Rejects

Whoops! i had 8 hearts fail the Pam test..... need to make some more. ill have to double check the Quality Assurance procedures next time...

April Fool's

sure every blog on the net has a title like that! however this post has nothing to do with an april fool joke, besides me putting a snowball in my son's bed....to wake him up...

anyway, im still working on low tech improvements to the shop, this weekend i built a 28 cube storage rack for fasteners. each square is sized to perfectly fit a folgers coffee can, the plastic ones. i used a sheet of 1/2" osb and half a sheet of 1/4" osb. the stuff was on sale at Menards... it wasn't to warped for me to cut up. i spent all of $16 and ended up with a very useful cabinet.

then i spent a good half hour filling coffee cans and labeling them, im telling ya that happiness is a nice neat row of cans labeled 1", 2", 3" and so on!

master woodworker?

well, no super fancy projects this weekend. i didn't use fine wood, expensive laminates or even fancy hardware. i suppose even the greatest woodworkers need to build silly little projects from time to time..... i built 6 magazine holders, from scrap pine....

Great Weekend

i just had a great weekend, started off by going out to dinner friday night. then helped a friend work his cows saturday morning. had to package up the Pam blocks saturday afternoon and then went out to the in-laws to help paint the new house. paint paint paint all day sunday. it is nice to do a paint job before the carpets are in... well its a good thing i came to work this morning, i need some rest.

Ok, here is the latest project. its a paying project but just not very much. ever want to change those silly blocks that are in the corner of every window and door in your house (older houses mostly).

well here is an idea, instead of a typical rosette block have a couple hundred custom made... you can change out the heart later if you get sick of it.

Here Ya Go...

here is the not quite finished picture of the fireplace surround, if you want to see what it looked like before i started it, look here i still need to add a mantle, and the overall plan calls for bookshelves on either side with an under window seat on the right side. and it looks like i have forgotten to put on the drawer fronts.

happy hammering!

productivity

Ah Yes, i love a good long weekend with lots of shop time, and even a little time on the ice. I finally managed to finish the fireplace modules #1 and #2. but didn't catch a single fish! oh well, all time spent sitting on a bucket is precious.

anyway, we did the final sanding on the fireplace surround and primered it with a kills wall paper primer. the wife found a cool wallpaper, it looks like a rock wall, limestone or slate. then we put a small chair rail around the edge between fireplace and sheet rock. the total effect is stunning. the wife found some slate tile/rock to put down on the hearth and i mortared it in. again the overall effect is quite stunning. ill have to take home the camera tonight and get some pictures.

Farm show 2007

Yes we did the farm show again this winter. the theme was "procrastination". anyway Brandon managed to get his project completed on time, but of course a few more days would have helped the polyurethane dry better. as it was we had to bring the project inside and put it by the heater....

Ok, Where Was I?

Lets see, its been awhile sense i posted. just like everyone else in the world things have been busy. anyway I'm getting back in the groove.

I have an order for 300 Pam Blocks which should be a lot of fun to make. they are simply rosette blocks for my Sister-In-Law's house but instead of the target, i am putting in little hearts! yea, i know, if i had to look at hearts every day for the rest of my life i would get pretty sick of them in a hurry. so i am setting it up so the hearts can be popped out in the future and replaced with another carving when she finally comes to her senses.

the blocks are simply 2-7/8 square with a 7/8" flat hole in the center. i am using a 1/4" round over bit to smooth out the inside edge, a 1/4" beading bit to put a little profile on the outside edge and am using a flush trim bit to shape the hearts to a template after trimming on the band saw.... can you believe that Menard's doesn't carry a decent flush trim bit? i can find a pair of socks but not a router bit? perhaps they moved the bits i want over to the paint department?

i need a new store.....

anyway ill post pics when i have a few

here is my other little project. the picture turned out so well i had to post it. 

I did this little stand for a paying customer.. wow i didnt think anyone would actualy pay me..... 

darn cute if you ask me, it kind of says it all 

Slacken off in November!

Ok so I'm a slacker.... At least when posting is involved... Here are a few pictures of what I've been doing over the last month.... Homework started again so I only have a one day at most a weekend.. But I think I'm making lots of progress. Just one more day on Mother-IN-Laws trim work and I will be freeee!!!!! Just kidding, ill never be free.

September here we go!

Wow I intended to post more in august, but that's the way it goes. So now its September and summer is fading fast. Time to setup the firewood supply for winter, put the yard to bed and get some hunting in!

Weekend Update

Well, well, well... I made a little progress this weekend in the In-Laws house. Did the final coat of mud on the laundry room drywall. Patched some holes (man I love caulk!) and got a good start on the door and window casings. I also put on a lot of base board. The contractor did a lousy job in a couple of areas of trim, where the new addition and old house come together. I think I'm going to have to redo some stuff. I'm thinking a couple more days will finish off the inside. There is still a years worth of stuff to do. Yard work, decks and steps. New lights and stuff. Of course they want to move in this weekend.... Oh well, keep plugging away

Handyman Update

Just received my marching orders for this weekend. I need to finish up the taping and texturing of the laundry room in my inlaws new (old) house. I also need to measure for the black walnut trimming I need to do... not to worry things will change by Friday..
hahah

Achievement days 2006

Brandon made some wooden cars for grant county achievement days. He got his 4-h project ideas from toys n joys catalog. We ordered the plans and cut em out. Pretty cool. He got a purple ribbon on the cars and now they are on their way to the South Dakota State Fair! We are going to make a trip down there to see how they did. With any luck ill remember to take a picture.

This is the latest wild idea. still in the planing stage, this will be a complete 96 sf house. i think i can use it for ice fishing and a guest house! 

What happened to June?

June is gone and now its July! Man the time just flies when the wife is cracking the whip!
I have lots of things to do so I will just do a quick update and get back to work.

the garage project went rather well, the walls were actually plumb. We didn't get to the shingles but its pretty amazing how much work we accomplished in a week of 12 hours days. The project did expand a bit to include a 30x16 cedar deck enclosed with walls and roof. (matching the house was tough) someone didn't know the diff between 2.72/12 and 3/12 pich. Then we did another deck 8x30, the garage itself was 30x32 with 10ft walls.. For a couple of guys that hadn't even built a dog house before, I think we did pretty good. We did get shut down by a couple of thunderstorms.... Something about being on a aluminum ladder and lightning.....hmmmmm what was that? But it did give us a chance to drink a beer or two... Normal people have fun on their vacation, I seem to build stuff!

meanwhile I'm still waiting for the in-laws contractor to install a couple of windows before I can install a couple of false walls for the new shower and utilities. Go figure, that project is expanding too.... Now we get to paint the whole house! Oh well it keeps me out of the bars at night....

shop notes:
finally unpacked my tools from the garage project and decided I needed to install my chop saw with vacuum connection the right way. So I build a box in the wall behind it to run the vacuum line and came out under the bench for the blast gate... Should work great. I also installed the roof fan for the summer, I swear it was 500 deg up in the attic....Whew!
gotta run, have fun hammering!

May is almost gone

Time, Time, Time....
must be the biggest problem I have, lots of projects and no time to get it done. I haven't been totally lazy this last month. All of the typical spring activities and getting the garden ready. The hearth project is moving slowly, I am making my own tile out of field stone. Cutting slices about a half inch thick. The colors are wonderful from red, black and green granite.
I also had to rebuild the step for the garage entrance, I used recycled cedar from an old granary I tore down. Surfaced planed the boards and plugged the nail holes. Turned out really cool.
oh well, this is all the time I have for this month. I wont get back into the shop until June. Working cattle this weekend, removing a garage next weekend and building a new garage for my brother the week after that.....