Week 638 Woodworking

Year 12, Week 12, Day One (week 638) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-31-12 Saturday

76 Degrees early morning, 86 in the afternoon. Blue sky over the ocean all day long, clouds over the Everglades. Once or twice the sun got far enough east to block the sun, but it was mostly sunshine until noon when the Everglades clouds started moving east. The wind was very calm in the morning but as the clouds approached, the wind picked up. When I got south and east, in another city, I ran through a cell of Liquid Sunshine that was so hard that it was almost like a fog, but drove out of that within a quarter of a mile. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


During the week.


Mom told me on Wednesday that the beast of the back yard had not shown up for two days. He had done that before so I was not worried at that time. Today, the beast never showed. Scarface showed up late, but no beast. Now is when one worries if something happened to him.


YARD SAILING


I hit four yard sales today. A church yard sale we go to regularly had nothing I could not live without. A second yard sale also had nothing. the third I got a pair of muffin tins and a cheese slicer. The muffin tins will go to my brother to store his purified aluminum. whenever he melts aluminum for a project, he always melts more than he needs. He puts the excess into steel muffin tins. the metal cools and solidifies into muffin shape chunks that can easily re-melted for the next project.

Two muffin tins are now at my brother's house so when he melts aluminum, he can put the excess in the muffin tins to cool. they make for a nice size blocks for re-melting aluminum.
the adjustable cheese cutter is at home now.


At the forth yard sale, which I hit in the afternoon on the way home, I got a rasp, and two big files, a wooden handled square, and a carpenter's folding rule. The guy gave me a chunk of heavy wood who's name he could never remember. He suggested that it was not for food.

The guy said the piece of wood is an exotic wood he could never pronounce. It was being used for dock work and he said it should not be used for food stuffs. I gave my brother the three files, the folding rule in in with my tools and I kept the square. The sharpening stone is home for use in sharpening my kitchen knives.


Saturday

Several weeks ago, I got a pair of doggy brushes. I had heard of a method of preparing fiber such as cotton or wool for spinning called carding. Two brushes working in opposite directions make the fibers parallel. I tested my brushes with cotton. It will work but a finer spacing of the wire bristles would be better. These brushes would work great for wool.
I decided that since I could now card fibers, I needed a way to spin them. Today I made some drop spinners.
Drop spinners are sort of like tops with a hook on the top. A bit of thread is tied to the drop spinner, and wrapped onto the hook and then you start feeding your fiber to the thread as you spin the top. You slowly draw your hand away from the spun materials, slowly dropping the top toward the ground. You stop when it stops spinning and you remove the thread from the hook, and then wrap it around the shaft of the top, re-hook the thread to the hook, and then drop spin again. That, in theory, is how it works.
From what I saw on line, the design is simple. It is a disk on a shaft.
I took a chunk of Mahogany and drilled a hole in the center. Since I was using a screw to hold it onto the lathe, I had to drill a bigger hole for the threads to dig into which only went in a short distance.
I mounted the screw into it, and then knocked off the corners to speed up my rounding of it. you can buy wood wheels at some hobby shops that would do the same thing. it was my basic design anyway.

The block of wood with the screw in place. I will knock off the corners on the band saw and then mount it in the lathe to shape it.


I On my first one, the wood had a crack in it so I made the wheel, the weight, was a little past half as thick as the two inch wood. the screw I was using was positioned wrong so the chuck did not grab onto the head. the tail stock kept it pressed tightly against the chuck and centered. When I had one side finished, I parted part way into the disk and did shaping, then parted farther and shaped the back side, and then parted it off. I also sanded as I was going through the wood.
I glued in a dowel with a point sticking a short distance into the bottom. I went back to the drill press, which I used to drill the first hole, and drilled some big holes around the rim for decoration. My brother explained a book he had and the weight around the parameter is what is really important. the flange can be made thin and like spokes without effecting the spin of the disk by very much.

The completed first drop spindle. Except for the hook, it would make for a good spin top.

I then decided to make another drop spinner. This piece was cut from the opposite side of the board and when I lopped off the corners, there was no crack. I decided to make two spinners out of this blank. I shaped the first side, then parted it off. The screw holding it was deeper into the wood and the chuck was able to hold it better. When I parted the first disk off, It was right at the end of the screw.
I turned the surface of the one still on the chuck, then removed it from the screw, turned it around and used the tail stock to hold it in place while I did the second side. I then turned the back side of the first piece.
Since the piece with the screw had a bigger hole, I had to use a bigger dowel to fit the hole. I had to use a much larger dowel and used the disk sander while spinning it in my hand to reduce the diameter to fit the hole. I think I rounded the dowel off center. It has a slight wobble. just a little bit makes a big difference.
I added glue to the first disk and started working it in. the glue was just enough to make it stick and not move. I ended up breaking the dowel. I cut it off and tried to drill it The drill bit shifted so the shaft ended up slightly off center. I sanded the dowel a tiny bit before driving it in. that was all that was needed.
Even with the wobble, these seem to have a very good spin.

All three drop spindles The one with holes is the first one I made. That was one of those where the first one went perfectly and the other two made the mistakes not made in the first.

I have not decided what I will work on. I really need to do some carving on either the face vase or the dragon. I am still in recovery from the art show and simply wanting to work on something fun. I could make another drop spinner, but this time make it really good, artistic, something someone would want to show off. I have loads of wood to use up and really should get to work on them. I also would like to make some more standing dragons like I did many years ago. Back then, I had some with arms, holding a globe and some without arms. I also would like to make another baby dragon. Those can be quick carving projects or take some time.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


Year 12, Week 12, Day Two (week 638) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 04-01-12 Sunday

76 degrees at nine, 83 degrees at noon, blue sky with smears of spilled milk very high up. A very light breeze, almost unnoticeable. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach and The City of Fort Lauderdale Department of Tourism.


YARD SAILING

in the afternoon, I ran across several yard sales. I purchased a few things I really should not have gotten, but they seemed to be a good idea at the time.
I picked up a set of three pots. two are metal one ceramic. Knowing how mom buys pots, I paid more than I should have, but they were big, the type she likes. I took them back to Mom's house

Pots for Mom. the two brown ones are metal, the green one is ceramic.

I also picked up a commercial food warmer. It is one of those where you put water in the lower section and let the water get hot. Then you place the big pan of food over heated water. The steam and heat to keep the food hot, without any chance of burning while serving or waiting to serve the food. The price was real low and it looked too good to let go. Afterwards, I've asked myself a couple dozen times what I am going to do with it. It might work for family gatherings. I just don't know. I have to store it until then anyway.

Food warmer. has lid, pan and heating unit. I plugged it in for a few minutes and it was heating the water. I need to clean it up. I still don't know what to really do with it.

SUNDAY


The beast of the back yard did not show again today. I am worried. there is a number of things that could have happened to him, some not good. I can always hope for the best.


I started the day not being at the top of my form. I was not really in the mood to do anything but wanted to do something.
A couple weeks ago, I started a natural edged bowl in Osage orange and mounted that in the lathe to continue to hollow it out.
I turned the lathe on to see that it was spinning free. After picking out the tool I wanted, I flipped the switch and the lathe would not start. I flipped it several more times, checked the plugs, flipped it some more, fiddled with the switch. Nothing. I have had problems with that switch before, but it would only do it once in a while.

I was not in the mood to grind on the dragon or the face vase. I looked at my tool cart. I am missing one of the points to my tail stock so I decided I would dig into the baskets on top to see if it was in there. I emptied the baskets, cleaned the top of saw dust, and then carefully went through the stuff there and put them back in the baskets. I have lots of PVC, copper, brass and steel, pipe pieces and fittings. Many of these will be the ferrules on the ends of tools, some of the PVC will be used to hold tools onto the lathe, and a few pieces will end up being cutting bits or some other kind of tool.
I also have rods of various materials and diameters that may end up being tools also. there are also handles with nothing in them. All these "stock" things went in one basket.
I have a lot of actual tools also, some will never be used while some might need a little repair, such as a bent parting tool that got caught in the wood when I went too deep without a relief space.
I have a couple pieces of metal of tool steel that are intended to be used as tools. A couple are already to be used while a couple need some shaping to be used. I was looking at my wood, thinking about making a handle. Then it dawned on me that the tool handle I received as a bring-back prize a few months back would solve the problem. I checked and it holds them easily. Now all I have to do is shape the ends for use. It takes only a minute or so to swap from one tool to another. I will make handles for some tools, but this is a good option.
I was looking at one tool and could not figure out what it was. It looked like a tool holder as it had a set screw. It took about five minutes for it to dawn on me that it was an extension my brother made for me to drill with a Forsner bit really deep such as in cannon barrels. I had totally forgot about that. I remember one time last year where that would have come in handy.

I cut the lines on the dream catcher and was weaving the lines to see the best design for running the lines. For some reason, it was not working. I will have to try it again to see if my idea of where my mistakes were, is correct. This new line I got, which is hemp, is about the right diameter. I had planned on getting a darker color, but now realize that the light color will be much better. I think that was part of the reason the yarn I used looked too heavy. It was catching too much of the eye. I have ideas on how to add the black and white duck feathers I got yesterday also. I chose not to get really bright colored feathers as they were just to gaudy, even if I liked the colors. What I might do is use brightly colored threads to bind the feathers. I will see when I get to that point. The first thing is to get the weave of the lines right first.

I called my brother and found out that he and my nephew was going to be working today. I exhausted my interest at Mom's house today so I went to my brother's house, stopping at several yard sales along the way.

My brother and nephew were building a brand new forge. This one is going to be for making a sword. It will have three air inlets and is from a portion of water heater that was cut down to size. At the moment, there are no ends on it.
My brother set my nephew up with the welder to weld some pipes together for the inlets. One pipe of the inlet had a "bird's mouth" on one end so it fits the curve of the pipe it was mating to, while the other has a hole. They lined up the bird's mouth with the hole, and then welded the two pipes together, filling the space all the way around. This was my nephew's first time welding and he did pretty good. It was not a fluid tight weld but it was a good strong weld. they could have ground the welds but instead just brushed the weld clean and left it at that.
They also welded a piece of threaded rod to the end of the pipe with the hole. What they will have when done is the air will come from the blower into the pipe with the bird's mouth. A plate will be attached, and held with a nut on the screw and will block the end of the pipe with the hole. the plate will allow the ash from the fire to be cleaned out of the pipe by moving the plate out of the way letting the ash fall to the ground or into a bucket.
When I left, they were about to weld the pipe to the bottom of the forge.

This is the underside of the sword forge. My nephew is holding the air fitting to the underside of the forge where it will be welded in place.

I gave my brother the files and rasps I got and showed him my square. I also showed him the food warmer and he did not want to store it at his house.

I stopped at Walmart on the way home and picked up some flourescent lights for my kitchen. I think only one is lit now and I can see the difference. I also got some packing tape to send a care package to a friend, which includes a couple pieces of my wood working along with some thrifting I have done.
When I got home, I loaded up and headed over to the laundry mat to do some wash. It had been so long since I did laundry that I was almost at that stage where I would have got to work in seersucker leisure suits and bell-bottoms.......

Next week I really need to get to work on some projects. I don't need to get to some serious work. I have the dragon and the face vase to carve. I want to make a few more drop spindles, but do them right this time. I also want to make some more pencil cups. I have a number of pieces of wood just waiting to become crochet hooks. I just have to sit down at the mini lathe and turn. I have some ideas for some small dragons I would like to make and could get them roughed out fairly quickly once I decide to work on them. I should make some more of the Christmas ornaments I am out of and there are some other little carvings I should do. Of course, I have a life-time worth of wood to turn into something to look at, and sawdust.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.

Week 637 Woodworking

Year 12, Week 11, Day One (week 637) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-24-12 Saturday

76 degrees, still air in the morning with high streaks early morning, 86 degrees with a bit more wind, Mostly clear blue sky and feeling good sun in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


DURING THE WEEK


On Monday evening, I developed a sore throat. It took me about two hours to realize it was the start of the cold. I used zinc lozenges and cough drops to keep it knocked down. It never really developed and by Thursday, it was just a periodic sniffle and on Saturday, it was just a very periodic cough. those zinc lozenges seem to really work since this is my second cold that was almost nothing.


last week, I took out all my turnings and set up a rough display of what I wanted to show at the antique shop. I went over my pricing and re-tagged a few items and lowered the prices of a few others.
My basic pricing is that the better I like it, the higher it is priced. If I keep it, I don't mind. If I sell it at something like the marked price, I won't mind.
I have a bunch of items that are priced cheap such as pencil cups. I then graduate the prices between my favorite items and my cheap items based on how much I like them or how good they are. Over the past year, A few items have become less important to me than they were when I made them so their prices were reduced to more what they should be priced.



THURSDAY


We had a turning club meeting.
One of the projects of the meeting was a tool auction. Members brought tools to the meeting and people could write their bids on them. I saw several tools I should have gotten, but was not quite ready to get them so I ended up not placing any bids. I kind of wished I bid on a couple items now.

We had a turning challenge. Last month, they did a demonstration on natural edged bowls. The challenge was to turn something that had a natural edge, with or without bark. I did not have time to finish my project last week. the display had plenty of imagination and skill, even among those who were just beginning in the hobby.
The key of the challenge is to get people to turn something that they never turned before, or have not turned in ages. to0 make it interesting, they give out gift certificates to the "winners" who are selected randomly. With this system, a rank beginner or old master has an equal chance of winning.

Two images of me holding my tea pot. I ended up selling it to my boss

YARD SAILING.


We hit two yard sales. At one, I picked up four cake molds in the shape of fish. I am about to ship out a package and they will be part of that. The price was right.

cake molds in the shapes of fish.

I also got a tire pump that you plug into your cigarette lighter. I tested it on my tires and it seemed to work. Mom might buy it from me or I have a couple possible projects in mind.

Tire pump and emergency tool


I also got a emergency tool, still in the original package, that you crank to power a light, a radio, has a tool to cut the seat belt and a hammer for breaking windows. It will also take batteries and a charger (not included) I am not sure but I think I cranked it a wrong way and broke it. I will disassemble it and see if it will be fixable. I will test it with batteries first. If it works with batteries, that might be more than enough for my uses.

At another yard sale, a church yard sale that they have several times a year, I missed getting something interesting and ended up without anything. I also saw people leaving with a few items I would have picked up had I seen them. We were a bit late for the really good stuff.


SATURDAY

I petted and fed the beast of the back yard and Scarface. Scarface's new scars are healing. The beast wanted company and attention, and I accidentally found ways of not given him enough. He was very disappointed with me.


I helped mom with a few of her plants. One tree had gone through the bottom of the pot and into the ground. I dug a little dirt from the front off the pot and slipped the handcart under the edge. Pry up, slip in, pry up, slip in, we pulled the plant out. the roots were tiny yet so it will not likely suffer much. Mom des not like her plants in the ground. We lifted it out of the pot, added a whole lot more dirt and set it back in, adding dirt around it. I hauled dirt for her so she could raise the soil level in several pots.


I dug out the fairies that I broke during the art show and repaired them. One fairy is adding nectar to flowers for a butterfly. her wing broke off. I ground out the remains of the old wing stub and then glued the wing back in place. I have some clean up to do but otherwise it is done.

I also glued back together the WHAT IF PEOPLE REALLY EXISTED fairy carving. I glued her back into position on her mushroom. I really need to peg her in place. The base was a slab of naturally shaped wood and one piece broke off. It had a mushroom on it. I glued that piece back on, onto the base so it adds a little bit of interest. I had a mushroom, I am not sure where it came off, that had a screw holding the head to the base. I removed the screw and filled the hole with sawdust and glue. I glued that onto the base also. I have a bunch of clean up on this carving as there is glue build up on the mushroom the fairy is kneeling on. I kept having to move her from side to side, back to front to get her into the right position where she was aiming right and solidly in place.


At about eleven, I laid down for a nap, something needed because of the remains of the cold. I got up at around noon. I could have slept more but had to get ready to go. I packed up my stuff and was ready for my second project of the day.



ANTIQUE SHOP.


I chose this weekend to set up my display at the antique shop. I had several boxes, some part of the display, and a bin for my load. In the area I was to set up, the shop owner had some steamer trunks and chests he just got in. I rearranged the trunks so people could see what he had, yet give me as much room as I could get. I then did my setup.
I had brought a brown folding coffee table and several boxes. I had tissue paper that I draped over the floor, and also over the boxes and table. I then used my pieces to hold the tissue down.
I was after having multiple levels for my work and this did it well. It spread things out too. On each level, I had some commonality of the display, though it was not well done. I did bring some pieces back home so I don't have everything there. If I had about two more feet, I could have.
On displays, there are two trains of thought. One is that items should be separated, alone so people can really see what you have. this is why when you go to an art museum, they really don't have a lot of works on display. You are supposed to have the piece of art fill your whole experience.
the other train of thought is, If it is not on display, you cannot sell it. This means that you have to get as much on display as you can. It is really poor for showing off art as people don't know what to look at first. It is kind of nice as each time people look, there is something new to see, even if it is from a slightly different angle.
In all my display is not really all that much different than last month's display that I picked up.

My display at the antique shop


I need to do some real woodworking tomorrow. What I actually work on will be decided when I get to work. I have a lot of options to work on and what is exciting will get priority. I know what I SHOULD work on, but that is something else.


Year 12, Week 11, Day Two (week 637) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-25-12 Sunday

80 degrees at nine, 87 degrees at one. Brisk wind kept things moving all day long. The clouds were ever changing, high feathers and haze, short towers, translucent puffs, thin shields. Early morning radar showed a band of rain working its way across the state. We never saw any signs of it, though some clouds over the Everglades looked a little grey. It turned out to be a perfect day to work. This weather report was brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


I stopped at Home depot for a couple items. I intended to use some gift cards I had on me and at the very last moment, I forgot about them and paid cash. Darn.


My first project was to take care of some broken Bungee cords. I have learned from dead bungee cords that the stretch is not critical. It is nice and helps, but in most cases, one can live well without it. they do their job anyway.
One of my home depot purchases was some braided clothes line cord. I tied sections of the clothes line cords over the bungee hooks. I made several sizes and have more cord in case I need to make more. My only concern was on whether my knots will hold. I tied it a bunch of times on each end so they are not going anywhere.

New tie downs from Bungee hooks and braided cords.


I decided to see if I could figure out why the emergency light/radio I got yesterday at a yard sale was not working. I dismantled it step by step very carefully. Even with my care, the wires came off the crank unit. That made figuring out the repair easier, but I did have to have my brother solder the wires in place.
When I finally got the gear box taken apart, I found that they had a really stupid design. they have a metal plate set on top the drive gear. the crank shaft sticks into the metal and the gear to drive it. I guess they decided that the plastic grear was not strong enough to handle the force on the shaft. My guess is that the metal plate was just pressed onto raised plastic.
to repair it, I used SUPER GLUE to lock it in place on the raised plastic. I then reassembled the gear box, my brother soldered the wires and I put it together. It works!!!!. that is not a good design.


disassembled emergency tool. The black thing with the crank on the left is the generator where the problem was. the yellow things in the upper half of the handle are the permanent rechargeable batteries. All these devices have batteries in them.


The repaired and re-assembled tool.

My brother brought his work truck up and we went through several of the "bins" replacing the lidded plastic nut and screw trays, sorting them, and consolidating materials. Mom helped him most of the time, but I helped him some. he thought he was done and found that one bin had to be completely empted before he could put the trays in. He found all sorts of things he forgot he had, or that he purchased more because he did not have them and now have twice as much.

I was examining at the leaves from that broken leaf bowl trying to decide where to cut more leaves for the dream catchers. I then noticed that one broken leaf fit in place on another leaf. I decided to glue that in place because it looked better. I then was looking at the rest of the bowl and figured out how to match up other pieces. Except for a few mis-starts on my gluing, I ended up repairing the leaf bowl rather than cutting it more apart. it is fragile and I am not sure how to make it stronger. After the glue dries a few days, I will do a little clean up and give it a coat of varnish. I had thought to use epoxy for the repair but could not find it so I used white glue which tends to be very good.

leaf bowl while the glue was drying.


Another purchase I made at Home Depot was for some Jute. I needed some cord for my dream catcher. I decided the Jute would look good for the lines through the middle. I had several wraps and found I did not like the look- too heavy. I cut that off.

dream catcher with the Jute string. too heavy for the diameter

I have some flat yarn that when tensioned, will unravel and become thin and longer. I figured it would not be strong enough for this project. If it were not for the unraveling, it would be the perfect material for this project.
Since the jute was not going to work, I decided to use the yarn anyway. I tied the first knot, and decided to run the line continuous all the way around, I would not go directly across but to one side and then to one side of the opposite and keep doing that until I returned to the starting point where I tied the two ends together. I did not quite get it right but it looks pretty good.
I then drilled a hole through the acorn. I tried binding up the center with a red yarn but that was not working the way I wanted. I was not getting the lines at the right crossing for the effect I was after. I then basically tied the acorn in place on the top crossing of the yarn.
To finish this dream catcher, I need to hang feathers or something on the sides as the final decoration. I may well go to the craft store and see if they have something that will work better ripping out all my string and starting over. I don't fully trust the yarn, while it is strong enough as a group.


Finished for the moment dream catcher That is a twelve by twelve stone it is resting on..


My cold is almost nothing. I am where I normally am in a cold after three weeks, rather than one. I did have a coughing fit when I laid down to sleep but otherwise I might have something every few hours and that is very minor. I am really impressed at how well the zinc lozenge works.

I ended yesterday's post with a comment that I would have to see what I worked on, not having any plans. It turned out to be the best plan. I had spent the past couple months working intently on the art show projects and not working on anything in particular was kind of nice. I do plan to start on some real projects again.
I will likely not get much done on Saturday as after yard sailing, I have to do something at home in the early afternoon. That usually does not leave a whole lot of time for wood working.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.

week 636 Wood Working

Year 12, Week 10, Day One (week 636) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-17-12 Saturday

83 degrees, nice breeze that moved sawdust around, blue skies and plenty of sunlight, with white puffs. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.


YARD SAILING


Had a pretty good day of yard sailing. at one place, I picked up some sand paper, a SINGER sewing machine motor with a buffing unit attached, and a clamp for something like a dremmel. I paid six bucks. I found out later that the dremmel model I have is a bit too big for the clamp. It was later suggested to add a pipe and clamp the work to that. It looks like it was a holder for some piece of equipment anyway.



Singer sewing machine with buffing arbor, and a swivel clamp

At another yard sale, I got a set of five stainless steel bowls. I also got a candle from a woman who makes them. Mine was a small beer.

Stainless steel bowls. One is larger than the other four. Candle made to look like beer.


I picked up a set of knitting needles and some copper molds at a third one.I don't need more knitting needles but this guy did not look like he would get a lot of people who had any interest in yarn art. The copper molds are for a friend.


zodiac mold and grape bunch mold. Knitting needles and exercise book.

On the way home, I made an error and accidentally did a good thing for someone else. I went to a gas station with twenty pumps. I accidentally told the cashier that I was on pump 18 when I was on pump 19. I ended up donating twenty bucks of gas to someone. If you are going to be dumb, you have to be tough...



SATURDAY

The beast of the backyard was interested in company and was disappointed when I would not stay seated. Scarface has another scar. He has been catting around again. There is a cut down his cheek.


After taking pictures of my finds, I dragged out the lathe. it was past ten. I decided to make a natural edged bowl. Looking at my collection, I grabbed a piece of Osage orange which was left from another project. It had an interesting shape for a natural edged bowl.
I wanted to turn it sideways, so the ends would fly around. I also wanted to make what is known as a banana bowl. It is a long narrow bowl. It took some time to decide how I wanted it to look, which way was between the centers and what was the sides. I also had to decide what would be the top and the bottom.

Osage orange before I did anything



Decisions made, I mounted it between centers and spun it. I carefully removed wood from the bottom, forming a tenon for my chuck to hang onto it. When satisfied with that, I flipped it around and removed the drive spur, which I stick into the chuck, and mounted it.

Osage orange mounted in lathe but not yet turned. the bottom is at the tail stock


I started rounding the ends. The wood is spinning around like a fan blade, running as fast as the lathe will go. Since the ends are cut flat, I nicked the corners then worked it until the ends were completely rounded. I found two problems in this process. Bits of the wood under the bark split off. As the end passes, the took catches the leading edge and slices off the wood. At the trailing end, the wood is not supported and if there is any give to the wood, it will pull away a little.
I had a couple chips fly off as I worked. It just does not look good. I know how to hide that when the time comes.
I was about ready to work on the inside when I decided I needed to get going to work on a few things.



Osage orange held in chuck after end is rounded, nice bark side, and chipped side


While giving the beast of the Back Yard Beast some attention, I decided to work a bit with my dream catcher. I have this flat yarn I got at a yard sale and was going to use that. I found it won't be the right material. when I pulled it tight, it thinned out. It is sort of like woven yarn and when there is tension, the weave pulled out and it became thin. that was not the effect I was after and I know that would not be good for this project. I could see someone pulling on it wrong and the yarn thinning and stretching out. I will have to look around to see what I have that will work better. I like the flat yarn, but stretching and raving like that is not what I want.

For tomorrow, I want to finish the piece I was turning today. I may do some carving on either the face vase or the dragon. Tonight I may try to practice my arrangement for the display of my work at the antique shop. I have more stuff than I can display, and I also have lost parts and pieces and have to re-locate them. I also will change some of my prices.
My pricing system on my work is quite simple. It is on the idea of the better I like a piece, the higher it is priced. If I don't sell it, I won't be sad. If I do sell it, I won't be sad. Everything else is based on how much less I like the things. I also have items that are priced cheaply, and then work my way up. This way I have prices in all ranges.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


Year 12, Week 10, Day Two (week 636) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-18-12 Sunday

83 degrees, blue sky mostly sunny with lots of white puffs. A nice breeze kept things nice and comfortable. I did drive through some mist about the time I got home, but where I was working, it was perfect. If it stayed like that all year, it would be heaven. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.


I started the morning with a flat tire. I have had problems with this tire over the past few days. I pumped it up twice before and it was a slow leak. Yesterday, I made sure all tires were up to pressure. This morning this tire was flat. I have an electric pump that you plug into your cigarette lighter(Shows my age. Nowadays they are called power outlets).I pumped the tire up most of the way and then went to Mom's house. Midway through the morning it was half flat. I considered driving into the nearest canal and watch for bubbles, but decided to change tires instead.
I had changed tires a few times since I owned this truck and just now found out that they had included wheel blocks, angled metal shaped and designed to go under the tires to keep the truck from rolling. I had always assumed they were just to keep the jack in place tight. I grabbed them, thinking they were part of the jack. Only after I noticed there were two of them that it dawned on me what they were for.
I changed tires with no problems but the spare was low on air. Again came my electric air pump. A short time later I was ready to drive off, when I was ready to leave. There is a place near where I work that sells good used tires, and installs them for about a quarter what a new tires costs. I will have my rear tires swapped out later in the week.


When mentioned about my yard sailing yesterday, I had forgotten about some sanding disks an such I got at one yard sale. There were two packs of hook-loop sanding disks, a brand new file, and a knife buffer for sharpening. I paid a whole dollar for all of them. The buffer has the compound and arbor and was never opened.

Sanding disk, power strop and file.

About seven years ago, My mom and my brother built a model railroad layout in her back yard. After my dad died, it stayed covered, and became a home for the cats. Last year, we disassembled the layout and had the plywood hauled away. We had saved same materials from it and mom had them stowed in her shed. Today, she decided to dig the materials out and deal with them. Most of it was wire and the control panels and connection strips. I helped her remove screws and coil up the bundles of wires. We ended up with about eight terminal connector strips and a small bag of wire nuts. We also had loads of wires.
A couple weeks ago, I brought up a pretty, but worse for wear popcorn tin. I had never cleaned it out when I had finished with it and the salt caused surface rust on spots on the inside. We were not sure what to do with it, but tossing it did not sound right. Mom got an idea. She had me coil the wires and place them in the tin. When we were done, the tin was full and all the wire was accounted for.
Mom uses wire to tie up many of her plants. Over the year, we also have projects that involve wire, such as repairs. Mom has more room in her shed and we have the wire available if we remember we have it.

Wires from Mom's model railroad. Tangled wire on the table, coiled wire inside popcorn tin.


Last night, I did a very rough test of a display layout design idea that I will do when I go to the antique shop. I took all my work out, and looked at the prices of all my pieces, and replaced many of the price stickers. I reduced the prices of a number of items so there are more in line with what they would likely sell for. I also made the numbers on many pieces so they cannot be mistaken, a hundred dollars for ten dollars.
For the display, I will be using a folding coffee table as the central holder of my work, and then have boxes on the floor around the base of the table. They will all be hidden by covers and the work will be piled up around them to give differences of height. Many pieces will be on the floor too, and there will be a cover on the floor. I think this will look good.


I have a bunch of folding coffee tables, one I picked up a couple weeks ago that needs some work. Today, I decided to clean up the top of the table. The table had been left where it got wet. It had stains and some water damage. I took out the orbiting sander (could not remember where it was last week when I wanted to sand the cutting board) and hit the surface of the table. Other than being power, it was a light sanding as I saw where the veneer was coming up on one spot. I wiped it down to remove the dust, and then gave it quite a few coats of spray varnish to give it some protection and improve how it looks. The veneer looks like it might be oak.
When I got home, I dug out all my similar tables. I have a matching pair in a light wood, then two that are light wood but not matching, one of which was the one I cleaned up. Then I have a dark table that is painted a dark brown. That dark table will be the one that goes to the antique shop since the dark color invokes age. It also does not match any of the others. I have a set of four metal tables in use around my house so these will remain in storage until needed.


folding coffee table with sanded and varnished surface.



I took my tea pot and gave it the sanding it needed. I removed some drips and runs, and when I made it, it was not well sanded, so I went over all the surfaces well. There were some surfaces that showed scratches and dings so I cleaned that up too. I then gave it a bunch of coats of varnish. It needs another sanding before it gets more varnish as I can see some runs. I will let it dry at least over night before I sand it again. I think I will sand the mouth where the lid fits so the lids will fit a bit better. The varnish built up to make the lid not fit quite right. After next week, I may make a new handle for the pot, and when ready, remove the existing handle and put on a new one.


refinished tea pot.

My brother purchased a set of mechanics rolling drawers from Mom. She got it at a yard sale. I helped him get it onto the truck. I never did get pictures of it. I had been using the surfaces for my stuff while I was working. I now have to keep my stuff just a tiny bit more concentrated when I work. He gave me some tools that were in there and I figured out that they are tools for use on repairing motorcycles. There were cable pulls and clamps and such.


My lathe is on a sheet metal stand which is screwed down to a plywood base. The base has wheels that can be lifted out of the way so the lathe sits on wooden blocks for absolute stability (I should but don't do that when I work). I then have wood and weight lifting weights stacked on shelves beneath the lathe to give it mass.
I also screwed some two by two wood around the upper part of the lathe stand and have wooden skirts attached to keep the worst of the sawdust out of the shelving. I also have a bunch of PVC pipe sections screwed to the wood on the back side of my lathe for my turning tools to hang.
Mom had given me holder for something that was a bunch of PVC pipes glued together. There was a thin PVC bottom to he piece to keep whatever was put in them from falling out the bottom. I had screwed that to my lathe and it has held my tools for a long time. The screw pulled out several weeks ago and I have procrastinated on reinstalling it.
Today I screwed it back on. The way my pipes are designed is that there is a small hole on one side for the screw, which is screwed in from the inside, and a bigger hole directly on the other side which is for the screwdriver to reach the screw.
The first screw was easy as it went through the biggest of the pipes. A pair of plyers could hold the screw in place inside over the little hole.
I then drilled a new set of holes, going through two stacked pipes. That one was a bit tougher as my plyers would not fit into the one inch pipe. I found a pair of wire cutters were smaller and did fit. Then getting the screw aimed right and then the screwdriver.
I always had the problem that the thing tipped. It was good to get tools out of the way, tipping them on an angle, but it was not really good. Now with the two screws, it is not going anywhere. I have it on a slight angle with the handles tipped a little bit away from the head-stock which tips them away from the tail stock where it usually is used.


on the left is the glued up PVC pipes. On the right are individual fittings and pipes holding tools


I showed my brother the tools I got last week. He looked on line and found out what it was. I was right on how it was used, as a depth gauge. It also can be used to set tapers. It is old school tools. Now they use magnets and dials to do the same thing.
The metal pieces that came with it are holders for gauges. Rods are supposed to go into them and then the gauges clamp onto the rods. The problem is finding the right sized rods. If we really wanted to, we could make our own.


I did a little bit of turning on the Osage Orange banana bowl. I was cleaning up the outer surface and kept getting catches. I could not seem to get it to stop. these catches were placing divots in the middle of the ends of the wood. I then sharpened my turning tool again, simply using a grind stone to touch up the surfaces, and it removed the damage without any more catches.
When I was done cleaning up the outside, I cut a tiny bit of wood on the inside. It was then time for lunch and later, I realized there was no way I was going to get the piece finished by the end of the day. I cleaned up and rolled the lathe away with the piece still in the chuck and will work on it next week. There won't be any rush to work on it now, though as I wanted it ready by Thursday.


Osage Orange. Outside done enough, started on the inside by humiliating the surface.


After lunch, we sat and watched some pictures mom took. Many were of the art show last week. For some reason, we always get sleepy when watching our pictures, no matter how interesting they are.


From what I understand, Thursday is our turning club meeting since the school where we meet was closed for spring break last week. I wanted to show off the Osage Orange banana bowl for that, but did not have time. I will just have my tea pot to display there.
At a yard sale a couple weeks ago, I picked up a pair of doggy brushes. I went on line and read about how to use those for CARDING fibers for spinning. At the moment, I am experimenting with cotton which really needs finer brushes, but it will work well enough. A project I want to do in the next few weeks is to make a drop spindle for spinning yarn. From what I saw, they are simple to make and use. That I am carding fiber, I can test my drop spindles to see if they work. That will go good with my crochet hooks. I also need to make more of them too.
I have to get back to carving on my dragon, carving the faces on my face vase, I have ornaments I never finished, wood that needs to be made into something, cats to pet, just to name a bunch of things that I have projects for. That does not include the metal working I want to also do.

I will see what I do next week.

Week 635 Wood working

Year 12, Week 9, Day One (week 635) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-10-12 Saturday

83 degrees, mostly blue sky with sun, though there were some boiling clouds here and there during the day. The light breeze made it comfortable. There was reports of showers in the county north of us, but we had perfect weather all day long. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


YARD SAILING


We went yard sailing today. One big yard sail turns out to be next weekend, not this one. that did not matter. There were several condo yard sales we got to go to.

At one condo, I picked up some jewelry. I was about fifteen seconds from getting a griddle set. It had interchangeable plates and a woman was already looking at it. My mom did get a wonderful compliment. The guy selling it said "you and your wife can come for dinner." Mom was all grins.

Jewelry collection. I like the style.

At the next condo sale, I got a machining depth gauge. I paid more than I really should, but they were firm on the price. I also got some stainless steel mixing bowls, some trivets, a turkey basket, a wood cutting board and a graphing calculator.


graphing calculator


mixing bowl sets


The small trivets goes with a larger trivet I already had. I have a very large cutting board but sometimes I don't want to use that and a medium sized one is just right. When I got home I sanded it so it had a good surface to start with. I will have to explore to figure out how to use the graphing calculator. It might end up a present.

trivets - place hot pans on them.

It took some figuring to understand how to use the depth gauge. The flat surface is parallel to the bottom. You set the depth and then bring your tool to touch that surface for your depth. I am not sure what the other pieces are for. I will get with my brother on them.

depth gauge and parts. The cutting board is beneath them

The mixing bowls are going to be quite useful. I have some plastic ones and realize that I could use more different sizes. these were available so I got them.
I kept looking at the turkey basket. I could see how I could turn the body and then carve the head and tail. The design was kind of nice. I walked past it twice before I picked it up.

Turkey basket

Another yard sale we went to, I got some glitter glue with brushes, some jewelry, and some stamps.

Glitter glue and brushes



stamp set with cup

I do have some uses for the glitter glue in my art work. Not as much as I could, but do have uses. There are seven different kinds of stamps, with repeats of everything except the butterfly. They were a Christmas cup.

I liked the style of most of the jewelry I picked up. The green heart was just with the bunch and I got that anyway.



SATURDAY


The beast of the back yard got some food and attention between yard sales as we dropped some stuff off. He also got some in the afternoon when I went back to get to work. He had every intention to hang around until I started pulling the tables out. He decided to get going to his favorite hiding place.


I had two projects to work on today. Mom got a wire rack and it needed another shelf. She stuck wire shelving into it but it was not quite right. I took the shelf out, and after some playing around with some ideas, I found a way to stick the shelf in to fit right. I then tightened all the screws so the rack was nice and tight. Mom was happy with that.


My other project was to practice my display for the art show. I needed to find out what I had, how much room I had to put my stuff on it, and to set it up to look like something.
I see I could fill up however much space I have available. I chose to concentrate on my big carvings first and foremost. I pulled things out of the box and set them on the table, then moved them around. I found things I forgot all about.
The big problem is that if people don't see it, it is unlikely to be sold. It is only if they ask if you have more that you can pull it out. As long as I am picky, I can keep my display from being too overbearing.

practice table display

Another thing I was after was, once I had everything arranged, to pack things up so I can bring them out quickly at the show. I did see I forgot two things and will bring them with me when I go tomorrow.
I would love to have been able to practice this twice. It does make a difference. I have a general idea of where things are going, but not exactly. I did not practice the covering of boxes and racks. It would make a difference to get the fabric trimmed to the right length ahead of time.
Once I had everything set up, I took a couple pictures and then boxed them up. I will have everything there, but it just won't be on the table. It will be quite covered with my work and not show anything. I only hope I have the right stuff on display.

Practice table display

After everything was put away, I examined my yard sale finds a bit more, and sanded the cutting board.


I usually sharpen all my knives before the show. I make sure they are in top condition. In an early art show, I found my knives were dull and had to swap between several knives to find a sharp one. I made it a tradition to gather every knife I have and sharpen them so they are all ready for working. Sharp knives cut wood, dull knives cut fingers. This gives me an excuse to get every knife up to their best condition at least once a year.
I did not prepare some wood for carving during the show. I do have some wood in one of the boxes from last year and will use that. It is just that I have some better wood and could have gotten them ready with about fifteen, twenty minutes of work.
I carve during the art show. people like to see work done. A few painters paint during the show. I usually carve pencil heads. I am charging a drill battery so I will have power to drill for the pencils to go into the heads.

I always forget something for the show. I don't remember what it was last time so I have no idea what I will forget this time. when I got home, I remembered one thing I had forgotten today, but it took me about an hour to remember the second thing.

I have many goals as to my sales. My first one is to get my entry fee back. When my dad and I had our sales, One of us would sell a hundred dollars and the other only fifty. One year, I sold two hundred plus. year before last, I ended up with only thirty for a sixty dollar entry fee. Last year I got ninety. All what I get tomorrow will go for tools and materials to do more woodworking.
In my best year of sales of my wood working, I think I made six hundred dollars over the entire year. This includes bowls and platters my boss purchased from me that I brought into work during the year. It includes the art show sales and my sales of Christmas ornaments. The past four or so years have not been anywhere near that good. My aim has always been to make enough to where my wood working does not cost me anything. I did well for most years but my wood working has cost me money over the past few years.

Tomorrow, I will have the art show. It is going to be a whole lot of work. I have two hours to get the display set up. We will have a brunch, and then the art show starts. I can make adjustments after it starts, but it is best to have it done first thing. I want to look around to see who all is there, and what they have. I HAVE to take pictures of the show. I have sent out notices for the art show to some local friends, but I doubt I will see anybody who is not involved in the art shows. I do hope to see some friends there.


I will see what actually happens tomorrow.


Year 12, Week 9, Day Two (week 635) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-11-12 Sunday


Temps in the 80s, mostly cloudy with some blue sky, some sun. There was a strong wind and early in the morning while we were setting up, the people outside got some good wetness. This is the first time in twelve years that we got some showers during this art show, and it did not shower during the show itself.
It did not last long. In the afternoon, as I was unloading the truck at home, there was also a tiny bit of wetness. Not enough for a umbrella but enough to make some cardboard boxes look wet.
This weather report is brought to you by the City of Lighthouse Point Department of Tourism.

When I practiced my table set up yesterday, I was able to get all my work nicely arranged for quick and easy loading. I had the truck loaded up in about ten, fifteen minutes.


The beast of the back yard was very irritated with me. I did not give him the attention he felt he deserved in the morning because I was more interested in loading the truck at that time.
In the afternoon, I did not give him the attention he felt he deserved because I would give him a little bit, then grab something else from the truck, then give him a little more. He was more than willing to just sit there for the rest of the afternoon with me attending to him. Before I was done, he left in a huff. If he had stayed, I would have giving him a whole lot more time.


Moving my artwork and materials from the truck to my table was fairly quick. I used the wagon where I could stack things up. I was reminded that one must make sure the boxes need to be firmly stacked. One box had two of my major carvings and a bunch of small ones. It fell off the wagon. Both major carvings broke. One, where the fairy is adding nectar to flowers for a butterfly has a broken wing that will require a bit of work to glue it back on.
The other carving has the fairy writing "what if people really existed" came apart in many pieces. it looks like I can just glue the parts back in place.


Setting up the table was fairly fast. I made changes in the arrangement I did yesterday. I brought several folding tables and had two between the table and the wall on the "public end" and had a white plastic covering them. I had cannons setting on the end tables, giving me a little bit of room.

At about ten thirty, I made my first quick look at the rest of the art show. I found a number of old friends. I am impressed with what I saw. The wind was strong and the people outside were having to "batten down" their stuff. One guy mentioned his worry about getting rained on.
I went in for the Brunch and ate well. While eating a down burst hit. I intended to go out and check on them outside, but got sidetracked and forgot about it.

The art show started I changed things around a little from the original set up. Mom was there and said that she could not see me behind the table. I took one of my folding tables to the end of the display to set my tools on and placed my chair at the corner so I could watch the people work.

During the show, I carved on a pencil head. In previous years, I would do three pencil heads during the show. One thing I forgot to do this morning was to cut some white-wood for the pencil heads that is softer than what I was working with. I also picked the end of the wood with a knot in it. I told people that this guy was going to be a knot-head.

The pencil head I mainly worked on. I broke the nose and had to wait for the glue to dry enough to finish it. The second one is a bearded man carving. It started life as a corner cut off a twelve by twelve board I was making into a platter.

My first sale was for a Black-olive pumpkin I had made. The guy was thinking about getting it, then was looking at other items, asking his wife if she would rather have this and that, then he went back to the pumpkin and picked it up.
A family came by and purchased a standing dragon I had, and a cat ornament. I sold the dragon at half price.
A man came by twice. On the second visit, he told me that after he is done with his tennis, he would pick a bouquet of flowers for his wife. He purchased my shaved wood flowers as the flowers he would bring home.
A woman purchased two pair of my wood earrings. they were wood rings I had made.
A young woman was looking at my goblets. I told her that there is a story where if a couple is given a two ringed goblet on their wedding, as long as the rings are intact, the wedding will last. She came back later and purchased one and one of my wooden wands. The story I tell about he wands is that they are magic wands, but you have to add your own magic.
My last sale was of one of my penguin ornaments. they wanted it as a pencil head. I had to drill it out for the pencil to fit into it. The drill bit was not cutting the way I expected it to. While I was drilling through the legs, there was not a lot of wood to drill into. The leg broke out and the bit cut my thumb. I carved off the remains of the leg and continued drilling. It did not drill straight and until I got the hole deep enough and enough of the hole to hold the pencil, it had a oval top hole. I added the glue and a few wood chips to hold it in place. I wiped it somewhat clean of glue and blood, but really needed to do more. they seemed happy when they left, though. I felt guilty that I did not do better.
In all, I got my entry fee and a bit more than half again. That is not bad for this art show. It is not known for a sales art show.


Me in front of my display


Two views of my show display Both look like they were taken at the beginning of the show. the crochet hooks were moved from the end to closer to the middle a bit later.


A bit later view of the table with a few things shifted around


Crochet hooks on display. the short piece on the right came off one of the long hooks. I am not really sure if a customer broke it or it broke while moving them around. I seem to remember setting them up with hooks going the same way so I don't think it was broke then.


the pumpkin I sold was much like this one shown here. I had originally made three of them.

I sold a dragon similar to this one. It had arms holding a golden globe. that and the color was the only difference.

I then had to load my boxes. My truck was parked quite a ways away. I decided to get the boxes mostly loaded before I got my truck. I parked it close and decided that using the side door that I was next to, would be less steps than towing the wagon up the ramp, around to the entrance of the room, and to my table. I would make more trips, but it was a third the distance. I carried the boxes and stuff out to the truck. It is surprising how much stuff I have.

At Mom's house I unloaded the carvings from the truck. My carvings belong to Mom unless I sell them or take them home.
I considered how I was going to move the rest of my stuff home. It took me a while to remember that the work that was in the antique shop was brought to Mom's house separately from the materials I left at home. I tied a tarp over the bed and that protected my work at highway speed going home.
I unloaded the truck in really three trips. I basically took my basket that had my camera stuff on the first trip as I needed a pit stop. My second trip took the easy to stack bins. My third trip was a bit of a problem. I had a stack of boxes and my folding tables. My first attempt to stack them did not work. I had the tables on the bottom and when I tipped the hand cart up, they would not tip, as there was more hanging out the front than under the toe of the handcart. I had cords attached but they were not tight enough. the weight of the stuff stacked on them was not enough either.
It started sprinkling so I hauled the tables under the cover, then worked the stack into place and brought them out. It was over before I really got started moving the hand cart.
there is a width limit on the door of the elevator. My big cannon was sticking out too far. It caught on the door and once inside, It was not going to let me out without doing something about it. Two young men got in with me and I had one of them pull the canon out. that was enough to allow me to get out of the elevator without problems. Once out I was able to get to my door with no problems.

In the morning I was on my feet from eight till ten thirty non-stop. One cannot arrange a table sitting down. The first time I really had time to sit was during the brunch. I did a whole lot of walking after the show in packing up, unloading stuff at Mom's house, and unloading at home. I have fallen arches and use doctor engineered inserts, Orthotics, in my shoes to help with the problem. My feet really bothered me by the end of the day, but nothing like I had expected. They did surprisingly well. I am actually writing this in the morning and while my feet were stiff, they were better than I ever expected them to be.

I found out that the Turning club meeting is not going to happen this month. We meet at a school and they are on Spring Break. That gives me time to get ready for the next meeting. I had a number of projects I wanted to do but the art show prevented me from even touching them.

I have a big stack of bins in my living room right now. I need to separate the contents, a couple bins will be emptied. I will be taking my woodworking back to the antique shop at the end of the month. I have some ideas on a way to display the work and might clear out a corner and practice my ideas to see if it will work.
I had borrowed some household items for the art show display and they will be put back in place. I also will put some stuff away that had been simply boxed since the last time I really dug into my stuff.

For next weekend, I want to make a new handle for my tea pot. I want to start assembly on the dream catcher. I can start carving on the dragon again or the face vase. I want to make a bunch more crochet hooks and that requires sitting at the mini lathe and rounding wood to specific sizes. The wood turning club had a turning challenge where you make a natural edged bowl. I now have time to work on that. It will be a quick project.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.