Skip Harrison - A man of many interests

September 17, 2023October 2, 2023

Halloween BOO Letters

I had a lot of walnut scraps let over from the coffee table that I made recently so I put together a number of pieces to mae the BOO letters that are hung together.

The original letters were bought by Janet from a Gradinroad catalog and I traced those on a 1/4 inch piece of plywood to use as a template to make as many as I had the desire to ,make.

I used the bandsaw to roughly cut the outsides of the letters. A scroll saw and jig saw took care of the interior areas and then a flush trim router bit was used to get the wood down to the refined shape as defined by the template.

The walnut letters were then sanded and a wipe on poly-urethane finish was applied. The black letters are made of Douglas fir and are simply painted with a flat black spray paint.

The spiderwebs were bought from and Etsy store and pin nailed onto the letters. They were painted orange or black depending upon the wood they were to be attached too.

September 2, 2023December 3, 2023

Walnut Coffee Table

The YouTube duo called Foureyes Furniture offered a get acquainted deal to their channel and website by offering a free course on how to build this coffee table. They sell other woodworking plans and this was a way to introduce more people to their products with hopes of additional sells in the future.

I was impressed with the quality of the drawings and the demonstrations that were presented in the 13 or so chapters in the course.

This course, I think, was geared toward the people at my skill level showing multiple ways of doing certain task depending upon what equipment you owned and the experience one had under their belt.

The top, stretchers, and legs are made from 5/4 walnut and the bottom shelf and rails are from 4/4 walnut and like the top, it is glued together from about 6 inch wide boards to create the needed width.

The finish was Rubio Monocoat, a hard wax product that I had never used before. The application of the finish was a piece of cake and my wife was gracious enough to apply most of it to help me. Truth be told, the piece was for her and she took pride in being apart of the build.

This was my first experience with this type of finish and I was pleased with the outcome. A little of the Rubio Monocoat goes a long way. Good thing because that material is expensive, very expensive.

April 12, 2023June 15, 2023

iPhone Charging Stand

Update

June 15, 2023

The charging station worked well except for one issue that was frustrating. The phone would sometimes slide away from the slanted back and the charging would unbeknownst to me would stop.

To correct this issue I added a brass strip on the area where the bottom of the phone rest and then for decorative balance I added a brass strip around all sides of the base.

April 12, 2023

This iPhone stand is made from a piece of 8/4 Sapele from another project and then milled to the dimensions noted in the Sketchup drawing below. Embedded in the upright part is a MagSafe Charger that connects to the iPhone when leaned up against the rest.

There is also a small tray to hold keys, coins, or the like. The connection for the MagSafe Charger is a USB-C female that connects to a regular USB-A at the charger brick.

If I make another one I will iclude the option of plugging in a Lightning connector for the iPhone.

March 26, 2023March 31, 2023

Sarabi Shirt For TJ

The dear friend of my oldest grandson, Travis (aka TJ) , by the name of Kailyn, surprised him with this shirt. When I first looked at it I just saw what I thought was typical Hawaiian shirt with flowers and palm trees. On closer inspection I was totally taken back to discover the images of his dog named Sarabi.

The shirt looked like a Tommy Bahama shirt at first glance. TJ in a text said it was from the Tommy Rabhama 2023 collection.

March 10, 2023March 25, 2023

Petition Book Stand

For a number of years, probably 3 or 4, I looked at the stand that held the Petition Book located by the baptismal font at the rear of the church. The face of the stand had a strip of oak that ran the entire face near the bottom that held the book in place and on display while not in use. I kept telling my fellow sacristans and ushers that I was gong to fix the broken parts and restore it to like new “one of these days”.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and finally months turned into years. Then one Sunday as I was leaving church I spotted the stand, as I always did, and I decided that this was the week I was going to live up to my promise and get this thing done.

I called the church office the next day and asked if I could come over and pick up the stand, repair it and return it the next day. I was told that that would be fine.

When I got there Father Ace, the Pastor of St. James, was in the office and he opened the church for me and was interesting in what I was doing. I explained my thoughts and now the pressure was on to do a good job.

I thought the bottom rest just needed to be routed out and a new support strip fitted and glued back in its place but when I got it to the shop I could see the bottom was cracked and parts missing so I decided to cut the whole bottom off with my track saw and replace it with some scrap red oak I had left over from another project.

So after making the piece, clamping it into place, and routing a slot for the rest piece it was almost done. All that was left was the polyurethane finish and 24 hours to dry and to get the chemical smell to dissipate.

Got it back to church the next day and now I smile ever time I walk back there. Oh, and I tell everybody I see back there “I did that!”.

February 9, 2023February 22, 2023

Christmas Gift Box

This box was made to hold a Swarovski Nutcracker figurine that I bought as a Christmas present for my wife. The general shape of the wooden box mirrored the overall shape of the cardboard box the gift came in.

The lime colored box above is the one the nutcracker was shipped in which includes a protective rubber foam and a cutout for the figurine. The shape was the inspiration for the octagonal wooden box with the blue tinted epoxy resin shown in the photos at the top.

November 6, 2022November 7, 2022

Working The Election Polling Center

Today was the third day of working with the Yolo County Election team getting the polling center initially setup and then processing voters through the center.

Friday night, November4th was about a four hour evening getting all the equipment setup, verifying the inventory, and documenting the various components and providing security stickers to ensure no fraudulent activity could be carried-out intentionally or inadvertently.

Saturday was the first full day of actually serving the public enabling them to vote either in person or providing a place for them to simply drop off their ballot that they had filled out at home.

There are various stations that poll workers occupy that perform distinct functions.

The first station is the Line Management Station. The person at this station greets the incoming voter and directs them where they need to go depending upon whether they are voting in person or there simply to drop off their completed ballot or to actually vote in a variety of ways.

If the person just wants to drop off a filled out ballot they are directed to the Ballot Drop Off Station. There are three ballots boxes there. One for the ballots that for Drop Off Only. The person assigned to that station will verify that the ballot envelope has been properly signed and dated and instruct them to place the envelope in the Blue receiving ballot box.

If the person wants to fill out a ballot at the polling station then they are directed to the ePollbook Station for further processing. At tis station they will be asked to provide some means of looking them up in the system.

June 10, 2022June 15, 2022

2012 RA Taft 50th Year Reunion For 1962 Graduates

June 10th, 2022

It’s been 10 years since the RA Taft Class of 1962 celebrated their 50th class reunion at the Crown Plaza Convention Center in Blue Ash. It is now part of the Quality Inn Group.

It was disappointing that a 60th reunion didn’t take place but with fewer participants, Covid, and other extenuating circumstances it is not surprising that there wasn’t a follow-up.

Below are some of the photos I took in 2012.

Dennis Whitehead, Gladys Morton, and Wardell Harper in the rear. I don’t know the one lady standing or the other two sitting but John Carroll is seated at the far right. They are mostly from the Class of 1961.

Hanging out with the fellas the night before the 50th Reunion. Snake, John Posey, and Skip Harrison. Kneeling in front unknown

Sandra “Kitty” Richardson Graham. Pigskin Preview Queen back in the day

Raymond “Butch” Harrison. Butch is a first cousin of mine. His father and my father were brothers. My dad James was the oldest and his dad Thomas Ray was the second oldest of 9 children.

Vivian Broach Bobo and Reginald “Reggie” Jenkins

Willa Mae Shelby left, Carolyn Gilley(?), and Patricia Canady right.

John Harshaw in background. Ruby Davis to the left.

May 20, 2022May 31, 2022

Bird House

I saw some quick and easy bird cages being built by novice and experienced wood workers. They were using 6-8 foot cedar planks and I thought I since I had some 6 foot planks left over from the planter that I’d just built for the backyard I would give it a shot making one.

Go to Woodworking Tab

May 15, 2022May 28, 2022

Kitchen Utensil Holders

I found some extension table leaves of a table that had been long ago given away to a family member or to charity. The leaves were in the back of a seldom used closet and had been forgotten about.

One side of the wood was already finished in a glossy urethane type substance and I thought this would be an easy and quick opportunity to make some utensil holders for the kitchen. That was a false assumption to say the least. Trying to preserve that finish was way more work than it would have been if I had just sanded, planed, re-sawn or used some other method to get the wood ready for glue-up.

The containers ae 10 sided and about 5 inches tall. The wood appears to be maple with a OSB (oriented strand board) backing. I added a small layer of sapele on top with a 45 degree chamfer then a trim of white oak separating the two woods.

Go to woodworking category.