I think I've said this here before, to much ridicule, but I buy big girl pantyhose at the dollar store. I cut the legs into about 10" lengths. If you stretch a piece over your filter, it'll keep the fine dust from clogging the accordion ridges. When the stocking gets covered, you can, without actually lifting the top of the vacuum totally off it's base, just use a stiff-bristled brush to knock off the clinging particles and you've got full suction again.

Hmmm?

Challenge!

Compose your own 4-sentence paragraph that includes the words:
pantyhose, filter, accordion, stiff-bristled brush, suction and clinging. That makes me almost almost wanna try to write another one myself.

And. . . .do it without giggling.

The first instrument I learned to play was the accordion. I had to practice for at least an hour a day or my mother would beat me with a stiff-bristled brush. Sometimes she would sneak up from behind and and strangle me with her old pantyhose. When she heard too many wrong notes, I would try to filter out her screaming by making more suction on the bellows. I hate to feel boogers clinging to my nose.

Grabbed the cheap-o sale $50 Ridgid vac yesterday along with a muffler. Seems to operate, although it is quite loud, even with the muffler. Who cares, so's the rest of the stuff.

Finally used the table saw this morning as well. It seems to be in relatively good condition, although the blade may not be all that and a bag of chips. It seems pretty well balanced. Haven't done the nickel test. Just trimming some 2x4s that I cut with my Japanese hand saw to size so I can build sawhorses.

Once I have the sawhorses together, I can start on the cedar with the circular saw. I'm assuming it's not a good plan to cut long (8') boards on the table saw with a 5 foot wide table? It's been awhile since I've done the whole table saw safety thing, so I'm being very cautious.

"The unit had so much suction it picked up a pair of pantyhose that got stuck in the filter. The resulting cacophony from the electric motor whining and air whistling through the clinging hose reminded me of the time my neighbor started taking accordion lessons. I ultimately resorted to beating him about the head and shoulders with a stiff-bristled brush before he decided to change hobbies."

RATS! That was only 3 sentences...

Thanks for the effort, Whip. I chortled, guffawed and gakked.

Just read some stuff on using a table saw and realized that I was being rather foolish about doing my cross cuts. I just need to generate some scrap lumber so I can make extended miter fences and all that good stuff.

Kinda hard to do when I'm just doing cross cuts.

Cedar shingle update since I know you've all been dying with anticipation. Well, no pics yet!

Actually it's because it's taking about 8 times longer than I thought and I've only been home 1 day since last posting this. A whole 5 rows of shingles are up. I will be home tomorrow night for the next 4 days so should be able to git er done.

While I am most definitely a hack, it seems to be turning out pretty good so far.

More to come on the weekend - and hopefully some pics.

Don't worry, getting started always takes the longest. After a while you realize that other than keeping a straight horizontal line, shingles actually look better the more random they are so you stop being so fussy and then things just fly along.

So true. The top of my garage is not level - actually it's out almost an inch over 16 feet, but my roof line where the shingles will end is dead level. So i have been putzing around with making the 1st row parallel to the garage, then taking an 8th or so out of each row after that so I will get to level slowly before I hit the soffits. Then I had accidentally offset my strapping spacing vs my shingle exposure (rookie maneuver). So by the time I got all of that straightened out i had wasted most of a day. I wish I could bill my wife by the hour for this!

Here's a question I have for you experienced in this application - what do you do when you when you get to the top row right under the soffit? If I nail like all the other rows, the nail heads will show since it is the last row. Do you use finishing nails? I can't seem to find any instructions for this particular question. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!