May 1st and the beginning of May Days. Weather is beginning to get better here and I hope for the rest of you also. I have been busy in the shop these past weeks getting projects out and getting inventory ready for shows. Tonight will be First Friday and this is the third on of the year and the first one with decent weather. Snowed us out in March, Storms in April, but today is blue sky and temps in the 70's. Looking forward to a great night.

 

Getting ready for a shop addition. I had the locators out Thursday to mark utilities and we are readying to add 12' to the side of the shop the full length of the shop. Equipment is to arrive in the morning to begin the excavation and ready to pour the concrete. 

 

 

Since we had to remove the tree that was dying we decided to add on to the shop now that we have the extra room. Can't wait, I am putting in a finishing room so that I can do finish work and continue to work in the shop. Also we are going to move the DC and the Air Compressor out of the shop to get rid of some of the noise.

 

So that is what's happening in my Patriot Woodworker shop and this weekend, what is on your Patriot Woodworker agenda? 

 

We here at TPW love to see your projects and here all about them. You might just inspire someone else or learn a new way to do something.

 

So share you projects with us and we will be watching.

 

 

Have a profitable First Friday John.  I'm finishing up 5 cutting boards and then the work begins.  My son and I are puting new struts and control arms on the van.

Nothing quite as ambitious as Ron and John. 

I'm done building. If It ain't big enough now, it never will be. And, while I can steer a creeper, getting down on it and, ESPECIALLY, getting back up takes most of the day.

I'll be chopping mortises all week end. 

Hello all, a curious package wound up on my porch this morning so I brought it inside to check it out

 

 

 

Needless to say, I will be using this this weekend and finishing up a few projects with it , a couple of bowls and bottle stoppers need to be finished, I also have some pens to do still.

 

Thats it from here, what about the rest of you?

I was able to get in the shop today and make some glorious sawdust!

I started the Survey Witness Post for one of our retiring land surveyors today. It's made of Cherry, and the lettering represents "Riverside County Surveyor". Just like the last posts I have made for our retiring surveyors I lettered in with a router, then I spray painted the letters letting the over spray happen, since the over spray will get knocked off by the surface planer, I ran the post through the surface planer and nice clean letters were left behind.

The post is roughed in right now. I still need to chamfer the top edges, the black dots are Ebony. They will be planed flush tomorrow.

This bronze disk is typically used as a benchmark of importance in our world of land surveying. But for this purpose we had some custom engraving done on it with the surveyors name, and dates of employment with our department. This bronze disk is 3.5" dia, and it weighs allot.

The shaft on the bottom is meant to be set in concrete, once the concrete sets up, because of the splayed shaft it is impossible to pull out or come loose.

Tomorrow I finish up and then start in on some cool boxes for a local customer!

Greetings from just east if Indianapolis, IN! 

 

Obviously no woodworking but enjoyed the ceremony of the Traveling Wall Vietnam Memorial, at Fort Benjamin Harrison, last night.

 

The humidor is coming along, doors and top are next-

 

Greetings from just east if Indianapolis, IN! 

 

Obviously no woodworking but enjoyed the ceremony of the Traveling Wall Vietnam Memorial, at Fort Benjamin Harrison, last night.

 

The humidor is coming along, doors and top are next-

 

humidor box1 .JPG

Lew, that humidor is shaping up beautifully! What a great piece and it's going to be awesome when finished.

Congrats on your view of the wall. We got to see it here a few years back, and even though it was scaled down, it still carried much meaning, I was touched deeply by it's presence.

A day late and dollar short but for me it was shaping some treenware, gluing the blades into some rocking pizza cutters, turning 2 rolling pins, ( I would've done more but the light bulb went on that I didn't have the blades glued into the pizza cutters) shaped 8 handled cutting boards. and then into bed early as we had to be up at 4 to drive to a show.

 

The best part of the day was meeting up with an old friend for a bite after the show. it was also a sad moment as we dropped off some items for his brothers cancer benefit auction.