Home Improvement Today?

Figured I'd throw this out in here since I post mostly here.

Tldr I'm raising money for cystic fibrosis.

Long version.
Thanks to a groupon I ended up with a mountain bike a few years ago. Quickly progressed into local racing plus meeting and freinding a ton of new people. One of these was a local bike shop owner who's daughter has cf. I didn't know a thing about cf before that and take a few minutes to Google it. Anyway, on black Friday I'll be at his shop in the parking lot probably freezing my ass off while sweating on a trainer. So here is the link http://www.tacomaworld.com/out.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsocialfundraising.apps.upenn.edu%2FsocialFundraising%2Fjsp%2Ffast.do%3FfastStart%3DcustomTemplate%26id%3D101980289
If you can toss a few dollars to a group to help research cf.

 

Any suggestions on where to get decent quality HVAC filters for a decent price? getting tired of spending $30+ every few months to replace the two in our house (and that's if they are in stock at that price point at the local HD/Lowe's).

sizes: 14x30x1 and 14x14x1

 

Not home improvement, but a new tool I need to learn how to use. And hopefully some future projects once I know what I'm doing with it.

 

Nice, did you get a good deal? Looks more like a metal working lathe. Should work fine with wood with a tool rest.

 

That's because it IS a metal working lathe. I have a tractor, I weld, and I have a milling machine. So I actually probably do more metal working than wood working. I cut and screw wood together. But metal I tend to cut, join and shape more.

And it was a great deal! FREE! It's on "long term loan" from a friend since he has a bigger one, and hasn't used this one in years. He said he'd teach me how to use it, and when he comes to visit he'll have a lathe he's familiar with if we have a project lined up.

 

I haven't used a lathe since hs. Great score.

 

Lathe is awesome I'd love a metal one to add to the others.

Looking for some real input here. I plan on making some big changes and pushes with my business in 2015 and looking for thoughts from what I consider the hardest group to sell. No offense the diy crowd is always a hard sell. There is little I don't tackle head on so I'm right there with you.
At the point where you are ready to call a pro how do you pick? Curently I can trace one customer to another so word of mouth has worked for a long time but I want a backlog of work. I'm slow right now, due to a few things that I cant control, ( huge remodel canned due to surprise separation...wtf..) Next year I plan on hitting something's hard.. Advertising and promoting are on the top of my list. So how to do that? Well do you pay attention to truck lettering? Do you use angies list? Help me with an outsiders perspective.

 

Few things are more injoyable then working on the home you live in....
Waiting on glass for the upper doors. A trip to pick out the maple for the counters. Build the wine rack for under the left cabinet. Mill 12' long crown. Hardware and lighting and I'm done.

 

Thank you for the input. Loml is a website/PR person and has pushed me towards that for awhile. So far I've managed a fb page. Im looking for a trailer to logo currently as I'm a little Leary to toss it on the truck( I drive a lot and will let someone know when they are a moron so having my number on the side means some habits have to change. ) I also want to change my focus a little from general / commercial, as I havnt built a ground up new house in awhile to high end custom where I'm a little more interested and find the work more interesting. As of now I've used the name stoney creek contractor but I've considering a change either to stoney creek construction or even stoney creek woodworks.

 

My fb page if anyone wants to look.

 

Get yourself a vanity URL for your facebook page. It makes it easier to remember.
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6109/How-to-Create-a-Facebook-Page-Vanity-URL.aspx

Also, for a website, create a url that is easy to remember and register it. If you're tying it to signage on your truck, it has to stick in the mind of the person who glances at it while driving. I'd even do some vinyl lettering on your back window.

 

Updates on recent projects since I haven't posted in a while:

Painted the house over the summer. Changed the color. Bought an airless sprayer from Harbor Freight to do it.






Btw the POS Hyundai is gone now and we got her a T4R which we should have done to begin with. I'll never buy a hyundai again.

The last few months, We've also been getting the baby's room ready for the pending download next month.
Ripped up the carpet and put down laminate to match the rest of the house. Repainted and put up crown.


Refished/painted my old dresser I've had since I was 3 years old, for the boy's room.

Made a removable changing table top for the dresser:
The "shop"





Built a firewood rack this past weekend to keep the firewood dry

 

Not an unproductive summer right there man. Looks good.

 

Is that a router table with a tenoning jig you have set up in your shop ?

 

Those blocks work great! Did about 100ft. wall behind my garage / shop about 15 years ago....alternated 4" and 8" block rows...the big ones get damned heavy after a bit! Has lasted great and looks good...you will be glad you used them down the road.

 

Thanks for the effort you are putting out for the fight against CF! Lost my niece to CF a few years back....nasty disease! Good luck with your fund raiser!

 

It's a router table, yes, but no tenoning jig on it. Those are just two feather boards on it in the picture. I cut a rabbet on the edge pieces of the changing table to cover up the ends of the ply and used those feather boards to keep things tight to the table. I do have a grizzly tenoning jig for my table saw though. I also have a homemade coping sled for the router table to cut the end grain for rails. I suppose I could also use that to cut tenons if I wanted to.

 

Ah , that makes sense . Cool .

I want to get the Lee Valley / Veritas router table set up one day

 

Those are nice! I just bought a rockler top w/ aluminum insert and made the cabinet myself. Works quite nicely. One day I'll upgrade it with a lift but for now, I just manually adjust the height.

 

Started getting the new decking down on the composite decking failure job I was working on :