81 degrees, good breeze, thick dark clouds. Tornado warning over the entire south florida area. A saw toothed line of red and yellow to the north of us on the radar at about five, gone by eight. Big bad blob on radar at about eight, light drizzles and light green on radar for our area at around two.
The weather turned out to be rather nice considering the dark clouds over head. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
During the week, I finished the face vase. I had soaked the inside with wipe-on varnish and it soaked in. I did that three times before it dawned on me that it would make all the wood dark. I had to seal the wood so the varnish would build up inside. I dribbled white glue inside and used a brush to spread it over all the surfaces so the entire interior was coated. I then took a wet paper towel and wiped the inside of the excess. I did not want the glue to be the actual surface, more like sealing the wood so the varnish would build up. After that dried, I did about ten to fifteen coats of spray varnish plus some more liquid varnish to get the interior well coated. It looks ok. I should have sanded it a whole lot more, though.
The outside got a lot more coatings while I was at it. The faces developed a wonderful glow. The high area around the lip needed more work but I got that nice and shiny.
Norfolk goes dark when it is soaked, whether it be oil, varnish, or mineral spirits. The soaking of varnish on the interior caused the thin areas of the wood to go dark, and the thickest areas to stay light. It did not soak as deeply. I ended up getting the surface I was looking fore. The faces look rather strange and interesting. The knots of the eyes are a deep red which adds to the effect.
I also worked on the swans during the week. I added eye hooks to all but four, I ran out of what I had on hand and was unwilling to dig through a pile of boxes to get to the box that had the eye hooks. I also used a pen to add the eyes and to give them black beaks. They look good except that some beaks are just too thick. I decided I should take them with me on Saturday and fix them up. I forgot them.
I went to the Antique shop Friday. I dropped off the face vase. It is now part of my collection there. He liked it.
Since I won't see him until after the new years, I brought my Christmas ornaments and he took a candy cane and a snow man. I got a piece of jewelry. This is cheep stuff that I think he sells for tem bucks. It has some pretty colored glass stones in it.
I started painting on my hobby horse. I don’t really like what I have and have to correct it. How easy I imagined it was to paint, and the results I actually got, are not quite the same. I have corrections to do on it now on my paint job. Most likely spray it brown again, then start over. I showed it to the Antique shop and he said that if it was unpainted, it might sell. Have to think about that.
I stopped at the shell shop and got some more Sea Urchin shells. I had purchased three before, and broke one while making it, another had something heavy sit on it. I checked this morning and found the third broken. I will get some insulation foam and fill them to give them strength. Then I will make a whole bunch of finials to make some great Christmas ornaments.
My friend at work did some checking and found that the rocket car I was making was way too small for the rocket engines they were using. She got me some parts and pieces and told me to build a bigger car. I had an idea on how to build it.
Today I spend the day on the car. I am doing something I never have done before and am quickly seeing problems with my design. I may have to go to "Plan Q" tomorrow. I have several design criteria to go by and they don't go along too well with my present skills of building things. Time is also a problem so I don't have a lot of room to change things. My tools are not the best for the job either as I have not had time to really set up for this.
One problem I ran into was that a week or so ago, I hit a screw in a piece of wood. I just found out that my bandsaw blade is now dull. It takes twice as long to cut through a piece of wood and I burns the wood.
I made headway. The hardest part is drilling for the wheels and I chose to hold off on that and build the car first. I will drill for the axles when my brother is there to help me.
WE visited a couple yard sales this morning. I got a good haul. I got a battery and charger for my Makida circular saw. They work. I have an off brand battery powered drill where the batteries work in the charger if put in backwards. that was really what I was thinking of when I got these.
I got a pair of pocket knives. These are high quality and can be used for carving. One is really small with three blades. I would not use that for carving. The larger one has two opposing blades. It has firm stops when opened. It looks like it is very good wood. I might sharpen it for carving, not that I really need it. I have one of Dad's pocket carving knives in the truck and one here at home and don't really use either one.
I also got, with the knives, a dremmel chuck that works perfectly.
Usually, when you get a dremmel, you get a set of collets with progressively larger holes. when you go from a fine shank bit like a micro drill, to a wide shank bit, you have to pull the collet out and put in a different one. A royal pain. The chuck works like a drill chuck, allowing you to hold bits from really tiny to great big (for a dremmel anyway) Those are not all that cheep. They essentially threw that in for the price of the knives.
I did not get as much done as I hoped today, but did get some work done and won't complain about that. I hope to get more done tomorrow, finish the car and possibly test it. while I am waiting for glue to dry, I will fix the beaks of my swans, which are a bit blocky, and they will be ready for Monday when I take my ornaments to work and show them off.
The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow so I should be able to use all my time properly.
I will see what actually happens tomorrow.
year 9, Week 47, Day Two (week 517) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-06-09 Sunday
75 degrees, light breeze. It was 56 degrees this morning, but by the time I got going, It was at least 60 degrees. It was around seventy when I got out to work on the wood projects.
This was what is known in Seattle as a sunny day. Unbroken clouds, threatening deep grey ones with bright clouds in between, but no rain, other than feeling a drip here or there. To think I left Seattle because of this kind of weather.
This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
My main project for the day was to get the rocket car built. I quickly found I was running into a design problem and was not sure how to solve it. When my brother came, we discussed it and decided to go with what I had. He gave me a hand at several places in the construction. Of course there were a few places where I ran into problems. I had designed it with a fin and I broke it.
This is known as ROGERING a project.We got the wheels on and gave it a roll. It has a slight left turn to it. I was about to leave and came up with a solution, but did not have the time to do it. This was a project that I did not have the time, knowledge and tools to get it right. my next one might be better, but that might be in question too. I do know my mistakes but it is the best I could do in the time I have. Give me two more weeks and I would have something better.
I fixed the beaks on my swans. I carved off some of the wood on the beaks, giving them shape. I painted the raw wood white and touched up some bare spots on the bodies while I had the paint out. I touched up the beaks with black so they look right. I might do a little more correction when I get them to work tomorrow but they are basically done.
The cat decided he did not want his head touched. He normally loves his head rubbed, so he had to get me to understand that. I am slow to train. He loved his rear rubbed and scratched and he got lots of that. Of course, one thing he wanted to was sit and relax, but I had a project to do so I could no spend the time and just sit.
I am taking my ornaments to work tomorrow. I do this every year. I used to sell a lot but considering the economy, I am more placing them on display. If I sell anything this year, I will be shocked. One has to come up with something that people like, when they have the money. Any money I get will be "wood money" which is used for tools and supplies.
A couple weeks ago, I had cut into a screw that was in a piece of wood. That dulled the band saw. Today, I hit one again. The saw was burning the wood as it gummed its way through the wood. I remember hearing about where, if you take a brand new hand saw, you run a stone across the sides of the teeth to get it ready to cut. I decided to try that on the band saw to make it cut better. Not a thing to do. The stone removed all the set of the teeth. The set is where some teeth are bent slightly to the left and right, so that they widen the cut slightly, making the sawdust come out easier and keep the blade from binding.
Well, my correction made the blade almost useless. It sill cut but was slow and you could see smoke coming out the bottom of the wood.
My brother arrived and said that we need to get bandsaw blades. We went to Woodcrafts. He needed some other items and they would have them. We wanted a 3/8 blade. They only had 1/4 and 1/5 inch blades. We ended up getting one of each.
My brother put the blade in and adjusted the saw so it cut better. It needs work but it is closer than what it was.
I did some cutting with the new blade and it was as if the wood was disappearing from ahead of the blade. That was great. Let us see how many screws we end up cutting now.
The day went pretty good. It would have been nice to have at least one more day to solve the problems on the car. I don't have extra time, It has to be delivered tomorrow.
Next week, I have other projects to work on, fun stuff. I have a bunch of sea urchin shells I want to make ornaments out of. I need to make some finials. I have some wood to use up.
I will see what I actually do next week.
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