Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I made some progress on the kitchen project with the under cabinet lighting.

I made 5 LED strip lights using 2,700K white LED tape, and aluminum corner channel with plastic diffusers.

The strips are 12 volts DC, with a small class 2 power supply (wall wart) and a wall mounted 12 volt dimmer on the wall above the counter.

One of our daughters was home for Mother's Day, we had a great time.

So, what did you do last weekend?

Regards, Rod.

[Cameron Wood]

Got the hyper-custom project installed last week. The client (in photo) had commissioned the silk fabric canopy for her son's wedding. Now it is hung in their stairwell. I made dowels to match (sort of) the African mahogany trim, and special little pieces to attach to the landing rail to match the white oak balusters. The first try was not a good color match, so made some more from lighter color stock, and 1/4" longer.

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The backyard cottage re-do is getting close to done. Board and batten siding, reusing much of the old, and supplementing from my stock of salvaged 1" thick x 12" wide salvaged redwood. The workstation:

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Have been consulting my son on his home projects- water piping, bathroom, laundry, water heater, etc.. I just deleted a text string that included 168 photos and 10 videos that he had sent, illustrating his questions.
I did the gas & waste lines, but he ran much of the copper water lines, with only a couple of leaks.

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

Started the sanding process on one of the 3 pieces of the tabletop for the dining table I am building. I ordered and received a new Metablo 3x21 belt sander that has dust collection and some corresponding sanding belts from Klingspor s. Ordered and purchased locally several tools including a flat trammel to layout the curved lower stretchers for the table. Yesterday after Mother's Day dinner with our oldest son, DIL, and wife, the son and I hauled home a couple pieces of 3/4" plywood. 1 piece is for the bending form for the stretchers. The other piece I hope to build a rolling drill press cabinet to reside under the drill press for bits etc. My parts locker is overflowing with extra bits I buy in bulk via Amazon. This morning, I took 2 of the octagonal table legs and laid out a full-size drawing for the curved stretchers on a piece of hardboard. Using that flat trammel made that task, a piece of cake!

[Paul F Franklin]

I finished up the little cabinet install project for my SIL by installing the pulls and some trim pieces to dress things up a bit. Glad to have that in the done column. Mary and I made our annual trip down to the Groovy Plants Ranch near Columbus and came back with a bunch of native plants to add to our landscaping. Mary did most of the planting but I planted a couple of the larger shrubs. I changed the brake fluid and spark plugs on Mary's Forester so it is all caught up with the 60,000 mile recommended service.

I did get some time in on the laundry table project, finishing up a tricky glue-up that I had been dragging my feet on for no particularly good reason other than I knew it would be a bit stressful. Thankfully it went relatively smoothly. Getting near the finish line on that project, finally. I have a couple of small projects up next, so I hope those will go faster.

In my spare time, I've been researching hot tubs. I thought new car shopping was a PIA, but hot tubs aren't any better. So much conflicting information and opinion, and very little factual information out there, so it feels like a total crap shoot.

[Rod Sheridan]

Paul, you could always add a hot tub to your project list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj4gSMdaaxE

Regards, Rod

[stephen thomas]

I made 5 LED strip lights using 2,700K white LED tape, and aluminum corner channel with plastic diffusers.

A few weekends ago, my project sort of resembled yours, with the LED's.
My ongoing project is making and installing mouldings in my poor wife's long delayed billiard room.

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So of course the mouldings have to have a run of balls in the crown.

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Then it occurred to me that with 16 balls in many American pool games (counting cue ball) (her table is an American 1927 Brunswick, so i did not consider snooker) it could be a fun joke to put 16 lucite balls in the ball moulding, with individual LED bulbs behind. I had already run all the wooden ball strips, so set back up and tried a few in acrylic plastic.
The result was promising though it could use a lot of sanding/polishing. But the only acrylic on hand to saw 3/4" square blanks out of, was bullet-proof/laminated, i realized only after cutting it.
You can see the lamination lines.

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So, looking online for square rod to turn more, i ended up discovering you can just buy perfect round 3/4" diameter acrylic balls. That made more sense. Fairly inexpensive.
Instead of machining opposing flats on the back, I'm just going to cut short stems on them, and insert (push fit) in aluminum tubes with the LED's in them drilled/inserted in longer runs of wooden balls.
Still very much a work in progress, but gosh even when the intended experiment does not work out, it is nice to get the project bumped a little bit forward.

smt

[Jim Becker]

I actually spent quite a bit of time in the shop this past week which is a trend I'm liking very much. Much of that time went to creating a personalized maple cutting board with a "show" side that has a Dr. Seuss inspirational saying and a "work" side that's designed for cutting. This board will be going to our younger daughter and her SO who are moving to a lovely, freshly renovated studio apartment in Center City Philadelphia at the end of the month and is a "housewarming gift". This move of theirs will also be creating another, larger project opportunity as they will be needing a "small" kitchen island that I intend, after consulting with them, to also accommodate seating for eating. That will eliminate the need for their small dining table and result in more efficient use of the space. I'm faddling with the idea of making the eating portion "extensible" with a leaf so if they have guests, they can then seat four instead of two. The other thing I was working on in the shop is the careful restoration of that Nakashima Mira style chair I picked up at the estate sale for a local woodworker who worked for Nakashima years ago. (There's a thread about that). After cleaning off all the dirt and "who knows what", I was able to gently get rid of a bunch of excess glue at the base of the back spindles (probably from either a previous repair or because this might have been a prototype) and take the seat surface back to "more pristine" before employing some Rubio Monocoat to restore the finish. I tried to do minimal work, but the seat really had to have a bit more attention due to time, dirt and damage from languishing for many years in a corner of the man's shop. I'm so pleased with how it looks and will certainly be posting some "glamor shots" once the work is complete. The Mira Chair design has always been a favorite of mine...I started a build of some dining chairs back in 2003 based on the design...and have been planing on resurrecting the project. I now have a reference that will be helpful around that. There is one other woodworking project in active planning and that's a built-in buffet for our eating area in the house as the piece of free standing furniture we're using now (from Thailand in the 1960s) has limited function for storage space and we need the space more than we need the "pretty".

[Michael Burnside]

Finally finished up a custom workbench I designed, assembled, built and used for the subsequent cabinets underneath. It was a long two days, but it turned out so much better than I anticipated.

Saturday...

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5VKGNmF/WB-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/h4dvXh8c/WB-6.jpg

Sunday...

https://i.postimg.cc/dtGhxDD4/WB-12.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/xC7Q0GpM/WB-15.jpg

Done!!!

https://i.postimg.cc/vm1FPWMB/WB-19.jpg

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Finally finished up a custom workbench I designed, assembled, built and used for the subsequent cabinets underneath. It was a long two days, but it turned out so much better than I anticipated.

Saturday...

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5VKGNmF/WB-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/h4dvXh8c/WB-6.jpg

Sunday...

https://i.postimg.cc/dtGhxDD4/WB-12.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/xC7Q0GpM/WB-15.jpg

Done!!!

https://i.postimg.cc/vm1FPWMB/WB-19.jpg


Nice looking cabinet! I am sure it will be equally useable! Nicely done Michael!

[Paul F Franklin]

Paul, you could always add a hot tub to your project list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj4gSMdaaxE

Regards, Rod

That's so much nicer looking than the plastic versions on offer these days. I'm afraid we need the jets and hydrotherapy pump systems to soothe our pickleball aches and pains though, so it's probably plastic monstrosity for us... Neat project though!

[Paul F Franklin]

Stephen, love the billiard ball idea, be sure to post the final results!

Michael, impressive bench and quite an accomplishment to do it in two days. I'm sure you spent a lot of time on the design.

[stephen thomas]

Paul - thank you for the compliment!

Michael B. - this site needs a "Like" button - i'd add a few for your bench!
Your project inspired/reminded me that i got a 13ft or so stick of that heavy (4" x 4"?) strut at the junkyard one day, and intended to turn it into a planing horse with adjustable clamping features. I've never had a real workbench, not enough room in the shop to dedicate the space. Plus being a jobsite carpenter, i was used to constantly planing and cutting jointery out in thin air, up on a scaffold, or out on a museum or government building lawn somewhere, using a fence or railing to prop something being worked on. Age and (semi :) ) retirement suggest some fixturing options would be convenient.

Paul again - not to presume too much of your generous interest, but if you have any further in that direction, i started posting about the table restoration, and then making and installing the flooring, on AZBilliards forum.
I'll keep the room build going there eventually. (It's a "thing" on AZ, though most post their rooms in the general forum.) You can see this one started in 2020. Sigh. It's good to have a patient wife. :)

[Alan Lightstone]

Finally finished up a custom workbench I designed, assembled, built and used for the subsequent cabinets underneath. It was a long two days, but it turned out so much better than I anticipated.

Saturday...

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5VKGNmF/WB-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/h4dvXh8c/WB-6.jpg

Sunday...

https://i.postimg.cc/dtGhxDD4/WB-12.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/xC7Q0GpM/WB-15.jpg

Done!!!

https://i.postimg.cc/vm1FPWMB/WB-19.jpg
That's really a great piece, Michael. Out of curiosity, how to the Systainers come out. Are they on shelves with slides?

[Jim Becker]

That bench and storage setup is the bee's knees, Michael!!

[George Yetka]

Michael

That bench is great. With a couple attachment it seams like it can be a great slab flattening bench as well.

[Michael Burnside]

That's really a great piece, Michael. Out of curiosity, how to the Systainers come out. Are they on shelves with slides?

Thanks Alan, they are attached via Festool 204871 drawer slides with 1/2" spacing. They're really great and give me individual access to one or a group of tools.


That bench and storage setup is the bee's knees, Michael!!

Thanks Jim. A workbench is a very personal thing and after a decade of 2 or 3 different types I know this works best for me.


That bench is great. With a couple attachment it seams like it can be a great slab flattening bench as well.

Hah, cool idea! Besides being dead flat and absolutely zero movement/twisting no matter how hard you push on the side, I designed the bench with 15-series extrusion because with a few fasteners you have quite a bit of modularity.

[George Yetka]

Hah, cool idea! Besides being dead flat and absolutely zero movement/twisting no matter how hard you push on the side, I designed the bench with 15-series extrusion because with a few fasteners you have quite a bit of modularity.

Do you have attachments in mind or just the general idea of modulatrity?

[Michael Burnside]

Do you have attachments in mind or just the general idea of modulatrity?

Oh yes.

1) sliding clamp assembly x2 - already have this built and it's awesome!
2) sliding vacuum hose and tool holder (you can sort of see this in the picture) - can position anywhere along the front and even adjust height as needed
3) vertical holding stops which allow me to hold wide/tall pieces horizontally against the table - you can see the two vertical extrusions with rules (these indicate in/mm from top of the table so I can decide how proud from the bench the piece needs to be)
4) I have numerous attachments from Dashboard (https://www.dashboardpws.com/) which are just awesome, particularly their trackstars...cannot imagine not having them
5) Pivoting assembly that will allow me to tilt/lift/slide a full 4x8 sheet onto the workbench with minimal effort

I have a few other ideas in mind but the above are the ones I've done or am working on.

The table is way over-built. It literally does not move even a mm if you push against it with all your might, so it will be able to support pretty much anything I have in mind. I really like your idea of slab flattening too, which would be really easy to do with the 92" horizontal 1545 extrusions and these uni-bearings (https://8020.net/6875.html)

[Patrick McCarthy]

Michael, nicely thought out bench. I am curious though, why the vertical tape measure strips on the inboard side of the sustainer cavities?

[Michael Burnside]

Michael, nicely thought out bench. I am curious though, why the vertical tape measure strips on the inboard side of the sustainer cavities?

Next to that are two extrusions which will allow me to install two pegs (https://www.dashboardpws.com/shop/spirail-dogs). These pegs support workpieces that are clamped to the side of the bench. So if I have a 24" wide panel, I can set the pegs to 20" (using the tape you see) and know that the panel will be 4" proud of the workbench top. I don't have to guess where the workpiece will be, I'll know precisely :D Normally one peg is enough but the tape also allows me to make sure that if I use two pegs, they will be very close to parallel (close enough anyway).

[Patrick McCarthy]

Ah, makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the explanation.

Best, Patrick