Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

16 Mar 2015

Good Morning Everyone,
Been a very busy week of oncall duty. I'm hoping to get some sleep tomorrow since I'm taking the day off. Got the nightstand finished and the customer picked it up tonight. It gets shipped to his daughter in California this coming week. The guitar building project is still under way but took a weeks break due to oncall duty at the day job.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Shawn Pixley]

LOML was sick so I split time between caring for her and working on my guitar build. I spent some frustrating time troubleshooting. We took a break to experiment with Enamel Raku for a class LOML is designing to teach.

Sunday, was more care for LOML as she was feeling worse. I fixed my problem and reassembled the guitar and set it up. I then cleaned up the garage. Pretty productive all in all. Guitar and Raku details in the Musical Instrument forum.

[Charles Taylor]

Saturday morning, my lady and I went to the architectural salvage dealer about an hour away from home so she could find some glass doorknobs and escutcheons to change up the look of a couple of our interior doors. In the afternoon I mitered and glued up the top frame of a glass case project that's been in my workshop awaiting completion for longer than I want to admit.

After church on Sunday, we helped my father-in-law repair their brick mailbox that was knocked over the other night. They had been able to right it the next day with the help of some neighbors, but in the process the top section broke loose. He used that opportunity to replace the rusted-out box, and Sunday we hoisted the top in place and mortared it in.

I discovered that that frame was too big by 1/4 inch in each dimension, which would make it impossible to replace the glass if that were ever needed after the case is assembled, and that the error would be easily visible through the top. Modifying the case sides wouldn't be an option, nor would mechanical fasteners for attaching (and later removing) the top. So I cut it apart, resized the pieces--fortunately having milled some extra material, and re-glued the frame.

Lit a fire on the patio and enjoyed one of the first warm-ish nights of the season with my wife.

[John Sanford]

Sold my Delta Contractor Saw, that's been my faithful woodchomper since the last millennium. Hunted around with my son on Saturday, searching for pie. Continued working on my Split Top Roubo, specifically the Condor Tails.

Lessons learned/reinforced from that are:


Forstner bits don't like drilling into end grain.
Nobody seems to makes a pattern bit that has a cutting (and bearing) diameter of less than 1/2"
A hinge template bit is NOT a pattern bit. The bearing and cutter diameters aren't the same. And it's short, really short.
Manufacturers can really lay the lacquer on new chisels.
There is no easy way to cut 1.5" deep condortail sockets in purpleheart, especially when you make the root of the tail narrower than any pattern bit on hand.
Wetting endgrain really, really makes it easier to shave with a chisel.
I suck at cutting condortail sockets. Yes, the sockets are cut, but to say they are "loose" fitting would be to ascribe a higher degree of tolerance than the reality bears out. In my defense, these are literally the first halfblind dovetails I've done, and some of the first dovetails I've cut by hand. I'm thinking I might make a template and then do a contrasting inlay outlining the tails. Down the road. Someday.
Test fit, test fit, test fit.


Anyhow, the tails are done, and now I've got to plane the dog strip, face strip and endcap flush to the underside and continue with the wagon vise install. I should be able to get the planing done tonite and tomorrow, which would mean I can drill the endcap for the screw and flange, and fit the guides. If all works out as planned, I can theoretically have the vise installed and the front slab finished next weekend, which will allow me to proceed to the joinery for the base. Wooohooo!!

[Jim Becker]

Well, what do you know...I actually got to spend some time in the shop this weekend making a new drawer box for the kitchen knife drawer. I'm changing the way it works internally and the original drawer had fixed partitioning. I also helped a friend by cutting some sheet goods up for a project he's doing in his home. (which he thankfully had rough cut to size where be bought the plywood...no heavy lifting) I should be able to finish (literally) this new drawer box next weekend once I receive some items I need for sizing things. I was fortunate enough to be able to take some very accurate measurements from the current drawer box so that the drawer front and slide will attach exactly and not require any special fitting. Next up after that is a few replacement cabinet doors...this year includes a minor kitchen refresh since I renovated/rebuilt it way back in 2003 and "it's time" for some new spit and polish.