Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

5 Mar 2018

Greetings Everyone,
First things first......I will be renaming the typical "weekend accomplishments" to "Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments". This came as a suggestion because some of us have weekends at different times of the week AND for some of us....like me....some things take longer than a weekend to "accomplish". :D

Now back to bidness......Been working on chair repair #3 and I like the challenge of repairing chairs but...I need a lathe duplicator really bad but the lack of funding is holding me back from buying an attachment to my Powermatic lathe. I stink at duplicating spindles but I got them "close"....I guess. :)
My hope is to have this chair done early this week and finished before the weekend. See, I told you I needed more than a weekend to get stuff done. ;)

Back to the day job today and here's to hoping for a good week at work and a week full of "accomplishments".

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[John Towns]

Spent some time working on my printer cabinet with drawers. Made 3 drawers with through dovetails. The cabinet is made out of cherry as well as the drawer fronts. The sides and back of the drawers are made from pine. I has been a while since I used pine for anything...I had almost forgotten how much I like the smell of pine when working it. Almost as much as cherry.

John

[John K Jordan]

...Been working on chair repair #3 and I like the challenge of repairing chairs but...I need a lathe duplicator really bad but the lack of funding is holding me back from buying an attachment to my Powermatic lathe. I stink at duplicating spindles ...

As for duplicating spindles, did you ever try using the comparator brackets and centers that come with the PM to hold a spindle just behind and over the work for reference? I haven't used mine but I do hang the spindle on the wall behind the lathe. Page 16-17 in the manual: content.powermatic.com/assets/manuals/1352001_man_EN.pdf
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When I need to duplicate more than one spindle I make a storyboard to mark the major points then cut a groove with a parting tool for each diameter. Years ago I found an Amazon deal on cheap vernier calipers and bought a drawer full ($3 each, one shipping fee for the lot). I set one for each diameter I need and number them to keep them straight. (Rounding over the points a bit helps)
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As for the week, I practiced my waiting patience in the waiting rooms of doctor's offices most of monday,
prepared for and did a turning demo at the Crossville club wednesday,...
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...hauled hay, beehive maintenance, doctored a llama,
then a two-day marathon to prepare a big lesson for about 50-60 kids at the church, including learning a song on the piano to open (something different, just to keep them on their toes!)

Beat by sunday afternoon, my plan to rest was pleasantly scuttled by a young friend wanting to come for a lathe lesson. This "turned" into a carving introduction with hand and powered carving stuff spread all over the bench. Good clean fun!

JKJ

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I glued up the face frame for the fireplace cabinet and installed a new light fixture in the kitchen.................Rod.

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[David Justice]

I don't do a lot of boxes, but I completed one for a friend.

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[Jim Becker]

The past few days have been "interesting" given the effects of the major storm that went through our area. On Friday afternoon, the lights started flickering in the shop, so I completed spraying the coat of finish I was working on and cleaned up before losing power due to the high winds...about a half-hour later, power from the grid dropped and "Matilda" the friendly generator took over until about 6pm on Sunday night. So work in the shop was precluded simply because the generator only powers the house. No problem...there's a trip to The Woodworking Shows event in Secaucus NJ with 'Creeker Bob Cherry on Saturday anyway. :P Let's just say it was enjoyable and...expensive. LOL Seriously, however, I managed some nice discounts on a few items I've wanted to add to the shop for some time, including the Woodpeckers 600mm tee-square layout tool and the Seneca Woodworking Small Mortise Kit. Also found an inexpensive little wire thingie (technical term...) that holds the strainer cone over the container one is pouring finish into. That was timely as I had a small spill on Friday when my non-existent third hand didn't do its job. :o We only sat for two presentations; one was a very boring basic CNC thing by the one vendor there for that kind of thing but the other was an EXCELLENT presentation by Ron Herman on sharpening that was funny, engaging and very informative. I can honestly say I learned a few things from that and our post-presentation conversation was quite interesting. It was good to see Geoff Noden again and chat...I'm a happy owner of his Adjust-A-Bench and it's been some time since we spoke. Aside from unusual traffic on the way home, it was a good day to be at a woodworking show given the power outage. Sunday, a client picked up her photo panels and we discussed additional work and ideas for her busy craft show season soon to start. We did dinner out in celebration of my birthday since that was the only time when the whole family was available due to work and school schedules.

On the woodworking scene, the carcasses for the upper kitchen cabinets I've been working on are complete and partially finished. I'll be trying to complete that today so I can clean up in anticipation of tomorrow's Mini-Split install. I have a few other small jobs to do before I attend some CNC training at Camaster mid-month and visit with the 'rents for a few days afterward.

Here's one effect of this past weekend's storm...I have 6 trees down. Fortunately, they were ash trees that had to come down anyway at some point and they were thoughtful enough to fall in the lawn rather than over the driveway. :)

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[Rod Sheridan]

You have remarkably well trained trees Jim..............Rod.

[Dennis Peacock]

You have remarkably well trained trees Jim..............Rod.

Sorry, but I just HAD to LOL on this one!!! :D

[Dennis Peacock]

As for duplicating spindles, did you ever try using the comparator brackets and centers that come with the PM to hold a spindle just behind and over the work for reference? I haven't used mine but I do hang the spindle on the wall behind the lathe. Page 16-17 in the manual: content.powermatic.com/assets/manuals/1352001_man_EN.pdf
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JKJ

Mine is the older model.

[Jim Becker]

You have remarkably well trained trees Jim..............Rod.
ROFLOL!!!! This time, but not the last time... ;)

[Jay Larson]

Friday night I went up to Wausau WI to watch the state High School bowling tournament. Some of the kids I coach made it for singles, and the team I used to coach made it to represent the district. One boy made it to the next level, but not high enough to place top 10. Still did well on a very tough lane condition. The team I used to coach placed in top ten for the state, and beat the two other teams from the district. Everything considered, they did very well.

Sunday I did some more framing of walls in my basement. All the outside walls are up, and now for the bathroom walls. But before I get that all buttoned up, I want to get a hold of the plumber and order the shower.

[Mike Ontko]

ROFLOL!!!! This time, but not the last time... ;)

Well, they must learn from experience then. Perhaps they're not too keen to hear the sound of a chainsaw again?

[Mike Ontko]

Continued work on the barn/pallet wood bed project. Based on the pictures that I've modeled this bed after, the top corners of the head and foot boards need to be...or at least appear to be mitered. Because those 4" x 4" frame posts are made up from mitered 3/4" sections, leaving a 2-1/4" hollow space on the inside, simple biscuits and glue wouldn't provide enough structural support. So I decided to create internal M&T joints using inserted sections of solid ash (shown in the photo below). The whole thing turned out better than I'd imagined, though it took a bit of fussing to get all of the pieces to fit together smoothly. I'll glue everything together once I've finished the panels and similar M&T joinery for the bottom rails.

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[John K Jordan]

Mine is the older model.

All the "comparator" does is hold the spindle in a good position to look at. I rigged up some sticks to do the same thing. For a shorter spindles I lay out and size the same way but just hold it up to the turning for reference. This gentleman was so happy to get a candle holder made to match the missing one on his grandmothers antique wash stand. This size is a little easier to duplicate! (I gave him extra turned pieces to experiment with the stain and finish)

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JKJ

[Wayne Lomman]

The weather has mysteriously warmed up again so harvested a few more tomatoes. On the timber side of things, I discovered that I had twice as much Tasmanian oak in stock for the new library shelves than previously thought. This is good because I have enough for the job after all. I started work on the design but ended up side tracked into a discussion as to what catalogue system we will use. Yes, we do have that many books. I'm also starting to get ready for winter firewood cutting. So far I have checked that the chainsaw is still in the shed... Cheers

[Dennis Peacock]

JKJ,
I'll have to look at my tailstock and see what I can mount to it so I can do just this. It would have helped a LOT if I had a way to mount a piece to look over the top of what I'm turning in duplicate. My 3520A didn't come with this setup.....so I'll need to do a bit of research. :)

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, if you find you're uncomfortable with mounting the "sample" directly to your lathe, it probably wouldn't be very hard to make a quick and dirty floor stand to hold the sample in place so you can see it clearly behind the object being turned as you work as well as to easily reach it for comparative measurements with a caliper.

[John Sanford]

Late Saturday morning, I picked up pretty much the last stuff I need for adding a Super Dust Deputy to my Delta 50-760 single stage dust collector, then had lunch with my son. I'll be welding up a new "cart" for my D/C setup, so I got the steel and a new Evolution Rage 2 multi-material chop saw. While setting up the new chop saw, I managed to stab the back of my off-hand badly enough that I deemed a trip to urgent care was in order. A couple of stitches later, and a sandwich from Jimmy Johns, and I'm putting everything back into the garage before the snow hits. One handed, as the injury is almost on a knuckle, so gripping isn't recommended as it may make the stitches unhappy.

So that's what I accomplished on Saturday, didn't accomplish anything Sunday. If you can call that "accomplishing."

[Jeff Ramsey]

The same Nor'easter that Jim mentioned took out our power on Friday, and we finally got volts back this afternoon. My 11,000 watt generator runs my shop fine, but it won't run much else in the house when I'm in the shop and the heat is on. It was either shop, or hot coffee/fireplace blower/well/septic pump/some outlets. Guess which of those choices my wife wanted? So no shop for me. Yesterday, while waiting (hoping!) for PECO (electric co.) to show up, I cut up a locust tree that fell over during the storm. Locust is tough on my Stihl. Today I was on the PA Turnpike around 7am and saw a large number of electric trucks with the name Alectra on them. Not having heard of them, I glanced at the license plates. Ontario! Thank you Canada for coming to the aid of a southern friend.

So maybe some sawdust will happen this weekend, but another Nor'easter is coming Wednesday with estimates of a foot of snow. Maybe the Canadians will spend the weekend?

[Charlie Jones]

380614Having been to a large degree out of the shop for the last two years or so. I have started ramping back up. I have replaced saw blades, sharpened the planer blades etc. Checking my outside cyclone closet a couple of weeks ago. I discovered I have been invaded by flying squirrels. I hate to kill such cuties but they had to go. Caught six of them and cleaned up the mess. Checked it again Saturday and they were back at it again. I cleaned the mess up again and pulled the filters for cleaning. That’s when I found them destroyed by squirrel pee. I spent the afternoon plumbing the cyclone out take thu the outside wall. No more filter cleaning. Hopefully I won’t be disappointed next winter.

[Robb Gavalis]

Luckily power stayed on here. Finally installed the wooden countertops I have been working on as well as a new dishwasher. Very excited to have them in and to not hand wash kids cups and all the parts for awhile!
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