Easter Weekend

What a busy weekend.  Nice weather plus minimal kid commitments made for a good weekend.  I made my 4th batch of Ken Forkish artisan bread.  Instead of making 2 big loaves, I made 1 big loaf and 3 pizzas later in the day (Saturday evening).  It turned out just great.  That crust was amazing.

Sunday morning was great, too.  Easter at our church is always a good service.  This year, the orchestra had a new member - Kiddo #1 and her Tuba.  She was nervous, but she did wonderful.  No pictures, but we're all proud of her.  Our church did, however, have a photo-booth between services, and we were able to squeeze in a picture.

Canoe Trailer - Springtime Progress

My project canoe trailer is coming along nicely.  I have the wood box 98% complete, and the crossbar system that holds the 2 canoes is fully finished.

The crossbars are simply held by a metal bracket - machined, bent, and welded by me.  There are saddles on the crossbar to keep the canoes from sliding side to side.

I made doors that swing open on the front and rear.  It should be noted that nearly all this wood is repurposed from shipping crates.  A few pieces have been repurposed from the remains of our rustic cedar built-in shelves in the old TV room.  I believe I only bought 2 new 8 foot long 2x6s.

The front and rear doors latch closed with these shipping crate fasteners.  These are called butterfly latches, and work quite nicely.  Again, repurposed from old shipping crates.

There are no handles for the doors - rather I just put in a little triangle piece that allows you to dig your fingertips into to pull.  But there really is no need - they open very freely.

Having doors that open from both ends allow us to easily load and unload gear.

Perhaps if the bears are bad, two people could sleep in there.

A long piano hinge gives good, smooth action for the doors.

The interior roof is somewhat like a house.  Those trusses are simple 2x4s ripped down at a 3.5 degree angle.

Since all these panels are reused shipping containers, nothing was of the right size to span the entire length or width.  So, I have a seem, and added a nice strip of cedar to hide the seem (again, cedar from our old splintery built-in shelves).

Next steps:

1.  Figure out trailer lights.

2.  Paint the entire box for a little waterproofing.

3.  Get a license plate

Another Crazy Hobby?

Welder?   -Check!
Machinist?   -Check!
Woodworker?   -Check!
Artisan Bread Maker?   -Check!

Today, I made my first attempt at making bread.  Not just any bread, but super fancy artisan style bakery bread.

A friend from work is to blame for this.  He's a totally cool dude that simply likes to try out first-hand everything he learns.  When he mentioned he ventured into the realm of artisan bread baking, I'm thinking he really went off the deep end.

But the more he talked, the more I was interested.  I borrowed his book that inspired him (Ken Forkish, the author), and after a couple of days of reading, I tried it out today.

It's a pretty simple process, and the book walks you through all the many steps with good explanations behind it all.  I don't have all the best and proper equipment, but I made it work with what we do have. 

Here we are all puffed up after proofing, and ready to bake:

The bread is baked in the Dutch oven pot.  In this picture, I just took the lid off for the last 15 minutes of baking:

And finally it is done.  Oh man, it looked just like the pictures in the book!

I think there could have been a few more big puffy holes, but hey - for a first effort, I think it turned out super good.

It was alot of fun to make, and it was alot of fun to learn some of the science behind the bread making process.

I don't know if I'll be doing this every Saturday, but I can see doing this every now and then as the mood strikes.  

The Minion Boys + Planer

It's been a long February/March season for us.  On a whim, I took a picture of the 2 boys one evening in their Minion Pajamas.  I was struck by their similarities.

It should be noted that the hair of Kiddo #3 looks like that pretty much all the time now.  He has a curious habit of twisting his hair all day long.

I also made a big purchase.  All the stars seemed to align at once:

1.  My O-ring business is going well

2.  I installed a deal-watcher app with the right key words

3.  I had a need in the shop

With all this, I was able to snag this brand new planer for about $250 less than in the store.  I'm quite pleased.  It is a DeWalt DW735X, and has a 13 inch width capability.

 I have only taken it out of the box, and made one test cut.  It worked just awesome, but it is easy to see I need to rig up a little dust collection system because it makes a ton of chips!

More to come!!

Canoe Trailer - Cross Bar Brackets

I finished machining my cross-bar brackets for the canoe trailer.  They turned out pretty nice and I'm happy with how strong it all is.  

Here are my pieces all layed out nicely.

And how they will work together.

Fully welded.

And attached with cross-bar in place.  

I have this cross bar on the front of the canoe trailer, and 94 inches back at the rear.  This will provide a nice stable mount for 2 canoes.  

The next step is to take them back off, and prime/paint the bare metal to keep rust away.  I'll wait for warmer weather for that jobby.

Sunday Afternoon Skating

Sunday was an ice skating day for us.  We drove out to Tapawango Park in light freezing rain and fluttered around on the ice for a couple of hours.  Kids did really well, and started picking it up towards the end.

We were all pretty wet at the end of the session, but it was a ton of fun.

Pinewood Derby Results

Both boys are in Cub Scouts, and the Pinewood Derby is the best event of the year.  Today was the day.  They are both ready to go! 

Kiddo #2 (Boy #1) ended up with second place within his Den.  While he was pretty happy about it, I think he was slightly frustrated his car didn't do better.  This will be his last year at the Pinewood Derby for he graduates into the realm of Boy Scouts for next year

The big news was Kiddo #3 (Boy #2) ended up with second place overall.  He was as surprised as us, as evidenced in the picture below.  And of course, his tiger (Mr. Schnuggs) was right along with him every step. 

It was a good day for everybody.