Week 515 wood working.

year 9, Week 45, Day One (week 515)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-21-09 Saturday

85 degrees, Little breeze in the morning, picked up some as the day wore on. Blue sky overhead in the morning, with feathers and streaks high up to the north, puffs appeared in the afternoon.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

The turning club meeting was this week. I found it really good. There was more I learned than I remembered.
In one of the magazines, a guy attached a temporary plate with series of holes in it to the lathe. This became his method of indexing his lathe for doing spaced work around the piece, such as adding fluting. that was an obvious solution.
The demonstration was on making bowls. He used a screw chuck, where the chuck has a screw on it. You drill a hole a tiny bit smaller than the thread and then screw the piece on. It is a good way to hold a piece on the lathe. I had done that with screw mounts I made. One thing he did was to add a plywood spacer on it so it would be easier to remove once he was done with that step. a lot I noted in my mind and have forgotten.
One really good thing is that you see those bent wires used as calipers. I found out how to use them properly. One puts a measured gap on it. Then you put one end inside your work and then you measure the distance between the outside and the other end of the wire. I was doing it all wrong. I set it to what I thought the distance was supposed to be and then seen if there was a gap or not.
I showed off my face vase. It got a lot of looks. I told the carving club leader that a friend could sell it for a hundred bucks easily. She winced. I then asked her how much I should sell it for. She told me to start at three hundred dollars.
I remembered I left my camera at home when I was half way to the club. It turned out that the photographer did not show up either so there are no pictures this month. Darn. I was hoping for a picture to show my weight loss.

Mom decided to have another yard sales today. I helped her set up and pack up. She did not do too well. She took a bunch of stuff that won't sell, to the Salvation Army so she does not have to deal with that stuff any more. She still has a lot of stuff to get rid of but that was stuff she no longer needed.

That creature of temper we have been taming over the past two years, actually acted almost like a cat today. He was in a good mood. I was watching his moves carefully and would stop doing something when he tensed up. That made aq bit difference in his moods. I petted him about five times during the day. He liked the attention and usually left after I stopped petting him.

I started the day by finishing up the hobby horse. I finished drilling the holes. I tried my battery powered drill and the batteries were all dead. I charged one. I had to use a slightly bigger forsner bit to drill the holes. I used dowels we had for the handles and the stick. I had to shim them to make them fit. I likely should have gone with slightly smaller drill hole and then make the handles fit.
Mom suggested to add a ball for the end of the shaft so it won't do quite as much damage to the floors. I dug out some cedar and prepped it for turning, then realized it would be way too soft. Instead, I took a cut-off from the horse head that I kept and turned that. I then drilled it and was satisfied with the results, other than having to shim the hole too.

I looked at that block of Cedar and decided it begged to become apples. I put the wood on the lathe, turned a tenon on the end for the chuck to hang on to. I then turned it around and started on the apples themselves. I was getting two apples out of it.
I had the first one mostly formed, when I took a long strip of emery cloth and was sanding it. The chuck caught the edge of the dangling tail and jerked on the sandpaper. The paper tore in half a distance from my hands.
I turned off the lathe and then noticed some blood on my finger. The sandpaper whipped around and sliced into the end of my finger. I washed it good and then put a bandaid on it. It bled well but does not hurt as the cut is on the side just past the finger tip. Being a sandpaper cut, it is a tiny bit rough.
I should have known better than to leave the tails dangling like that, but I was not thinking of safety. This is likely the kind of thing that will bite me a few more times.
With bandaids on the finger, I got back to work, finishing the sanding of the first apple, cut it off then made the second apple.
With these apples, I have not shaped the bottoms. I likely will do that with the dremmel, rather than on the lathe. They have some BOO BOOs on them that will have to be sanded out.

I have a vase I intend to carve. I had designed out what I wanted to do, but a fear of mistakes kept me from digging in. I finally started on the carving. At the base there is big areas between the stems. I cut them back a little bit since I want all the background to be set in deep. I also took the dremmel and strip sander and fixed the bottom inside. I used poor turning skills when I got to the bottom. I left a nob in the center and a rise around a donut. I removed the rise and the nob so it is now even. It is now useable.
I will be doing more carving now that I have started. I may stop and paint the leaves in so I can get them the way I want them. My first intent is to set back the spaces between the leaves and petals. The flowers will likely be shaped and carved first as they are the key to the design. The center of the flowers are the knots in the Norfolk Island Pine.
Previously, I had turned the base into a flower pot. While working with the bottom, I found out that most of the pot is solid wood. I did not go as deep as I thought I did . That will be all right. it will be counter weight against tipping over.
When I carve the vines and leaves, they will rise and fall as they wind up the vase. They will likely look really good with the background set well back. One thing I want to do is to "ebonize" the background. To do so, one puts steel wool in vinegar and the iron turns black and stains wood black. This is something I had wanted to explore with.

After I packed up, we went to the county fair. Their past site was horrible. This site, in an outdoor mall, is rather poor too. No midway and no rides. Next week they will have animal judging. My mom teaches art and I know something about art. We were looking at works by school children. they had artists outside. One guy's paintings were not spectacular. I mentioned these works were better than the guy's outside. One of the people there really got a big kick out of that.
When two artists are discussing the works, it really makes a big difference in the appreciation of the work. Some of that work was spectacular. I was impressed.

Tomorrow, I need to make a bunch of swan blanks and if my lathe and I are willing to talk to each other, I will also make some owl blanks. Since Thanksgiving is next week, I need to make sure I have my blanks and my carving basket with me when I leave so I will have that stuff when I go to my brother's house for our big meal. The house is usually dark and full of people. There is no place to sit. I found it best to sit outside and carve, work metal, or simply talk. I want to be ready to do that and I need to have the stuff in the truck tomorrow when I leave.

I will see what all I do tomorrow.


year 9, Week 45, Day Two (week 515)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-22-09 Sunday

85 degrees, blue sky with high wispy streaks in the morning, solid high feathers in afternoon with some low puffs. Light breeze to make things comfortable. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

When I arrived, Mom was set up for me to string lights under the eaves at the point of the roof over the garage. My psychiatrist says I am unbalanced, so I try not to do anything that requires balance. I got up n the ladder and did th work. It was not a problem except when I was going up or down. Then I could see what my psychiatrist was talking about....

Beggar acted like a cat again today. Mom had fed him in the morning so when I got there, he was more interested in attention than food, though the food was there for him to nibble on.

My project for the day was to get ready for next week, since I would be at my brother's house for Thanksgiving. I spent the time to make eight blanks of the swans looking up, and five swans lo0oking down. This design I am using is better than what I started with. It makes my carving easier. I had designed my looking up swans yesterday and used one of them to design the looking down swan. The number I made simply depended on how much of the wood I had available.
the body and wings were the same, but because the neck looking down swan is back farther, There is a line of the saw between the neck and the wings, rather than a space I had on the looking up swans. I think these will look good. I don't know how many I will have done for next week when I take my pieces to work to show off. considering the market, the chances of selling something is slim, but will try.
At my price, I would be lucky to get a dollar an hor for each piece, but when you consider that the wood is cheep and the labor is free, I would say it is a good deal. It is money.

I showed off the hobby horse. I will be finishing it, Rather than having my brother finish it. I also found out the color it will be painted. That was one question I had. It will be brown, with white on the muzzle. What I will do is, after it gets a good sanding, I will paint it white so it is well covered, then paint on the brown.

After the ornaments were roughed out, I packed up my stuff. My brother and I sat and talked Model Railroading.

Next week is Thanksgiving. I will carve during that day. I will decide whether to go to Mom's house Friday, and will be there both days for Saturday and Sunday.
I have a lot of projects to work on but the ornaments get priority right now.

Will see what I actually do next weekend.