Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

30 Mar 2015

Good Morning Everyone,
This past weekend was a real busy weekend for me. Yesterday was the LOML's birthday and I was doing all I could to make Saturday and Sunday special days for her as she sacrifices so much of the family and friends that she really deserves much more than I could ever pay. The entire family met up at the Olive Garden for lunch yesterday and it was really nice to spent that time with family and friends. LOML opened her gifts and enjoyed the days of being the birthday girl for a couple of days. I'm still working on the guitar project and even though I haven't really made much progress (because this is my first one and I'm having to learn as I go) but I'm at least continuing the process. Chuck has been working on the necks at his place and I've got the body blanks planed down, marked, measured, and ready for routing and then cutting out the body form from each blank.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Bill Adamsen]

Project to cut twenty pine boxes with finger joints, and my old box joint sled had a little more play in it than I wanted. The runners (poplar ... poor selection) had worn down causing me to have to force the sled to one side to get joints on wider boards to align. That probably caused the runners to wear even faster. It was also heavy, which I found annoying when doing a lot of cutting. I had seen a trick on a Finewoodworking video that I'd wanted to try. It had suggested that instead of trying to glue both runners to a single sled, cut the sled in half first, and glue runners onto each half separately. Then assemble the balance and you can get the tightest sliding platform. Turns out to be a really great tip.

Planed hard maple runners to fit tightly in the miter slots and glued (and later screwed) them on. I glued them on by inserting shims (strips of pine) in the miter slots that essentially lifted the maple runners just proud of the saw table. Then glued the sled onto the runners by adding a weight atop the sled. By being proud of the top cleanup was minimized. Each half slightly overlay the blade, so when once the glue cured the top "cut" past the blade, the fit was super tight. Smooth sliding required minimal "machinist fitting" (mark and sand). Finally the cross sled pieces were milled from some scrap White oak and glued on square to the blade cut. I'm using the Freud 1/4 & 3/8 reversable dado designed for box joints (flat bottoms) which I'm very satisfied with. So much better than my older dado blades. The width options are limiting, I find 1/4 too small and 3/8 too large, while there is enough overlap to shim the blades to something "in between" those two options, I haven't checked the documentation to see if that's acceptable.

I out-thought myself on one part of the assembly. I figured I'd use some brass inserts to allow receiving button bolts to allow "fence" adjustment. Bad idea. It was immediately obvious that there wasn't any chance that brass would thread into the oak - not sure what I was thinking there. Should have just tapped the oak with a machinist tap - as though it were aluminum - for the 1/4 inch fence bolts. I'll know better next time. I'd already drilled the holes so I simply enlarged and glued in the brass inserts with epoxy, and that came out satisfactorily. Must say, it adjusts beautifully and works better than expected. Super light and smooth, and I've got my list of potential improvements for the next one. I thought about a micro adjuster on the end, but typically this sort of thing is a "set and forget" type jig (took just four tries to get the right fit) so no real benefit (to me) of the extra weight and complexity. I did mount a guard on the backside a bit higher than I figure I'll ever adjust the blade. While it doesn't invite placing fingers there, I need to put further markings there "just in case."

[Jesse Busenitz]

I spent the weekend cleaning shop, which was starting to get deep with clutter, and then went and built a set of cascading steps in the garage for my uncle who's building a new house. I've done a few stair projects but this was completely from scratch stringers and all, and after about an hour I was wondering if it was going to come together....:eek: It was a simple 40x36" landing with two steps on 3 sides, which in reality shouldn't be that hard but I managed to make it complicated. I did finally wrap it up and it turned out not too bad. Also I replaced the contact plate on my Grizz planer, which I just replaced the week before.... don't ask. Still working on my 16" jointer, which I decided "Needs" a spiral cutter head since the old 2 blade straight knife is a little iffy, so I've been looking at different options for that.

[Phil Thien]

I was notified (by insurance company) I needed to install a keyed deadbolt on a 2nd floor door. This, or install rails on the porch. I don't want to install rails at this time, as I plan on redoing the roof and will add blocks to which to add the rails, so-as to prevent leaking (which every single bump-out roof near me seems to do, where the rails are installed).

So installing a deadbolt requires making templates for the router for the rounded strike and latch.

My wife looked at me like, "why are spending so much time on this?"

HA! As if I wouldn't.

It only took an hour, I spent 30 minutes waiting for the template's glue to set.

Oh, and I made a key storage rack. Very difficult to keep all these keys straight.

And I started fixing a series of poorly-executed ceiling patches @ my daughter's, and started working on transforming her bathroom cabinets a bit. More work to come there.

[William A Johnston]

I changed the paper on my drum sander, cleaned out my canister dust collector (AGAIN) and did some glue up's for some cutting boards that a friend of mine is wanting to give to his customers. Then got to get out the lawn tractor and mulch up some leaves and cut down the weeds. First cut of the year. It was beautiful in Central Arkansas on Sunday afternoon. After the yard work I sat in the sun with my favorite beverage and soaked up some rays for a couple of hours.

Man do weekends go by quick

[Dave Haughs]

More shop cabinet fun for me. Got the sliding shelves in my base cabinets and got my sliding door peg board cabinet built and installed. Need drawers and doors now, but I'm at a point I can start putting things away now. Finally unpacked some boxes that have been packed for two years! It was like Christmas. Now the fun begins putting it all away as it's spread across my layout table, router table and table saw right now. But at least I can get my truck in the other garage again :)

The simple joys of getting organized and getting my "cave" together.

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[Dave Haughs]

My wife looked at me like, "why are spending so much time on this?"

HA! As if I wouldn't.



I don't hear the words anymore, but I get that look quite often :)

[John Sanford]

Bill, those are some beautifully snug finger joints. That results speaks volumes about the jig.

I traipsed up to the local Woodcraft on Saturday to return something (details next weekend) and also to pick up a blade that had come in. While there I shot the breeze for a while and also recycle the money I'd gotten for the return. I got two of the Big Gator drilling jig/guides (one's on backorder), the Kreg router table power switch, Kreg setup bars, a 16' centering tape measure (I've got the 25', love it but it's too big 95% of the time), and a hook driver doohickey. On the way to the Woodcraft I'd stopped at Cycle Gear, all ready to drop $600-$700 on a new helmet and riding boots. Sadly, neither the helmet nor the boots I was interested in are stocked in that location. :mad: Hey, Brick & Mortar, if you ADVERTISE IT (boots) and DON'T STOCK IT, don't whine when I spend my money on the Web instead.

I don't think I actually accomplished anything in the shop on Saturday. Sunday, I cleaned off the porch, which also gave me a quick look at the steel frame that's going to be the backbone for my shopvac/Dust Deputy contraption. After that, I made it into the shop where I spent the bulk of my time getting the cavity for my Benchcrafted Tail Vise right, as well as a properly sizing some shims for the condor tails. The walls of the cavity weren't quite parallel, I think because the two edges of the board I'd used as a guide for one side weren't quite parallel either. I'd squared using the far edge, and cut using the near edge.... So I spent a fair bit of time fiddling, using block plane, 1.5" chisel, bullnose plane, Japanese Saw-Plane, and even a shoulder plane. The whole "remove material", assemble everything to check the fit, disassemble, repeat was annoying, but by the end of the evening, I' had it ready for glue-up. I decided I didn't want to take such a drastic step at the end of the day, so I called it good for shop time and headed inside. While inside, I assembled the pair of Grrripper 200s that had been sitting patiently on the dining room table for 7 weeks. I now have two GR-200 units sitting on the front slab of new bench, waiting for some action.

p.s. oh, and I succumbed on Saturday to Lee Valley's diabolical plot... 7 Veritas products are heading my way....

[Jesse Busenitz]

More shop cabinet fun for me. Got the sliding shelves in my base cabinets and got my sliding door peg board cabinet built and installed. Need drawers and doors now, but I'm at a point I can start putting things away now. Finally unpacked some boxes that have been packed for two years! It was like Christmas. Now the fun begins putting it all away as it's spread across my layout table, router table and table saw right now. But at least I can get my truck in the other garage again :)

The simple joys of getting organized and getting my "cave" together.




I think half the fun is figuring out how/where to store stuff! Looks like a nice setup!

[Shawn Pixley]

I flew back early Saturday morning to California. I got home at 5 PM. LOML covered my duties in the annual neighborhood clean-up so I took her out to dinner. Sunday i focused on some maintenance issues, a little more garage clean-up, finishing the aet-up on my guitar build, and of course so guitar playing after. All in all productive given the jet lag.

[scott vroom]

The wife and I spent both days completing our week-long yard spring cleaning. Power washed 2 large flagstone patios and a connecting walkway, pruned trees and shrubs, painted 2 patio tables and 8 chairs, bought a new market umbrella to replace an old, faded, moldy one, cleaned out 2 large outdoor storage closets. We're on a mission to discard as much "stuff" as possible in anticipation of an out-of-state move later this year; our efforts this past week have nearly filled my long bed PU, so a trip to the landfill is on my schedule for tomorrow. It's amazing how much crud we've accumulated in nearly 30 years in our current home. Our prior home was a small 2 bedroom cottage with no garage or storage....and we were happy :) We're hoping to revert to a much simpler lifestyle in retirement.

[Dave Haughs]

I think half the fun is figuring out how/where to store stuff! Looks like a nice setup!

Yeah my neighbor asked me what I'll build once I have all my cabinets built and everything put away. I didn't have an answer... So maybe my hobby is just setting it all up :)

[John Sanford]

Yeah my neighbor asked me what I'll build once I have all my cabinets built and everything put away. I didn't have an answer... So maybe my hobby is just setting it all up :)

There are worse hobbies than the hobby of having a shop.

[Mike Wilkins]

Halfway through a set of shutters for the front of the house. I did not want any plastic, sorry-looking ones from the big box store, so I got the Rockler fixed shutter jig and had a go at it. The Cypress I am using came from the Mount Olive pickle factory in Mount Olive, NC, so they should last for a while. Plan on using a good grade primer and let the Mrs. pick out a color. Tedious project, with lots of slat mortises to cut and keeping aligned. Now the fun part; cutting, planing and making lots and lots of slats 1/4" in thickness.