Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

24 Jul 2017

Good Morning Everyone,
I spent some time in the shop this weekend, even with the heat index being around the 115º F mark, I cranked up my two 36" fans and made 2 cutting boards and turned 2 spurtles. I'll have to post pics another time as I seem to run out of both time and energy faster these days. Getting some things made to send to a long time best friend of mine in Alaska and I need to send them out this week. Progress was made. :)
The LOML and I have just finished the rework of an old chair for a buddy at work. Frame repairs were done, wood totally refinished, and the entire chair reupholstered. The final wood trim pieces go on tonight and ready for the customer to pick up later this week.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

It was a busy and productive weekend here. The more mundane things included food shopping at Wegman's with Professor Dr. SWMBO and mowing the lawn. The more exiting pieces was helping Professor Dr. SWMBO with her first ever honey extraction and doing some shop re-organization for better support of larger projects.

On the latter, I decided to relocate my lathe to the northeast end of the shop so I could reorient my bench and open up a much larger area for assembly and finishing. I honestly haven't been doing a lot of turning in recent years so this change is good in two respect...it actually makes the lathe more accessible and is forcing me to become better organized relative to my "shorts" supply. Moving an 800 lb machine is always fun, but I have a Vega base that I slip under the lathe one end at a time to be able to reposition it. I was able to get the base installed my self using a lever to lift one end at a time slightly and a foot to push the unit under with a board. I did need Professor Dr. SWMBO to help remove the base after repositioning as I could not lift and pull it back myself and stay in balance...plus, I had to be careful with my still-healing left wrist which is just two months past surgery. At any rate, here's the new setup...I still need to reinstall the vacuum regulator, etc., on the wall.

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As to the former, the honey extraction was fun and a nice milestone for Professor Dr SWMBO's second year as a bee-keeper. While the weather has delayed the bees from "capping" a lot of honey so far, we did have six "frames" of honey ready to go and netted just above a gallon of gooey sweetness. :D We'll take a lot more in a few weeks, hopefully. Honey in the hive has to concentrate and reduce in moisture content to a particular point before the bees cap the cells with a thin layer of wax to protect it in storage. The high humidity over the past month just hasn't been a good thing in that respect. But I'm guessing we'll get another 10-12 frames this season once things progress. At any rate, it was great to get our first honey and it was delicious on my English muffins this morning...I dipped a spoon into the bucket as it was going through final mesh screen filtering (to remove any debris) and put it right on my breakfast. LOL

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[Bill Berklich]

Sharpened a host of tools including my turning tools and made some great progress on my new spilt top bench. Wagon vise which completes (mostly) the front half and the back half is being prep'd for glue-up.

[Jay Larson]

Saturday I decided it was cool enough to repack the bearings on my trailer. Figuring I would be done before it go too hot. Fat chance... I started on the first wheel and that one went the way I planned. Done in about 45 minutes. Including checking the electric brakes. The next on on that side was a whole different story though. When I was trying to get the drum off, something seized up and I could not remove it, I could not even spin the drum. I ended up cutting off the bolts holding the backing plate on. Then the inner bearing decided it wanted to stay on the spindle. So when it finally came off, the cap and bearing were still on there. It turned out the trailer actually had electric brakes on all four wheels. And the ones on the front axle were disconnected. And by the way that is what was gumming up the works. So I had to release the pressure on the brakes and then I could get the drum off. I decided to just remove all the brake hardware from the front axle and if I were to add brakes in the future I would just put in a new setup. Since I got some new wheels with the trailer, I went to put them on. That went as well as the front axle. The wheels were 5 on 4 1/2". the trailer is 5 on 4 3/4". Now I have to get a hold of the guy I bought them from and see if he gave me the correct wheels. Otherwise, I will try to sell these and get the correct ones. The other side went better...

For some woodworking, I did some more resawing with the bandsaw. First time doing this as it is the first time I had a bandsaw large enough to make it worthwhile. Made enough panels to glue up for a small cabinet for the shop. I think it will end up being for supplies for the bandsaw. Then I did some cleanup my Rikon 10" bench top bandsaw and put it on Craigslist.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Took wife to O'Charley's on Friday night. Had a 20% off coupon, so had prime rib. It was excellent. Replaced the alternator on my truck early Saturday morning. With help from three church members, pulled pump in church well on Saturday morning. Took us a little less than an hour to do it. No safety rope, which would have made it a piece of cake, as I have a special winch to pull pumps that have safety ropes. Instead it was hand over hand for 300' of pipe, wire and pump. Metal adapter at top of pump had rusted part way thru, so water ran back into well as we lifted pump. Finished replacing AC compressor on wife's Chrysler Town and Country. Hardest thing was getting front bumper cover off and on. Replace hoses while I had radiator out.

[Randal Blair]

Made a wall mounted power tool cabinet out of 3/4" BB plywood with removable 1/8" plywood dividers.

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[John K Jordan]

...more exiting pieces was helping Professor Dr. SWMBO with her first ever honey extraction

I had a honey of a weekend too. Pulled supers off the hives on Thursday then extracted capped first then partially capped (drying as needed). Ended up with about 20 gallons of honey, not as much as 2015 (28 gallons) but far more than 2016 (zero gallons!)

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Part of the fun is watching the bees clean up the frames, buckets, extractor, and cappings. Just stand there surrounded by thousands of bees, even the sound is incredible.

I'd love to help my wife with this. I think she last visited the hives and worked on our honey in 2006. :)

JKJ

[mark mcfarlane]

...
Part of the fun is watching the bees clean up the frames, buckets, extractor, and cappings. Just stand there surrounded by thousands of bees, even the sound is incredible....

JKJ

For those of us allergic to bees, your 'fun' would be like a walking (running) nightmare.

[John K Jordan]

For those of us allergic to bees, your 'fun' would be like a walking (running) nightmare.

The only thing - when bees are foraging they don't sting. I wear full protection when messing with their homes but when they are out after flowers one at a time or after the honey frames 10,000 at a time they aren't interested in stinging. Well, unless you pinch one.

I've heard of people allergic to bees but I've never met one. I'm sensitive to yellow jackets (I get a LOT of swelling) but according to the doctor unless there is anaphylaxis with sudden shortness of breath it is classified as a sensitivity (not life threatening) instead of an allergy. A close epipen is good in case!

Do you have arrested breathing with a sting from a honeybees as well as hornets, wasps, and other stinging insects? I found that The Extractor, a suction syringe used immediately after a sting, makes the difference between my entire arm swelling and getting a quarter-sized red mark.

JKJ

[mark mcfarlane]

I get a localized reaction when stung, not systemic. The doctor said my reaction will get more severe every time I get stung. I simply try to avoid bees, wasps, ... Worse case so far was 5 simultaneous mud dobbler stings, my entire arm swelled up for a few days. That was 35 years ago.

Twice in the past decade, while riding my motorcycle (with a thick sweater on), I drove through a swarm and had 20 or 30 stuck to me. Quickly to the side of the road to disrobe,... I only got stung once during these two episodes, from a bee that got stuck inside my helmet. My reaction to the Benedryl I take after a sting is perhaps more severe than the sting, it knocks me out like a tranquilizer, then a 16 hour hangover.

[Nathan Niemeyer]

Stung by 5 mud daubers? I have always heard that they don't sting, unless you hold them and agitate them, while holding; even then it's hard to elicit a sting.

[Jim Becker]

I had a honey of a weekend too.

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Professor Dr. SWMBO bottle things up last night...(14) 1 lb bottles and (15) 4oz bottles...from six medium frames. :) 'Looking forward to round two in a week or three!

https://saf05a-sn3301.files.1drv.com/y4mtO2o43irnz4RDTFuigbE2ISHrkTdhsP9HbAEqrrEg7THXTs XNdCZmUMaOdrfCSebQ0cJgTTPzi1fU1I1_hm67bKSRHtVX0BLy-elsNENryWzP4gKWoCAxd3i1bj2rH6keJEpC-gYt_lPEQW24Z00U866_2EB6wuXmEOJz5b4DImDgK0WOOElJncD w2nn03sMUpAbQP5XB6Aw1DSMTPf6kw?width=660&height=660&cropmode=none

[mark mcfarlane]

Stung by 5 mud daubers? I have always heard that they don't sting, unless you hold them and agitate them, while holding; even then it's hard to elicit a sting.

I might be mistaken, maybe they were wasps. It was about 38 years ago. I was clearing some 'brush' out of the yard and was assaulted by them.

[John K Jordan]

I might be mistaken, maybe they were wasps. It was about 38 years ago. I was clearing some 'brush' out of the yard and was assaulted by them.

Unless you study these things, it is easy for the average person to confuse different insects!

Someone told me they were stung by a honey bee. They told me since I have the only hives within a few miles. When I showed them a honeybee and a yellow jacket they couldn't say which one it was. They couldn't even see the difference between them.

After you study flying insects for a while you can usually identify them from a distance. Moving a portable building the other day the driver started to load and ran back yelling there was a swarm of bees there. Since I was a beekeeper, he thought I might like to deal with them. From 10' away I could tell he had disturbed an underground yellow jacket nest and those were mixed with a bunch of wasps who, it turns out, had built a number of nest under the building (no big surprise). Fortunately, no white-faced hornets which get testy if you disturb their home. The driver wouldn't get close enough to pull the support blocks out from under the building so I had to do it!

For local reactions I highly recommend carrying one of The Extractor kits in your car. As mentioned, using one changed my typical two-day severe swelling reaction to yellowjackets to a little red spot that didn't even itch. You can get one in the camping section at every Walmart I've ever been in (hanging on a rack) or order from a variety of places, such as Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AU9PEC

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These REALLY work, I'll pay for it if it doesn't! (The quicker you use it, the better.) There are many topical remedies claiming to minimize the effects of a sting but what can possibly work better than removing the venom!!

JKJ

[mark mcfarlane]

...
For local reactions I highly recommend carrying one of The Extractor kits in your car. As mentioned, using one changed my typical two-day severe swelling reaction to yellowjackets to a little red spot that didn't even itch. You can get one in the camping section at every Walmart I've ever been in (hanging on a rack) or order from a variety of places, such as Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AU9PEC

364725

These REALLY work, I'll pay for it if it doesn't! (The quicker you use it, the better.) There are many topical remedies claiming to minimize the effects of a sting but what can possibly work better than removing the venom!!

JKJ

Thanks for the tip John. I put one on my wishlist. I'm not sure I would ever have it with me when I need it. I gave up motorcycle riding, and other than incidents of driving through swarms (thousands of bees) I haven't been stung in 10 years.

[John K Jordan]

Thanks for the tip John. I put one on my wishlist. I'm not sure I would ever have it with me when I need it. I gave up motorcycle riding, and other than incidents of driving through swarms (thousands of bees) I haven't been stung in 10 years.

When I give one to someone I suggest they put it in their car which is often close by whether at home or away.

I find them so useful I keep one each in the house, shop, barn, each vehicle including the little 4wd farm truck, on the tractor, with my beekeeping supplies, in the pocket when hiking or in my wife's purse on an outing - she once got stung while walking around Dollywood between riding the rollercoasters! If you take it out of the box the syringe plus one cup fits nicely in the pocket. I've probably given a dozen of them to friends, mostly single mothers and families with small children.

JKJ

[Mike Kees]

I received some shaper cutters that I bought on that auction site that shall not be named. Got my planer dust collection hood designed ,built and installed on my never ending dust collection project. I also got my order from Mcmaster-carr and replaced the broken pieces on my shaper(handles on the fence). Then I spent a couple hours just puttering around the shop. Mike.