Creeker's Weekend Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

19 Feb 2018

Greetings,
It's been a grey and dreary weekend with rain (not complaining about the rain becase we really need the rain) and I took that chance to work with the LOML on an upholstery project that she's been putting off. As of last night, we finished up 3 boat seats for a friend of mine's bass boat. This was our first shot at boat upholstery and the seats came out ok but not factory perfect. My buddy was happy with his new seats and he even helped us a bit on putting on the new covers. Other than that, The LOML and I sat and watched some of the recorded olympics and spent some time helping the daughter and son-in-law refine a set of house plans that I helped them put together in design and function. That's all I did this weekend.

I've given great consideration on retiring the "Weekend Accomplishments". Why? I started posting many years ago, on Monday to see what everybody actually "did" over the weekend. I still do woodworking but not as much as I used to. I'm almost 60 years old now and it's harder for me to work my day job, with all the hours it takes, and keep focus on family and friends when I'm not working the day job. I'm not sure I'm ready to make this decision final, so I'll just leave it here for now.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, I, for one, have always appreciated this thread to share weekend/weekly accomplishments and hope it continues. But if it comes to pass that's not the case, it's not a problem at all! It's far better for you to enjoy life and have the time to do things that bring joy to you as well as "deal" with the realities that exist, too.

This weekend was somewhat typical...food shopping Saturday morning at Wegmans to start things off. The remainder of the day I worked on the initial cut of my website for the new business and then made a tasty meal of marinated beef sous vide with oven frites.

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Sunday I was back in the shop. I started out trying to pull a communications cable in the existing 4" conduit between the house and the shop, but unfortunately, it's collapsed enough somewhere in the middle to preclude using that route. (Dennis, your suggestion of the 100' fish tape was spot on...it will do the job once I can actually get it between point A and point B ) So I'll be re-purposing an old water line to accomplish that after I remove an old hydrant and make a non-restrictive splice. The big orange power tool will assist with that task.

I then moved on to assembling new upper kitchen cabinets from the stock I prepared on Friday. Assembly of the boxes goes quickly and since I used pre-finished ply for the interiors, it speeds things up even more. I have two more to assemble today and then will get to work on the face frames and doors. I also picked up some additional commission work from the friend whom I created the "kitchen continent" top for not long ago. It was wonderful seeing things with all the other work by others completed when we stopped by there yesterday to check it out and so I could do some measuring for the additional work.

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[Keith Hankins]

I did take the opportunity to finally get around to installing my Igaging 12” DRO on the planer.

First it took some figuring on how I would even attach it. First thought was to replace existing one that is pretty much crap and a 1/16” off anyway, but it just for general use anyway.
I’d considered the wexley one, but to be honest i had one on my router table lift and was not impressed. plastic mostly and just could not make it work.

I did a lot of research and this model had features I liked. It has a origin setting that is easy to set. It does not lose it when the batt dies. I has an incremental feature i can use to start at any point and just measure the incremental change.

The body is hardened stainless steel, and all metal. It’s industrial grade. Even one guy tried to shorten it a bit, and could not cut with a hacksaw, had to use cuttoff wheel.
I also like it has mm,inch, and fractions to 1/64

I was lucky that there were existing options to bolt a piece of ply to the right side out of the way and then attach to the table for movement. All in all out of the way. I just need to do some cable management.

The Digital Read Out (DRO) is magnetic in the back so I just put a piece of metal on the wall and slapped it up.
Finally its got an automatic off so I don’t kill the cr2032 (2) batteries. Hated that on the wixely.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsktok9UP

If I had it to do over, would buy it in a heartbeat.
Cheers!

[John K Jordan]

...
I've given great consideration on retiring the "Weekend Accomplishments". Why? I started posting many years ago, on Monday to see what everybody actually "did" over the weekend. I still do woodworking but not as much as I used to. I'm almost 60 years old now ...
That's it for me, so what did YOU do this past weekend?

Best of weeks to you all.

I love to read these threads - a glimpse of what they are doing makes people more "real" and personal. I like to read about the cooking and upholstery just as much as the woodworking projects.

The problem with "Weekend Accomplishments" will be when you retire. Then you face the dilemma of the definition of a "weekend". For those working all week it is pretty clear but for those retired life is one long weekend. What to write about, just things done Fri evening through Sun night or I stretch it to Thursday or ... I think a transition to a Monday "Creeker Accomplishments Last Week" might be appropriate. That would cover the weekend and evenings for those poor souls still working a real job and any time for those retired. I'll bet it would still be very interesting to read! (I retired about 12 years ago.)

My weekend? I spent time (and continue) preparing for a woodturning demo next week in Crossville. To keep from putting the audience asleep with my slow turning I'm making four partially completed pieces ahead of time so I can show the how and why of each major step then switch to a piece with that step completed. I'm also writing and refining a multi-page handout with text and diagrams. It's good fun organizing, turning, and collecting tools and materials to take.

I'll be demonstrating how I make these:

penta_plates_comp_small.jpg penta_maple_ellis_IMG_5435.jpg

Also, lots of small things since we are in the middle of a major remodeling project. My Lovely Bride has decided we will add a new brick porch at the laundry room entrance, add a sun room, a screened-in porch on the other end of the house, rip out and replace the deck, rip out the old garage doors and replace with one 18' door, remodel a downstairs bath, build larger shower upstairs, and move one wall to expand the space where I sit and type this. Oh, and probably concrete the driveway. Fortunately I don't have to do all the work myself - I might be getting too old for that! I am playing architect, assistant interior and exterior designer, backhoe operator, contractor, and go-fer.

JKJ

[Alex Tonin]

Dennis,

I for one enjoy the weekend accomplishments thread as well, for whatever it's worth.

[Matt Schrum]

I do make a point to read this thread every Monday too-- so I suppose I should probably chime in for a change.

The weather was nice this weekend (windy, but near 60-65F), so I tried to open up the garage/shop as much as I could to warm it up even more before the cold snap (low of -6F or so) comes tomorrow. I finally cleaned out my dust filters. The overhead air scrubber was a bit dusty-- but the two cartridge filters on my dust collector? Holy cow, I need to make a note to clean those more often. I bet I got about half a gallon of fine dust out of them-- seemed to have a bit more air flow once I got them cleaned and fired things back up.

Otherwise I finished up the structural work on a shed (still needs some cosmetic touching up) that shares a wall with the garage. Moving all of our gardening supplies into there freed up a bit of room in the garage/shop.

Lastly, with the garage cleaned up, I freed up enough space for my wife's truck to park in there (at least when it snows). I wanted to hang a parking aid down for her to use, but I also hate running into them all of the time when the truck is in the driveway-- so I attached a string to the door and ran it through a pulley so that the tennis ball only lowers when the garage is open-- works great. I did have to zip tie a stop to the string as it hit the right height before the garage is fully opened (it needed to lower about 6 feet from the ceiling, but the garage door is 8 feet tall)-- but that was pretty easy to do.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, it's still the weekend here

Family Day is a provincial holiday in Ontario, however I'm a federal employee so I don't get it off.

This time I decided to take a day off as Diann has it off. I also took Friday off, I could get accustomed to 4 day weekends.

Saturday we went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Vikings display, very interesting.

Sunday I drove out to a wood working forum members house and bought a 24 inch Leigh dovetail jig, a Porter Cable router and 2 shaper cutters, one a Roman Ogee and the other a 1/2" grooving cutter. Not bad for $540.

Today I installed my dust bin level sensor in my Oneida cyclone dust bin, hopefully I won't have another plugged filter episode. I'm also making Vindaloo in the crock pot for tonight, the house smells wonderful... Regards, Rod.

12 Volt Beacon.jpginstalled Sensor.jpgFront View.jpg

[Bryan Lisowski]

Dennis, although I don't always contribute, it is one of the first things I read on Monday morning. As for this weekend no woodworking for me. I was at my son's hockey tournament. The results were not what we wanted, but the kids had fun and the parents did as well.

[Jeff Heath]

I started my restoration on my 1936 Yates American Y30 snowflake bandsaw, and tore it all apart to nuts and bolts.....

My Y30.jpgapart.jpgtable lift.jpgtable and trunnion.jpg

[John K Jordan]

I started my restoration on my 1936 Yates American Y30 snowflake bandsaw, and tore it all apart to nuts and bolts.....

Land sakes alive what a bandsaw!

[Keith Hankins]

Dennis,

I for one enjoy the weekend accomplishments thread as well, for whatever it's worth.

Me too...when I can actually add a line

[Jim Becker]

I started my restoration on my 1936 Yates American Y30 snowflake bandsaw, and tore it all apart to nuts and bolts.....

Wow, Jeff...that's going to be a magnificent tool when you are done restoring it!

-----

Dennis, I like John's idea about broadening the accomplishments discussion beyond just the weekend...for exactly the reason he stated. There mare a lot of folks who have different schedules for one reason or another, but the general premise is really enjoyable to read each week.

[Jeff Heath]

Thanks guys. I'm at the tedious phase of cleaning 80 years of gunk and rust off everything right now, and I just finished needle scaling all the old (3 layers) paint and filler off. Always a lot more fun when it starts going back together. My entire shop is vintage machinery.

[Jeff Ramsey]

Dennis, I too have enjoyed your weekend accomplishments threads. Thank you!

This weekend was supposed to see good progress on the design of a Tompion-style mantle clock. I was deep in thought at the drawing table and decided I wanted something from the fridge in the basement. I walked down the stairs and thought it was a little mousey in the air. So I started the search. Then I heard the dreaded drip coming from the corner of the basement where the main soil line exits to our septic system. This is the second time it's backed up into the basement. The first time was during monsoon-like rains in SE PA one year. That's when I learned the septic installer cut foot-long slots in the outlet pipe of both tanks (why is a mystery), and water backed up filling both tanks before finding its way to our basement floor. This time, the pump failed. And what else failed? The warning horn which is triggered by a high-water float in the pump tank. I wonder if sensors fail more often than the systems they monitor.

Anyway, after cleaning up the mess I decided to put off more design until my head cleared. Good news is the elm burl veneer arrived so I'm set with the clock face. Maybe tomorrow I can take a shower and get back to making this clock!

[Jason Lester]

I've been working on a kitchen hutch build for a couple of weeks. I got the side panels finished and glued up last week and then got everything married together yesterday. It was a very stressful glue-up, but everything went well and I (barely) came in under the TB3 assembly time limit. It's white oak with reclaimed barn wood (planed and prettied up) for the structural pieces and quarter sawn for all the panels, doors, etc. This is my first piece with a frame and panel back and bottom. It's coming together really nicely so far.

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I built the bottom tonight, but I guess that doesn't count as a weekend accomplishment, huh?