Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

16 Mar 2020

Greetings,
I recently upgraded the Z axis on my cnc and the standard one that it came with was problematic. I hope to have some time this week to give it a good test run. I also updated the dust collection hose to a more flexible and anti-static hose. Worked some this weekend at the day job but took time to relax and recharge my own batteries before starting work again today.

That’s it for me, so what did you do this past week?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

I truly hope you get some shop time this weekend, Dennis.

Busy week for me. Got my client's door project finished and delivered...twelve locker doors for an equestrian facility's lounge out of pine. I wish they would have chosen oak or something as it would have been more pleasurable to work with and less expensive, material wise, but it had to be pine. Clear 5/4 "actually dry" pine is somewhat of a unicorn and it was still ornery. I had to take it down in steps to keep things flat. But the deed is done. Full thread coming in Woodworking Projects, but here's the end result just prior to my delivering them. They are approximately 55" tall and 25" wide. (ten are the same width and two are slightly narrower for the end lockers)

IMG_6898.jpg. IMG_6893.jpg

I also had some CNC work from a good client. He's soon to put his charcuterie boards and related into a retail store in Princeton NJ, so he needed some samples cut. He does resin inlays in these. What's nice working with him as I get to "let the wood speak" as I do my work so every piece is unique and attempts to take advantage of the particular piece of wood being used. And it helps pay the bills...

IMG_6908.jpg

This week will be work for me. I'll be getting to the downdraft project that will be the real top for my new auxiliary bench, working on one or more guitar projects and probably spending a little time outside with landscape cleanup since "spring has already sprung". I did some of that on the weekend already.

[Paul F Franklin]

Office prototype cabinet just about done. It's going slow because I am building jigs and fixtures along the way to speed up the actual build. Also took some time to play with the new spray equipment that arrived. I'll need some more practice but I'm sure it will up my finishing game.

Here's a micro adjuster I added to router table fence to make it easy to dial in the depth of cut for edge banding:

Micro-adjust.jpg

And the edge banding flushing jig for Dewalt trim router:

EB-jig.jpg

Finally, some new right angle clamp blocks. I have a bunch of smaller ones but wanted some larger/beefier ones to help with cabinet assembly:

Clamp-blocks.jpg

If the weather cooperates this week I will be ready to pick up all the plywood and lumber to finish the project. Could have it delivered, but if we get a nice day I'll just go pick it up.

[Myles Moran]

Some of you may remember me asking about retrofitting a riser block to a bandsaw it doesn't fit on. After all the replies in the thread I decided to use a piece of scrap black walnut (it was big enough to make the block and the compression strength was good enough to stand up to the use) and made a riser block just big enough to give me 8.5" of resaw capacity. The $3 for a new bolt was a lot more appetizing than $100 for a riser kit, especially considering that I didn't have much faith that it'd work out. Turns out in this process that I discovered the factory alignment pins weren't too accurate and the frame was out of wack enough that when I straightened it up putting the block in place the cut quality improved dramatically.

Well this weekend I finally got to put it's resaw capacity to the test. I clamped my homemade fence to the table, parallel to the blade. For the first time ever it actually ripped straight, no crazy drift. I had some 8/4 ambrosia maple to resaw, 8" wide. That little 1 HP motor (if it's actually that powerful) sure took it's time to cut the wood, but I was gentle feeding it and was able to get it done. Not the world's best cut quality, but it sure worked just fine. A brand new sharp blade helped a lot. Now I'm able to clean up those boards and glue up some beautiful bookmatched panels. I wouldn't do this if I was making money because damn that machine took it's time. But it was perfectly fine for someone who does this for fun. Especially since I probably won't be doing any cuts that serious again.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Humble little plane iron storage box.

plane iron box.jpg

The body is western red cedar(!) I've had lying around for years. Sides are merely screwed together, albeit jointed, thicknessed, and smoothed. Dividers are 1/8" cherry I bought off the rack at Rockler. So, overall it's a hoedad little project. It taught me not to build with soft wood!

But now I have an organized place for my spare blades for planes, spokeshaves, and scraper, plus that Krenov plane I keep threatening to build. The next project for Shelter in Place is to sharpen all of them, plus those that are now in the tools.