Year 13, Week 48, Day One (week 693)

Year 13, Week 48, Day One (week 693)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-09-16 Saturday

66 degrees early morning, 80 degrees late afternoon, Indian fog reported in the area (Apache fog) I saw a little mist in my early morning drive, and some low hanging, tree high clouds but nothing else early morning. Scattered clouds of various densities during the day, with sun peaking out often. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

We figured there would finally be some yard sales today. We were past the holiday season so we went out hunting. We decided not to do a full yard sale hunt, just go through half of two sections, taking a shortcut between them. 
In the first area, there was nothing, but when we got into the Deerfield / Light House Point area, we did find some yard sales. I was really good at first. I would look at what the people have, see some things of interest and force myself to walk away. There was nothing I could not live without.  A couple times, there was some things I knew someone might like, but I decided they did not have any more shelf space to display them...... I am being nice to them this time...
I then found a sale where I picked up a couple figurines. I have a friend that likes frogs and got a pair of them.  There was a kitty and a set of Pentair drafting pencils (ultra fine leads with the lead holder-pencils). 
At the last yard sale we went to, there were several families selling together. I saw something I sort of wanted for a long time. I had toyed with the thought of making one. I do crochet as one of my hobbies. I have toyed with the idea of making my own yarn. I have made, but not used some drop spindles for making yarn. My main problem is “carding” the yarn, a process of making the fibers parallel. I kind of wanted to make a spinning wheel but never quite understood how they worked so making one was out of the question unless it was simply for display. At this yard sale was a spinning wheel sitting there,  I walked past the spinning wheel several times. I was told that it belonged to his great grandmother’s sister, Great Grand Aunt. I knew for a fact that it was something that I would be kicking myself for if I did not come home with it, and I would be kicking myself if I did come home with it. I walked by it a bunch of times. The wife said he might go down a little. He said something about “I will go down a lot.” And “I don’t want to take it home.”  
I had no choice.. No choice in the matter at all. 
We rested when we got home, then I went outside to photograph my finds, and look over the spinning wheel. I pulled up on my tablet a search on spinning wheels. Pictures showed that what I thought was to go into one hole in the base, was actually the treadle. I then did a closer search on it. 
This is a Saxony style spinning wheel. One model I saw in pictures that looked like this one said they were made from the late 1800s to 1900. That could well be when this was made based on the age of the guy who sold it. 
More searches showed how they actually worked. I then examined the working parts and found that the spool assembly was worn out. Unusable. I have the problem of not fully understanding exactly how this works and is assembled. I can make anything if I put my mind and time to it but I do have to know how it works first. I saw in a search I could get a set of four spools and the working mechanism for twice what I paid for this wheel.  I doubt I would get into spinning my own yarn, but it would be nice to have it working. It might be worth the price to get the parts.  Of course, I likely could find the right parts on line at a less price if I searched.
There is a U shaped piece with hooks on it that wraps the newly made yarn onto the spool inside it. (I wondered how Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and it must be the hooks that caught her finger) It is on a shaft that also has a pulley that the big wheel spins. It is all stripped out and I cannot figure out exactly how it was arranged. I assume that the spool on the inside does not spin so the yarn builds up on it. The pulley and the U thing spins and the yarn feeds through the center of the shaft and onto the U device. There is a square section of the forged shaft on the end that has the hole for the line to feed into, and the other end has an extremely worn thread of a size that fits nothing in real life. I need to see a working unit to understand how it is supposed to work. 
This spinning wheel shows signs of repairs over the year. The wheel has loosened up and there are now gaps in the sections. That can be fixed easily.
I took a wire and temporarily  hooked up the treadle and was able to spin the wheel. The pictures show they used a wooden arm, which I can make no problem. I give thanks to all who posted the pictures and articles I examined. There was even a video on how to thread the machine for use. I looked for any “reporting marks” and saw nothing. This was a nicely made unit. Several parts need to be tightened up a little bit but could be used without that. 

If I never replaced the spindle unit, it would still be a fantastic  display piece. Boy does that look good. I figure eventually I will get the replacement parts so it can be used. There is a hole in the base for something else but I need to search the web for what is missing. I have seen something on some spinning wheels that I have not learned what it is. I will have to do more research over time. It would be nice to have it working again.
At the moment I am “storing” it at mom’s. She sort of wanted it and she found a nice place for it to sit on display for the moment. It will come home to me when she decides she needs the room. 

The study of the spinning wheel took up enough time that wood working was out of the question. 


I will have to see what happens tomorrow.


Year 13, Week 48, Day Two (week 693)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-10-16 Sunday

78 degrees, high, low and middle height lightly colored clouds in the morning, a black boil of a front came through, then high platelets and feathers. We are expected to get into the 50s tonight. Later in the week they are forecasting temps near our 56 degree frost temperatures. I cannot wait until winter is over. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

The way the approaching clouds looked said that wood working was unlikely. Radar showed it would wet weather for a couple hours.  The stuff on the radar images passed through about the time Mom served lunch. Since it was leftovers, she had it ready soon after I arrived. Good meal. The showers split and fizzled before it got here so the plants just got a taste before it was past. 
I did not get enough sleep last night so after lunch, I decided to go home rather than work on anything. I feel guilty about not making use of the opportunity, but I need to take care of myself. I also figured that if I was home, something there might actually have a chance of getting done. 
I did rearrange some of the stuff in my truck earlier so I did accomplish something today.

I heard rumors that Mom may have plans for me for next weekend. I will have to see if I actually accomplish anything.

My Christmas cards over the years

The spinning wheel  

Another view

The view that shows the working mechanism between the two uprights that need to be replaced.

figurines I picked up

 fine lead drafting pencils and leads.

Year 13, Week 47, Day One (week 692)

Year 13, Week 47, Day One (week 692)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-02-16 Saturday

A frigid 76 degrees early morning, a sweltering 78 degrees in the afternoon, a nice calm breeze, sunny blue sky in the morning with only a few tips of towers to the North East over the Ocean, puffs arrived and started crowding in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Figuring it was a beautiful day, there might be some yard sales out. We went out and drove part way through one of our rabbit runs and saw nothing. We came home and killed some time. 

I went outside with the idea of many projects. We got a piece of yellow pine that was less than a foot long and had straight grain running through it. The rings went on an angle through the section of it.  I had looked at this piece for almost a month. I knew it would be something but was not sure what.
I split the wood in half, parallel to the rings. I then used my knife to knock off all the corners of both pieces  before I mounted it on the lathe. I decided to use a cup center on the tail stock. I used my knife to shave the ends so they would fit into the cup. I figured this would make centering easier I put the big end into the hole of the fully closed chuck, which was just about small enough to hold them in place. It was strictly friction holding the sticks between center.
I rough turned both pieces round first, then reduced each to the size I was after, and made a few more adjustments to get the to the shape I was after. Because the ends were in the cups, I could not reach them with the lathe tools. I used the sanding disk to clean them up. I made a mistake on sanding one striking end, and had to shape the other stick’s end to match. Matching was more important than being right.
I finished and put everything away, before I wiped varnish on both sticks and set them in the sun to dry. I went in to take a long break. I figured that I can always pull the equipment back out if I decide to do another project in the afternoon. Even if I did not work outside again, I was satisfied that I accomplished something. Also I figured that if I did not go out to work, everything was already put away.
The drum sticks were a quick and available project to try, since I was staring at that piece of wood for several weeks. I have some ornaments I want to turn. I hoped to start on them in the afternoon.

Before lunch, Mom decided we should go to the Festival Flea Market. This is a mall with stores along the back wall, split by the food court, and in the main mall area, are hundreds of small booths selling all sorts of wares. 
My favorite stores are the DOLLAR AND UP store, with two locations. One is near the middle as a store on the back side. The other is a gigantic booth closer to one end. These are not actual dollar stores, but have a fantastic choice of items at a very good price. (Think real yard sale prices) Mom and I walked both Dollar and Up stores, going down every isle. I did the booth location twice. All three times I ended up finding great stuff to buy. There was only two things I was really after and found them. The rest was pure opportunity or desire. A few booths away was a watch repair booth my mom likes, and I ended up getting a new watch band. That stop was between the two passes through the Dollar and Up booth.
We stopped at the farmer’s market they have there, I did a quick walk through before sitting down and resting, something I should have done after the first time through the Dollar and Up booth.  It has been a while since I made noodles and I am beginning to forget how much work it was. The farmer’s market had some bean noodles and they looked interesting. Just an idea....
The walk back to the car was really tough. Even pushing a cart to take the weight off my legs did not help much. 

Back at mom’s house, I napped for a while, before I decided to load some books and apps on a tablet I got for Christmas. I went out to feed the cat and was listening to a radio station. Momma kitty kept getting spooked and decided only to eat a few mouth-fulls before dashing off. I had even turned it to almost nothing and she still did not like it.  
I was wore out from walking that I was not in the mood to do any more work out back, especially at the lathe. My ornament idea has to wait.

I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I have plenty of projects, but have to see what crops up.

Yellow pine drum sticks. I would never give them to a professional as they would likely not last long.  I gave them to a amateur wanna be.they should last her a lifetime.




Year 13, Week 47, Day two (week 692)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-03-16 Sunday
76 in the morning, 80 in the afternoon. Some areas of the sky was blue, filled with feathers and splashes, but the rest of the sky was filled with grey puffs and large blobs. A light, almost unnoticeable, breeze made it nice. It is supposed to get below 60 sometime this week. I doubt it will get down to our 56 degree frost temperature. It will just be a warning.  This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

It took me an hour just to get my body moving properly this morning. I definitely over-did it yesterday. I was moving all right when I left the house but I was not walking anything close to normal. 

I got to Mom’s house, and my brother was there. We ended up talking and comparing web sites on my tablet to his phone. I showed him some books on the http://www.gutenberg.org/ site that he would be interested in.  
My body was not in the mood of standing in front of the lathe or doing any other kind of standing. That eliminated the main project I had in mind for the day which was to explore a design of Christmas ornaments.. 

I left soon after lunch. 

I hope to be more productive next weekend. I have more than a couple projects in mind.

Year 13, Week 46, Day One (week 691)

Year 13, Week 46, Day One (week 691)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-26-15 Saturday

Fast moving clouds, dry, strong wind with gusts tugged at hats, 79 in the morning, 84 in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

During the Week.

I finished lettering all my cards on Wednesday. Some I gave out on Monday and was adding interior stuff as I was giving them out. I somehow misplaced about ten cards. Either I gave them to people I’ve forgotten or I lost them. I have no idea which. I did keep two cards for my collection, where I have a copy of most of the cards I have made to date. 



My Christmas cards for this year. This is only part of what I had made.

We gather on Christmas Eve and open presents so the kids have all Christmas morning to play with their toys. If the parents have to go to visit someone else, they can go on Christmas day but the kids already have toys to play with. 
I did not think I had enough presents to give everybody so the day before, I stopped at the dollar store and got some items. Since the kids were teens, I started the practice of giving money as the gift, but adding something inexpensive for them open as presents. Many times, the small items turned out to be great gifts for them. I’ve continued it since they became adults
After the presents were open, an In-law with her kids arrived. I had brought a few extra things because I was thinking I missed someone or did not pack something in the gifts. Early this year, I was given, by mom, some craft stuff that included some stuffed animals. Sorting through them after I got the beany babies a couple weeks ago, I chose to give the ones I did not want to keep. I had just a few left on Christmas Eve. I let her kids choose their stuffed animal and gave her a dish cloth I had made. What really made Christmas for me was her littlest one, two or three years old, was walking around all evening long clutching a panda bear he picked out. For me, that was the best thing that happened that night. 

SATURDAY

We knew there would be few, if any, yard sales, so we did not even try to look for them. We instead went to the stores. I got good exercise at Walmart, basically going around the perimeter. I dodged some desperate yarn in the craft craft. I don’t think they were quite awake yet as it was morning and their timing was off. I ignored the pleading of some ornamentation that could go onto my carvings. I did rescue a couple pieces of white felt, that I have ideas for. I picked up a few items along the way as I circled the store. My biggest complaint is that none of the stores carried pumpkin-spice coffee that one can brew this year. I have seen K cups and Tea, but coffee, no. I did find some pumpkin-spice instant coffee mix and am using it like a creamer, using just enough to get the pumpkin spice flavor (I usually don’t use creamer because I am not a barbarian......).

Later in the day, I went to the dollar store and found some of the same things that I purchased at Walmart, but for a dollar rather than six. I got more anyway even though I don’t need it. I love the dollar store because it is like yard sailing, but with new stuff. I also got some craft ideas for later....

I went out back and set up the table, dremmel and carving basket. I dug through some bags I had and sorted them. Someone asked me a few months ago to make a cross for him. A tiny one for a necklace. I selected a piece split from Sea Grape that I had, that was about the right size. I thinned, squared and straightened it with knife and sanding disk. I then drew out the dimensions and used the dremmel to cut it. I had to do some hand sanding to clean it up. I did not like the looks of it. It was not straight and square.  I knew I could do better.  I dipped it in some old varnish and it took all day to dry The varnish needs to be thinned a little. I prefer wipe-on poly, but this was Spar varnish. It was at hand at the moment.
I took a chunk of sea grape that was about three inches long and about an inch and a half wide and thick. It had some bark on it. I first split off the bark using an hatchet and hammer. I then split off a second piece. I see I can get more out of that piece but each one will be less wide which might not be a problem. Splitting it parallel to the bark allowed the pieces to be fairly even in thickness. 
I took both pieces to the disk sander and started by sanding off the bark, getting that side flat, then flattening the split side. I sanded both sides of the other piece, and squared both pieces. Satisfied, I sat down and measured out the size of the crosses. I made the “boards” about the same thickness as the wood was.
Using a cutting blade in the dremmel, I cut the excess wood off, leaving the line and a little bit more.  Errors in technique basically made the width about right. After lots of sanding and cleaning, I got the crosses where I wanted them. 
I had found that a brad (a tiny nail) made for a good drill bit for eye-hook starting holes and I drilled the tops of the crosses and then added the eye hooks. I liked the shape of the second two a lot better than the first one (Editorial note, my friend took the first cross I made. I think because it was smaller).

Several weeks ago, I had picked up a package that contained  set of four metal crochet-hooks. I decided I needed a handle on them to make them easier to use and less likely to get lost. I had a rod of oak I had made either for a crochet hook or for a handle, I forgot which. As a crochet hook, it would need a handle and would be a very big crochet hook. 
I measured half way on the rod, which did not match any number I had on my rulers, and then cut that, then measured each piece in half and cut them (there ended up some difference in lengths not noticeable unless you compare them). I tried a succession of drill bits but after drilling the tiniest drill bit, the next size kept wandering. I used my brad, which was a little bigger than my smallest drill bit and that got me to where my larger bits would work. The final hole was slightly bigger than the crochet hooks, but I used a lot of glue to fill the gap. 

Several weeks ago, I had turned some snowman bodies and then put dowels into them as arms. Since I had the dremmel out and plugged in, I put a flap sanding disk on the dremmel and did a little bit of cleanup. I really should have done that on the lathe, but if I remember right, I was at the edge of my endurance for that day. I did some correcting on parts of the surface, but there was places that the sander could not get to. I will have to do some hand sanding. I do plan to carve these so some of the corrections can be done with the knife.

I have hopes for tomorrow, but will see who has what planned.



crochet hook handles and crosses I made. 


Year 13, Week 46, Day Two (week 691)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-27-15 Sunday

85 degrees, lighter winds than yesterday, a few dots of showers but they were gone before they were really noticed and none during the time at Mom’s house. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

A couple weeks ago, I got some plastic tool / fishing boxes. I had considered giving them as presents, but that did not happen. My truck has storage beneath the back seat. My metal tool box would not fit. It was too tall. Out of curiosity, I checked and found the plastic tool boxes did fit beneath the seat. That is fantastic. I transferred my tools to them. One box is double walled so it does not hold as much as it looks like it should. The contents of the big box filled both small boxes. I had to leave the trays out. The metal box went into my shed. I might find a use for it later. Getting those tools out of the way was great. 

My brother and nephew came up. Before lunch, I did some more sorting of bags while we were talking.  After lunch, we were catching up on old times. I did go out and put everything away, then a while later, called it a day as I had stuff to do at home while they were still talking.

I do not know if there will be any yard sales next week. I have several ideas of projects as to what to work on. Some of it will depend on the weather. This has been a fairly wet year this year and that has made working outside a bit tough. This is our traditional  dry period and we have not had very much dry weather. Usually they are already talking about water conservation by this time of the year. 
I have ideas for Christmas ornaments that I was supposed to have made this year. I think I might make them for next year and if I come up with more near the end of the year, all right. I have three designs in mind already. Will see if there are more that show up. It is nice to get back into working wood, even it if is little things. 

I will see what I do next weekend.