The Sometime Blog - July 14th

[john]

Another extended period with no real attention to woodworking. However I have managed to knock off a couple more items on the to-do list. That besides a lot of time on my knees trying to pull "creeping charlie" from my lawn. We live in an area where using pesticdes and herbicides is banned, and though I agree with it most of the time, not when I'm on my knees, and especially not when I try to get up. I do cheat every one in a while, but the "charlie" is had to eliminate with one application.

I also tried to make my canoe look spiffy as we are headed to the cottage in Vermont this coming weekend but it didn't come out as nice as usual. Actually it still looks like, ...., well you know. I'll probably go to one of the local stores to see if I can find a better fibreglass refurbisher than the one I am using.

On the subject of the cottage, I had hoped to order some things from Shopsmith while I am there but the current sales catalogue dosen't offer much of what I may be interested in. I will probably order one of the fence mounted featherboards, but not sure what else. If the conical disk had been on sale I would have been interested in that. I will order a couple of things from Rockler as well, including the ball catches that I need for the charging station.

The new issue of Wood Magazine has a nice kid's crane that I thought I would like to make for the fall craft show, but last night I started calculating the cost and reached $41 and counting. I guess that's out as I doubt I would be able to sell it for what it would be worth. Worse still, my youngest grandson is getting too old for it and is more into electronic toys now.

I still intend to get back to toy making as when I see an item like the crane mentioned above, I get the urge. I am attaching a picture of one of my previous projects. Two, made with cherry and maple as shown, went to a couple of grandsons and I made a pine version that sold in a craft sale. It also is a Wood Mag plan.

I also wish I was in a position to attend the festivities in Dayton this coming weekend. Maybe if it repeated next year, I can try to schedule some vacation time in the area. Of course "The Boss" will have to be consulted.

Have a Fun and Safe week(s)

John

[rolands]

Good job. Nice looking dump truck.

[charlese]

Boy! I got a wee bit of a shock finding the "Sometime Blog" in the Community section rather than the "General Woodworking" location. However, it looks good here also, so a Blog is a Blog!

John- That is a beautiful dump truck! It looks professionally done! It's easy to understand why you kept it in the family. Here's hoping you can get rid of the pesky creeping charlie under control. (Gotta watch out for those creeping charlies - He-He!) Down here, as we want to save irrigation water. (Some of us do anyway) We took the opportunity to put down rock over water penetrable fabric. The initial cost was a little higher than turf, but the maintenance is almost zilch! Dust/sand gets between the rocks and an occasional weed starts, but the roots don't get a good hold on that fabric, so they are easy to pull.

Well - Don't you just hate an idle shop! I do! Our guest comes next week, so the finished shutter sits in the shop while I try not to mar it. Made a couple of hanging drawers this past week. The kind that hang on 'L' hooks into peg board. Might get around to making another this week. Depends on the scrap I can cobble together. Small projects only. Now is the time I had more turning material. Whoops - just remembered the Banksia Pods. Now there's an idea! Actually - just thought of more things than will get done prior to getting to the next shutter.

Speaking of scrap - I asked my Daughter-in-law if she wanted about two bushels of wood scraps for her school kids. Surprise! She said yes! After emptying the garbage barrel got the stuff into two large cardboard boxes. Now the only problem is to lift them - into the car.

Had extra time on my hands, so put labels on all of the shelves. Even filled the new ones, by separating stuff I had bunched together. Even the dial indicator and its bar fit into one of the new spaces. Seems like I need another 100 new shelves and this shop will be organized. Maybe can get by with some fewer than that.

Today got started on my first torsion box. It is small and will be a shelf. Not pretty, but functional for our little pets.

Speaking of pets, I noticed that some of us have cats. Have any of you cat lovers ever tried salting some of that SS partially slit cardboard packing material with a little catnip? Boy oh Boy! It makes a great cat toy and mobile scratching place.

[john]

Thanks for the compliments guys. This was one of the first hardwood trucks that I made. I had done some others earlier in pine that were a little more rustic. I liked the design of the cab for the dump truck better than the others so I sort of married the two designs and used a modified cab/tractor to make a line of them in pine, heavy equip carrier, logging truck, and tanker. Also added some features to the drivers so they look happy in their work. Tried adding pics but I'm told the file is too large.

Chuck:

I thought since there would be little woodworking content in the blog it fit better in the community segment.

It's amazing how 1/2 - 1 hour a day on ones knees can get rid of the weed. Maybe by summer's end I will have it all done, for this year.

I started looking at the SS sales catalogue in detail last night and am up to five items, though none major, totalling about $125. Hopefully they will all be available as my time is limited to three weeks.

I salute you on having the shop organized. I only wish I had that disipline so I could do the same. Maybe then I could find things.

Have fun.

John