I finally learned to say no.

[Tom Bussey]

I got asked to flatten a slab, which turned out to be 5 slabs. I said I wasn't interested but she is my wife's friend and she also got involved. Now I had bought a kit to do this very thing from Lee Valley. But I have other things in the fire and all that went on hold because they were going to be Christmas presents. Well 5 hours assembling and cutting one side Friday. The do a really good job one has to flip the pieces a couple of times. 8 hours on Saturday and 2 1/2 on Monday sending them through the drum sander.

It is going to take at least 5 hours just to clean up the shop , but I did get a thank you very much. And the comment that she didn't know how she was going to find time to paint them so they could be done for Christmas.

The one thing that I have learned through it all is how to say NO.

Anyway pictures of the work and if you double click on the pictures, they will get larger, and you will get a better view of my progress in making chips and saw dust. I did also get some ideas on how to make it work better and more efficient, so not all is bad.

466705 466706

[Ken Krawford]

"No good deed goes unpunished !"

[Chuck Saunders]

Good work, glad to hear the flattening jig works well. I do wish this cookie fad would die though.
Chuck

[Randy Red Bemont]

I've learned to say no pretty easily.

Red

[Jack Frederick]

So, you learned to say no to your wife’s friend…but your wife? If you did, you would have a very successful post in “off-topic” on the process with all of its permutations.

[Erik Loza]

None of my business but OP, is there a shop in your area that has a large widebelt or CNC router for fly-milling? I'd much rather spend my time hauling slabs to a shop than doing all that by hand.

Erik

[Eugene Dixon]

Experience is a wonderful teacher. Unfortunately, the test comes before the lesson!

[Jacob Mac]

When folks ask me to do work for them, I always agree. Then I ask when they want to come over to help me get it done. 99% of the time, that kills the request.

[mark mcfarlane]

When folks ask me to do work for them, I always agree. Then I ask when they want to come over to help me get it done. 99% of the time, that kills the request.

Similar experience here.

[Greg Quenneville]

I have had the odd neighbor ask for welding/repair work/garage door building/that kind of thing. I always ask for equal labor and sometimes get it. The friend needing garage doors brought over his heavy machinery and three hundred dump truck loads and landscaped my acre lot. So now I need to find something extra to build for him

[Tom Bussey]

My wife dropped the slabs off and they had a conversation about what took to make them right. She reach into her check book and wrote a check and said if it wasn't enough to come back. I wasn't going to charge her. So I came out a couple of hundred better than expected.

I misunderstood her and she is not going to paint them but seal and finish. That made me feel better about doing it

I did learn to say no. and I am sure it will sound much softer when I ask them, when to you want to come over and help me get it done. So thanks for the tips.

I am glad that they are done and gone and I can get back to doing what I like. So all is well that end well. I was pretty bummed and being able to share it and your responses helped a lot.

[Jim Becker]

Sometimes saying no is the right response...sometimes it's hard to do that even when no is the right response. :) 'Glad that she recognized how much work you had to put into this! (it was probably a good thing that your spouse was the one to 'splain that, too)

[Jack Frederick]

i was laying out to my wife the things to do for the house to see what she thought. Her first comment was, “if you are going to do it you need to stop saying yes to people.” Kaboom!

[John TenEyck]

If you do much more slab flattening work, Tom, you'll want a good dust collection hookup on the router cradle. It took me about 3 iterations to come up with a design I'm 80% satisfied with - meaning it catches about 80% of the chips. Fortunately, it captures nearly 100% of the fine dust which is the worst enemy to both my lungs and the shop. The key is to surround the bit with a CNC brush and to provide an air inlet port on the top of the cradle with the DC port on the back where the chips naturally fly towards. Also, a 2" or larger slab flattening bit will make much faster work of it. I could flatten one of those cookies in 15 - 20 minutes per side with the 2" bit I use. I'm not suggesting you volunteer to do work you don't want to, only that having your equipment setup for better efficiency will make it easier to justify doing work you want to.

John

[Rich Engelhardt]

I'd love to be able to say no - - but - - I like beer & as we all know, drinking beer makes you stupid......

[Dave Sabo]

Tom , can’t help with the interpersonal dealings.

This bit however will make the job much faster and alleviate the need for a drum sander. Still makes a mess, but it’s shavings more than dust , so easier to clean up.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T7K84WN/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B08T7K84WN&pd_rd_w=TMAqP&pf_rd_p=887084a2-5c34-4113-a4f8-b7947847c308&pd_rd_wg=K4Go2&pf_rd_r=S0Q8JWVFHSDMV563KE2R&pd_rd_r=6a7be4f0-3062-47f0-93aa-09d6ef164f39&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFETUtRSFBFR1g5WDYmZ W5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAwNjc3MjUzRlAxU1BFSTVDQVRQJmVuY3J 5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTEwMjQ1ODQzUjZZQ0k2RzlPWUVXJndpZGdld E5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmR vTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==