A quick update

Things have been really busy lately at work and at home and I haven't had much time in the shop or time to post anything.

I spent almost a full weekend working my wife's trailblazer, it had been making a noise in the front end. So the intial plan was to replace the wheel bearings. The bearing didn't sound bad, and the noise sounded like it was coming from the upper CV joint on the drivers side.  Replacement drive axles with new CV joints are available so I decided to replace it instead of trying to fix the CV joint.  To replace the drive axle the complete suspension has to be disassembled.  I took it more apart than I had ever had the front end of any vehicle.  

 Sadly when I put the drive axle in it still made the same noise.  At that point I wasn't ready to dig any further and I put it all back together after changing the front deferential fluid.  It all went back together rather easily compared to how difficult it was to take it apart.

I've also done a little work in the garden. Last week a friend came over with a 6' tiller and tilled the garden and the sweet  corn patch.  Before he came and tilled I used my garden tractor and a small dics to break it up some.  The garden had been plowed under last fall.

 We will be planting soon.

My wood working projects are being put on hold while I repair a blown head gasket on my lawn mower. I hope to get that done this weekend so I can get back to building things.

Cowboy Callen!

I am not sure if me building a rocking horse started the theme or if my sister-in-law was already planning it, but next weekend there will be a cowboy themed birthday party for my nephew Callen.  From what I can tell Callen really like the rocking horse I made him, and I think his mom likes it too.  She had his 1 year pictures taken with the rocking horse. Today is his 1st birthday, Happy Birthday Callen.

 Pictures by Jaime Markovic

Quilt rack: clean up to finish

My mom has a hanging quilt rack that is used to display a quilt that her dad, my grandpa built.  I dont think there was every any finish applied and it was left rather rough. Mom has never hung it in her house and she asked me to clean it up and finish it so that she could hang the quilt rack in her kitchen.

Here is how the piece looked after I took it down from the rafters in dads garage and had went over it quickly with the random orbit sander.

 I trimmed the rail off the front to make it easier to finish. Since it looked like all the joints were glued I took all the screws out to keep from running the sander across them.  While trying to sand/plane a chip out of the front of the shelf I knocked the ends off, apparently the glue wasn't as strong as I thought it was.  This will be easy to re-attach and will actually make it easier to sand all the parts. I was thinking about plugging all the screw holes after I re-assemble it.  I will staining it to make it compliment mom's kitchen cabinets.

1 Year Later

I've been posting my projects and ideas on this blog for just a few days over a year and I have really enjoyed getting to share what I am working on.  Thank you to everyone who reads regularly and I hope anyone else who finds this will continue reading it.

Spring seems to have came early this year and I have already had to mow the yard twice and lawn care season will be in full swing. I have still been working on organizing the shop and the list off projects I want to build is growing daily.

In the last few weeks I have moved my file cabinets that I store parts and tools in from one side of the shop to the other side, and have put together a shelving unit where the file cabinets were. I plan on using the shelves to hold the smaller piece of wood, but I still need  to come up with a place to store any boards longer than 6 foot.

Bottle Holder is Finished

Last night I Got the Hickory bottle holder done. After the last 2 coats of shellac had plenty of time to cure/dry I gave it a light sanding with some 400 grit sand paper and then applied a coat of finishing wax. I will try to get some pictures in better lighting.

Here you can see there is nothing holding it up, it's balanced.

 This was a fun project, I think its neat that this came from a tree I cut down.

 I recently picked up an insert plate to build a router table.  I plan on getting started building the router table top once i get done rearranging my shop.  I bought a large shelving unit and I am  rearranging  everything else to make it fit.

Bottle holder progress

I mentioned in the previous post that I had applied 2 coats of linseed oil to the hickory bottle holder, Last night I applied 3 coats of shellac.  Here is the after photo.

 This photo shows the color the linseed oil brought out in the hickory. Both of these pieces have shellac on them.

 Next the bottle holder will be sanded lightly with 320 grit and then I will apply 2 more coats of shellac.

While waiting between coats of shellac I worked on the marking gauge I am building. With a little more work I was able to get the beam to slide through the fence.  I decided to try tapping threads into the fence to lock the beam in place.  This worked out quiet well, I just need to get a brass bolt to replace the plain bolt I had on hand.

 Next I worked on getting the knife ready.  Its is a xacto knife blade that I filled and sanded some.  I need to figure out the best way to cut a hole in the beam that will allow the knife to be inserted and wedged into place.

#50 Spring has Sprung

This is my 50th post to this blog.  The last few months the Number of views has grow greatly.  I am amazed with the number of views, in less than a year there have been more than 2100 views.  Thanks to everyone who has visited.  I am enjoying sharing what I have been working on.

Spring official started on Tuesday, but we've been enjoying spring type weather for a little while now.  Trees and flowers are in full bloom, and the grass (weeds) is growing like crazy. I finished mowing the yard for the first time this year yesterday.  I plan on starting to apply shellac to the bottle holder tonight. Over the weekend I applied 2 coats of boiled linseed oil which gave the hickory a warm glow.