School Work

Marathon Girl

















Tool Rest Fixture













Tripod













Cigar Box Ukelele

Pencil Box

I've been working on fixing up the tool rests in the Woodshop. They're pretty worn in the middle, which means you can't hardly turn a straight piece. As the gouge follows along the tool rest, it drops down into the belly on the tool rest and changes the diameter of the part. Plus, there are some rough spots which causes the gouge to hang up. To remedy this, I made a fixture for the milling machine to hold them in place so I can machine them up after I build them up with braze welding. I've got a couple of them done and they look pretty good. I'm not sure how well the brass will hold up compared to the cast iron but they'll be easy to build back up and remachine in the future. I still need to sharpen all the tools for the lathes and then we'll be able to start using them.

I fixed up a tripod for the big video camera the other day. They broke off the handle by dropping the thing, I would guess. I got lucky and the threaded part came out easily (you can see it still stuck in the slot in the photo), then I turned the OD on the handle and rethreaded it. They're going to miss me when I'm gone.

We're building a couple of cigar box ukeleles in the Woodshop along with a variety of other projects. I'm thinking one will be a Christmas present for the older grandson. We're also building a little truck for the younger one. The parts came in for both projects on Thursday, so those should be finished next week. The uke will be electric, by the way.

The little pencil box was put together out of some scrap wood. The design came from a book I bought about making things from scrap wood, coincidentally. I figured we'd make a couple of different items just to see what the boys were capable of and to get the feel for the tools. It's a little rough but the kid cut some dovetails, made some slots, used the planer, table and miter saws. I think he surprised himself a little by actually making the thing. Mission accomplished there.

The boss came in and took a look around yesterday. He's a sailor and he wanted to check out the boat. It's nice being able to talk a little shop with the boss - something besides educational mumbo-jumbo, that is. I'm sure he'll be stopping in and checking on our progress on a regular basis.

This will once again be a weekend of working on the barn plus some work on the shack. I'll get some purlins up and maybe a few sheets across the front of the building. I need to start taking the lifting cradle apart to get that out of there. That won't be fun but I can get the plates on the trailer and bring them to school when I bring the spiral staircase in. I'm just going to chop up the 1/4" plates into 10' sections to make them easy to handle and we can cut them up later at school for practice material.

Congratulations to Annie from Belfast - she's the young lady who ran with Jimmy when we were out there. She finished her first marathon last weekend.