Hello….hope everyone had a great Saturday today and a good finish to the week. It was a nice cool day here with rain early but then overcast most of the rest of the day. This past week I was able to get 90% of my homework done…the only thing not finished was the face and face backer for the Kellar Clock.

Today I started out by finishing up the faces for the 2 Anniversary Clocks. Like the faces last week, I cut the number circles out of a 3rd color wood. On these the backer is Walnut, the face is Ash and the numbers are Paduk. The faces were done and all I needed to cut last week was the numbers. So I sanded them and glued them to the face assemblies. Then a co-worker of Mom’s came over to get a couple boards cut so I helped him with that.
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Woooo Hooooo…..Saturday again! Hope everyone had an awesome week and an incredible Saturday. The weather was awesome here today. After some late summer heat this week and a round of big storms, a nice little front came through and it was an amazing day. Mid 70’s with little breeze and a really cool start. This week I traded my shorts for jeans and glad I did.

Started my day with a stop in at Metro to see my buddies and pick up this weeks supplies. As usual went in with a plan….and left with an arm load of wood. The selection this week may be the best I’ve ever seen there! Jeff walked me around showing me the different woods…..and it took all my will power to get out of there with what I did. Several different flavors of Mahogany, Shedua (1/8″ 1/4″ & 3/4″) Bloodwood, Redheart (an awesome selection Brian), Purpleheart, Paduk, and on and on and on. The plan was 1/4″ Paduk…..well there was a piece of African Mahogany (1/8″) that there was just no way I could have left that store without. Sorry the picture just doesn’t do it justice. Dad LOVED Mahogany and we always teased around about it. I would tell him nahhh just not enough grain for me. I’m sure he got a kick out of my reaction today. This worked out good though because today’s plan included several faces for the clocks going right now and I used a good chunk of it.
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Hello…hope all is well on your end and that your week was great. Our week was good here….I actually took a vacation day for myFriday (My Bother-in-Law’s 50th B’Day party was last night and my twin Nephew’s B’day party is tonight) so I used that as my shop day. Today Tam and I rearranged our garage and set up all our patterns and my new drawing file cabinet to be much more efficient. But that also meant that the drafting table got moved out and cleaned up to sell…   🙁   . Many hours of WWW designs were done on the drafting table….back when design was a true art form. This re-arrange will make supporting your orders much easier. (Thanks Tam for your hard work this morning….)

Back to yesterday. The day started early with my bike riding buddy meeting me at Mom’s and we took off to do a trail ride from her house. The trail is 2 miles away so it is a good starting point. The ride is 35 miles total with the first 2 miles being downhill and the last 2 miles being uphill. It was great weather with headwind both directions (nature of this trail) and a hard hard effort. So after the ride and a Subway sandwich I started the meat & potato’s part of the day. (My legs were toast!)
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Hello….hope everyone had a great week, a good Saturday and your Sunday is going good. A friend shared this with me this week and I felt it a wonderful way to get this started off…

TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU’VE EVER BEEN, YET THE YOUNGEST YOU’LL EVER BE, SO ENJOY THIS DAY WHILE IT LASTS.

It was a good Saturday on my end. Really warm though….made it up to 100*….hopefully summers last hurrah! It was a short day at the shop because of evening plans with my Son Stephen and a childhood Buddy. But I was able to knock out my goal for the day. As with a lot of Saturdays, it started with a stop in at Metro for some wood. I went in with a plan and was overwhelmed to see all the Shedua they had in stock…1/8″, 1/4″, 3/4″ and some really thick. I was able to control myself though and get what I went in for. The 1/8″ Purpleheart was alittle light and the boards were wide which made it warped. The 1/4″ on the other hand was really straight and rich in color. So I ended up with that then went back and forth deciding whether I wanted to plane it to the called out 1/8″ or leave it 1/4″. In the end I decided on leaving it. My experience with Purpleheart is the deeper the purple and the straighter it is…the harder it is also. When I got to the shop I started prepping it for the overlays and wow it was hard. It was bogging the table saw down. So I remembered what a buddy had shared with me a month or so back and thought I’d try it. On any hard wood if you put packing tape on it it will help to lubricate the blade and make it easier to cut. I did this but I also cut a piece of wax paper and put it between the boards (obviously this will only work if you stack cut). This cut like hot butter. So as I worked on assembly, I cut out a couple of the overlays. The rest are prepped and will be homework for this week. Thanks for the tip Dan…hope you’re feeling better!
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Hello….hope everyone had a great week and a good Labor Day weekend so far. We took a little road trip out of town to visit some friends. Their town hosts a big car show cruise night….several hundred cars….so that was a lot of fun. I found my ’66 Chevy truck but couldn’t talk the guy out of it. Good good food also! A trip to his wood store and a day in his shop playing with his toys.

I have a few good subjects to chat about this week….but not a lot of project pictures. The 2 project pictures are of the pediment assembly (I cut mine as 2 pieces). I sanded the edges to get a good fit-up and the edges are very fragile. I sat a flat board (plywood) up against the the sander for support then took a very light pass on the sander….worked great. Then I glued and clamped the 2 pieces together. I clamped them to a flat board (with wax paper between) to assure the assembly is flat. When I get back to the shop I will sand it and fill a seam if there is one. While I was here visiting today, my buddy and I finished cutting out the brackets for the Pyle Clock. Fun to watch others styles as they cut and how they differ from your own. We had conversation about one of my most asked questions…what speed and what blades to use. Both are kind of a preference thing. Speed varies per the wood, thickness, the blade and even the blade wear. As my blade wears I will nudge up the speed some. And blades are a preference thing as well….I recommend just playing with the variations until you hit the ‘feel’. You’ll know when it’s right.
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