End of the week

I should get something up here. So, what's up with Doug for this week?

No pedaling. Weather has been too erratic this week to commute. I think I will sneak out for a ride this weekend, probably just a short one since we have company headed in tonight.

Jenny and Frank left on Wednesday. Overall I think everyone had a nice visit. I definitely appreciated the help with the garage wiring. That stuff was starting to bug me, so when he showed up with his DMM and conduit bender I was happy to join him in the project. So far no complaints from Erin, so my quick patch job is enough to keep it on the fringe of her radar.

Work has been busy this week. It is amazing the catch up required after a vacation. The little changes add up. Heck they even changed the way voicemail works out here on the center while I was gone. I got out to the test stand this week. I am continually catching differences between the drawing and the way that the contractors actually constructed the stand. It looks like the major modifications are going to be held off for a year due to schedule slips upstream on the vehicle design side, so life just got a bit easier on the stand design and modification side.

When not at work I have been working in the garage or doing family dinners. David bbq'd up some great steaks over at John and Mary's on Tuesday. Since then Erin and I have been scrounging around for whatever we can find in the house for food. Still need to get a grocery trip in one of these days.

I have a couple of videos from the garage if anyone wants to see them(or just listen to me geeking out over some tools). I got around to installing a router table extension on the tablesaw last night. Router table was one of the items missing in the garage. So the extension takes care of that as well as adding 4" to the saw's top which will help support longer material better. The unit itself was a kit from Bench Dog. Overall quality and construction exceeded my expectations. Decided to go this route vs. making something. I figured making a fence/table and the miter track hardware would likely end up costing near as much and probably wouldn't be as flat as the machined cast iron top. Also I am getting a bit of pressure from Erin to actually start making some of the stuff she wants, so taking a weekend or 2 to build a table and fence isn't really in the cards.
:BenchDog video:

Got a good coupon over at HF for about 20% off on a wetstone grinder. So I picked it up. I gotta say this thing is great. I don't think I will be messing with my high speed bench grinder for sharpening anymore. The low rpm wheel works faster and has the added benefit of not vibrating the bench to death. Shaping on the bench grinder at 3000rpm scares the crud out of me. I really like my fingers just the way they are. 150rpm is much less stressful. I ran a few chisels through the other night. The entire operation was clean, easy, and fairly quick. Chisels come off the stone sharp and then I can improve that to a razor sharp mirror finish with another 5-10 minutes on the wet stones. For the rough stuff just off this grinder is sharp enough, but for paring off and detail work it is amazing what a really sharp chisel will do.
:Wetstone Grinder video:

I also took a couple of minutes to do a video tour of the garage. Yeah, I am digging the man cave. Deal with it. I still need to do some cleanup (as always the kid and family stuff is overflowing into any open areas).
:shop tour:

That's it for now. Keep it safe and have a good weekend.