Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

27 Apr 2020

Greetings,
Got a little shop time in this past week. Helped a friend of mine make a fireplace mantel for his daughter and I got in some wood for a couple other projects that I'll be working on over the next couple of weeks. Helped The LOML make another 100 masks to send to nurses and nursing homes in other states and helping her make another 100 masks this week that will go to a different state where masks area requested/needed. So far, we've made over 250 masks and sent them out via our local mask making group, all at our own expense. If we all chip in, we can accomplish a lot.

Hope all of you are well or healing quickly!

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

'Glad you got in the shop, Dennis!!!! That must have been wonderful!

This past week, aside from things like mowing the lawn and being lazy, my shop time was primarily dedicated to working on a new guitar for a "brotherhood build" event on the guitar building forum site I participate in. (TPDRI) I also did a little maintenance on my CNC machine.

Sneak peak...body cap is koa.

431595 431596

This week is more of the same, although I only have Tuesday as "rain free" for anything outdoors. Pretty much staying home except for food, pharma and taking my older daughter to/from work. Some of my material suppliers are back to being available, but not all. Clients are all hiding, too. :) Oh...and our dishwasher died on the weekend. New one arrives on Thursday, so I'll be hooking that up as soon as it gets here. Washing dishes, flatware and cooking stuff by hand is getting "old" fast!

[Bryan Lisowski]

Jim you keep making these fancy guitars, your going have to start selling some of them! I made a straight line rip jig over the weekend. Would have done more if this darn rain would stop. Other than that getting in a lot of practice with Sketchup.

[Jim Becker]

Jim you keep making these fancy guitars, your going have to start selling some of them!

I'm considering it, Bryan. I really can't play much because of the wrist surgery I had a few years ago (and I'm also a keyboard player primarily), so having a collection of them hanging out wouldn't make much sense. But I'm truly enjoying the "art". The big challenge will obviously being able to sell for prices that are commensurate with it being worthwhile. Like anything, there are too many "cheap" options available these days. But that's why I'm really focusing on making more striking looking instruments...something an actual player would be interested in carrying rather than a standard looking instrument. I also don't use bargain hardware...that adds to the cost, but raises the value for both sound and stability in tuning, etc.

[Paul F Franklin]

Jim, your guitars are beautiful and I'm sure they play well too. Like with most things in today's price driven economy, there may not be a huge market for higher end guitars, but I'm sure there are folks out there who would appreciate and value the craftsmanship and uniqueness of them. Figuring out how to find them is the trick!

I had a busy and productive week. I finished cleaning my storeroom, put up new lighting and installed a few receptacles so I would have power for the electronics bench, which is now in its new home, freeing up some space in the shop. I now have a few piles of "stuff" that I will donate once that is an option again.

In the shop, I moved some shelving around and started working on adding some more lumber storage. On Saturday, I picked up a new Sawstop at Woodcraft; was a little surprised they had everything I wanted in stock, but glad not to have to wait. Handled it all with essentially no contact: placed the order over the phone, called when I arrived and they loaded the stuff into my truck and trailer while I watched from a safe distance away. I spent Saturday afternoon getting it down to the basement shop. I have exterior stairs, so it is a matter of sliding big stuff down a ramp on the stairs using a portable winch on the hitch of my truck. Got everything down with no issues, even working by myself.

Then came a slight setback. While reattaching the rear gate to my utility trailer, it slipped from my hands and landed on the top of my right foot, just behind my toes. Man that hurt. The thing weighs about 60 lbs and fell from about 2 feet up with the narrow edge of the gate straight down. Good thing I have no nearby neighbors because the immediate area was NSFW for a few minutes while I cursed my stupidity and hopped around on one foot. It swelled up pretty good but I didn't think anything was broken. Soaked it in ice water most of the evening and took some anti-inflammatories per advice from my nurse-midwife wife. By Sunday morning the swelling was mostly gone and although it's still bruised on top, I can get around fine now. Just thankful I had work boots on and not tennis shoes or I'm sure it would have been much worse.

Sunday I got the saw cabinet unpacked, stood up, and onto the mobile base with the help of the winch. Spent most of today attaching the side tables, the extension table, fence rails and assembling the folding outfeed table. I've been cleaning the oil off and waxing and aligning as I go; so far no issues. Tomorrow I'll finish the outfeed table and tackle the sliding crosscut table.

Now seeing it in the space, I've changed my mind a bit about placement. It will mean a little more effort extending dust collection to the new site, but I think it will be better for workflow. Can't wait to get it fired up and start making sawdust. My sheets goods supplier has started limited operation again, so I should be able to get back to the office project now.

Other than that, did a little outside work, but it was a lot cooler and rainy most of the week so didn't get outside much. Did the usual family zoom calls and a bi-weekly grocery run. May actually have to get gas this week, I think it will be the first time this month.

[Jim Becker]

Now seeing it in the space, I've changed my mind a bit about placement. It will mean a little more effort extending dust collection to the new site, but I think it will be better for workflow.

This isn't unusual. Despite your desire to get everything fired up, don't be afraid to let things go for a few days as you fully visualize workflow, shift things around, even slightly in some cases, to get to the place where you can lock things down and extend your ductwork. Having to do that over in a month or three can be a bummer!

And thanks for your kind comments on my guitar work. It's truly appreciated!

[Brian Tymchak]

Today marks a huge milestone in a project I started almost 2 tears ago. (Lots of long breaks over those 2 years.) All the components of my timberframe "inspired" lumber rack are fully complete and finished, and the rack is ready for final assembly in the space shown. Very happy to get this out of my small shop. Lots of other projects on the backlog. Made of Ash with dimensions of the rack are 9' long, 8' high, 24" deep on the arms, 30" on the foot.

Hope to get it all assembled and leveled this week while we have a rainy stretch and clean up several piles of lumber in the basement and garage.

[Patrick Walsh]

Wow...

I have wanted to build a rack exactly like that for years now.

That’s sweet!


Today marks a huge milestone in a project I started almost 2 tears ago. (Lots of long breaks over those 2 years.) All the components of my timberframe "inspired" lumber rack are fully complete and finished, and the rack is ready for final assembly in the space shown. Very happy to get this out of my small shop. Lots of other projects on the backlog. Made of Ash with dimensions of the rack are 9' long, 8' high, 24" deep on the arms, 30" on the foot.

Hope to get it all assembled and leveled this week while we have a rainy stretch and clean up several piles of lumber in the basement and garage.

[Brian Tymchak]

Wow...

I have wanted to build a rack exactly like that for years now.

That’s sweet!

Thanks Patrick. If you do take on the build, budget a lot of time.. ;)

[Brian Tymchak]

Hope to get it all assembled and leveled this week while we have a rainy stretch and clean up several piles of lumber in the basement and garage.

Well, there it is fully assembled. Went together easily. Unfortunately after assembly I noticed one of the toes noticably higher than the others. Found that I had somehow run 2 nuts onto the adjustable foot. :mad: Had to disassemble around the 1 post, remove the extra nut and then reassemble. Ready to load up. My calcs come up to about 1400 bf capacity.

431767

[Patrick Walsh]

Oh man I’m in love!


Well, there it is fully assembled. Went together easily. Unfortunately after assembly I noticed one of the toes noticably higher than the others. Found that I had somehow run 2 nuts onto the adjustable foot. :mad: Had to disassemble around the 1 post, remove the extra nut and then reassemble. Ready to load up. My calcs come up to about 1400 bf capacity.

431767

[Tom M King]

Nice Rack!