Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....Labor Day

[Dennis Peacock]

1 Sep 2008

Howdy to all of you and I hope each of you have shared your holiday with family and friends.

I decided to kick this off a bit early to give everyone time to share what all they did this long holiday weekend.

For me it was working longer hours at the day job that in the previous weeks. I will have to go to Philly again in October for another Disaster Recovery exercise for one of our customers.

Been cutting and hauling home firewood for the winter and I'd be getting a good bit more, but we are about to be rained out for several days because of the hurricane weather heading towards us by bringing us rain and storms.

Been hanging around the house and getting things done around here that I've been neglecting for a long time and trying to spend as much time as I can with my wife and kids.

As the temps get cooler, I'm itching to get back in the shop again and make some sawdust and some lathe curls.....that is....if the day job cooperates with me this fall and winter.

Hope each of you had a great Labor Day Weekend....

So what did YOU do this weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Lon LeBlanc]

I finally got to that area under the stairs...you know...the closet from hell...the one that collects everything, which you then can never locate again?

Got all of that stuff pulled out, and put in some nice MDF and particle board shelving. Got it all painted too, and wife has already made it into a linen closet and a place to store her sewing stuff. She said it was very nicely done...very professional fit, and of course, I reminded her that having all the right tools is what makes it possible. :rolleyes:

Lon

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Didn't get a lot done but....did learn a couple of CA finish application methods and turned a few pens and bottlestoppers. I also learned to remember to wax my pen bushings before appying a CA finish on pens. PDAMHIKT!

This evening I sprayed the driveways with Roundup to kill off some late season weeds.

[Matt Meiser]

Friday afternoon until late into the night and Saturday all day were spent ripping up the old carpet and installing an engineered hardwood floor in our master bedroom. We also smoked a couple briskets since we were home all day and my parents came over for dinner.

Sunday we ran errands including looking at 6-panel doors to replace our flat hollow-core closet doors. All our interior doors are 6-panel but the closet bypass doors are all flat. So think it will be a nice upgrade for our closets and complete that room.

Yesterday we went with my mom to Ikea to look at kitchens. They are going to redo their soon and one option we've been talking about is to buy Ikea boxes and I'd build the doors/drawer fronts.

[Jim Becker]

Looking forward to your return visit to the area, Dennis, and hopefully when I'm not away!

Labor Day was spent recovering from our Colorado Rockies vacation (pics in this thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=91310)) where we had an awesome time. (Returned home mid-day on Sunday) So about the only thing I got done was 5 loads of laundry and some additional cleaning out of my former office so Professor Dr. SWMBO can move her stuff in. Unfortunately, I also discovered a few termites in one floor board (this is the 250 year old section of the house) and have to get that dealt with. Oy! I need that like I need another hole in my head after finally getting our addition project "done".

[Al Willits]

Like Matt my weekend was remodeling, only we're still at it, started by painting the living ceiling, then walls, then being the outlets were old and worn I replaced them, and some wiring, then the two wall sconces got pulled, and will get replaced, then the windows got/getting refinished, then we will pull the rug and see what happens....tired puppy this morning, glad to get back to work .. :D

Oh...did sneak away while the wife was napping and tied some snells for the fishing trip coming up and if Gander Mountain gets the slow death hooks to me soon, I'll tie up some snells with them.

Was high 80's and lots of humidity this weekend, so it was slow going but we have a good start on the living room.

Al

[Mike Heidrick]

Saturday we had a party for 70ish people for my wifes B-Day. They had 34 different cakes (goal was 30 cakes for her B-day). Pretty cool!

Took off Sunday and drove to Canton MI for an 8' JLT clamp rack and 18 clamps. I am in serious trouble now as I need to clean up a spot to make room for this. It is still in the truck right now!

Monday I slept and spent the day with my wife and daughter Megan. Angela's Bday was really Monday so we had a good time.

Back to the grind today. Hopefully in the shop tonight. Laguna slot Mortiser arrives in the morning.

[Rod Sheridan]

Well, it wasn't wood working related, however Diann and I rode past an awful lot of trees, so maybe there's some tie in.

We left home (Toronto) on August 18 and rode along the top of Lake Superior to Duluth Mn to attend the "Very Boring Rally 2" at Spirit Mountain resort in Duluth.

We then rode along the bottom of Lake Superior, crossed into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie, and then went to Watkins Glen NY for the Finger Lakes BMW rally. Great weather, scenery and poeple. While in the Finger Lakes region we went to the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, fantastic museum, I can't reccommend it enough.

We purchased some wine, and rode back to Toronto yesterday, 4,800 Km, two old bikes (1976 R90/6 and 1977 R60/7), and two older riders.

Great fun, now I'm back at work clearing the proverbial alligators from the swamp.

Regards, Rod.

[Eric DeSilva]

Notwithstanding a head cold, I managed to get some shop time in... My current front burner project is some adirondack chairs made of cypress. I cut templates from 1/2" MDF, faired the curves, milled stock for 1 chair (I have to make six total, but wanted to see one put together before committing to all six), and got the template-appropriate parts cut and routed. I wanted to fire up the shaper with a new template bit I got, but it is DC-less at the moment and I need to run some 220V lines, so I just used a 1" template bit on my bench dog w/the Triton router. I still need to cut the chair and back slats on the TS, do some experimenting with stains on cypress before I can go into full production mode, but this weekend's progress was encouraging.

Must say, tho', fairing the curves on the MDF templates (used an old Ryobi OSS w/o any DC and a 12" disc) was not a pleasurable task. Fine MDF and pre-existing congestion made an awful mess of my sinuses... Yech.

[Dave Bender]

I spent my time deconstructing a playset I made 8 years ago. I remember my son watching as I built the playset (tower, swingset, slide) and this time he helped me knock it down with an impact driver, crow bar, and sledge hammer.

Now it's time to plant some trees and grass and get ready for the winter.

[rob mason]

Unfortunately, I spent the day dodging hurricane Gustav in Southwest MS. Had some minor damage, lots of limbs down and as of 1:30p CST today, am still running on generator power.

The good news is that I was able to cleanup my workshop to get ready for new projects. I guess I turned lemons into lemonade :)

Rob

[Wallis Hampson]

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=91169

[Rob Harville]

I did this:
http://www.teddydog.org/wood/penbox1a.JPG

Well, I didnt' actually MAKE it this weekend, but I DID find the box it has been stored in for the last 4 years (since we moved). I made this several years ago as a bride gift to my wife when we got married (4 years ago). She collects pens, so I made her this pen display box.
It is made from solid cherry with BLO finish. I really needs more coats of BLO, but way back then I ran out of time. I designed it myself having never seen anything like it before (but now I see them in shops). I see now how easily I could have made it hold many more pens (it doesn't even come close to holding all of her pens...not even just the really good ones).
It is my best project, which is probably pretty sad, really. The box joints are pretty tight, but the top mitered corners are a little open. I also didn't get all of the sanding dust out of the cracks before starting to finish.

http://www.teddydog.org/wood/penbox1b.JPG
http://www.teddydog.org/wood/penbox1c.JPG

I DID manage to make some sawdust Monday, though. After tidying up the workbench, I turned a hunk of 2x4 into interesting shapes for fun (see Turning forum if you care to).

Rob

[Ray Schafer]

I live just north of Colorado Springs -- sorry I missed you, Jim!

I made an out feed table for my tablesaw and rearranged my workshop so that it will be easier to work. Now I think that I am ready for all of the projects that my wife has in mind!

[mark page]

I made the 30yr HS reunion Saturday. Only about 25 or so showed up out of over 100. After a close look at everybody, I feel that I am aging quite gracefully. I recognized a few people, but had to ask who "the tales from the crypt cryptkeeper was and who was the Marty Feldman reincarnate with a dress and breasts were".:eek: Plus a few others. But everyone recognized me right off, so guess I haven't changed that much. Then still prepping for being away for two weeks for this upcoming business trip. Am starting to run out of time to get everything squared away. I know LOML can handle anything that comes her way, but I still feel better knowing all the standard stuff that can be pre-accomplished is done. No shop time is going to be the standard norm for this month, but I don't have any commissions that have to be done, thank God. For once, I successfully thought out something:D.

[Steve Clardy]

Noooo shop time. :(


Hauled hay

[Steve Sawyer]

I took a break from the current furniture project to take care of one of the rat-holes in the shop. I had these two piles of offcuts in which nothing could be found, making them useless except for the way they'd collect wood chips and sawdust.

I got a good deal on a second-hand (but NIB) Kreg K3 Master set, and used pocket-hole screws to make a rolling offcut bin from a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" MDF. This was a good learning experience as I have a couple more shop projects that pocket holes would be ideal for, and sometime this winter I hope to undertake one of three household cabinet projects.

http://www.semiww.org/forum/download/file.php?id=413&t=1

[Drew Eckhardt]

I learned how to make lock miter joints, made a sled, cut a few pieces, and left things setup to finish all eight parts.

[Gene Michael]

Spent Sunday bushhogging the back pasture and Monday putting fire ant poison on the mounds that we uncovered bushhogging. We had a pretty good dry spell until the leftovers from Gustav came through (9 5/8" in 2 1/2 days). The back pasture is nice and green now and looks good after bushhogging - if you're brave enough to walk through the fire ant mounds.

In-between fire ant adventures, worked on a shop cabinet that will be home for the slow speed grinder and Wolverine jig that LOML gave me for my birthday.

Does anyone know if anteaters eat fire ants? :eek: