Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

27 May 2019

Greetings,
Today, I pause to remember all those that gave all for the freedoms that I enjoy today. Memorial Day....I pause in honor, gratitude, and respect for all those that served and never made it back home alive to live in the freedoms that they fought for.

Been working a lot at the day job. Also been working in the shop some for the daughter's kitchen island top and a smaller island top for a local bakery that will be opening at a new location near me. I'm actively talking with an accountant to see what's involved in me setting up a small part-time business to handle just such things as these.

QUESTION:
Some of you have struggled with and reached a solution for clamping glue-ups for wooden counter tops, kitchen island tops, and more things like this. I've looked online at the James Taylor clamps and rack system and it looks really good but the money part is what pushes me back. :) I've looked at the new 50" Bessey's and they are around $100 each and that's not much less than a commercial clamp made by JLT at $120 each. Many things I make are in the 6 ft to 10 ft length's and I'd really like a better way to clamp up things such as these. Ideas? Tips? Pointers? Suggestions?

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Ted Reischl]

Well, hmmm.

If you have gotten to the stage in your woodworking that you realize edges must be straight and square to glue up panels and you do not need tons of force to pull things together then you are pretty much there for my advice:

Consider making your own. Bessey clamps keep things square, not flat. If your edges are not right those panels will still bow in a Bessey clamp. I have made some from square steel structural tubing. Drill a series a holes so that you can move the clamping device with the thread to where you need it. The other end is just a block. They work well and are way, WAY less costly than the current offerings from retailers.

I have a few Bessey clamps for gluing up cabinets and other stuff that needs to be square. They work great, so I am not bad mouthing Bessey clamps. But then again, I built 4 kitchens in the last 25 years without them. It is a matter of knowing how to adjust clamps and how to use a square. If all the clamps I own were Bessey's I would need an armed guard on my shop at night with a Doberman Pinscher.

[Jim Becker]

Busy is a normal state of existence, Dennis! Glad you've started the dance with the accountant, too.

It was a quiet week after I installed a 13' long walnut shelf at a client's house last Tuesday...we had to bring it in through a window because of a wood stove, but the job got done! Since then, I've been kicking things up a notch relative to a "for me" CNC project relative to guitar making. It's been something of interest and will be a nice thing to work on between paying work.

[Scott Bernstein]

This weekend I built a wall-mounted swinging lamp, based on the one published in a recent issue of Fine Woodworking. Theirs was made of Tiger Maple, but I had some some 12/4 Oak not earmarked for another project, so I used that. The swinging arm is attached to the base with a large wooden pin. I don't have a lathe like the authors of the article, but I do have a small Sherline motor drive unit attached to a z-axis accessory on my Router boss. I was able to turn the pin easily with this setup using a straight cutting router bit for the shaft and a 3/4" radius round-over bit for the top. To mount it on the wall I fashioned a wooden baseplate with a dovetail and matching sliding dovetail socket on the back of the main lamp base. It was a fund, fairly quick project.

[Chris Hachet]

Some wood turning , shop cleaning, work on side work projects for a client, tore down my Unisaw to service it.