Tag: sabbatical

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 has been a crazy week. It’s the first week of time off, but I’ve found myself as busy, or busier, than I am most weeks. My son coming back from China, extra kid volleyball, doctor appointments, and more.

Yesterday started with a slow wakeup, blogging, and planning a few things. I had a list of supplies from woodworking class, and I spent a bit of time looking at the various options and trying to decide what was worth spending money on. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that woodworking isn’t cheap, so I had to decide if the $15, $36, or $80 squares were better decisions. I also dug out some chisels that I’d received as a gift. These were Stanley chisels and my plan was to bring them to class and see if they were acceptable.

I lost a bit of time at a doctor appointment (knee is doing well), and swung by Lowes on the way home for a few pieces of wood to finish the sawhorses. I also got slightly lost in the miter saw section. The one I inherited from a delinquent tenant year ago is a basic miter saw, no tilting cuts and the flagpole plan calls for a beveled cut. I’m not sure if I can get a vertical cut from this saw, so I spent a few minutes drooling over DeWalt and Hitachi compound miter saws, and debated a Kobalt brand. Ultimately I think any would work, but I deferred the decision.

The afternoon was assembling two more sawhorses. I dado’ed out the tops, working my way across with the circular saw. I suppose the table saw would work, but this was quicker, and less messy. Plus I was in the cool afternoon.

With my guide, I marked and then cut the slots in the wood. This might be overkill, but it adds a lot of strength to the legs. I’m surprised how much more stable these legs are then sawhorses I’ve thrown together in the past.

It’s slightly messy, but it went quicker today. I was better at cutting closed to a dado than a series of grooves I needed to use a hammer to clean out. However the weather didn’t cooperate. It started hailing and raining and I got chased inside.

The boys, however, enjoyed the view.

I did manage to get everything inside, and I cut a few braces from scrap plywood to use on the legs. I assembled one and then stopped when I had to close my side of the garage. Still, I marked up the other braces to cut today.

After that, it was off to class. I brought my phone inside and took a few pictures this time. Feels good walking into the classroom. It’s like I’m improving my life with some learning in a way I haven’t done in years.

Class was better as we started with actual work right off. I was in the group that started with sharpening. Each of us grabbed a plane and removed the iron for sharpening. I was a little slow, or too polite, and all the waterstones were gone by the time I got over there. So I got the Japanese waterstones to work with. There isn’t much of a difference. These are natural and the others are synthetic, but the same process applies.

First I had to flatten the stone. I hadn’t worried too much about this in the past with my mechanical sharpener, but I see the importance here. Instead of a marble base, I had a metal/diamond plate to flatten the top.

Once that was done, I worked on the honing guide, and went through the grits fairly quickly. I was first to get started, and I think I had a fairly sharp iron to start with and I was done in no time. The TA approved my work and I assembled the plane.

After that, it was the boring part of class. Actually, it was interesting, but sitting on stools listening to the instructor explain how logs can be sawn and the effects on wood isn’t exciting. It’s relevant, and important if you make fine furniture, and something I’ll struggle with choosing wood and considering the grain and cut of boards.

Then it was practical time. We each had a rough board that we locked into a workbench. The instructor showed us how to use winding sticks and a plane to flatten a board. His was fairly twisted, and it was amazing in 15 minutes that it was flat enough that it didn’t rock on a jointer bed. Not perfectly smooth, but flat.

I used my winding sticks to check my board, putting them longways along the long edges and seeing a board that was slightly dipped at one end. Then I turned them across the long edge and crouched down to look at how parallel they were.

The sticks weren’t, and I marked a few places with pencil and then started shaving off sections. I generated a lot of shavings, and was surprised at how much they were like the bundles of straws as they came out of the planer. I should have taken a picture. Maybe I’ll try next week.

I thought I had it pretty good, and when I put it on the jointer bed, I still had a wobble. Back to marking and planing, but it seemed I was fairy quickly moving from side strokes to diagonal ones. At one point it was fairly flat, but I had a few pencil marks I wanted to smooth out. Of course, I added a wobble back, but a little more work and it was flat.

Again, not smooth, and definitely some cut marks in there. but flat enough that I felt a little grab as I put it on the jointer bed. The instructor thought that was pretty good, so I cleaned up and headed home.

The one good thing was that my chisels passed inspection. They need some flattening and truing on the bottom, but they were good enough to use in class, so one less purchase.

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.

A late start yesterday, and not a ton getting done. I can see that with late nights at class that I’ll be posting a day late most of the time.

My knee ached a bit yesterday, so I iced it when I got up. While that was going on, I re-watched part of the DVD to get prepped for what I needed to do. I realized that I needed at least 3, and perhaps 4 sawhorses. With the plans in hand, I went downstairs and got started.

The first thing was to clear a little space. Some of the horse projects were in the way, so I moved things around and got the base on the teeter totter so I could work. That done, I then cut the ends and trimmed the 2x3s to get them ready for more sawhorses. I think I ended up using a piece for something else because I got 6 legs done. Not quite what I needed for 2 more sawhorses.

With those six done, I worked on the stretchers next, using the spare 2x3s and also a spare 2×4. Cut and glued up.

At this point, I was waiting a bit for glue, so I looked at the plans and then measured a spot in front of the garage. I hope to work next to the garage on most of this, and I can just do 22ft on the cement. I’m thinking the top will hang off the edge a touch, but I can put 4 sawhorses there to support the flagpole and also let me work at a reasonable  height. The idea of working on the ground, with my knee, does not appeal to me.

Then a break. My oldest, Kyle, coming back from China and the little kids and I picked him up.

After that, rain and wind. Too windy to do much and rainy outside.

I did move one of the horse projects with the tractor so the space is clear. I also decided to do some measuring for the jig I’ll cut tomorrow. The jog is basically three pieces of plywood cut at 8ft and then some strips that screw on top. I had a space piece of 4×8 3/4” wood, so I measured the 3 8 ft strips. I dind’t have the space to move it with cars in the garage, but I did get the 3 strips marked along half the plywood.

My plan today is to continue marking the strips and cut them out. I’ll have, when I’m done:

• 3 8ft 8” strips for the base of the jog
• 3 8 ft 1 1/2”  strips for the guides.

These I’ll biscuit together and have a jig. I’ll also finish a sawhorse (or maybe two) and then I’ll have things relatively set up to start work.

I’ve been wondering about support, and I think I’ll also cut some spare OSB and use a few 2x4s to support the jig on the plywood. That should prevent bowing and give me a decent quick “workbench” about 3ft in the air.

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.

Day 2 of the sabbatical was the opposite of day 1. Instead of an early start, it was a late one. I was up early, with PT and some chores, but the sabbatical portion of this was at night. I had a 6pm class at Red Rocks community college.

I left early, needing a student ID and wanting to get oriented. However traffic was a mess and my 45 min drive to the other side of town ended up taking more like 70 and I was too late to get an ID. I’m not sure how often traffic is like that, but part of today and tomorrow needs to be finding a better route to that side of town. A few accidents, and the radio said traffic was worse than normal, but I’m still concerned.

Red Rocks Community College is nestled in the foothills just a little SE of Golden. It’s a beautiful spot, looking out over the mountains. I should have taken pictures, but I was a bit frazzled when I got there and it was confusing as to where the classroom was. I ended up driving around campus a bit before I found the location.

Apparently the Fine Woodworking program at Red Rocks is very well known. It was one of the few I’d seen nationwide that offered regular programs. However the instructor polled people since he regularly gets people driving from Wyoming, down South, even out west near Glenwood Springs for classes.

There’s a nice shop and I’ll get some pictures next time I go. It’s large and there were actually two classes in there at the same time. A turning class and my intro to woodworking. However noise wasn’t an issue last night since things are spread out.

Our class project is to build a small and table. The sample he showed was nice, tapered legs, beveled top, held together with mortise and tenon joinery. However we’re not using power tools, but hand tools. Slightly disappointing to me as I wanted to help get some skill with other items, but not too bad. It will be good practice since I’ve not really built anything that didn’t require glue or screws and this won’t. Pinned dowels to hold the tenons in there.

It doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m sure it will be. We have roughly eight weeks to learn how to flatten a board with a hand plane (our first project), then sharpen tools, then build mortise and tenons, and finally the table. It’s an interesting class, and while I don’t worry too much about the grade, I do want to do well and go on to other classes.

Last night we learned about planes, took one apart, learned how it works and then started seeing how to sharpen the iron. It was mostly listening and watching, which made for a long night on hard shop stools. By the end, I was exhausted and I’ll certainly keep that in mind for the future. I might need to stick with classes that are one night a week if I continue.

Still, it’s exciting, and somewhat amazing to see how flat and smooth the instructor got a piece of wood with a plane. No power tools, no sandpaper. Hoping I learn how to do that.

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 was the first real day of my sabbatical I decided that I’ll treat the weekends mostly like weekends since I have no shortage of ranch chores to do and I’ll try to stick to sabbatical growth and work during the week.

I started today at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I had signed up to volunteer a half day a few weeks ago and today was the day. Up at 7, showering, getting ready and on the road at 8 to be sure I was there on time. The store is a bit of a distance for me, 50mi by the Google Maps app, so I wanted to be sure I was there on time.

The ReStores are places where people can donate old furniture, tools, appliances, building supplies, etc. and they are then re-sold to the public. The profits from the sales go to funding the Habitat organization. I don’t know about the other areas, but the presentation I got from Habitat for Humanity Denver said that the three stores in our metro area pay for all the operational costs of the affiliate. This means that in Denver, 100% of any donations, mortgage repayments, etc. goes back to building more houses.

I arrived at the store a few minutes early, and walked up to find someone else waiting that was a first time volunteer as well. We chatted for a minute before the store opened. Once inside, we signed in, had a brief orientation video (repeated a lot of what I’d gotten at the Denver HQ) and then got our aprons and gloves. After a tour of the store, we were split up to different departments. I ended up in appliances, which meant working with refrigerators, ovens, washers, dryers, dishwashers and microwaves.

My basic job today was the test new arrivals, of which there were a lot from the weekend. I worked a 9-2 shift, and after 45 minutes getting started, I spent the day moving large appliances around, to and from the back and around the area. We’d plug in 2-3 fridges and leave a cup of water in the freezer to see if they worked. We’d attach plugs to other appliances, most of which didn’t have them, and then see if ovens turned on, if washers’ motors worked, and in general, just give them a basic electrical test. If they worked, we’d mark them, and set them up for sale. If not, we’d take them in the back where salvagers would pick them up once a week.

It’s simple work, fairly basic, and not too strenuous. I helped a few people load appliances, and otherwise did basic menial work, including sweeping and mopping when we made a mess, and simple electrical connections. All in all a calm, quiet day.

With the Denver area building 30-40 homes a year, housing people that are without housing or in poor situations, it felt good to be contributing to the cause. I’m scheduled to go back out there next week and I’ll try to get in a different department.