Pretty...

Da new family wagon... It's a hybrid!







- Scuba Steve

Sydney!

Hi everyone... Say hello to Sydney Caroline Reaser.




6 pounds 15 Ounces
20.5 inches
Clearly a genius already

Mama and baby are doing great.

- Scuba Steve

Crib - *this* close...

So I've managed to spend a few hours in the shop this weekend... The light at the end of this project is getting pretty bright!

First I did some more gluing and clamping... You think that the number of clamps you own is embarrassingly high, but then you glue up the top rail of a bed and find you coulda used 3 or 4 more...




Anyway, got that glued up, and then started finishing up the sides... Got them 100% ready to polyurethane... All sanded down and everything (like 2 hours of hand sanding, because of all those spindles).

So even though I'm gonna have to disassemble it to seal it up, (and even though the headboard isn't done yet) I wanted to see what it was gonna look like, so I went ahead and assembled it... I like!








- Scuba Steve

Cabinet soft-close thingies!

OK, so of all the kitchen improvement we made these soft closer things give by far the most bang for the buck.

See that little extra thing in the top corner?



Only one self-drilling screw to install... Takes less than a minute... Costs just over $5 each... And now when you "slam" a cabinet door shut, it softly catches it about 2 inches out and eases it silently closed.

Fan-freaking-tactic!



Something like $120 to do this to the whole kitchen and bar... Totally worth it.

- Scuba Steve

Location:Cricketfield Ln,Cary,United States

So close to gluing up...

Spent a few hours out there today... Getting the rest of the headboard ready to go... If I had a few dowels I would have this piece glued up already, but such is life... After some sanding I'll get this one glued up and then just 3 more glue-ups to go and then staining and assembly!





- Scuba Steve

Location:Cricketfield Ln,Cary,United States

Spindles done!

That is 52 spindles, all ready to go!

Progress at WebAssign

Construction is just beginning on the new office! Lots to happen between now and November 1 when we move in. (I've been coordinating this whole move planning... fun, but lots of work!)

A few screen-shots below...

Working on the crib...

So with the wife due around 9/22 it is now officially a race between the little one and me building the crib.

Just been so distracted with the kitchen and other house stuff... But I've got a good start on the crib and I'm feeling pretty confident at this point.

Various pieces-parts below:



Spent a few hours this weekend working on the spindles, which actually make up the bulk of the whole project as each one needed to be made flat, made thinner, rough cut out, face sanded, trimmed to exact shape via a jig and router, rounded off, and hand sanded... And I had to make 52 yes 52 of them!

Here's me working with the little jig I built to make them all the exact right profile:




Yes, I wear gloves when I woodwork. Protects the hands, and makes me feel a bit like a biker so there is that extra badass mojo in the shop...

Here are 52 spindles, waiting for the rounding-over step...




Few more days in the shop, and this thing should be under control.

-me

Tile progress!!

At last, we are making progress again! After about a month of waiting and several missed appointments, they came and did a full full days work on the tile backsplash.

Here's what it looked like this morning:



And now:







Woo hoo! Really turns the kitchen up to 11.

Grout tomorrow and seal thursday... And we are back to a fully functional kitchen.

(ceiling painting, touch-up, and lighting to do.... But most of that can happen whenever....)

-scuba

Zucchini parmesan

So look what we found in the garden!




Decided to turn it into zucchini parmesan... Turned out pretty darn good! Of course if you put that much cheese on it, how can you go wrong!

Felt great to eat dinner mostly out of the garden...

Kitchen progress pics...

So to catch up a bit... The kitchen is almost done. The floor (in both the kitchen and utility room) are tiled and I think it came out awesome. The people doing the work really took the time to make all the cuts as perfect as they could... They truly cared about their work as if it was a piece of art... True craftsmen. As a result we didn't need to use any molding around the edges! Wow...








Putting the tile in on an angle like this was the designers call... But great call. Really adds to the look. The head tile guy thought of doing the 2" border strip - it's great working with people like that who build on each others ideas to do great stuff.




I've painted most of the walls chocolate brown, and done all he trim work... The cutout in the blue part above is because I had to run power from the right cabinets (for lights) over to the left one -- because the idiot GC who we fired didn't think we wanted lights everywhere... Sure, who wouldn't put in lights just in part of the kitchen and leave big pools of shadow in other parts. Of course thats what we wanted.

Now I've just got to patch and sand the wall over the stove and paint that... This coming week the backsplash tile goes in (which I'm super excited about) and then I can hang the hood and we're basically done... The lighting can happen whenever, really... I'll probably just do that part myself after the crib is finished.

Kitchen, Day 12

So with the granite fully in and polished up (and now that we have a fully functional sink again! yea!) it's tile time... this is after the second day of tile; should be one more day to finish that off, I think.

 Remaining:

* grout
* backsplash
* replace hood
* fix stove knob
* paint trim, ceiling, walls, corbels
* install lighting
* sell old stove
* beers!

Kitchen, Day 10

Countertops!

Was fun to watch these guys work; just manhandling huge slabs of stone into place -- there's only one seam in the whole kitchen -- gotta say, it looks pretty great.

Also: the fumes from the glue they used? Awesome! Nice little bonus to their job.

Tomorrow: plumber, tile guy to work on the floor, and granite strip install behind the stove... it's starting to come together!

Of course, it's always something... as part of the whole install today there was a metal piece of the sink (a flange of some sort) that has walked off... so they're trying to track that down before Bill the Plumber gets here at 9:30 tomorrow.

car seat

This seemed perfectly reasonable to me. Got vetoed by the wife.

(Thanks, failblog!)

Kitchen, day 9

So after the first few days of furious activity, visible change slowed down quite a bit.. A couple more days of electrical and drywall work, and lots of little trim pieces (crown, light rail, kicks, spacers).





The cabinets are now 98% done. Got the pulls installed yesterday and everything... The old fluorescent light in the ceiling is gone, replaced by 5 cans... Linoleum has been ripped up, and the template for the granite counters measured.





Microwave is back in and usable! (I've already walked to the wrong location to try to use it once... It ain't where it used to be!)





The new stove just came in, and thank goodness fits in the slot we left for it. You just never know about these things...





We're also replacing the "butler pantry" cabinets to match... I think they look great!

So what's left... Hmm...

Floor tile
Corbels to support granite
Install granite
Scoop out sink base
Install sink and faucet
Backsplash tile
Under cabinet lights
Mount hood
Hang pendants
Paint ceiling
Paint trim
Paint walls (ugh that's gonna be a lot of painting)
New kitchen party!

Kitchen, day 4

Starting to come together!

Day 2 was the electrical... And then 3 and 4 have been cabinet work... Not completely in yet, but it's starting to look good!





Now we just have to get through the counters... The lighting... The hood... The stove... And all the tile work...

Still, pretty exciting!

Kitchen day 1

So its really happening! The cabinets are all torn out and are in the garage awaiting sale... And no matter how many times you walk in there, you keep wanting to put something down on a nonexistent counter.

Exciting stuff!

Kitchen: day 0

So we're about to tear out the cabinets and start the kitchen remodel! Here's a "before" shot for reference...

New veggie garden...

Spent the afternoon putting in a vegetable garden bed on the side of the house.

Man I'm sore!

Nothing planted yet; that'll have to wait for next weekend.

It's about 3' by 12'... gonna put in some tomatoes, squash, onions, peppers, and lettuce... can't wait to see stuff start growing!

(The planters on the deck will be just herbs and flowers this year -- not going to repeat last year's tomato fiasco!)

So the last couple of weekends I've been practicing on the lathe, learning how to control the tools a bit better, and in the process have finished 2 (practice) bowls!

The one in the front was the first one I turned; it's finished with "salad bowl finish" and buffed...

The one in the back I just finished today. On that one I used EEE cream and turners polish; easier and faster than the buffing and it came out pretty good! Of course you can't use finish like that on anything you're going to eat out of; for that you pretty much just have to stick with the salad bowl finish (which still looks pretty decent).

The pic on the left shows the sizes better; they're about the same diameter actually - just the perspective on the image above...

Had a little scare with the one I turned today... had it chucked into a shallow internal notch in the base and was working on the inside, when my tool caught and the bowl completely jumped off the lathe. Yikes! Tore a big chunk out of the base too; luckily I had enough thickness down there that I reversed it onto the chuck and took about 3/8" off the whole bottom to fix the gouge. Still, it got my attention!

One more pic below, showing the profile of the bowls a little more clearly. The shape of today's bowl was actually a result of an accident... was originally going to be a simple oval profile, but when I accidentally took a big chunk out near the lip, I realized the bowl wanted to be a different shape entirely -- so I just went with it.

SuperNova chuck now working!

My nut came on Friday! I was so excited I almost had to go pee.

Let me back up and explain.

So the lathe I'm using is a Nova 1624-44 from Teknatool. I knew I was interested in learning to turn some bowls, so that means I need a chuck to grip the bowl from one side only, as opposed to a "spindle" which can be turned between two centers.

So a few weeks ago, I got a SuperNova^2 chuck from teknatool. Same manufacturer; has Nova in the title -- so of course it'll fit, right?

Well, you'd think so, but you'd be wrong.

Turns out the SuperNova has a 50 MM inner diameter thread, and the Nova lathe has a smaller 1.25" spindle.

Now, it's not the end of the world by any stretch... the SuperNova is intended to work with pretty much all lathes, you just have to buy the right insert to make them fit.

Once I read the back of the box, that was clear enough, but let's be honest -- most of us shop online for at least half if not more of what we buy... and that tiny insignificant bit of incredibly important info was nowhere in the description when I was shopping for this chuck online!

Long story short, I figured out which adapter I needed, and sent in an order for what is essentially a $23 nut. A precisely machined, heavy, threaded on the inside and outside nut.

Here's the adapter on the right: a nice little piece, but it's set me back 2 weeks in my plan to try turning a bowl!

Ah well, now that it's here all is well again in my world.

So what's my point?

1) Just because the names match doesn't mean the pieces will play well together.

2) People who run mail-order sites would serve their customers better by making sure that all important info is listed in the product description. Heck; why not scan all sides of the product box and post that as well -- or the manufacturer could do the same and provide those pics to online merchants.

3) I can't believe how excited I was to get a giant nut in the mail. Off to the shop!