Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

Well, another weekend has come and gone.......and I'm GLAD.!!!!!! :D

No time this week or weekend for anything except for "work". Need I say more? I can sum it all up in one word: OnCall!!!!! :mad: :mad:

I have dreams of being in the shop and having sawdust scattered around my feet and the smell of fresh cut wood all around me in the shop. :rolleyes:

Well, anyway.....I will get to be in the shop tonight after work!!!!! YEA!!!!

So what did YOU do this weekend???

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

Well...the only "woodworking" I did was to cut a piece of 1" thick poplar on the CMS to provide a spacer for the safety gate I was installing at the top of the back stairs. Last week we had a major setback in our adoption/hosting situation...Wed through Friday was a really tough ride for Dr. SWMBO and I after we received word that our summer hosting program was canceled due to the delays in agency re-accreditation in Russia...but it was miraculously solved late on Friday when we found another program that had a family drop out, leaving a cute sibling pair in need of us. One small change, however...from "outdoor plumbing" to "indoor plumbing"...two girls, ages 5.5 and 9.5 instead of the boys we originally were slated with. They will be here for the entire month of July. (Please don't hijack this weekend thread on this subject...)

At any rate (whew!!), we got into high gear getting the room ready which entailed moving Dr. SWMBO's office to what used to be our guest room. (Guests now get to sleep in the Home Theater... ;) ) The panoramic picture below shows the way things are now. Minimal decoration to avoid over stimulation (and also preserve the chance to learn what the kids like), but cozy. This room was always the one that visiting children loved to congregate in...so we're sure it will be appreciated. Don't worry about the blue...that's a "Girl" color in Russia.

The rest of the weekend consisted of Dr. SWMBO's virgin visit to Wegmans (an upscale supermarket/food court that will soon be opening a store closer to us)--we went to the Princeton NJ store with friends and a nice dinner with the same friends last night. The house A/C also went on yesterday...hot, humid weather has finally hit.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Not a whole lot of shop time again! It was just tooo damn nice out! We had a wedding on Saturday and yesterday I did some of the tedious tasks on my current project.

[Ralph Barhorst]

Wow! What a weekend. I replaced a bunch of T & G oak boards in my daughters living room and dining room. She is in the process of refinishing and wanted all of the cracked boards and water damaged boards replaced. I thought that it would be about a 4 hour job. NO WAY:(

You neanders would be proud of me. My daughter and her husband live 80 miles away so I could not bring my big tools. The only power driven tools I could use were my plunge router and the nailer.

On some website (not here) it was recommended that you use a chisel to chop out the defective boards. I actually tried that until my chisel got dull (and it was really sharp to begin with). I ended up using my router with a 1/4" spiral bit (actually an end mill that I bought on EEEKBAY for $5). I had a piece of 24" x 24" square Plywood that I used as a fence. I squared up this board with the floor and then placed a 225 pound weight on the board to keep it from moving while I routed out the boards. (Yes, I always have a 225 pound weight with me.:p You can guess what that weight is.) The old boards were removed fairly fast with this method.

Now came replacing the boards. I purchased some of the oak boards. They only cost $185 for 12 square feet:confused: :confused: . Really cheap. They cost so much since they were an odd size (3/8 x 1-1/2) and the shipping alone was $75. You would expect good boards for that price. NO. The boards varied in width by about 1/32". Naturally this meant that there were gaps between some of the old boards and the new boards. You would think that if they cannot make the boards consistent then they would be kind enough to make them 1/32" oversize so that they could be planed down, but NO they were mostly undersize:mad: :mad: .

I made a jig to crosscut the boards (with my Disston hand saw) to size and a shooting board to plane the ends to the exact length. This worked well and I did not mind this part of the "Neander" experience.

Well, instead of 4 hours, it ended up taking about 10 hours, but my daughter was happy and I will recover it another week or two.:)

[Lee DeRaud]

The panoramic picture below shows the way things are now.Whoa!! Was that picture stitched together (and if so, what software) or do you have a killer wide-angle lens?

[Matt Meiser]

I took another Friday off and we took our first camping trip of the year. We traveled to Ohio Amish country and visited the craft, antique, and furniture stores (to look for ideas) on Friday. Friday night at the campground, they directed us to the free firewood--mostly oak and cherry scraps from an area furniture operation. I couldn't find anything big enough to save except for some plain sawn cherry plywood pieces. Saturday morning we headed up to Hartville and went to the huge flea market there where I found a really neat homemade height gauge. After the flea market we stopped at Hartville tool and I picked up a few supplies. Sunday we headed home, unpacked, did laundry, picked up the dog, etc. and by the time I was done with all of that I was too tired for any shop time.

[Scott Coffelt]

Very little WWing, though I did cut some 1/4" material for the back of the kitchen cabinet build.

The majority of my weekend was spent messing with the home PC. I was cleaning up some old files and programs off of the PC harddrive to make room for music files.... stealth gloat, I bought a Dell DJ 30 (30gig) Jukebox. Well, something went wrong and I lost some key drivers. One main one was the driver to the network card. I could not get out to the web. For the life of me I could not find the disk. System restore would not work so I was hosed.

I have a Dell that came with WinME. They short change you on everything, so Saturday I upgraded to XP. It took quite some time to upgrade and reload drivers, etc. While at it, I added another harddrive (80gig) so I should be set now. I finally got to run defrag on the old drive, WinME would never allow me to do it. It took about 24 hours for the program to run... yes it was that bad.

Anyways, in the end my little upgrade will cost me even more as the multi-functional printer I have is not supported by XP, so I'll be in the market for a new one soon.

Yesterday, between checking on the PC and sitting on my rear, not much else done. 'Cept NASCAR and Golf.

[Jim Becker]

Whoa!! Was that picture stitched together (and if so, what software) or do you have a killer wide-angle lens?

Three photo's stitched with the Panoramic wizard in Adobe PhotoShop Elements 3. Easy to do, although not "perfect". All three pics, however, were shot at the 35mm equivalent of a 28mm lens. (18mm on my D70 as the CCD is smaller than 35mm film) It may have been slightly better if I had used a tripod...but I didn't.

[Steve Ash]

I'm just getting the house ready for my son's open house this upcoming sat. Fellow creeker Larry Merlau came by on Sat. to go over to another creekers house Keith July to pick up some planer knives that Keith sharpens in his shop.
Did manage to squeeze in a little time to get my dust collector hooked up and running, even though I'm not sure where I will permanently put it......then back to getting ready for the open house:)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Saturday put the final coat of poly on the buffet I was building for my wife and then washed the extior of the house to get the winter "dust" off it. Sunday, spent the entire day mounting the hardware on newly finished oak buffet.

[Lee DeRaud]

Three photo's stitched with the Panoramic wizard in Adobe PhotoShop Elements 3. Easy to do, although not "perfect". All three pics, however, were shot at the 35mm equivalent of a 28mm lens. (18mm on my D70 as the CCD is smaller than 35mm film) It may have been slightly better if I had used a tripod...but I didn't.I'm going to have to try that. My Minolta goes down to 28mm equivalent, but I miss my 21mm: the only body I've got that it fits hasn't worked right in years.

[Bob Noles]

My weekend was most excellent. After working on our cabin project 100 miles away from home for the past 2 months, it was good to stay home this weekend and log some shop time. After getting all my tools back home and put away, I was able to make some real progress on my router workstation that I started before the cabin came along and pulled me away. With a little luck, I may finally get to finish the project over the next week or so, that is if we can stay away from the cabin that long ;)


All in all, it was a restful stress free weekend with some quality time in the shop.

[Ken Salisbury]

Saturday was pretty much taken up with a TV interview at the shop for some FPP footage to be aired on a 4th July Patriotism Special on my local CBS affliliate.

Sunday my Son-in-Law came over to do much needed yard maintenance. He trimmed all of my bushes around the house, weed eated after I mowed the yard (riding of course.) :) Trimed A BUNCH of limbs from a VERY LARGE Bradford Pear tree behind my shop which had grown to the point that some limbs were rubbing the shop walls and the roof.

He piled all the limbs, trimings on my "burn pile" for later burning.

It was a VERY HOT day so we spent some time sitting under the LARGE trimed tree and consumed some http://www.oldrebelworkshop.com/lilbud.gif's

It sure is nice to have a SIL who will work for http://www.oldrebelworkshop.com/lilbud.gif's :) :) :)

[Jon Olson]

Started on a memorial box for my brothers service this coming weekend. Seeple with some nice figuring and Ebony inlay for the top and keys. Small (5.25" x 6.875" x 5.25") due to size of the wall enturnment it needs to fit into. Simple design due to the time but a lot of love being poured in. He passed from a massive heart attack 5-27-05. (35 years old) Pics of the box will be provided soon.

Jon
(Please dont hijack this thread on my account)

[Jim O'Dell]

Saturday, I finished the second shop door, Started marking hinges. Sunday marked the 2nd door after letting the glue dry overnight. Marked the hinges and took them to work and beat the you know what out of them to bend them into the shape I needed to fit and wrap around the doors (10" strap hinges). Primed the hinge side and the top and bottom, then hung them. THEY ACTUALLY SWING!! Put 2 toe kick sliding bolts that are spring loaded on the tops to lock them in. Have 2 more for the bottom but need to finish the threshold first. Still have some filling, sanding, painting and trim work to do on them, but I think they will work. I couldn't believe how heavy they are. Glad I learned a little about balance points, but still almost lost them a few times. Jim.

[Mike Tempel]

Spent Saturday taking the kids to see the new Star Wars flick. Sunday was getting the front yard taken care of - back yard somewhat of a mess due to the picture below. Spent some time with the family Sunday afternoon that was long overdue. No shop time - too hot and my Garaj Mahal is stuffed with the contents of my former storage shed which if left in place would be under water in a couple of weeks. Hope to be back to normal after my new shed is built and Garaj Mahal back to normal by late July with any luck.

[Keith Christopher]

Didn't do too much, have been making shaker candle boxes, hand cutting the dovetails and all. (attached photo) I have been getting alot of requests for these after I made a gift for someone. friend of a friend of a friend kinda thing. Mind you this picture was taked directly after I fitted the last joint together so the pins and tails are a little proud. Care to guess what wood this is ?

[Steve Knowlton]

Went Too A Craft Fair On Fri. & Sat. I Had A Booth With Bowls & Misc. Turned Items. It Was Very Slow. Lots Of Lookers But Not Many Buying. Everybody Had Good Comments About My Bowls. Only Sold $100. Not Much O Well.

[JayStPeter]

Got my deck frame done. Cut some stringers and poured a stair landing pad. Given reasonable weather, I'll probably get my framing inspection done this week.

Jay

[Bob Reeve]

On Saturday, the ladies and I went to an outdoor concert for most of the day. Got my fix of Country Music and Travis Tritt. Lots of sun and sunburn. Sunday, I cleaned up the house and spent a little time in the shop making some pens to fill orders.

[Kevin Beck]

Installed the shower curtain in our never-ending bath remodel and took our first shower in the MB since 2/4. Textured the walls to partially hide my hideous sheetrock finishing and painted a new color that better matches the tile.

Learned that drilling hard floor tile is a real pain. I used about $30 worth of "tile bits" drilling 8 1/4" holes.

I've included a before picture (about 10 minutes after I started demolition). I cropped off the date (it was 2/4/05) and if you look at the latest picture we're at 6/5/05. I should be finished some time this month (yeah, right, that's what I said last month according to the LOML).

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I had time between 9 1/2 hours of driving, appointments, errands, etc. to start the finishing coats on my new sign (I'll have pics when I get it finished). This is all I got done in the shop.

Had time to go over to Terrell Sunday and check out the town.....finished that and lunch in two hours....small town life is lookin' real nice....

We're to the inspection stage in our new home buying process....this is the last look before leaping and we're hoping it all checks out.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Spent quite a bit of shop time getting relatively little done except learning. The short version (believe it or not):

Decide Friday after work the paper towel holder on the drawing boards needs to have dovetail ends. Never done dovetails; like the idea of a challenge. Go by Rockler on the way home and take them up on the sale price on their dovetail jig, and have them throw in the through dovetail template to boot. The kit includes the bit and bushing, so I'm in business. Get home to discover neither my 25-year-old Craftsman or my really cheapie Chinese Makita knockoff has a base plate that'll fit the bushing. In the meantime, I put together a nice base out of scrap plywood and fir for the router jig that'll mount in a vice or my B/D Workmate.

Saturday, back to Rockler to find a solution to the bushing problem. Buy a Porter-Cable baseplate, even though the holes don't match either of the routers, but it's the only one on the shelf that fits the bushing. No problem, I'll drill new holes. I elect to attach it to the cheap green router, since the Craftsman (bless its tired little heart) is upside down in the router table. Unfortunately, "pretty darned close" is not close enough when you're working with a bushing on a router baseplate. DAMHIKT.

Not wanting to throw away good money after bad, I decide to bite the bullet and buy another router. (Stealth mini-gloat.) A few quick checks on the web (including SMC), and I'm off to the Borg to buy a P-C combo setup with both fixed and plunge bases. I ended up with the 1.5 hp 694 set -- I couldn't justify the price of the more powerful combo, and I felt compelled to buy P-C, since that was what would fit my bushing out of the box. (I know, the priorities are a bit skewed here, but then again, I bought a new Ford Bronco once because my Jeep needed an oil change. :rolleyes: )

Got home and after a quick scan of various manuals, set things up a proceeded to grind up a few feet of 1x4 pine dialing in the bit height and other adjustments. Before long, I was making nice tight joints. I figured I was ready to cut the real thing, so I glued up the real thing -- a piece of oak with a 3/8" wide lengthwise stripe of walnut, purpleheart, and walnut running down the centerline.

Sunday I was chomping at the (router) bit to get going on the dovetails, so I sanded Saturday's glue-up flat, and did the crosscuts to make my three pieces. Knowing how critical it was to have the template dialed in exactly (since I was running a continuous stripe around two 90-degree corners) I did several more practice joints until I felt comfortable. The first joint on the oak glue-up came out dead on, but in my typical fashion, I was off on the next joint by about 1/16", which of course looks like about 20 feet because of the continuous stripe. For a paper towel holder that's already cost somewhere around $350, you'd think I could get the line straight. :rolleyes: Oh well, that'll be the side towards the corner of the kitchen, and I'll be about the only person to ever see the flaw. And I guess I'd rather mess up a $350 paper towel holder than a $5,000 step stool or $10,000 bird house. It's all practice for now as I re-learn old techniques in anticipation of taking on some real projects.

Once I was done flogging myself, I did the next phase of gluing to the end pieces. I expect to get the paper towel holder finished up this week after work, and unless I mess it up any more than I already have, I'll be sure to post pics so everyone can point and snicker. :D

Shop-wise, I also finished up a couple of cutting boards that have been spoken for at the office, then cleaned up far more sawdust than was represented by finished products. All in all, the weekend was good practice for someone who's just getting back into the shop after way too many years.

- Vaughn

[John Hart]

I enjoyed a visit from fellow Creeker Blake McCulley who came in from PA to introduce me to Pen Making on Saturday. Spent a few hours in Amish Country spotting wood, then Sunday got some yard work done, worked on my website and turned my first pen. Kinda hectic but very rewarding weekend.