Not complaining.... just saying..

If you live in Las Vegas, you're not really supposed to complain about the weather. (When you start complaining, people just look at you and think - STFU!)

I actually love the warm temps, so it doesn't particularly bother me when we get to triple digits - but it does make it a little tough to work in the shop.

Glue is my biggest complaint - it starts to set-up as soon as you spread it. Forget about ten minutes of working time, it's more like ten seconds! And - forget what you might think about how glue reacts to hot temps. One would think that it would turn sludgy, like cold motor oil. Just the opposite - hot glue gets as thin as milk. The first time I went to spread it, I spilled glue all over my lumber. 

Lesson learned. 

I have a ton of glue-ups to work on today, so this will be challenging! 

My best advice for beating the heat? Eat popsicles!

Keep on... keeping on...

Do you remember that scene from Castaway, where Tom Hanks talks about coming back to his old life, and the only way he can survive is to just put one foot in front of the other and keep going? 

That's how things felt this week. We're in the fourth week of classes, at the same time - Denny and I are producing a massive volume of work out of the shop. Epically massive! 

We've had rush orders that we've had to complete in 36 hours, repairs to complete on some of the equipment, wood deliveries - to say it's been hectic would be an understatement. We just keep putting one foot in front of the other and ....

...keep on keeping on. 

What choice do we have?!

Regardless of what we have going on, we've still been producing some of the most amazing work in our shop. Even more exciting is the fact that most of these students are brand-new woodworkers. 

In some cases this is their second class ever!  

Hand planes, baby!

They're using a combination of handtools and power tools to create terrific, well-crafted works of art. Not crafty-crap. We're talking nice work here. We wouldn't have it any other way!

Take a look....

Nice work, everyone... I couldn't be more proud!

My $6 Garden...

To say that I'm busy right now would be an understatement. 

It's been so hectic that I actually had to put Stella in daycare for a few days (Thanks Ann!) just to find time to get everything done. When I picked her up last night, I ended up taking her to class with me. She walked around, watching everyone build their workbenches, just wanting to play. 

She sure does love that Frisbee.

But one thing is certain - no matter how busy life gets, the sun keeps rising every morning and the household chores keep piling up. And my garden keeps on truckin'....

Back in March, some friends and I decided to start a gardening group. I think it stemmed from the fact that we were tired of starting our gardens by purchasing plants at the local garden centers, often spending a ton of money for plants that weren't all that healthy. Instead, we each chose a few plants and started everything from seeds. For around $6, each of us started 3 different plants, and then traded them six weeks later, when they had sprouted.  

I wrote about starting everything in this blogpost in March. Here are some of the amazing plants that were brought to my shop - everything from Lupe's ridiculously healthy tomatoes, to some store-bought plants because Ann's starters died before she got them to us! 

We literally had so many plants, I had to give them away to anyone who would take them... hundreds!

 It took me three separate weekends to get everything in the ground! 

(I'm fast forwarding a bit - but here it is this morning!)

 Within a few weeks, the magic began...

 I didn't know what these slender shoots were, but when they rolled over and turned cellophane-y, I dug them up... 

only to find that I'd been growing shallots all winter! 

If you've never cooked with a shallots, you need to! And I have pounds of them to share!

Here is the humble squash garden after roughly 2 weeks, 

and here it is a month later...

and a few weeks later.

 And now it's taken over the sidewalk, 

with huge spaghetti squash popping up  every few feet on the vine.

Lupe's japanese eggplant seem pretty happy - there are clusters of them everywhere! 

  

This year's garden has to be the best ever, it's as if everything is on turbo-drive... the zucchini are happy.

 the chard grows so much, I can barely keep up with it! 

And the beet garden is maybe the best it's ever been. 

 Even the nectarines are exploding!

I'm not sure how my garden buddies' gardens are faring, but I really hope they're enjoying everything as much as I am!

Even the ornamentals wanted to get in on the party!

Sundays are for a little relaxation and garden maintenance! Honestly, I don't even have the time to cook most of the things that are growing right now! I'd rather sit back and just watch things grow. 

 Hope the start to your summer is going well, too! 

A little tablesaw upgrade - as simple as it gets

Great minds think alike. 

My buddy John just bought a SawStop tablesaw, and he mounted a router base underneath the table, so that he could use it as a router table. I've done this almost every saw that I've owned; it's a pretty smart way to save space in your shop. 

Who doesn't love that!?

Router tables have been one of the conundrums for me at the school - we definitely need good one, so I bought this beast of a router table recently. 

But there are couple of times that we need a second router, and I didn't want to waste the floor space, nor the money, purchasing a second one of these. So I decided to mount a router base on my table saw. The router and saw can share the fence, which is great.

I started by drilling a single hole in the table top, where I wanted locate the router bit on the top. 

Then I lined up the base and started drilling the three mounting holes. It didn't matter that hole was perfectly centered in the base; you'll see why later. 

 Here – two of the three holes are drilled and the base is attached. It's wise to do this slowly, so you get a perfectly aligned mounting holes. I use the Vix bit. 

After the three holes were drilled I tested the installation, by mounting the base underneath.

But then I flip things around and mounted a plunge router on top, using those three mounting holes that I drilled. My plan is to use the router to drill that hole in the top; it will be perfectly centered.

You know, I've done this to several saws before, and I've done it in a match harder method. This way was so simple, I did it in about 20 minutes!

 Here's a little video of me drilling the hole in the top. 

Now you can see why it wasn't imperative that that first hole was perfectly centered. All I needed to do was get the bearing to fit into it. 

And voilà – check out this clean installation!

I have an extra router base, so I'll keep this permanently mounted under my saw. When I need to use this as a router table, I'll just pop a router into this base and be good to go.  

I wish all the chores in the shop were the simple! I'll have to ask John how he mounted his router. I suspect he did it in a similar fashion. 

Like I said– great minds think alike!