HDR Timelapse

I do love this sort of thing. Be sure to play it full screen.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I've always liked cats more than dogs. And because they've traveled a longer evolutionary trail I just think they have to be smarter. Cats don't need anyone but themselves - and they certainly don't need a dog, or a pack of them, to get where they want.

Enjoy!

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Office Build Update

Table top edging installation

After a few weeks off the project to take care of other things like work, Ironman (more on that in an upcoming post), and a broken down table saw, I'm back on it again.  The two primary table surfaces were completed a few weeks ago and the edging pieces ripped and rough cut, but when it came time to cut the miters the bevel adjustment on my table saw broke down.  The saw is now in pieces in the shop waiting for me to get it fixed and put back together again.   In the meantime I decided to finish things up using the chop saw... which for what I have to do now works just as well.

So this past weekend I cut, mitered, and fit the edging for the smaller of the two tables, and tonight glued the long pieces on.  In any one-man shop work on large and heavy pieces is often tricky if not downright difficult.  These tops are now too large and heavy for me to lift onto sawhorses so I've laid 2x material with carpet scraps over them so work can be done on the floor.  What isn't shown in the images are temporary support pieces I clamped at each of the corners to support edging while they were being glued on and the clamps set.

Tomorrow night the end pieces will be glued on.  That clamping setup will also require a bit of trickery because the top is longer than any clamps I own... including my long pipe clamps.  But I've been faced with this before so I know the drill.

Slowly but surely this project moves forward.

Edging installation

Edging is deliberately over sized so that it can be trim routed flush later on.

Office Build Update



Completed Bookcases

Since the bookcases portion of the project is probably the most complex and time consuming we'll say that the office build project has now passed the halfway point.  Today everything got a good rub of Johnson Paste Wax making them complete and ready for transport out of the shop.  Work on the table tops will begin tomorrow.

The finish on these is a wipe-on mix of Danish oil (cherry) and spar varnish cut with mineral spirits followed by several wipe-on coats of spar polyurethane and finally wax.  If that level of effort doesn't prove to be durable enough for a government office nothing would be.

Today is 4 weeks to the day into the build.

Hand Crafted

Branding

I've been building things in my garage/shop since I bought my house in 2003.  It was the first chance I'd ever had where I owned the property, knew there wouldn't be a move in 18-24 months, and room was available to accumulate tools and equipment and make sawdust.  Over the years I've built all my own shop cabinets, workbench, materials rack, and numerous cabinets and pieces of furniture for myself and others.  But I never had a way beyond a Sharpie or ballpoint pen to mark my work.

Now I do.  It came today... a full two weeks ahead of when I expected it.  Just in time too.

AutoCAD 2013 SP1.1

No posts all month and then two within a half an hour.  Go figure.

But I just became aware that Autodesk re-released updates today for the packages that failed a few weeks ago immediately after they were posted.  32-bit and 64-bit versions of the new Service Packs can be found here:

AutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1.1
AutoCAD LT 2013 Service Pack 1.1

A couple of things to note about these:

1. They are for AutoCAD only and will not work on any of the vertical products.  Separate SP's for vertical products will be created and issued as appropriate. 
2. Also, if you previously applied the original SP1 before it got pulled you can simply install SP1.1 right on top of it.

As always, be sure to go thru the ReadMe file that accompanies any update very carefully and follow all the directions.

I'll be watching the boards closely over the next few days to see how the user community is reacting to this repair package.  If the feedback looks positive I may take a dive back into 2013 waters myself.  We'll see.

Making Sawdust

I haven't had much time recently to add a new blog posting because I've been working on these and the plans for a new stand up workstation at my office.  The suite will include these two bookcases made of American Cherry and Red Oak, three torsion box table top work surfaces (two each about 3 ft wide by 8 ft long and one shorter one to form a "U" shape) and a small case to hold the computer unit under the table.  Basically I got tired of working in a conventional fashion and decided it might be better for me long term to stand instead of sit.

I got the original idea from a colleague and an article I stumbled onto online.  So in late August I began drawing up detailed construction plans, a cost estimate and made the pitch.  Once the boss granted approval and gave me funding for the materials it was full steam ahead.  Construction started in my shop at the start of September and has been pretty steady since.  The schedule is to get everything complete and installed before I head off to Autodesk University (AU2012) in late November.

A complete set of progress images of the build are being posted on my PBase Woodworking pages.  These include an abbreviated set of the drawings I put together for the project.  Entries  here may become a little sporadic while this goes on.  I'm enjoying making sawdust again.  :)