What did you do in your shop today?

Tackle packs are much easier than dividers, and when you need goodies from the drawer on the other side of the room, a great deal more convenient.

I kinda debated it at first. Gotta be careful not to toss loose screws and nails in the drawer, as they will fall through and hang on the drawer beneath.

What’s a tackle pack?
 
They come in assorted sizes Doc. Check the fishing section at Wally World.

You need one of those for the operating room to keep all your goodies sorted out!
 
Finished up a project with my youngest the last couple days. We made a pair of folding camp stools. Here is mine-

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Yeah, the wife cut her finger opening a can of mushrooms in the kitchen at the local tavern, she helped out on weekends. Called me up and wanted to know if she should go to the ER and get it sewed up. Told her to put pressure on it, I'd be there in a minute. I arrived, she showed me the finger, again asked my opinion. I told her she was talking to someone with a PhD in Blue Shop Towel and Electrician's Tape, that it would be a cold day in ----, before I set foot in the ER for a minor cut like that. That unless the finger was dangling by a thin thread of skin, I would bandage it and go on about my business, I do it often. My buddy, the Security Guard/Certified EMT was in the backroom, so I yelled at him, and had him come look at it. He was kinda non-committal with a, "Well, it wouldn't hurt to go up and have them check it out." $800 and 4 stitches later, she was happy, however in the course of practicing her stitching, the NP on duty that evening said...

"Well normally we wouldn't go to the trouble of stitching something of this nature, we'd just apply a pressure bandage." (My wife made mention of the Blue Shop Towel and Electrician's Tape, eh! Which the NP, agreed would have probably worked. But what the hell do I know!) Then said...

"But, because of it's proximity to the joint, I'm a little afraid it might pull loose." (I'm standing there thinking, "Uhmmm... so extend the shop towel and tape over the joint, and immobilize it! HELLO!!! Are you sure you went to med school?") And, then she says...
"At the same time, the stitches might not hold, because it is a flap wound, and the edges of the skin may die, regardless of how hard we try to save it." :cowboy:

But they elected to sew it back together, and when the wife got the bill for that little adventure, she about feinted, and decided maybe she should have listened to me! But she still doesn't! If the dog doesn't poo on schedule, she hauls his little ass to the doggy ER! :whatever:


Ha ha, if I went to the ER everytime I should have gone to the ER they would be much richer.
 
Colin, how did you make the pivot bolt?

It's a hex nut, drilled and tapped on alternate faces and (3) 5/16ths bolts. use a bolt with a smooth shank of about an inch and cut the threaded portion down so they don't hit each other inside the nut.
 
Ha ha, if I went to the ER everytime I should have gone to the ER they would be much richer.

My ex-wife worked for a doctor, didn't cost me anything to see the doctor, and I seldom saw the doctor. Could count the ER visits in my 60 years on one hand, with a few fingers left over.

Most of my visits to him were getting my back cracked. Used to have trouble with my neck/back frequently, C4 - C6. He was sneaky, he'd get in there rolling your head around, kneading the spot in question, talking about whatever, he'd feel you relax, and WHAM... You were back in place before you knew he hit you. Instant relief every time too.

Had one chiropractor that was good at that as well. He loved to fish as much as I did, but he was a die hard fly fisherman. First time he saw me, he was checking me out laying on the table, asked me if I had lower back problems, or if I'd ever had a lower back injury. Told him, not really, and asked why he had inquired. He's holding my feet tugging a little at my toes, and said that one of my legs was a little shorter than the other. I kinda raised up on the table and looked at him and said, "I don't know Doc, they both reached the floor when I came in!" Caught him off guard, poor guy was laughing so hard he about choked, said that was the first time he ever got that response to that question; but, yeah, he reckoned they probably did!

Finally figured out every time I went to see him, was right after taking the boys ice fishing and hand augering 20 - 30 holes, through 3 - 4 feet of ice, and standing with my back to the wind. Bought a gas auger, built a fish house, and problem went away.
 
I have not done much in my shop. Have done more in several other's lately. Today was sad, very sad. I held a 2.5" line at 50 PSI pumping water for 35 minutes trying to save my neighbor's shop just up the road. His 24" joiner, 36" drum sander, 34" stand fan and portable dust system were cooked. His Dewalt and Milwaukee cordless tools melted to the shelf. Smoke and water damage to the entire shop, 1/3 of the roof collapsed / compromised. Not to mention customer furniture and lumber racks.... Don ended up in the hospital tonight, not feeling well. He is 72 and had a bypass at 69.

No pictures as asked by his kids, but do ask all to be mindful of the weather. There was an outdoor fire of wood scraps, unattended, that caught the grass on fire, it burned to the building and the rest happened quickly. Don fought with a garden hose until we arrived minutes later. But with a steady wind, minutes feel like hours.
 
Being on the fire department was rewarding at times. And, at times it was really tough. Hopefully the shop was insured, and Don's OK.
 
That sucks to hear. Wish there was something I could do!

There is, use common sense, watch weather reports and time out burning outdoors with the weather as safety insurance, always have 1 or 2, 5 gallon pails of water ready for action if needed. Always have a secondary water supply, avoid open burning ( use a barrel or walled fire pit when possible. Always have at least 1 other able body adult with normal mental capabilities around for your safety. Let your neighbors know you are going to burn outdoors. If something is questionably big, check with your local fire service first. If accepted, notify your county / regional Communication Center of a controlled burn and the address of it with at least one phone contact. Never leave an open fire unattended.

That's just a few pointers that can save lives and property...
 
Spent some time in the shop trying to get a few things ready for a presentation to a quilt guild later in the week.

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Cleaned. It really needed it.

Difficult to tell without "before" pictures but the floor is visible, several old jigs were disassembled, etc.

The high storage. Another one is going over the other shelves. Yes, I'll need the ladder to get to it but it will move the longer boards from my wife's side so the happiness quotient greatly out weighs the inconvenience quotient.
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Proof that a floor does exist.
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Still some straightening to do. The yellow bins are Goodwill/ARC stuff.
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I didn't get to that corner
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The table saw has parts on it for a sled and the other two shelf supports that I need to cut down before I can install the other shelves.

It's not Canadian Ken clean and I didn't finish yet (it was really a mess) but I did take 5 tall trashcans worth of stuff out.

I put up some high shelves for wood storage. And I have two boxes of 'segmenting' stuff almost full. One of the larger (1/4 x 2 x 4 minimum) and one of pen blank size. Those will be in other posts later on today.
 
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Today I spent the afternoon in the shop and gave working on my first custom/kitless pen a go. This is the result of about 5 hours of work. I need to make a couple mandrels so that I can shape, sand, and polish the cap and body portions. I'll work on that whenever I get in the shop again.

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@duncsuss - I only asked you for some info on getting started, what, 3 years ago, I think! Finally getting going on this, lol.
 
I made a mess.... Went full on production mode. Bought lumber this morning and by nightfall got this far. Even did some turning while the laser ran, I forgot how much acrylic stinks. Had to have the vac hooked up to the laser to clear smoke instead of the lathe.

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I only asked you for some info on getting started, what, 3 years ago, I think! Finally getting going on this, lol.

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Three years two months and one week, to be precise :sarcastic:

That looks like you've made a great start, Matt -- guessing it's a JoWo #6 nib unit based on the drill letters and depths in your sketch, your section looks good. If you have an ER32 collet chuck and a full set of metric collets, you can get by without making mandrels for the most part (at least, I found that I am able to) -- just means you end up turning the parts end-for-end into a smaller collet. I used Delrin to make a holder that I could screw the cap onto (tapped the same as the pen barrel) for final sanding, and another that I could screw the barrel onto (threaded the same as the nib section). Works fine at slow speeds, even though there is some runout.
 
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