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What's happening in your shop this winter?

New LED Lights really brightened the place up. Thanks to Amazon these puppies only cost $34 each + radio reception. Remind me to report the manufacturer to the FCC later.

This surprises me. A year ago, I converted all of my shop lighting to LED's. I retrofitted ballasted fluorescent fixtures with direct wire T8 replacement tubes. Besides saving 675 watts and having a brighter shop, I can now listen to AM radio, something I could not do with the old fluorescent lighting.

Your green walls remind me of the hall tiles in my elementary school, a color I've come to call institution green. My opinion of it would depend on the teacher I had in any given year. Mr. Baron's fifth grade in the 1968 school year were about the only pleasant memoires I recall from the building, so I guess I would have to repaint your walls.

I once bought a truckload of random logs from a logger that was sold as firewood. Much of it seemed too good for the stove and a friend with a mill turned it into lumber. Stickered in my garage for several years, I like to brag that most of the furniture in our house was made from firewood.
 
I have serious wood envy...
Ahem! Uh....nevermind.


Yeah, Jim's shop photos always make me envious too. :)

Last year, I decided to close the barn door, having let the horse out. Not a substitute for safe saw handling, but the new Saw Stop cabinet saw was reassuring, in the spirit of "Never Again". Besides - I knew I'd gain a little accuracy for the smaller work. One drawback....Since I chose to use the integral mobile base, the saw table was a half-inch lower than my 4'x8' outfeed table and workstation. So, up until a couple weeks ago, all my projects were small things like beehive frames, furniture repair, and some kids toys - all of which needed to be done anyway. I finally figured out that I could lower the table by simply replacing its oversize overbuilt wheels with a set of smaller, but just as strong casters. Now I can get back to some projects I had suspended. That would include ripping ash planks for more wood canoe poles, and that hall butler for which I have rough-sized stock piled up.

But first - a complete reorganization is in order, in preparation for my impending retirement, which will be opening up a lot more shop time. And then, I have a couple of canoe seats that I want to replace with contoured seats. Yeah, I could just buy a couple of Conk seats, but where's the fun in that?
 
Steve ! What are the dimensions of your poles, and do you cap them ?
There is probably a thread I could look up !

I have some long straight grain Green Ash, laid away. Some 17' long. (Like I need another iron in the Fire !

Good Luck in Retirement ! I too thought I'd have more time to do the Things I wanted to do ! Ha !

Jim
 
What's happened to all of us? Lots of projects this year but not so many canoe related ones.

I'm still plugging away at fixing up my new (to me) house. I took some ash from log to flooring and got the first bedroom done last week. I've got enough for the other bedroom but the rest of the house will need to wait until next year when I can saw and dry more lumber.

Ash flooring by Alan, on Flickr

Alan
 
I have some long straight grain Green Ash, laid away. Some 17' long. (Like I need another iron in the Fire !

Good Luck in Retirement ! I too thought I'd have more time to do the Things I wanted to do ! Ha !

Jim, us retired guys need to have multiple irons in the fire. I wake up every morning* smiling, thinking about the half dozen potential projects I have in mind or waiting already prepped in the shop, and knowing I won’t get to all of them, so there’s always something left for tomorrow.

And in the course of the day three new projects will present themselves. On the best balanced days those projects involve work on a boat, on something inside the house, on something out in the yard/property and on some oddball minor tinkering at the shop bench.

At the end of even a relatively non-productive day I look at what I’ve accomplished and think “How the heck did I have time to do anything for the 35 years I worked and commuted 10 hours a day?”

*Question for you retired guys. I woke up at 5am for decades and was at work by 6. I have been retired now for 4 years, and I still get up at 5am. Or sometimes 4am; what the heck, I’m awake and looking forward to playing in the shop.

Ahem! Uh....nevermind.

The wood I have left is mostly too short useless, and decent hardwood is hard to come by here. Bada-bing.


But first - a complete reorganization is in order, in preparation for my impending retirement, which will be opening up a lot more shop time.


Steve, I am confident you will enjoy retirement, everyday being Saturday or Sunday, with plenty of time to paddle and travel and play in the shop.

heck, a complete shop reorganization is great fun, and worth taking your time to think about what goes best where and how. I just wanna say two words to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dug-G9xVdVs

Two words, magnetic tool bars. Seriously changed the convenience of my shop life.
 
Steve ! What are the dimensions of your poles, and do you cap them ?
There is probably a thread I could look up !

I have some long straight grain Green Ash, laid away. Some 17' long. (Like I need another iron in the Fire !

Good Luck in Retirement ! I too thought I'd have more time to do the Things I wanted to do ! Ha !

Jim

Jim, I have been using some ash plank that is a little over 12'. I made one that started as 12' after the checked ends were trimmed, but is closer to 13' finished. The next one, I shortened the wood some more so its finished length is right at 12', not counting the spike. No real need for that extra foot that adds weight. Why the longer finished length? Because I finish the ends with a 6" section of aluminum tubing, capped with a delrin plug and 3/8" dia. spike fashioned from a grade 8 bolt. It's essentially the end of an aluminum pole of the Hayden design. Makes for a very durable pole end, without a lot of added weight.
 
Can't find the photo of the completed pole end right now, but here's a photo of the components.....
Ah - I found it while the other was loading....
 

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So, this shows how long it's been since I finished a pole. I forgot that my ends only add about two inches to the pole. One half inch for the shoulder of the delrin plug, and a half inch for the space I leave for excess epoxy to escape when assembling through the tiny weep hole I leave between the plug and the end of the pole stock. I could make the tubing sleeve shorter, but I like the overlap for more epoxy contact and more protection from wear on rocks.

I gave that first pole away, so I didn't have it here for reference. But yeah, I think I left it a little long because the stock was longer than 12' - and I made sure the later pole was not over 12'. I have a hemlock closet rod pole that is 13', and works okay because it's lighter wood. But hemlock is not a really good choice for a pole, IME.

Another pole that grew in length with the shoes added used these. And when I do another, I will likely shorten it to not more than 12' (considering 11' for the same reasons I hear Harry Rock has done the same)....

http://www.bghookedesign.com/

Those bronze shoes are heavy, but they get to the bottom really well in pushy water - and they wear like, well, bronze.
 
What's happened to all of us? Lots of projects this year but not so many canoe related ones.

I'm still plugging away at fixing up my new (to me) house. I took some ash from log to flooring and got the first bedroom done last week. I've got enough for the other bedroom but the rest of the house will need to wait until next year when I can saw and dry more lumber.

Ash flooring by Alan, on Flickr

Alan

Looks Great Alan !

Yeah ! that's a lot of canoe gunnels laying there, wishing they were on a canoe ;)
 
Wow Alan, that look awesome!! I'm still working on my shop and don't have much projects happening in the shop and certainly not canoe related projects! Still have some suffixing to do and some board and batten as well... Noting fancy!
 
.......But first - a complete reorganization is in order, in preparation for my impending retirement, which will be opening up a lot more shop time. And then, I have a couple of canoe seats that I want to replace with contoured seats....

But wait! With the shop rehab well under way, it has become abundantly clear that I need a better system for storing my clamps. I have a lot of clamps; long and short. I remember seeing at least a couple different clamp caddies in photos of some of your nice shops here, but I don't remember in which threads. I scrolled through every page of this thread....no caddies. I'm not so great at producing a design from scratch. I need plans or photos. How about it guys?

Oh yeah - Mike.....magnetic tool strips - yeah! Great addition for the lathe tools.
 
I guess I've become kind of a lurker the last couple years or so. I just haven't had much "canoe tripping" to share. As some of the Old Timers here know, in the winter I retreat to my basement workshop and build knives from scratch. This year I have the automatic knife (read switchblade) bug. I started to post a few pics but they appeared huge so I deleted them. Dave
 
C'mon Rippy, who wouldn't want to see a switchblade build? Of course, Canadian Border Security would probably trash your link, as they won't even allow regular folding knives into Canada now. The level of weirdness in Canada is reaching epic proportions.
 
I guess I've become kind of a lurker the last couple years or so. I just haven't had much "canoe tripping" to share. As some of the Old Timers here know, in the winter I retreat to my basement workshop and build knives from scratch. This year I have the automatic knife (read switchblade) bug. I started to post a few pics but they appeared huge so I deleted them. Dave

I've been wondering about you ! I really enjoyed your Knife building , in the past !

I'm sure everyone else does too !

Work on picture posting !
My Photo bucket pics fill the screen, but at the lower Right hand corner is a little black rectangle, that I can drag the pic smaller.

Uh ! Nothing wrong with a Full screen pic either ! :rolleyes:

From one Old timer, it's good to see you are still out there !

Jim
 
C'mon Rippy, who wouldn't want to see a switchblade build? Of course, Canadian Border Security would probably trash your link, as they won't even allow regular folding knives into Canada now. The level of weirdness in Canada is reaching epic proportions.

What? No Canoe knives? No Stockman? No Peasant? :eek:


Yeah, Rippy - good to see ya! Let's see the knife!
 
When oldtimers stop posting it's hard not to wonder if they may have passed, and it would be too bad if it were true and no mention of it was ever made. Maybe someone can start an "I'm not feeling well" thread. This way if we don't hear from them again we can assume the worst and at least say a few kind words about them.

What ever happened to Glen McGrady?
 
When oldtimers stop posting it's hard not to wonder if they may have passed, and it would be too bad if it were true and no mention of it was ever made. Maybe someone can start an "I'm not feeling well" thread. This way if we don't hear from them again we can assume the worst and at least say a few kind words about them.

What ever happened to Glen McGrady?

He's dropped of radar a couple times before so I'm hoping that's all it is. I searched for an obituary a couple months ago when I was wondering and didn't see anything.

I've always wondered about Oldy Moldy.

Also, you better hope Rippy doesn't come after you with one of his knives after that oldtimers statement. :)

Alan
 
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