ITs been a while, but a trip around Hamilton today brings back memories.

Yesterday, we went to visit Rose's Uncle Mike in Binghamton.  We stayed over with Rose's cousin, Luann Natyshak and Jim, 

On our way home, we took a detour and went up through Hamilton instead of the direct route on Rt. 88.

I am reminded what a beautiful part of the country, with the rolling hills, small towns, and beautiful dairy farms.....even on a cool, cloudy day.

We stopped by the base of Preston Hill, where I first lived in Hamilton.  That house is gone now, but the Olmsteam House across the street, where Craig Dickinson lived, is still there although I think its no longer in use.  Just up Preston hill is the house where Bruce Skelton lived, and at the top of the hill is where Melissa Leland lived.  We were all on the same bus route.

Just down the road is the hospital, where my Mom was the night supervisor for 38 years.  She used to walk to the hospital, and neither, snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night ever kept her from her duties, serving others there.

Down in town, we stopped at the Colgate Bookstore, where Vantines studio used to be, and got coffee and tea at Zaxbys down the street.  All the stores have new names now, but everything is still busy.  Most interesting, where John;s shoe shop was by the theater, theres a Pho and Noodle shop.  What a change 50  years can make.  We drove by the Colgate stadium and I see a new Hockey arena going up.  The original one where we all grew up skating will get some new use  I guess.  We used to practice there at 5:30 in the morning, since that was the only ice time available.

We drove out by Lake Moraine, where I lived in Jr. High and high school, and that house also is gone, but that area is beautiful and the lakes looks as inviting as ever.

Just a note on the way by I also showed Rose where Sue Whitnall (Now Plopper) and Leslie Purple lived on Main street. and...Oh I noticed in FB today that Leslie's daughter just got married,  .....congratulations...... what a beautiful bride.

We then drove home on Rt. 20.   another beautiful part of New York.

First Post

This blog is created to keep you informed about what's going on with:
 1. The family
2.  Radio controlled flying.
3. Activities with Northeast Woodworkers Association
4.  Other stuff I think my friends and family should know about.

So, here we go!!!

new bench for my Jet Mini lathe

Here are pictures of my new bench for my lathe.

My first lathe was a craftsman tube lathe mounted on a large table.  The lathe was designed for spindle work and was nearly useless for bowls.  So I bought the Jet 1420 mini and sat it on the back of the other table.  It was too high and I had to make a 4 inch box stand.

I got a set of metal legs from Dewalt and have now completed the stand.

With a couple concrete blocks on the bottom its very stable.

The old lathe and table will go to the NWA for the auction.

Panel Saw Construction Project ----  Enhance Safety of Shop Operations.

Submitted by Ed Buell

One of the things I’ve noticed as I spend time with the WOODCRAFTERS in the Mustang Shop was that Herm Finkbeiner always seemed particularly concerned whenever we were breaking down whole sheets of plywood.  On our big DELTA saw, even with the large table extension, this is a marginally safe operation.  We spend a lot of time talking in the shop about what things we do that are, either unsafe or at best concerning to our welfare.

A couple months ago I suggested during a Saturday WOODCRAFTERS meeting that we consider getting a panel saw for the shop.  This would alleviate the safety concerns and make that work much easier.   After some discussion, I sought out panels saws to procure or build.  I prefer to build stuff for the shop in the shop.  That’s the best way I have to learn about how to get projects in the shop and at home completed.

Commercially available panel saws are very expensive.  Those that could cut plywood both into 4 X 4 and 2 X 8 pieces were very long as the support has to hold the pieces up to 8 feet from the saw location soothe piece can be slid through the saw.  In my researching, I found a set of plans in WOODSMITH SHOPNOTES issue 88 that had a traversing saw carrier, that would cut both sideways and up and down, and the whole thing is only 10’ long.

After discussing this with several WOODCRAFTERS, we decided to go ahead with a PANEL SAW building project.  Charlie Goddard signed on to co-chair this project with me.

The one big problem we faced was where to put it.  The design is intended to be permanently mounted against a wall.  Well,,,  we don’t have much empty wall space.  We thought about putting it on the outside of the sheet good storage bin, but it is not square and wasn’t made to support anything else.  So, we are making the saw basically to plan and then we are going to design and produce a portable base, so we can move it around for storage and use.

I also found a modification another woodworker made to extend the height of the saw by one foot in height so that it would handle the 5 X 5 sheets of “appleply”…  so we have modified our plans accordingly.

Charlie sourced materials from our stash in the barn and milled materials for the main frame.  The original plan was made with 2X2 material.  We’re fortunate to have good stable Ash and mahogany for our project.  We’ve been working the project for a couple weeks and on Tuesday, May8, with Wayne Distin’s help we assembled the main frame.  I the pictures below the frame is actually upside down.  Our next task will be to begin to manufacture the carriage and carrier for the saw.  We will follow on other articles as the project proceeds.

RADIAN PRO FLAP MODS

After the successful flights on Monday, Ray was concerned that the flap travel was too low to actually kill of the lift from the central portion of the wing.  As a result we actually increased the lift and contributed to the difficulty in landing.

So.  Today I removed the covers from the flap servos, shortened the pushrods, and shifted to the outer hole on the servo and the second from innermost hole in the control horn.

With some radio mods, the flaps now go to 90 deg. when fully deployed.  In the first part of the video it displays the travel as it came from the factory with max travel.  The second half shows the new travel.

Next flight will have to see the impact of the changes.

First flying day for 2012

Monday was spectacular.  This was my first flying outing for this year.  Went out with Ray Meyer.  Made several successful flights.  2 with RADIAN PRO, 2 with the ParkZone Corsair and a maiden flight with the Eflite Mini Ultra Stick. 

I got some lift for awhile with the Radian.  This was still some fo the first dozen flights for this bird.  We discovered that the flaps don't seem to go down far enough to kill off lift and as a result it slowed some, but didn't want to come down.

The wings are in the shop.  I hope to rework the pushrods and make the flaps go as close to 90 deg down as possible.  We'll see.

Milling project - with Dewalt Thickness Planer

On May 2 My Friend Dave Free came to help me run the really long pieces, ( over 10') through the router table to add the shaping.  I was able to set up to run all the pieces through the DEWALT thickness planer with some stands.

See the Pic.  But I was appropriately terrifed about trying to put those pieces through the router table to run the profile.

This is a large router bit and I knew I'd screw it up doing it by my self.

With Dave's help, it worked fine and all the pieces are now cut to rough length andprofiled.

Now I need to get some good weather to set up one rooms worth in the garage for stain and a coat of finish.