Quarantine projects

I think that since I have run power to my shop this winter and installed an electric heater it is now time to install air conditioning. But first I need to move the scrap wood pile which means I need to build a scrap bin. That allows me to install more french cleat plywood panels. With more wall space I will make more french cleat shelf supports, tool racks and storage. All that will free up space for the air conditioner. Hey, one day I will get to make a non-shop project maybe.

Well I’ve been busier that I’d like but so far so good. Working from home now so still doing 8+ hours a day. Did have to go into the office tho for 24hours over the weekend so yay for straight pay OT. Other than that I built a cross for my MIL for a craft she was wanting to do. It turned out well

Then I decided before it got warm and the snakes got to lively I wanted to clean out under my house. It was built in the 70s. Added on to multiple times and I swear no one ever cleaned out ANYTHING from under the place. So I spent 3 hours under there with a rake. My dad came over and stayed outside and we filled up at least 10 tractor buckets full of junk (old pipes, block, wood, brick, insulation, siding and even a snake skin). And as luck would have it I broke two water lines while I was down there so I spent a couple more hours fixing those ( did I mention I’m not a plumber). By the end of that day my knees would shot since I didn’t have any knee pads
And then Murphy moved in. My ac system had a Freon leak so I had a repair guy come and found the leak, recharged the whole system cause it was completely empty ($300 for the Freon alone) then we cranked the heat pump back on and a fitting blew and emptied the system again. At this point the heat pump is 15 years old and furnace is 29 so I told him to get me a whole new system.

I did make some floating shelves for my wife to go in our kitchen that turned out nice tho

And that’s been my last few weeks

-- Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might

I just finished a small three drawer cabinet to sit under my drill press. I didn’t want to go buy materials to build it so I just repurposed some that I had. It works for what I needed.

I also got out a stereo that I have held onto for a while now. It works well so I need to figure out where it can go that will be out of the way in my little shop.

-- "I build for function first, looks second. Most times I never get around to looks." - Mike, western Colorado

Building some small part boxes for some special tools out of Fiddle-Back Western Maple. They are looking great. Also a bit of organizing and a few hours of lathe work.

-- Rustfever, Central California

I’ve been working on a mobile kitchen cart as a wedding present for a friend. I had until September, but being out of work I finished it way ahead of schedule. Well, it’s not quite done, I still need to build a end-grain maple cutting board for the top, but I need lumber and the good lumber store is closed for the time being. Now I need to find something to do with the scraps I have to keep me entertained.

-- ~Walker

I’ve been toying with the ideas of maybe becoming as very small time beekeeper. It it’s too late to get bees this year but thought I’d build me a hive to pass some time. All the materials are repurposed cedar deck board from my old deck.

-- Alaskan's for Global warming!

If necessity is the mother of invention, then boredom is it’s weird uncle.

I’m trying to do projects with materials I have on hand, but that means being a little bit inventive. This isn’t quite finished yet, but I wanted to share here. This might be genius, it might be simple buffoonery, either way I blame the governor for making me stay inside.

-- ~Walker

I rearranged and organized the shop. I made swap items, redoing a couple of cabinets to take of an issue not foreseen until the cabinets were installed. I need to move the refrigerator away from the wall and put it between cabinets so the door can be opened all the way. Shopping for essentials I alway try to be there at opening. Today went to Home Depot at six to buy furnace filters, went to the local grocery store at 7:00 when it opened and the last stop was Costco at 8:00. It’s nice to be there when they open everything is clean and hardly anyone is there. I am now done shopping for at least two weeks.

Well I have been using my model 2000 auto digger (shovel) to move piles of dirt from our septic upgrade. Just finished making a couple of spoon racks for Mom.

Huh, thought I was retired. Helping with staffing at 2 different critical care Nursing homes. Fun…. So far we have a LOT of folks who are prime for this, and no takers. Staff people scared they would catch it, stopped coming in to work though. The good thing is we are now closed to new faces for the duration, and no visitors. Been years since I did hands on care, kinda different.

Not woodworking, but in between I helped my electrician buddy put in a 22kw whole house generator. It was something we talked about through the years, and just never did. Last Sunday it did it’s first weekly run test.

Hope to get back to the shop later in the week when I have a few days off.

-- Think safe, be safe

I rearranged and organized the shop. I made swap items, redoing a couple of cabinets to take of an issue not foreseen until the cabinets were installed. I need to move the refrigerator away from the wall and put it between cabinets so the door can be opened all the way. Shopping for essentials I alway try to be there at opening. Today went to Home Depot at six to buy furnace filters, went to the local grocery store at 7:00 when it opened and the last stop was Costco at 8:00. It s nice to be there when they open everything is clean and hardly anyone is there. I am now done shopping for at least two weeks.

- Woodmaster1

I’ve been doing the same thing on Sunday mornings. I head out as soon as the places open and get in and out before anybody else shows up. I’ve been one of 5 or 6 people in the store every time.

-- Trust me I'm an engineer.

Ok so a chair update from me. I’ve got all the pieces cut out except for the final curve on the chair back and every thing except for the back slats are cut to final size.

-- Trust me I'm an engineer.

Finished the both chairs just in time for the downpour changing over to snow but they turned out great.

-- Trust me I'm an engineer.

As I was cleaning up my shop from the chair project I dropped my old mallet and split the handle. So that got me started on the next project, a new fancy mallet. I had a little piece of purple heart in the scrap bin leftover from something but it wasn’t big enough for much but I figured I could laminate a mallet head out of it.

I decided to do this mostly with hand tools, at least the joinery so here are all the tools I used ready to go.

I laid out the joint where the handle would go.

Then I removed the waste starting with a knife wall and ramp carved with a chisel to guide the saw. Once I sawed the cheeks I removed the waste with a router plane. Just as a side note that router plane is hands down my favorite tool in the shop. I use it on almost every project I make. I never trust that my dadoes or rabbits are the right depth over the length of my cut so I always touch them up with it and it never fails I find a high spot or two.

Checking the fit it appears I had a little clean-up to do so both sides matched up. Once that was done I cut the dovetail on my handle but didn’t take any pictures of that. I made the cut with my carcase saw and cleaned it up with a block plane and chisel.

Got it in the clamps and the glue is drying. I’m going to cross pin it with some maple dowels to match the handle so I ordered that last night. FYI McMaster had dirt cheap dowel rod in several species. It was about 1/3 the cost of ordering it from Rockler or Woodcraft. The closest source I have for anything other than popular dowels is a 2 hour round trip so I’m money ahead ordering it from McMaster.

-- Trust me I'm an engineer.

My oldest daughter wanted a box for her tarot cards…

So, I carved Jasmine’s for my Jasmine:

For me, I built a radius jig attachment for my little Ridgid cordless trim router

-- John F. SoCal transplant, chewer uppper of good wood