What did you do in your shop today?

A great day in my shop today. Woke up to 45º and it later warmed up to 52! Our trees might bud out too early! Spent the day rigging power cords to various machinery I've been moving around. I sure hate hanging those frustrating, four-screw surge protector plug-ins. I never seem to get it right, and they make me feel stupid. I applied oil finish to two small desk clocks, and did a little more organizing. It's endless! One exciting thing: I met last night with friend Autumn Doucet, who I've commissioned to build a box for me, with her trademark mother-of-pearl inlay, to house my wood collection pieces. We had fun drawing it out and designing. It's going to be pretty big: 18" long, 12" front to back, and 8" high. She had some great ideas on how to best display the wood collection once open, and she got me excited about it, mentioning the inlay detail, and edge banding in ebony. This box is going to be the crown piece of my hand tool cabinet, hidden inside the doors. I'm so excited to be getting an 'Autumn' box; she has a new article coming out in Popular Woodworking in April, on her method of cutting and designing for mother of pearl inlay.
 
I didn't get much time today due to some reaponsibilities at church, but did get to spend a couple hours reorganizing and cleaning to make space for a small milling machine that is on its way (precision matthews pm25). I've always wanted to learn metalworking, and since I started toying with milling my duck call toneboards on my drill press I decided now is as good a time as any. Greg, I'll probably be hitting you up for advice!
 
SENC said:
I didn't get much time today due to some reaponsibilities at church, but did get to spend a couple hours reorganizing and cleaning to make space for a small milling machine that is on its way (precision matthews pm25). I've always wanted to learn metalworking, and since I started toying with milling my duck call toneboards on my drill press I decided now is as good a time as any. Greg, I'll probably be hitting you up for advice!
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There are more mills and metals lathes on craigslist here now then ever- I wonder why.....
 
Yep. Unfortunately not many in my part of the world... not many machinists in this area.
 
SENC said:
Yep. Unfortunately not many in my part of the world... not many machinists in this area.
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Henry there are a lot for sale in my area and it is just in the last 4-6 months. Machines from small to huge- odd.
 
SENC said:
I didn't get much time today due to some reaponsibilities at church, but did get to spend a couple hours reorganizing and cleaning to make space for a small milling machine that is on its way (precision matthews pm25). I've always wanted to learn metalworking, and since I started toying with milling my duck call toneboards on my drill press I decided now is as good a time as any. Greg, I'll probably be hitting you up for advice!
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That is a highly regarded machine, if I was buying new?
 
It's a little pup compared to your iron, but does have good reviews from those who use them... and I think it is more than big enough for my small shop and for learning and making small parts and jigs.
 
SENC said:
It's a little pup compared to your iron, but does have good reviews from those who use them... and I think it is more than big enough for my small shop and for learning and making small parts and jigs.
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It is a very capable mill, I like it because it is not a round column mill, i passed on several of those when I was looking.
 
Mike1950 said:
I tried organizing my shop- Gave up quickly- It is hopeless so I started makin a mess again- I feel better now...............[/quo
Ha, I was having the same problem, just too big of a mess to work on any thing, and too daunting to tackle. I have been cutting up ironwood for weeks and there is chunks and scraps all over the place, hard to throw anything away. But I have a flatwork project I need to get started on, so yesterday I decided to plunge in. Organized, sorted, and boxed a bunch of wood. Threw out a whole lot of scraps of various wood, had to be ruthless, and re arranged things. I'm about half done, and I'm going out to finish it off now. I can already see the top of my table saw and work bench, the end is in sight:yipee: then I can start the clutter all over again...
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Lit the wood stove and worked on my latest project. It was nice to have some shop time this weekend, even if it was only for 7 hours.
 
Kenbo said:
Lit the wood stove and worked on my latest project. It was nice to have some shop time this weekend, even if it was only for 7 hours.
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And is the latest project top secret at this time?:mocking:
 
Just swept up about a 4' tall pile of sawdust and 4 dogs decided they wanted to wrestle in it.
 
Had a little time in the shop yesterday and today. Yesterday I worked on some turning chisels and ground the back bevels on the tips. Then I cleaned some of the metal chips off of my machines. I just brushed them into piles and scraped the chips into a box, pretty much filled it. I have just been running the crap out of the machines and they needed to be cleaned a little. Today I sanded the tips of the chisels I ground yesterday and layed out the chisels for the next batch. I am doing a run of all 5 styles of chisels I make, 2 done, 1 almost done and in process, 2 to go. I am also waiting for the new logo stamps to be shipped so I can mark them before they get black oxide coated. The stamps are supposed to ship on Friday, we'll see? I also layed out some lines on a piece of aluminum bar for a little project I am doing for davebug.
 
Well....I flubbed 2 sets of 1911 grips. the first set I flubbed the checkering on one panel, junked...the other set, one got pulled under the stop on my sander...junk. called it quits after that. :mad: :banghead:
 
I turned these today:
- Bullet click in molten metal PR.
- Triton in homebrew gold/silver alumilite.
- razor in homebrew black/green alumilite.
- Sceptre in pink/white acrylic.

Yes, it was a good day in the shop!!!
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I forgot to post about my shop time from Friday and Saturday! I applied stain to a long running and overdue furniture project I've been working on for nearly a year. Built a crosscut sled for my table saw and started work on another sled. Spent a little time on the lathe and started on a real handle for my Woodtick Rougher. Started prepping stock for making some boxes. Friday and Saturday were a couple of really good days in the shop and I enjoyed getting my freshly cleaned and rearranged shop messy again.

When I can spend some time in my shop later this week, my plan is to work on making boxes! Building one mediumish sized one, and a handful or so of small ones. Putting some small pieces of wood and thins to good use, and have been playing around a little bit with what might be good combos for sides and tops.
 
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