Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

9 Apr 2018

Greetings,
Well, we went from nice warm spring weather to sleet, snow, and rain all in less than 24 hours times. Ah the struggles of switching from winter to spring always seems to bring about fighting weather fronts and crazy changing temps.
Got some more organization work done around the house that has been needing to get done and The LOML and I have both decided that this year is the year we are going to get things done instead of continuing to put them off even longer.
Gardening season is quickly upon us and I love planting and eating what we grow. I'm just not looking forward to the extreme heat and humidity of July, August, and half of September.
I'm working on getting things back in order in the shop and I'm replacing my worn out stones on my slow speed grinder with CBN wheels that everybody has been raving about. I hope they are all that everyone has stated about them, but hey....I haven't replaced my bench grinder wheels in well over 12 years....so I guess it's time.

My hope is to have the shop back in order and under working condition by the end of May. So I guess I'd better get busy.

Well, that's it for me....so what did YOU do this past week?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Corey Pelton]

Finished up the table I was working on, and gathered materials for an outdoor trestle table that I'm building for a friend. Next Saturday I will finally have my jointer (and planer) I've been in dire need of the past month or so. Really looking forward to putting that thing to use.

Working on posting the table build to the project forums now. Can't wait to see everyone's accomplishments for the week!

[Tony Pisano]

Been working on tax stuff, but in my tinkerer's shop I managed to add two more gears to my rube goldberg machine.it started out as a microwave turntable motor glued to the desk with a weaving bobbin and the three legger tray roller turning around. I've gradually added a few gears and other stuff I've been cutting out on the scroll saw. I had no plan, it has just kind of evolved. They aren't connected yet in this photo, but the large half-gear and small one are the one I added. Next time I'm in my exhibit space I'll take another photo.

[Frederick Skelly]

Tony, I hope you'll post a video of that machine in action when it's finished! I love such things!

Myself, I hand-cut a ton of practice dovetails as I described in a post the Neander forum last evening. It was great fun and I'm getting better at it.

Have a good week everyone!
Fred

[Joe Bradshaw]

I spent a long weekend(Thursday to Sunday)at Arrowmont taking a stool making class with Bill Wallace. Everyone came away with a completed stool. It was great fun.
Joe

[Jim Becker]

Yea, wacko weather is surly the norm for 2018 so far!! Chance of snow tomorrow...and almost 80º at the end of the week. Sheesh!

This past week I didn't get as much done as I had planned, but did get the doors built for the new upper kitchen cabinets as well as got them fitted to the individual boxes. Today, I'll work on getting those doors finished and maybe later in the week, start installation. As a reminder, when I did our kitchen renovation back in 2003, I made the mistake of using the same deepness dimensions for the new upper cabinets as those that were being replaced. It was an honest, novice mistake that resulted in not having enough depth to store anything that exceeded about 10" in diameter. Over the past year or so, I've been making some incremental changes to get the kitchen even more functional and these new uppers with increased depth will cement that part of the the deal. Once these cabinets are done, I need to make a replacement door for the powder room to "finalize" the changes I planned to make.

In other activities, I "entertained" several paving contractors to get quotes for paving at least our major parking area outside my shop, if not the whole thing. Professor Dr. SWMBO and I are tired of the dirt from the stone driveway getting tracked into the house constantly as well as the more difficult snow removal resulting spring cleanup that results from it. I think I got a number that I can fund to do the whole thing and given the reduction in maintenance as well as how it will make the property more attractive in the future to a buyer, I'm going to move forward with that. It will be a real change going from stone to pavement on what is effectively a 350' driveway, but one I think we will enjoy. I also got the area around our patio pond cleaned up, eliminated the deteriorated netting blanket over it (heron control) and put up a 60 lb fishing line matrix over and around the water to replace the netting. It will be nice to be able to see the fish more clearly as well as the beautiful lilies over the warm months going forward. Last Sunday, I also started clearing the downed trees from the storms in the south-side lawn.

[Dennis Peacock]

Mr. Becker.....I'm exhausted just reading your post.

[Rod Sheridan]

Gee Dennis, that Jim guy is making me look like a slacker!

All I managed to do is go to a wood working symposium and apply some stain on the electric fireplace cabinet I've been building.
The red oak is material I milled from a red oak tree that was cut down and heading for the shredder. The largest log was 48" diameter.
The blue streak seen inside the cabinet is some iron staining in a few of the boards.........Rod.
Stained.jpg

[Bill Carey]

Spent a great day in St Louis at the Central Plains ASPE meeting, then cam home and got started on my grandson's night stand. Had a head start because I milled all the wood last week. All mortise and loose tenon construction. I have some very nicely figured wood for the door and the drawer. Hopefully finish it up this week.
20180409_111132.jpg

[Jay Larson]

Speaking of weather, we set record lows Friday and Saturday nights. Been an interesting 'spring'.

I got the okay to build the final wall for the basement remodel, provided I put in a 5' opening for double barn doors... I had planned a separate room for my audio/music collection. But was almost overruled. Now I just have to keep the room cleaned up when I move in.

As part of the bargain for my audio room, I have to make a bunch of picture frames for photos. Sounds like a deal to me, so Sunday I got four of them made up. I had never used a splined miter before, so I thought I would try it. It took a bit of time to get them complete, but they are glued up and should be ready for staining/painting tonight.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Spent Friday getting ready to do a pig pick'n for our Sunday School Class. Picked up the guest of honor on Friday night. Lit the fire under her at 6:00 AM. Started (first two hours) on gas then switched to charcoal . On Thursday, I made a gas burner rig to start charcoal, which worked great. Saturday afternoon, made a banana pudding (the cooked variety) large enough to feed 60 people. Took a little while to separate two dozen eggs. Kept pot and pans washed up as we went, so there wasn't a whole lot to do after meal. (We ate on paper goods.) Meal was served at 5:00 PM, and included boiled potatoes, slaw, PIG, banana pudding, and "Southern Comfort," AKA sweet iced tea.. After church on Sunday, loaded everything out and brought it home. Spent afternoon putting it away. Of course, it rained during pig pick'n, so we moved bus and cooked under bus shelter, then moved cooker to covered porch outside of fellowship hall to pick the pig. Many in our SS class had never been to a pig pick'n before. Had to go back over to church today and power wash where we fried hush puppies. Over all it was a great time, with plenty of help.