Eng Gdn Bench Day 13

Work day begins: 7:00 AM We’re having a thunderstorm this morning so I can’t boot up the computers, so instead I stay in bed a while extra. Spring time in these mountain often starts the day with a pre-dawn storm, then it clears up and turns into a beautiful day. God is just watering his garden. Lunch Time The weather hasn’t cleared up, in fact at the moment it’s hailing – which is very LOUD under this tin roof. This morning I got the 26 back slats made and got some of them sanded. Workshop closes: PM This afternoon I finished sanding the back slats, and the upper and lower back rails for both benches. Then dove into “Fussy Fitting” one back assembly. There was a fair amount of fitting to do… many of the tenons were just a bit fat. But that’s OK, better then too thin. Billable Man Hours: 7 Billable Materials: All materials used were cut-offs from previous steps. Nothing new billed. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 12

Work day begins: 5:30 AM My ‘pre-dawn’ session is being spent catching up on my technical journal reading and pondering the Treasures web site debacle. So much work, just gone in an instant; do I really want to put all that work back into it? Maybe not. Some portions of the data are more important to the continued success of the gallery, those need to be replaced as quickly as possible, but many of the products that were listed didn’t seem to garner much traffic. I’ll use the sites’ traffic logs to decide which were the most important. Lunch Time I cut the mortises in the front rail for the tenons on the seat support, then changed over to the ½” chisel and designed a jig to hold the lower back rails to cut the mortises at a 12½ degree angle. I found a couple of telephone messages from customers saying that they tried to e-mail us and the messages were returned as undeliverable. So I cut my lunch break short and took some time to look into that. Workshop closes: 3:30 PM Joy O'Hare called: she’s having trouble with her computer and needs some help. Sigh… MORE computer troubles. I also have to take the truck and go pick up Marie after she turns in her rental car, then we have to make a trip to Morristown. So it’s time to get cleaned up and changed. But I did get most of the ½” mortises cut in the back rails. Billable Man Hours: 3.25 Billable Materials: none To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 11

Work day begins: 5:30 AM Over the Easter weekend, I managed to destroy the database that drives the Treasures Of Appalachia on-line store, and have been attempting to recover that data ever since. The early morning was spent discussing the problem with tech support at my hosting service. Without going into detail, the news is not good. I’ll have to rebuild the database that took me 4 months to build the first time. Once I see Marie off, I eagerly head for the workshop – where there are NO computers. Lunch Time I spent the morning roughing out parts for the 4 center seat support rails and the seat slats, fussy fitting the end assemblies and doing some sanding. Just as I was heading back to work the phone rang: is was Phyllis in California.  She’d seen that we had a 12 drawer CD End Table available for immediate shipment, and wanted some details… since the web page that was supposed to give her that information was “having some issues”.  (A result of the blown-up database.) So I e-mailed her the pictures and information she needed. Workshop closes: PM This afternoon I rough cut the 4 seat support blanks I made up this morning, and trimmed and planed the 10 seat slats. This evening I’ll write up today’s article and post these notes, then try to figure out if it’s going to be worthwhile rebuilding the Treasures product line database. Billable Man Hours: 6.5 Billable Materials: 32 bf 4/4 white oak. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Time out

Had to take a couple of sick days here. It wasn't pretty.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 10b

Work day begins: 5:30 AM So what’s up with the Day 10b, isn’t this day 11? Yes, technically it is. But yesterday half the day got blown away by weirdness so I only got half a day’s work done. Today the insurance man is coming by to impress upon me the importance of having health insurance. That will, in all likely hood take some time. So, I’ll count this as the second half of yesterday as far as the production schedule is concerned. Lunch Time I got the remaining mortises cut, the tenons trimmed and pieces test fitted for one whole end frame. It looks good and fits well. I was afraid that there was going to be a problem (again) with the angle on the back of the arm piece, but once I got all the parts assembled and drawn together, everything fit quite nicely. I guess ‘ol Norm knows what he’s doing after all. ;-) (The plan we’re using as a starting point for these benches is from Norm Abrams and the New Yankee Workshop.) Workshop closes: 5:30 PM The insurance man didn’t take up too much time, but Mom e-mailed to say that her drain is stopped up and they don’t have a plunger, could I help? So I walked down the hill to help out. I got another end frame trimmed and fitted. And a third underway. Billable Man Hours: 4.25 Billable Materials: none To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 10a

Work day begins: 5:30 AM The early morning was spent taking care of some chores on the Treasures of Appalachia web site. Just before breakfast I went out to start a fire to warm the shop because it’s still pretty chilly in the mornings. However, things then went weird on me. The entire morning ended up being spent dealing with stuff and fixing peoples problems. None of which had anything at all to do with our woodworking, but other projects that we are affiliated with. And a couple had nothing much to do with anything… they just happened to call me. Lunch Time Time for a quick lunch, them I’m leaving the phone in the house and heading out to the workshop. Workshop closes: 5:15 PM I got most of the mortises cut in the front and rear legs this afternoon. These monsters are tough to do even with a mortiser: white oak is tough, hard wood and getting the chisel to penetrate for a ¾”wide, 1¾ deep cut requires lots of pressure. If the chisel/bit set makes it all the way through this project, it will be junk when I’m done. Billable Man Hours: 4.25 Billable Materials: None To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 09

Work day begins: 6:30 AM Looking into a glitch with our computer network took some time this morning, but now I’m off to the workshop. Lunch Time This morning I roughed out the pieces I need for spreaders and seat supports. The spreaders were then trimmed to finished size and have the tenon shoulders cut. The seat supports are just roughed out. Workshop closes: 4:00 PM This afternoon I finished cutting out and shaping the seat rails (for the ends) and cut the tenons on the seat rails and the spreaders. I’ll take care of the seat supports next week when I’m ready to install the long rails. Right now I’m working on building the end frames. At this point I would normally set up the drill press to cut mortises. But Marie is wanting to make some stump candles tomorrow, and will be needing the drill press as a drill press. And there isn’t enough time left this afternoon to do more than make the change-over and tune the set-up. So I’ll wait to do those things until Monday, then I can get after the mortises once the machine is set up. So I’m closing up a little early in order to pick through the cedar branch pile for stock suited to stump candles. It’s supposed to thunderstorm tonight and tomorrow morning… might as well keep the stuff we’ll be working with dry by taking it inside now. Later on, I’ll do the construction article and post these notes. Have a good weekend! Billable Man Hours: 4 1/2 Billable Materials: 5.5 BF White Oak 3.5 BF Red Oak To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 08

Work day begins: 7:00 AM It’s quite chilly this morning, so I’ve gone out to build a fire and warm things up a bit. While I’m waiting, I’ll take care of some bills and banking that need doing. Lunch Time This morning I got all 12 of the laminated parts belt sanded to finished shape and then sanded again with a random orbit sander to take out the cross-grain scratches. Workshop closes: 5:30 PM I spent the afternoon laying out mortise locations and cutting the tricky tenons on the back side of the arms. There was also a small glitch in the design – an angle that wasn’t going to work out right where the back of the arms meet the back support. I had to redesign the pattern and modify the parts. Luckily I caught it before the tenons were cut on these parts. This evening I’ll work on several bids that are waiting to be done and posting these notes and the construction article. Billable Man Hours: 6.75 Billable Materials: none To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 07b

Work day begins: 6:30 AM Checking e-mail and getting the daily stuff started. It’s chilly this morning, may have to build a fire to knock the chill out of the shop. We also have some special activities today that will interrupt the normal flow of the day today. I’ll have to run into Newport for a short time this morning, then go back again this evening for a couple of longer meetings. That will mean a shorter than normal day in the workshop. Lunch Time Spent most of the morning on errands and odd jobs that popped up. Seems odd jobs breed odd jobs. Workshop closes:400 PMI got all the screw hole plugs trimmed off, and the twelve laminated parts band sawed to rough shape and surface planed to 2 ½” thick. Now it’s time to sponge out the truck cab (Zadie lost her breakfast in there this morning), get cleaned up, and head back into Newport. It will be a long evening, and tomorrow I’m in Treasures again as shopkeeper. Thursday I should be able to put in a regular day. Man Hours Billed: 2.5 Materials Billed: None. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page.

Eng Gdn Bench Day 07

Work day begins: 5:30 AM The folks who bought our old Blazer showed up this morning to try to get it running. Didn’t work, but it took up the morning. Lunch Time Spent the morning keeping an eye on the fellows in the driveway messing with the Blazer and applying wood filler to the cracks in the long rails. Workshop closes: 6:00 PM Made up 120 tapered screw hole plugs from cut-off pieces saved so that the plugs would match each piece closely. Plugging the screw holes in the laminated parts used up 104 of them. This evening I’ll get things caught up on the blogs and work on the web site some more. Man Hours Billed: 2:30 Materials Billed: 104 3/8” screw hole plugs. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, .which is available from my profile page