Oops! 

I almost forgot it was Friday. 

 

Not much going on here "Two Weeks From Anywhere".

Just enjoying a couple of cooler days after going through a few days of the "Mugglies". 

Not sure what I'll be doing for the weekend, if much of anything. 

 

What's on Your Weekend Agenda? 

Muggies moved to PA . What ever happens will be inside.

Trying to recover from yesterday's tree removal, brush hauling event. The mind tells me I'm still in the mid 30's; the body says, "you fool, you're over 70; are you crazy too?" Still have some large chunks to PU and move to burn pile yet.

 

Granddaughter's horn repair on tap for today, plus a few other maintenance checks. Debating on mowing but with rain coming in later through tomorrow probably will hold off. Some places pretty green and need it. Others, still crunchy when you walk over.

 

Church responsibilities Sunday. Currently, sadly watching the memorial service for a young Indiana State Trooper (Aaron Smith) who was tragically, intentionally run down while trying to deploy stop sticks by 2 thugs in a stolen vehicle while being pursued by fellow troopers. All of this was caught by traffic cameras near the Indianapolis International Airport. Aaron also was a proud member of the Indiana National Guard and a former Youth Pastor. End of Watch, Aaron. Well done thy good and faithful servant.

Just sitting around...doing at little as I can get away with...been way too hot around here....

Yesterday i finished the dog food/watering station for a neighbor. Today is partialy a clean and organize day. Once that's done,  it'll be time to get some use out of the scroll saw. About time to get started on Christmas gifts and ornaments. Yeah, I know it's still just July but, I'm slow.  

Phyl's heart procedure is scheduled for the 17th and, that's going to slow the shop work considerably. Her recovery time is supposed to be a week, after an overnight hospital stay. I'll be the chief cook and bottle washer for a while. 

Hope to get on a new project today. turning a emerging bowl. Yes I know not finished with three other projects but I need a change.

2 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

The mind tells me I'm still in the mid 30's;

 

 Your's too!! 

53 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

 

 Your's too!! 

Yep. Look in the mirror every morning and wonder who that old guy is looking at me? It 'ain't the "My Pillow guy" either

 

Of course I've already had my first coffee and read the obits 'cause if'n I'm in them no sense wasting the day doing other things.

Had to make a wall mounted bracket for the 4 new bar clamps I just received.   Now I need to round up a couple 3" long lag bolts to mount it securely on the wall.   Time to go on a hunt as I'm nearly sure there should be a couple somewhere in my garage. 

4D

Hunt took 10 minutes. Finding the tools to find a stud, measure from the ceiling, drill a pilot hole, level the bracket and drive the hex head bolts in took another 15. 

They join the other clamps and seem to be happy where they are. 

4D

Edited July 7, 20233 yr by 4DThinker

14 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Yep. Look in the mirror every morning and wonder who that old guy is looking at me? It 'ain't the "My Pillow guy" either

 

Of course I've already had my first coffee and read the obits 'cause if'n I'm in them no sense wasting the day doing other things.

I gave up looking in the mirror. He's behind the medicine cabinet, good place for him.

My name's been in the obit's, really freaked people out when they called to see what happened and I answered the phone. 

1 hour ago, 4DThinker said:

Had to make a wall mounted bracket for the 4 new bar clamps I just received.   Now I need to round up a couple 3" long lag bolts to mount it securely on the wall.   Time to go on a hunt as I'm nearly sure there should be a couple somewhere in my garage. 

4D

Hunt took 10 minutes. Finding the tools to find a stud, measure from the ceiling, drill a pilot hole, level the bracket and drive the hex head bolts in took another 15. 

They join the other clamps and seem to be happy where they are. 

4D

Paul Sellers cuts a piece of wood and inserts in the tubes to make them more resistant to bending.  

1 hour ago, kmealy said:

Paul Sellers cuts a piece of wood and inserts in the tubes to make them more resistant to bending.  

Seems like that should help, although my Rockler sure-foot bar clamps have never shown any sign of bending and they use the same aluminum extrusion for their clamps.

Also in contemplation I know wood will bend and likely more easily than a thick extruded aluminum C-section bar taller than the wood insert would be.  Wood would also have potential to crack/split if the grain isn't dead straight as it runs down the bar length.  So unless someone does a comparative bending test using bending force within what the bar clamp could possibly encounter I'll save my wood scraps for other projects.   The short clamp faces (compared to those on parallel bar clamps) with forces centered only 3/8" up (for 3/4" wood) would be a challenge to cause perceptible bending on.  If you can then what you are clamping together probably could use a few more passes on a jointer for the joining faces.  I also suspect the size of the crank handles is limited so that any leverage you can apply will not exceed the bending strength of the bar.  Using a cheater is, well, cheating. 

 

There. My mental exercise has met my daily nutritional needs. 

4D   

After this I will definitely stick with my Kbodys

Lots of stuff going on.

Thursday the crew (2 guys) came and coated the garage floor and front porch.  They ground off the surface notched out and patched all cracks and then applied the base coat, added the flakes and took a break.  Came back to scrape, vacuum and roll the top coat of polyaspartic on.  Looks pretty dog gone nice right now!

 

 

 

Bigger news over the weekend and into next week.  Our son came in for a visit and last night our daughter also came in for the weekend.  We'll be doing more visiting and, if weather permits, cooking outside than any work to speak of.  That's ok - the garage will still be there after they've all left

12 hours ago, Gerald said:

After this I will definitely stick with my Kbodys

Are you sure?   Helping a student clamp up a chair frame I put a 40"  K-body clamp across the bottom of the legs to keep them from spreading, then used 36" K body clamps to pull the arms down into tenons on the top of the legs.  The bar of the K-bodys tried to resist, but made beautiful arcs as I tightened them.  A rare use for the clamps, but in a furniture design shop we had to get creative occasionally when students needed help. 

57 minutes ago, 4DThinker said:

Are you sure?   Helping a student clamp up a chair frame I put a 40"  K-body clamp across the bottom of the legs to keep them from spreading, then used 36" K body clamps to pull the arms down into tenons on the top of the legs.  The bar of the K-bodys tried to resist, but made beautiful arcs as I tightened them.  A rare use for the clamps, but in a furniture design shop we had to get creative occasionally when students needed help. 

Jon Peters has an interesting video about what clamps to us.   Danl

   

 

 

The thing about clamps like he said in the video if someone gave us 10k to buy all new what would we get? Even then there is such a variety of clamping situations we sometime have to invent a how to for the job.

 

As to pads I have found that a scrap of leather cut to size and hot glued on works well and is not marring. I do no believe any glued on pads will last for long in the shop without needing reattachment.

It was that John Peters video that inclined me to buy the Dubuque clamps.   The "reasons" mentioned that made the Rockler clamps a "don't buy" are trivial.  I've been using my Rockler clamps steadily since getting them.  I like that they stand up.  Once wood is on them they don't fall over when you crank the handles there is no need to crank the handle until wood is on them.  The 1" spacing of notches has only once been a challenge for a clamping job and that was cured with a narrow scrap of wood added to shim the work over. 

I'll use the Dubuque clamps but I didn't need them.   What I want to see as a true innovation for bar clamps is a bar that dried glue won't stick to.   

4D 

Decided I needed to mow, so I waited until the dew was off and fired up the mower about 10 am.   I had 5 rows to go before it started sprinkling.  Finished up and put the mower away and headed for the house.  Thunder as I walked in the garage. I was in about 2 minutes before it started pouring.  We got somewhere over 1/2"in the next 30 minutes.

 

Did some touchup on the nightstand, sorted thru some books for donating, and did some boxes for Children's Hospital.

Going to pickup the Grand Children in Allentown tomorrow(Sun) for an 8 day visit. This will give our daughter/son-in-law a needed break. They live in Springs, NY(think Jackson Pollard), Long Island. Looking forward to  lots of activities with them, including the County Fair as well as lots of stream walking.