Week 519 Wood Working

year 9, Week 49, Day One (week 519)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-19-09 Saturday

62 degrees when I arrived, a high of 68 degrees, sunshine, high feathery clouds that did not effect the sun at all, and some low feathery clouds early that dimmed the sun a bit.
I was getting cool about ten so I sat out in the sun for a while and it sure felt good. After that, I was nice and warm all day long.
It is supposed to get down into the low 50s tonight.
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I started painting my Christmas cards this week. The pictures on half of them could pass as being finished. I knew I needed to make my cards as early as last month, but did not have a design in mind. I finally got a design and then delayed about two weeks. Now I am running late to get them done.
I am thinking of using the printer to do the lettering inside and on the back. Will have to see how that comes out in tests first.
I found that I can do the cards faster if I have five paints out at the same time and adding them to a card before I go to the next, but I found it is harder on me in the long run. It is a pain to put the colors back and close everything up just to rest, then open them all back up to work more. It is also messier.
If I work with one color at a time, and do all the cards with that one color, It is slower over all, but I can take breaks sooner. There are also less errors such as sticking the blue brush into the yellow paint.

The cat was in a good mood today, except when I was clueless as to how he wanted to be petted. He swatted my hand five times once, but did not use his claws, a big difference from how he was this time last year. Today, he was more into company than attention, and his attention was on his hind quarters. There were little pin scabs so he may have been fighting again. I ended up petting him about five sessions.

My first project for the day was to drag out the lathe. I mounted a stick of yellow pine into the lathe and made three owl blanks. Things went well. I did get some corner chipping on the wood, but was able to hide that in the finish product.
At about the time I finished the blanks, I decided I needed to get out in the sun. I dragged a chair out, my carving basket, my drink (mint green tea which had become ice tea by then) and my owl blanks. I sat and carved all three blanks. It is hard to believe that this is yellow pine. Either it is a softer piece of wood or my knife is sharper than I expected. The wood fell away nice.
The owls I am doing have professor Miters on top their heads. One had really bad chip out on the miter, so I used the disk sander to cut the edges back until the corners were sharp and the miter was square enough to convince a blind drunk.
I later used the dremmel to cut in the circles of the eyes, then the dimple in the middle of the eye for the pupal, and finally drew with a Stabillo around the eye. I painted the miter and gave them a coat of varnish. I have to sign the owls but they are essentially done. They went well.

I turned a finial for the sea urchin shells. I then needed a top piece, which is short. I had some fun problems getting things right. I used the wrong wood. I intended to use yellow pine, but instead used whitewood. They don't turn the same. What I did was have black walnut for the finials themselves and on the top, I made a whitewood collar around the big hole for the nob on top the ornament. If I had good execution, this would have been a great project. Instead, I miffed it a little, but it came out right.
Last week, I had filled the shells with expanding foam. I got some on the outside of the shells. That stuff is hard to clean off. It sticks just enough to make removing it a bother, especially since the shells are not smooth and has bumps all over them. It is not a slick shell either, so the foam sticks like it was glued on.

My brother showed up and we went to WOODCRAFTS today. I intended to bring some of my ornaments to show someone there, but I grabbed the wrong bag. My brother picked up a few items there. We also stopped at SEARS and my brother picked up some tools for work there.
While at Woodcrafts, I looked at a block of Basswood. I would love to carve another fairy, but this time, use the right wood. I got hold of some Tupelo and it was too soft for the type of carving I was doing. It tended to crush rather than cut. I thought about getting a good chunk of basswood to start over on that fairy.

I keep an ornament of each style I make each year. It has nearly overfilled a gallon recloseable bag. I added one of each kind of swan, and one of the owls with a miter. The owl that gave me the idea for the miter will also go in there. Those tend to be the very best of my ornaments.

For tomorrow, I am not exactly sure what I will work on. I will likely make some more ornaments. I have to gather my stuff together and into the truck. Next week, we will be gathering at my brother's house for Christmas eve and Christmas day, so I will want to have my carving stuff with me so I have something to do while I am there. I have to bring it with me tomorrow so I can be sure I have it.
Starting next weekend, I need to begin my preparation for the March art show. This includes cleaning up pieces and getting the finishes better on them. I have several pieces I want to finish making, and a few I want to make. If I start now, I MIGHT get them done on time.

I will have to see what I do tomorrow.


year 9, Week 49, Day Two (week 519)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-20-09 Sunday

59 degrees at four in the morning, 56 at about seven, 62 degrees by about ten. I never noticed a breeze but there might have been. The clouds started out a few puffs high up, sunshine blue skies. Then a pebbled shield of high clouds slowly passed from the west and effectively blocked the sunshine. Temps stayed the same but the sun was not able to smile on us. It is scheduled to be cold, 46 degrees tonight. Have to watch for ice on the roads in the morning since it is below the 56 degree frost temperatures we have in subtropical florida.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of tourism.

I stopped by WOODCRAFTS to find out when they opened on Sunday. I was there around ten and they opened at noon. I was not going to wait around.
I drove on and decided I would stop at LOWES hardware.
The past week or so, the two tendons on the back of my knee had bothered me a little. I had not known why. I walked into the store and suddenly felt a CLICK in my knee. The discomfort in the tendons now made sense. I walked a few isles until I happened to go by the hooks and hinges isles. I first looked at hooks, but they were all too big for my ornaments. I then noticed hinges. Ah, that was something I needed. I had to look around a bit since most hinges were for doors, but I finally found the small hinges. I was about to take a brass hinge, then saw a cheaper one in steel. I looked carefully at the small hinges, and decided to go with two packets of their smallest hinges.
I stopped and picked up a knee wrap at the dollar store next and put that on my leg when I got to Mom's house. I quickly found it to be solving my knee problem, at least temporarily.

My first project was to put those hinges into use. Yesterday, when I was packing up, I noticed the hinge of my dremmel box was breaking. This is the original box the dremmel came in. the entire thing is formed in one piece or the interior welded to the exterior. The hinge was just a thinning of the plastic the entire length of the box.
The plastic started tearing. I screwed in all four hinges into the box. Right after I opened the box with all the hinges in place, the final bit of the plastic hinge gave way, likely partly because of the different swing of the new hinges.
I have to loosen the screws, align the hinges slightly, and will solve a stiffness because the hinges are not quite in line with the swing of the box. A couple are slightly tipped.

My brother arrived and after Lunch, We went back to LOWES and also SEARS looking for some parts. There are new nuts out called SPLINE nuts. They have a new tool to remove them. They are designed to be removed only by the special tools. My brother is messing with a set of spline nuts put on with a hex driver and with impact wrench. Until he showed it to me, I would never even known there was such a thing.
He also had a puller and needed a bolt that goes into the center. he found a bolt with the right thread, but he has to thread the bolt to the head, and he wanted the bolt to be a bit longer, but they did not have anything longer than what he found.
My knee was doing well with the wrap on it.

We made a run to one of my brother's job where he needed to do a two minute thing to get the system up and running, pushing in a reset button. I never bothered to get out of the car.

Back home, we sat outside and I carved at two of my swan ornaments. I pried too hard on one, removing a chunk of wood and heard a crack. The neck is still attached but should be glued.
I then carved a bit on the second one and decided to give up. About that time, the sun was behind the high clouds and it was not as warm as it was. I packed up and my brother went inside. I have my carving basket in the car and some fittings for my lathe. As I type this, I realized I left the shaft of my cutting tool at Mom's house. I will have to work with the fittings I already have if we do metal working next weekend, to get things right.

I petted the cat several times today, but a couple times, things my brother was up to, caused the cat to run. I thought about how he had changed since I started taming him. Even when we were able to pet him some, one never had a hand in front of his face, nor would you reach under a chair if he was there. I was doing both and he let me pet him.

I have all my Christmas cards painted to a given level. I have some more colors to add, and some piddly things I have to do to make it right, along with lettering the cards. If I can get the setup in the printer, I will use the printer for some things that need to be lettered.

For next weekend, Christmas comes Friday. I will head over to my brother's house around ten, and sit outside and carve or work with metal projects until dinner time. I will likely work outside until near dark.
Saturday and Sunday will be more like normal woodworking days.
We have a tradition to gather Christmas Eve and open our presents. That way the kids could play with their toys from the moment they woke Christmas Morning. It just dawned on me that I have to have every thing packed so I can gather my stuff when I get home from work on Thursday and dash over to my brother's house.

My woodworking plan for next weekend, is to start the process of getting ready for an art show I do in March. I need to finish projects I have started, start projects I want to include then, and to re-finish pieces I have already made so they are up to my newer standards of finish.

I will see what I actually do next week.