78 degrees. fairly clear skies at dawn, some heavy cloud cover mid morning, then blue skies with lots of puffs in the afternoon. Stiff breeze and plenty of sun shine most of the day. it is supposed to get below freezing, at around 50 degrees tonight and tomorrow night. I have to move to a warmer climate. This weather report is brought to you by the Fort Lauderdale Department Of tourism.
I checked in on my stuff at the antique shop. He has not sold any of my stuff. They have been in there a year. So far, he has purchased a few of my cheep items, two saucers and a pear, to make something of his complete. Even so, it is on display. That is good enough.
Next month, I will be bringing my stuff home so I can refinish the pieces that are below my finishing skills.
We went yard sailing again. I ended up with some books, some kitchen stuff, and a bag of plumbing and electrical stuff for my brother.
Mom and emptied the canvas bag that had the plumbing and electrical stuff, and we sorted through it, separating them out in quart zipper bags. We figure there must have been a good hundred dollars worth of stuff in the bag. we took out the screws and fender washers, and still there was loads of stuff in there.
One thing I did was to keep a few fittings to use for ferules for some tools. They are about the right size.
I did get to do some woodworking after lunch. I needed to change the thumb piece on the beer stein. I needed more wood for the hinge itself. I did something stupid. I tried to pry off the piece I glued on, rather than cutting it off and sanding off the remains. It broke off. I then tried cutting that little piece off, and the saw found it so it was unusable. I cut the gap square, then cut a piece of wood to fit in there and glued it in place. Since it is where the thumb lever is going, it won't be a problem. It sticks out from the edge of the lid, so I will have to cut it to size and do some surface sanding. Luckily, it won't matter if it is seen.
I also applied myself to the duckling bowls. They have a saucer like piece around the base to be the feet. I chose which part of the bowl would be the front, and cut the saucer off the back. I then shaped that to match the shape of the bowl. None of them are perfect. They will come out good anyway. I have a lot of work to do on them, inside and out.
While I did not get too much done, I did get something done. That is one step closer to being finished.
Last month, I had taken everything out of my spare bedroom where I have a permanent model railroad layout. All the boxes got stacked in front of my finished woodworking. I have filtered through a good number of the boxes and most of it turned out to be papers to toss out. I can now access my finished woodworking. I now need to take those pieces out to sand and refinish to the level I can now do it. I still have more stuff to sort through and put away, so I am not sure when I will actually get to work on finishes. It has to be soon as I have a whole lot of pieces that need to be improved. I also have new pieces coming up that will need loads of work.
I want to finish adding the lid on the beer stein, which I might be able to do tomorrow. I also have to glue on the lid. Then I can work on the finish of that piece.
I need to do some strip sanding and dremmel grinding on the duckling bowls and finish up the duck heads I made. I need to work on the flower vase, digging in deep to make the flowers and leaves to stand out.
I have decided to hold off some projects until after the art show, but there are some that really needs to be done.
I do need to make some finials for the sea urchin shells. I also need to make a few platters. Whether I will actually have time to make them and get them finished, will be something else. The platters will have to be carved which will take even more time.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 10, Week 4, Day Two (week 526) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-07-10 Sunday
Below 60 degrees strong wind with stronger gusts with wispy puffs, against a blue sky, in the morning. 64 degrees with a weaker wind, great sunshine in the afternoon.
What a difference from the beginning of the winter. When the cold first arrived, we were walking around, bundled in coats, at 70 degrees. Today, I was working outside for a while, noting that it was sharp, but quite tolerable, when I saw the temperature at 58 degrees. that was one shocking surprise. When I was ready to carve, I sat out in the open, soaking in the sun, the wind slightly blocked to make the weather warmth stick with me more. Of course, on the way home, I cranked up the heat in my truck and had the hot air blowing on me all the way home.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.
Mom had a yard sale this morning. I arrived early and went out back to get to work. After dragging out my equipment, fully planning to carve all day, The urge to turn wood came over me and I had a project that would need to be carved anyway.
I dragged out the lathe, after petting the cat twice, and mounted a platter I had started a while back. I had a few mis-steps on centering it, but got it figured out and got it pretty much right. I used some thin double sided tape to attach it to the wooden face plate that was held in the chuck. I also used, at times, double sided tape for the wooden face plate I used to hold the plate in place.
The design of my system is to have one face plate act as a template for cutting out the rim of the base. That rim is then just big enough to fit around the other face plate, automatically centering it.
I made a little mistake on this piece. I forgot about the matching size of the inset of the base. I made it bigger than it was supposed to be. Centering it was out of the question the way I planned. I then got a great idea. Since it was still centered by the face plate held in the chuck. I added double sided tape to the tail stock face plate, centered it and applied pressure with the tail stock. I spun it to make sure it was centered. I then was able to turn the piece around, pry off the opposite face plate and hollow out the inside of the plate. I will have to remember that technique.
rear of light house platter
After I made the platter and cleaned up, I brought an electrical cord out by the shed at the back of the lot. I got a chair, and something to act like a table. I printed a flyer for the art show and cut the light house out. I then glued it to the platter. I traced the line with a Dremmel bit called an engraver. It has a super tiny cutting bit. I got the impression of the light house of the flyer. I cut back the background slightly, around the drawing. It shows a little better what it is going to be, but I will have a whole lot more work to do on it to make this work. I could have worked more, but chose to work on something else.
Light house I am copying
Light house platter with start of carving.
Knot and inclusion is the ground of the light house
I attacked the flower vase. Now that I have a good idea where the flowers and leaves are I dug in deep, sending the backgrounds farther back, and sending some leaves farther into the background so they go under others. This made a big difference in how the vase looks.
I admitted to my Mom that I had no idea how I was doing it, but somehow, it was appearing out of the wood.
flower vase with deeper carvings.
My brother came and he was excited about the stuff we picked up at the yard sales. He was drooling. A whole bunch of the stuff was stuff he was about to buy or would soon be buying.
Mom had gotten him a hundred foot long roll of solder and he had me make a spool so we could have some for my model railroad layout. I took a two by two, rounded the center to about an inch in diameter, and we simply wound the solder on it while it was on the lathe. we tried using the motor to wind it on, but the solder had some weak spots and broke, so we started the end again and I wound it by hand. Got a good length of the solder. That is known as quick and dirty tool making.
Beer stein with handle attached
Lid just sitting in place
For today, I had the best woodworking day in many months. I am proud of my accomplishments. if every woodworking day was as good as this one, I would be in heaven.
Next week, I will be working on more of the same projects. the problem is that we will be going to a Renaissance fair on Saturday. I do not know if I will be able to go to it twice this year. I will have to see. We usually have no time to do anything else after the fair.
I expect any production I do, will be on Sunday.
Will see what I actually do next week.
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