Our Blog

Pine and Myrtlewood Tea Box

Mike Lee — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:08:38 GMT

http://www.theleeworld.com/Wood_Projects/Tea_Box.htm

Small Keepsake/ Music Box

Mike Lee — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:07:42 GMT

http://www.theleeworld.com/Wood_Projects/Isabelle_Music_Box.htm

Carly's Jewelry Box

Mike Lee — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:06:47 GMT

http://www.theleeworld.com/Wood_Projects/Carly%27s_Jewelry_Box.htm

4 Season Weather Stations

Mike Lee — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:05:54 GMT

http://www.theleeworld.com/Wood_Projects/Weather_Stations.htm

Claro walnut and curly maple keepsake box with friendship prayer lid

Mike Lee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:53:59 GMT

I built this box for a lovely lady who's the best friend a guy could ask for!

More info/ pics here...

http://www.theleeworld.com/Wood_Projects/Pam's_Keepsake_Box_2011.htm

Laura's Mini-Trunk

Mike Lee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:43:59 GMT

I built this little "mini-trunk" for the lady I fell head over heals for 21 years ago! Initially, my thought was for her to use it for cosmetics and such. However, upon seeing the box she decided she'd use it for sewing supplies. The ends and interior tray are of quartersawn white oak while the rest is of black walnut. Leather and brass accessories and a satin interior round it out.

Many more pictures, etc are available on the following page:

http://www.theleeworld.com/Wood_Projects/Laura_Mini_Trunk.htm

New Site Dedicated to Mike's woodworking...

Mike Lee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:35:32 GMT

The link...

http://www.theleeworld.com/Wood_Projects/Wood_Projects_Home.htm

Pretty self explanatory.

Kite Flying, July 2008

Mike Lee — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:15:00 GMT

Like I said, I'm THAT far behind!

(8 Photos)

Jimmy's 6th Birthday

Mike Lee — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:13:00 GMT

Finally got a chance to go through the photos from Jimmy's 6th Birthday Party at Judy's.

(19 photos. Dial-up users, grab some coffee)

Rocket Man

Mike Lee — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:55:00 GMT

Jimmy with his first model rocket plus one I built a few years ago that I just got around to giving a bright red paint job....

Now if the snow would just let up, we could go out and fly them!

Rube Goldberg Hot Wheels

Mike Lee — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:01:00 GMT

Remember when Hot Wheels just went around a track?

(Don't pay any attention to my cluttered floor....some house work in the future...hehe)

Gettin' some use....

Mike Lee — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:17:00 GMT

Some of you may remember that I built a redwood swingset some months back.

Well, I finally know that it will support being used by 3 youngins at once. We had a little sleep over at the house last night and my craftsmanship got put to the test this morning...

Rat Dog In Snow

Mike Lee — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:10:00 GMT

Someday I'll get some decent photos of Taz. He doesn't exactly cooperate though.

These 2 came out ok I suppose.

Which one....

Mike Lee — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:50:00 GMT

...of these potato heads is not like the other.....

Hey, it gave me a chuckle! Hopefully I'm not the only one!

State of the Art Photo Gear

Mike Lee — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:47:00 GMT

The UPS man brought me my "new" camera yesterday. My mom has had this thing for a number of years and never got around to using it. It is a Graflex Crown Graphic. It takes 4X5" sheet film (can you say "excellent fine detail?" I think you can!) I don't know what vintage it is yet but I will find out. I'm guessing it is from the 1950's some time....

>

The venerable 127mm Kodak Ektar Lens....

I can't wait to get out and shoot this thing!

Just a Little Soccer Video

Mike Lee — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:55:00 GMT

Just some video from Jimmy and Ariana's soccer game on May 22, 2009.

Note: we got back from camping about 3 hours before game time so Jimmy was noticably tired!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO (Broadband users only)

Jimmy and the Rat

Mike Lee — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:21:00 GMT

Just a shot of Jimmy and Laura's new rat dog Taz playing in the snow yesterday....

World's Biggest Ipod

Mike Lee — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:19:00 GMT

Ok, so I was sitting around one day trying to figure out what I wanted to do to make my ever growing CD Collection more manageable. I gave alot of thought to buying one (or two) of the huge carousel type CD changers such as this one. However, upon doing some research on them, I discovered several potential problems with this idea. First, they are pretty limited when one wants to create custom play lists that utilize multiple disks. Second, they just don't have the greatest reputation for reliability. Third and foremost, they are reputed to scratch the hell out of your disks! Well, at this point, I'm feeling pretty discouraged. Then it hit me. I have an old PC I was keeping in my closet for occasional TiVo hacking. It was complete except for the hard drive (which now resides in my TiVo of course). I wondered about the feasibility of utilizing that PC for a media server (while spending no more money that I was considering on a CD changer). I also wanted to be able to play it through my new Yamaha receiver and speakers I bought earlier this year without loosing sound quality (I don't care what anyone says, I think MP3s suck for sound quality) So, I embarked on a mission.... First I put a 120 gig hard drive (a decent used one I had laying around) in the unit and put it in my entertainment center (if you can call the particleboard piece of junk an entertainment center)...

Next, I needed an operating system (and have I mentioned I was doing this project on a budget?). I chose Ubuntu 8.04 (AKA The Hardy Heron). It is a very user friendly Linux distribution and, best of all, IT'S FREE!!!....

I was able to find Linux drivers for the old nVidia G-Force graphics board that PC had in it without a problem. This enabled me to utilize the S-Video Out on the card to send video through my receiver to my TV (someday, I'll quit being so cheap and I'll get an LCD TV then I can just hook it up directly to the PC connector on the TV but this works for now). Of course I needed a way to get sound to it (Duh). That's simply a matter of getting a cable that is stereo mini-plug on one end (to the PC) with regular RCA connectors on the other end (to the receiver)...

Ok, time to spend some money (to this point, I had everything on hand already). I needed some major hard drive space if I was going to put 500 CDs on this beast in Lossless WAV format (full quality audio nearly identical to how it is on the original CD). I chose a 1 TERABYTE (!) hard drive from LaCie. It set me back 160 bucks at NewEgg.com and now lives on top of my DVD player...

Next I installed a very nice media player called Amerok. I really like the way the playlist looks on the screen and the numerous playback options it has....

Now, it's simply a matter of opening up my CD collection folder, finding what I want and queuing it up!...

All in all, it was a pretty simple thing to set up and best of all, I stayed well within the aforementioned budget! Truthfully, the most daunting part of it was getting all those CDs ripped to the hard drive. That took about a week of working on it with my morning coffee. Don't tell anyone but I used my Windows Vista PC to do all the ripping. I pretty much hate the thing but it does rip music fast (on two drives simultaneously).

The next thing I'll do is take all my son's DVDs and rip them to that hard drive. Then I'll be able to just queue them up in a media player and I can keep the disks stored in a safe place.

Possible future upgrades:

1) I'd like to get a standard infrared remote control working with it. This is doable but will cost some money....(Right now I have to actually get next to it and grab a mouse to queue up music, etc)

2) I may get a better sound card that has digital and/or multi-channel output. This would let me play DVDs with full surround sound and eliminate the need for a DVD player (especially if combined with the above remote)...

3) If I ever get around to getting a hi-def TV, I could add a blue ray drive in keeping with the theme of number 2.

4) Some black spray paint for the case!!!

We Miss You!!!

Mike Lee — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:33:00 GMT

Jim Moellman and I at my first wedding, September 7, 1986. I called him my father-in-law for 5 years, my friend for 18 more. ...

He was a big part of my son's name...

Rest in peace Jim. I hope the pain is gone.

Well I'm going down
Down, down, down, down, down
I'm going down
Down, down, down, down, down
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground

She's gone
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
She's gone
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground

So I'm going down
Down, down, down, down
I'm going down, down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down, yes I am
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the

Well I'm goin
Down, down, down, down, down
I'm going down
Down, down, down, down, down
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground
Gone
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
She's gone
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the

Well I'm Down
Down, down, down, down, down
I'm going down
Down, down, down, down, down
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground, yes I have
Well she walked out the door
And I crawled right out there

~Goin' Down
Written by Don Nix
Originally Performed by Freddy King
Covered by Jeff Beck & others, Including an excellent rendition by my MySpace Friends Blue 55 that can be heard HERE

Enjoy Jim. I know it was one of your favorites!!!

Jim Moellman
March 10, 1944 - September 2, 2008

Blue Stain Pine

Mike Lee — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:39:00 GMT

Awhile back, a pretty good size pine tree died in our yard. We don't burn wood for heat so it seemed like a waste to cut it into firewood (especially with me being a woodworker and all..hehe). The good news: I have a bud with a portable bandsaw mill. I cut the tree into 12 foot lengths (the length of my trailer and the absolute max I would want to try to wrestle) and took it to Rick's house to see what we could come up with...

The logs loaded up (maybe that tractor I bought is useful after all) with my landing supervisor, Jimmy, checking my work...

Backing up to the mill...

Let's try the small one first...

The first couple boards. Lot's of blue stain in this stuff. Blue stain is generally considered a defect, but I think if you make something out of ALL blue stained wood it looks pretty neat...

Ok, time to tackle that big beast. This log is about 20 inches in diameter at the base. My tractor lifts 1200 pounds and labored to lift it. I'm guessing that, if it wasn't a thousand pounds, it was darn close...

About 45 minutes later, it's finally in position to be cut...

Pretty stuff...

My share of the spoils. Rough estimate, 250 board feet of lumber. Rick gets the other half...

Now, I need to air dry it for about a year, surface it and hopefully make something really cool with it. I'm leaning toward using it for some desks and cabinets in a home office room if we get to doing the addition on the house that we want to do.