year 9, Week 34, Day One (week 504)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-05-09 Saturday
85 degrees, some blue sky but no sun, clouds moving north, some showers in the morning heading out to sea in their northward journeys. They were gone before breakfast. Afternoon, after I was home, more came north.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I have some of my work in an antique shop in the city of Dania. He has a mixture of primitive, home style and contemporary, along with some artworks by various artists. I took my stuff there in December and while I have not sold anything, he says that a lot of people recognize my work.
In my visits to the antique shop, I also visit a thrift shop, usually buying books. I dropped off some monitors to them this week, cutting my collection from ten, down to six. It helps. I may get rid of a few more next month. Will see.
The tourist season is approaching and it might be likely that I will start getting sales. Will see.
My dad started wood carving on sort of a dare by a neighbor who was a school teacher. He found he liked it. Over the years, he and mom would travel the country, visiting symposiums for wood carvers, taking classes with the big name masters of the art. My dad started to try to get me into wood carving. I was not interested. I was writing stories and building structures for my model railroad.
In January 17th, 2000, I realized my dad was in his eighties. I did not want to have that "I wish I had said, I wish I had done." sort of feeling, so I started woodcarving. I found I had some natural ability in it.
Dad taught me wood carving by patting me on the head, then telling me to do more. That was the best way for me to learn.
In July of 2003, one of the magazines showed making Christmas ornaments on the lathe. My dad had a small one. I would start a project, then the motor died on us. We did it several times. I ended up hand carving the ornaments I was trying to wood turn.
In October 2003, I received a working lathe from a yard sale. It was made of sheet metal and may still be available by mail order. It is good enough for turning legs or balusters, or simple things like that. My problem was I was trying to make bowls from rough wood. The lathe wobbled all over the place, twisting and vibrating. While the lathe was not really good for what I was doing, it was good enough to show I really enjoyed wood turning.
I later got a real lathe, made of cast iron, not likely to flex when an off center piece of wood is spinning around.
I used the lathe to make blanks for many of my carved Christmas ornaments. I would use the lathe to remove the worst of the wood, then use the knife to finish carve the wood.
Dad never considered making bowls. He said he was impressed with the stuff I made.
My dad died three years ago Thanksgiving. His birthday was On September 10th. He was lucky to be among the very first people to be buried in a brand new national (Arlington style) Cemetery. Since my mom was going to visit his grave this weekend anyway, I went with her to the cemetery today. She left a yellow rose, which he always loved, and we took some pictures of each other and the grave stone.
Because most of the day was taken up by that visit, I was not planning to do much woodworking. The weather was better than expected, though, so I could have done some serious work.
Instead, I sat and sanded on the duck bowl I am making. I have to decide whether to paint the head in realistic colors. I need to create eye lids to cover the eyes which sort-of stick out. I have a lot more sanding to do on it to get the kind of finish I am after.
On sundays, I tend to start later than on Saturdays, when I do my work. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I will not have as much time to work. What I actually will do, will depend a lot on the weather. If it is raining, I will carve. I have several owl blanks I made on the lathe. They are part of a hopeful set of carved Christmas ornaments I will make each year. Since 2003, I have usually made a dozen of four types of ornaments each year. The past couple years, I have not done well on making a full set of four. I have decided on the owl, but have no idea what else I will make.
If the weather is good, I will start another turned project, possibly a tea pot or another bird bowl.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 9, Week 34, Day Two (week 504)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-06-09 Sunday
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90 degrees (78 overnight), dry, no apparent breeze, front off the coast, heading into the ocean, Morning had high feathers, which became blue skies for a short while with sun, then became not as high puffs. An excellent day for working outside. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I left home later than planned, but got out back of Mom's house almost directly. I petted the cat. He was in a mood to receive attention.
We walked around and mom pointed out the flowers coming into blossom, reminding me of what some of the plants are. After the tour of her garden, I petted the cat some more. He then decided he just wanted our company. Of course, I needed to get to work.
The duck bowl I made last week was made of half a six inch maximum diameter log of Florida Mahogany. The project today was from the other half of the log.
Honduras mahogany is consistent in color and texture. Florida Mahogany has color changes through the log and tends to be a bit harder. The piece I had left had a branch sticking out.
This log was egg shaped. I measured and sliced the branch off so both ends would be equally high. I then measured across on the thick part of the narrow side to find the center, then located the top of the narrow part of the egg where I cut, and drew a line up and down. I did that on both ends, and then drew a line down the length of the piece top and bottom. I then measured the lines to get the center, which was where my drive center and tail stock would go.
For those who are unfamiliar with the lathe, A lathe is a machine designed to spin your wood. You place your gouge or scraper (or other tools) against the surface, scraping away the wood until you have the shapes you need. Baseball bats, spindles for rails, legs for chairs, drum sticks, are usually held up by the tail stock and drive center. The drive center has spurs sticking out, which are driven into the wood. Then the motor, whatever type you are using, use the teeth to force the wood into a spin.
Another type of holding the wood is with a chuck or face plate. In this case, the wood is held up on one end, and the other ends can be left free for hollowing for vases, bowls, platters and other hollowed out forms. It is also used for pieces that are very delicate such as finials where even the twist of the tail stock could break them.
The face plate usually uses several screws, driven through holes in the face plate, into the wood. This works best if the wood is side grain, sticking into the side of the tree as the threads of the screw digs into the fibers of the wood. End grain is not as good a hold for the face plate, but will work for many woods.
A chuck has either three or four jaws, which you can cause to close onto the end of your wood. For something like two by twos, many will grab easily on the square or round of the wood. For larger pieces, an inset is cut into the wood, a tenon, for the chuck to grab.
There is also a "wormwood screw" as a brand name, that usually comes with each new chuck, which you drill a hole and then drive this screw into the hole, and it has big, aggressive threads to hold onto the wood. This screw is then grabbed by your chuck. I have this, but have not used it as I am too lazy to drill the hole.
I started the bowl between centers first. I had the flat cut part to the tail stock and I worked on that to cut a tenon that my chuck could hang onto. Once that was made, I then replaced the drive center with the chuck.
my first attention was to shape the outside. I had not decided whether to make another bird bowl or try making a tea pot.
The ends of the wood was cut flat with the chain saw. When spinning around, the corners stick out farther than the center of the trunk. I needed to round the ends of the long first.
For a good bird bowl, the base should be fairly small and it widen out to about two/thirds of the way out, then come back in tot he mouth of the bowl. I also cut a "saucer" around the base to act as the feet.
Very quickly, I saw that I was not cutting the saucer. I was also curving in more at the top, closing the opening more than normal. I naturally decided on making the tea pot.
When I got the outside shaped right, I moved the tail stock out of the way, which I used to keep the piece from flying if I do something wrong, and then started hollowing the piece.
At this point, the ends were longer than the sides. I worked on the inside in stages, going deeper first, then cutting the sides of the hole bigger inside. I swapped tools often, trying to find the one that did the best job. Most of my work is done with the bowl gouge, but I used a hook tool sometimes, especially for the final finish cuts. It does a cleaner job than the bowl gouge does. It also works better at the inside of the mouth where the straight bowl gouge does not reach properly.
Because the ends are longer than the sides, and I wanted that effect, the ends ended up being thick. This tea pot is going to be a bit heavy. It is a problem of the design I chose.
I had turned a ring near the top that was intended to hold the bail style handle.
I dug out the branch I cut off and mounted that in the lathe. My tail stock has replaceable tips. I removed the point that I normally used, and inserted one that is hollow.
A couple years ago, I picked up a drill bit set that are about two feet long. Three different sizes. These three fit through the tail stock, through that hollow end, into the wood.
I ran the drill bit through the tail stock and into the branch so the bit went through the center of the branch.
After some mis starts, I then set the base of the branch against the vase and traced the curve onto the side of the branch. I then bandsawed the curve out and set it to the vase to see if it fit.
On Mom's suggestion, I moved the spout to a higher point and made it fit easier. I am fitting the spout to the natural side of the bowl, so the ring I turned for the bail was not needed. I turned that off.
I used a sheet of sandpaper against the curve of the bowl to finish matching the spout to the vase. I got it pretty good. I then glued that to the vase.
I still have to remove the tenon. I will do that with other tools such as the band saw and the disk sander, and possibly a strip sander too.
After I packed up, we headed out. Mom went to exchange some music at a store near the WOODCRAFTS store. She picked them up and already had them.
I went into WOODCRAFTS and after looking around a bit, my brother and his friend showed up.
My brother usually comes to Mom's house on Sundays, but because this is a holiday and his friend was coming over, they decided to come tomorrow.
I picked up some filler for the bird bowl and tea pot, and then after my mom arrived, went through some bargain books and found a book on making decorative chess sets using a scroll saw. They have the patterns in there.
My idea is to modify their designs and make Christmas Ornaments out of them.
Tomorrow, I will use the filler I picked up, to fill in the gaps on the bird bowl's head and the tea pot's spout. I have some grinding and shaping on the inside of the spout and drill the hole into the pot itself.
I will be going up late, like I did today, so how much I actually accomplish will be something to see. It would be nice to make something else, possibly another bird bowl, but I doubt I will get that much work done. A lot depends on the weather.
will see what I do tomorrow.
year 9, Week 34, Day Three (week 504)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-07-09 Monday
.
90 degrees at about 11, 96 degrees under the metal awning at about three. Mostly sunny most of the day. Light breeze, Tall puffs everywhere. There were some showers visible over the everglades and over the ocean, but the weather in between was excellent. This Weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
My first project was to use the filler I picked up yesterday on the duck bowl and the tea pot I am making. The filler separated and the very first thing I did was to spill some of the liquid of the filler down my leg and onto the cat. I was trying to keep the filler to as small an area on the pieces as I could. Of course, it spread out farther than I had hoped.
I took the board from a armed candle stick I tried to make and tried to make a handle for the tea pot. I made the first one too small. I cut a second one and it was not much better. I then cut them in half and glued them together to make them bigger.
Since the board was two inches wide, I cut it in half and had two handles. I have to shape the inside and round it to fit the hand. I also need to make it fit the curve of the wood, which is not curving the same way as it is the natural wood from under the bark.
I decided I was going to turn something. I decided it was going to be in Sea Grape. I took a branch I had and after trimming it to length, I mounted it sideways in the lathe between centers. I got it spinning on the lathe between centers. The ends of the branches was spinning around like a propeller.
I rough shaped the outside, and was working on the inside. My brother arrived and started on a project of repairing a drawer where the particle board back had decayed.
I caught on the wood and it popped out of the lathe and onto the ground. I picked it up and was happy the tenon did not break. I can easily remount it. Sea grape is a strong wood. I decided to work on something else that did not send wood chips flying everywhere. I will finish that project next week.
What It is, is called a BANANA BOWL. It is long and curved like a banana. I am not exactly sure what I will make, but something inside me says that a Viking style boat would be rather interesting. Carve the dragon head, make the shields lining the sides, put in a mast. I had considered that before, but never got around to making one. The shape looks like it might work.
I spent some time sanding on the duck bowl, cleaning up the filler. My brother finished his project, I had done far enough for the day.
I had a pretty good day. the banana bowl coming off did not bother me and I would have re-mounted it again if I was alone.
For next week, I will work more on the tea pot and bird bowl, and plan to finish the banana bowl too.
I will see what I actually do next week.
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