What did you do in your shop today?

DWasson said:
I guess I did this in the shop and to the shop. I am retiring in December after 32 years at my place of employment, and 40 years in the IT field. My shop is shared space in the garage, but I can’t make it dedicated. I’ve created a space where I can pull the truck out of the garage and drop down a couple of rollup tarp walls. We made some electrical changes and put in a sub panel in the garage. I hung an electric heater and insulated the bottom of the trusses with 1” foam board. The space warms up very quickly, drop the walls, turn on the heat, grab a cup of coffee, and let it heat before I get out there. Now I can get out during the cold northern Michigan winters and
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Very nice! I did something similar in my garage with an electric heater. My woodshop is in the basement so no worries there. But when I need to work on something in the garage in the winter I'll have heat now. I too am a michigander. Yesterday I installed a couple of 3 way light switches in the garage so now I can turn the lights on from either door. Having a small entrance door means I won't have to open the big door and let all the heat out. I am heating a much smaller area in my garage because most of it is wood, lol.
 
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Got a couple hours in the shop today so I started the sanding on the necklaces.
This is 180 grit sanding mesh, it works great for this step of the sanding. Just removing the scratches from the drum sander. Sanded in a circular motion.
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1 down 67 to go, lol.
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Then the next step was sanding some of the rounded ends. I clamped a 1/4 piece of plywood to the spindle sander for support.
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Ready for the mop sanding step.
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DWasson said:
I guess I did this in the shop and to the shop. I am retiring in December after 32 years at my place of employment, and 40 years in the IT field. My shop is shared space in the garage, but I can’t make it dedicated. I’ve created a space where I can pull the truck out of the garage and drop down a couple of rollup tarp walls. We made some electrical changes and put in a sub panel in the garage. I hung an electric heater and insulated the bottom of the trusses with 1” foam board. The space warms up very quickly, drop the walls, turn on the heat, grab a cup of coffee, and let it heat before I get out there. Now I can get out during the cold northern Michigan winters and work in comfort.

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Would you please post the size of heater. I am doing something similar. Looking at the one Greg bought but always interested in options. Thanks
 
Gdurfey said:
Would you please post the size of heater. I am doing something similar. Looking at the one Greg bought but always interested in options. Thanks
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It is the DynaGlo 7500W 240v Forced Air Electric Garage Heater. I also added an optional remote thermostat to give a better heat reading as well as locating by the door of the house to give me easy access. It’s not been terribly cold yet, but I have used it a couple times and really like it.

I bought it at Menards so I could pick it up locally instead of having it shipped and abused.
 
All the world is my shop ...

Needed some fence posts for a raspberry trellis, so found a nice tall skinny black locust and cut three - eight foot posts. Probably use two for the trellis, and use the other one to mount my weather station.

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Then had a little more time, so put a small soft maple crotch piece on the lathe. This was off a large branch that broke in one of our summer storms. Simple shape will show off the spalting nicely. Not hollowed yet, will do that tomorrow, time permitting.

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Made the moulding and then cut out one picture frame for some family portraits we got when we were at Zion this summer. Used the bubinga I got from John ( @JD1137 ) and the holly I got from Jason ( @Jason Martin ). Probably use clear shellac for the finish.

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Note to self: bubinga is very hard wood.
 
Got some baltic birch sheets cut up, and oak squares glued up for a project... I am building 6 weight racks for an Odyssey of the mind build competition. Kids build balsa wood structures and set them in the presses, and stack weights on top, to see how much they will hold, till they break. If I remember, the winner had 1200 lbs stacked on a structure that weighed 15 grams..

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Layed out some crosses on the Mesquite thins I processed awhile back.
I just kind of work around the defects.
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Bandsawing them out and then ill trim them up to make them easier to handle on the scroll saw.
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Got a pretty good yield out of those boards.
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Then I sanded all the necklaces and drilled the holes for the eyelets.
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Pretty good day in the shop.
I need to go through my wood rack and pull some more stuff out so I have different species and colors for the crosses.
 
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woodtickgreg said:
Layed put some crosses on the Mesquite thins I processed awhile back.
I just kind of work around the defects.
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Bandsawing them out and then ill trim them up to make them easier to handle on the scroll saw.
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Got a pretty good yield out of those boards.
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Then I sanded all the necklaces and drilled the holes for the eyelets.
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Pretty good day in the shop.
I need to go through my wood rack and pull some more stuff out so I have different species and colors for the crosses.
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Love your production runs! You are really getting these builds down to a science! Chuck
 
All the eyelets are installed on the necklaces.
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And they have been dipped in 50/50 blo and mineral spirits.
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They will get wiped down over the next few days to remove the oil that was not absorbed.
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Actually yesterday—I wrestled a 150 pound 20 inch diameter 11 inch height Norfolk pine blank onto the lathe and rough turned the exterior. Maxed out the lathe, a PM3520.

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Finishing up the necklaces for the church today. Installed one more stainless piece of hardware and then several colors of waxed cotton cord. I package them in small ziplock bags so the don't get tangled up and people can easily sort through them to pick out one they like. 20241102_121133.webp
These are a hit at church with both men and women.
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I just give them away to anyone that wants one. I get some thank yous and people do appreciate that I do this. It tickles me to see people happily wearing them in church. That's my payment, it's worth more than money.
 
woodtickgreg said:
Finishing up the necklaces for the church today. Installed one more stainless piece of hardware and then several colors of waxed cotton cord. I package them in small ziplock bags so the don't get tangled up and people can easily sort through them to pick out one they like.View attachment 263845
These are a hit at church with both men and women.
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I just give them away to anyone that wants one. I get some thank yous and people do appreciate that I do this. It tickles me to see people happily wearing them in church. That's my payment, it's worth more than money.
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What incredible projects you have undertaken. We all know the time and effort, hope they appreciate you as they should. I know that is not why you are doing this, but I do hope they show their appreciation.
 
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