Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

16 Nov 2015

Good Morning Everyone,
I hope that this finds each of you doing well. Been taking a bit of time off of work to relax a bit and get some odds and ends done around the house. I still have plenty to do but my time is running thin on getting things done around here. I'm now waiting for the finish on the guitar body to cure a bit more before I mount the hardware and string it up for the first time. I'm a bit excited to play an instrument that I made. It's raining here today and I'm feeling the need to get in the shop a bit.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Charles Taylor]

My time in the workshop this weekend was spent putting a couple coats of finish on a dozen drawers for the workshop cabinet. I know many people won't bother with putting a finish on shop storage, but to me it's worth it. Having said that, I sure am eating up a lot of time by doing it with a brush vs. spraying. It's a good thing I don't do this for a living.

This should be the last workshop-centered project for a while. I'm hoping I still have time for a couple of projects before Christmas.

[Charles Wiggins]

Leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. Our house sits on 2/3 acre covered with mature oaks.

I decided to give the Lawn Tractor Leaf Bag (http://lawntractorleafbag.com/) a try. Beats the heck out of raking. I don't have a grass catcher, so I had to get the Conversion Kit (http://lawntractorleafbag.com/product/lawn-tractor-deck-adapter-kit/). It took me a while to get the hang of it. You cannot go too fast, especially of the leaves are deep. And my mower has a tendency to blow leaves away from the deck so it's difficult to get everything, but it's still faster and a lot less effort than raking. Of course, I still have to use the blower to get the leaves out of the flower bed and away from obstacles, but that's not a biggie.

I'm amazed at how tough the bag is. So far I've drug it all over my uneven yard and on the pavement, with noticeable wear, UNTIL... I forgot and drug it over the end of the piece of rebar that marks the corner of the property. Ripped a hole in it. A BIG hole. Sewed it back together with nylon string and flipped it over so I wouldn't be dragging the stitches on the ground. Still works great. We've had so much rain over the last month that most of the ground is still damp, so it's gotten a bit "muddy," but other than that, the fabric still looks new.

Other than that, on Saturday morning I helped cut wood for our firewood ministry at church.

[Bill Adamsen]

Looking around the shop I wanted to come out of the weekend feeling like I'd made some forward progress. So I decided to do some plumbing. Yes, my air lines are all type L copper. That's primarily because I am good (fast) at fabricating with copper and the materials are readily available and rated to handle the associated pressures. I use air throughout the shop for all kinds of uses ... sanding, pressure clamps, spray. Where I focused this weekend was a stub-out I had never finished. It was below the air-clamps on my mortiser. I had been dragging a rubber hose across the floor every time I wanted to use it ... and thought it would be nice to not have that rubber hose running across the floor. So I added this Numatics valve/filter combo and soldered up the connections. Very pleased with myself! It is going to get a lot of use this week.

I also made a tenoning length jig, but since I've gone into the description of that elsewhere, I'll let that topic drop. Included an "artsy" photo. The light was so nice I couldn't help it.

[Val Kosmider]

Not quite as sexy as the projects listed above, but it is that time of year when we turn from gardens to shop projects. Shop projects require wood, so yesterday was spent running a couple hundred board feet of rough sawn/air dried white oak through the thickness planer. Its a DeWalt planer, and while it does a fantastic job, it takes a long time to bring a rough sawn 4/4 oak plank which is 12 inches wide down to a finished 3/4" board. Not accounting for the operator's time, the cost is VERY attractive.....

[Jay Larson]

First post and all, I thought I would start here.

We are at the tail end of our house build of which I am doing the finish work. (Did it for a living 20 years ago.) So here goes:
Cut, stained and got the sealer coat on the stair stringers.
Picked up some drywall, two sheets of MDF for the linen closet shelves, and 35 board feet of rough maple for the last three stair treads.
Rough cut and planed the maple so they can acclimate for a day or three before final sizing.
Drywalled the halfwall because we changed our mind on the final look.
Cut and installed the fireplace mantle.
Working on the 'crown' around the fireplace I cut the front piece 3/4" too short. Kept thinking there was something wrong with the measurement, but went ahead anyway and cut it... Got mad so I banished myself from measuring and power tools for the rest of the day.
After that, I went ahead and glued up the stair treads.
Finally went out to my workshop in the out building and wired up one of the wall circuits. Two circuits, outlet every four feet, with every other outlet on the same circuit.

jay

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Began the finishing process on another round of trim for our kitchen/hallway. It takes me about 3 days to get through the finishing process and a day to install it.

I'm at the point where there should be, God willing, this round and two more to complete all the windows, the kitchen and the hallway that was affected in our remodel. Taking 5 weeks off for a grandparents fix slowed this operation down!

[Scott Wigginton]

3 weekends worth of progress. I just posted a detailed description in my workshop thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?236405-Shop-reorganization-need-layout-ideas&p=2491872#post2491872) so I'll just include the pics here :D

Half-sheet plywood cart
325391

Under stairs lumber storage
325392

Dust collection swivel+hose (black pipe leaning against BS)
325393

Mitersaw station (from nothing), dust shroud, workbench on right
325394

Pocket hole workstation drawer
325395

[Jim Becker]

I finished up a nice rustic bench project (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?237561-Project-Rustic-Bench) this weekend and delivered it to its new home.

[Aaron Conway]

Went to Rockler and picked out some wood from their "shorts" bin. Got home and ran through my new planer and started on a decorative box. Not bad for $18.

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