Author: way0utwest

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

Today is the last day of my sabbatical, and a cut short one at that. I leave at 11 for the airport to fly to the UK for business overnight. Not quite what I expected, especially with a trip in the middle over a weekend for work, but it is what it is and I’m OK with that.

Today is actually no woodworking or volunteering. I was up early packing things, trying to find my computer/work stuff and get it in a bag, then dropping my daughter off at a volleyball camp, handling some bank paperwork that had to be notarized, and then heading to the airport.

It’s amazing to think it’s been six weeks. I made it a little over halfway through a woodworking class (more coming next two weeks), volunteered and learned a lot about Habitat, and built a flagpole from scratch.

I’ll review the six weeks on the flight, but it’s been a fun ride.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

This is it for the sabbatical. Technically I have tomorrow, but I fly to the UK and have a few errands to run in the am, so I won’t get a chance to do anything else.

However I did "finish" the pole today in a sense. It has a first coat of paint on it, and technically it could be raised if I had a base.

The day started with more primer. My daughter helped me get another coat on the pole after I filled a few holes and sanded the entire thing down with 220 grit sandpaper. We primed it all over and then headed to the store.

When we got back, I put a coat on 2/3 of the pole before heading off to work on other chores. I had a lot I wanted to get done, and I forgot a few supplies, but I kept busy for an hour before flipping the pole and putting a first coat on the rest of the pole.

That was it. I had to just cover up the pole and tie it down for a week. I head to the UK tomorrow for a week, so I won’t be able to sand and paint it again until next weekend. Then I’m hoping to go visit a friend and see about getting the base built from metal.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

I’m almost out of time and I leave Monday for the UK. So it’s another Saturday catch-up day.

I started the day with a trip to the store. I had to go out anyway, so I grabbed a few more sanding belts and got back to work on things.

Using some new 36 grit sandpaper, I first hit a few rough spots where one of the 3 boards making up a side was taller than others. This went quickly, giving me a relatively smooth surface.

Then I switched to 80 grit and went up and back, flipping the pole after each passage until all 4 sides were done at that level.

I next went to 120 grit, which is good surface prep. It’s slow going and messy, as I cut lots of wood dust from the tops, along with some epoxy, but as I worked each side, it was becoming more and more of a pole.

The first two grits also helped me round the top more, breaking and easing the edges on all sides, even where the router didn’t cut deep. At the end, I had a heck of a pole.

 

Priming

I wanted to get moving, so I decided to prime the pole. However I first needed to fill in a few spots, which I did with wood filler.

Then I started with the first coat of primer. I’m actually thinking to do a couple here, and the plan I had was to do the top and one side, then go back and do the other side and the top again.

I completed one coat, the flipped it over and did the same thing on the other side. This was all "four" sides get two coats.

The last coat wasn’t completely dry when weather came in and I had to hurriedly cover things as the rain started to fall.

I need to order my truck now that I know the top size (2 1/2") and then also get more paint. Hopefully I can paint things tomorrow sometime and then start working on the base.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag

Finally, it’s starting to look like a flagpole.

I was hoping my router bit would arrive early Friday, but I actually got lucky and the UPS guy brought it late Thur night as I was heading out with my daughter on an errand. With that in mind, I got up Fri morning and started to work.

A Setback

I was prepping things in the morning and realized I had a problem.

My variable speed router has these wings for a collet and they prevent a large bit, such as this one, from being used. I have another router, but it isn’t a plunge, nor variable speed, and with a bit this large, you want it spinning relatively slow.

I checked a few sites and many people have recommended just cutting these off. I’ve never used them in the 4 years I’ve had this router, so I decided to do just that.

I grabbed my Dremel tool and added a metal cutting bit. I put the plunge base in a vise and went to work. Having cut metal before, I learned to put on long pants, long sleeves, get gloves, and use a hat with eye protection. My full face plastic visor was handy. It was slow, but I cut the wings off.

Now I was ready to work.

Rounding

The idea was to take the 45 degree cuts I’d made on each side and apply the roundover bit to create a pole. I set up the router with my bit and started at the top of the pole.

I went to work, cutting down each side and back up the other.

With a couple of trips, things were looking good.

I flipped it and managed to rout all sides. One wasn’t quite a clean cut as I think I cut a little deep with the circular saw, but overall things looked good.

Wow, a pole.

I started to sand the whole thing with 80 grit on the belt sander, but weather came in with some rain drops, so I bailed.