Man with a Hat

Man with a Hat

Dec 19

 

Got the opportunity to repair another really nice screw type nutcracker for a Nutcracker Club member.

 

These club members come up with the nicest stuff. I really have to start looking harder for these treasures!

 

This piece needed some repairs done to the nose, cheek, and base. It also needed a refresh on the finish to bring out the great details.

 

The repairs on this piece came out great. The base looks original and all the small nicks in the hat are gone too.

 

Here are some before pictures:

 

 

Here’s the piece after the repairs:

 

 

 

 

 

Wabbit Season!

Wabbit Season!

Dec 12

 

Yes, I’m a Looney Tunes nerd.

 

Click on the picture to see the Wabbit Season skit

 

Any who… I recently got the opportunity to repair a really nice figural rabbit (A.K.A. – wabbit) nutcracker for a Nutcracker Club member.

 

The rabbit had a big chip at the top of the left ear, an old very obvious repair on the jaw, a broken pin, and basically needed an overall refresh on the aged finish.

 

The repairs on this piece came out great and replacing the pin gave me the opportunity to make it a “hidden pin” which really adds to the overall quality of this piece.

 

Here are some before pictures:

 

 

Here’s how the piece came out:

 

 

Honestly, this was a fun piece to work on. It came out great and the customer was very happy with the work I did.

 

—– Brandon

Christmas!

Christmas!

Dec 04

 

Yep, it’s that time of year already. Time to start getting ready for Christmas!

 

 We got a good jump on things this year.

 

 We splurged and got a new tree. We had our old one for about 19 years and were due for a new tree. We’re all really happy with it.

 

 

Dane and I took advantage of the unseasonably nice weather and got some of the Christmas lights up.

 

 

Dane and I made the lighted yard ornaments at least 5 years ago. It was a great project to teach him how to weld and they are still working as good as the day we built them.

 

We’re all looking forward to a great holiday season.

 

We’re wishing everyone a happy, safe, and wonderful holiday season this year.

 

—– Brandon

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 28

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

We had a great turkey dinner at my mom’s and got to visit with family a little.

 

Been enjoying being able to spend time with my son who’s home on break from college. Been talking about college classes, computers, video games, and new movies coming out.

 

He’s having a great time at college and I’m really happy he’s enjoying it.

 

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving this year!

 

 

Many Hats

Many Hats

Nov 24

 

My little workshop has to be flexible and wear many hats.

 

Today was no exception. Today’s task was to convert it to an electronic repair shop to see if I can resurrect an old 22″ Dell monitor they were throwing out at work.

 

I disassembled the monitor, pulled the power board and found 4 bad capacitors which is typical in Dell hardware.

 

– Power board on the bench being diagnosed –

– Bad Capacitors (domed tops) –

So after about 30 minutes of my time and 4 new capacitors (56 cents total), I have a nice large Dell monitor for my home PC. Nice!

 

– It’s Alive! –

This was a nice little project that yielded a nice much larger computer monitor for my home PC for next to nothing.

 

Awesome!

 

BTW – Yes that’s a VCR under the monitor. I use it to transfer VHS tapes to digital media, and the pint glass you see has Thirsty Dog’s 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale in it which I highly recommend. 🙂

 

Adding a Little Glow

Adding a Little Glow

Sep 26

 

 

Decided to take a little time away from woodworking to dress up the outside of the shop.

I’m a sucker for cool signage and vintage lighting. So I decided to finally wire my vintage porcelain sign light (center) and backlight my Pegasus Mobil sign with some red led strips off of Amazon.

 

Here are some before and after shots. They honestly don’t do it justice. It looks awesome at night.