Southeast Michigan Woodworkers

Spray Finishing Class

Chris Billman — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:26:49 +0000

Today I attended an informal class on spray finishing put on by two members of the SEMWW, Dave Zaret and Jim Biddle. They did an outstanding job of presenting an overview of spraying. They focused on spraying Target Coatings products, and since I haven't used anything from them in a few years it was a great reintroduction to their lineup. They also discussed gun setup, hvlp vs conversion guns, polishing the finish, and spraying technique. Zaret has a great shop in a barn that he shares with Biddle, and they've made quite a nice spray booth in the corner of their shop. I sure do wish I had such a nice setup in my shop!

Thanks to Dave and Jim for such a great seminar!

Spray Finishing Class

Chris Billman — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:26:49 +0000

Thanks to Dave and Jim for such a great seminar!

Website Updates

Chris Billman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:55:52 +0000

Well I've finally completed a few new projects. Check them out on the main website: dulcitars and my new outfeed bench.

The bench went together very quickly due to my use of a premade slab and Dominos for joinery. It's a great design and I'm already thankful to have a few more workholding options for the shop.

The dulcitars were kind of a spur of the moment project. My local woodworking club was doing a course on making them, and since it sounded like a lot of fun I enrolled. Although these weren't on my looooong list of projects to be built they were a ton of fun to make. And now they're a ton of fun to play.

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to add a long overdue blog entry even though it sort of duplicates stuff on my web site. At the slim chance someone out there is following me via RSS is might even alert someone to check out the updates (since I don't have RSS on my main website).

Have fun and stay safe!

Website Updates

Chris Billman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:55:52 +0000

Well I've finally completed a few new projects. Check them out on the main website: dulcitars and my new outfeed bench.

The bench went together very quickly due to my use of a premade slab and Dominos for joinery. It's a great design and I'm already thankful to have a few more workholding options for the shop.

Have fun and stay safe!

Back In The Saddle

Chris Billman — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:44:05 +0000

I occasionally have lulls in my woodworking hobby. They don't happen often, and they usually don't last long, but there are occasionally times when I just don't feel like getting into the shop for some unknown reason. This spring was one of those times, and this time the lull seemed to last unusually long - perhaps a month or so.

Right now is certainly an anti-lull (is that a word/phrase?). I'm Jonesin to spend every available moment in the shop.

I'm in the midst of building a new outfeed table that will also serve as a second workbench. This will look a bit like a Holtzapffel bench but with a few twists and mods - chief amonst them is an apron. Aaah, how I love my apron.

I just got the base completed and I'm in the home stretch for the top. Hopefully the thing will be completed before too long, but as usual it all depends on how much time I can squeeze in the shop (which often occurs by weaseling out of other honey-do items). So what if we've been working on finishing a room in our basement for a year and a half, so what if I haven't trimmed the yard in far too long, so what if I need to replace/repaint some exterior woodwork before the snow starts to fall, and so what if the "real" project list doesn't contain a new bench at all. I'm gonna make me another bench, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Insurance

Chris Billman — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:17:28 +0000

Over the past several days we've been reviewing the insurance coverage we have for our home, cars, life ("lives"?), etc. A few years ago we added a "rider" to our homeowner's policy expressly to cover my tools. Without the rider our basic policy capped tool coverage at something like $500 which is obviously not adequate for a woodworking shop. So our tool rider covers us for full replacement costs up to $25,000 which should be enough to get the vast majority (if not all) of my shop tools. The rider only adds $27 to our yearly insurance bill, so it seems like a great bargain for the peace of mind it provides.

The other nice thing about our tool rider is it forced me to make/update a tool inventory including pictures of each major tool. We track serial numbers, purchase prices, make/model, etc. All this is kept on line (partly on my website) for safe keeping.

With this we feel pretty good about insurance on our tools and shop. Hopefully we never need it, but it's nice to know that we're adequately covered if it's ever necessary.

Working at not much

Chris Billman — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:01:55 +0000

My shop serves several purposes. Primarily it's a place for me to build stuff. But one of it's important secondary functions is to provide a place of respite from the rest of the world. A place to go and forget about the issues of life and spend a few moments without worry or pressure or stress or trouble.

I occasionally enjoy going down to the shop and working on nothing. I may tidy up the place a bit, or make minor improvements to storage or organization, or perhaps just go down there and zone out for a few minutes.

Most times (by far) I'm working on projects, but I'd be lying if I denied it also provides a simple place to get away from the world for a few brief minutes.

Working at not much

Chris Billman — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:01:55 +0000

Most times (by far) I'm working on projects, but I'd be lying if I denied it also provides a simple place to get away from the world for a few brief minutes.

I heart my generator!

stmfitr636 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:33:18 +0000

One of my greatest investments has to be my automatic backup generator. With the power going out several times in the last few weeks… this storm season would have otherwise got the best of me. Preferring to by my meat by the half cow, owning several refrigerators/freezers would have been disastrous with the lengthy outages that have plagued us over this month.

The creature comforts that keep us off each other’s throats (which can include TV and DVD players, air conditioning and microwaves) are much needed for some… a placard for sanity for others.

I still prefer the occasional flashlight search and doing stuff by candle light… but usually by my own accord. Others would prefer to have their eyes gouged out and be forced to drink an entire jar of pickle juice, than to live a day without charging their ipod. And I, personally, would rather drink a gallon of pickle juice and remove my eyes… than to have to listen to the wailings of a kid without 12 channels of cartoons or a teen’s constant mumbling over their dead ipod. Remember when the only cartoons where the 4 offered on Saturday mornings… only 2 of which you could choose to watch?

I heard somebody mention that a generator should be used for emergencies only and only urgent equipment need be supplied power. That statement struck a chord with me (E7maj5 perhaps). They should have finished that book, because on the next page… the author wrote that all woodworkers need only one router and one smoother.

Dave’s First Bench, Part B

Jim Crammond — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:06:59 +0000

Well, we had the second Galoot meeting dealing with the construction of the more hand tool oriented of the two benches last Thursday. It was kind of an unusual meeting in that we accomplished quite a bit. Stretcher tenons were finished, leg mortises were bored and a couple of tenons were fitted to their respective mortises. Because of the nice, hot weather we were able to set up a couple of work stations outside the shop and keep everyone occupied. Everyone had a chance to do a little boring, a little chiseling and some of us even had the pleasure of a little sawing. The next meeting should see the last of the mortises bored, all of the tenons fitted and some assembly completed. I think that we are right on schedule for demonstrations for the club’s August meeting. In one respect, getting some work done is gratifying, but because of that we didn’t spend as much time as usual discussing the myriad of woodworking topics that usually come up at these meetings. It seems like Justin is at the top of the slippery slope and we should be doing a little more to grease his descent. We had a pretty good turnout with Bruce, Jamey, Jason, Justin, Matt and me. Galoot meetings do not seem complete without Al, so Al if you are reading this, we hope to see you next time. I know hand tool woodworking is not everybody’s idea of how the craft should be done, but if you are around Ann Arbor on the first Thursday of each month, stop by, I think you will enjoy yourself and maybe even learn something new.