Not much done today. Did take an assessment of the walnut Dan and I scored a couple of weeks ago. Also, did a little painting on the lighthouse. Back is recovered to a degree. No real turning or labor. I never touched the walnut.
What did you do in your shop today?
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Lots of nice projects in that walnut!
Can’t wait for your back to fully heal, so you can really get into that beautiful Walnut! Chuck
Speaking of walnut, continuing my run of roughing out little pieces sitting around. A little live edge bowl once turned. Left tenon on to make sanding easier when dry.
Thanks Chuck. Not done any turning or other labor but have been in the shop with buddy’s.
Nice and pretty Tim. The large pieces of our Walnut and so big Dan and I won’t be able to cut them ourselves. Need the pieces blank size. Will figure it out.
One one hand, it's not a bad problem to have. I understand though when the reality of the job surpasses your equipment and physical abilities. Been there and getting there more often as age creeps up on us all.
So true Tim. I have three chain saws but will never even lift up the one that is needed for this job. The work around is I know some friends that will probably help us out.
Took the impeller out of my old Harbor Freight dust collector, and replaced it with an impeller from Wen. There's a Rikon impeller that works also, but the Wen was $50 and the Rikon is $100 and they both have virtually the same part number. The HF factory impeller was 9 3/4" diameter, and the Wen is a tick over 12". The fins are curved the opposite direction, but that supposedly improves the performance. Didn't really intend to do that today, so took no pics. Plenty of articles/videos on the web that would be better anyway. Same with flow improvement stats--all i can say scientifically is that i'm getting a "fecal-pot load" more flow. With that came some more noise--all the more reason to take 2 seconds to put on my muffs.
Most common problem i saw others have in videos was breaking the old impeller trying a gear puller. So...since i was tinkering in the shop anyway, i opened the cover and every half hour or so for a few hours i hit it with a heat gun and then spray it with Liquid Wrench. After doing that 7 or 8 times, i put a bushing (right sized socket would work) on the impeller center and gave it a few heavy taps with a hammer. That moved the impeller back a few 1000's--wrong direction but i knew it was moving. No gear puller but i did have a harmonic balancer puller that my son never returned for his deposit 20+ years ago--so i grabbed four 3/8-16 x 3" bolts (full thread--that's important) sandwiched 2 washers between the head and a nut, then sandwiched the puller between two more nuts at the other end. Heated up the impeller core on last time, used one hand to pinch the washers into the groove on the impeller, and with the other hand managed to run in the center bolt--all while envying octopi for having the right number of tentacles for the job!! Took a few tries, but ultimately it worked a treat.
More noise, but a bunch more air (most of the folks who did measurements figured 35% to 38%--i now find that believable). Worth the $50 and the time. Really only took an hour to hour and a half--but spread over 3-4 hours while i let the Liquid Wrench do its stuff. Great day!!
Most common problem i saw others have in videos was breaking the old impeller trying a gear puller. So...since i was tinkering in the shop anyway, i opened the cover and every half hour or so for a few hours i hit it with a heat gun and then spray it with Liquid Wrench. After doing that 7 or 8 times, i put a bushing (right sized socket would work) on the impeller center and gave it a few heavy taps with a hammer. That moved the impeller back a few 1000's--wrong direction but i knew it was moving. No gear puller but i did have a harmonic balancer puller that my son never returned for his deposit 20+ years ago--so i grabbed four 3/8-16 x 3" bolts (full thread--that's important) sandwiched 2 washers between the head and a nut, then sandwiched the puller between two more nuts at the other end. Heated up the impeller core on last time, used one hand to pinch the washers into the groove on the impeller, and with the other hand managed to run in the center bolt--all while envying octopi for having the right number of tentacles for the job!! Took a few tries, but ultimately it worked a treat.
More noise, but a bunch more air (most of the folks who did measurements figured 35% to 38%--i now find that believable). Worth the $50 and the time. Really only took an hour to hour and a half--but spread over 3-4 hours while i let the Liquid Wrench do its stuff. Great day!!
Congrats! Small amount of time for big payoff later! Chuck
My dad made all the living room furniture he and my mom had back in the 1960's. Mom still has this one end table but it needed some care. It was wobbly, the wood was dry and lifeless, had a few dents and scratches, and some age related dirt, stains, spills, etc. It has a synthetic marble center top that Dad got from some guy who worked at McDonald Douglas (not sure about the entire story why they made fake marble); it has a lower shelf made from 3/4" slats and six additional slats, four and two on each side of the fake marble. So I brought it home and took it apart. That was easy, the glue joints were essentially non-existent. Today sanded all the sides, removing all the old glue, gunk, smoothed off any chips and dents, but not quite getting back to raw wood. Trying to match the previous color as best I could (to make it less likely to see errors), I ended up rubbing them down with Minwax red chestnut stain. The wood is walnut. Kind of weird I know but it looks pretty good, nice deep reddish color. Not sure how I'll finish it yet - it didn't feel like there was much finish on it so Dad might have just waxed it or maybe had a couple light shellac coats and then wax.
woodtickgreg
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Today was work in the garage day, not the shop. Kinda the same though. I moved my toolboxes to where the ash log used to be in preparation for some repairs that need to be done on the garage. The windows need to be reframed and replaced and I'll be adding a man door.
Tool boxes moved to the right.
Next is this whole wall needs to be cleared. The benches are stick built jn place and attached to the wall by the previous owner. They gotta go!
But that was enough for today. My back is wrecked. I'm not a young man anymore. I have to do things in stages.
Tool boxes moved to the right.
Next is this whole wall needs to be cleared. The benches are stick built jn place and attached to the wall by the previous owner. They gotta go!
But that was enough for today. My back is wrecked. I'm not a young man anymore. I have to do things in stages.
It's really surprising how much work it can be to relocate things in a garage, workshop, etc. I don't envy you, but I'll bet the refurbishment will be worth it! Chuck
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All of this just so I can work on the garage to preserve it.
Nice day out in the driveway shop today. Converted my old Go Bar deck (built to glue up guitars) into another mobile work station with lockable caster wheels. Then applied pastewax to the rest of the parts for that end table, rubbed them with 600 grit sandpaper until it got smooth and not sticky any more. Made spacers to help keep the slats properly spaced when I get around to gluing it back together - hopefully tomorrow. I need another set of hands to help me tho. Hard to hold eight slats in the bottom shelf, 6 slats and the heavy fake marble insert in the top and get glue and clamps applied with only two hands. It's looking promising though.
I forgot. I sized, routed in and glued the cocobolo end graft on guitar #4 too. I'll shoot a photo tomorrow after I sand it smooth. Next up is bending the cocobolo binding strips and then binding. Probably won't get to that until I get back from fishing end of the month.
I forgot. I sized, routed in and glued the cocobolo end graft on guitar #4 too. I'll shoot a photo tomorrow after I sand it smooth. Next up is bending the cocobolo binding strips and then binding. Probably won't get to that until I get back from fishing end of the month.
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Buddy came over yesterday afternoon and we glued up the end table. Used Gorilla glue rather than Tightbond because Gorilla glue doesn't shrink as much and some of the slats didn't fit completely snug. But for a 60 year old end table it still looks pretty darn good. Solid again. Mom will appreciate it.
Nice, you'll like having that set of 70mm jaws. Are you using a G3 or SN2 chuck?
This walnut was donated to our turning club back in February.
Finished this bowl today to give to the homeowner as a thank you. It’s not from her tree (still wet) but, hey, I’m not tellin.
13 inches.
Finished this bowl today to give to the homeowner as a thank you. It’s not from her tree (still wet) but, hey, I’m not tellin.
13 inches.
