36F and clear @ 08:45, heading up to around 46F for the high today. Clouding up later today with a chance of a (rain) shower.
Refilled hopper feeder early yesterday plus scattered cracked corn for the ground feeders, that put the sunflower hearts down to the critical level, necessitating a trip to Menards later. Local crew seemed appreciative after the recent cold temps:
Got some more clean up/organizing done out in the garage.
Cleared off the table saw and starting ripping some plywood for a rack for F clamps. Got that built, just need to hang it up on the wall.
Also ripped the two long pieces for the portable downdraft sanding table.
Ended up getting lots of sawdust in my eyes which was very annoying.
Checked diameter of 12-2 romex inside 3/4 PVC conduit ... yup ... it will fit ...
And it looks like I have enough conduit here (two 10' sections will cover it) ... so all I need is a LB, a couple of 2-gang boxes, outlets, and cover plates.
Cleaned up the last of the enchilada's for lunch, Woman had the Mexican rice which I didn't care for and some refrieds (which were very good)
Headed out for Menards around 16:00 or so, trip went fairly well ...
sorta, kinda ...
Order I had placed earlier was all ready, ended up finding a small (24W x 48H x 12D) set of cheap resin shelves which they had for like 50% off the regular price (final cost $15 after $9 mail which will fit nicely on the tall workbench on the west wall, just beyond where the pegboard ends. Will be good for storing various power hand tools. So I added that to the order along with some cat litter.
Plan was to return the casters for the woodworking bench (and another item that was the wrong thing) to cover the cost of the materials for making the the router table top.
I had picked these casters up about a month ago and wasn't really unhappy with them but I ended up finding some similar casters on Amazon (several different ones actually) that had good reviews and were about 1/3 the cost. Blue one is Menards caster and the red one is from Amazon:
Both products of the PRC, Amazon caster has a slightly narrower mounting plate (which I actually prefer), brake pedal is cast on the one vs stamped steel, similar quality I'd say ... except for one thing I noticed: the Menards bearings sounded dry when the wheel was spun and the Amazon was quiet (well-lubed) and spun effortlessly.
So the Menards ones were returned.
After that we proceeded to gather up the materials for the router table top: two 2 x 4 sheets of 3/4 MDF, a quart of Weldwood contact cement, and a 30 x 48 piece of laminate for the top. The laminate color I wanted (basalt slate) they only had one sheet of and it had about a 6" tear in it in the wrong place that would have prevented getting a full 24 x 48 piece for the table top. So I settled on another color.
As we were exiting that area we happened to notice that they had solid hardwood (Baltic Birch) countertops in three different sizes which are on sale through today. Including one which was 25 x 48 (and 1 1/2 thick):
We got caught up in admiring the beauty and apparent quality of of the product for a bit and then proceeded up front to pay for the stuff we had on the cart.
Can you see where this is headed ?
Paid for our items - including a set of nice 3M Pro goggles to keep the sawdust our of my eyes and some Danish oil - and then headed back to order pick up and loaded up the car and headed home.
Something was nagging at me before we got out of the lot and by the time we hit the on ramp for I-76 I told The Woman:
"I think I have buyers remorse ..."
Two sheets of 3/4 MDF - $30
Sheet of laminate - $13 (which actually wasn't the one I wanted)
Quart of contact cement - $20
Total - $63
Plus the wood glue to laminate the sheets of MDF, sealer, + my time, effort, and labor.
vs.
Premade 25 x 48 x 1 1/2 solid Baltic Birch butcher block countertop - $99 on sale.
Pretty sure that it's almost a no-brainer.
Woman seemed to be onboard, as She doesn't like it when I compromise and settle for something less. All She had to say was:
"Well, sometimes this is what it takes: just going and looking and seeing what is available ..."
... so it looks like I'll be making a trip up there sometime later today to return the MDF, laminate, and contact cement for the butcher block.
Time to fire up the torpedo heater and get to work.
Hope everyone has a great Sunday ...
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