(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-22-10 Saturday
94 degrees under the awning, 88 officially, cool (comparatively) dry breeze, mix of half clouds and half blue sky, limited fading of the sun at any time. This Weather report is Brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I spent the early week sanding and varnishing my mice, painting my lady bugs. Eyes added as beads, this time with the holes acting like the pupal of the eyes. I had drilled larger holes for the ears and tails, and added a bit of skewer to help hold the ears in and folded the tail a couple times before inserting them to give more glue surface to hold the tail in. I had difficulty finding the right color for the lady bugs so they ended up with three colors of red before I settled on a dark orange. the end result was pretty good. The mice are good enough, the lady bugs need a little work on the design. They are pretty good anyway.
My mice and lady bugs with the magazine I got the mice idea from
Thursday.
We had a turning club meeting. I took pictures for the club. I was on my feet for most of the meeting. I took one of their magazines that had the mice I based my mice on, and had that next to the finished pieces. I heard few comments from the members, but a few people thought they were really cute.
The presentation was making a decorative natural edged vase. He first turned the piece end to end like it grew, making it round. He then decorated the surface, burning it with a wire, cutting on coves between the wire burns. Finally, he turned the piece sideways and made a conical vase where the decorated surface was the "natural" edge. the results are pretty good, unusual.
a couple classes did some projects using Purple Heart lumber. There were a whole lot of small cut-offs in the garbage can. A bunch of us raided the garbage can, by their suggestion, of some of the small pieces. I ended up coming home with more wood.
We have something called the BRING BACK PRIZE. this is where the winner this month, has to bring back something for next month's winner to get. I ended up winning it this month. they maker said that it is designed so you can take an actual "pinch" of salt. The lid rotates out of the way. It is nice. I think I have won four or five of these bring back prizes over the years. Some of my best art work was acquired this way.
Friday
This is not wood turning, but I had to renew my driver's license. They are verifying that everybody who gets a driver's license is the person they say they are. One has to bring a birth certificate, a social security card, and two bills mailed recently to your address.
I got there at ten, at the back of the walk up line. the line is likely 30 feet long. I got to the other end and inside at quarter to two! One guy in front of me ended up laying all his stuff out on the ground and I did not see him come in, so I think he was missing something. all that time and he did not have all his information.
I then sat inside. I figure they were calling people one a minute. they would call several, then there were a long period without anybody. I did not time it exactly. It was an impression of time that would be on the short side.
The actual driver's license work that I went through was about fifteen, maximum twenty minutes, which included the road sign test. I left there at Four o'clock!!! I have been learning crochet on my own. I was fighting with the third line of this piece. In the DL office, I lost track of how many lines after six and ended up with nearly three inches of crochet. I am still not good, but I am actually making headway. I will continue until I get to about nine inches, or until I run out of string. I will keep this since it is my very first piece.
Not woodworking, but crochet. The getting smaller at the top is a beginning error that I now understand how to solve. For a first project, this is not all that bad. I will run it a while before I decide it is finished, and will keep this as a reminder of my first attempt.
I was on my feet the entire time when I was outside. My feet did well. I went to several stores after the DL office and only at the last one did my feet let me know I was on them a bit much.
Saturday
Did some yard sailing in the morning. spent a whole five bucks. I almost purchased a sander, but am short on my funds as I paid the drivers license by cash rather than my check card. I had the money but when you are shorter than normal, you tend to be a little tight with your money.
At home, after petting and feeding the "cat", I dug my tools out and repaired a butler's tray (has legs like a small end table). the tray sides came off. I glued them back in place and drove the nails back in.
I then drug out my lathe and finished hollowing it. I had a devil of a time with the piece. My bowl gouges were too short to reach all the way in properly. the sides tapered in to the bottom, the walls becoming thicker the deeper you go. I could not get the right tool to work inside the vase, so I took my skew and pushed it straight in along the edge, cutting away the sides so they were straight. I need to make a bit just like that. Not hard. I have the materials to work from to make the bits out of.
I used a sanding disk at the end of the drill to do the bottom. This is Norfolk Island Pine and is nearly a year old so it is well dried. Dried Norfolk gets a lot of end grain tear out. I don't have the perfect tools for eliminating it so I have to use what works. the sanding disk made the bottom flat, also, and I had to cut away some under cut caused by the disk. That made the bottom more square.
I decided I wanted a hat for this vase, giving it a lid. I took some yellow pine and started making a hat. I did not like the results. I stopped and set that to the side. I might make it something else, but a hat is not it. I will have to look at the woods I have available to see what will work best for a hat, or whether I even will add one.
I took a piece of the purple heart I got and started turning it with the idea of making an ant's body. I failed to realize one little fact. the purple heart pieces were cut off the ends of the boards. The grain is running across the piece, not down the piece. That makes the piece weak.
I later realized I should be making a butterfly body, not an ant body. An ant is antenna and legs, while a butterfly would be good with just wings.
I want to work on the flower vase tomorrow. At minimum, I want to plan out how to do the faces on there. One thought is to make each eye be shared between two faces. Another is to have a space between the two faces like I did on the first one I did.
I will also give the leaf bowl another look. I think I know how to do the design. Start with small leaves in the center, and make them successively bigger coming out to the edge. The center leaves are the highest, and all the leaves going out will be beneath them, so you will only see the tops of tips of the leaves. I would leave the outside plain as it is now. Will see what I decide as I work with it. I first have to "erase" the lines I already have now.
I should note that I saw a piece of work at the club. the top was an ordinary plate. I turned it upside down to see who did it, and it was exquisitely carved underneath. I looked at that and felt that the bowl I was about to start, was not good enough, and I had done nothing on it yet.
I might make one or two butterfly bodies tomorrow too. I think they would be kind of nice. I can finish them at home.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 10, Week 19, Day Two (week 541)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-23-10 Sunday
90 degrees partly cloudy while mostly sunny. good breeze in the afternoon. There was some wet roads to the south when I was heading to mom's house.
I petted the kitty then dragged my equipment out. I decided my first project was to take a piece of Purple heart and make some butterfly bodies with them.
I quickly realized there was one little problem with this wood. These were cut off the ends of the boards. The grain runs across the wood, rather down the length. This means there is no strength in the wood.
Think of the grain of the wood like a bundle of straws. If you grab them at the end, they will be hard to separate. they are strong. If you grab them from the side, they are weak, and give way easily.
Purple heart is very hard but can be brittle. I was getting a lot of tear out from where the ends of the wood on the corners hit to the tool. It was bouncing really bad since it was not as stiff as a proper piece of wood could be.
I gave up on the bowl gouge and turned to the skew chisel to peal the wood off. I had the lathe at full speed, but it seamed like it was spinning slowly. each time a corner passed, the wood would bounce slightly.
I got the piece round after a lot of work, then started shaping the piece, The head was a ball, the Thorax of the butterfly was a oval and the tail part of the body was long. I had the body almost completed when the piece broke. I bandsawed the rest of the wood off and glued the body back together.
I then made a second one. the wood was shorter now and there was less bounce. This body went easy and I finished it up and removed it from the lathe. I took it to the bandsaw and was to bandsaw off the little bit of wood at the end of the head (I made them with the head next to the tail stock). the blade caught the wood and the head went flying. I have not seen it.
I had a little stub left of the wood, so I put that back into the lathe and turned a new head which I glued on.
Later in the day, I tried to cut slots for the wings. This is hard wood. I got a slot started with some cutting bits stacked together, but could not get it deep enough that way without the slot being too long. I tried many methods and found that a drill was best. I put in three holes, then put the drill on an angle and drilled until it broke through into the adjacent hole.
I then needed to add eyes. That wood is hard. I could barely mark it with a sharp point. I got the eyes located properly with the wings. I then decided these needed antenna. I will use fishing line for the antenna.
I am now sanding and varnishing them.
Butterfly bodies. holes for eyes, slots for the wings, and tiny holes or the antenna.
I messed with a platter I had started earlier. I ended up taking a wooden face plate I made to screw onto the lathe, and remove the hole to make room for a knob on the back of the platter. The front, where the face plate is supposed to attach, was all messed up. I needed to straighten and clean it. I had a bit of a problem all the way through the process and the platter did not stay on the face plate. I needed to correct the face plate slightly. I then dropped it and sawdust got on the tape. I decided to leave that for a later date.
I messed around with other projects during the day.
I talked to mom about the face vase. She said to do three faces, with separate eyes, rather than six faces sharing eyes with other faces. I committed myself by taking the band sander and removing the nose part of the shape between the faces.
I will finish the butterflies this week. I also need to paint a card before the weekend.
next weekend is going to be a whole lot of activity.
Friday, I plan on stopping at the antique shop and water gardens to see if I can drop anything off.
Saturday night, we are having a birthday party for my brother. that is what the card is for.
Mom and I are planning to visit Dad's grave on Monday.
I am not sure how much real work I will actually get done this weekend.
I will see what I actually do next weekend.
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