(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-20-18 Saturday
76 degrees early morning, 87 late afternoon, partly cloudy (small flat puffs) early morning, a bit larger ones in near noon. Blue skies by four with puffs building over the Everglades. A light breeze helped and the humidity was a lot lower than it had been. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
THURSDAY
For several years, we have met at a local high school in their environmental department. They do planting, and have reptiles in terrariums and fish in aquariums. A few times they had ten foot diameter, four foot high vats with fish in them. All the school yard-maintenance equipment is stored and used there. We would have our meetings there and do wood turning projects and other sawdust intensive demonstrations with no problem. We swept up after ourselves each time.
This month, we had to find a meeting place really fast. Because of the school shooting down here, security rules changed. We had a locked cabinet in one of their closets that security could not get into, and we met after school hours. That was two things the new security rules did not allow. We are not a tax exempt organization so a lot of places that could have been free, was going to cost us a lot to meet there. Our people found a place for our meeting at the last minute and we will meet there next month also. We cannot make a mess but we are able to have other kinds of demonstrations.
We had about 1/2 to 2/3rds of our people at the meeting which was not too bad for an emergency location. This location was out in the boondocks, at the edge of civilization. About a mile past this sight was a north south highway, and the start of the Everglades with nothing other than a few cross roads and a couple rest stops until you get to the other coast.
For our demonstration, we had a question and answer. People sent in their turning questions and we answered them during the meeting. Things like “inside out” chucks, which is where you turn an inset into the bottom of the piece and the outside of the chuck holds the piece. They explained that for holding pieces with side grain, where the grain is running across the piece, rather than down it, a tenon that the chuck grabs onto might pop off. With the inside-out tenon, there tends to be a lot more wood for the chuck to hold.
They talked about how big a tenon should be. The bigger the piece, the bigger the tenon should be. When they make the jaws of the chucks, they turn the shape inside and out, and then cut them apart. They are at their strongest when the jaws are slightly open, the edges of the jaws have full contact all the way around. The bigger the tenon, the less of the whole edge is dug into the wood until just the corners of the jaws are holding the work in place.
There was mention about the type of steel to use for tools and a couple brand names. They mentioned about whether to use a waste block or not (piece of wood glued onto the back of the piece to hold it to save as much work’s wood as possible).
What is a worm screw? It is a screw that comes with most chuck with sort of a square head with rounded corners and well spaced flat threads. One drills a hole into the piece the diameter of the shaft. The threads of the worm screw actually cut into the wood for better holding. One member mentioned it is far more effective when going into side grain as opposed to end grain. In end grain, the threads actually cut the fiber, weakening them.
We discussed our officer election next month, possible meeting places for January, and the club Christmas party we are having on December 1.
We have a bring-back prize, where we have a raffle and someone wins the piece brought by the previous winner. Then that person is to bring in something for the next winner. It happens that I won the bring-back prize last month so I had to bring something this month. Years ago, I was making platters. Some were in yellow pine and some were in local woods. I had painted a couple of yellow pine plates with a Christmas tree. I brought one of those for the bring back since I had nothing brand new to bring. I showed it at work and one of the women would love to have it, so she might get the other one, but she would like a puppy dog on it also. Will have to see if that happens. The winner is a club member that demonstrates at National Wood Turning Symposiums around the country.
Several years ago, I was practicing for a demonstration on how to turn platters. I was making one each weekend testing ideas and having fun in the process. Health problems and storms intervened to prevent me from solving all the problems I was working out or doing the demonstration. I am completely out of practice now. The club could use demonstrations any time someone is ready for it. I would like to start practicing again in hopes to be ready like in May or June
Saturday
I got a surprise when I got back from Breakfast. Mom got the awning back up. The base plates under ground for the columns had to be repaired, some piping (a pipe frame) had to be replaced and a couple brackets needed correction, but now it is up. (My brother said it was a ten minute project that took all day). Considering how buried my equipment is, it will take me some time to move my tools back under the awning so they can be used.
I had brought a few more tools from the condo before this. It won’t be too long (I hope) before I won’t need any of the tools from home.
I had a second jigsaw so I brought it. It has some features I like and a few I don’t like. One feature I like is that the plate is solid and flat, and the space around the blade is smaller than the one I used last week, and the plate is the same width on both sides of the blade. The other one had one side shaped to give better view with where you are going and a design feature to help you follow the line better.
I found out that this jig saw uses an allen wrench to tighten the blade. I was not sure if the set mom brought out would have one that small, but then found that there were two smaller. The first time I set the blade it was not quite tight and it popped out and fell to the ground. I found it easily. I put a little more torque on the set screw and then it held nicely. I was using a finer tooth blade than I did last week.
I found small problem with this jig saw that I will have to experiment to find a solution. The space between the handle and the body is a bit wider than the other one. With the other jig saw, I could use a thin board to keep it from tipping. With this one, I used a larger board and it was not enough. It still tipped and would not hold. I will experiment with that. More.
I corrected a couple roofs of some of the gingerbread house ornaments I am making, and one had a pesky knot in the wrong place so I had to cut back that face. This blade was less grabby so it took less effort to hold the piece in place, and I could hold it to the blade from the left or the right, which made it easier. There were times the blade tip wandered left or right, and sometimes front or back, most likely because I was applying too much pressure in the wrong direction. It helped to flip the piece around a cut with the bottom on top to even out the cuts.
I have a tendency to not depend on the blade doing the cutting, but instead pressing hard against it. This causes problems with the blade tipping or bending. Hey, I’m learning, and I am a slow learner.
I sat and carved on many of the houses, removing wood from the sides to create an overhang, and then cutting back beneath the peak of the roof. I had seven roughed out with the knife and was happy with that. There was a couple where I used a dremmel with a cutting disk help remove some of the wood where a knot went through the peak of the house. I cut the eave lines, then undercut some beneath the triangle, then cut slits down the triangle so it could be removed with the knife. There are times where knots add character, but other times where they are a bother.
After I had finished with my carving, I mowed the neighbor’s front yard. The back yard needed it more, but everyone sees the front yard. I was done in after that.
I will see what I accomplish tomorrow.
Year 18, Week 41, Day Two (week 979)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-21-18 Sunday
76 degrees early morning, 87 late afternoon Blue skies with some puffs building over the Everglades. A light breeze helped and having the humidity a lot lower than it had been as late as last month made it nice out. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
My brother has been viewing machining videos on line and lately he’s watched some using the little Uni-mat machine lathe I have. I found out that I can start moving things around in mom’s neighbor’s garage. My brother really wanted to get the mini lathe out. It was at the back of the garage. Some of the stuff stacked up in the owner’s some of the stuff is mine some are packing materials (some wood that looks like it might be good for carving) and some are trash. I will be sorting though the stuff at every opportunity. As equipment gets uncovered, it will go under the awning at Mom’s house. The owner says there is no hurry. I do have to clean up a bit with what we did.
We pulled the mini lathe out to Mom’s awning, and went through everything in the box. We were both figuring out what everything was, and how to use it. There is a lot of stuff that should not be in there, but was stored there as there was no better place for them to be, such as small clamps, thin skewers (can be used as thin dowels), tools for other machines, just to name a few. Except for the skewers, everything went back in there when we were done.
The box is the original box, made in 1976 by the documentation, and it had seen better days long before I got it. I could make a new box, but my brother suggested making a dedicated cart with a new box tall enough for when the lathe is mounted upright for machining, and drawers for all the stuff in the drawers. Right now that box is sitting in the well of a BBQ cart I picked up at a yard sale or was given to me. I cannot remember now. My brother is thinking of making tools for the mini lathe so he can use it for small projects. He likes having something to work on when he comes up to Mom’s for a visit. This would be one. He jokes about making a live steam engine, which this lathe could well do.
Very machine has some slop, and an expert or knowledgeable worker can compensate for the slop in the set up of the machine. In some videos my brother watched, the guy said the lathe was junk because he could not do anything with it. Others are doing ultra fine work with it. It is all in the setup and operation of the tool.
A grinder and a disk sander was on the lathe table so they came out with the lathe. I sanded something and turned it off. I got the idea to fix the roofs and bottom of the houses and turned the sander on. It ticked but would not turn, then it locked. My brother intends to see if it needs a bushing or bearing, which he can replace, or whether it is dead. It is like a 1960s machine, 1/4 horse power. If the motor is dead, we discussed getting another motor and making a new base that will do angles. My brother has access to motors all the time that run but are being replaced. In digging in the garage we did find one of my palm sanders and will use that next week on the houses, unless I find a better solution by then.
I will work on getting a bunch of the ornaments finished up, as once I get the lathe out back, I have dozens of project s to work on, and those will have some priority. One ornament idea is to turn ball style Christmas ornaments, then carve designs into them such as spirals or flowers etc, or even possibly hollowing a couple of them. Whether I decide to do this will depend on whether I can come up with a better ornament design.
I had one house blank I had not gotten to so I carved on it.
I had been prying wood up with one of my knives while horsing off wood. I found today that the knife I was using was very dull. I ended up sharping it so it is sharp enough to shave hair. Not sharp enough to shave a beard, but it will remove hair on the arm.
My knives are designed with a thick back, and it has an even taper to the edge. Some people have the taper on the blade, then change the angle at the edge to give a strong cutting edge. When I started carving, I had a problem with holding the knife at the right angle when sharpening them.
When I started making knives, I made them easy on me. I made the taper from the back to the edge of the knife. To sharpen them, just lay the whole blade down on the stone or on the strop. The edge becomes sharp with no effort on holding the right angle. The problem with this kind of edge is that it is that the edge is delicate. One can get chips on the edge with ease.
When sharpening a knife, the grind stone is really only used if the edge is damaged such as with chips. One uses the stone until the edge is even. A burr will form on the edge of the knife and it usually bends slightly away from the last time you stroked the stone. Usually when I am near the end of the sharpening with the stone, I will stoke once, flip the knife and do that several times. Usually, one grinds towards the blade, almost like you are cutting or shaving it.
When one uses the strop, the idea is to take that burr and straighten it up so it is in line with the blade, and to polish the sides and the bur. You pull the blade backwards to the strop so you do not cut the material. The last bunch of times, I will flip the blade each stroke to make sure the burr is centered. The burr is the razor cutting edge. When carving, the sharp edge with stick to the wood and dig in with pressure. A dull knife will slip off the wood and if the hand is in the way can cut flesh (speaking from experience here). Hence the saying, “sharp knives cut wood, dull knives cut fingers.
After we went over the machine lathe parts, looking at the instructions, we put it away, Mom and my niece joined us and we sat there and talked, while I carved on a tea pot. With this tea pot, I started from a short square piece and worried the wood away as I worked. What I really need to do from now on is draw a circle on the piece before I start cutting so I can know where to cut to with the saw. By working from scratch this time, I controlled what wood was removed.
A light breeze went under the awning, making it comfortable, mocking birds singing a few houses away, bright blue sky sun shining all around to light the shade beneath the awning, It made having the awing nice.
I am really excited about accomplishing some wood working. It has been a very long time since I really saw progress. Coming up with designs this early really made this nice. Most years I was doing ornaments, I would be struggling to come up with something in the middle of November, when I would be due to show them at the beginning of December. This is a little heady. I really should come up with a Christmas card design while I am at it....
I hope to have another machine out back next week (it won’t be the lathe). I have to remake the blanks for the tea pots. Cutting them properly will save me time and effort. I might get a new two by two board. The fresh wood is usually softer than the several year old stick I am working with right now. There is some damaged corners mid way down the board and I am getting close to that section.
I will see what I do next weekend.
12584
The yellow pine platter with a tree painted on it. If the grain curves up edge to center, you get an oval. if it curves down from edge to center, you get hourglass shapes in the center
me holding the yellow pine platter. Yes, I am smiling.
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one of those newfangled drill presses. Talk about new technologies This one is about a foot tall. I brought it from the condo more to show it than to use it.
my carving results for the year. The far left house has some details carved into it. The right hand tea pot is the one I did today.
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