Went Hiking for the second Saturday in a row. One thing that is great about being at Arrowmont is having the Smokey Mountain National Forest in your backyard.  I can't be more grateful for this opportunity in life. 

We hiked the Alum Trail in route to Mount Le Conte and it was a 2500 foot elevation change.

It was a little steep in some spots.

Alum Cave

It was beautiful day yesterday even though it was overcast and raining at some points. 

This next year I am looking forward to more involvement in the surface of my work, so I have setup a booth for airbrushing acriclyics, automotive paints, and some powder coating. Most of my work is powder coated copper and brass, and just feel that it is time to shift gears. 

Here are a couple of photos of my booth built for super cheap. I have ventilation throughout the whole room along with a fan pulling through the back of the box. This booth is built from standard furnace filters. I believe that this booth cost 30 dollars to build along with some scrap materials from around the shop. 

The dimensions are 30 inches wide, 24 inches tall, and 20 inches deep.

I still need to setup a simple rack for hanging work for spraying. 

Last night I finished up a small tool stand for my stakes and steel surfaces to rest upon. 

I believe it is 30 inches tall and 34 inches wide. The top opening is 2 inches wide and the lower opening is 1 inch wide. 

The top rack is going to be used for my t stakes and my medium sized round spheres, and the smaller tooling fits on the small rack below.

I realized after putting my stakes on the rack that  there isn't enough room for everything. I should have made it bigger, but highlight is a bitch and I am in constant learning mode doing these types of things since I have no formal woodworking education. 

One thing I enjoy about this simple design is that it can be in constant flux. Ill more than likely be adding other racks and holders for specific items. 

I picked up a couple pieces of local hardwood this week, because I need and sturdy surface for my big orange vice. The stumps i picked up weren't quite tall enough so i decided to lift the stump a little bit.  I am usually sitting down when I am at a vice and find that I like the top of the vice to be about 32 inches tall. This won't be the same for everyone, but with the chairs I have it seems to work out pretty well. This is also the first day I have had in a while to sit outside and work. 

Well anyways what I am doing here is... I cut down three 2X4's at 10 inchs a piece. I wanted to raise the stump 6 inches in total height, so I carved out three sections that were 4 X 4 X 1.5 so I could fit the wood into the slots. I used three half inch X 4 inch bolt screws to connect the 2 X 4's together. My impact drill makes this process super easy.

This is the final product with vice mounted. I always find that the tripod design works best for me and my working style. 

Its a blurry picture but this is where I was at the end of the Day on Monday. I have been feeling pretty good the goals that I have accomplished this past week.

I am a little behind, but I started moving into my studio last week on Monday morning. Unboxing and unpacking is a lot of work.