Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

14 Ded 2020

Greetings,
I hope this finds each of you doing well and staying warm and dry. We finally have temps around the freezing mark and I'm liking the temps because my shop space stays about 65* F this time of year and I can work in the shop without dripping sweat everywhere. :)
The LOML and I have been cleaning around the house, getting things fixed that have been on the "fix it" list and I have been making a few "house number" signs for people that have been wanting them after they saw the one I put in my yard.
I am hoping to have the dining table benches done this week.....I hope.
The day job has been crazy busy and I'm still not liking the new "boss" that is over us. For some odd reason, he thinks we need to work, even on holidays and during vacation time off. I just don't get it!

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

Best of weeks to you all!

[Myles Moran]

Wow Dennis, those are some nice looking house number signs.

I finally got the kitchen table "done" so right now the tops are sitting on tables in my shop for finishing. Flipping a half finished 1"x2'x4' piece of hickory over onto painter's pyramids has proven to be.... Interesting. Luckily hickory is hard enough that for as much as it weighs it doesn't get a mark from the 4 pyramids holding it up on the underside. If I keep to my schedule it'll be done in 6 days and hopefully assembled in time for Christmas - the arbitrary deadline my wife gave me just over a year ago. Luckily if I miss this one I'll definitely make the next Christmas.

[Charles Taylor]

Two projects got started in the workshop within the past week or so. The 16-year-old in the house wants a table in her room as a work surface for homework, etc. She's building it with my help. I went ahead and made the legs, tapering and mortising them, and then she made the aprons, jointing and planing, sawing to width and length, and beginning to make the tenons.

I began another project as well, a buffet for the dining area of the kitchen. We currently have a commercially made, rolling cabinet we call the "butcher block" (because it's made of maple with an oil finish, like a butcher block might be). It's used to store the cooking stoneware, the less frequently used kitchen appliances, and the spice collection. I don't like it because it doesn't provide us enough storage, and because it's cheap. So a while back I came up with a concept:
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Since I was in leg-making mode in the last week or so, I made the eight legs for the buffet, completing most of the needed steps before calling it a weekend.

Stay well, everyone.

[Paul F Franklin]

I'm still plugging away on my two desks. After completing and being satisfied with one prototype pedestal, I started rough milling stock for the main build. I have all the stock for everything but the tops rough milled to somewhat oversize thickness. I cut the rough stock to about 30" long before milling to make it easier to handle and minimize waste. All the pieces are rough sub-multiples of that so it works pretty well. Now I have to sort the pieces for color and grain and mark them for ripping to rough width and cutting to rough length. Then I'll let them sit for a few days to let them move as they will before final milling.

Meanwhile I'm filling in with a few shop projects. First up is wiring in a couple of beacon strobe lights to the dust bin full sensor so I am less likely to miss the signal. I ended up filling and emptying the bin 10+ times this week (I only have the smaller 35 or 39 gal. barrel) and while I never overfilled it (this session!), I had a couple of close calls when I neglected to check for the flashing light often enough. Having a couple more strobes closer to the machines will make it harder to miss the indicator. Bought the stuff a while ago and should have installed it before last week but milling stock seemed like more fun. Also working on a little storage rack for under the table saw, to hold all the little accessories. I've just been setting them on top of my rough lumber stack, which is next to the saw and convenient that way, but every time I need to pull stock I have to move them and then move them back, so it's past time to make a better way to store them. It won't be fancy or pretty but should do the job.

[Jim Becker]

Nice work on those signs, Dennis!

Quiet week for me, shop wise for some reason. I finished cutting/machining the body for my curent bass guitar build, did a very small amount of turning for a small side table and finished up my grinder station refab. I also cut a small inspirational sign for our older daughter for a holiday gift. This week I need to make some decisions and execute on them relative to the neck for the bass guitar and I have a few other small shop activities planned.

Outside of that, the past week was a normal cornucopia of cooking some great meals and being lazy. :) This week may involve a lot of that, too, but I have presents to wrap and get sent out and a lot of donations I need to get out of the house and my shop building upstairs. The weather is going to be very nasty, so "indoor sports" will be the rule.

[Mitchell Ristine]

Pen caddy from the last of guitar neck blank scraps

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

For the first time in months, I finally got the time and courage to continue with the end table build I have been procrastinating on for over a year. It seems like I'd run into a difficult issue and rather than concentrate on a solution, I'd just ignore the project and find something else to do in the shop or in our home.

In the past week, I bandsawed the sub-top, pattern routed the curved front edge to final shape and size. Then I milled and glued up the pieces for the top, bandsawed it to rough shape and pattern routed it to final size and shape. Following that, I cut off the back portion of the top that will be hinge so one can lift and gain access to the surge protector/USB/AC outlets below on the interior.

I tried something I'd never done before when I use my trim router and chisel to inset my first set of inset hinges on the that rear portion of the top. I was amazed how well it turned out because that was the one thing that scared me the most, using techniques I hadn't used before Saturday. Hardwoods, even red oak, are so terribly expensive that you hate to waste or destroy some trying new techniques. I am learning to try new techniques on scraps and using patterns and jigs when appropriate!

[Bruce Page]

I did a little metal working. A friend asked if I could come up with a laser sight incorporating an off the shelf .243WIN laser bore sight for one of his shotguns. After some measuring and ordering the four 8-40 Torx screws from eBay, this is what I came up with. I can’t comment on the practicality or usefulness of it, but I owed him a favor..
Apart from for the cleanup, it was fun to do a little metal working.

Dennis, the signs look great!

[Bill Carey]

Finally got around to some adjustable height sawhorses, which I have been planning on making for maybe the last 10 years or so. I get a lot of salvaged beams from my SIL who builds bridges, so went out to the pile and went from this

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to this

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Never know what I'm gonna get from him but this turned out to be some nice looking wood.