(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-07-09 Saturday
86 degrees (77 early AM, CHILLY!), lots of blue skies, Lots of sun, loads of thin clouds in a thin layer moving by really fast because of a 20+ mph breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
Mom was out of town again so I went directly to breakfast from home. I stopped at a couple yard sales after breakfast. One had nothing of use for me. They did have some medieval torture devices, such as a weight bench and an exercycle. Among other things. I tell people that back in the olden times, they forced people to use those machines or confess all their sins. I would have made up sins if I had to....
The weights looked interesting but was not about to even ask the price. I told them a joke. "At the health club, I bench pressed the bar six times. Then the jerks added the weights to the bar..."
The reason the weights look interesting is that spinning wood that is off center will cause the lathe to bounce, twist, and move. Adding weights to the lathe will keep it steadier, make the work smoother, easier to control, safer. I really don't need more weights but I gave it a thought.
At the good hard sale, I purchased some tools. I got a plunge router fitting for a dremmel. I got a small square, a angle finder, a small turning tool where the guy added a lock washer on it, so you can use the spikes to cut in grooves, One of those things that sides in the slots on the table, used to hold pieces square on various machines (forgot what it is called), A depth gauge, and a letter stamp set. It all cost me about six bucks. There were other interesting things I really did not need.
The cat had been alone, fed once a day by the neighbor, for most of the week. he was not in his best mood, and I seamed to find ways to irritate him. He went so far as to hit me with a claw. He did not stick the claw in, but I felt it. I did get to pet him some, but when he ran off to sleep, (after four feeding/attention sessions) I did not see him for the rest of the day.
Our secretary is taking college classes. She is in a science class where her group is having to make a rocket car. She gave me the specifications for it this week and I said I would try to make something for her.
I dug out a cedar post and cut the end off first to get away from any weathering and a bolt stuck into that end. I then cut it to length.
At the disk sander, I removed the paint from the sides, squared the piece off on all sides. I then sat down and measured everything out. The car I made is basically a wedge with wheels. Everything measured, I moves stuff in the garage so I could get to the drill press. I drilled the side holes first for the wheels. I then drilled the end for the model rocket engine. My forsner bit was not long enough. There was no way I could get to the paddle bits. so I dug out a brace and a bit that was just slightly bigger than I needed. all my others were too small.
for those who don't know, A brace is a hand drill. It looks like a crank shaft. This one is pretty good. It has a chuck, a ratchet, and appears to use ball bearings. The bit I chose has the wrong designed end. When I was drilling, it would wobble and I could not stop that. It must be dull as It was not drilling well. I dug out my battery powered drill and it wobbled even worse than on the brace. A four sided end does not fit well on a three sided end. I did get the hole deeper, but not deep enough for my needs. It will have to do for now.
I cut the waste part of the block off, made sure everything was sanded and left it as that.
I have the other half of the 3x3 I cut that from and tomorrow, will try something to make it "better". I will give her the choice of two designs to talk to her friends about and then they can tell me what they are really after once they have something to look at.
that palm tree bowl I turned last month is finally dry. the bottom is thin and set in on the bottom. I flattened the bottom on the disk sander, and then used the dremmel to remove the hairs on the inside. I was finally down to wood.
I then took some clear epoxy and filled the bottom depression. When that set up, needs more, I turned it over and filled the inside with epoxy and buttered all the surfaces. I really should not have needed to do that and should re-turn the piece to remove the worst of the epoxy. I won't though.
One thing I learned while messing with this was that I should dry the wood first. This is a long process since coconut palm is mostly water. I used a microwave to dry this turned bowl and it took a couple weeks of off and on heating for a short moment. A better way might be to put it into an oven for several hours at like a hundred degrees, several weeks in a row. Kiln drying essentially. I have no idea when I will get a piece of wood like this.
I turned my attention to the Christmas ornaments. I had the dremmel out. knifed the wing and tails of the blanks. The wings spread out as they go from front to back. My main task was to make room for my dremmel to go in and shape the back between the wings. By cutting the inside of the wings, It gave the dremmel space to get the back the way I wanted.
I did that on all my swan blanks to get them to shape. I have a lot of carving to do, but that was the part the knife cannot do.
I turned to the owls. I had made the blanks on the lathe. I used square wood, sort of like two by twos but slightly bigger. These owls are horned owls with tufts sticking up on the sides of the head. I turned these so that I can lop off some of the corners, leaving the horns, the beak, the wings and the tail, shaping the wood in between. Simple knife work to get them into shape.
When I turned these, I did the top of the head wrong. I was not exactly sure how it was wrong, but I knew it was. I figured out that I needed to knock down the dome of the head so it was about level to the base of the tufts. Being lazy, I turned to the disk sander and put the top of the head to the edge of the disk so it cut down just a portion of the head. Careful turning, twisting and flipping, even going to where the edge of the disk was rising rather than coming down to the platform, I got a look on the head I like on the two I worked on. On previous owls, I would remove the corners where the wings were, then cut in for the belly. this time, I left the corners sticking out for the wings and amplified them. big improvement. The way they are carved makes it easy to spot which are wings and which is the tail. The dremmel did a good quick mob on the feet too, after I messed them up.
I need to make more blanks and now I have a good idea how to do it so it comes out looking great.
My brother showed up for about half an hour and I sat with him, sanding on the face vase, while he fixed something on his truck. I need to do more sanding on the face vase to get it to the point I can decide to finish it.
I need to make a quick blank and do some quick carving on it, then apply different finishes to the designs. I want the designs to be amplified. Norfolk Island Pine is light in its natural state. If the finish is soaked into the wood, it goes really dark. What I want to do is to apply some finish to the faces of the face vase so they remain light. I will then soak the vases and let the surrounding wood go dark as it absorbs the finish. That way the faces stand out. I need to make a piece to play around with to see what will work.
It was getting kind of ate so I packed up and headed home.
Tomorrow, I plan to play around with the second car, I need to turn some more owl blanks knowing what I learned today. I also need to turn a experimental project and apply simple carvings to the face to see how that works out. I also have to see what Mom has planned now that she is home.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 9, Week 43, Day Two (week 514)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-08-09 Sunday
86 degrees (77 early morning, chilly), strong breeze, lots of small and thin clouds with some heavier puffs. Blue sky between and lots of sun.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
The cat was in a sweet mood today. That does not mean he was a nice cat. It was that he wanted company and attention enough to relax between my feet several times.
I started the morning on designing a second car for the secretary at work. I was doing this one as a Formula One car. I messed up, lost a piece and had to toss it. I will try again next week after I talk with her.
One of my big problems was that I wanted to cut an angle and the band saw was too short. I could cut the angle on one side, but not on the other side. I was cutting between sections I wanted to keep. I had bandsawed in along the drawn lines a bunch of times and chiseled the pieces off with a screwdriver. Had I thought about it, I could easily have done it entirely with the band saw and solve a lot of problems. One big problem was that a piece I wanted to keep on, came off, broke.
I decided to try something else half way through the process, of slicing the entire other side off with the intent to glue it back on, but one piece disappeared and that killed the project.
I added more epoxy to the bottom of the coconut bowl. I need to add one more batch to level out the base, get rid of the depression that is there. I have a lot of sanding to do on the inside. The epoxy I have inside, had fibers sticking out, making it rough. I ground them down but now have to even out the interior. I would love to try this again sometime. I know I can do it right.
some time ago, I took the top of a Norfolk Island pine and dried it. The top, while it is growing, is flexible and green. It dries out all right, becoming like wood, but it has a really big pith so it is not really good for any serious work. What I did was to turn it into a bell, with a handle. I have added super glue, epoxy and white glue in a design on the outer surface. I am soaking it in oil, right now vegetable oil. The wood darkens quite a bit as it soaks up the oil. I am trying to find out what would be best for the face bowl. I am after the faces to remain light and the rest of the wood darken. My test is to see what will protect the surface lightness best. So far, they are all working. The white glue is easiest to work with so that would be my choice if all three are equal.
I re-mounted a piece of pine from last week on the lathe. I hollowed out the ball, then made a short finial on it. I wanted to make a long one but it was wobbling badly. Had I thought of it, I could have used the tail stock to stabilize it, but at the time, since I was rushing to finish it, I did not think about that. This was a day here I knew several solutions, but did not think of them.
My main project is to finish things. Sand several projects such as goblets, face vase, ornaments. I have Carved ornaments to work on and finish up, more blanks to make.
I will see what I actually do Next Week.
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