Weekly Blog - June 1st

[john]

Most of the week was spent outside again. Morning paper and coffe on the swing, a little bit of work, lunch, a little bit of work, coffee & cookies on the adirondack chairs, a little bit of work, etc, etc. It's a hard life, but one I am thankful for.

Not too much to report on the ww projects. A little progress on the charging station, but it will be a bit shorter than planned. Due to another of my usual errors in calculation/measurement, the back pieces are cut about 3/4" short. I will have to go to one of the local stores to scope out the lengths of power bars to see if I can find one to fit in the revised space. If not, I guess I will have to remake the these pieces.

I'm also having a little difficulty with the plans. I won't go into details, but I may have to read them instead of just looking at the pictures.

Shhh.... don't mention the stable.

Have a Fun and Safe week!

John

[alancooke]

Hey John,

Man, I can't wait until I get to live the 'Hard Life' like you

I'm finally back in the shop for a real project,though. My second G.Daughter's b'day is next month so my wife moved her rocking horse to the top of my priority list. Gotta love those grandbabies!

Don't worry about the mistakes, we all have our difficulties. Mine is the forgotten item. Even if I make a list, I still forget at least one item every time I go to the store. If gas keeps going up, I may have to move closer to the store:mad:

BTW, don't start reading the directions, you'll give us guys a bad name:eek:

[kalynzoo]

We just purchased a short power bar (maybe 8") for use with the laptop from Fry's Electronics. Another source is cyberguys.com under surge protectors. They have a 4 outlet bar, but it does not give dimensions on the web.
Spent the weekend at my son's helping with the finish work on his kitchen remodel. The youngest son flew back to Sacramento on Saturday (he's 21), back to college and work. Weather here is perfect. All in All it was a really nice week.

[charlese]

John - It's neet that you are taking the time to enjoy your yard your Spring weather. It is a little to chilly for me to get out to the patio table in the mornings, but do enjoy the leisurely breakfast indoors. 40 degrees in morning, but soon warms up to near 80 by noon. Our dew point has been hanging around 35 degrees, so it's pretty dry.

I feel your "shortage" - seems I've also had a shortage issue. Pun intended. See below.

This week's post has some sawdust news. In fact I don't know where all the sawdust came from. I really do, but from the small amount of progress, on the next shutter, I'm surprised the DC bag is almost full again.

It was kind of a strange week. Talk about not knowing what day it is, or just plain losing a day! - - In my case every day seemed as if I was going backwards. Almost like watching a movie backward, in slow motion.

After ordering 50 Bd.Ft. of poplar I searched for and found what I thought was enough scraps to finish making the needed 38 louvers. About half of the 1/2" louver blanks I had stored over winter had taken on a warp. Not too much, but enough to make most of them non-usable without additional work. There were 20 blanks total - all over length by 8". About 10 of these were almost straight after cutting to length. Others needed to be face jointed, face glued and planed down to 1/2".

Found enough 5/4 poplar to joint, re-saw and plane to new louver blanks to make a total of 35. Then search the shop again and found a few old louvers, and wondered why they were culled out in the last operation. Then routed all the blanks to the tapered shape. I was happy, because we'd reached the magic number of 38.

Went into the shop this morning and had planned to sand, and drill all holes in the 38 louvers. Here's where the comedy begins. Finally realized I had not trimmed to length the louvers that came from the stored blanks that were straight. So, having saved the stop block's position on the miter gauge bar, This was going to be a snap. Cut those to length and then found that the stop block was set 1/64th" too long. (better than too short) While re-setting and trimming all louvers, I found that the culls I had rescued were all too short. So I was down to 34.

Should I proceed with sanding and drilling those, and making the last 4 when the new wood gets here? Decided no, because all the poplar in the shop was stable at 6% moisture content. Just don't know the condition of the coming wood. So bit the bullet and started working the worst warped (winter stored) blanks into straight blanks. Used every clamp in the shop and glued up 4 more new blanks. Only let them cure for two hours before planing and routing, but it seems to have worked. (usually wait overnight before machining)

This afternoon sanded all 38. Now maybe tomorrow I can drill the 76 end holes and the 76 pilots for staple holes. Hope the hole jig continues to hold up!

We go down to Canoga Park to pick up the new poplar wood on Wednesday. Then "Katie bar the door!".

[john]

Alan:

If you can get a rocking horse finished in one month, you are a lot more disciplined than I am. It is a fun and rewarding project though, doubly rewarding when it is going to a grandchild. Good luck with it.

Gary:

An 8" power bar is just what I need but after visiting three stores this morning, I could only find 6 outlet units that measure 10" +. The plans call for a space of 10" but my mistake reduces it to 9 1/4" if I follow the plans. I can get it back to ten by just using butt joints but it wouldn't look as nice. I've already suggested a trip to Platsburgh, N.Y. to my dear wife, for a day's outing and lunch at Applebees, (secretly to look for a PB but she probably knows).

Chuck:

By the time I have breakfast, etc and move outdoors with the paper, it is usually closer to mid-morning and the temperature is about 55 - 60 so it's not too bad with a shirt and cap, at least if the sun is shining.

Sorry to hear about your warping and other problems. On a project that size it would be much nicer if everything went as planned. But then we wouldn't be challenged, and isn't that half the fun (sic).

John

[charlese]

Chuck:

By the time I have breakfast, etc and move outdoors with the paper, it is usually closer to mid-morning and the temperature is about 55 - 60 so it's not too bad with a shirt and cap, at least if the sun is shining.

Sorry to hear about your warping and other problems. On a project that size it would be much nicer if everything went as planned. But then we wouldn't be challenged, and isn't that half the fun (sic).

John

It is indeed a vague memory, when I thought 40 to 50 degrees to be warm. I guess it would be O.K. with the sun and no wind. No wind? Not here!

All of the issues I had with the louver blanks were entirely self made. The relative humidity changes, are not to blame for the warping. I had neglected to properly watch the grain, properly joint and cut them to length, before storing. Just wanted to post all of that whining, to join in on the miseries (if you will) of the average woodworker, while we enjoy our hobby! It all amounted to simply another operation(s) that had to be done in order to get to an end point.

I always try to think of each operation as being a whole project! That way I can complete each project (sub-project) every few days. The more sub-projects, the longer time I can enjoy making the big project.

Just finished a whole sub-project today! 152 precisely located holes. Now need to kill time before going for wood on Wednesday. Guess I'll go vote then try to organize the shop.

[perryobear]

Hi guys,

Well, the “light at the end of the tunnel” on my Family Room project that I mentioned last week did indeed turn out to be an on-coming train (courtesy of "China Railways").

My wife finished painting the wainscoting on schedule, but then I remembered that the capping around the stair opening down to the basement had to be installed before the new flooring. Oops. Completing that task and cleaning out the room put the start of the flooring installation behind schedule just a bit.

I established the baseline for the hardwood flooring and started the installation. Things progressed OK until about the fifth row when I noticed that the point of a flooring cleat had COME OUT THRU THE TOP SURFACE one of the flooring pieces in the row. My first thought was that I had the bad luck of the cleat randomly striking the head of a nail in the subfloor. But as I removed a couple of flooring pieces to get back to the piece with the offending cleat I found that ALL of the 2” long cleats had bent (beyond the intended angle that they were driven at) such that they barely penetrated into the subfloor a best, and at worst didn’t penetrate thru the ¾” flooring at all. Apparently the first two sticks of cleats out of the box were OK, and the rest? I substituted Bostitch cleats (made in Canada, John ) did a test installation with an already ruined piece of flooring to prove to myself that it was indeed the cleats (and not me or the nailer), and got back to work.

Long story short, several ruined pieces of flooring, several boxes of Made in China, 2” floor cleats headed for the trash can, and lots of frustration and time lost. End of the story, only about 1/3 of the flooring got installed. Hopefully I’ll have better luck next weekend.

John,

Sounds to me like you are leading the “good life” ... enjoy! I hope you find a power strip that fits your charging station project.

Alan,

Rocking horses are a great project; fun to make and even more fun to watch in action with a grandchild in the saddle! I look forward to seeing a photo or two.

Chuck,

I like your method of trying to think of each “operation” as being a whole project. I think that having measurable results along with a sense of completion at reasonable intervals does make the overall task more enjoyable. (Now if I could only convince the managers at work to adopt the same way of thinking. )

Hope everyone has a great week!

Regards to all,
Dennis

[charlese]

.....having measurable results along with a sense of completion at reasonable intervals does make the overall task more enjoyable. (Now if I could only convince the managers at work to adopt the same way of thinking. )

Regards to all,
Dennis

Yeah! It's a good thing when managers to see the benefits of the 'Critical Path Method'. But then they go and introduce time requirements.
It is when time restraints get introduced that my CPM goes astray!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_path_method