Weekly Blog - August 5th

john · Post by **john** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:59 pm

Well another nice but hot and humid week. Can't get too much of this nice weather.

I finally got off my butt and started doing a few things. A little bit of pest control, a little bit of gardening, some woodworking, and a lot of listening to the NASCAR cars roaring around the track.

First job was to try and evict three nests of wasps/bees that took up residence in various parts of my eaves. Two seem to be destroyed but the third is proving to "bee" more difficult as it is behind the aluminium soffit.

Also got around to sifting the contents of one of my compost bins. Got four bags of compost to put in the garden in the fall. I was a little disappointed that the planer shavings I had put in there were not fully decomposed yet. However they passed through the 1/4" screen so in the garden they will go.

I also finally decided to spruce up the cedar adirondack chairs I had made a few years ago. They were looking kind of grungy so I gave them a pressure wash, staining, and a coat of polyurathane. Actually they looked so bad that my beloved wife wanted to paint them. I convinced her that painted chairs look good on the veranda of an old victorian house but not under the shade of the apple tree. They look somewhat better now but nobody would mistake them for new.

I tried out my new Kreg resaw guide but was not too impressed. I'm sure with a little practice I will come to appreciate it more. Also got around to using my new flipstop gadget to drill the 32 holes need for the spindles of the doll cradle. I must admit that was a good purchase. The first (pine) cradle is about half finished.

Also visited the local lumber yard to pick up some wood for the cradle and while there decided to buy some exterior plywood for outdoor Christmas decorations that are next on the list.

All-in-all , not a bad week. I hope your's was just as good.

Have fun!

John

alancooke · Post by **alancooke** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:09 pm

Hey John, sounds like you've been busy. I'll have to hide your post from the wife or she'll have me fixin up the deck furniture sure enough!:)

I mostly did cleaning up this week after delivering the rocking horse, but did manage to get a bowl turned this weekend.

The wood is Cherry; Finish is Mohoney's Utility Finish (Walnut oil)

Have a great Week!

john · Post by **john** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:20 pm

Alan:

Nice bowl! The coloring and figure are really impressive. Once again you have "turned" out something I have not tried yet.

By-the-way- my wife has long given up on trying to dictate my schedule. It seems I have selective hearing but she knows eventually things get done, maybe.

Have fun

John

scottss · Post by **scottss** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:15 am

I too had a productive weekend. My daughter was in a wedding so that took up most of saturday but I managed to get to my local wood supplier and pick up a 4/4" x 12 1/2" x 14' piece of yellow pine (now if I would have went to home depot or lowes I would still be looking for a decent board).We cut it down at the yard to 8' and 6' pieces and through them inside the escort wagon and headed for home on friday late in the afternoon. Got home and I planed and jointed them up to 3/4" stock and built a curio shelf. Put some stain on it friday night about 9:30pm. Saturday I made another trip in to town and picked up some minwax spray poly and other stuff for the wedding and went home and sprayed it with two coats, sanding lightly inbetween with steel wool. Then about 3:00 we started out for the wedding and I told my wife that just yesterday this piece of furniture was a board sitting in the backseat. We also made a quilt rack the week before which is also pictured. The wedding went well it was outside in the woods and the weather was great 70 degrees and sunny.

john · Post by **john** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:30 am

Scott:

Sounds like you had a busy weekend in more ways than one.

I like the rustic look of knotty pine for many of my projects as well. Usually I get mine at the one of the local box stores. I tend to search for usable boards almost every time I'm in one and buy them as I see them without any specific project in mind. The price difference for dressed pine in this area, is not usually worth my time to plane it. Now hardwood is a very different story.

John

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:33 pm

Be happy the wedding wasn't outside here in MO. We are in the midst of our hottest heat wave of the summer with temps topping out around 100 and heat index near 110. Whew!

reible · Post by **reible** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:59 pm

I spent a bit if time using my old over-arm router as a pin router today.

I had a pile of things to make and promised to have them with me on my next trip to Northern WI (coming up on Thursday). The parts are for a one fifth scale model airplane that is being done made in honor of "Jack Vilas Day". He was an early aviator who used his 1914 Curtiss F boat to look for forest fires in that area. This was the first time this had been done... He also did the first flight across Lake MI and lots of other firsts... Anyway if anyone lives in the area or will be up that way the event is on Aug 11 in Boulder Junction. (No this model will not be flying or even assembled, maybe next year??)

So see if you can figure out the scrap pile from the model parts....

Ed

john · Post by **john** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:31 pm

Ed:

Looks like quite a bit of fine detail work, but isn't amazing how the scrap pile almost always seems bigger that the good pile.

Have a good & safe trip.

John