April 12th - Happy Easter and Another Project to Stay Busy

                                          HAPPY COVID19 EASTER EVERYBODY!

At 10:00 a.m. this morning our subdivision had a social distance singing of "Amazing Grace" out in the street. Nathan and Crystal provided the music on the boom box sitting in their driveway. Here are a couple of pictures. (The camera makes everything look farther away but it is clear to see there was plenty of distance between us.)

Everyone did a good job of "social distancing" throughout.  After we sang all the verses there was a prayer and everyone was then invited to give thanks in their own words. It was nice.

Project:

Yesterday and today I have been working in the shop on an upgrade to the stand for my wood lathe. Last year when I had to junk my old table saw I didn't want to throw away the nice metal stand it sat on for sixty years plus. I knew it would come in handy for a power tool at some point. For my birthday last summer my daughter, Alexa, bought me a small wood lathe. The saw stand was the perfect way to set it up. I mounted the lathe on a 2 x 8 and mounted the 2 x 8 to the stand. I then cut down three drawers I had laying around from an earlier project and mounted them below for storage. Here is a picture before I started revamping it yesterday.

After using the lathe a couple of times it was pretty clear I needed to put a top on the base to keep the saw chips out of the drawers.

Yesterday I took three pieces of half inch thick wafer board I had laying around and joined them together with glue and biscuits to make a piece wide enough for the top. Wafer board isn't good for any woodworking projects but it is fine for this stand top since 80% of it is hidden under the lathe. Here is a picture of the three pieces being glued together.

After the glue dried I cut the piece to size and painted it before I attached it and mounted the lathe. Here is a picture of the finished top installed.

I also added handles to the drawers. The drawers are handy for holding tools for the lathe, the table saw, blades for the band saw, and various owners manuals for shop tools.

After I finished this project I rearranged the shop a little to make more room. Rearranging and cleaning seems to be the thing to do during this quarantine from the Coronavirus. Kelly and I have cleaned out two closets, washed all the mold off the deck furniture, deck rails, gutters, and soffits, in addition to trimming all the shrubs and pruning some tree branches. If this goes on long enough I'll have to break down and wash the cars and truck.

Stay home and stay safe!