the tank to be empty... I think I am now as happy with this thing as I can be considering it's diminutive size, and the fact it came from Harbor Freight... The new ball valve through port in the ball does NOT restrict the air flow like the OEM unit did, and it seems somewhat noticeable at the tool that the air flow is improved... I will never be able to reasonably run an HVLP with this thing, but my conventional spray guns are just fine with it...

I did manage to get out to mow, and edge my front yard. In 100 degree / 80% RH weather. Makes me miss Tucson with their humid days being 30% RH...

Had a long discussion with my lovely bride about just why I am building all of these cabinets in the garage, and suddenly in clicked for her... My efforts are to put storage under nearly everything, and make it all mobile. Or store it on the wall, or ceiling. I need to shorten my current miter saw workbench by 2 feet, and extend the front out by 1 foot to allow for installation of our big upright freezer in the shop. The deal is, she wants the freezer out of the kitchen. I suspect eventually, she is going to want to park a car in the garage / workshop. So I am working toward having all my storage and organization projects done, so that when the time does come, I will be able to just migrate the shop out to a shed. Due to the size of my lot, and HOA restrictions, it will be all I can do to get a 12x16 gambrel roof barn on my property to move into, but I am GOING to push for it...

[Matt Meiser]

Saturday morning I picked up the sheet goods for laundry room and 1/2 bath cabinetry. In the afternoon we went to select flooring. And in the evening I ripped out all the old cabinetry, listed on Craigslist, and got rid of it within an hour. Sunday got a slow start, went to Lowes for plumbing and electrical supplies for a couple changes, then went to my parents' and helped my mom with more cleaning in my dad's garage. When we got home I switched out all the plugs and switches in the 1/2 bath (how a room that tiny can require 3 switches...) since we are just doing flooring and a new vanity in there and keeping the existing paint. This week I need to split my time between working on plumbing, electrical, and drywall repairs and working on cabinets.

[Alan Lightstone]

Put up 7 additional T-8 four-bulb fixtures and moved the other 5 in my shop. Got that "surface of the sun" look to the workshop. Switched out bulbs 4 times until I found the color temp / CRI bulbs I could live with. Pretty tired of dealing with light fixtures right now.

Yesterday it rained 12 inches here. Fortunately, no wind damage, and no tornados near my house (but a number within 3-5 miles). All this, and it's not even a hurricane. Lots of flooded roads, standing water everywhere, feet deep in some places. Unfortunately, much more rain to come, though, oddly, it's sunny here right now. We'd be happy to send you some of our rain, Dennis.

Spent 48 hours working in the hospital since Friday. Only a few bad traumas. I think all the flooding prevented more idiots from driving stupidly.

Now back to working on my knock-down spray booth.

So, basically, a pretty busy weekend.