Well, I've been busy playing (of course) with tools and machines but ended up on two polar opposite projects:  OverKill (my wife named it) and Dainty (you can guess why).

 

OverKill was really the completion of a project that I didn't finish properly.  Last summer I built a picnic shelter out of lumber that I had milled out of some trees that came down off of my property.  Cedar made up the post and beam construction and Alder provided the truss assemblies, and good 'ol TRM building supplies provided the roof.  Well, I got it all done (did all the trusses, etc by myself) and it sure looked great (or so I thought).  I thought about cross bracing, and thought 'Nah, this thing is so stout it'll be a non-issue'.  And that theory held until the first real windstorm of the winter season.  And, ever so sadly, the shelter tipped over crushing everything under it.

 

So, I was trying to sort out the best way to get this thing back up and ready to keep the family dry while we roast marshmellows, etc?  I didn't want to pull all those little screws out that hold the roof and pull the trusses off....what's a guy to do?  Then it hit me...this was my chance to rent some heavy equipment and 'raise the roof' to get my little creation back on it's feet.  There isn't much you can't accomplish with an 8,000 lb. variable reach forklift!  Now were happy all over again.....oh, and yeah I put some 4x6 cross braces in for good measure this time.  10,000 lbs of force would be needed to shear the braces...and if the wind can generate 10,000 lbs of shearing force then it deserves the right to knock the shelter over.

 

Dainty went a whole different direction.  Along w/ all the Cedar and Alder that was milled out of the trees, I had a ton of maple 1 x 4's rough cut in order to turn into H/w flooring.  I'll spare you all the details of all the tools I've accumlated to make this a reality...but lemme say this.  I thought I was just going to go full blow production line style...dimention all the boards, then groove them, etc.  Well I got about 1/4 of the way through the pile, and had all this beautiful wood and I just needed to use it to build something!  So after some deliberation w/ Erin we decided to build something based on a design we saw at another site (http://www.littlecolorado.com/stock9294.html) props to them for their nice design, and well I shamelessly stole it and used it for project dainty.  This was my first stab at doing something that wasn't just plain old rough carpentry or bookshelf building, instead this was a real peice of furniture that needed all the joinery tricks, door construction, etc.  After working on the project on evenings and weekends for a month or two (along with buying lots of tools, sorry hon!) project dainty is complete.  Take a look at the pictures and lemme know what you think.  You'll see the project was named after the model showing it off.

 

BTW if you're in western washington and would like to get some outstanding mobile milling done on your logs...you need to get in touch w/ Bob Sweazy.  This guy is a great guy to know and to work with, and if you ask nicely he'll bring his woodmizer moble mill w/ him and make you some pretty lumber too!  http://www.sweazeytools.com/

 

Thats all for now....gotta get started on project Hot Stuff.