Just some small things

Haven't made any real progress on projects that are in the works. But I've been doing a few small things that add up.

1. Last week a friend of mine wanted to buy some pens from me to give as gifts. She wanted them from the wood of a tree that I cut down in her front yard. I didn't have any ready (she needed them the next day), but I have plenty of the wood and had given one of these to her and one to her daughter in the past. So I told her to give the pens she already had and I would make replacements. She made me promise that I would replace them because they were so dear to her. So on Monday I made the replacements.

2. Yesterday I made 4 more pens (Cedar, Red Keiyaki, Teak, Sakura). I want to have a "specimen" pen out of every species of wood that I can easily get my hands on, just for show/display purposes. I made up a few more blanks (Sycamore, Cherry) but don't have the kit parts to finish the pens. Ordered 15 kits today. Over the next few days I will make up some more wood blanks in preparation for the ordered kits.

3. The output elbow on the dust collector had come loose and was not taking care of the fine dust. I thought that was going to take an hour to fix, but it took only about 10 minutes. It is snug now, but I really should fashion a special clamp/bracket that will keep that from happening again.

4. A neighbor gave me some casters to mount on the leg stand of my table saw, specially made for Sears tablesaws. The casters have been in the shop for months. Last night I installed them. They were attached to a stand he was discarding, which was taking up room in my shop...no longer.

5. One of my yellow coil air hoses was ruined by being in contact with a spinning part of another tool. When I bought that hose I had connected a "point of use" pressure reducer gauge at the end...good for dialing down pressure for a desired tool. I had to remove that from the hose and discard the hose. Then I thought it would be nice to be able to "snap" that gauge onto any hose that I want. So I had to rig up a few quick connect fittings. When assembling air tool fittings you use plumbers "pipe joint compound" to make them air tight. I knew that I had at least 2 tubes of this stuff but didn't know where. Finally I found THREE tubes in a box in the garage (with the plumbing stuff...who knew). Two of the tubes "felt" good but the holes were blocked so I threw them away. With the last tube I did all the fittings plus a quick connect fitting for a hand held air blower. Now I can use that tool on any hose as well.

So now that a bunch of small things are done I can get back to the projects. Will be taking the last week of this month as vacation so I expect to get a lot of stuff done.