Development Methodologies

As you all might or might not know I am not a wood worker by trade, wood working is my hobby.  Technical Solution Architecture is my trade, once my hobby but that is a different post!

To that end I have seen many different methodologies but I have not seen the realism portrayed better than by Scott Berkun and his responders to his blog entry on development methodologies.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

I think my least favorite brand is:

EDD (Expert Driven Development)

This is where the development activities and decision are driven from one expert.  This expert overrules all either by force of will or just because he/she is thought of as the expert and all others defer.  The rub comes in, of course, when the expert is not really an expert...

Windows Live Writer; First Try

Here is my first try with Windows Live Writer.  I like the interface but I am not sure how the interface with Blogger will work out, I guess I will see once I hit the button.  I must say that the set up for blogger was amazingly easy.

Unused Space!

This weekend I decided to use some of the limited unused space that I had in the garage, which doubles as my wood working shop. With this in mind I created a 42" X 86" shelf over the roll-up garage door.

As you can see this is basically a "deck" using the front and side walls of the garage for ledger boards and then a metal strap for the "floating" corner.

Seems to work really well so far! The total cost for this was under $30! What a deal.

April 07 Pens

Three pens were completed today:
This is a acrylic pen turned and finished with a black inlaid gold pen set.




Here we have another acrylic, this one a pencil with a brushed nickel pencil set.


Finally some real wood. We have some paduk on a silver pen set.
This one was turned a bit different. I over-sized the top and put a bit of detail around the middle.

eragon

eragon is a story about a boy, almost a young man, that finds an egg wile out hunting in mid-evil times in the realm of an evil king. The egg, of course, turns out to be a dragon egg.

The cast turns out to be a very good one indeed. Eragon is played by Ed Speleers, he plays the part very well and makes this farm boy turned Dragon-Rider a believable concept. Sienna Guillory, playing Arya the other world princess, is a epitome of goodness and light. Jeremy Irons is the power player in this cast. He plays the, one-time Dragon-Rider, that lost his dragon to a foe.

The connection between the Dragon and Dragon-Rider is classic. They learn to help each other. They team up with Brom (Irons) and the rebels. They, of-course, win out in the end over the evil empire.

The rating on this movie is PG, but it is a bit brutal for the young. I can see a kiddo that is less then 8 or so having serious nightmares over this one. For the preteen and the teenagers this is a great good over evil movie.

The special effects are fantastic and very realistic. The magic that is done is top of the line. The story line is a bit predictable, but still entertaining.

Overall I have to give it 4 of 5.

In the last few days I have create a few pens for the family...

Radial Arm Saw

The new Hybrid Saw is taking the place of this well loved and used Craftsman 10", 2.75 hp, Radial Arm Saw. It is now looking for a new home.

A Long Time Coming...

Today will be a day remembered as a momentous day in the continuing saga of Courtney's Woodworking Adventures. Today I purchased a 10" Delta Hybrid Saw w/30" BIESEMEYER® Commercial Fence System, Rail and Table Board. This is to say I bought a very nice table saw.


I purchased it from Woodcraft, where I must say I received fantastic service from three different individuals. I spent over 3 hours in the store! I had a bit of a time deciding between the huge Jet 10" 3hp Cabinet Saw with a 52" table and the above saw. The smaller foot print along with the smaller price tag (with mobile base difference it was over $700 less expensive to go with the Delta) made the decision an easy one.

Getting it out of the truck was a bit of a challenge just given its size and weight.

Assembly took over 6 hours, the manual says 2-3 hours; there is just no way you could put that saw together in that amount of time unless you had put one together before, and then it would be a challenge. While it is not hard to put together, there are a lot of pieces that must be put together just right. Precision is important to this tool, it is the whole point of the tool you might say!

Once assembled it worked amazingly well. I made a few test cuts with the blade that came with it, I have not put on the Freud blades that I purchased with it yet. Given it was after 10.30 p.m. when I started the saw and I live in a sub-division, I am very glad it is a relatively quiet saw. The cuts were just shy of perfect, and I only say they were not perfect is because perfection is just not attainable, even if you can't find a flaw in the subject.

Tomorrow I will put it through some more tests and we will see how it performs, I have even higher expectations now than before I purchased this gem!

Wanna Be Wood-Worker & Accomplished Saw-Dust Generator,
Courtney

Child's Fresh Market Toy

I just finished building this "Fresh Market" for a neighborhood child. It was moderately easy to build and took about 13 hours total, including a run to Home Depot.

Once painted (white) the center of the door on the right will be painted with a chalk board paint for the "deal of the day".

You can see the rough design that I put together before starting, but most of this was done "as I went". Next time I will take a bit more design time and a little less "now how can I make this work!

Anyway, it was fun.

Hope you all like it.

Rough Bench Design

Simple and effective bench.
I have two of these in my workshop. They are very sturdy and utilitarian as you can see; no real frills here.

Step 1: Create a rectangle 2' X 8' from 2ea parts B and C; secure with 3" deck screws.

Step 2: Attach 3/4" Plywood top; attach with 2" deck screws about 18" apart, around the perimeter.

Step 3: Lay the, now assembled top, upside down. Place the legs in the corners, inside the 2X4 banding, allowing them to rest against the underside of the 3/4" plywood top. Secure from two sides on each leg with 4ea. 3" deck screws

Step 4: Turn the table up on its legs. Use the remaining 2x4 pieces to form a band around the bottom of the legs, about 8" off the ground. This will stabilize the structure.

Step 5: Place time 3/4 plywood shelf on the lower banding. Screw in with 2" deck screws about 24 - 30 " apart. This is only to keep the shelf from moving around.

Options: Buy heavy duty caster for the bottoms of the legs. If you do this you will most likely need to plan for this to get the leg length, and shelf height, correct.