Making it through another year '21-'23

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, as interesting as I find cats and bird houses, I'll interject some wood shop stuff if I can here. ;D
 Yesterday  moved a little firewood but spent most of the day on the bar. I got the shelf screwed on and spent a LOT of time cutting the trim and fitting it. I am not real good at the cute stuff. Finally got it as close as I could and glued and tacked it on. Seems all pretty solid and not too bad looking. It's always tougher when you don't have square corners and edges and try to make something 'appealing'.
 So here's what I wound up with.


 

From the other end, it looks like this.



 

This one corner, with the acute angle was somewhat troubling, so I did the best I could. Took 3 pieces to make the wrap around. Hoping it will all look better when the finish is on.



 

 From the drinkers side of the bar you can't see much of it anyway. I'm sure after 3 drinks it will look great.



 

 It's just a shot glass/bar rag shelf, but I wanted it to look right. The ash used in the shelf all came from a tree on the client's property, so that helps with 'the story'. That tree nearly took me out when I took it down, so I have my own story on that little part of it. ;D (Dead ash x 15 years on a 45° slope, do the math  :D).
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 Today I had to drive my wife downriver to collect all her stuff from a consignment craft shop that is closing for retirement. Not a fun thing, I never liked the shop for several reasons, but we got it done. I let her buy me lunch on the way home. She was OK with the closeout, I was actually relieved because the effort my wife out into the work she had in there far exceeded any return she got on it. When we went through the shop, we saw that a couple of her pieces were mixed in with other folks work with their labels on it. Meaning that if it sold, they would get the money from the sale. This confirmed for me a lot of the things that I suspected about this shop. On the drive home, my wife talked about having a retirement sale and backing off. This pleases me. She is 72 now and doing these shows takes a lot out of her for a return I am not seeing a lot of value in for the big picture. I'd like to see her relax more and read more books or something.

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So I got out to the shop in the afternoon moved about 3 days of wood in to pre-dry. It might rain tomorrow and I am expecting a visitor to come by in the afternoon. I am 'exploring' a new idea that was presented and needed some material. I got some Cherry off the drying rack out back MC showed 10% and I grabbed a couple of ERC boards from the garage and the MC showed 7-10%. Good enough for me. I learned that next time I get depressed, all I need to do is run some ERC through the planer. Holy cow, going in with that blah brown look and coming out a bright pink/red just makes me want to do a happy dance. I was also happy about some other things. That cherry I milled 2 years ago on my manual mill and the boards were running through the planer with no adjustments between boards, meaning my thickness was pretty consistent. Also, they cleaned up in one pass, which means I was flat and parallel. The ERC was cut on the LT50, so yeah, that stuff was consistent also, but all the wood I had dried pretty much dead flat and straight, cleaning up almost entirely in one light pass. 
 Still with all that, there is no good way to describe how neat that Cedar looks when it goes through. I smiled so hard, I thought my face would crack. :D It's sad to think about but there are a lot of people in the world who think they are happy and have never experienced that joy. I feel bad for those folks.  ;D

 Tomorrow's another day. Hoping for a visitor to break up the afternoon as I mentioned. I will waste a lot of time pondering on this new project, but that's how it all starts, isn't it? ;D I think that's the fun part, figuring it out, after that, it's just work.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Our cat has a white stripe down its neck and underneath, and some of it is leaking out on his paws.

[aigheadish]

The bar looks great Tom, can't wait to see it finished up!

Sorry to hear about Pat's stuff mixed in with other's stuff, that's not cool. My wife had her bags (shameless plug, go check them out, they are good!) in some shops and she'd be furious if others were getting credit/money for her stuff.

We don't have any cats but there are some strays that will hang out on occasion. I wake up at about 430a and head out to the front porch for my morning cup of coffee and cigarette. I don't like a lot of lights on, if I can help it until I'm up for a bit so I keep things dark and the lights off on the porch. I fear that one day one of the strays that like sleeping on the glider on the porch get's spooked when I open the door and runs into the house. It seems unlikely but I have no desire to chase some wild cat around. I've had to do that with a squirrel, in my previous house, and it was miserable.

[JD Guy]

"Well, as interesting as I find cats and bird houses"......Well, OGH at least it didn't come out as .......birds and cat houses  

The bar looks great BTW!!

[Spike60]

Well I got to try out that bar today and it works just fine. And I didn't spill any beer on it either. Had a nice visit by the woodstove on a cold rainy day. Thanks Tom. 

[Old Greenhorn]

We can just call that 'pre-production testing' (Can I bill for that?). That bar still has about 100 hours work before it is done, but it's getting there.
 In any event, I really enjoyed the visit a great deal. Us retired working guys don't get a lot of socialization, so it's nice when it does happen. I hope I didn't bore you with my long stories. Now that you know where (both) the doors are on my shop, you are welcome anytime, even if I'm not here and you need a warm up spot.
 I had a great time, thanks for coming by. Next time we can do a run down to Bill's and ramble through his shop when he's not there.  :D ;D
 We should have got a photo, because nobody will believe it happened.

[Nebraska]

No picture, it didn't happen...

[firefighter ontheside]

That bar looks great Tom.  Will it have resin poured on it?

[Spike60]

No picture, it didn't happen...

Sure it did. 
Only 15-20 minutes from Tom's shop to mine. Too bad more of you guys aren't that close. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Sorry, I was distracted with a top secret project. Yes Bill, the bar will be a full epoxy pour because the original order was for an outdoor bar. Now they are thinking they want it inside. Too late, the die is cast, as they say. ;D
 Yeah Nebraska, after Bob left I got back to work on that top secret project I (we) are not ready to reveal quite yet. Still waiting for the tooling to arrive. I'll try to remember to get a photo at the next meetup. Bob is actually closer to me than my daughter (in driving distance), she is over in Krumville. We also have a member over on Palentown road, maybe 4 miles from Bob. There's another in Kingston too, 15 minutes east of me. Not exactly a hotbed, but there are a few of us.
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 Well I went out for an obligatory music event last evening (Rock Academy Performance) and got home late-ish. I went out to the shop to tend the stove, had a fair bed of coals, loaded it and though it would be fine. :D

 Got up this morning and saw it was 51 out there, not totally unusual, but it seemed low. When I went out to stoke it I found a stove full of nicely charred wood. It failed to fire over and I had no heat out there all night. The building was pretty cold. So I emptied most of it, restarted and loaded some stuff in. I came in and had breakfast, came downstairs and checked the temp, already up over 60! Took a while to hit 67, but it got there within and hour of the restart. The old stove would never do that, it would take most of the day. Very pleased at how this is working out. The stove seems to be a perfect size.
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As I said, not ready to discuss the current project, but I did have a dining room chair which all the joints had dried out on and was falling apart, literally. I took the pieces out to the shop and it took me two and a half hours to disassemble and re-glue all the joints and dowels. I am guessing these chairs we have were made in the 40's or earlier. In the last 2 or 3 years I have re-glued most of them, taking one at a time out to the shop, guess I missed this one. I had put a new seat on this one 2 years ago, as indicated by my notes on the bottom. ;D The nice thing about buying used wood furniture for cheap from others moving on is that it can be repaired and last a very long time with care. If we bought something new we could afford at the time, it would wind up on the burn pile when it had issues. A little glue, replace a dowel and a screw or two and we are good for another decade or so.
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I have been told the new Harbor Freight opened up in town with zero advertisement, just word of mouth. I found out from my son it opened Tuesday. That kind of ticked me off, but what the heck. I have to wait for cash to come in anyway before I can replenish supplies. No big deal. Maybe I'll go take a peak tomorrow and use one of their silly coupons.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Okay on the Top Secret project but be sure to secure all the documents properly. :

[Old Greenhorn]

Not to worry Howard. I am just holding my cards until I have a prototype I think is workable. The first mockup got nice reviews but I don't like it at all because of manufacturing issues. It will take about a week for tooling to arrive and maybe I can try and work them out. If I don't work them out I can blame it on you. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I've got a project or two like that and even had some prototype work by local welders and machine shops but have not done more to get the patents processing which is what is stopping me. Maybe one of these days I'll reactivate my interest in seeing them through.

[Spike60]

Who are the other 2 Ulster County members? 

[firefighter ontheside]

My experience with HF is that they will open with no fanfare and then after they've been open for a few weeks they will have a grand opening that they will adverstise.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah Bill, this is what I am learning. I am resisting going in there for now anyway for a little bit.

 Bob NYBHH is over by you and there is another fella in Kingston area that comes and goes, there was also a fella up near Saugerites a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen him much lately. Those handles escape me for now, sorry..

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom.

   Congrats on the new HF. We have one about 25 miles away and I love to check them out. I routinely buy things like moving blankets, zip ties, gloves, etc. I have invested in their 20V Braun cordless drills, leafblower, circular saw (great for cutting stickers and salvaging short boards on portable jobs), angle grinder, etc. I have several other corded tools from them and have been getting comparable service to the name brands at a much lower price. I join their membership club every year.

[aigheadish]

The HF is lovely but can be trouble, financially. 

I've got their big battery op leaf blower and I like it a lot! I've got a lot of their other stuff too and if you know what to buy it's not bad stuff. 

[Spike60]

Just a little warning on that new HF. Awful lot of people checking it out, so plan on spending 3x as much time you figured running into and visiting with people. I spent about 45 minutes BS'ing with friends this morning.  :laugh:

[firefighter ontheside]

I like their 12" F clamps a lot.  I buy rubber gloves for various uses, including finishing.  Their wand metal detector is useful around the sawmill.  I just bought a second one, because I left my original out in the rain for days.  $39 well spent.

[aigheadish]

Oh yeah, their bar clamps too. You'll have to supply the bar but the clamps you put on the bar are nice and inexpensive. You have to keep your eyes peeled because it's pretty well known that they are good. 

[Old Greenhorn]

I have a couple of bars clamps and don't really like them much. Bill is talking about the F type beam clamps. HF's are cheap and they work fine for most clamping. I always add one or two to the collection on a shopping trip and still run short ALL the time it seems. They aren't great when you need to load them up, then I try to use a Bessy or other good quality clamp. But for most stuff, they work just fine to hold things in place. I could double what I have and still be short. SO I get those and a magnetic tool strip or two about every other visit. I buy the cheap brushes 1,2,&3" by the box and replace when the box gets low. Paper shop towels, rags, heavy duty gloves by the dozen and other odds and ends where the quality is acceptable.
 Maybe I will run up tomorrow. The rest of my day is filled with a funeral and memorial service for my dear friend that passed in December. At least it's warming up and the wind is holding off. Bright sunshine and a good day to say 'goodbye' and have a drink in his honor.

[gspren]

HF has coupons on line most of the time, if I have one on my computer screen I just take a pic of it on my I-Phone making sure the bar code is clear, they can scan it right off the pic. We are at the Delaware house this week so yesterday we went to HF and I got a hoist that was on sale for $144.95 plus I got another 10% off for my coupon and DE has no sales tax. I'm going to build a crude dumb-waiter in my pole building to get boxes of "stuff" up on top of the room I built so the hoist will be the muscle.

[firefighter ontheside]

I have their 5000 lb winch on my trailer and it does pretty well, but it hasn't endured the weather very well, which isnt a surprise.  I need to replace it soon.  I will either get another of the same from HF or somehting higher quality.  I'm sure if I would just cover it up with something most of the time it would live a lot longer than the first one.  

[bigblockyeti]

Glad to know the winch from them has worked out okay minum the weather.  I have a new Superwinch to mount on my trailer but it's only 4000lb and I might want something bigger.  I'm torn if I want to deal with the shortcomings of a smaller winch, though probably a bit better put together and made in the USA, or get a 9000lb HF special and hope it's put together well and will last.