80 degrees, good breeze, thicker puffs of clouds surrounded by light fuzz to appear like solid clouds, but allowed some sun to shine. Blue sky appeared periodically as the day wore on. The rain we were supposed to have, was mere driplets that were gone after a few minutes. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
There were no yard sales in the early morning after Breakfast, so we came directly home. Mom went out a bit later.
There is a cat out in Mom's back yard, who is pretending to be the beast. A couple months ago, it would not let us touch its side when it was laying on its side. Today, I was petting his side and his belly as he laid there. I am going to have to do a search to find out where the beast actually went. It is, though, nice to have a cat in the yard....
My first project was to make the three wooden face plates I have, to the same size. I put the smallest wooden face plate in the chuck with double sided face, centered the other to the best of my ability, and then cut the second one down so it was the same. I also adjusted the tenon the chuck grabs, adding a bigger slot so the chuck can have a better grip.
I then turned the pair around and turned the tenon on the first face plate for the better chuck grip.
I then attached the third face plate and made the same corrections.
One thing I should have done was to re-do the "center" of each so that the compass knows where the center is, and also the tail stock can find it.
My next project was to dig out a natural edged bowl I have that really needed help. Since the bottom is slightly larger than the face plates, My first project was to try to find the center and then draw a radius the size of the face plate.
This was a very early piece and was made before I got a chuck, I used face plates and screwed the wood in place. I had four screw holes, one in the center, and three around the outside. I commonly added a wooden face plate with the screws in it. I do not remember if that is what I did, but I seam to think so with the center screw.
I quickly found out that the center screw was not in the center. I then found out that centering on the "bottom" of the bowl, was not in the center either. I took a ruler, one of those school rulers with inches on one side and millimeters on the other side. and sighted the sides of the bowl.
I chose the scale that gave me something with numbers that are very close to the dimensions, which in this case was MM. I then visually lined up the two sides on the ruler and marked the center. I turned the bowl ninety degrees, using the first mark and did the center. this second mark should be center, but I checked it by turning the bowl a few more times just to make sure. I then measured the radius of the face plate and set the compass to that.
Finally I drew my circle on the bowl. added double sided tape to the face plate, and very carefully, lined up the face plate with the lines on the bowl. I had to set it a couple times, but got it very close to centered on the face plate.
I put a second face plate against the inside of the bowl to help hold it in place. I spun the bowl, and trimmed the outside first. This bowl was really thick and had a few other problems. One thing I did was to cut the bottom down very slightly next to the face plate to mark the real edge of the piece, and pinpoint the location of the face plate on the bowl. That saved me later.
I sanded the outside quite a bit, knowing that any change I do will cause a wobble.
I then scraped the edges on the inside, cleaning them up and making the inside and outside parallel. I removed the wood face plate, and put the tail stock directly on the bottom inside. I cut in the bottom, making it deeper, which was a problem this piece had. Except for the post in the center, I had the bottom right. I took the tail stock away and trimmed away the post so the bottom was nice and flat.
I added double sided tape to the rear face plate and stuck it inside the piece and turned it around. I carefully removed the first face plate to work the bottom and found that the inside face plate would not stick. I tried several times and it would not hold. I gave up on that project.
Natural edged bowl as finished on Sunday
We got a few driplets right after lunch so I packed up and cleaned up. I then took out the strip sander and ground down the center of the platter I made last week that I broke and glued back together I sanded it really good. One can see some sign of the repair on the back, but the front looks good.
My brother's truck was in the driveway when I arrived. He had another freeze-plug leak. He and his son dropped the engine and transmission to get to the rear freeze plugs. I had to cut some blocks so he could get the jacks to reach high enough. He had made a bracket for controlling the transmission. It worked perfectly.
He found out he had some really bad news. The freeze plug dripped into the bearing, turning it into scrap metal, and that chewed up the end of the transmission and the end of the crank shaft. That truck is dead. His other truck has been down due to a broken transmission.
Their next project was to get my truck hooked up so it could pull his trailer back home. By this time, the dealers were closed. We found that only the dealer had the plugs for the trailer. My brother, instead, had to run wires all over to get everything hooked up. He then road with me as I drove his trailer home. He guided me and taught me how to drive with a trailer.
During the time my brother was working on various projects, I was sanding on my work, getting them closer to being finished.
I could well have done a lot of work during the day after the lunch sprinkle, but was not sure when anything was happening and wanted to be somewhat ready.
Tomorrow I hope to get more work done.
year 10, Week 13, Day Two (week 535) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 04-11-10 Sunday
80 degrees, The weather report said it would likely get bad at around eleven. By noon, the clouds went from thin plates with lots of blue, to grey pillows and then solid piles of grey pillows. Nothing came down until around two and did not get hard enough to get anything wet until three. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I got to Mom's house at the normal time. I went out back, gathered my stuff together, and then petted the thing in the back yard. It is not the beast that is supposed to be back there. He will lay on his side so you can stroke him all over, head, belly, side, under the chin. Mom actually gave him a couple strokes on the back when he was well away from the feeding area, which is usually the only place one can touch him. His main desire today was to be petted and to lay between my feet. My problem was I needed to get some work done before expected weather was to arrive.
Mom's neighbor decided to have a yard sale. I took out my box of junk pieces and pulled the pieces that I am sure I can re-make really nice. I then took that box across the street. I wrote on it, HAND MADE. five bucks a piece. There really are only a couple pieces that cannot be fixed. Whether they are worth the effort is something else. I later retrieved the box as driplets started falling and sold nothing. I never expected to. She started too early and Saturdays are better than Sundays.
Collection of work that needs to be fixed or dumped.
I took the bowl I worked on yesterday, and re-mounted it on the face plate, making sure it was centered. I then taped the face plate on the inside. This time it stuck. I turned the piece around, made sure it stayed, then removed the rear face plate. finally, I was able to fix the bottom of the face plate, until I had just the post left from where the tail stock was holding it in place. I removed the tail stock to remove the post and the tape let go. I used the strip sander to remove the post. I touched the edge of the rim with the strip sander in a couple places and will have to correct that. Not that bad a problem.
I took a Camphor bowl I made years ago. I could not find my compass. That took some time to search fruitlessly. I have a circle cutter for plaster board and used that as my compass. Since the base was smaller than the face plate, I drew my circle on the face plate. This was where my not getting the center located on the face plate caused me problems. there is an impression there, but it was not exactly in the center.
I got the bowl close to center. It still had a wobble. I chose to let that go and make the inside thinner anyway. This piece is going to be carved into leaves, anyway, so a slight difference in thickness is not a problem.
when I made this piece, I soaked it in varnish. I was surprised that there was that wonderful scent in the wood. I love the smell of camphor, at least sometimes. When I carve this, I will smell it quite a bit.
I never touched the outside, letting that be. the bottom was really thick so that got cut in fairly deep, and the inside was trimmed right to the rim, and I cut the rim down slightly so a repair I had done was now even. It is a whole lot better.
Camphor bowl after corrections.
Part of color on far side is repaired with multi colored filler.
I still had some time, so I took a platter blank and made a platter. This one has some great knots in it. The knots make turning slightly bit tougher, but the results are excellent. this piece needs loads of sanding to finish it.
Sunday's platter.
Seeing the weather coming, I packed up and cleaned up I was taking pictures of the day's projects when I saw the first driplets. I finished my pictures then helped pack up the yard sale.
I later sat and sanded for a while before calling it a day. By then the driplets became steady. On the way home, outside of Pompano, I went into an area of rain that would have been red on the weather radar.
I stopped and picked up two gallon recloseable bags for an experiment I wanted to try. I took that broken platter and stuck it in the baggy with the Linseed oil. The gallon bags I normally use, were just slightly too small for the plate. I want to see how the linseed oil effects the yellow pine. I want to see if it comes out dramatically different than with just varnish. some woods are effected differently by finishes than others.
I have a turning club meeting Thursday. I have several projects I need to get complete before then so I can show them off. That means they need to be sanded to a finished level, then given many coats of varnish.
The platters have to be complete, including signature, by the end of the month. I do hope to make a few more next weekend. By then, I will know the effect of the oil on the wood.
I also want to remake a couple other pieces I have. It is quicker and easier to correct them than to make them. Less wood to remove, though centering is always a problem.
I will see what I actually do next weekend.
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