Project Christmas Craft in progress

I talked my husband into buying me a belt sander.  I have this great idea "Thanks Beth for the inspiration", and decided to do a wood project as gifts for my co-workers.  The project includes a scroll saw, table saw (not mine), and a sander due to issues w/said scroll saw.

I bought the wood I needed and went to cut it with my New used Scroll saw. Oops. Can't cut wood wider than 2 inches. (please hold the perverted snickers to a minimum.)

So I cut the smaller pieces and had to drag my wood to Bill's house. He has a table saw and set it up to cut stuff for Beth and me. He even cut those pieces for me. Bless his heart!  

But now I have a new problem. My scroll saw bought specifically because it had the disk sander attachment, did not have the attachment with it. No problem, right? It's a Craftsman. Sears has a parts departments.  except you have to "order" the part. But I didn't know the name of the part and the stupid guide is unreadable.  So I broke down and actually *shudders* instant messaged someone at Sears. I got someone named Aaron who typed more like Mohamed.  He was very nice and very kind but had a hard time finding what I needed. finally he told me someone else would have to call me in a  few days while they did some research. WHAT? 

Didn't they know I needed the part now?  I mean I know I procrastinated, and now it's only an emergency on my part, but sheesh!  (Yes I totally know it's my own damn fault and sadly enough to say, I will probably do it again.)

So I talked to Dan and begged for a belt sander. We tried to find a used one, but KSL was not very fruitful. So I got him to buy me one on our Sears card.  And I still had to wait like 3 days for it because they were out of stock at the store. 

(Side note. The Sears Grand on 5600 West  should be renamed: Sears not so Grand! They didn't even have it on a display. Had to truck down to another Sears).

Finally got my sander and still couldn't use it until this weekend. It sure gets dark early these days. lol
So I set it up today. I'm pretty sure I didn't do it properly, but it worked and that's all I really wanted.

So, I was able to sand all the wood, and it only took and hour as apposed to the 4-5 hours it would have taken if I had tried to do it by hand.  I even got the pieces spray painted so I can put the acrylic paint on and get them done. Yay me! I will post a picture when they are completed. I just don't want to now because my co-workers read my blog.

So projext has gotten started. Let's hope I can finish before Friday.