Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

7 Mar 2022

Greetings,
This week has been a hard week for me and The LOML. My oldest son's birthday was this weekend and this was our 1st birthday of his after his passing away just before Thanksgiving last year. It's been hard getting through this week but we are improving. I made the decision to order a Digital Read Out for my table saw and I just got that in and am in the process of getting things ready for the install. I've also pulled the trigger on replacing my 15 year old miter saw, that has bearings that are going out. I decided to order the Makita 12" SCMS with laser. It's supposed to arrive sometime this week, so we'll see how this goes. My old Hitachi 12 SCMS has been a really good saw and I'm thinking about ordering replacement bearings and brushes and rebuilding it after I get the new saw set up and have 2 saw built into my miter saw bench. I guess we'll see how this goes for the miter saw rebuild.

BTW, the DRO I ordered for my table saw came from Accurate Technology Inc (ProScale). I read where they work well and are easy to maintain. I guess we'll see how this goes.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Roger Feeley]

Dennis,
I have a dro from the same people on my saw. I don’t use it a lot but it’s really handy for fine adjustments. I zero it out and use it when I’m tapping the fence. If I tap too much it’s easy to go back.

one problem I had with mine is that it kept waking up and ran down the batteries. My solution was to put a toggle switch. I bought some blank pc board stock which is thin plastic with copper coating on both sides. I cut a piece about 1/2” square. I soldered wire to both sides and ran that to a switch on the outside of the box. I put the pc board between one of the batteries and the contact. So, now I can completely power down the DRO. It’s a bit of a pain when I bring it up but it seemed like I was always changing batteries.

yours should be a newer model. I think there’s a setting for how far it moves before waking up. Of course, if you use it all the time, my comment is moot.

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, I really felt for you and T over this past week! The ProScale product should be pretty good for you.

This past week relative to woodworking can be pretty much summed up as "starting the process to build a shop building". Zoning application is in and I'm starting to tinker with the "what" and "who" question. Otherwise, the propane company was out to get the second tank and gas line setup for the generator, but couldn't complete the work yet. The tanks had to be relocated due to proximity to the meter/transfer switch...turns out the original tank installed for a gas fireplace wasn't in a kosher spot already...so they are now along the fence line. That means a few more shekels for gas line distance, protection for the buried line in an area that might see vehicle traffic and the need for the PA-One-call folks to do their thing before the trench can be cut. There's nothing there, but it still has to be verified before they dig.

I've also added an actual woodworking project to my list as I need to get a table top fabricated for use on our three season porch. The base is the reclaimed wood base I had for the kitchen table at our old property. The cherry top that was on it is now my desk under my hands as I type this. The new top for the table will be quite a bit larger so it will accommodate, say...8 people or so for meals. I'm considering doing a VG D-Fir top not unlike that massive "kitchen continent" I did a few years ago, but obviously smaller at about 36" wide and about 7' long. I can do the assembly right on top of the base on the porch which take my space constrained temporary shop out of the equation for the work, other than face and edge jointing followed by thicknessing of the stock. I can't wait to see what this is going to cost...LOL

[Brian Runau]

Finished the tops for my night stands. 475396

[Bruce Page]

Dennis, I have an Accurate Technology DRO on my Benchdog router lift. It is very accurate and easy to use. Like Roger, I grew tired of the batteries dying and wired in a matched voltage DC power supply. I’ve been a happy camper since.

I am glad you and your LOYL are getting past the loss of your son.

[Paul F Franklin]

Mary took Golda for a long car ride and a short walk to give me enough time to staple down the underlayment in main and entry hallway, without freaking Golda out. Her leg is still wobbly but she puts weight on it now and walks with just a moderate limp so she's improving every day.

I also did some minor sheetrock repairs in the hallways and got them painted. I ordered the trim and it will be delivered tomorrow. I will set up in the garage to stain and varnish the trim and the two sets of bifold doors, since I use oil based stain and poly for that. I have several low spots in the hallways that need to be filled with feather finish; a couple of them are pretty deep. There's a support beam under the center of the main hallway, and the floor falls away from the beam on both sides in places. I don't need it be level, just pretty flat. So filling the dips in is next and then I'll do the flooring.

I also ordered some "full access" hardware for the new bifold closet doors. Unlike typical bifolds that stack to the sides and partially block the door openings, these actually fold out and stack against the wall next to the opening. Instead of pivot hinges on the outside doors, the outside doors get hinged to the jamb and the topside hardware takes care of swinging the inside doors out and stacking them. Haven't used them before, but thought I'd give them a try as they look pretty slick.

[Charles Coolidge]

I finished setting up the new PM PJ882 jointer, it's ready for use. The helical cutterhead was covered in shipping grease which oozed down the chip chute, collected around the back of the dust port and oozed out the bottom down the machine. Got all that slop cleaned off. Installed a Magport fitting. Removed the $5 belt and installed a linked belt. Installed a twist lock plug. Fired her up for the first time last night, she whirred at 7,000 RPM. Yeah that grease would have flung all over the shop. Moved her around the shop a few times during this process, she's BIG dang!

475456

[Eugene Dixon]

Delivered the lighthouse to USF in Tampa.