Good Monday morning!

Good Monday morning Patriot Woodworkers! What did you get done over the weekend, and what have you planned for the week ahead! Inquiring minds want to know. Please tell us what's happening in your shops, your life, and any events going on with you. Thank you for being here folks!

 

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I loved this video! Spirit level? Why is it called "Spirit"? Pretty danged funny. 🙂 

 

This router table arrived Saturday. Got it assembled, now to decide which router I'm going to put in it. 

 

Awesome router table, @Gunny!

Really nice benchtop router table @Gunny. Hope you get to enjoy it often.

Edited September 8, 2025Sep 8 by Al B

Monday?    I just spent 2 hours IN the shop..0900 star, to 1100 stop time..Film in a little bit...

Made a mess of the shop floor, though...

Busy day so far. Out very early today to take granddaughter to work; ran into unexpected issues installing new rear brakes and backing plates on her car over the weekend; back to town to local hospital lab for blood work, then breakfast and several errands; back home all before 11A. No donuts were harmed during this time.

 

Rest of week; some meetings at church, doctors appointments, evening soccer meets. Today, finishing up the brake job, new rear differential cover and fluid, new gas tank fill tube and a few other things on her car plus picking her up from work. Nothing fun in the shop; just work.

16 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Busy day so far.

 

I don't know how you "RETIRED" guys do it. I'm starting to rethink this retirement thing.

Once you retire you'll wonder how you ever had time for a day job.

2 hours ago, John Morris said:

 

I don't know how you "RETIRED" guys do it. I'm starting to rethink this retirement thing.

 

You need to change your frame of mind.  We don't Do It.  We sit back and enjoy it!!!!!  

15 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

 

You need to change your frame of mind.  We don't Do It.  We sit back and enjoy it!!!!!  

Love it Dan! Thanks for the retirement tip 🙂 

Having received a KREG benchtop router my first thought was just install a router and get started.  But I have seen videos of guys with fancy set ups, so I decided to take a look at options.

 

WOW have times changed.   On my tablesaw set up with a Makita plunge router I have had a Router Raizer kit since 2005 I believe, was $59 according to price tag still on box.  No issues, when I needed a part 5 years ago I called and got new part for free.  I always liked the simple set up and never had issues so go with what you know right?  Wrong!!  No longer available, website is shut down, phone number is an ad for Safe alert or some such nonsense.

 

Okay, so hey I'll just take a look at the new lift kits.

 

WOW that was enlightening.  Options available are insane, motorized even!  Bet @steven newman has some choice words for that.  Kinda surprised I didn't see a Bluetooth hook up for my phone.😂

 

Did find and get a Bosch 1617EV combination kit for $100 on marketplace, never used guy bought it and then ran off with some young thing.  

8 hours ago, John Morris said:

 

I don't know how you "RETIRED" guys do it. I'm starting to rethink this retirement thing.

Hauled couple truckloads to new shop. Trying to setup cabinets as I take them in but not getting there fast. Need electrician to come back and fix the mess he did on light switches, Did get one working today. Put out some Ryegrass and watered it in . Met with echo lift guys on fixing drive way. AC will install Thursday. Oh almost forgot had a weld fail on a hanger bracket on trailer and finally today got that drilled for temp fix with a bolt til can get it welded. 

I been packing.

I'm headed out for 5 days of canoeing and tracking down "Swing Dingles".

Feels like Thursday to me, I worked (at work, not at home) all weekend.  Only a dozen more years until I can retire!

On 9/8/2025 at 1:49 PM, John Morris said:

 

I don't know how you "RETIRED" guys do it. I'm starting to rethink this retirement thing.

It's easy John. On the days I do absolutely nothing, I put that off for the rest of the week to keep busy.🤣

I did at least get some woodworking in today, made a crate for work.  All plywood as it's going overseas.

It will hold 35 of those aluminum disks, they are old observing plates from my telescope.

 

If you're curious, this is how the plates were used:

https://www.sdss4.org/instruments/

 

We now have a robotic fiber positioner instead of doing it manually with plates.  This crate is going to Germany for the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, they are a long time SDSS partner.