What did you do today?

[legenddc]

Wirebrush and spray paint was my plan. Was hoping there was a shortcut since it’s over 90 degrees out here. 

[Coop]

I watched Sling Blade again. Much better the second time ariund. Ummm....mmmm! 

[Mick S]

Watched the sun go down and got ready to smoke some meat tomorrow.

[Coop]

Awesome view Mick! Without getting too personal, tell us a bit about your property. 

[Mick S]

11 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Awesome view Mick! Without getting too personal, tell us a bit about your property. 

Yeah, we love it here. Admittedly it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but you'd have to blast me out of here with a bomb to get me to leave.

We both grew up in west TX (Midland - heart of Texas oil country), flat, dry, but wide open skies. We were living in NC, which has its own beauty, and were planning to retire near Asheville, but Alison missed the horizon - everywhere we looked was mostly trees, so we decided to look into Santa Fe. Both of our families had cabins in NM growing up, so we were familiar and comfortable here.

We're on a little under 5 acres about 15 miles ESE of Santa Fe, right at 7000' altitude. We have a lot more room than we need or deserve. The main house is true adobe brick construction, 3/2 with a study, 3 fireplaces. We have a separate casita with kitchen, bath and a loft bedroom (my next project is a Murphy bed for the casita) and an attached storage room. My shop is across a breezeway from the casita and also has an attached garage that doubles as my wood storage, dust collector room, etc. Frankly we bought the house in no small part because of the shop. I had a little concern when we looked at it because the shop had been in use as an artist studio - halogen spot lighting, curtains, etc., but it was a good space. The electrical panel was painted shut so I couldn't see what kind of service it had. After our offer was accepted I flew back out here for the inspection and had the guy remove the panel. On the inside of the door was listed: Jointer, Planer, Dust collector, Tablesaw. I knew I was home.

This area is used a lot for film locations - Longmire, Magnificent Seven, Independence Day, Godless and lots of others. It has a unique beauty, particularly the light. It's a magnet for artists because of the light. Georgia O'Keefe and lots of the Russian artists of the early 20th century came here to paint. There are more art galleries than restaurants. Santa Fe has ~ 75,000 to 85,000 people depending on the season and it's 3rd in art galleries, behind NYC and LA. It's the second oldest city in the country, older than Jamestown. There's a store downtown that has "Established in 1603" on its sign.

[Tpt life]

Hey Mick, after a few years of 40 to 25, we mixed it up this year. White Sands, Alamogordo, and up 54 was the most beautiful drive through NM I have seen that is not around Santa Fe. One of these years I will try to connect and buy you coffee. 

[Mick S]

 

1 hour ago, Tpt life said:

Hey Mick, after a few years of 40 to 25, we mixed it up this year. White Sands, Alamogordo, and up 54 was the most beautiful drive through NM I have seen that is not around Santa Fe. One of these years I will try to connect and buy you coffee. 

That's a pretty drive. Alison and her siblings have a cabin in Ruidoso, so we frequently do that drive. We also take it when we go down to The Gage Hotel in Marathon, TX. Beats the *&#* out of taking 285 through Carlsbad south. The oil field traffic on that road puts your life in jeopardy!

 

[Gary Beasley]

The wife decided our supply of pens had dwindled a bit too much and we were going to make a few more. She picked out several kits and blanks from the bins for me to work on then proceeded to take up her supervisory position in her armchair in the shop while I worked on them. Wound up assembling an old Navigator kit with some snakeskin blanks that had been finished and bagged with the kit for some reason. Then I made an Olympian with Honduran Rosewood, a Wall Street II with Curly Redwood, a Cigar with Himalayan Teal Burl, another Cigar with an unknown burl,  a Comfort twist with Black Mesquite and another Comfort twist with stabilized crosscut spalted poplar. Had another Comfort that failed because the tranny wouldn't go into the upper barrel, don't know if the upper tube was too small or the tranny too big.

[Llama]

Moved my tablesaw and waxed the Felder. 

[Gary Beasley]

I had an afternoon with my bandsaw. The other day when cutting pen blanks to size I noticed an unusual wobble in the blade, so this morning I took a close look at it and found a crack going about 80% across the width which finished falling apart after I took it off the machine. That necessitated a trip to Woodcraft where I bought two Starrett 105” 3/8” 3tpi hook tooth blades, dropping a size from the half inch I took off the machine with the idea of getting better results cutting bowl blanks. Once I got the blade on the machine and was setting the rollers I discovered when I raised the guide all the way the blade no longer centered  between the bearings. Apparently the top end was tipped down a bit so the guide bar angled in by an eighth of an inch at the bottom. After an hour of finagling ( thats a highly technical term) I wound up adding a .070” shim under the front of the riser and a bit on the right side at the top to get the bar mostly parallel to the blade. I tried a bit of resawing to test it and got excellent results. I did manage to ruin one of my new $20 blades when I tried to cut an 9” block of cherry with insufficient tension and jammed the blade in the cut. Bent the crap out of it getting it unstuck. Live and learn. I did get four nice 8” bowl blanks from that chunk of wood, its nice being able to cut a proper curve without leaving flat spots cause the blade wouldn't take the turn. 

[Chestnut]

For the northern hemisphere folk the weather should be nice, so a reminder to consider cleaning your DC filter. Mine had a good amount of dust in it from the last year.

[Mark J]

Geez!  I thought that was a Saharan sandstorm.

 

So how do you clean yours?  do you blow compressed air from the outside in, or down the center.

 

 

[Chestnut]

1 minute ago, Mark J said:

Geez!  I thought that was a Saharan sandstorm.

 

So how do you clean yours?  do you blow compressed air from the outside in, or down the center.

 

 

Oneida and GE the supplier and manufacturer for the filters claim that noting over 40 PSI should be directed at the filter material. I took my leaf blower and blew are down the inside while rolling the filter on my lawn and firmly tapping on the top. I make sure to not point the air directly at the filter and instead blow down the pleats on the inside. It was pretty bad this time. I imagine that it's because it's the first full year with my drum sander.

Because it was so humid the dust settled out before it left my property ... mostly so i doubt anyone around me even noticed. That and there were a ton of people burning fresh twigs and leaves from storm damaged trees from a strong storm on Monday.

[Mark J]

Taking my filter off isn't that hard, but lifting it up while guiding it back into place is super difficult for one person.  But I had an idea I'm going to try.  There are these air shim thingies:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Calculated-Industries-Contractor-Grade-AirShim-Inflatable-Pry-Bar-and-Leveling-Tool-that-Holds-Up-To-300-lbs-1190/206697086

I'm hoping I can use one to do the lifting while I do the guiding.  Possibly stepping on the inflation bulb while I guide the filter back on.  We'll see if it works.  Any better solutions?

[Chestnut]

I'm not sure how your filter is attached to your DC. Mine is really easy. It attaches with j bolts that have a nut on one end. I leave the nut on and hook the filter on one j hook and then get lift it up a bit more to get another. then i tighten everything down. I take my filter off every time i have to empty the dust bin as it's in the way so I've gotten good at it.

[Mark J]

A very tight press fit secured with a clamp, and with a lot of air underneath.

[Coop]

13 hours ago, Chestnut said:

For the northern hemisphere folk the weather should be nice, so a reminder to consider cleaning your DC filter. Mine had a good amount of dust in it from the last year.

The weather will be nice for only those up wind from you! 

Nut, what kind of grass do you guys have up there? 

[Mark J]

Green.

[treeslayer]

9 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Nut, what kind of grass do you guys have up there? 

Panama Red

[RichardA]

38 minutes ago, treeslayer said:

Panama Red

I miss that, and A gold.

[Chestnut]

12 hours ago, K Cooper said:

The weather will be nice for only those up wind from you! 

Nut, what kind of grass do you guys have up there? 

Kentucky Blue, Perennial Rye, and fine fescue. Kentucky Blue and Perennial rye are the main full sun grasses. Fine fescue and creeping fescues do better in the shade. So my lawn different depending on how much shade it gets.

 

[Llama]

Painted my basement a few days ago. Close to 2K sqft, so I bought an airless sprayer because there was no way I was gonna roll that much space. Flooring is next, which is being farmed out.

[Chestnut]

Dang that's a large basement......  wish my basement was bigger. That would mean my shop was bigger too.

[Tom King]

6 hours ago, Chestnut said:

Kentucky Blue, Perennial Rye, and fine fescue. Kentucky Blue and Perennial rye are the main full sun grasses. Fine fescue and creeping fescues do better in the shade. So my lawn different depending on how much shade it gets.

 

When we first moved here, and were getting our yards, and pastures going, we wanted to plant Bermuda because pregnant brood mares shouldn't eat Fescue.  Our young, county extension agent told us to plant Perennial Rye, which we did.   That Rye grew great over the first Winter, but didn't come back the next.  I called the same extension agent, and he told me, "Oh, you have to let it go to seed to be perennial".

We're below the growing zone for Perennial Rye, and since then, we overseed with Annual Rye every Fall.

[woodbutcher74]

On 7/18/2019 at 6:19 AM, treeslayer said:

Panama Red

I was always partial to Toledo Window Box !!!  Anybody remember that one?