Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

12 Feb 2018

Greetings,
Thankfully, this past weekend....I was NOT...at the hospital nor the E.R. for anybody! Yea! I've been very busy helping my daughter and son-in-law design themselves a house floor plan. I love doing this kind of work as well as building houses. Funny how we do jobs we do well with to make a living and how we are best at doing another type of career where our passions are and how we would thrive in that career. It's just that building homes has been all but almost dead for many years around these parts and I truly hate moving. Maybe I'll retire in about 6 years...as long as our company and IT business hold out that long.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

I'm glad your weekend was finally "calamity free", Dennis!

Saturday was the usual shopping shuffle; Costco, Wegman's, Tar-zhey. :) and then aside from cooking dinner, pretty much spent watching CNC training videos. Sunday, I was in the shop for awhile taking care of some small changes in prep for the CNC after finishing up a small commission for a client. I had planned on pulling the Ethernet cable from the house through the conduit, but with the torrential rain we were having and knowing that the conduit has a leak (previous owner didn't use the right kind of pipe...their contractor cheeped out), I decided to wait on that job. And yes, the cable I'm pulling is direct burial rated so moisture isn't going to matter.

[Brian Henderson]

I had Windows randomly delete about 40 gigs of data on a drive so I spent the weekend trying to get it all recovered. Was not fun.

[Jay Larson]

So what you are saying Dennis, is that is was a boring weekend. House design is fun, though.

Saturday I had my regular junior coaching session. I was almost late. I woke up at 5:30 and after breakfast, I got to cleaning up an area of the basement. I realized that I had to get going with about two minutes to spare... They docked my pay by 1/4. But 3/4 of nothing is still nothing. ;)

The afternoon was spent in a couple meetings for my off-road club. We had a state meeting, then a meeting for our group going to the Rubicon trail this summer. Finally, we had our local meeting.

Sunday I got out in the shop after shoveling the driveway. Put the first coat of shellac on a couple of shadow boxes and my table saw cabinet. After that I got back to the basement. Starting to lay out the walls.

[Rod Sheridan]

I made a dust bin sensor for my cyclone and worked on an electric fireplace cabinet............Rod.

[tom lucas]

I built a swing-out lathe tool rack. 378966378967378968

[John K Jordan]

Visited Greenville SC to see a play. Grandson Kevin had one of the leading parts, singing, dancing, lots of interaction. This was without doubt the most professional high school production I have seen in my life. That school has a lot of talent.

Photos by son Ben.

https://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=378969&d=1518485078

378970 378971

378972 378973

JKJ

[Wayne Lomman]

Started refinishing kitchen cabinet doors for a friend in town. I had refused this job last year. However, the other day I commented that he had a car the same as mine parked up and did he want to sell it as a parts car for mine. He thought about it, consulted his wife, came back outside with a grin and said I could have it IF I re-polished his kitchen cabinet doors. Snookered! Its not too bad a job though. They are stained radiata pine. A good clean with methylated spirit (approximates DNA), two coats of pre-catalysed lacquer, minor pencil brush touch up of the colour is a few spots and they will be done. The lacquer is Wattyl Stylewood 50% gloss. Sprays like a dream. Oh and had another encounter with a tiger snake Cheers

[Derek Cohen]

Gearing up to build a number of stools, I decided that a long tool rest would make my life easier. My lathe of 10 years is a Jet mini with the bed extension. It does a decent job on small items, such as drawer pulls and chisel handles, but for chair and stool legs the tool rest is too short. Moving it along the lathe bed is a pain in the bottom. You cannot purchase a long tool rest, and extra banjos are also unavailable (except for a king's ransom).

This rest is 30" long.


https://s19.postimg.org/t6sea9vzn/2a.jpg

The fence is made of Jarrah, which is very hard and heavy, and is capped with a 5/8" mild steel tube.

The banjos are also Jarrah, and adjustable for height and able to slide back-and-forth. The curve under the rail is not just for aesthetics, but also enables a hand to reach inside for adjustments ...

While I was at it, I took the time to reorganise my chisels for easier access ...

https://s19.postimg.org/6uulgu75f/5a.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[John K Jordan]

...a long tool rest ...The fence is made of Jarrah, which is very hard and heavy, and is capped with a 5/8" mild steel tube....The banjos are also Jarrah, and adjustable for height and able to slide back-and-forth.

I really like that long tool rest. I've thought of making one for the PM3520b but I never thought of making the banjo out of wood. I have some lignum vitae that would be perfect. I wish I had a bed extension for my mini lathe too which I carry places at times, it is sometimes about 4" too short. Maybe I'll try making an extension out of wood.

I like your tool rack too. For some reason it made me remember some discussions on another forum well over a decade ago. Back then, lots if most people seemed to make their tool racks that put the points down and the handles up, some people color-coding the ends of the handles so they wouldn't grab the wrong tool. I always thought that was counterproductive, but several people said it was dangerous to put the points up - what if you cut yourself? (Someone prone to that might need to find a different hobby!)

JKJ

[John K Jordan]

I had Windows randomly delete about 40 gigs of data on a drive so I spent the weekend trying to get it all recovered. Was not fun.

Yikes. The thought of that always terrified me, especially when my computers were my livelihood - I kept at least three copies of everything and sometimes dozens of versions of work in progress. Kind of a pain but I never lost anything in 30 years.

My son recently introduced me to Macrium Reflect. It doesn't cost too much and is amazing, making backups trivial (once it is configured!) It prompts me to plug an external HD several times a week. It initially makes a full backup then subsequent backups are incremental and very quick. I rotate between several multi-TB external drives so even if one of those fails I still have a fairly recent backup.

[Jim Becker]

Derek, nice job on the tool rest and the tool holders. Years ago, when I was making a very large diameter column for a table base on a lathe too small for the work, I did a temporary setup to accomplish that...your solution is really nice and should come in handy for speeding up production of longer objects. I like the tool holders, too...I should really think about converting to that method because my current setup is a bit too, um...unrestrictive...to tools heading to the floor when a door slams. :)

[Shawn Pixley]

Congrats Dennis!

The usual things took place: cleaning, shopping, cooking, etc. There were some ribs smoked, ravioli made, and good food eaten. Bayern won! I watch soccer at 6:30 AM on Saturdays while I drink coffee and pet the dog.

Last weekend, I made the second practice joint (the first didn’t work out so well) for my stool project. Made a proper mess in the shop. I’ll post a more detailed update in the Neander Forum.

[John K Jordan]

Maybe I'll retire in about 6 years...

I highly recommend that! I remember the day I had the identical thought, "I think I'll retire in 6 years." My wife said I was crazy, mostly since I was 50 at the time! However, I did. :) Highly recommended.

JKJ

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks John. I also wonder at lathe chisels being upside down! When handles are the same, how can you tell which is which? I got tired of pulling out the wrong one time after time.

Thanks Jim. It is such a pleasure to not need to move the tool rest all the way down a leg. It would interrupt the smoothness of a curve. I wonder why long tool rests are not an accessory from all makers?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[John K Jordan]

TI wonder why long tool rests are not an accessory from all makers?


Besides the cost of the extra banjo, I imagine it would be a problem stocking enough different lengths to keep everyone happy. Sometimes I could have used a 26" rest and other times one over 45" which might be in the way for shorter uses.

My favorite single-banjo tool rest now, other than the "shorties", is the 14" Robust.

JKJ