Shopsmith Forums

No hockey last Friday so we took a weekend trip down to Burlington, Vt for some shopping and a meal at the Outback. Shopping was OK but was really topped off for the dear wife when we managed to score some turkey (not me:D ) for $0.47/lb. Christmas dinner for our gang is now all set. The Outback dosen't have outlets up here so we enjoy a little some thing different on these trips. The only disappointment was the price of gas. A variety of circumstances made it only about 10 -15 cents a gallon cheaper than at home instead of the usual 50 - 80 cents. Unfortunately there are no real interesting woodworking stores in that area so I had to do with the "big boxes". Too bad someone like Rockler or Woodcraft didn't have something in the area.

Another interesting feature was seeing a number of "charging stations" for sale at prices much higher than I thought I could have chared for the one I made earlier. I will have to keep that in mind for the future. The nicest one I saw was in the Brookstone Store. I love that place, gadget heaven.

I managed to make a new top for the wine rack and am now struggling with a colour for it before assembly. I am looking for a dark reddish colour. I have tried a couple of combinations but aren't that happy with them so I now have a piece of scrap pine that I have stained ebony and will apply a coat of cherry to one side and walnut to the other to see if I can come up with something acceptable.

I have also been back to cutting blanks for bread knives. Cut two maple one last night and will do two cherry ones tonight or tomorrow. That will give me a total of seven to offer at my craft sale in a couple of weeks.

I would like to try turning bottle stoppers again but I think I need smaller chisels. The SS ones seem a little large for the small projects, at least for me they do.

Well time to apply the colours on my sample block.

Have a Safe and Fun week!

John

Hi Folks! Have to report this past week in Lancaster has been kind of a bummer. Seems my motivation has gotten up and motivated! Maybe it is the onset of cooler weather. It has actually rained here and there have been clouds for the past week. Usually we enjoy a clear sky with a few vapor trails and an occasional cirrus cloud. Can't say I'm ready yet for colder weather.

My current project of the phone seat did get to the point of assembling the carcass. With the over engineered joints, it was like assembling a puzzle. The last step in gluing required assembly of too many pieces, but found the glue to be not set up for long enough to get the job done. This was a an excellent lesson on how to make something real simple seem real difficult.

So far the project has used only scrap materials, but now have to go buy some wood stock for the seat and base.

Oh yeah! had another small project. One of our grandson's birthdays is coming up soon and we haven't been able to get a hint from him on what he wants. So with three pieces of wood, made a hollow "chunk of coal" for him. It'll contain money.

Saw an add in the local paper for a "Shopsmith with jigsaw - make an offer". I had dreams of finding an old Mark V that could be turned into a shorty. It turned out to be an old 10ER in good shape for $50. Didn't buy it, but I have the number to call if someone else is interested.