Week 539 Woodworking

year 10, Week 17, Day One (week 539)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-08-10 Saturday

95 degrees in late morning, then clouds closed up some and temps dropped to 90 degrees. A nice breeze kept the temps from feeling hot. There was a point where a thin dark cloud leaked, but I was doing some measuring at the time and just pulled the equipment under cover until I was ready to go back to work. I knew at the time it was ignorable. After I had gotten home, in another city, there was a very good cloudburst, but I was inside at the time. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Scar-face and the Beast was waiting for me when I went out into the back yard. they both got food and plenty of attention. The beast got a lot more attention and food over the day, but not as much as he wanted. he really wanted company, and I was more interested in my projects.

Beggar, The beast of the back yard
Pretending to be a cat.

I had a good look at the mice I made, and decided they needed to be designed better. I picked out some wood and made a little bit of sawdust. None of them are perfect, but they will be better than most of the ones I made last week. Even so, they will need corrections. One thing I must do is sand them before I do anything else to them other than drilling holes. I have to give thought to whiskers on them.
I need to try making frogs and lady bugs using the same method. That should be easy. I did make four mouse bodies today, which is not too bad. I had to prepare a few pieces of wood, which including measuring, cutting and re-measuring. Small bits can be used with this, these pieces were yellow pine cut from corners of platter blanks. I like the look on the mice.

I spent a lot of time trying to solve a problem with Mom's E-mail program in Windows 7, I hate Windows 7. Nothing is where it is supposed to be. files are hidden, buried, tricked around. You think you find the file you need to change and then it turns out not to be the right one. ARGH!

I am not totally sure what I will do tomorrow. I should do a couple platters, but could also work on something brand new. I also have a bowl I want to start carving. laying it out would help.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 17, Day Two (week 539)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-09-10 Sunday

90 degrees, good breeze to take the heat away. Clear to the east all day long, thin, broken clouds over the Everglades to the West. After noon, there were several periods where clouds blocked the sun, but mostly sunny all day long.

My first project was to feed and pet the cat. Scar face was nowhere to be seen. Beggar was in a cat mood and I petted him quite a bit before I was ready to dig my equipment out.
I stopped and petted him several more times during the day. Later, after my brother had done some scroll sawing and had settled to read, Beggar sat ON TOP my foot for about half an hour. I was sanding at the time and I would reach down and rub his head every now and then. he finally got up and headed to bed, in hiding somewhere.

I decided to start with making some lady bug bodies. My results are pretty good. I have a lot of decisions to do after I finish sanding. I have to decide whether to and how much, I should paint these. I figure I won't add legs. I could add cartoon eyes or leave them a slightly bit more realistic. Will see.
I also made a frog body. I don't like what I came up with. It might be all right, but has problems. I am thinking that I should use the lathe to get the angles even and centered, then use the sander for the real design. I will think it over.

I dug out a platter I had started a couple weeks ago and remounted it on the lathe. I finished it up, sanding it quite a bit. It needs more. A lot of the sanding was while the beast lounged on top my foot.

I mounted another platter I had just barely gotten started with, on the lathe, but it wobbled when I turned the lathe on. I should have removed it, trued up the face plate, then got started again, but chose instead to pack up and do something else. I will deal with it next weekend.

The ten inch platter, with mouse at top, two lady bugs, mouse on bottom left, and a frog


I corrected one of the mice bodies I made yesterday. It is still not quite right, but better than it was. I really should have re-mounted it on the lathe, but decided to use the disk sander instead. More sanding and it will be ok.

The day was pretty good, more of a lazy day, but I did get a whole lot done, but got enough to feel like I did something.

I will have to see what I accomplish next week.

May Third, Twenty Ten, Did you write?

May Third, Twenty Ten, Did you write?

That is the question of the day. DID YOU WRITE any time this week? For many among us, writing every day is not a problem. This note is not needed unless one wants to brag.
For others among us, just writing this month is a challenge. Having a prompt to get us to even think of writing at some time during the week, is a big thing. If one is honest, one will post a reply to this note, even if one did not write. That is where this note works best. One does not want to answer the question no, so writing is the only other option. It has worked many weeks the past year, for me.

As to what is writing, we all accept that anything new is writing. How much one writes is not important as opening the text up and having it even the slightest different when you close it.
Since few of us write perfectly the first time, Editing is also writing. This goes for editing someone else's work, or even critiquing the work of others. Measured word counts don't matter when editing, since many of us will zap entire sections of text in order to replace it with better writing or better story. One can go backwards in the word count and do a whole lot of writing to replace what was removed.
Poetry, blogging, technical writing, article writing are also writing. E-mails can also be writing, as long as they are wordy and pertain to story or writing.
what is actually writing, is a matter of opinion. there are things in my list that you might say "that is not writing" or "that is not enough writing." for others, you might come up with something else that might pass as writing. the key is that YOU think you wrote.

As for me, I did write. I had started a story-idea like writing of my work in progress to work out the plot, to get around details that was bogging me down. I finished the piece and fired it off to my writing partner. She sent me back a list of things hat needed correcting. I quickly realized that they were details, not plot problems, so I dug into the actual work. We have since worked out some extra details for the entire series. Since last week, I added two pages and 1772 words to the "outline" and then added two pages and 1300 words to the actual work in progress. Right now, I am correcting what I already have written. I will get through that soon, and then get into fresh, new writing. I feel like I can make real headway now.

On the story idea front, Ideas have been coming good and strong. I have, including what I am posting tonight, 56 story ideas in my compost pile. Not a lot of my recent ideas are good, but I will try to dig into them before they sink too deeply.
For this month, I am already a story idea behind, and it is only three days old. I have a good month to catch up so I am not worried at all.
I had finished last month and got my data out of the file. I had 31 story ideas for the month of 30 days. I had a point last week where I made a mistake on the numbers of a couple story ideas. I thought I was way behind so I wrote an extra story idea two nights in a row. I was posting the story ideas and just happened to scroll up. I saw 22 twice. I searched the numbers and found I repeated 22 and 23 twice. that was how I ended up an idea ahead for the month, and also for the year. As it was, I had 53 pages and 31,892 words of pure drivel.
I sent the file to a friend of mine who had never seen such things. when I saw her the next weekend. she had no words for how far out, strange, my imagination was. she rolled her eyes when I truthfully said I wished my work was more far out and wild.

I had a woodworking weekend where I did not have any pressing projects. I saw something in a magazine, instantly figured out how it was done, and tried to replicate what the article mentioned. the guy made some wooden mice. I made one and it looked pretty good. Later, I got a sheet of craft foam and beads and finished some of the mice I made. the craft foam became the ears and tail, the beads became eyes. I will say that some of these mice are really cute, but some are a bit "wrong" It is known as planning. I made eight of the mice, and my sister In Law wanted a mouse, she thought they were so cute, so I gave her the first one I made. I now have seven mice running around my desk, trying to look cute. I decided these are going to be one of the many Christmas ornaments I make this year. I like that they are quick to make an uses some wood I have a lot of.

For a story idea using the above, he is a genetic chemist. he has the facilities to make any kind of life from the test tube. He has done a number of microbes in learning his craft and a couple multicellular macroscopic creatures. What he really wanted to do was to make a real creature, one he could hold in his hand, to interact with.
He is glancing through magazines, looking for ideas. elephants are too big, lions are too big and dangerous, even a cat is bigger than he cares to bother with. They also fall under "too complicated" to make.
He is flipping through a magazine, and sees a picture of a cartoon mouse. He smiles. that is perfect. He is going to make some mice. they don't have to be perfect. their life spans will be short and he can eliminate a number of things the natural mice might have. In essence, his will be cartoons of the real thing. It will be a good challenge and test of his abilities.
He decides they won't need claws. A lot of their survival genetics such as anything more than a simple immune system won't be needed. A lot of the genetic based survival traits are eliminated. Based on charts he has, he designs them for cute. He also eliminates any mating systems. If they are good, he can clone them to replicate them, or he can modify the clones for improvements.
He starts his process with a couple thousand copies. As the develop in the test tube, different errors in replication kill the samples. In the end, he ends up with eight mice.
comparing the genetics with recorded real mice, his are mice in form only. they are cute, love to be held and petted, and last for several months. he uses the genetics from the longest lasting one for his clones, which he modifies.
two possible endings. One is that he makes a mistake and one, the one that escapes, has mating system and mates with native mice, creating a new form that is not easy to remove.
the other is for him to start mass producing his mice as the ultimate pet. they are safe to have around children and easy to care for. they also have a limited life span that requires continuous production, which makes him wealthy beyond his dreams.

As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say,

YES, I DID WRITE

DID YOU WRITE?

Week 538 woodworking

year 10, Week 16, Day One (week 538) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 05-01-10 Saturday

85 degrees, nice wind, fast moving clouds, some broken clouds in the morning, solid clouds in the afternoon, filtered sun a bit later, a light haze between the clouds disappeared to show lots of blue sky. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I have a calendar hanging near me where I write down the weeks of the year I have been wood turning. I have a file that I update each week with the weeks since the anniversary that I started woodworking. they did not agree. I first thought I missed a week. No, last week's posts were on line. I checked the week number and the days and they came out right.
The calendar seamed right. I started from January 17th, and counted the weeks again. Ah! found it. On months where the month ends before the end of the week, it shows the days of the next month with calendars and pictures. I will put the week number there, then transfer it to the next week. I found one spot where I wrote the next week when I flipped the page, rather than repeating it. Luckily, a month later, I skipped a week with a date and that mistake corrected the first one.

During the week, I sanded and varnished the platters I made last weekend. I was not satisfied with the finish, but did not have time to start over. they were acceptable, but not good.

Friday:
I went to the Dania water gardens to show my latest work. When I got there, only the help was there. I walked around, took a whole bunch of pictures. My stuff is on display really nice.
I went to the antique shop an talked. I dropped off the beer stein, and took pictures of the display. It looks good.

Display of my work at the Dania Water gardens

I went back to the Water Gardens and that was when I found out that they had gone on a delivery and were stuck on the job. I will have to go back there next weekend. I decided to take the opportunity and refinish some of the platters because they can be better.

Saturday:
I started the morning with feeding and petting the cats. The beast of the back yard is really no longer a beast. he is so much like a cat it is uncanny.
He has a friend cat that appears to have adopted Mom. She gave him food a few times, and he showed he loved attention. She realized she could feel his bones, so she started feeding him. His hair is looking healthy and he is looking better. He won't stop you from picking him up, but he really does not like being held for long. He has scars all over his body and head, and has been in some recent fights. I think mom is going to call him Scar Face.
Beggar liked a lot of attention. At one point, when I was about done, he laid down between my feet, with the food dish next to him, and laid there, napping a little, for a good fifteen minutes before I had to get up.

The cat Mom is now calling Scar face


In a turning magazine I just got, they had a review of a book on making toys. One is of mice the guy made. I glanced at the pictures and realize that they would be easy to make and might make good Christmas ornaments. I took some two by something wood. I found the center of the wide dimension, and went up about a quarter of the way up on one side, and turned the stick between center on the marks. What this does, is give me a flat bottom and the rest of the body is round. When I go to the nose or the tail, I get past the flat spot and have a nice round shaped ending. I got four bodies out of the piece of wood I had. They are smaller than I wanted them to be, but will work.

Magazine Picture of Mice I based my mice on.


I later went to Joanne's crafts and fabrics, and got some foam material that should do well for the ears and tail. The book had used leather, and I was going to use felt. I could not find the felt. this foam stuff appears to be strong enough. I just have to cut it right to work. If I do the cut right, I can get ears and tails out of the same cut. I also got some black beads for eyes. they don't have buttons small enough.

I decided to try turning a platter. I have a double sided foam tape that is not good. I decided to use it anyway. for some reason, I chose to skimp on the tape, and use little bits of tape rather than long pieces like I normally do. I mounted the work, trued up the edge and the two faces, when a catch caused the piece to spin off the tape. It was between both face plates so the movement of the work was controlled until I got the lathe turned off. I decided to stop there.

I did a lot of sanding on two platters but have a lot more to do on them. the varnish I put on them keeps gumming up the sand paper. I almost have the two, down to the wood.

I packed up near noon since Mom's homeowner's association was having a picnic. Mom had already gone to help them set up. Once I got there, I caught up with mom, and then headed to the food. I over ate by a long shot. I got a print out of the different native trees in the area. There was all sorts of planting instructions and problems with using them. I have not finished it but it is really good.

I left there and went to Jo-Anne’s and Woodcrafts. I cannot find my good double sided tape. I figured that if I get a new one, the old one will show up fast. I had a discount coupon so that brought down the price some. Tomorrow I can now do some platter turning or work fixing with little effort. the double sided tape will help me hold the work on the lathe.

I then went to my brother's house because a nephew was in town. Again we ate. My brother was still working and not there.

I had a good day. I knew I was not going to get a lot of work done, but doing the mice was kind of a nice, easy project. I might have done more sanding, but all three of my batteries for my drill set, which my sander is part of, were low on power. I have some charging to do.

For tomorrow, I will likely mount two platters I have started and complete them. I will also do some sanding. If my brother happens to show up, we will see what is wrong with my face plate system.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 16, Day Two (week 538) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 05-02-10 Sunday


90 degrees, mostly clear, a very slight haze, small teased cotton puffs around the horizon all day long. Good breeze to make the temps perfect. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I cut some ears and tails for the mice I had made. I did one first, drilling straight in, then tipping the drill to spread the hole slightly. After the first mouse was finished, I showed it off. Mom liked it.

First mice I made.
My sister in law has this one.

I then got some mahogany and started making brown mice, rather than the yellow pine mice I made before. I got the idea to mark them while they were still on the lathe, and using an awl to mark where the holes will be drilled. Even with measuring, I got the face tipped to one side.
Now these mice are made where I center a rectangular piece of wood on the long side, but move the center toward one of the edges. This gives the mice a flat bottom, and as much width as possible.
For the mice that had the face out of center, I simply turned them till they were close to being right, and re-flattened the bottom on the disk sander. Not as good as if they were set there originally, but they are not bad.
with some care, I can make these mice a lot better, but these are not bad. The key is to make the mouse shape exactly right. A lot of variation is quite acceptable based on what I am looking at. The eye and ear placement does make a difference in how it looks, too.
I have to add eye hooks and these will be Christmas ornaments. I am doing one experiment right now. I sprayed one with varnish and I want to see how the foam for the ears and tails react to the varnish.

Other mice I made this weekend

I fed and petted the cats. both are acting so sweet and nice. One would never realize that one is really a beast. He is getting good at pretending to be a cat.

While we were at my brother's house for a family get together, he was at Mom's house adding a tow bar to his old truck. We did not know that though.
Today, he returned and did some welding and fitting, and got the tow bar mounted. he had gotten some magnetic trailer lights. he found out that they were wired wrong. the brake lights were on all the time. Rather than taking them back, he rewired them.
My truck towed his truck out of mom's driveway, positioning it so he could hitch up to it.
Later, I followed him home as he towed the truck. We found out that the front wheels turned as the truck was towed around corners. My plan was to see him pull into his neighborhood and I head on. part way there, he told me to follow him home. I had to steer the truck when he backed it up into the parking place.

I did not work on what I intended to work on, but had a lot of fun with the mice. Some care and planning, I can make them quickly and have them look great.
Friday, I need to go down to the Water gardens and see what has been going on, and show off my platters to them.
The weekend itself, I seam to remember something going on, but I don't remember what. I have no idea what I will be working on. it was suggested to make some frogs using this same system as the mice, but I have to plan them out, design them, to see how to go about it.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.