Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

5 May 2008

Good Morning and what beautiful weather....

After all the storms and tornados that passed through here recently, the weather and the temps are really nice. Most all of the garden is planted and the strawberries are doing really well.
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The flowers are blooming really nicely and we even got the flower bed planted around the kitchen bay window.
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Here's just a little more color from around the house.
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Today, the A/C repair guy is coming by to repair and service my home central A/C unit as it went out last year right at the end of the cooling season. I'm hoping for the best when the dust settles and the bill is presented.

Today will be the rest of the garden planting and then I will start the installation of my spiral cutterhead with carbide inserts in my PM 15" planer. The stock cutterhead and knives simply dull way too quickly to be economical and yes...I even sharpened the existing knives on my Tormek with success.!!

So what did YOU do this weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Matt Meiser]

Saturday morning I got up early and met several guys from the Southeast Michigan Woodworkers, including Creeker Steve Sawyer for breakfast, then we all headed over to one of the local tool stores that was having an open house for us to show off their new Rockler inventory where I picked up a few router bits at 40% off. I spent a good part of the afternoon finishing up the electrical and dust collection on the Unisaw. Sunday morning LOML, LOML jr and I got up early again to go to a flea market where I found a couple chisels, but nothing to write home about. I spent several hours straightening and rearranging the shop. I took a 1/2 barrel of plywood scrap out and burned that, and emptied two drums of sawdust around a small cluster of trees in the side yard as mulch so I don't have to get in and mow around them. I also picked up a maple bench top found on Craigslist, brought it home and started planning what I want to do with it.

[alex grams]

finished the drawers for my wife's desk, sanded em down and finished them, then also got the drawer faces finished.

One day I will get drawers aligned perfectly the first time ever time... one day.

cleaned up the shop and now ready to start working on the top of the desk, which is going to be birdseye maple with walnut trim.

Once the top is finished the desk will pretty much be complete, then I just have to make the wall mounted bookshelf/overhead unit!

[Steve Clardy]

Installed a set of kitchen cabs over the weekend that I and a good friend [Larry Merlau] built the week before.

[Larry Browning]

5 May 2008

.... and then I will start the installation of my spiral cutterhead with carbide inserts in my PM 15" planer. The stock cutterhead and knives simply dull way too quickly to be economical and yes...I even sharpened the existing knives on my Tormek with success.!!

So what did YOU do this weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

Dennis,
That ash will be a very good test for your new spiral cutterhead. I am going to have to sharpen my planer knives yet again before final passes on the apron assemblies for my workbench.

[Brian Kent]

Started finishing a library chair.
Went to Pomona Woodworkers show.
Tuned up all my planes:D.

[Craig Summers]

Saturday morning started early, drove an hour up north to the VA/MD line to buy a #175 tow behind lawn spreader from CL, a great deal at $30. I got up there, it was in Pristine condition, still had the faded Tractor Supply tag attached. Then the even better news. The seller has a portable sawmill, chatting with him, he dries it for at least a year out of the direct sun, then stores it inside one of his garage/sheds. He sells his air dried lumber at a great price, using the 1-2-3 principle:
$ 1 BF for Softwoods
$ 2 BF for Oaks etc
$ 3 BF for Cherry or Walnut
I didn’t have a big enough vehicle with me, or I would have picked some up. I will return there soon
Also I will post more info later about his business.

Then I was off to the University to study for the Math mid term this week, returned home and sold 30 BF of the walnut to a fellow Creeker. After he left then I sold my brothers old trailer that’s been on the CL market for awhile. That afternoon I helped a neighbor get on CL for the first time. That evening I cleaned up the Woodmaster 26” sander that I got on CL, but I still need to get some parts, mobile base, and what not before I can use it.

On Sunday, after church and breakfast, I played George Washington, cutting up a cherry tree that had fallen over, and stacked that as firewood for the winter. Took the family shopping for a playground swingset at the Toy-Borg, didn’t pull the trigger on anything yet, then went ate out Mexican for a pre-Cinco De Mayo celebration. Got home and the neighbor had already picked up a free hot tub via CL (their first CL gloat), we think its in good shape, and we might be spending more time with our neighbor, LOL. Later in the evening I cleaned up the dust collector and mortiser that I recently bought on CL

[Jim O'Dell]

I filled in the concrete I chipped out of the sidewalk at the shop a year ago New Year's Eve. Then mounted the Biese fence on my Ridgid 3612. Man, that is one nice fence!!! Makes me wish I hadn't waited to get it done. Pictures on my shop rehab thread in the Shop forum. Jim.

[Don Bullock]

I spent much of the weekend taking care of our four basset hound puppies.
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Our girl, Ch. Woebgon's Snow White, had four healthy puppies last Saturday.

I also spent several hours at our new home getting some things ready there as well as contracting to have a 24' x 40' garage/shop built.:D

[Jim Becker]

Well, it was actually a productive weekend, although not in the shop for the most part...although you could say that right now a bedroom-to-be has been my "shop" for the past few weekends. I've been turning our former master bed room into Nastia's new room by erecting a wall to define the room and a hallway for access to the bathroom in that area of the original house. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=845113&postcount=10) Last weekend, I got the wall up, wired and rocked. During the week, I got the mud work done. Saturday, I milled the trim work (in the real shop) and got it installed. We then took a family trip to dinner and Ikea (in two vehicles) so we could pick up a new full-size mattress for Nastia's "new" bed (Professor Dr. SWMBO's original platform bed from before we met) and some other things we needed, such as door mats, rugs for the girls' rooms, etc. Sunday morning, I primed everything and in the afternoon and evening got two coats on the walls and trim work before standing in a hot shower for a long time...

Hopefully, I can get the remaining work done during the week and we can get her moved into her new room next weekend after a thorough cleaning. I'd really like to get back in the shop working on projects, although there still remains a lot of things to do in the addition and in rearranging the rest of the house post-construction. And I'm out of money...outside of a retaining wall and sidewalk to be done by the mason...the rest of the exterior landscaping, etc., is going to have to be a family project. I guess that will also cut into shop time. Sheesh!

[Mike Spanbauer]

Finished the installation of my 20" Byrd head in my Grizzly planer. There are a number of things that the installation guide doesn't mention in addition to the Grizzly planer being slightly different than the "generic" unit used in Byrd's documentation.

However, through preserverance I was able to get everything taken care of (including all new bearings in the gearbox, highly recommended to have those on hand before the install begins).

The performance... unbelievable. Figured cherry came out smooth as glass with no ridges at all. Curly maple produced similar results as well. No more air raid siren either, the planer is 1/2 as loud as it was and was easily the best investment I've made so far this year. Preparing things to pick up the 2nd best investment next weekend though :) (more on that later).

Mike

[glenn bradley]

I went to 'the Woodworking shows' over at the Pomona Fairplex. Dad came along and we bloodied our wallets. Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley were a back and forth decision ballet till we landed on a few planes. As LV was selling everything no tax and free shipping we both knocked out our long-dangling odds-n-ends wish lists.

I walked around and put my hand on all the cool tools that will never live in my shop while my dad laughed at me. Agazzani had a BS there that I would have to move into the shop lying on its side and then box in the ceiling to stand it up. The rest of the usual suspects were on hand with Minimax and a few others conspicuously missing (?).

The show was a bit smaller than last year I think but not by much. It just may have been the absence of Minimax’s fleet of aircraft carriers that made it seem smaller ;-)

[Jim Broestler]

Checked into what it will take to get a booth at the local craft fair/fall festival this year (i.e., 125 bucks); Got half way done building some duck-shaped wood baskets to sell at same craft fair.

Mason Jar bubble gum machines are next.

[Fred Voorhees]

Hey Dennis, I see that you are somewhat of a hosta fan also. I have around 180 hosta plants around my property and somewhere around 15 different varieties. Anyway, went out to the sons home Friday night to install the final wall cabinet that went over the stove and had a microwave mounted underneath it. A few other minor things and the wife and I left Saturday morning to get home in time to head out to the Saturday night dirt track racing at my weekly haunt. Got home in time to see a fantastic finish in the NASCAR Sprint cup event. Sunday found me doing a little painting, some yard work and I even posted another entry or two in my racing blog for the racing newspaper that I write for.
http://gaternews.com/racing_blogs/blogs/index.php?blog=11