Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments.....

[Dennis Peacock]

16 Apr 2012

Good Morning Everyone,
Understanding what today's date is, I can say that I'm glad my taxes are filed and have already been refunded and spent. I do have some friends that are the "last minute" type of folks and they seem to be in high stress mode around this time every year. Seems like people would get started sooner and eliminate the generated stress over this stuff.

The day job has kept me pretty busy as well as the LOML keeping me busy with the garden and the yard. Planting trees, flowers, and cleaning up the property from the winter months has taken its toll on my time. At times, I feel like we are a plant nursery.

The boss at the day job has changed my working days from Tuesday through Friday to Monday through Friday, so I have one less day off per week now and I can already tell you that I don't like it but I will learn to get by with it. I do have a job and that is what counts for both me and my family. So I choose to be thankful.

Storms are gone now and my heart and prayers go out to all those who suffered in the severe weather this past weekend.

That's it for me, so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Matt Meiser]

I spent Friday traveling home from spending the rest of the week in Independence, MO. It was an interesting trip both due to the circumstances encountered at our customer's site and the fact that my daughter traveled with me and spent the week visiting some family in Lee's Summit. Between both, instead of my usual long hours and late evening dinners I had more evening free time which actually made the trip seem more hectic. One evening I took my daughter and my cousin's daughter to the American Girl store over in Kansas. Hope to not do THAT again anytime soon

Saturday the forecast was for a lot of rain so after a slow start to the day we just ran some errands and came home and didn't do a whole lot. Of course that meant it never really did rain and was a cool overcast day which would have been perfect for spreading the 10yd pile of mulch sitting in the driveway. We did that Sunday instead when it was 80 and muggy.

Woodworking related all I got done was working up the BOM for a new bed for LOML and I. The wood has now been ordered from a small sawmill in western MI and I'll be picking it up when he makes a lumber run to Ann Arbor in just under 2 weeks.

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[David Hostetler]

After a 3 year, 2 month hiatus due to the economic depression, yeah yeah I know they say it was just a recession, they lie... anyway my wife has finally found a job that she should be at right now. So we spent the weekend getting her stuff ready. Clothes and all for her. I finally had enough of Comcast's incredibly poor customer service, and constantly soaring costs, so I dropped my cable in favor of DirectTV, I had bee resistant to satelite due to foul weather concerns, but Sunday's weather was a really good test, and so far so good! WAY more channels of stuff I actually want to see, much easier to search. Admittedly the DVR function is harder to use, but not too bad... Spent a little time, a VERY little bit of time in the shop tackling clean up. I have a LOT to do, and too little time to do it in. Will try to squeak some time in the shop tonight, but I need to get busy with a paint roller on the ceiling in the kitchen too... I hate painting...

[Greg Peterson]

Finished up this project I started the previous weekend. Works nicely for me. I installed a couple of threaded inserts into my bench top and slotted the fence base rather than install T track.

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[Bill Brush]

I attempted to go to a spring football game, but it got canceled due to weather. I think the stairway that was doing an impression of a waterfall/salmon run might have been a clue that people should be inside.

Shop related I fixed a drawer for my sister. The bottom edges of the sides had been broken off, so I cut it off straight and rabbeted in some maple. The old wood was so soft that I was able to cut the rabbet with a utility knife. I'm not sure what it was, but it was very soft, and very dry. The one interesting bit was hand cutting a dovetail tail to mate up with the drawer front. My first attempt at cutting any part of a dovetail and it was (thankfully) successful.

Besides that I broke 2 router bits trying to cut inlay, and turned a carving mallet.

Now I really need to clean up the shop, it's a mess.

[Shawn Pixley]

It was howling wind on Saturday, 30-40 mph. So inside, it was. Productive weekend for me. I tracked down 8/4 walnut stock for the project I am working on. Spent most of the rest of the weekend making the rails and tenons for my project. I went slowly and carefully because it was all curly hard maple. The last piece needed floating tenons in it, as I couldn't find stock long enough to incorporate the tenons. I went all neander (I am a blended woodworker) cutting the mortises into the end grain. It just reminded me of why I am blended. There are some things that are just plain un-fun to do in the neander way. I did take our young puppy for two hour long walks per day. Despite the puppy's deafness, he tries really hard.

[David Nelson1]

I spent Friday and Saturday cutting along side of, and on red pen marks with Rob Cosman. I have no idea why, for me it so darn hard to cut along side the line rather than on top of it. I did eventually assemble a very terrible looking dove tail. I didn't bother with the glue just went and got more wood LOL. A lot of guys got it rather quickly, some a bit slower, but everyone had pretty good looking joints eventually except for me. LOL I will indeed be in the shop the remainder of the week cutting more lines. Sunday was a wash, cleaned the inside of the truck and took it easy.

[James Baker SD]

After 3 attempts, I finally made the pieces for the kitchen tea rack (1st try planed them too thin, 2nd try cut them too short). Dovetailed the top and bottom and dado the shelves. Top, bottom and half the shelves glued in. Small step, but happy not to screw up a 3rd time.

[Van Huskey]

Other than standard outdoors stuff and checking out my new Dewalt tracksaw completely TAXES were the story of the weekend.

[Steve Meliza]

I finally finished my 18 drawer workbench using Tom Clark's book and methods. Full extension slides account for much of the cost of this unit, but I think they are worth it. While I say that I am done, I still plan to consider small additions like trimming the edge of the plywood top with some hardwood.

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