Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

To-O-The-Mornin to ya....
1 Oct 2007

I hope this finds each of you in cool shop temps which also makes for some more enjoyable times in the shop.

One of my window A/C units has given up and only knows how to blow warm air. Perfect timing since the outside temps are now cooler than the usual HOT/Humid days of summer. At least this will give me the chance to work out something by next summer for getting the bad unit replaced. I guess I'll need to replace it with a larger unit. :(

Speaking of A/C units, my home A/C unit is getting ready to require me to replace it. So far, bids have been in the $8K-10K range and that's not including any necessary duct work. Sheesh!!!!!! Prices have sure gone up!!! When I built my house in Alabama in the early '90s, all metal ductwork, insulation, 4-ton unit, dual returns, and also a split system...cost? $3,625 installed. So I guess prices have trippled since then????? :eek:

Made some real nice progress on the oval kitchen table project and will be doing final assembly this week and will apply the wood coloring the customer has chosen from several color samples that I've made up to be chosen from. Now the customer has purchase 6 chairs from an unfinished furniture place and wants me to finish all 6 chairs to match her table.!!!! Funny thing, is that they appear to be made from some kind of wood that I haven't seen before. Don't know how it will finish, but...I guess we'll see.:confused: :rolleyes:

So...our of here and out to the shop.

What did YOU do this past weekend???

Best of weeks to you all....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Terrrible week last week at work. The problems I saw on Thursday and Friday set my work schedule for most of this week.

Saturday, the LOML and I, and some coworkers and their family members, a total of 22 plus one former coworker took a 200 mile roundtrip jet boat tour of Hell's Canyon. Friday, the weather was miserable, 50's temps and the drizzle they call rain here. I planned this trip as our annual get together outing.....I was sweating! Saturday it dawned mostly sunny. The temperature started out around 48 F but during the day it got up to 65 F. All and all it was a beautiful day and the trip was a huge success. We saw lots of Bighorn sheep, mule deer and golden eagles. Following the trip, my wife and I hosted a cookout at our home for 21 folks. Sharon loves to cook and she took Friday off. The pork ribs fell off the bone, only a fork was needed. Our oldest son, the deputy sheriff, and his wife came over that afternoon and cooked the burgers, braut and hot dogs while we were on the trip. Several of my coworkers were able to get off the boat, drive to our home (6 minute drive) eat and leave for home within an hour. I'm not saying my wife over cooked but......This morning she loaded two huge coolers with the leftovers. Friday her coworkers at the grade school where she works said "Sharon's having a cookout Saturday, there's no need bring a lunch on Monday"......For the past week she just kept adding to the menu.....and now you'll learn where Ken learned to look down and shake his head.....I kept telling her "Sharon...You really are overdoing this." It went well and NOBODY left hungry!

Sunday, I cleaned up the aftermath of the cookout and insisted Sharon not do a thing. For one of the few times in our 39 year marriage, she listened to me.

It was a fun weekend.

[Grant Davis]

Went into a contract on a house.

[Al Willits]

Ended the weeks vacation like it should be ended, it rained all weekend..grrrr

Did make a cabinet for the Rigid belt sander, and cut all the pieces off a plan I made myself, couldn't believe they were actually square and all fit...reading all the helpful posts here must be doing some good...finally..:)

Did some cleaning in the shop/garage can finally see the floor again.

Found a plan for a coffee table and end tables the wife likes, and may start that before the kitchen cabinets, still have to find a lighter oak for the cabinets and didn't get to that this last week.

Got the furnace revented and the old water heater dragged out of the basement and ready for the trashmen to pick up.
Good weekend even with the rain

Al

[Warren Clemans]

Resaw success!

After spending most of the weekend as a single parent, I finally managed to get into the shop at about 7:30 Sunday night when my wife got home from a trip. I have been struggling for a couple of weeks to resaw some 8/4 doug fir for door panels with my old 18" grizzly bandsaw. I've had no end of troubles trying to use a Highland Hardware 1/2" woodslicer blade. They leave a beautifully smooth cut, but I can't keep them from wandering on my saw. I've tried different tensions, different guide adjustments (using aftermarket Carter guides), and have carefully accounted for blade drift. Nothing seems to work. I got so frustrated that I started to resaw using my grandfather's old Disston D8 rip saw. Got tired of that after about 12"! So, I finally dug out an old, dusty, somewhat rusty 1" bandsaw blade that came with the saw 8 or 9 years ago but that I had never used. It's about 2 tpi--a real monster. Slapped it on, adjusted the guides, fired it up, and it cut more or less straight. Resawed the whole stack of fir in about an hour. The cuts look like something a sawmill would leave, but it worked! Now on to the jointer to re-flatten them, planer, then glueup into panels. I'll try to get that done in the evenings this week.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Well, I got a minor project outta the way - I made a simple wine rack for our pantry closet. The thing that took the longest was painting, and THEN waiting for the paint to dry. The color match with the existing cabinets turned out pretty good though. The first shot shows the hole to be fillled, with the base. The only thing that is secured is the base itself - everything else is just snug in place.

I have a happy customer (my wife), and that's all that counts!

[Tony De Masi]

Spent a few hours Saturday morning in the deer stand. Saw plenty of deer but none within my bow range. Was just nice to be back out there.

The afternoon and some of the evening was spent in the shop working on various Xmas gifts.

Sunday morning was a little more shop time and the afternoon was just me and the big screen for some football.

Sunday night was dinner with son and daughter in law, daughter, sons in laws...... where we were informed that we are going to be GRANDPARENTS for the first time.:)

HAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Tony

[Jim Becker]

It was a productive week in the shop (vacation) and I got a bunch more time on Saturday and Sunday, too. I was working on some cabinets that will be going in the "toilet room" of our new master bath in the addition...I'll be posting a new thread with pictures soon, but have not had the time to deal with it yet.

Dennis, I hear you on the HVAC system situation. The cost on the unit for our addition went up "noticably" since the budgetary quotes only 6 months ago. Nature of the beast...price of steel, falling dollar, etc., all contributed.

Tony, congratulations on the big news!

[Matt Meiser]

Saturday was spent on projects around the house--thoroughly cleaning the garage, some brush hogging and a few other maintenance tasks. Sunday most of the day at my parents since some family friends were visiting them. In the evening my brothers came over and we got the tub installed in the master bath, so that project is complete.

[Robert Mayer]

Spent this weekend neighbor watching. Our neighbor manages to screw up every project he starts in his yard.

The latest project is building a 6ft privacy fence. First thing he did was take 10 foot long posts, cut them in half, and bury 1 ft in the ground with concrete. Which if you do your math comes out to 4ft stick out of the ground to attach a 6ft fence to. I dont know if it fell or if he changed his mind, but i noticed later in the day that he dug all 10 or so posts up and the panels were laying on the ground.

I could write i book on his horrible projects. I got pics somewhere if anyones interested.