Creekers Weekend Accomplishments....

[Dennis Peacock]

29 Sep 2008
Boy has this year flown by!!!

Been working with a lot of wood, but not any "woodworking" though. Been cutting up already downed trees, cutting down a few dead trees and stacking wood for heating this winter. Next year, I've gotta get an earlier start.!!

Had to replace the wheel bearings on my trailer because I had one side that was noisy no matter how much grease I packed in the bearings. Now, my tires are cracking from being 8 years old on the trailer and thankfully a buddy at work gave me 4 tires off his Jeep that should fit my trailer (I only need two tires as the trailer is only a single axle).

I have a little more wood to go and cut but that may have to wait until next week as I'm oncall for work this week and that's going to take a lot of my time.

Went and saw the newly released movie "Fireproof" with the family last night. WOW!!! What an awesome movie! At least that what we thought about it, but YMMV.

Well, that's it for me, so what did YOU do this weekend??
Best of weeks to you all.

[Joe Mioux]

worked at work as usual.

Rented a core aerator for the yard on Sat. I started the project and Nicholas, age 15, volunteered to finish our yard. We have 1.5 acres. Then he went and did the neighbors' yards. So he did four yards, and about 5 acres.

He needed the service work credit hours for his HS service projects, so this counted. Also, he loves being outside, running the ATV and just doing stuff.

I cleaned the garage on Sunday and set up a lathe.

joe

[Tyler Howell]

Hey Dennis,
Put up some more fire wood and fininshed off my yard work. Let it snow.:eek::eek:.
Observed some interesting WW (http://www.northhousefolkschool.com/classes/Woodcarve.htm)at North House this weekend. Interest stuff and people.
Put in plenty of volunteer hours at the North House Unplugged (http://www.northhousefolkschool.com/events/unplugged.html) Festival.
I took a music workshop with Bill Cooley and Listened to a lot of great tunes under the big top.
Great weekend.

Play safe.

[Heather Thompson]

My husbands Subaru developed rear break problems last week, right rear caliper was leaking and there was a warped rotor, the dealer wanted 600.00 to repair.:eek: I received an online coupon from Auto Zone for 25% off of rotors and pads, great timing that does not usually happen for me, got two new rotors, ceramic pads and new caliper for 161.00.:D Saturday morning I spent about 2 1/2 hours changing out the brakes, the neighbor boy stopped by and I got him to help bleed the lines and all was good. Saturday afternoon attended a rally for the Repower America movement at the local college, would be nice to have had a larger turn out. On Sunday LOML and I took the Subaru for a test drive across Illinois to the Mississippi river, north into Wisconsin and then back home, the test drive was a success.

Heather

[Matt Meiser]

We decided that it was time to rebuild the steps from our garage to the house which I've been putting off for a long time. Its four steps up and the old steps were pretty small and had no railing. We basically built a 5x7 deck inside the garage with a full railing which gives us space for a bench to take off wet boots, room for our paper recycling bins and returnable beverage containers, and some room underneath to store some infrequently used bulky items like the waste tote for our camper, winter hose storage, and my car ramps. So Friday night there was a trip to Menards to pick up materials and I spent ALL day Saturday working on that and the requisite cleanup. But its nice not worrying that someone (probably me) is going to fall off the side of the old steps (which made for a nice bonfire since they weren't PT lumber).

Sunday I worked out in the shop most of the day. First cleaning up--it was a mess from dumping tools from various projects I've done over the past several weeks. Then I worked on cutting out and dry assembling parts for the carcase of the vanity for my daughter's bathroom. I mentioned in Karl's weekend thread that this is going to be a demo for my club so I only have do do a little work each month on it. I also got the cabinet parts for my sander primed with self-etching primer and then several coats of a filler primer to fill pitting from rust.

Dennis--on the tires you might think about getting some covers. We had problems with the tires on both our camper and utility trailer getting badly checked. I bought covers and they are holding up much better. Supposedly the sun on an infrequently used tire is really hard on them. When they get used it supposedly works the oils in the rubber to the surface which protects them. Not sure if that's true or not, but it works for me. We got some really nice covers that stay on in high wind at Wal-Mart, by the RV accessories in the automotive department. And don't tell whoever you have mount those tires that they are for a trailer. You are only supposed to use trailer tires on a trailer and many places won't help you put an auto tire on a trailer, even if you just take in the wheels. Liability, I assume.

[alex grams]

Put the router lift and t track into my extension wing on the sawstop. Also built a cabinet for below the router for tool storage/dust collection and such. Also put a plug within the cabinet for the router to plug into and then a switch on the exterior (right, can't see) of the cabinet to turn the router on/off without opening the cabinet.

Was a nice project, the black w/ maple matches the saw well and looks cool to me. Having a solid router table makes things SOOO much easier than the old saggy table I had that was a complete pain to work on and get consistent cuts.

[Jim Becker]

Nada. Zippo. Nichto.

We had a wedding in central Pennsylvania so the associated travel more or less sapped the available weekend time. And it was raining the whole time, including when we got home, so the lawn didn't get mowed and I was too tired to do anything with power tools due to the, umm...too-small bed accommodations...at the B&B we stayed at Saturday night. I did set up my Kursweil keyboard again yesterday, so I spent a little time relaxing around that while doing several loads of laundry. And then I had some work stuff to complete before Monday morning.

[J.R. Rutter]

I've had an ongoing mouseproofing project going on at my house. With the summer humidity, we got smelled a hint of something nasty in the basement. Opened up some stud bays under the baseboard and found a few that had multiple dead mice - some quite old, some new. Decided to rip off the sheetrock up to 2 ft off the floor around the entire basement. More mice. So this past weekend was doing crack sealing and stapling up wire cloth around the foundation outside to keep them from coming in. Also screened all of the vents and trimmed back vegetation that come close to the siding. We tore up a ground level cedar deck and replaced it with exposed aggregate slab, since this was a potential mouse entry.

I met a guy a while back who brought lots of old growth VG hemlock back from AK a few years ago. He has lots of beadboard wainscot, so I'm going to install that. I traded a local cabinet shop some doors for a nice clear CV finish. Of course, this has triggered a chain reaction that also involves finally installing a floating bamboo floor over the slab, and milling up some more VG hemlock trim to finish casing a few doors...

These mice are costing a small fortune!

Also came to the shop to tinker with the new sander. Got it powered up and adjusted and used it to sand edges on a small tabletop.

[Nancy Laird]

Had a very relaxing weekend--we out to breakfast on Saturday morning, then to the home and remodeling show where we saw some interest things. Talked to a guy about maybe putting a metal roof on our house, and he came out this morning and gave us a quote---$16,000!!!!:eek::eek::eek: Then went to a movie with hubby - Chick flick Nights in Rodanthe with Richard Geer (sigh). Did a couple of small laser jobs yesterday and cleaned up the kitchen -- had to pull out the old range, as it died last week, and clean up the mess that always accumulates under appliances. Gonna get the new stove tomorrow - gas stove with griddle on top and a convection oven. Yeah!! Looking at a busy week, and Balloon Fiesta starts on Friday!! Oh, Joy!!!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I managed to make some very poor attempts at 2 turning projects Saturday. GRRRRR!

Sunday, I got up at 2:30 a.m. and traveled to Waukesha, WI for 2 weeks of training.

[Eric Larsen]

I milled 7bf of spanish cedar into 90sq/f of 3/16" closet paneling.

The process really helped me with my re-saw technique. I am now quite confident that I can hold the board square to the fence, and get "close enough" to 1/4" thick so my sander can take care of the rest.

The first few cuts were ghastly, but the sander even made THOSE look ok.

[Ross Ellis]

My work took me to 2 casinos. I lost a bunch playing roulette. It took me many hours to get back close to even. When I wasn't playing I was in my room finishing my effort to read every post on this forum....

[John Sanford]

Hmmm, picked up a Jorgensen 10" Handscrew Clamp for $5 (ride by gloat), mounted my Proxxon Micro-Mill onto a base, crafted a dog-hole base for my airbrush holder, screwed up in the process of drilling said base and helicoptered a 3/4" spade bit in my drill press, tossing the aformentioned handscrew clamp across the shop, mounted a new shoplight, generally mucked about the shop.

The DP incident served as a reminder to tighten the chuck on hex shank bits as well. I drilled most of the way through the workpiece, then flipped it over. In the process of flipping the workpiece, I think I knocked the not-tight bit askew, and as soon as it started to bite, woppa wopppa tossa... :eek: I don't think I've ever shut the DP off that fast before! :(