Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

1 Mar 2021

Greetings,
While the day job not going well, I found and bought a new-to-me tool. Powermatic scrollsaw.
powermatic_scrollsaw.jpg

I got it for next to night and everything works on it except for the upper blade clamp. It needs a little attention to get it working again, but that's minor compared to what I paid for it.
The snow and ice is gone now and today, we have storms with a tornado watch and flash flood warning. My youngest son left for military duty as he has been here on leave for a few weeks. It was really nice having him home and spending time with him before his next duty station.

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

Best of weeks to you all.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Nice find, Dennis. Sorry you’re having trouble at work, I know how much your new boss has been on your mind.
This week I finally finished my new garden gate.
Plumbed the fence and garage sides, and started a few weeks ago with 8’ 4x4 timber’s, pressure treated.
The width is 54”, height 64”. Left the sides long and cut bridle joints at 55” for the top, and half laps for the bottom; pegged the joints with 1/2” dowels. Because everything is PT, the sucker is HEAVY! I even let the timbers dry in my heated basement and still .....
Slotted the pieces and let in cedar boards into the grooves.
4 hinges. Swings like a jazz band, solid as a rock.
Never want to fix that gate again.

[Rod Sheridan]

I sanded and stained the 3 oak cabinet doors I made, ordered the glass and made the beveled strips to hold the glass in place. I don't think the shaper was sweating making them, I even dug up an Imperial rule for scale in the photograph.......Next up is varnishing them......Rod.

Strip.jpg

[Eugene Dixon]

Sealed up 24' of foundation wall (between piers). And sheetrock work.

Need to figure out how to cap the top of cinder blocks where the sill plate is narrow and doesn't cover the cells.

[Jim Fox]

Week of small things for me. Finished up some floating lamps, concrete and walnut. Not sure why I did them, but they are done. Built a frame for a white board in my shop. Always wanted one, but we'll see how much use it gets. Rusted and clear coated some raw metal self brackets for a bathroom project. Just need to spray the cherry shelves.

[Paul F Franklin]

I completed varnishing my desk tops and got the battens aligned and attached to the undersides of the tops. The alignment had to be dead on as the battens slip into the tops of the two pedestals and are used to fasten the tops to the pedestals. Set up the pedestals in proper alignment and used a story stick to get the placement and spacing of the battens correct. I also cut some leather squares and glued them to the bottoms of the pedestal legs to prevent marring the office floor. I'm a little worried about the leather being too slick, but the desks are heavy and I don't think they'll slide around too easily.

All that remains on the tops is boring holes for the pop up power station and rectangular brush grommet for cable pass through. I have the power pop-ups but am waiting for the brush grommets to make sure I get the hole dimensions correct. They should be here today. Kind of hesitant to bore two big-ish holes in my nice tops, but for a working desk I really want the convenience. I'll make a template and use the router to make the holes. Once that's done, I can assemble the desks up in the office and we can start using them while I make the drawers and drawer fronts.

Eugene: If you will be building stud walls in front of your block walls, use two layers of plywood to both fill the gap above your block and serve as top plate for the walls. This is a three-for...you cover the block cells, you get a top plate, and you get the required fire stop at the top of the wall since the plywood bridges the space. Gun some construction adhesive on the front edge of the sill before sliding the plywood in and fastening it to the joists above. Of course you can still use plywood to cover the cells even if you aren't building a stud wall in front.

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, I hope things improve with the day-job for sure. And it's great that your son was able to be home so long between duty assignments!

So for woodworking, I did a tiny little job on the CNC, but most of my time was spent with a minor refresh of my office here in the house. A nice coat of paint and a vinyl strip floor that is "office chair" worthy. It feels a little weird with a lot less stuff in here...but I should have done this long ago. I have some more minor refresh things going on throughout the house that I'll continue to work on now that this job it done. Of course, there's a reason for that...

This is where the new shop will go...somewhere in that yard. There's a house that comes with it...one that's much more compact than this one. Downsize is upon us. Vaway Scawwy...

NewShop.jpg

[Charles Taylor]

I've been spending my workshop time on my kitchen hutch project, or kitchen buffet project, whichever I ought to be calling it. Mostly prefinishing pieces (and making a few more) before I begin to assemble the buffet.