Wood working diary 09-05-09

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
.
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.

This and That

Been wanting to write about what I have been up to for a while but between appointments and putting up veggies from the garden, I’ve been pretty busy.

I love thrifting. Flea markets, thrifts stores, junk shops and yard sales (we call them ‘tag sales’ up here in Nutmeg country) are favorite haunts. Lee and I have been hitting as many of those as we can find lately in our travels, including Goodwill and Salvation Army. They have online sites that you can pull up and type in your zip code and find the ones nearest your location. My latest best buy score was a set of rubber stamps from a barn sale last Sunday. I got all of these for $1! They are all used, but in good condition, other than needing some cleaning. The roller stamp appears to be self inked and it does work on all three patterns. I do have a collection of stamps and will add this to them. I haven’t played with them in a while.

I also got this neat CD rack for $3. It has screw holes in the back on the top so you can attach it to a wall. With that wide base, it won't be too tippy. I am sure I can find a corner for it. I have a lot of CDs.

Lee figures brand new it would have cost around $30. It is sturdy and with the wide base, fairly stable. I have a lot of CDs, besides my favorite folk rock albums of the 70s, I have a burgeoning collection of Celtic, New Age, and other world music (I like a lot of Native American flute stuff.) Those are my writing music, and I will pick out something that suits the mood and put on the headphones and get to work. I have been making up playlists for Windows Media Player so that I can have over an hour at a time of just a particular theme if I choose. Saves wear and tear on the original album CD too, because once they are ripped to the computer, I don’t need the CD in the drive to access it. That also allows me to use that CD drive for something else.

I got these little chests and the candle at Goodwill the last time I had an out-of-area doc appointment. I love asparagus and grow it, so the candle was a no-brainer. The fairy and angel came from Salvation Army. The fairy was NOT chipped when I brought it to the counter, I think the lady who wrapped it got careless. A touch of Sharpie will hide the nicks. I collect fantasy figures because that is primarily what I write. The "New Arrival" angel ornament is going into a bag for a neighbor couple who just had a baby girl back in June. It is in perfect shape. Under $5 worth of stuff there. I now have rings in one of the boxes and earrings in the other.

Going to Goodwill or Salvation Army is one of my ‘rewards’ for putting up with all the hoopla and rigmarole the surgeon’s office is putting me through. I have been doing workup tests and appointments all year for possible bariatric surgery, and it has been a HUGE hassle to say the least. Last time, they had ‘forgotten’ to put my appointment in the computer, so after Lee got up at 6:30 AM with me and drove us nearly 40 miles to be there at 9AM for nothing, we were both a little miffed. But hunting through the less-crowded morning aisles of the Goodwill store in that area was fun. That place gets jumping in the afternoon, you can barely move in there. Thrifting has gotten very popular and trendy.

I’d show you some more of my other recent acquisitions, but they are going to be presents, and the recipients will likely see the blog and know what they are getting in advance. I am lucky to have people in my life who don’t mind getting used things as gifts. I can afford to give someone a lot more as a gift when I can include used items. When I am out there, I am always looking for things I know those folks will enjoy.

Here are my two latest crochet projects right after they were finished.

The bag holder now has a hanging loop, and when full that mesh really stretches. Had I been able to get the skinnier part frogged (rip it, rip it, rip it apart) when I wanted to, it would have been a bit easier to use. But it is hanging in my bathroom full of plastic shopping bags, which I use to line the wastebaskets and clean the cat litter pan into. Yeah I know, those plastic bags aren’t biodegradable, but at least they are getting reused. I do have tote bags that I take shopping, but I have yet to find a viable and more environmentally safer substitute for lining the wastebaskets. Any suggestions? I don’t want to spend a lot of money on it, with 6 people in this household, I have to find budget-conscious answers to everything. The other thing is the matching toilet paper holder. It’s just something I threw together as I went along. I didn’t have patterns for either project, I just made them up as I went along. I could write one out if I took the time to count rows and stitches, and likely should have, but I was watching the ball game at the time and didn’t feel like making notes. I think they came out pretty well for unplanned projects.

Last pic is gratuitous, a big pot 8 quart of meat sauce I made the other day. We’ve been eating it off and on for several days. With Frank (the other half) on a weird work schedule and the boys in and out with college and work, it’s nice to have something you can just heat and eat. We depend on leftovers here. That way I know my family (which includes my 75 year old mother and Lee BTW) will have a hot & nutritious homemade meal. Most of the tomatoes in this were from frozen purée we had in the freezer when I ran out of canning time and jars last fall. Hamburger is 90% lean from the warehouse clubs, and that is where I get most of the spices I buy in bulk. The tomato paste I thickened it with came from annual canned goods sales and discount coupons – I will do anything to save us $$$. LOL Lots of onions too, just because I love them. Mmmm, this is good stuff. It is 3/4 gone. I can always freeze the rest.

Just some bits and pieces of my busy life…

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!

I love cats – I must, I have five of them currently living with me. To be fair I love dogs too, and have two big ones, a (neutered) male blue-eyed Siberian Husky named Duncan and a (also neutered) male Chocolate Lab named Ranger. OK, they will get their pictures here too:

But this post is primarily about cats. We had six cats at one point but the sad attrition of old age has thinned the ranks over the last couple of years.

We lost Spooky and Katy within weeks of one another back in 2007. They were both strays who made their way to our house and came to stay.

Below is Barney, the most recent cat to have gone over the Rainbow Bridge. We lost him back in April.

Barney was a shelter rescue. He spent a lot of time with my #1 son Jason, sitting in his lap whenever he was at his computer, and sleeping in his room. He was a big guy, a loving companion, and had a heart-tugging way of hugging you with his front legs while tucking his head under your chin. He did have an ongoing weight problem, and would eat until he upchucked some days, if we weren’t careful to remove all food quickly. We had to really police his eating to control his weight to remain under 16 lbs, and he would try and snitch things off the table or counter – even licking the butter dish (yuck). He had been found as a stray and being declawed, I think he must have had a hard time surviving on his own, and never forgot the feeling of going hungry. Someone loved him very much as one point, because he was also neutered and had a very sociable attitude toward people. Barney was also a big talker, so I suspect there was some Siamese in his background.

We had to have dear old Barney put down earlier this year, when a heart condition sent him into a downward spiral that he was just not going to recover from. We guess he was about 6 when we took him in, so he was approximately 12 when he died. We do miss him terribly, he was one of the most loveable and cuddly cats I have ever shared my home with. He was #1 son Jason’s special buddy but we all cried buckets of tears that day.

Most of my cats have always been strays or rescues like Barney, so I am always on the lookout for those needing a good home. All of my cats have been altered too, either coming to me that way like Barney, who was also front declawed (something I would NEVER do) or they get spayed or neutered as soon as I can afford to do it. Besides not adding to the sadly unwanted and all-too-burgeoning feral animal population, an altered cat stays home and roams less, and is less likely to spray or get into fights and get hurt. But until the latest furballs joined us, we were down to just three rescued male cats.

Max was a young but fully-grown rescue from the same shelter as Barney back in 2002, where he had been left with his sister, who got adopted first. We actually got Max a couple of days before we got Barney. He is about 8 years old now. I had seen him on the local cable access program as up for adoption in September and was surprised that he was still there in November when we brought him home. We met Barney the same day and fell in love with him too, so Jason and I went back a couple days later and adopted him. They were buddies over the years. Max is currently top cat here, and spends his days hunting chipmunks and field mice and his nights curled up somewhere warm and dry. He has a mostly sunny disposition and he will sit up on his hindquarters to pat his paws together in a pleasing gesture when he wants something.

Shadow was a rescue too; we got him back in 2004 when he was roughly 4 years old. He had lived for a while in a small apartment over a closed general store in the next town. It was there he was abandoned for 2 weeks in June with 29 other cats when the tenants skipped out on their rent. The place was a nightmare mess, but the landlord was very accommodating and worked with the animal control officer to find these unfed, dirty, sick and mostly half-feral kitties new homes. When #2 son Brian and I went to get Shadow, he had just been vet checked and neutered, and other than being groggy, he seemed relatively OK. He does have lovely shining black fur and beautiful markings. He turned out to be very paranoid about human contact and mostly hid on us, bolting away if you so much as made eye contact, and still seems rather frightened of men. I suspect he was abused at some point, poor baby. He will now tolerate some handling and occasionally sits with my mother, and purrs when I pet him, but it has taken us years to rebuild even that much confidence in people. He loves other cats though, and he and Barney used to snuggle often. We figure he is approaching 10. Shadow mostly stays indoors, though he will ask to be let outside on the nice, warm days. He doesn’t leave the back yard and is too scared of other creatures to think of hunting, though he once caught a moth and looked very surprised when he did.

This is Oreo, with his 'paws of death' (he is front polydactyl, AKA double-pawed). He is also a rescue, and we had him neutered. Oreo is from an aunt of Stacey, who is #2 son Brian’s girlfriend. Stacey’s aunt takes in pregnant female cats from the local rescue group Kitty Harbor (http://www.kittyharbor.org/) and they are allowed to give birth and raise their kittens to an adoptable age. Moms and kittens are vetted and the mommies get spayed and everyone eventually finds a good home.


Oreo came to us back in 2006 as a kitten and he has the most endearing personality you could imagine. Of course with those big paws and his rather assertive personality, he has to challenge Max now and then for supremacy. Even as a kitten he had the most ferocious deep-throated growl and the adult cats would back off and leave him be, but he is a real sweetie with people. Stacey can hold him upside down and sound asleep in her arms for hours. Oreo also spends most of his time out stalking things and we have found he is murder on frogs and birds, which I try to discourage.

If you follow our other blog which is Companion Dragon Tales, (http://magicdragonverse.blogspot.com/) Oreo appears as Oliver the cat, who is all black, to distinguish him from Shadow, who remains black and white in the stories. We changed the name and coloring slightly for copyright and clarity reasons, but the personality is about the same.

Jason misses Barney very much. The month we had to put Barney down, Stacey’s aunt had a couple new litters of kittens born, one or two of which were reported to be gray and white. Jason did say he wanted another cat of his own, so he was interested, but they had to become of an adoptable age first, so there were some months in between. But last month, not one but two new male kittens came to live with us!

Merlin was not the kitten Jason went to look at, the gray and white male was supposedly already adopted. But Merlin has so much of that loving personality that Barney had that Jason chose him anyway. He will even hug your neck like Barney did, or nuzzle Jason’s beard, and he spends a lot of time sleeping in Jason’s room, companionably nearby. Merlin is quiet and gently playful, though he has no problem bossing around his little sidekick whenever someone needs to be put in their place. I love those markings, and with his bright green-gold eyes, he will be striking as an adult. He was born April 5th, and so is almost 5 months old, and will be neutered soon. Merlin made himself at home from the beginning and he will someday be boss cat here. He exudes a quiet dignity in all he does.

Mischief is the kitten Jason was supposed to go look at, but another family had said they wanted him, so he was initially unavailable. They changed their minds and so he came back a couple days later. Jason went and visited with him, and decided he wanted Mischief too, and we all agreed that would be OK. Mischief was born on April 15th and so is not from the same litter as Merlin, but they have grown up playing together, which makes their adjustment here a lot easier for both. Mischief will be neutered soon too; we will likely take him in with Merlin and get a twofer… He is somewhat smaller than Merlin and a real little rascal too. Mischief is excitable and lives up to his name in getting into just about anything and everything. He never walks anywhere, he runs at full gallop, always in motion until he falls asleep. He is a love bug too; and he gives lots of spontaneous kisses, when he can sit still long enough to spend some time with you. He hasn’t chosen one person as his ‘own’ but is rather free with his fleeting moments of affection. This is one of those cats that will wake you up just to say I love you for the fifteenth time, but he is a cutie so no one minds. Mischief will not be as big as Merlin, but he makes up for that in bravado and sheer audacity. He has the most ‘cattitude’ I have ever seen in a kitten. Thanks to Roger’s mom for that apt description of the feline philosophy of “I meant to do that,” while walking away from disaster with head and tail held high

The adult cats here have had a bit of an adjustment to their new little companions. Max is still the biggest holdout and he hisses like a snake whenever one of them gets too close, which they keep trying to do. Max prefers to sleep outdoors right now, or in some (hopefully) inaccessible spot if the weather is inclement. Oreo just eats and runs, or on rainy days will squat somewhere safe and watch the kittens with wary eyes and maybe just a tinge of envy. Shadow hid for a couple of weeks in my mother’s closet, but now is out of the closet (no pun intended) most of the day. Always an opportunist, Shadow is taking advantage of the kitten’s cuteness factor and joining them in begging for scraps at the table or refrigerator. But every morning now we have the race after breakfast when the two kittens gallop up and down the stairs and the long second floor hallway, which is great for skidding stops and wall bouncing tin foil balls. They do keep us entertained!

Please, if you can, help us all cut down on the unwanted pet population. Get your pets altered, so that they don’t produce any unwanted progeny. And if you want a new pet, consider a rescue or shelter animal. You will be saving two lives that way; the life of the animal you adopt, and the life of the animal who will replace it at the shelter. I have the living proof here, that with some TLC and patience; even an older animal can make a great companion. I love all my fur kids, no matter where they came from, and have never regretted taking one in, no matter how fleeting our time together has been.