Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

25 Feb 2008

Good Morning!!!
I hope that each of you have had a great weekend with family, friends, and with your shop!!

I've been working on the Honey-Do list this past week as I've had a little more time from the day job to work on things around the house. We've been repainting the Great Room. Nothings been done to it since we purchased the house in early 2000. We had to take down the "Duck Border" as well as the border that was behind that....Pink and Blue Rabbits...!!!!! Yeoowww!!!! Pink and Blue Rabbit border???!!!! What were they thinking??!!!!!!!
Patched all the holes in the walls and decided to move the ceiling fan as well. The ceiling in the Great Room is a vaulted ceiling. The only light in the room was the ceiling fan and that was centered on the window and mounted centered on the flat part of the vault closest to the outside wall.!!!!! How dumb was that??!!!! Needless to say that the LOML and I decided to put up a false beam and move the fan to the beam at the peak of the vault. Now, to give you an idea about this single room? It's 27 ft long by 20 ft wide. So it's NOT a small room. Well, because of the new beam we are putting in, I've made time for the shop. I bought some cherry about a year ago for $1.25 per board foot...air dried...and this is what I used to make the beam from.

Today I start building the beam since I'm off work today and I hope to get the beam done and the ceiling fan moved. So I guess I had better "get on the stick" and get to work.

So what did YOU do this weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[alex grams]

Saturday morning at the office.

With spring coming up, had to get the garden built (new home, so had to put base cinder blocks down and then some pagestones).

Put last coat on breakfast table. Stained the fence, put in the garden, and ordered supplies for the storage shed in the back yard and some more pavestones for the garden.

[Jim Becker]

I spent half of the weekend sitting...in a Sao Paulo Brazil hotel lobby for a couple hours Friday afternoon surfing the net while waiting for my taxi; an hour and a half taxi ride to the airport in helacious traffic; an hour in the lounge at the airport, 11+hours on the plane to Chicago including gate time; an hour and a half in the Red Carpet room early Saturday morning at ORD surfing SMC on my hand-held, 2 hours on a plane to PHL and then an hour in my car driving home. And some more sitting for dinner and family movie night (No Reservations) at home. Sheesh!

Sunday, however, I was in the shop working on material preparation for the doors and drawers for the wet bar...and I'm going to be back in there today since I took the day off. :)

[Matt Meiser]

I did NOT work on a bathroom this weekend. Actually that's not true as I did run a bead of caulk on a window over at my parents, but that was about 2 minutes of work so I won't count it. I did finally get to work on a Festool Sysport clone, which I pretty much finished up. I just need to do some final assembly and get some different casters. I used my Domino for the first time and was very pleased with the result.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, this weekend, aside from going in to work for an 03:00 to 07:00 power system maintenance window, I helped a neighbour make some drawers for her kitchen.

Janet wanted to convert a base cabinet in her kitchen from a door, to 3 drawers for pots and pans. (She must have been watching the NYW kitchen makeover)

I measured the cabinet, cut the white melamine PB and Janet came over and drilled all the holes for the screws, edge banded the PB and assembled the drawers.

I presume that she'll be back next weekend for help installing the drawer slides.

Oh, I also read the latest FW magazine that the postman dropped off on Friday, and watched roy Underhill and Norm on TV. Do those activities count as woodworking?

Regards, Rod.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My SIL has been in town for nearly 3 weeks. A carpenter, he's going to a local truck driving school as a result of the housing slowdown. Last week my daughter dropped in for a week (to spend time with her husband, I suspect?) and then on Saturday one of my granddaughters showed with little Nicholas Hugh, my great-grandson. So......the SIL and I made great progress on the DC ductwork installation and then a family dinner. The oldest son came over and his daughter and our great-granddaughter attended. Little Riley, our great-granddaughter, who lives here, had a fit when she saw Paw-paw carrying little Hugh. She is not used to sharing Paw-paw and Nanny. There was a little jealousy and broken heart here. It continued on Sunday when they came over again.

Sunday I pretty well finished the DC ductwork installation. Just a few more things like flex hoses and I want to redo two strap installations and it's time to make an assembly bench, wood storage rack and cabinets for the shop.

[Travis Gauger]

So here's what I did this weekend. (See Pictures) Started to work on the cyclone around 7PM Friday and had it sealed up on the bench by Midnight when I shut down shop. Saturday afternoon by the time I broke away from the LOML and got back to the shop, Thought that I would try it out. It didn't work though, need to make it out of thicker material. Used a 24G Aluminum for the one pictured. Fired up the DC and everything was going great. Started to suck up a pile of dust and we could hear the material in the cyclone, stuff was dropping into the bucket and there wasn't much coming through the DC. Thought we had it licked on the cheap! Then I put my hand over the end of the hose and colapsed the whole thing. Thankfully it is "Large and irregular" garabage pickup tomorrow. I would say a crushed cyclone qualifies for irregular pickup. :-) So Saturday afternoon and evening I put the shop back together and Sunday I finished up a few jewelery boxes for a client. The cyclone was a fun project, but I will wait till new shop is done before I tackle the next one.

[Travis Gauger]

Opps! I suppose it helps to attach the pictures I mentioned.

[Tim Thomas]

Amazingly, I actually was able to do what I had planned to do. This happens so rarely that I can hardly believe it. I got the electrical sub panel installed, with a 220 circuit and a pair of 110 circuits, I finished cleaning up the used jointer that I bought last weekend and I put it back together. All I have to do tonight is set up the jointer knives and I'll be ready to start milling up some stock.

The only setback I had was that my local Woodcraft store was completely sold out of 4 inch dust collection hose. I purchased a piece of flexible plastic drain hose from Home Depot that should work until I can get something more suitable. If I can get my sheet goods cart built this week then I'll be able to pick up a load of free cedar and pine and actually work on something for my house instead of my shop.

Pics below of the free cedar and pine that a coworker has offered me. I believe that folks around here refer to this as a "gloat". :)

[Doug Shepard]

Got a bit of work done on my bench project. Got shims and the UHMW rub strips for the LV twinscrew hooked on. Then a couple of cross dowel nuts installed from underneath and holes from the rear bench edge into the nuts. The is going to be where a Woodrat mounting board will attach to the bench when in use. Also got the clearance channel (4"x15"x1-3/8") for the Tucker vise rods routed out as well as the circular arc at the bottom edge of the front face. If I can get a couple coats of epoxy on the bottom side with sanding in-between this week, I hope to get it onto the Noden legs and flipped upright next weekend.

[Steven Shelby]

Made some progress on DW's dining room buffet. Got the frames and center section dadoed and individually glued and then glued together. I need to cut more dadoes on the side panels and do more gluing. It's coming along. I'm going to try to spend some evenings in the shop this week. Otherwise it'll take forever!

It snowed here from about 6am Friday til 2am Satuday. I left work early Friday with plans of clearing the driveway. But it just kept snowing!!! So I relaxed in the comfort of the palatial Shelby Estate then got up Saturday for shoptime followed by snowblower time! Is it Spring yet?

I have discovered that one of our Aussies (Sierra) is becoming quite the shop dog. She always wants to go to the shop with me and thinks it's the coolest thing. I won't let her stay when I am either using loud machinery or gluing with Gorilla. But if I'm working on a glue-up or hand sanding, etc, she'll make herself very comfy on the shop floor. Even when I put her out, she'll stay in the TV room next door and wait for me. I think I'm gonna get her some ear muffs and a tool belt! "Woof!"

Have a great week, everybody

[Jim Broestler]

The shop was fairly quiet. Sanded and poly coated a counter top for the laundry room - Oak 3/4 ply with hardwood edging. Getting ready to stain and seal a quilt rack.

Like I said, quiet weekend.

[Justin McCurdy]

Friday I was able to get the plywood for my bandsaw's mobile base cut and attached to the four steel corners. I of course skipped the directions where it said to cut the plywood 1/2 long on each side. So I drilled new holes right beside the old ones and slid the castors on one side. Walla, now it is the right size.

The wife helped me slide the 534lb bandsaw onto the mobile base and then I called it quits for Friday.

Saturday I set up my new bandsaw and ran a couple of boards. I just grabbed a link belt today that I will install when I get home. I still have to adjust the bearings, and then I really should be done. At least I have cleaned the cast and applied Top-Cote.

Last night after 2 naps, I finally decided to pull the new dovetail jig out of the box and play with it. It is now mounted to a 3/4" board. Maybe tonight I will actually play with some joints. Then again, I could set up the laser on my drill press. We'll see what I feel like come 5pm.

Last night

[J. Z. Guest]

I put together the sides for two ash nightstands I'm working on. I found out that, contrary to the plans, a 3/8" tenon will not fit in a 3/8" groove. What a pain in the butt, fixing that little faux pas.

By now, the poly glue holding them together in the 40° garage should be cured. (enough) I know the glue on my fingers is cured. I also learned that poly glue doesn't just roll off the fingers like yellow glue. It is flippin' tenacious.

Tonight, I will cut dados & rabbets in the ends of the nightstands.

I made 2 trips to Menards:

One to return the "Tool Shop" brand laminate trimmer I bought there on sale for $20. I figured for $20... But no. Apparently, the thing doesn't have ball bearings. I didn't think a 30,000 RPM tool could be built without bearings. It also has one of those collets that either lets the bit slip up mid-cut or is frozen solid in there when you're done with the cut. So I returned that.

Since I am a slow learner, I bought a pair of 1/2" "Tool Shop" pipe clamps. I figured routers are one thing, how could the Chinese screw up pipe clamps!!?? Woe is me, but they did. The threads were not cut deep enough, the holes were not drilled or cast evenly, and the threads were painted over. Good Lord, will I ever learn? So I went back again, returned the pipe clamps AND the pipe, and bought a pair of 24" Jorgensen F clamps. Much better. All my clamps now are Jorgensen (made right here in Chicago!) or Bessey.

I got a call last night from my boss that a coworker (49 years old, heavy smoker & drinker) died of a heart attack at a Bon Jovi concert Saturday. Very sad, he was such a nice guy. A technician that works for me quit too; got all pissed off about someone moving his test equipment during the weekend floor-buffing. Tonight, we're slated for about a foot of snow. I've arranged to work from home tomorrow, but might change it to a vacation day and go snowboarding.

Thanks for asking! ;)