Watcha doing?

[tango]

I decided to try my hand at something new. I've seen a few bandsaw boxes and couldn't figure out how they were made - on the face of it the cuts aren't possible. So I did a bit of research with Google and decided to see how it would work out.

I only have a small tabletop bandsaw - I bought it to help cut blanks for carving spoons - so rapidly hit the limitations of my saw. But I did make my first ever bandsaw box, which is now finally finished. Today's job was lacquering it, having glued everything together, stained the outline and cut tiny handles to put on the very small drawers.

It's going to be a Christmas present for one of my new granddaughters. She's 15, so I hope she likes having something personal that's hand made by her new Pap. My wife loves it, as does her mom, so we're hopeful.

Because I hit the limitations of my bandsaw so soon I'm debating whether to simply deal with making small boxes (two dimensions need to be 3.5" or less, to fit in the saw, or drop several hundred dollars on a bigger saw that will also have the drawback of being heavy enough that I can't just pick it up and put it somewhere else. One big advantage of the one I have now is that it only weighs about 50lb so moving it around is a trivial process. The ones I've been looking at range from about $600 - 1400 and weigh from 150-280lb.

I wish I could gauge how much I'd actually use a bigger saw, I don't want to drop four figures on a saw and find I kinda lose interest in boxes after making half a dozen of them, but also dont want to spend $6-700 on a saw and hit the limitations within a few months again.

So anyway, if you lot are stuck for ideas what to get me for Christmas, consider the above a hint

Would love to see the box.  My dad was a woodwork.  But he was more into lathe wotk.

A lathe is probably in my future. I'd like a bigger bandsaw and a lathe, I'm just not sure about space or whether I really want to drop the best part of $2000 on more tools.

I'll see if I can post a picture after Christmas, I don't imagine my granddaughter will be on this board but don't want to take any chances she'll get a sneak preview before she unwraps it. Since us being her grandparents is a totally new thing for her I'm thinking I might write something for her, about how we love her and respect moving at her pace, and tucking it inside one of the spaces in the box.

[Cloudwalker]

Yesterday I played Santa for a local Historical Society event.  A lot of fun.  However, I had a boy come to me talking about how he was worried about his mother having trouble at work.  People are giving her trouble.  Please be praying for him.  Alternately,.I had a great blessing.  A couple brought their baby over for his first picture with Santa.  They had him dressed in a little Santa outfit, the hat had "My first Christmas" written on it and he was 3 weeks old.  My youngest ever.

[tango]

Good run today. I decided to just run at a comfortable pace, albeit on the fast side of comfortable, not stop for a walk break unless I absolutely had to, and not even look at my running watch unless there was a compelling reason to look at it.

It duly warbled the completion of the first three miles while tucked under a long sleeve. I checked one unexpected warble to find it was a heart rate warning - I was slightly over an alarm level I set, but didn't feel distressed so kept going. A couple more related warbles were likewise ignored.

Finally when it warbled to say I'd done six miles I checked the time and was very pleasantly surprised. I checked then because my goal was to run a 10k (6.21 miles) and I wanted to get a gauge for how long it would take, and from six miles I keep a closer eye so I know when to stop.

I didn't set a personal best but did come within less than 90 seconds of it, which was encouraging since I wasn't even trying to beat any records. Maybe I can shave some time off the PB that has stood since about this time last year.

[Cloudwalker]

Congratulations.  But if someone ever see me running please catch whoever is chasing me.

[RabbiKnife]

If you see me running it likely means I’m out of ammo…

[Cloudwalker]

If you see me running it likely means I’m out of ammo…

I'd be glad to loan you some if I had any.

[Cloudwalker]

Christmas Eve at the end of our candle lighting service our drama team put on a living nativity.  I ended up as a shepherd.  When I walked into get my costume our wardrobe mistress (who is our directors wife) handed me a costume I recognized.  It was one I wore as James when we did our Living Last Supper.  She said she chose it because she knew it fit me.

[tango]

Triple dose of Christmas this year.

We went to our church service on Christmas Eve. It was nice to have a home church - last Christmas we visited a church for their Christmas Eve service, even though it's not a church we would see ourselves settling at. At the beginning of this year we tried a new church, having not attended anywhere for a few months since leaving our last church, and we've been there since. As a bonus we got to see our daughter and three granddaughters.

On Christmas Day our daughter came to visit with our teenage granddaughter. The youngest spent the morning with her and the afternoon with their dad. It was nice to have a bit of adult time without "Mommy, mommy" every few seconds.

Then today our daughter came back with the three girls, and the littles got to open their presents. Much chaos followed with two small children unwrapping presents. It's wild and crazy when they are here but we miss them like crazy when they leave.

Tomorrow everything is back to normal. I need to get back to my renovation project, I have another floor that won't scrape and sand itself.

[tango]

A while back someone asked about the boxes I made with my bandsaw. I hope these pictures come through.





I didn't want to post anything beforehand just in case anyone saw them who wasn't supposed to see them until Christmas.

[teddyv]

A while back someone asked about the boxes I made with my bandsaw. I hope these pictures come through.

I didn't want to post anything beforehand just in case anyone saw them who wasn't supposed to see them until Christmas.

I need a 24" monitor for those pics.

[teddyv]

Meanwhile, I'm dealing with my Mom who is advancing in dementia, likely Lewy Body, but not an official diagnosis. Going to spend a few more days with her here while the family heads home tomorrow.

Its pretty wild at times - she has these hallucinations of people in her home, for some time now, a little mischevious girl that she talks to and offers food and drink to, but more worrisome is the man with dark hair who is far more threatening and scary. Her sense of time is completely messed up and minor observations during the day end up in the delusions - almost like how (at least for me) dreams often incorporate elements of our mundane day and wrap them up in a wildly preposterous state, yet seem completely plausible at the time.

I've had a couple anecdotal stories of incidents that would be cause of concern of her safety, as well as those around her.

We are likely approaching the end of her independent living and thats going to be a tough one.

[tango]

A while back someone asked about the boxes I made with my bandsaw. I hope these pictures come through.

I didn't want to post anything beforehand just in case anyone saw them who wasn't supposed to see them until Christmas.

I need a 24" monitor for those pics.

I'm not sure how to resize them for forum use

[teddyv]

A while back someone asked about the boxes I made with my bandsaw. I hope these pictures come through.

I didn't want to post anything beforehand just in case anyone saw them who wasn't supposed to see them until Christmas.

I need a 24" monitor for those pics.

I'm not sure how to resize them for forum use

I think you have to resize in your default photo viewer. Not sure what you have but the edit option often has resizing options.

[tango]

A while back someone asked about the boxes I made with my bandsaw. I hope these pictures come through.

I didn't want to post anything beforehand just in case anyone saw them who wasn't supposed to see them until Christmas.

I need a 24" monitor for those pics.

I'm not sure how to resize them for forum use

I think you have to resize in your default photo viewer. Not sure what you have but the edit option often has resizing options.

I know how to resize in Photoshop, the pictures were linked to an online copy of them. When I said I didn't know how to resize them I meant in the sense of making them appear smaller here, not tweaking the original files.

[IMINXTC]

When perusing a newspaper I'll sometimes try to enlarge a photo using two fingers