Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

19 Dec 2016

Good Morning Everyone,
It was over 75 degrees F here yesterday and last night it dropped to 19 degrees F. Today didn't get above freezing but the good news is that we'll warm up to well above freezing by Wednesday of this week. Still haven't delivered the big kitchen island top. The customer isn't ready for it but we expect to deliver it sometime this week. Helped #2 son make his first end grain cutting board this weekend and he is expected to have it all finished by tomorrow. I'm proud to see and help him in the shop. We all need to learn to work with our hands and make things that bring us joy.

I start oncall duty today....so I'm hoping and praying for a quiet week of oncall duty.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Shawn Pixley]

Saturday, I sharpened knives and my beater chisels (needing a lot of refurbishment due to hard work and poor steel) while watching soccer (futball). I cut myself for the first time when testing on arm hair. It bled for a long time but the cut is really clean. Sunday was lousy weather here (by Southern California standards) so I took LOML and DS to see Rogue One. Due to the winds, I had to change dinner plans. Hard to grill in a 40 MPH cold wind.

I have been waking in the middle of the night with severe leg cramps recently, which is why I am writing this at 05:00. I have been up for two hours trying to address the pain.

[Phil Mueller]

Daughter arrived Friday from Seattle. Attended Son's college graduation on Saturday. No more checks to universities!

Made some Christmas cookies yesterday and tried to do a little shopping....not a good idea (the shopping, that is).

Had a chance to keep working on my box making skills. Have another one to the point of cutting off the lid. I find box making a nice, short, satisfying project that helps to use up a bunch of scraps and cut offs.

The recent posts on clamps got me itchy and Saturday an early Christmas present of another 50" and two 40" Kbody's arrived. Anxious to get something going to put them to use.

Sean, hope the leg cramps subside...of course, everyone says eat more bananas...

[Terry Beadle]

I got a new hot glue gun off Amazon and some extra strength hot glue.
I used all 6 sticks of the glue to repair 3 pairs of walking shoes. The twisted ankle I did last July
has made me walk on the left outside edge of the heel on the left shoe.
I used some extra thick leather scrap and a piece of plexiglass shard and shaped it to match the
necessary replacement lift to restore the sub-sole. Then shaped and glued a piece of the thick
leather to cover it. Then glued the h e _ _ out of it.

I need to find some sole replacement material that will replace the leather when I wear it out which from the looks of just two
days walking won't last two weeks.

I will say that extra strength Stanley hot glue is really good in comparison to the standard clear or white glue sticks

[John Sanford]

On Saturday, I took a ride down to my local Woodcraft in order to score myself some of their Hawk Point Ice Cream Scoops that were on sale. Last spring I picked up one of those and one of the paddle scoops, to determine which I, and importantly, my son, prefer. I turned handles out of some scrap wood for the testing. Because we keep the freezer cold, our ice cream in fairly hard, and the hawk point won easily. So I picked up 5 for to make presents. After getting home (23 degrees outside, 20+ mile ride at 70-85mph. But it was a "sunny cold". :cool: ), I set to it at the lathe. First I turned some practice pieces, a wise thing since I hadn't done any turning since last May. 5 little maple bottle stoppers later, I chucked up the first acrylic blank. Man that stuff likes to chip and send shards flying. I found bits of acrylic 20+ feet away. Anyway, I got through the first one Saturday.

On Sunday, I spent a bit of time moving things around in the shop to make room. The engine hoist requires a certain amount of working space in order to do this:349769 Uncle Max is now mobile, and I'm sure that this base won't be flexing and dragging like the POS that it replaces. I welded the base up using 2" x 1/8" square tubing (yes, overkill) and put 1/8" sheet underneath. Next major welding project: The SawStop Station. (Which, incidentally, is the primary reason I got into welding in the first place.)

After that was done, I puttered a bit and then turned a second Ice Cream Scoop handle. My feelings towards working with acrylic are decidedly mixed. When it's cutting well, it's a joy. And then it'll chip out huge chunks. :mad::mad::mad: Grrrrrr.....

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, 'hope you have a quiet week of on-call and Shawn, I hope your leg pain abates. Sleep is really important!

I spent a good bit of time in the shop on Saturday continuing work on a small commission project for a retro-modern LP record rack, primarily working out the construction method and jigs for the legs. I want to have the whole process down using some thick poplar before I mill the soft maple for the real leg systems. There are some interesting angles involved, but they are fortunately complimentary. I did fully intend to get back in the shop on Sunday to work on this more, but came down with a nasty head cold that made me just completely uninspired to be near any power tools...not being able to concentrate just wasn't something I was comfortable with.

As a sneak peek, here's the prototype leg setup with the angled half-laps roughed and sitting on the "living plan" mock-up of the side view. (There's nothing better than laying out something complex on top of a full size plan) Material is 1.75" thickness. My next step is to truly decide how I want to deal with refining the half-lap faces to the exact thickness and smoothness for gluing as I must get a perfectly glued joint here without any mechanical fasteners due to some additional milling that will take place. And before any glue-up...those legs need to be tapered and contoured. :o

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/Woodworking/Furniture/Record-Bin/IMG_8874_zpspavkldrk.jpg