Shopsmith Forums

Another nice week, mostly, and much to do. The kids tried to give us a weekend in Burlington, Vt as a father's day gift and to get us away from the noise of the Montreal Grand Prix race but there was no room at the inn or anywhere for that matter. I think it must have been graduation weekend down there. So we stayed home and listened to the Whine of F1 cars for three days. We live less than a mile "as the crow flies" from the site. After thirty years we are almost used to it.

Reconnected with a WW'g friend whom I hadn't seen for a couple of years. At the time I felt he was more into buying tools than woodwprking but he has since discovered pen making. Now he is hooked and has quite a collection of nice looking pens, bottle stoppers, etc. He mentioned that he can do a pen in less than an hour so it keeps him interested.

That got me to thinking, maybe this is the answer to my short attention span:D . Besides I had bought a couple of bottle stopper pieces last year but never got around to making any. So, I cut a couple of practice blanks and tried my hand. First the home-made mandrel I made (from instructions) out of 1/4" threaded rod didn't grip my workpiece so it just stopped turning when I tried to shave it. The second blank I tried to fit between the lathe ends that came with my 510. I soon found out that even with the quill extended fully I could not work a 2" piece with the standard tool rest. So much for bottle stoppers until I get a shorter tool rest.

With the nice weather, I didn't get back to the charging station until Friday when it rained. The box pieces have been stained and are awaiting the last coat of wipe-on poly (tonight). I changed the assembly a bit to gain 1/4" but will now use glue and brads to hold it together instead of screws as there is not enough of a rabbet to hold screws. I will also wait until the box is completed before cutting the other pieces to final length as the dimensions are changed somewhat. Still haven't found a short power bar but there are alternatives. I also could not find a ball catch as per the plans, but found something I think I can use to keep the access panel closed.


The summer weather and associated chores, is making it harder to get in the shop so I may cut back on the "blogs". I will post a picture of the charging station though if and when it is completed.

Have a Safe and Fun week(s).

John

This week we made two trips down to "The Valley". Only 120 and 160 mile round way trips, so could make them on one tank of gas - getting to be a major consideration! The second trip was for our Son's 50th birthday celebration. The first trip was for wood. Got the 50 bf of poplar, so now I'm set for a couple, maybe three more shutters. I was particular pleased when finding the wood is all at 7% MC. Just right!!:)

In the shop, I found my brain had lost it's planning part and after getting the shutter rails all sized, except for trimming to length. I trimmed them to their finished size and cut off the wood for tenons. After sitting down and beating on my head, the lost brain part jumped back in and I realized I could do floating tenons. Actually this would be easier, as I could make mortises on the rail ends with the OPR and also round off the edges of the tenons while set up. Those operations were done today.

Finished necessary filling and sanding on the louvers. They are ready to go except mounting and painting.

Stiles now have their mortises - next comes routing beads while the before taking down the OPR and then drilling the louver mounting holes. After that it's dry assemble time!

I'm finally, after many years starting to understand why woodworking magazines tend to not publish regularly during summer. Many, probably most of us don't do much woodworking in the summer, while kids are out of school. I hadn't ever understood that schedule, as all of my working years were very summer intensive. Our family always had our vacations in the winter. (January trips to Old Faithful" , mountain tops on snowmobiles, etc.)

Now I'm beginning to understand that most folks do most of their outside stuff in the summer. We still don't! Our trips, sight seeing, travels are still done in the Winter seasons. Only these days we stay in the South!

For us - it has now become the season for woodworking! Just turn on the A/C and it's happy times in the shop.

John - I've had similar problems trying to locally find little hardware items for magazine projects. Any more I'll use the "sources listing" of their projects and order on the internet. Unless their sources are expensive out of reason. Then if I can't find a substitute, the project will not get done.

The only thing I dislike about turning is that the projects don't last very long. Guess that feature is a good thing for lots of guys. You aren't the only one! To me the little turnings are so nifty, I wish they had not appeared so quickly.

Your problem with the bottle stoppers is also not unique. I believe Paul M. Cohen has posted several ways to fix this problem.