Made a little progress in the Woodshop this week. I've got a couple of the boys working on the miter saw table for the new barn. They should have it whipped next week. They're going to have to make a base for it as well. We'll make the base out of 2x6's and I'll hang it on the wall and put some legs under it. 

The boys working on the tool box got the dovetail fixture pretty well mastered. They made a mistake on one side and put the board in the fixture facing in instead of out, which meant the taper on the dovetail was going the wrong way. They cut the sides down a little and tried it again. The box is a little narrower than the plans call for now, but there's always a learning curve to overcome. 

One of the welders had a boo-boo on the grille of the old Caddy he drives around so he made himself a new one from expanded metal. He was talking at first some type of tube grill but I don't keep anything like that in stock. He came across the expanded metal and he was off and running. He needs to make a couple of filler pieces for the sides yet. If he had thought the whole thing through a little better before starting, he could have extended the grill out a little more. The grille he made actually is the same size as the original. The car came with a plastic filler piece around it so he's no different than the designers at Cadillac I guess.

We had a speaker come in this week from the School of Automotive Machinists. It's the first time they've made a presentation here. I'd never heard of the school before but I guess if you're an NHRA or NASCAR team, you have. They offer three classes is all - engine block, cylinder heads and CNC machining. They stress that they're a school of engine builders, not mechanics but they campaign some drag cars that are built and maintained by the students. I felt a little sorry for the presenter. It's a pretty tough sell when many of the guys and girls in the room don't even know what a camshaft is. Hard to get them excited about CNC porting of cylinder heads or producing your own heads from a big block of aluminum if you don't have a clue about an internal combustion engine. However, I'd like to check out the school but it's in Houston. Can't see me heading there in the foreseeable future. I eat that kind of stuff up.

Spent a good part of the week in the Weld Shoppe on maintenance chores. We took all the covers off the welding machines and blew all the dust out of them. I do that every couple of years - probably the last time I'll have to deal with them. The boys got the trolley beam and column all finished. I need to get it painted and then I can bring it home and get it installed in the barn. Speaking of which, I got all the cut-offs from the siding loaded up last night after work, plus I had some other metal at school I'm taking to the scrap yard this morning. I've still got some more cleaning to do but as long as the weather stays decent, it won't take too much longer before I've got things tidied up. It's nice that the days are getting longer. Lot easier to get things done when you've got some daylight to work with.

Enjoy the weekend.