Pro bowler

The youngest turned 5 today and bowling was on his mind.

everyone had a great time!

started off with a power spare

continued to have fun.

and as it goes, all good times must come to an end.

Bottle caps

Making some more bottle caps.

magnet sandwich:

bottle cap

epoxy

2 washers

epoxy

magnet

clamp overnight 

the two washer elevate the crimped edge of the bottle cap so it doesn't scratch the refrigerator.

breadbox acts as specialty grain storage for home brewing.

some more caps.

cedar knot shrapnel

Working on another round of shipping crates and came across this gem of a cedar knot. 

every now and then table saw work will create this opportunity image, where the knot is really highlighted.

to keep working quickly i busted this slat at the knot, than finished the other dimensional cuts.

 i can't help but to admire the variety of the wood growth in a tree.

as a side note: when the table saw blade starts to slice into the knot it creates a sort of wood shrapnel effect that will pepper across your feed hand and possibly your face. 

safety glasses when working with saws is important for many reasons. wood shrapnel from knots is just one of them.

Mongolian delight and evil dead

Wifey and i enjoyed part 2 of our valentines day.

first - japanese beers washing down mongolian delight at the Crystal Jade.

excellent food, $1.88 beers (and a good selection) and a large red radish flower on my plate.

second - evil dead the musical  tickets. we had seats in the "spatter section".

this was the first movie i ever dazzled my wife with.

in return she got these tickets for a memorable v-day.

it was a GOOD NIGHT.

Restoring vintage hammers

Hammers are lined up and really are just needing to be hung.

as with all of my restored tools i want to keep the history of the tool present in the final product.

for this lot of hammers i have focused on re-milling the head and the claw poll up to the eye; while leaving the cheeks textured as i discovered them.

by the level of polish it will allow one to see the quality of steel 

and

 support my efforts to have a tool that looks and feels from our history,  but beyond the "old and tired".

the steel of these are very good. to be admired and enjoyed.

hammers have two functions: constructing and deconstructing.

for vintage hammers, i believe them to be best for finer woodworking projects.

i would leave the rough construction and deconstruction projects for the new titanium hammers or 

crap hammers whose life is best temporary. 

i leave a slight belly on all heads.

this will allow the nail to go below the surface of the plane that one is driving it into.

Dogs and the start of a minor snow storm

We are expecting 6-8 inches and then more over night.

by morning the total on the truck was just over 8.5".

Left over shower hair

Please tell me that others have this same issue:

What should a person do with the hair one's wife leaves behind when she uses his shower?

damn right,

make a "Grrr face" with it.