Good Monday Morning Patriot Woodworker's and Guests!

What did you get done in your shops and what have you planned for the week ahead? We want to hear, and see how you're doing. Life events are fair game too, how's your health, how's your family, how's your job? Bring it on, we are all ears!

 

The Patriot Woodworker Shop

Well, I have a curly maple rocker that is sitting in the wings waiting for assembly, my progress on that came to a screeching halt a couple weeks ago when family "stuff" started happening and my time is directed elsewhere.

Part of my re-direction went to our 1/2 bath remodel we are undertaking right now, I will start on building a Walnut vanity very soon, I purchased the lumber this past weekend (pictured left) and I'll have some progress images up soon I hope. I purchased the lumber from our local hardwood supplier Reel Lumber. They are a gold mine of hard woods in an area of Southern CA where hard wood retailers are in short supply.

 

Community News

• Community Raffle: We are coming down the home stretch of our big fundraiser featuring a full set of Easy Wood Tools to be raffled off to a winner! We have two weeks left folks to enter, please see our Raffle Information page for details.
• Longer open edit times: We have extended the open edit time of topics and posts from 3 hours to 24 hours. You can edit your topics and posts for a full day. This feature will be under review for a period of 30 days to see how we are all doing with it, if we determine that it is not working for the betterment of our community, we'll revert back to the standard 3 hour open edit period. Please consider what you are editing and how you are editing, be sensitive to the fact that changing your content could effect the context of the entire topic and the replies that were posted to the original version of your topic or reply.
• New Server: We will be moving to a new server soon. We have had quite a few 508 errors triggered by higher than expected usage, which indicates the resource max was reached and our current server did not like it. So our new server will be a big, bad, fast machine, and we should not be seeing those pesky 508 errors any more, and your browsing experience will be much quicker which means faster page loads. (Please consider entering our raffle to help generate funding to offset the costs of our newly acquired server! Even if your are not a turner, you can win and donate the tools to a friend, a disabled veteran woodworker who could use a hand up, your local school wood-shop program, or could you even donate them back to us for another revenue generating raffle. If you use this community, if you have benefited from our free and open community, please consider entering our raffle.)

 

Community Tip of the Week

The heart beat of our community where you can see everything happening, is the "Activity" department. You can go to our Activity Department by click on the proceeding link, but in the future you'll want to reach it by hovering or clicking with your cursor over the "Activity" tab above in our menus tabs, and then click on your desired activity type.

You can also create custom activity streams that suit your needs. Hover over the "Activity" tab, click on "My Activity Streams" then click on "Create New Stream". Once there you can select hundreds of combinations of activity streams that you can save as your very own, and you can check back into it daily.

 

Featured Topic of the Week

The Shoe Cabinet got a lot of attention from both our members here and guests alike!

Featured Open Source Image of the Week

By The Royal Library, Denmark (Tømrer  Uploaded by palnatoke) [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

Danish Boat Builder

 

I did not get as much done as I was hoping for in the shop, but I did get the doors built for the router/bit storage cabinet built, and painted the outside of the cabinet. I also cleaned the shop up a little bit and I started working on a plan (in my head right now) for some pull out drawers for the wife's pantry cabinet.

Got the rest of the coffee table stripped down.  Was a little slow in some of the hard to reach areas.  Not used to this super dry, 5700' elevation out here in Colorado - definitely a "slow me down" situation.  Will get some pix today.  Staining tonight.

Friday finished put new finish on wife's flute case I made over 20 years ago. The old finish curdled on cedar. Saturday was great open shop turners meeting here. Getting back to BOC bowls today 

Saturday was woodworking club meeting, mowing, and checking on the girls (honeybees)

 

Sunday drive across state to visit daughter and family

 

Monday building sandbox for grandkids.

 

Equipment issues. Don't have the correct stuff. Ordered what I need. Be here Wednesday evening. 

Got plenty of other things to do. TS sled, hinge mortise jig, cut slots for dove tail splines. Play with the dogs.....etc.

I allowed myself to be talked into driving Phyl and her sister 190 miles to pick peaches. Phyl really likes peaches. That's next Saturday. I see peach pie in the future. Maybe I can sneak some ice cream on a piece. 

45 minutes ago, kmealy said:

Monday building sandbox for grandkids.

Looks like three very satisfied "customers" Good idea using pavers as the base...good, simple design for the "cat keep-outer" too.

9 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Equipment issues. Don't have the correct stuff. Ordered what I need. Be here Wednesday evening. 

Got plenty of other things to do. TS sled, hinge mortise jig, cut slots for dove tail splines. Play with the dogs.....etc.

I allowed myself to be talked into driving Phyl and her sister 190 miles to pick peaches. Phyl really likes peaches. That's next Saturday. I see peach pie in the future. Maybe I can sneak some ice cream on a piece. 

Mmmmm.  Peach pie.

 

My usual "birthday cake."

Seems everything I try to do lately gets hexed...Finally finished up the yard from the last go around Friday...My front mount mower (JD F510) has had on-going fuel or ignition issues...was 95% sure I narrowed it to electric shut-off solenoid on carburetor...realized Saturday I needed to finish mowing fence rows on other side of our property...finally got one done taking 2x as long as it should...started on far one after dinner...one pass through before stumbling issue recurred...almost made it through the soft spot when it stumbled, lost power and sank to the equator....left it for the night..

 

Yesterday afternoon got the JD 316 going for 1st time this season...decided to finish the fence rows as possible before hooking up to the FM to tug it out...after 30 minutes of mowing a bearing went out on the 316 mower deck...so gathered up chains, clevises, shovels, in wheel barrow and wheeled across yard to the "dig" site" Tossed tools over the fence, boarded the 316, headed down the road to access other side...hooked up to front mount; climbed over the fence,, procured one of our old above ground swimming pool ladders (perfect for crossing over a fence with barb wire); my wife came to help and drive the 316...after much digging in the muck, and pulling with the 316, we moved it maybe a foot, but remained very stuck...About 8 PM daughter/SIL and kids got home...daughter/SIL & I lifted first the front of the mower and moved over, then the back...couple hitches of that, my wife gave the 316 full power and I did the same on the FM...finally made it out...once I got everything back on this side of the fence, hosed mud off the front mount for about 45 minutes.

 

Today, I cleaned & rebuilt the original carburetor for the FM mower...installed it and a new air filter element...good news is I think the fuel issue is now resolved...Bad news is from the trail of smoke and stench of smoldering grass and maybe a corn stalk or two, appears the electric PTO clutch has melted...only applied water for about 30 minutes tonight in fire-fighter mode...don't worry mower is parked outside for tonight far away from anything combustible...Edit Update 5/16: PTO Clutch is replaced...new set of mulching blades...mowed for 2+ continuous hours today w/o a hiccup...maybe???...Wednesday is now planned for full frontal mowing day despite the forecast of 35-45 mph winds...

 

Soooo, a long cry baby story later...tomorrow is trip to town for parts and a couple of errands, then swap out PTO clutch which is no easy job on this mower...remove mower deck from 316 and see which bearing(s) are out; once I get and keep a mower operating then it will be a mowing marathon yet again.

 

Oh, BTW did I mention my truck has a stumble/miss in it under heavy load or hard acceleration? Weird thing is it is not setting any codes; SIL picked up some CRC Mass Air Sensor Cleaner for me today...tomorrow 1st thing, R&R clean Mass Air Sensor first; this should only be about a 10 minute job but the ways things have been going???? I still have some vacuum lines to trace out for possible failure (apparently common on '04-'08 F-150's w/ 5.4L)...could be another OTP coil or maybe even a spark plug, but plugs don't have many miles on them and again NO DTC codes. Edit Update 5/16: Cleaned Mass Air Sensor...seemed to help but did not resolve issue completely...one vacuum line from PCV Valve around back of engine to some sorta' solenoid on the firewall is real suspect...probably will be Thursday before replacement.

 

With all of this good luck I feel it's in my best interest to stay as far away from power tools with sharp spinny things if possible until this storm blows over. Oh and yeah, realized when I came in tonight, had a hole in my pocket...pocket knife I've had for 20+ years that my step-father got me is now MIA...might be a good job for youngest grand-daughter and the metal detector...

Edited May 17, 20178 yr by Grandpadave52

9 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Soooo, a long cry baby story later...

 

 

Sorry to hear about your day.   I always say that bad things happen in threes, so maybe today will be better.

 

"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." 

 

Wow Dave, seem like all your luck has been bad luck lately. I believe the weather man is predicting better weather. With the weather change, surely your luck will change. By this time next week, you'll have that mower and the truck purring. Wish I could help, then again, I probably am, by not getting in the way.  Hope your grand-daughter is able to find that pocket knife. Probably somewhere in the muck.

 

I am getting ready to start a couple of new projects.  A clock for my wife, and a desk top organizer for my daughter. Both projects are from my Wood Mag disc of plans.  Friday will be when I will go get the lumber for the projects, as long as it isn't raining when I go. I want to give the wood a week or so to acclimate to my shop, and then start next weekend on the organizer.  I have a three day weekend for Memorial Day, so I plan to make good use of the time.  Things have been a little unsettled here lately, and it will be good to get back in the shop.  Saturday, I plan to attend my first meeting of the local turners club, and will probably join up then.  I will try to post pics of the clock and organizer as I finish them.