Week 539 Woodworking

year 10, Week 17, Day One (week 539)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-08-10 Saturday

95 degrees in late morning, then clouds closed up some and temps dropped to 90 degrees. A nice breeze kept the temps from feeling hot. There was a point where a thin dark cloud leaked, but I was doing some measuring at the time and just pulled the equipment under cover until I was ready to go back to work. I knew at the time it was ignorable. After I had gotten home, in another city, there was a very good cloudburst, but I was inside at the time. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Scar-face and the Beast was waiting for me when I went out into the back yard. they both got food and plenty of attention. The beast got a lot more attention and food over the day, but not as much as he wanted. he really wanted company, and I was more interested in my projects.

Beggar, The beast of the back yard
Pretending to be a cat.

I had a good look at the mice I made, and decided they needed to be designed better. I picked out some wood and made a little bit of sawdust. None of them are perfect, but they will be better than most of the ones I made last week. Even so, they will need corrections. One thing I must do is sand them before I do anything else to them other than drilling holes. I have to give thought to whiskers on them.
I need to try making frogs and lady bugs using the same method. That should be easy. I did make four mouse bodies today, which is not too bad. I had to prepare a few pieces of wood, which including measuring, cutting and re-measuring. Small bits can be used with this, these pieces were yellow pine cut from corners of platter blanks. I like the look on the mice.

I spent a lot of time trying to solve a problem with Mom's E-mail program in Windows 7, I hate Windows 7. Nothing is where it is supposed to be. files are hidden, buried, tricked around. You think you find the file you need to change and then it turns out not to be the right one. ARGH!

I am not totally sure what I will do tomorrow. I should do a couple platters, but could also work on something brand new. I also have a bowl I want to start carving. laying it out would help.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 17, Day Two (week 539)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-09-10 Sunday

90 degrees, good breeze to take the heat away. Clear to the east all day long, thin, broken clouds over the Everglades to the West. After noon, there were several periods where clouds blocked the sun, but mostly sunny all day long.

My first project was to feed and pet the cat. Scar face was nowhere to be seen. Beggar was in a cat mood and I petted him quite a bit before I was ready to dig my equipment out.
I stopped and petted him several more times during the day. Later, after my brother had done some scroll sawing and had settled to read, Beggar sat ON TOP my foot for about half an hour. I was sanding at the time and I would reach down and rub his head every now and then. he finally got up and headed to bed, in hiding somewhere.

I decided to start with making some lady bug bodies. My results are pretty good. I have a lot of decisions to do after I finish sanding. I have to decide whether to and how much, I should paint these. I figure I won't add legs. I could add cartoon eyes or leave them a slightly bit more realistic. Will see.
I also made a frog body. I don't like what I came up with. It might be all right, but has problems. I am thinking that I should use the lathe to get the angles even and centered, then use the sander for the real design. I will think it over.

I dug out a platter I had started a couple weeks ago and remounted it on the lathe. I finished it up, sanding it quite a bit. It needs more. A lot of the sanding was while the beast lounged on top my foot.

I mounted another platter I had just barely gotten started with, on the lathe, but it wobbled when I turned the lathe on. I should have removed it, trued up the face plate, then got started again, but chose instead to pack up and do something else. I will deal with it next weekend.

The ten inch platter, with mouse at top, two lady bugs, mouse on bottom left, and a frog


I corrected one of the mice bodies I made yesterday. It is still not quite right, but better than it was. I really should have re-mounted it on the lathe, but decided to use the disk sander instead. More sanding and it will be ok.

The day was pretty good, more of a lazy day, but I did get a whole lot done, but got enough to feel like I did something.

I will have to see what I accomplish next week.