Friday again folks. 

 

Here in the land of "Two Weeks From Anywhere" we'll be assessing damage from yesterday's late afternoon/early evening storms.

There were two, possibly three confirmed tornadoes a little south of Madison which is about 90 miles northwest of us.

These are the first recorded tornadoes in the month of February in Wisconsin.

We got a little rain but some heavy winds that rolled through our area.

So, I'll be out checking for damage today.

 

With that, What's on Your Weekend Agenda? 

 

 

Dr followup this AM from surgery. Probably more of the same chair this weekend

Waiting on contractors is keeping my hands tied. I've a call into an HVAC outfit to repair the shop furnace, and in the meantime the guys who were here last week to install a handicap shower in our bedroom had an "oops". The new shower is basically slabs of solid surface material (like Corian) that get put up...one piece was the wrong size. So while the shower is cobbled together to make it usable we're waiting for them to get another peace that's the right size.

Working on 22 memory boxes for Children's Hospital patients.

Weekend three of car hunting with my son, today will be the day, we are seasoned now, we know what to expect, we can see right through the perfect online images of pretty used cars for sale, and we can see the shaded colors on the seats in the images that didn't pop out at us before but they do now because of our real world shopping experience, we now know those shaded areas are ugly huge spots where either someone pooped their pants on that seat or spilled a gallon of coffee, we can now see the minor distorted paint in the images that clearly indicate a dent in the car, of which we did not know before, but because of our extensive experience in car shopping these last few weeks, we do know now. We are able to quickly filter out used cars online, and click "favorite" on the ones we like, and trash the ones we don't.

 

I can see the tire tread a mile away with online images, even though they tried to disguise the bald potato skins with fender wheel well shadows, we now know that when a car seller says in the description, "wear and tear normal with age" they really mean it's a POS. When they say "no known issues" they really mean there are issues plaguing that car to no end but by saying that, they cleared their conscience.

I would like to issue one basic tip to car sellers, get all your 7/11 cups, pizza boxes, and popcorn out of the car before you even take a picture of it! My goodness! Also, get that stuff out of your car before a prospective seller sees it.

 

Yes, we are car hunters, my son and my wife and I, like the Three Musketeers on a mission. Today is the day, we are coming home with a car for our son. I feel it, I know it, I am the car sell, I am the hand shake, I am the money transfer, I can feel today, will be the day.

 

Then tomorrow, I plan on getting my feet wet with Shaker boxes in my shop.

 @John Morris Not sure whether to   or  with your car shopping adventure. 

Been a busy week with lots of windshield time. With the warm temperatures, I did spend a little time in the garage yesterday; didn't really accomplish much but sit on the shop stool while being overwhelmed with the clutter, disorganization and chaos that once posed as a work space. Maybe this is the year I can get something accomplished besides patching, fixing and repairing.

 

A few domestic duties today. Tonight we have our annual Valentine's dinner at church; adults only; not a term you expect to associate with a church event. Church responsibilites Sunday. Remainder of the weekend TBD.

 

Prayers out to @HandyDan. He posted this AM he's experiencing some severe back issues. I can empathize with him. Wishing him rapid improvement and a return soon to regular activities.

Prayers to @HandyDan

 

Maybe some lathe time. Dog doctor appointment this afternoon.

Trying to avoid Honey-do stuff...might hide out in the shop....have "VERK" to do....

 

56 SUNNY degrees outside, with a breeze...supposed to get back to February weather Monday?  We'll see...

1 hour ago, Larry Buskirk said:

 @John Morris Not sure whether to   or  with your car shopping adventure. 

It's laughable at this point Larry!

4 hours ago, steven newman said:

56 SUNNY degrees outside, with a breeze..

Hey, same here! Apparently we set a new record!!!

Well it has been an interesting couple of days out in the shop.  I seem to have accumulated a ridiculous amount of scrap wood from my projects.

Random offcuts, little pieces of nice wood etc…

 

One of the things that has impressed me is how little scrap @Masonsailor generates and the reason apparently is because he is a prolific woodturner.

So after some research, hours of perusing various parts of the forum, reading, and watching some videos on the youtube….
I built a segmented ring jig, and started turning scraps into rings.  
As an aside, a ShopSmith in drill press mode with the sanding disk is the cat’s pajamas for sanding rings flat for glue-up.

This should be a good learning experience or a total disaster, either way it is the start of using up some of the accumulated scrap wood and potentially expanding into another aspect of woodworking.

5 minutes ago, StaticLV2 said:

This should be a good learning experience or a total disaster, either way it is the start of using up some of the accumulated scrap wood and potentially expanding into another aspect of woodworking.

 

Plenty of talent here to help you along. Based on your previous projects, passion to learn and try new things, I suspect you'll do well in this woodworking adventure. I don't turn but from what I've learned here, first and foremost is sharp tools. The rest comes from practice, practice, practice.

One of my first turning adventures was making an Ipe mallet.  There were a couple of upsides to this project.

I was forced to learn how to sharpen just about every tool in the shop, and I got a mallet out of the deal.
Another interesting aside to all of this is that my bandsaw just became a lot more important to me as it is the easiest way to deal with making weird scraps generally the right shape for this type of work.
 

Mistakes were made, but in the grand scheme of things I will take it as a first attempt.
I suspect that straight walls are harder than slanted walls.  Learned a couple things about skew chisels and bowl gouges tonight as well.

All in all this was actually a fun project and I think I can see my way clear to doing a lot more of this until my scraps go away.

Materials for this one are cherry, maple, beech, and oak.  The oak turned almost golden which is kind of a weird effect.

21 hours ago, John Morris said:

I can feel today, will be the day.

Ok ok, perhaps today?

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

Ok ok, perhaps today?

Definitely today!

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

Ok ok, perhaps today?

So.... no car yet?

1 minute ago, HARO50 said:

So.... no car yet?

Not yet! Heading back out this morning.

3 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Not yet! Heading back out this morning.

I'll keep my fingers crossed!