Weekly Blog - December 1st

john · Post by **john** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:13 pm

Where did the week go? Besides getting snow tires on the second car and doing the semi-annual move of seasonal tools, etc from the garage to the backyard shed, and cleaning the garage to make way for my dear wife's car, (notice who gets priority!), nothing more seems to have been accomplished.

Still working on the six letter openers. They have one coat of tung oil applied and will get some wipe-on ploy tomorrow. Also started on the third cutting board. A couple of my joints weren't quite perfect so I worked around them with the curved edges to get maximun length.

Next step is to get out all my stored projects and compare them to my inventory list to see what I really have ready for the craft sale.

I'll probably complete a couple more small projects but right now haven't got a clue what they will be. The stress is building.

Have a Safe and Fun week!

John

shydragon · Post by **shydragon** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:24 pm

Yeah, know what you mean. Had Thanksqiving with daughter and her six kids, then on Friday replaced the water pump and radiator in the car, Saturday, replaced spark plugs and fuel filter. Sunday and this evening, wired the garage for 20 amp as everyone has suggested here. Previously, had been running off a shared 15 amp plug. Now I can get back to some woodworking.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:35 pm

shydragon wrote:Yeah, know what you mean. Had Thanksqiving with daughter and her six kids, then on Friday replaced the water pump and radiator in the car, Saturday, replaced spark plugs and fuel filter. Sunday and this evening, wired the garage for 20 amp as everyone has suggested here. Previously, had been running off a shared 15 amp plug. Now I can get back to some woodworking.

Pat, you WILL notice the difference!

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:58 pm

Had a good shop week! Finally got the whole phone seat put together. No finish on it yet, but will just brush on several coats of polyurethane. I am happy that this thing went together using only scraps except for the seat and the drawers. Had to buy a 5/4 board for the seat and had enough left to make the drawers. The drawers are 1/2". so did some re-sawing and planing. The drawer fronts are from the scrap pile.

Thanksgiving day was wonderful at the Kids house, down below!

John - Wow! I almost forgot about snow tires. As I remember the ones with sawdust or walnut shells incorporated in the tread worked the best. I was not too thrilled with the steel studded ones I tried.

Following the 1" of rain we managed to squeeze out, the air was moist enough, we also had dew on Thursday and Friday. That's the first dew since last Winter. The records show Lancaster has recorded snowfall, but we never look forward to that. Guess that's one of the benefits, or down sides, of living in So. Cal. - depending on how you look at it.

Here are a couple of photos: The first shows the chair without pulls or finish. The second shows the nice joints made with the Mark V and a 1/4" spiral router bit.
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shydragon · Post by **shydragon** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:29 pm

Really nice. I like seeing photos of members projects

kalynzoo · Post by **kalynzoo** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:15 am

The phone seat looks great. Really nice job. Today the Doc took the staples out of the knee replacement. I'm doing really well, spending my time with physical therapy. Might make it back in the garage/shop next week. Just a few questions on your post...what are snow tires? What is snow? Sorry guys its in the 80's here, and we are still sleeping with the windows open and the fan on. Anyway, looking forward to getting back to finishing the rocking horse...the sonogram of the twins looks good. Happy Thanksgiving.

drl · Post by **drl** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:16 am

Charles,
Really nice looking phone chair. Perfect execution on those joints.
Regarding snow tires: Studded snow tires were legal in Minnesota in the 70's and seemed to work pretty good. They also did an excellent job of tearing up the suface of the roads and have been outlawed. To be honest I don't recall the sawdust/walnut shelled variety of snowtire--were they made by a major tire manufacturer? Probably would have been less destructive to the roads.
Regards,
Dwight

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:48 am

Great looking scrap wood there Chuck. And thanks for the detail photo too.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:08 pm

Nice work, Chuck. It looks like you used some of that 5/4 board for the feet, as well. It all goes together very nicely. Here in WA, steel studded tires are legal from Nov 1 to April 1. Every year there is talk about outlawing them due to the damage they inflict on our roads, but so far it is only talk.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:33 pm

Thanks for your friendly comments on the home designed, scrapwood phone chair. The project allowed me to scratch off one of the "honey do's".

Tim - Yep! The feet are from the 5/4. And then, as an after thought, used the cutoffs from the feet to make a couple support brackets for the back. The supports probably weren't needed, (each of the uprights have loose tenons) but they are now glued and screwed.

Dwight - The walnut shell or sawdust additives to snow tires were available only on re-treads. These additives gave a softer road surface to the tires, giving improved traction.

However, in my more elderly years, I would prefer to "side up" with Gary, in that I would prefer to get along with out knowing about such things as snow tires. They fall into the category of deep rooted memories and reminiscences that only pop out with prodding.