What did you do today?

[Tom King]

We had a pretty good rain right after lunch, so it softened up the ground enough that I was able to cut the high inside of the cut down another 6" by tilting the box blade.  

Picture from the tractor seat is going down one incline, and the other picture is after the last cut.  I think it's probably good enough.  I would have been able to do better if I hadn't sold my grading blade a few years ago, but I thought I didn't need it anymore, and got tired of people asking me to do favors with it.

That's a 7' box blade, so the parking area is about 15' wide.

 

[BillyJack]

Porch swing assembly..

[Von]

Having decided the Kapex I bought is going to become my main miter saw, I dug into my old Delta to figure out why its been making bad sounds lately and to determine if it's trash or still usable to someone. I quickly figured out it was a laser line add-on I installed a number of years ago and forgot about, probably when it quit working. The add-on replaced the stock washer and clearly started allowing the blade to slip/grind at some point. With the add-on removed and the washer re-installed, the saw is sounding good now and I'm going to see if Habitat wants it.

[Immortan D]

Learning how to use my new #55. Not the easiest plane to use but I'm making progress.

 

[pkinneb]

Damn that's pretty sweet!!

[legenddc]

Yesterday I unclogged my wife's sunroof drains. I thought her AC drain line was clogged causing the condensation to pool in the passenger footwell. Blew that line out and all seemed fine until I checked the floor again. Ran an extra air-hose up from our basement out to the car, shoved a straw into the drain hole and blew it out. 

I've now had to clear out both of our sunroof drains. Not going to the office 5x a week and parking in a garage there really lets the pollen accumulate on our cars. Will have to remember to check the drains once a year. Borrowing my sister's spot cleaner vac next week to pull out any mold from the floor.

[BillyJack]

Trying to get my rec room back.. I stopped using it when I went to work at the furniture company and it’s been getting used more for storage. 

[legenddc]

@BillyJack - When's the big roofing job? You seem to be in Chestnut gear lately. 

[BillyJack]

On 7/19/2023 at 12:16 PM, legenddc said:

@BillyJack - When's the big roofing job? You seem to be in Chestnut gear lately. 

My house.. March

 

[gee-dub]

Decanted a gallon of shellac into glass mason jars.  Used my 'between projects' time to pick up and find an actual place for those sneaky random items that like to snow-drift up into corners and inappropriate spaces in the shop.  Put up my 'no soliciting' sign.

Hosed off the picnic benches and other outdoor furniture following a grandchild's birthday party.  Moved some plants from store containers to their permanent pots and planters. Talked LOML into making biscuits and gravy for lunch.  Typed up this post and that's about it.

[Von]

I started on my new shop storage cabinet and borrowed @gee-dub's technique:

It worked well. Only tricky bit is sanding the corner and side where the spindle wants to push the piece out from the fence. A gentle touch is needed (or if you are smarter than me, mark your lines on both sides and flip the piece over).

[JohnG]

Took the day off to make some headway on my basement project. I have the bedroom to a functional state, it just needs some mud and paint and then will be done, so today I worked on the bathroom.

Put up drywall on the ceiling and the two stud walls, ran the electrical for the vanity light, GFCI outlet, ceiling light and exhaust fan. Installed the vanity light, switches, outlet. Exhaust fan will go in later, once I figure out where to run the duct. Plumbed the tub drain and tub faucet/shower. Had to find my solder and flux for my first sweat joints in years. Pex makes me enjoy plumbing work but the tub fixtures ‘required’ copper pipe for a couple parts. 

Installed the toilet, vanity/sink, and shower curtain rod. Will have to undo/redo some of it later so I can out down the tile, but we have company coming tomorrow so I wanted to get it functional. 
 

[wtnhighlander]

First time in the shop in weeks.

Cody wants to make a 'wizard staff' like he saw someone make on the History Channel series, 'Alone'. Of course, it has to come from the cross tie cant that @Spanky gave him.

At least it is small enough to go through myband saw now, but it wasn't that much faster than by hand. 

After we sliced off this plank, I ripped in into 2 blanks he can work with.

[Coop]

@Spanky would be proud! Yeah Cody! 
Now I’ve gotta Google wizard staff.

[wtnhighlander]

Apologies to all of you, who's Organizational OCD was triggered by that first photo!

 

[BillyJack]

Spent all day yesterday entertaining kids for my grand daughters 6th birthday party. I had four girls and two boys for about 5 hours. Those kids were not stop. We decided next year we would try something different. 

[Tom King]

It may not look like it, but this is a major advance in organization.  My BIL helped me move a lot of stuff out of this shop building, and I gave away a lot of scrap metal.  I'm now able to store two planers, two radial arm saws, and two table saws in there, all on casters so I can use them if I need to, and have room to walk with at least the left side of the building organized so I can get to everything.

Not only that in the left side, but this is the first time in months that I've been able to park the lawn mower inside that door.

Next job to finish the install of the sharpening sink in the right side.

 

[pkinneb]

After several failed attempts turning pins for these cribbage boards I finally had success 

I tried several time between centers but they are so small they kept breaking then it dawned on me (after thinking about it for weeks) that I could use my Nova chuck with dowel stock so I gave it a whirl and it worked!

With the test successful I cut up up some stock and turned the dowels at the TS. Hopefully I can get these knocked out in the next week, I'll need a total of 27 pins for the three boards.

To make the dowels I cut 1/2" x 1/2" blanks

Then set the Elkhead Tools jig up on the table saw. With it adjusted you hand feed in just far enough to get an 1" or so that you can chuck in a cordless drill.

Then run them through

Nice 3/8" dowels in any species you need. The left is the original blank I use for set up the one on the right is the test dowel. the 6 in the middle are what I'll use for this project.

[Mark J]

I'll mention a couple of points that may not be relevant.   

Too much tailstock pressure can be a problem when turning skinny spindles.

If your stock is reasonably square it can be mounted directly into a 4 jaw chuck--the corners fit into the gaps between jaws.  But that dowel making jig is hyper cool.  If I had one I'd be making excuses to use it.  

[BillyJack]

On 7/19/2023 at 12:16 PM, legenddc said:

@BillyJack - When's the big roofing job? You seem to be in Chestnut gear lately. 

My brother made a comment to me one time that stuck. Do spring projects in the spring and leave the winter projects  for cold weather.

 

So if I want to paint  a room in the house, it’s gonna wait till winter. 

[legenddc]

On 7/24/2023 at 1:46 PM, BillyJack said:

My brother made a comment to me one time that stuck. Do spring projects in the spring and leave the winter projects  for cold weather.

 

So if I want to paint  a room in the house, it’s gonna wait till winter. 

And that's why our Christmas lights come down anytime the week or two after Christmas if it's 55+ outside. My wife isn't always thrilled but it beats taking them down when it's 25 out.

Glad to see the birthday party went well. 6 year olds are a lot to handle in large groups. We try to keep them outside on the playground as much as possible.

[BillyJack]

The girls are princesses and the boys are hulks. The one boy layed all his sweet tarts on the table and it looked like he was trying to snort them up. When I got a better look he was licking them off the table. My jaw dropped..
 

[tperson]

finished (or almost finished) two tractor projects over the weekend. 

this is the culmination of 4 years of work

and 12yrs of work here: 

 

also bought the next two winters' projects: 

and the big one: 

[pkinneb]

On 7/24/2023 at 8:20 AM, Mark J said:

If your stock is reasonably square it can be mounted directly into a 4 jaw chuck--the corners fit into the gaps between jaws.  

LOL ya know I probably should have known that 

[Tom King]

Nice looking Internationals!!

This old man built a kayak and paddleboard rack between breakfast and lunch this morning.  I still have some trimming up to do on it, but that will wait until another morning in the shade.

It must have taken five minutes to dig each hole that normally would have taken a few seconds, but it was nothing but roots, so I let the tractor auger sit and bounce until it chewed its way through.