08-30-10 Did You Write?
Making writing a habit is a key. Many here don't need this note to write, but some of us do. This note is especially directed at those of us who will write something, then go for months without touching the work in progress. The intent of this note is to embarrass, those of us who fit this profile, into writing something every week just so we don't look silly saying ‘I did not write again’. This note helped me quite a bit. I would see the note coming and find a way to write something, anything, just so I could say I did write.
Everybody agrees that new writing is writing. It can be poetry, blogging, technical writing, writing assignments, world or character building. It can even be E-mails as long as it pertains to writing or story, and is wordy.
Editing is also writing. some of us write by editing. We create a rough draft showing the plot and then edit it into shape. Editing is also writing, even if it is the work of someone else. Critiquing is also writing.
We never worry about word count. If you write the right word, then you wrote. It is nice to have word counts that rise quickly, but my last bit of work was to reduce the word count. When working on a story, I have sliced out as many words as I added. Word count does not matter.
As for me, I did write. I went through my Waxy Birth story a bunch of times and came up with the best written work I had ever created. I fired it off to my writing partner and she read it over. "The plot needs work." Was her response.
I had a suggested title for the story and she said it won't work for the targeted publication. It can be called anything. I am never married to a title. When I start a piece, I will give it a working name, to the file and that is usually the title of the story until the very end. In previous stories, I was never even married to the character names. In this case, though, the names are fixed.
But in finishing the piece It ended up at page 26 at 16064 words. Higher than my target but slicing it more would hurt the story. We will see how it comes out when later this month, My writing partner and I can work on it seriously.
I started on the second story. I am starting with Page 41 at 26845 words. It has to be smaller than the first story, likely 15,000 words when done. I cannot lop off the entire beginning of the story this time. I read through the piece and decided to re-outline the story, see if I can redirect the story better. right now, I have to work out the part that leads to the key part of the story, where the main antagonists are removed from the scene. The way I had it before, was the "cavalry" showed up in the middle of the confrontation. that is a no-no. I also have a bunch of stuff that happens after that before the actual ending. I have to figure out how to deal with that I have instructions, no "see next story" type endings.
On the story idea front, I have 57 story ideas in the compost pile. Due to a pair of ideas that sparkled in my mind and had to be written right after I finished one for the day, I am already at 31 story ideas. I can spend more time writing if I hold off, though it would be nice to be ahead for the year. I think I am only two ideas ahead right now. Next month, I will be writing story ideas at a higher clip. I will be visiting my writing partner and her family at the end of the month and will want to be caught up before I leave here.
On the wood working front, I am finally testing my crochet hooks. I found one that works nice so the rest have to be adjusted to match that design. My crochet is also doing fairly well while I am at it.
I have been involved in many hobbies. In most cases, I would buy stuff I thought I needed, and when I finally settled down in a style and the specific equipment to do that work, I found that a lot of the stuff I purchased, was not needed, just collecting dust. With my crochet, I will make my own tools, and keep my yarn stocks down to only what I am using at the moment.
I kept my carving fairly cheep by sticking to the knife, rather than going to chisels. I am using the same philosophy with my crochet.
With my wood turning, Over the years, I have purchased a number of pieces of equipment I thought I needed. Recently, I actually used a couple of those expensive pieces for the first time. What a satisfying feeling. One won't get too much use, but the other will.
A story idea from the above, is someone who asks to get into a hobby. He is required to put his money up front for it, so he gives his account number. When he comes home from boarding school a few weeks later, he finds his account almost emptied and he has a professional workshop with almost everything that is made for it. He has no clue as to what do to with it.
He slowly learns the hobby with just a few pieces of equipment. years later, as his knowledge, skill and he finds use for each piece of equipment he had already put his money out for.
He has the advantage that if he needs a piece of equipment, he has it. He just has to work out how to use it and when.
Sales comes from his hobby as his skills improve. He seams to develop the skills and need for a tool only after he had gained the money to buy it. He starts using the last piece of unused equipment about the time he feels he is a master craftsman.
it might be a plot line where he finds he does not like the hobby, but because he has the equipment, he continues. It is only when he is using that last piece of equipment, that he realizes he is really does like it.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say,
YES, I DID WRITE.
Did you write?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Week 555 Wood working
year 10, Week 33, Day One (week 555)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-28-10 Saturday
90 degrees, light breeze, mixed different types of clouds, high and low, High humidity in the morning, which faded out as the day wore on.
The beast of the back yard acted like a cat, and really wanted attention and companionship. I spent a lot of time petting him.
Last week, I had searched for something and was reminded that I had several other pieces of equipment that was just sitting there, unused.
Today, I decided to make use of the new chuck. I dug out some jaws, called COLES JAWS. it is plates with holes in them that allow you to screw in rubber bumpers to grab pieces bigger than a normal jaw can hold, and can even hold out of center pieces if needed. These jaws are mainly for finishing up completed works that need just a little more work such as touching up the bottom of the piece to complete it. It is not intended to be used fast, and is not the most positive grip.
I mounted them in the new chuck and figure they will stay on there from now on, a least for now.
I have a bunch of pencil cups that needed a little something. I put them into the Coles chuck. I cleaned up what I needed to do, such as the bottom and inside. I sanded the outside. That really fixed them up. I can now start the varnishing process.
The COLE jaws, on my new chuck with a pencil cup in the jaws.
It is better to have all eight rubber bumpers holding the piece, instead of the four used here.
The rubber bumpers can be moved in a series of holes and get a range of grabbing on the project, both inside and outside.
I also pulled out a COLLET set I got many years ago. My brother did not like them, not thinking they were very accurate for metal working. We figured out that the piece had to be held by the tail stock, but he was done with them.
The way they work is that there is a machined metal piece inside, that has a hole in the center, and slits down the sides. The collet itself screws on. The farther in you screw the collet in, the more it pinches the metal bits together. It holds your piece by the inward pressure.
this is an alternative to a chuck, but the holes are at fixed diameters so you have the change them out if one changes the work piece size.
I mounted a few of my crochet hooks in them and sanded them. It held them better than the other way I was holding them, but a couple of the crochet hooks were between sizes, too small to be pinched by the big collet, but too big for the small one. I got results anyway.
Collet chuck set with different sized collet jaw inserts.
One of my crochet hooks is in the jaws
Using the Cole chuck, I dug out several pieces that were below grade. I figured they needed to be refinished, reworked to be worthy of anything. One bowl had a base so it looked like an extremely wide, squat goblet. I had a real bad chatter mark inside. I mounted the base in the chuck and turned the inside. I had forgotten, and had not noticed, that it was not very thick on one side. I broke through a little, but it is still solid. I had to use the sander to remove some marks that were not being reached as the bottom is very slightly off center.
I think I can save the piece. I will get some epoxy and built up the bottom to give it depth and strength, and that should solve the problem. I likely will cheat, but painting the bottom epoxy to same color of the wood, and then give it several coats of varnish. Then no one will know what I did.
I had a goblet made from Christmas Tree Wood. I was cleaning up some slop from when it was made and sanding it. I applied a little too much pressure and the stem broke because the pith runs through it.
I did what I normally do and mounted the base in the chuck and made it into a rose by cutting shaped grooves. I still have to sit down and do some grinding to give the actual petal shape, but I is a good start. the bowl of the goblet will become a tulip or something similar.
I had done all I felt like doing and packed up everything. As I was taking my stuff to the truck, a little liquid sunshine came down, but only lasted a minute. I was all done anyway.
I have lots of projects to do, but will have to see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 10, Week 33, Day Two (week 555)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-29-10 Sunday
84 degrees, fast moving low pregnant clouds, some liquid sunshine in fast moving dots, some weeping high clouds, nice breeze. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I got to Mom's house early. The back yard beast cried out "feed me!" It sounded to me like Meow. Scar face showed up for a short meal before disappearing.
During the day, The beast had a few bouts of attitude, where he just wanted to lay at my feet and relax and my leaving him alone. Most of the day, he wanted attention. He got plenty.
I got my stuff out, watching the weather. Pregnant clouds came off the ocean real fast, most were small. I kept walking out front and looking down the road to get a good picture of what was to the east.
I made another pencil cup. This one went fast. I was finishing up when I started feeling the first drips. I put the equipment under cover, basically away, and swept the worst of the sawdust. I added varnish to all the pencil cups and will be building up a good coating over the week.
I worked in several sets on my shaving flowers. Over the day, I made a dozen flowers. they went fast and easy. I ended up in the two weekends, making about twenty eight of them. I had painted one set of them with a pink paint. I have to see about getting different colors of paint so I can color all of them. The spray paint does not cause the curled wood to straighten out, the way water based paints do.
A shaving flower in process. You can see how the shavings stay on the piece of wood.
The center will eventually break off when it gets thin enough.
A collection of shaving flowers. All the tall ones are my recent creations. The tall pink ones were painted. The small flowers on the right were made by dad. Short shaving flowers below the tall ones were made years ago by both dad and I.
I have loads of projects to do, but chose not to do them. I made it a lazy day and still got a lot done. I had forgotten how easy those shaving flowers were to make. I am getting these pencil cups down pat.
I had the opportunity to pick up some more wood, but forgot about it while I was on the road. I might check next week if any of it is left. I really need to learn to use what wood I have already.
I am testing out my wood crochet hooks. They are not perfect, but they do work. I am wondering as to the strength. I read where one woman broke metal hooks.
Next week, I plan to visit the antique shop and Dania Water Gardens. I have a number of projects, but will go by feel, as to what I might work on.
I will see what I actually do next week.
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-28-10 Saturday
90 degrees, light breeze, mixed different types of clouds, high and low, High humidity in the morning, which faded out as the day wore on.
The beast of the back yard acted like a cat, and really wanted attention and companionship. I spent a lot of time petting him.
Last week, I had searched for something and was reminded that I had several other pieces of equipment that was just sitting there, unused.
Today, I decided to make use of the new chuck. I dug out some jaws, called COLES JAWS. it is plates with holes in them that allow you to screw in rubber bumpers to grab pieces bigger than a normal jaw can hold, and can even hold out of center pieces if needed. These jaws are mainly for finishing up completed works that need just a little more work such as touching up the bottom of the piece to complete it. It is not intended to be used fast, and is not the most positive grip.
I mounted them in the new chuck and figure they will stay on there from now on, a least for now.
I have a bunch of pencil cups that needed a little something. I put them into the Coles chuck. I cleaned up what I needed to do, such as the bottom and inside. I sanded the outside. That really fixed them up. I can now start the varnishing process.
The COLE jaws, on my new chuck with a pencil cup in the jaws.
It is better to have all eight rubber bumpers holding the piece, instead of the four used here.
The rubber bumpers can be moved in a series of holes and get a range of grabbing on the project, both inside and outside.
I also pulled out a COLLET set I got many years ago. My brother did not like them, not thinking they were very accurate for metal working. We figured out that the piece had to be held by the tail stock, but he was done with them.
The way they work is that there is a machined metal piece inside, that has a hole in the center, and slits down the sides. The collet itself screws on. The farther in you screw the collet in, the more it pinches the metal bits together. It holds your piece by the inward pressure.
this is an alternative to a chuck, but the holes are at fixed diameters so you have the change them out if one changes the work piece size.
I mounted a few of my crochet hooks in them and sanded them. It held them better than the other way I was holding them, but a couple of the crochet hooks were between sizes, too small to be pinched by the big collet, but too big for the small one. I got results anyway.
Collet chuck set with different sized collet jaw inserts.
One of my crochet hooks is in the jaws
Using the Cole chuck, I dug out several pieces that were below grade. I figured they needed to be refinished, reworked to be worthy of anything. One bowl had a base so it looked like an extremely wide, squat goblet. I had a real bad chatter mark inside. I mounted the base in the chuck and turned the inside. I had forgotten, and had not noticed, that it was not very thick on one side. I broke through a little, but it is still solid. I had to use the sander to remove some marks that were not being reached as the bottom is very slightly off center.
I think I can save the piece. I will get some epoxy and built up the bottom to give it depth and strength, and that should solve the problem. I likely will cheat, but painting the bottom epoxy to same color of the wood, and then give it several coats of varnish. Then no one will know what I did.
I had a goblet made from Christmas Tree Wood. I was cleaning up some slop from when it was made and sanding it. I applied a little too much pressure and the stem broke because the pith runs through it.
I did what I normally do and mounted the base in the chuck and made it into a rose by cutting shaped grooves. I still have to sit down and do some grinding to give the actual petal shape, but I is a good start. the bowl of the goblet will become a tulip or something similar.
I had done all I felt like doing and packed up everything. As I was taking my stuff to the truck, a little liquid sunshine came down, but only lasted a minute. I was all done anyway.
I have lots of projects to do, but will have to see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 10, Week 33, Day Two (week 555)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-29-10 Sunday
84 degrees, fast moving low pregnant clouds, some liquid sunshine in fast moving dots, some weeping high clouds, nice breeze. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I got to Mom's house early. The back yard beast cried out "feed me!" It sounded to me like Meow. Scar face showed up for a short meal before disappearing.
During the day, The beast had a few bouts of attitude, where he just wanted to lay at my feet and relax and my leaving him alone. Most of the day, he wanted attention. He got plenty.
I got my stuff out, watching the weather. Pregnant clouds came off the ocean real fast, most were small. I kept walking out front and looking down the road to get a good picture of what was to the east.
I made another pencil cup. This one went fast. I was finishing up when I started feeling the first drips. I put the equipment under cover, basically away, and swept the worst of the sawdust. I added varnish to all the pencil cups and will be building up a good coating over the week.
I worked in several sets on my shaving flowers. Over the day, I made a dozen flowers. they went fast and easy. I ended up in the two weekends, making about twenty eight of them. I had painted one set of them with a pink paint. I have to see about getting different colors of paint so I can color all of them. The spray paint does not cause the curled wood to straighten out, the way water based paints do.
A shaving flower in process. You can see how the shavings stay on the piece of wood.
The center will eventually break off when it gets thin enough.
A collection of shaving flowers. All the tall ones are my recent creations. The tall pink ones were painted. The small flowers on the right were made by dad. Short shaving flowers below the tall ones were made years ago by both dad and I.
I have loads of projects to do, but chose not to do them. I made it a lazy day and still got a lot done. I had forgotten how easy those shaving flowers were to make. I am getting these pencil cups down pat.
I had the opportunity to pick up some more wood, but forgot about it while I was on the road. I might check next week if any of it is left. I really need to learn to use what wood I have already.
I am testing out my wood crochet hooks. They are not perfect, but they do work. I am wondering as to the strength. I read where one woman broke metal hooks.
Next week, I plan to visit the antique shop and Dania Water Gardens. I have a number of projects, but will go by feel, as to what I might work on.
I will see what I actually do next week.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Did You Write? 08-23-10
Did You Write? 08-23-10
This is a place to brag about accomplishments, cry about failures, and otherwise talk about what is going on in your life. It is to prompt those of us who do not write regularly, to be shamed into writing. The note comes each Monday and one gets down to write something, anything, just to report that you wrote. Hopefully, it becomes a habit, to write every week, maybe even more often. Eventually something might be finished.
In other notes, I have mentioned about what is writing. Due to time restraints, I will skip the list this time. One can check previous DID YOU WRITE notes to be reminded of possibilities.
I have worked nearly every day this week on my story. I started a new hacking, getting the story down to 16066. I realized I needed to get it below 15000, not just into the 15000s, I then got good word that the publisher was able to take a LITTLE longer story, so I restarted my pass and am cleaning it up, rather than decimating it. I am still cutting it down, but not like I was. Other than some corrections, it is about the best story I have ever written.
I think I have learned that to make the best story, write it with all the description you can add, then cut the word count down to where it is really tight, leaving just the right descriptions, actions, and scenes to be good. Cutting a third out really helps. I am not finished with this pass, but it is on page 25, I had to remove one return to get it there. It is at 16003 words. I started at 16385. I expect it to be less when done, but I am not expecting a whole lot less. I will finish this pass, then do a new one, with critical thought into mistakes and sentence structure, and then fire it off to someone to look it over.
I am still going on the story ideas. They are one page, possibly getting onto page two if it is really good. Time is more important than page length right now. Before I got into this writing project, I was more after three and four pages. At least I am getting them written.
I had a week of a lot of new ideas. At this moment, including what I am posting tonight, I have 59 story ideas in my compost pile. The top ones are post-able without giving them a thought.
This week, we had a wood turner's club meeting. I did a demonstration of how to make platters. This was my first demonstration, ever. I carried signs and we chanted.... Oooops, wrong kind of demonstration...
I was to demonstrate a new technique of how to make a platter (plate) so others might try my technique. I had seen others who did demonstrations, who had examples of different stages of the process so that they could skip removing loads of wood to speed the process. I did the same thing. I expected some form of failure in the process so I had steps already made just in case.
The lathe I was to use had a problem which caused me not to be able to actually do the project. I used my examples and pieces in different stages, to explain what I was doing, why I was doing it. Several people said they learned quite a bit from my demonstration. I am surprised. If I have something to demonstrate, I will do it again. The first time is always a challenge.
One great way to get ideas for stories, is to watch the news. The more outlandish the story you hear, the better it is for a story idea.
Figure on what could possibly cause such a situation to happen, and try to make it believable, but do so from a fantasy, or science fiction, point of view.
Got a random killing? have space aliens or people from the far future, hypnotizing the people to do that. Have a murder suicide family? have them attacked by demons and the father has to kill them to end the demon's chances of rule over the world.
Have a person do something really stupid, like get stuck in some spot he was not supposed to do? Have him using these as a portal to another world and this last time, it did not work.
Consider if all the people in government were really space aliens. What would happen if they all returned home? Take the worst politician and create a story where everything he is doing is to save the world, or the nation, from taking over by something worse.
Take something that happens here, a highway blocked up by an accident. Now place it in the far future where ground cars are rare and people fly everywhere. What can back up the traffic, how to people cope, how do officials get the problem cleared up.
You have a politician caught taking bribes. Now consider a government were corruption is the norm. What would be the equivalent? A politician refusing bribes and doing exactly what he says he was going to do? I did one story idea a few years ago where the political creatures were expected to lie. It was part of the job. One guy did everything he said he would do and everybody was outraged. He was accused of not telling lies. He counters saying that he did lie. He lied about not doing what he promised.
A crime spree? aliens rebuilding their ship to leave. they have to make spare parts and gather materials, and will take all sorts of things to get it done.
What about a war between two countries, as an attempt to attract an interstellar government to intervene and take over the world, bring pure peace. What about someone who knows about this and is trying to stop it. How?
If something is silly, explore it. Make it plausible, believable, something that was logical from a strange point of view.
One can have loads of fun, and get lots of stories from the news, if one adds a little imagination.
As to the question of the week, I can say
YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
This is a place to brag about accomplishments, cry about failures, and otherwise talk about what is going on in your life. It is to prompt those of us who do not write regularly, to be shamed into writing. The note comes each Monday and one gets down to write something, anything, just to report that you wrote. Hopefully, it becomes a habit, to write every week, maybe even more often. Eventually something might be finished.
In other notes, I have mentioned about what is writing. Due to time restraints, I will skip the list this time. One can check previous DID YOU WRITE notes to be reminded of possibilities.
I have worked nearly every day this week on my story. I started a new hacking, getting the story down to 16066. I realized I needed to get it below 15000, not just into the 15000s, I then got good word that the publisher was able to take a LITTLE longer story, so I restarted my pass and am cleaning it up, rather than decimating it. I am still cutting it down, but not like I was. Other than some corrections, it is about the best story I have ever written.
I think I have learned that to make the best story, write it with all the description you can add, then cut the word count down to where it is really tight, leaving just the right descriptions, actions, and scenes to be good. Cutting a third out really helps. I am not finished with this pass, but it is on page 25, I had to remove one return to get it there. It is at 16003 words. I started at 16385. I expect it to be less when done, but I am not expecting a whole lot less. I will finish this pass, then do a new one, with critical thought into mistakes and sentence structure, and then fire it off to someone to look it over.
I am still going on the story ideas. They are one page, possibly getting onto page two if it is really good. Time is more important than page length right now. Before I got into this writing project, I was more after three and four pages. At least I am getting them written.
I had a week of a lot of new ideas. At this moment, including what I am posting tonight, I have 59 story ideas in my compost pile. The top ones are post-able without giving them a thought.
This week, we had a wood turner's club meeting. I did a demonstration of how to make platters. This was my first demonstration, ever. I carried signs and we chanted.... Oooops, wrong kind of demonstration...
I was to demonstrate a new technique of how to make a platter (plate) so others might try my technique. I had seen others who did demonstrations, who had examples of different stages of the process so that they could skip removing loads of wood to speed the process. I did the same thing. I expected some form of failure in the process so I had steps already made just in case.
The lathe I was to use had a problem which caused me not to be able to actually do the project. I used my examples and pieces in different stages, to explain what I was doing, why I was doing it. Several people said they learned quite a bit from my demonstration. I am surprised. If I have something to demonstrate, I will do it again. The first time is always a challenge.
One great way to get ideas for stories, is to watch the news. The more outlandish the story you hear, the better it is for a story idea.
Figure on what could possibly cause such a situation to happen, and try to make it believable, but do so from a fantasy, or science fiction, point of view.
Got a random killing? have space aliens or people from the far future, hypnotizing the people to do that. Have a murder suicide family? have them attacked by demons and the father has to kill them to end the demon's chances of rule over the world.
Have a person do something really stupid, like get stuck in some spot he was not supposed to do? Have him using these as a portal to another world and this last time, it did not work.
Consider if all the people in government were really space aliens. What would happen if they all returned home? Take the worst politician and create a story where everything he is doing is to save the world, or the nation, from taking over by something worse.
Take something that happens here, a highway blocked up by an accident. Now place it in the far future where ground cars are rare and people fly everywhere. What can back up the traffic, how to people cope, how do officials get the problem cleared up.
You have a politician caught taking bribes. Now consider a government were corruption is the norm. What would be the equivalent? A politician refusing bribes and doing exactly what he says he was going to do? I did one story idea a few years ago where the political creatures were expected to lie. It was part of the job. One guy did everything he said he would do and everybody was outraged. He was accused of not telling lies. He counters saying that he did lie. He lied about not doing what he promised.
A crime spree? aliens rebuilding their ship to leave. they have to make spare parts and gather materials, and will take all sorts of things to get it done.
What about a war between two countries, as an attempt to attract an interstellar government to intervene and take over the world, bring pure peace. What about someone who knows about this and is trying to stop it. How?
If something is silly, explore it. Make it plausible, believable, something that was logical from a strange point of view.
One can have loads of fun, and get lots of stories from the news, if one adds a little imagination.
As to the question of the week, I can say
YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Week 32 Wood working
Year 10, Week 32, Day One (week 554)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-21-10 Saturday
94 degrees, blue sky in the morning, becoming a high shield filtering sunlight, then low clouds blocked up the sky, mostly to the west, in the afternoon. Weather hit after I got home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
THURSDAY:
The turning club meeting. I was doing the demonstration on using jam chucks and double sided tape for doing platters.
I had found that the tail stock on the lathe was out of square. I decided to give it a try anyway. In my checking, I found a second little problem. The Live Center on the tail stock (the point mounted in a bearing so it spins with a wood, rather than the wood spin on it like on a nail) was too small for the way the project was going to work.
The wood face plates face plates I had to work with, were ones I had drilled and threaded to fit over the shaft that spins the wood. the actual spinning part of the live center was small, and had a big piece running around it that did not move. The hole rubbed against the unmoving part of the center.
I quickly made a jig. I took a piece of wood and made an insert into the hole. I turned it around and did a center mark for the tail stock to go into.
When it became time to start, I felt I was ready. I told about what I was after for the project and why I was doing it, showing examples I had. I showed the steps of mounting the wood into the lathe and I turned it on.
I work at maximum speed with my lathe at home, but this was at a third the speed and it looked fast. It started wobbling instantly because it was out of center. The wood came off and I got the lathe turned off almost fast enough. No disaster. the piece spun against the tool rest and did not fall off the lathe. A bit of the tape still stuck. The second chuck, not taped on, came off. someone picked that up for me.
Because I had prepared wood at each step, In case of some form of failure, I used them to show and explain the different stages I work, and explained what I did and why I did it that way. I felt I was a bit disjointed, as I had not practiced what I was going to say and do. I just knew the points I was after.
When I was done, I passed the examples around so they could see what it looked like at the various stages of the process.
There were several things I thought of later I should have said, but forgot at the time. Several people came by and told me I did very well and they learned something. That I never tell people that unless I mean it, I take that as something really meaningful.
I talked to a new turner, he has taken classes but has not assembled his own lathe, about the wood. He did not know that yellow pine can be used because of pressure treating. I told him that I get my wood at Lowes or Home Depot, and that if it is greenish, it is pressure treated, but they do have untreated wood too.
I have no problems talking to someone one on one, and to a few people. I am always in front of the group taking pictures. I found that my mind set changed once I started my presentation. I had taken some acting classes back in the 80s and actually was on stage once. I noticed then, like I noticed now, that even my vision changes before the crowd.
The best way to describe it was that I "stepped back," My vision was more wide angle, less focused. I sort of shifted into automatic. I was not "thinking" on my feet, but instead, reacting, more on instinct.
I can see why some people would panic before crowds. I would rather have been talking to them like I was face to face to them. It is a slight sense of not having maximum control over the situation..
I will say that if I have something to demonstrate, I will do so again. I have to say that I did have fun. One just has to prepare properly in case of mistakes and know what you are doing.
The club gives a gift card for doing the demonstrations. I had a partial gift card in my wallet, along with a gift certificate that the club members get after a certain number of purchases, the store's version of a discount for club members. The certificate was going to expire next weekend.
The store had a chuck on sale. Over the past several years, I had missed other sales on these chucks and they were something I had always wanted. I ended up buying one, at a third the normal cash I would have put out.
The chuck is designed to grab the wood and hold it in place while spinning the wood for you to do the cutting. The chucks come with different jaws, to grab different sized pieces of wood and holding them different ways. Some jaws (Coles Jaw) are designed to hold finished projects as you touch up the bottom, for example. This chuck comes with two jaws. the standard 50 mm and a 25mm jaw for small work. It also has a "Worm Screw" which is a special screw designed to fit into a drilled hole and has special threaded to hold the wood better than a normal screw.
Having a second chuck is of a great advantage. I can have different jaws on them, so I can shift the project to different ways of holding it without having to do a dozen screw operations. One can also have the same jaws on the chucks and leave a piece in the jaws while working on a different project for a moment. This improves accuracy. since nothing changes for the piece still in the jaws.
This was not money I really should have spent, but I had to take advantage of the situation. Now I have it.
-PICT0063.jpg)
Me at the turning club meeting
The chuck I purchased. the box, and laid out.
Saturday:
We started out yard sailing. I got a GAME BOY COLOR with one game and a case, four small cast iron fry pans which I am seasoning now, a coffee grinder, and a little fairy who's position I like for my next fairy carving. I also got a book on making historical navigational devices. I did not spend all that much money for all of it, either. It was more than I should, but not as much as I could have. I kept my hands off several items that I considered getting.
The four fry pans the fairy
I started the morning by unpacking my new chuck, and checking it out, taking a couple pictures. I did not mount it on the lathe until the afternoon when I needed to work on my crochet hooks. It does not close down absolutely to zero, but it does close down enough (without the jaws), to hold all my crochet hooks, some are really tiny, just slightly bigger than the minimum.
I found my tools for tightening and loosening my old chuck are the same, so that is good.
I mounted my crochet hooks and sanded them some more. That helped as many were not in good shape. I also worked the new handles I had made for them and they are better. Some ended up off center, so I re-cut the outside to make them centered. I also changed the profile to make them better on the hands.
Crochet hooks with handles.
My first project I decided to do, after unpacking all the stuff I took with me to the demonstration at the turning club, was to make a pencil cup out of a yellow pine four by four I recently. I like the look of the wood and I have a lot of them. I have a use for about four pencil cups. They are quick and simple to make and look pretty good to me.
Yellow pine Pencil Cup.
I got a lot done but not as much I as could have.
Tomorrow, I will make another pencil cup, possibly hand sand on my crochet hooks, maybe make a couple more hooks using the new chuck. I might also dig out some bass wood. I have several projects. One is to carve another fairy, so I can draw it up and cut out the blank, removing the worst of the spaces and get the basic shape. I also could spend some time and make some shaving flowers. That is a good project to do while just sitting in the shade and cooling off.
I have the partially done pieces I used for my demonstration that I should finish up too.
I have a lot to do, but will have to see what actually comes up.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 10, Week 32, Day Two (week 554)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-22-10 Sunday
88 degrees in the morning, 95 degrees when the sun finally shown under the awning in the late afternoon. High thick pebbles blocking the sun early morning, It got lower and thicker late morning, thinned out with big patches of blue sky and sunshine in the afternoon, but a thick high mountain of thunder towers appeared on the horizon on the other side of the everglades very late. Light breeze picked up to comfortable level in the afternoon. some humidity in the morning but that was gone with the first puffs of wind. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
After petting and feeding the beast, I dragged all my stuff out and got ready to work. it seams like a lot of stuff, drill kit box, dremmel box, carving basket, lathe, tools and stuff on a cart, bits and pieces all laid out.
I selected a piece of 4x4 and measured the middle, and cut it in half. I then mounted it between centers and rounded the piece, and made a tenon on one end. finally, I stuck it into the chuck and after making the outside right, I hollowed it out. I used my bowl gouge to get near depth and give me some space to work.
This is a soft wood I am using my skew chisel to run down the inside, making it straight. I whittle down the thickness of the walls in several passes. Just a little bit of work is required to do the bottom.
I could well have done four in the time I worked for the day, but I wanted to do something different. I put my lathe stuff away and cleaned up. I do make a lot of sawdust.
I dug out a piece of basswood with the idea of making a new fairy. I went inside to my fairies, which are on display in my mother's house, along with some other larger carvings. I pulled on one carving and several fell, right on top of a couple others I spent some time to glue pieces back in place. One of them had the pieces just glued on the base and the glue gave way so I glued them in place. Another of a father holding a fishing pole, lost his shoulder and his other hand. They are now back in place. I still have to stick a butterfly, on a wire, back in place on one carving, but decided not to deal with that right now.
Since I was messing with basswood, I looked at my stock, since the board I had was a bit too narrow. I did not have anything the right size. I would have to do a glue-up and I am not good at that.
I had an idea for a project and found a 3/4 inch board. It would be good enough for the project planned.
I drew along the edge of the board a line in the middle. I then re-sawed (bandsawed) it in half, making two thin boards. I then cut one of the boards into square sticks.
A bit later, I sat down and started making shaving flowers. The way this is done is you taper one end of a stick, which is the base of the flower. You then reach as high as you can with your knife and cut thin slices, stopping above the base and try to keep them attached. I started on the corners, and then as the piece became more rounded, I kept going round and round. One keeps doing this until there is no stick sticking into the flower. That naturally breaks off and one has a dandelion.
The fewer shavings that you accidentally cut off, the better the flower is. It seamed like one side always had some shavings where the knife slipped off before it got to the base.
Once the flower is free, I drill a hole in the base and glue in a skewer to be the stem. I might later color the flowers. I have to be careful. They will straighten out and look more like a cone, if the fibers get wet. I will try spray clear and spray paint to see if I can do it without effecting the shape.
Pencil cup and shaving flowers
My brother finished up two clocks he was scroll sawing. He had assembled it last week and today he added a finish. One of them is going with his wife to visit her sister.
He just started his Christmas ornaments. He selected his boards, cut them, glued them together and applied the patterns he will follow. They will dry for now and he will start cutting them out over the next few months. He does not always have enough time, so he will start on the ornaments that have the date, as they will be useless after this Christmas, and then do the others as time comes available.
For next week, I have a number of projects. I will look at what it would take to do a glue-up of basswood for a fairy. I will likely make some more flowers. I have no end to the projects I can work on. I just have to pick one or two and do them. During the week, I hope to have time to sand on my crochet hooks. I need to get them to where the wood does not catch on the fibers.
I will see what I actually do next week.
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-21-10 Saturday
94 degrees, blue sky in the morning, becoming a high shield filtering sunlight, then low clouds blocked up the sky, mostly to the west, in the afternoon. Weather hit after I got home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
THURSDAY:
The turning club meeting. I was doing the demonstration on using jam chucks and double sided tape for doing platters.
I had found that the tail stock on the lathe was out of square. I decided to give it a try anyway. In my checking, I found a second little problem. The Live Center on the tail stock (the point mounted in a bearing so it spins with a wood, rather than the wood spin on it like on a nail) was too small for the way the project was going to work.
The wood face plates face plates I had to work with, were ones I had drilled and threaded to fit over the shaft that spins the wood. the actual spinning part of the live center was small, and had a big piece running around it that did not move. The hole rubbed against the unmoving part of the center.
I quickly made a jig. I took a piece of wood and made an insert into the hole. I turned it around and did a center mark for the tail stock to go into.
When it became time to start, I felt I was ready. I told about what I was after for the project and why I was doing it, showing examples I had. I showed the steps of mounting the wood into the lathe and I turned it on.
I work at maximum speed with my lathe at home, but this was at a third the speed and it looked fast. It started wobbling instantly because it was out of center. The wood came off and I got the lathe turned off almost fast enough. No disaster. the piece spun against the tool rest and did not fall off the lathe. A bit of the tape still stuck. The second chuck, not taped on, came off. someone picked that up for me.
Because I had prepared wood at each step, In case of some form of failure, I used them to show and explain the different stages I work, and explained what I did and why I did it that way. I felt I was a bit disjointed, as I had not practiced what I was going to say and do. I just knew the points I was after.
When I was done, I passed the examples around so they could see what it looked like at the various stages of the process.
There were several things I thought of later I should have said, but forgot at the time. Several people came by and told me I did very well and they learned something. That I never tell people that unless I mean it, I take that as something really meaningful.
I talked to a new turner, he has taken classes but has not assembled his own lathe, about the wood. He did not know that yellow pine can be used because of pressure treating. I told him that I get my wood at Lowes or Home Depot, and that if it is greenish, it is pressure treated, but they do have untreated wood too.
I have no problems talking to someone one on one, and to a few people. I am always in front of the group taking pictures. I found that my mind set changed once I started my presentation. I had taken some acting classes back in the 80s and actually was on stage once. I noticed then, like I noticed now, that even my vision changes before the crowd.
The best way to describe it was that I "stepped back," My vision was more wide angle, less focused. I sort of shifted into automatic. I was not "thinking" on my feet, but instead, reacting, more on instinct.
I can see why some people would panic before crowds. I would rather have been talking to them like I was face to face to them. It is a slight sense of not having maximum control over the situation..
I will say that if I have something to demonstrate, I will do so again. I have to say that I did have fun. One just has to prepare properly in case of mistakes and know what you are doing.
The club gives a gift card for doing the demonstrations. I had a partial gift card in my wallet, along with a gift certificate that the club members get after a certain number of purchases, the store's version of a discount for club members. The certificate was going to expire next weekend.
The store had a chuck on sale. Over the past several years, I had missed other sales on these chucks and they were something I had always wanted. I ended up buying one, at a third the normal cash I would have put out.
The chuck is designed to grab the wood and hold it in place while spinning the wood for you to do the cutting. The chucks come with different jaws, to grab different sized pieces of wood and holding them different ways. Some jaws (Coles Jaw) are designed to hold finished projects as you touch up the bottom, for example. This chuck comes with two jaws. the standard 50 mm and a 25mm jaw for small work. It also has a "Worm Screw" which is a special screw designed to fit into a drilled hole and has special threaded to hold the wood better than a normal screw.
Having a second chuck is of a great advantage. I can have different jaws on them, so I can shift the project to different ways of holding it without having to do a dozen screw operations. One can also have the same jaws on the chucks and leave a piece in the jaws while working on a different project for a moment. This improves accuracy. since nothing changes for the piece still in the jaws.
This was not money I really should have spent, but I had to take advantage of the situation. Now I have it.
-PICT0063.jpg)
Me at the turning club meeting
The chuck I purchased. the box, and laid out.
Saturday:
We started out yard sailing. I got a GAME BOY COLOR with one game and a case, four small cast iron fry pans which I am seasoning now, a coffee grinder, and a little fairy who's position I like for my next fairy carving. I also got a book on making historical navigational devices. I did not spend all that much money for all of it, either. It was more than I should, but not as much as I could have. I kept my hands off several items that I considered getting.
The four fry pans the fairy
I started the morning by unpacking my new chuck, and checking it out, taking a couple pictures. I did not mount it on the lathe until the afternoon when I needed to work on my crochet hooks. It does not close down absolutely to zero, but it does close down enough (without the jaws), to hold all my crochet hooks, some are really tiny, just slightly bigger than the minimum.
I found my tools for tightening and loosening my old chuck are the same, so that is good.
I mounted my crochet hooks and sanded them some more. That helped as many were not in good shape. I also worked the new handles I had made for them and they are better. Some ended up off center, so I re-cut the outside to make them centered. I also changed the profile to make them better on the hands.
Crochet hooks with handles.
My first project I decided to do, after unpacking all the stuff I took with me to the demonstration at the turning club, was to make a pencil cup out of a yellow pine four by four I recently. I like the look of the wood and I have a lot of them. I have a use for about four pencil cups. They are quick and simple to make and look pretty good to me.
Yellow pine Pencil Cup.
I got a lot done but not as much I as could have.
Tomorrow, I will make another pencil cup, possibly hand sand on my crochet hooks, maybe make a couple more hooks using the new chuck. I might also dig out some bass wood. I have several projects. One is to carve another fairy, so I can draw it up and cut out the blank, removing the worst of the spaces and get the basic shape. I also could spend some time and make some shaving flowers. That is a good project to do while just sitting in the shade and cooling off.
I have the partially done pieces I used for my demonstration that I should finish up too.
I have a lot to do, but will have to see what actually comes up.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 10, Week 32, Day Two (week 554)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-22-10 Sunday
88 degrees in the morning, 95 degrees when the sun finally shown under the awning in the late afternoon. High thick pebbles blocking the sun early morning, It got lower and thicker late morning, thinned out with big patches of blue sky and sunshine in the afternoon, but a thick high mountain of thunder towers appeared on the horizon on the other side of the everglades very late. Light breeze picked up to comfortable level in the afternoon. some humidity in the morning but that was gone with the first puffs of wind. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
After petting and feeding the beast, I dragged all my stuff out and got ready to work. it seams like a lot of stuff, drill kit box, dremmel box, carving basket, lathe, tools and stuff on a cart, bits and pieces all laid out.
I selected a piece of 4x4 and measured the middle, and cut it in half. I then mounted it between centers and rounded the piece, and made a tenon on one end. finally, I stuck it into the chuck and after making the outside right, I hollowed it out. I used my bowl gouge to get near depth and give me some space to work.
This is a soft wood I am using my skew chisel to run down the inside, making it straight. I whittle down the thickness of the walls in several passes. Just a little bit of work is required to do the bottom.
I could well have done four in the time I worked for the day, but I wanted to do something different. I put my lathe stuff away and cleaned up. I do make a lot of sawdust.
I dug out a piece of basswood with the idea of making a new fairy. I went inside to my fairies, which are on display in my mother's house, along with some other larger carvings. I pulled on one carving and several fell, right on top of a couple others I spent some time to glue pieces back in place. One of them had the pieces just glued on the base and the glue gave way so I glued them in place. Another of a father holding a fishing pole, lost his shoulder and his other hand. They are now back in place. I still have to stick a butterfly, on a wire, back in place on one carving, but decided not to deal with that right now.
Since I was messing with basswood, I looked at my stock, since the board I had was a bit too narrow. I did not have anything the right size. I would have to do a glue-up and I am not good at that.
I had an idea for a project and found a 3/4 inch board. It would be good enough for the project planned.
I drew along the edge of the board a line in the middle. I then re-sawed (bandsawed) it in half, making two thin boards. I then cut one of the boards into square sticks.
A bit later, I sat down and started making shaving flowers. The way this is done is you taper one end of a stick, which is the base of the flower. You then reach as high as you can with your knife and cut thin slices, stopping above the base and try to keep them attached. I started on the corners, and then as the piece became more rounded, I kept going round and round. One keeps doing this until there is no stick sticking into the flower. That naturally breaks off and one has a dandelion.
The fewer shavings that you accidentally cut off, the better the flower is. It seamed like one side always had some shavings where the knife slipped off before it got to the base.
Once the flower is free, I drill a hole in the base and glue in a skewer to be the stem. I might later color the flowers. I have to be careful. They will straighten out and look more like a cone, if the fibers get wet. I will try spray clear and spray paint to see if I can do it without effecting the shape.
Pencil cup and shaving flowers
My brother finished up two clocks he was scroll sawing. He had assembled it last week and today he added a finish. One of them is going with his wife to visit her sister.
He just started his Christmas ornaments. He selected his boards, cut them, glued them together and applied the patterns he will follow. They will dry for now and he will start cutting them out over the next few months. He does not always have enough time, so he will start on the ornaments that have the date, as they will be useless after this Christmas, and then do the others as time comes available.
For next week, I have a number of projects. I will look at what it would take to do a glue-up of basswood for a fairy. I will likely make some more flowers. I have no end to the projects I can work on. I just have to pick one or two and do them. During the week, I hope to have time to sand on my crochet hooks. I need to get them to where the wood does not catch on the fibers.
I will see what I actually do next week.
Monday, August 16, 2010
08-16-10 Did You Write?
08-16-10 Did You Write?
Some here write every day. Others write every week. There are those among us that will go months without writing. Those are the authors this note is aiming at.
You see this note coming every week, and feel obligated to tell whether you wrote or not. it is better to say you wrote. With Monday approaching, you dig out some work in progress and do SOMETHING to it. Then one can say to the whole readership, YES I WROTE.
We don't care what you write. Blogging, technical writing, articles, writing assignments, world or character building, poetry. Even E-mails can be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing.
We do not care about word count. My writing this week is to reduce the word count for publication, rather than build it up. If you wrote one word, it would count if it were the RIGHT WORD.
We all know new writing is writing. Editing, though, is also writing, even if it is the work of others. I write by editing, blasting out the basic story, then filling in details, scenes, action, dialog until I have something that one might like to read. Critiquing is also editing.
Just about any word activity is going to count here as writing.
I have worked to cut down my Waxy Dragon story. I had hacked at the story and there was little left to it when I was done. I decided to start over again with a different tactic. Usually when I finish an editing pass, I would save the file with the date in the name. I took my best edit and lopped off the entire start of the story, and started my edit from there.
I have since done three editing passes. the first added to the story, rather than cutting it down. My second one cut it down to where I started. It was a tighter, better story. I just now finished a third edit and cut it down to about a third of the way I need to make it, which is not all that much. It is reading good, though. My next cut will require some harder cutting, but it won't be as problematic as my first attempt to cut the story back. One would think it was easier to remove a page..
On the story idea front, I am keeping up. As mentioned before, what I am posting is short, just over a page each.
I have 57 story ideas in my compost pile, including what I posted today, but I added four to them just today. two are juicy, look like fun to write. I have several in my stack that would be great for writing out, not just as story ideas, if I had the time.
This week, I will be doing a woodworking demonstration on making platters. I have never done a demonstration and there is a lot that can go wrong with this technique so it should be a lot of fun. I know I will mess up as I have no nervousness at all.
One of the experts in the club had heard of this technique, but had never seen it used, which is why he wanted me to demonstrate it. I have pieces ready at each stage just in case something goes wrong, and could do the demonstration without any real wood working, JUST IN CASE.
There is fun in trying something you have never done.
For a story idea you have a hobby worker who came up with an interesting idea on how to do something. He gets with a big name professional in his hobby and does a simple demonstration of what he does. the professional decides that the entire profession should know how to do that and arranges for the hobbyist to do the demonstration at a big council.
The hobbyist practices and prepares for the demonstration which he expects to just be some locals in the hobby. Behind the scenes, the professional has built up his reputation, saying the hobbyist is a super master who has figured out how to do the impossible.
The time comes, the hobbyist recognizes the names and faces of the people there. He is stunned as there are thousands of them watching.
He is not dumb, so he goes up to do his demonstration and speaks first. "I am just a hobbyist and I do not know what the professional has said about me. I just came up with a new way to do one thing while not yet having mastered other skills." The audience laughs, thinking he is joking.
He then starts his demonstration.
As to the question of the day,
I can say YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Some here write every day. Others write every week. There are those among us that will go months without writing. Those are the authors this note is aiming at.
You see this note coming every week, and feel obligated to tell whether you wrote or not. it is better to say you wrote. With Monday approaching, you dig out some work in progress and do SOMETHING to it. Then one can say to the whole readership, YES I WROTE.
We don't care what you write. Blogging, technical writing, articles, writing assignments, world or character building, poetry. Even E-mails can be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing.
We do not care about word count. My writing this week is to reduce the word count for publication, rather than build it up. If you wrote one word, it would count if it were the RIGHT WORD.
We all know new writing is writing. Editing, though, is also writing, even if it is the work of others. I write by editing, blasting out the basic story, then filling in details, scenes, action, dialog until I have something that one might like to read. Critiquing is also editing.
Just about any word activity is going to count here as writing.
I have worked to cut down my Waxy Dragon story. I had hacked at the story and there was little left to it when I was done. I decided to start over again with a different tactic. Usually when I finish an editing pass, I would save the file with the date in the name. I took my best edit and lopped off the entire start of the story, and started my edit from there.
I have since done three editing passes. the first added to the story, rather than cutting it down. My second one cut it down to where I started. It was a tighter, better story. I just now finished a third edit and cut it down to about a third of the way I need to make it, which is not all that much. It is reading good, though. My next cut will require some harder cutting, but it won't be as problematic as my first attempt to cut the story back. One would think it was easier to remove a page..
On the story idea front, I am keeping up. As mentioned before, what I am posting is short, just over a page each.
I have 57 story ideas in my compost pile, including what I posted today, but I added four to them just today. two are juicy, look like fun to write. I have several in my stack that would be great for writing out, not just as story ideas, if I had the time.
This week, I will be doing a woodworking demonstration on making platters. I have never done a demonstration and there is a lot that can go wrong with this technique so it should be a lot of fun. I know I will mess up as I have no nervousness at all.
One of the experts in the club had heard of this technique, but had never seen it used, which is why he wanted me to demonstrate it. I have pieces ready at each stage just in case something goes wrong, and could do the demonstration without any real wood working, JUST IN CASE.
There is fun in trying something you have never done.
For a story idea you have a hobby worker who came up with an interesting idea on how to do something. He gets with a big name professional in his hobby and does a simple demonstration of what he does. the professional decides that the entire profession should know how to do that and arranges for the hobbyist to do the demonstration at a big council.
The hobbyist practices and prepares for the demonstration which he expects to just be some locals in the hobby. Behind the scenes, the professional has built up his reputation, saying the hobbyist is a super master who has figured out how to do the impossible.
The time comes, the hobbyist recognizes the names and faces of the people there. He is stunned as there are thousands of them watching.
He is not dumb, so he goes up to do his demonstration and speaks first. "I am just a hobbyist and I do not know what the professional has said about me. I just came up with a new way to do one thing while not yet having mastered other skills." The audience laughs, thinking he is joking.
He then starts his demonstration.
As to the question of the day,
I can say YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Sunday, August 15, 2010
week 553 Woodworking
year 10, Week 31, Day One (week 553)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-14-10 Saturday
98 degrees under the awning (I was out in the sun most of the day), a feathery shield up high all day long, thicker in the morning to diffuse the sun slightly, thinner during the day, some low puffs, one had the nerve to block the sun for about twenty minutes, light breeze after the early morning made it nice. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
When I walked into the back yard, I was tempted to wash the beast's mouth out with soap. He is not supposed to use that kind of language around me. It was horrible. When he saw me, he said "meow!" Oh what foul language he uses.
Other than later in the day when all he wanted was my company, The beast acted exactly like a cat. Sweet in his own way.
It is not woodworking, but I finished my first wash cloth in Crochet. I finished it with a stitch I had never used and it came out good, not perfect, but good. I gave it to Mom and she says it works quite well.
I have a wood turning demonstration on making platters with double sided tape. I needed to prepare several props for the demonstration. What I needed was examples to show what happens when the center of the board is near rim and base of the plate. I had one made last week but needed to make the other. the base gives an oval shape, and the top gives an hour glass shape to the rings.
I then wanted several pieces at different stages of construction. These props are for in case I run into problems during the demonstration. I set the error to the side and continue with the next one. I can also do partial wood turning and swap pieces to gain some time.
I now have the two examples of grain patterns, and then one that is almost done, except the center of the inside. I had one with some great knots that the tape would not stick to. I need to go to another piece and do that later.
Tomorrow, I have to finish my pieces for the demonstration, and then box up all my tools so I can grab then Thursday. I need to try not to forget anything. I likely will, but will try not to.
I will see what all I accomplish tomorrow.
year 10, Week 31, Day Two (week 553)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-15-10 Sunday
98 degrees as the high under the awning, Filtered sun in the morning by a high feather mesh, that got thicker, then lower clouds slid in after lunch. Some showers in other cities but good weather the entire time I was working. A breeze picked up from nothing in the morning to being helpful in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I started the day by petting both cats. Scarface is looking good and he got a lot of petting. He ate his fill and left. The backyard beast did not get as much attention as he wanted. He had laid down for a bit after eating, and when he came out, his sign for "tend me, plebe," I was busy at the lathe. He got tired of waiting and went back to bed and I never saw him the rest of the day.
Little curly tail lizards were out. These are larger than the natives, but are still small. Mom found out last year that they like cat food so we feed them every once in a while, and they also pick up wayward pieces at times. They come quite close under the right conditions. They got a few nuggets.
My main project was to prepare for the turning club meeting. I selected another rounded piece of wood and mounted it on the lathe. I used a wood face plate that was drilled and threaded to fit on the shaft of my lathe. I found that it was not square when I mounted it with the tenon, so I removed it from the board and re-finished the surface so it was square.
Each chuck has numbered jaws. If you mount something in the jaws, one should mark where one of the jaws is so you can re-mount it in place. The reason for doing this is that chucks might not be exactly square to the shaft for many reasons. This improves how square the piece will be if you take it off one or more times.
I then mounted the board again and shaped the underside of the rim and stopped there.
I found that the double sided tape sticks better if it sits for a while, especially under pressure. I have also found the tape where it will not stick, no matter what. That is the problem with the tape, either it sticks, or it won't and it is never when you want it to be that way.
I noticed that I had left my better wooden face plates attached to the work so I have to use some second rate face plates during my demonstration, simply because they were what I had left.
I gathered everything together, tools pieces, stock, materials, all within a box. I will check it over when I pick it up Thursday and make sure I have everything I need.
I had finished my platter turning and wondered what I should work on next. I opened the shed and saw the four by four I got last week. I had cut some pieces off, so I went back to the lathe and got a piece of wood. mounted it and made a pencil cup. I do like the look of yellow pine.
Several weeks back, I made some crochet hooks and accidentally nicked the inside of the hook, making them useless for crochet. I lopped off the hooks and put new hooks on the other end of the wood, doing it right this time. Because they are short, I have swapped the bigger handles I made for other crochet hooks. This saves them where they would be tossed normally. I have a bunch of crochet hooks that need serious sanding and finishing.
My brother finally finished some clocks he had started a couple years ago. All that needs to be done is to apply a finish to them and add the mechanism.
Thursday I will go to the Wood Turning Club meeting. I will demonstrate making platters using double sided tape. I know I will mess up royally as I am not nervous at all.
Next weekend, I hope to make something of interest, but not sure what. I have a number of projects that don't involve wood working that I have to work on, so I don't expect to get anything done this week to demonstrate to the club.
They do have a club challenge of platters. People will bring in their platters and a winner will be selected randomly. It is fun to do these projects.
I will see what really happens next weekend.
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-14-10 Saturday
98 degrees under the awning (I was out in the sun most of the day), a feathery shield up high all day long, thicker in the morning to diffuse the sun slightly, thinner during the day, some low puffs, one had the nerve to block the sun for about twenty minutes, light breeze after the early morning made it nice. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
When I walked into the back yard, I was tempted to wash the beast's mouth out with soap. He is not supposed to use that kind of language around me. It was horrible. When he saw me, he said "meow!" Oh what foul language he uses.
Other than later in the day when all he wanted was my company, The beast acted exactly like a cat. Sweet in his own way.
It is not woodworking, but I finished my first wash cloth in Crochet. I finished it with a stitch I had never used and it came out good, not perfect, but good. I gave it to Mom and she says it works quite well.
I have a wood turning demonstration on making platters with double sided tape. I needed to prepare several props for the demonstration. What I needed was examples to show what happens when the center of the board is near rim and base of the plate. I had one made last week but needed to make the other. the base gives an oval shape, and the top gives an hour glass shape to the rings.
I then wanted several pieces at different stages of construction. These props are for in case I run into problems during the demonstration. I set the error to the side and continue with the next one. I can also do partial wood turning and swap pieces to gain some time.
I now have the two examples of grain patterns, and then one that is almost done, except the center of the inside. I had one with some great knots that the tape would not stick to. I need to go to another piece and do that later.
Tomorrow, I have to finish my pieces for the demonstration, and then box up all my tools so I can grab then Thursday. I need to try not to forget anything. I likely will, but will try not to.
I will see what all I accomplish tomorrow.
year 10, Week 31, Day Two (week 553)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-15-10 Sunday
98 degrees as the high under the awning, Filtered sun in the morning by a high feather mesh, that got thicker, then lower clouds slid in after lunch. Some showers in other cities but good weather the entire time I was working. A breeze picked up from nothing in the morning to being helpful in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I started the day by petting both cats. Scarface is looking good and he got a lot of petting. He ate his fill and left. The backyard beast did not get as much attention as he wanted. He had laid down for a bit after eating, and when he came out, his sign for "tend me, plebe," I was busy at the lathe. He got tired of waiting and went back to bed and I never saw him the rest of the day.
Little curly tail lizards were out. These are larger than the natives, but are still small. Mom found out last year that they like cat food so we feed them every once in a while, and they also pick up wayward pieces at times. They come quite close under the right conditions. They got a few nuggets.
My main project was to prepare for the turning club meeting. I selected another rounded piece of wood and mounted it on the lathe. I used a wood face plate that was drilled and threaded to fit on the shaft of my lathe. I found that it was not square when I mounted it with the tenon, so I removed it from the board and re-finished the surface so it was square.
Each chuck has numbered jaws. If you mount something in the jaws, one should mark where one of the jaws is so you can re-mount it in place. The reason for doing this is that chucks might not be exactly square to the shaft for many reasons. This improves how square the piece will be if you take it off one or more times.
I then mounted the board again and shaped the underside of the rim and stopped there.
I found that the double sided tape sticks better if it sits for a while, especially under pressure. I have also found the tape where it will not stick, no matter what. That is the problem with the tape, either it sticks, or it won't and it is never when you want it to be that way.
I noticed that I had left my better wooden face plates attached to the work so I have to use some second rate face plates during my demonstration, simply because they were what I had left.
I gathered everything together, tools pieces, stock, materials, all within a box. I will check it over when I pick it up Thursday and make sure I have everything I need.
I had finished my platter turning and wondered what I should work on next. I opened the shed and saw the four by four I got last week. I had cut some pieces off, so I went back to the lathe and got a piece of wood. mounted it and made a pencil cup. I do like the look of yellow pine.
Several weeks back, I made some crochet hooks and accidentally nicked the inside of the hook, making them useless for crochet. I lopped off the hooks and put new hooks on the other end of the wood, doing it right this time. Because they are short, I have swapped the bigger handles I made for other crochet hooks. This saves them where they would be tossed normally. I have a bunch of crochet hooks that need serious sanding and finishing.
My brother finally finished some clocks he had started a couple years ago. All that needs to be done is to apply a finish to them and add the mechanism.
Thursday I will go to the Wood Turning Club meeting. I will demonstrate making platters using double sided tape. I know I will mess up royally as I am not nervous at all.
Next weekend, I hope to make something of interest, but not sure what. I have a number of projects that don't involve wood working that I have to work on, so I don't expect to get anything done this week to demonstrate to the club.
They do have a club challenge of platters. People will bring in their platters and a winner will be selected randomly. It is fun to do these projects.
I will see what really happens next weekend.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Did You Write? 08-09-10
Lee and Nancy have not been around here for a while. They are working hard on a new publishing project and are writing like mad.
You can read a bit about it here
http://www.thefreechoice.info/2010/07/pro-se-productions-premieres.html
I am aiming my writing to this publication but have a ways to go on it. I also work so that kills a lot of writing time.
Did You Write? 08-09-10
.
In an effort to help myself, and many others to write with more regularity, I post this prompt. While many will write every day without the prompt, many of us are lucky to write more than a few weeks a year. This note is a prompt to get those kinds of people to write each week, hopefully to become a habit. Some habits are worth developing.
We all agree that new writing is writing. Editing is also writing, even if it is someone else's work or one is critiquing the work. Poetry, writing assignments, technical writing, blogging, article writing, world and character development are all writing. Even E-mails can be writing, if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing.
We are not concerned with how much one writes. When writing new, one loves to get production, but if one is editing, especially for publication, one's word count might actually go down, on purpose.
As for me, I had sent my work in progress to my writing partner. I had cut a 25,000 word story down to 15,000. My writing partner said it was choppy and needed a different ending.
I decided to try a different tact. I took the best version of my edits (When I completed a pass, I would save it as a file with the date in the name so I had different versions to dig into if needed). I lopped off the whole beginning that my writing partner said slowed the story down and have worked from there. That lopped off six thousand words right there. I started close to my target. I have gone over the story, changing scenes and sentences as I had learned during my previous edit attempt. I have added two hundred words to the piece, going the wrong way, but I am improving the piece. Once I finish this pass, fixing the piece, I can then cut out some of the fluff and bring it down to where it needs to be.
I am at a point where a major change in the story has to happen to get the ending I am after. I have the basic concept to the change, but have to work out some little details to make it plausible and interesting.
On the story idea front, including the one I am posting tonight, I still have 53 ideas in my compost pile. My story ideas are staying short, just getting onto page two for most of them. I used to have a lot of pride in them being as long as possible, but I don't have time to write like that and still write on my work in progress.
I have given up some on line time used to post story ideas. I will write them, and then post them the next day. I learned that my on line time eats into writing time. it takes just a little longer to post two or three notes as it does to post one.
I still get those ideas that I just have to write and now, but have dug into older ideas more recently.
I got my truck back last week and it is so nice to be able to move around on my own. I am about to the end of that period where you listen for every noise, feel any change in how it runs, sniff for smell in case something else is going on. It is doing well. Last week I mentioned about the idea of whether you could survive in any of your stories. I can now say absolutely not. I clocked the total distance I walked last weekend when I walked part way home from work. Humiliating! At most, it was two and a half miles. I thought I had walked over three. I could never live in a place where walking was the only mode of transportation.
On the wood working front, I have a demonstration in wood turning to do next week. I had a wonderful practice session this weekend where nothing really went right. I had one practice come within a short time of being finished, but two others barely got started when I had failures.
People involved in knitting and crochet talk about how yarn somehow appears in their baskets at the stores, or they leap into their hands. This weekend, I went to pick up a board I needed for my demonstration. A four by four board leaped out of the rack and started hitting me. the only way I could keep it from hitting me was to hold it down on the cart with the board I was after. It calmed down only after I paid for both boards. then I was stuck bringing it home.
To use that as story idea, consider a maker of magic items. there is a magic around him that is supposed to catch his attention to stuff that will be useful in the varied magical items he needs. The spell was not quite made right and he cannot turn the spell off, and cannot change it either. The spell does not want to be ignored in the suggestions and it looks at things he might need years from now, for anything he might use, even if it will go bad long before he can get to it.
He walks through a story and objects literally fly off the shelf into his basket. larger, heavier objects will tap him to get his attention. In some cases, the tapping will become abuse if he ignores them hard enough.
He walks into a hardware store and knows he needs some heavy boards, but wants to save his money until he needs it as he may have to use the money for some thing else first. he grabs the board he needs right now, and a large beam lifts up and starts hitting him. It is floating in the air as it bangs on him. it hurts to block it. He finally catches it and pins it down on his cart. He knows that burying it in a stack of the same kind of board, will simply be an invitation for another board to rise up and attack him.
He holds the board down, figuring he can let it go near the cash register. Each time he lets off the weight, it starts to rise. It also tries to bang his hands against the other board or against the metal of the cart.
He ends up buying it, even though he cannot really afford it. His spell defeated him again.
As to the question of the day,
I can honestly say,
YES, I WROTE.
DID YOU WRITE?
You can read a bit about it here
http://www.thefreechoice.info/2010/07/pro-se-productions-premieres.html
I am aiming my writing to this publication but have a ways to go on it. I also work so that kills a lot of writing time.
Did You Write? 08-09-10
.
In an effort to help myself, and many others to write with more regularity, I post this prompt. While many will write every day without the prompt, many of us are lucky to write more than a few weeks a year. This note is a prompt to get those kinds of people to write each week, hopefully to become a habit. Some habits are worth developing.
We all agree that new writing is writing. Editing is also writing, even if it is someone else's work or one is critiquing the work. Poetry, writing assignments, technical writing, blogging, article writing, world and character development are all writing. Even E-mails can be writing, if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing.
We are not concerned with how much one writes. When writing new, one loves to get production, but if one is editing, especially for publication, one's word count might actually go down, on purpose.
As for me, I had sent my work in progress to my writing partner. I had cut a 25,000 word story down to 15,000. My writing partner said it was choppy and needed a different ending.
I decided to try a different tact. I took the best version of my edits (When I completed a pass, I would save it as a file with the date in the name so I had different versions to dig into if needed). I lopped off the whole beginning that my writing partner said slowed the story down and have worked from there. That lopped off six thousand words right there. I started close to my target. I have gone over the story, changing scenes and sentences as I had learned during my previous edit attempt. I have added two hundred words to the piece, going the wrong way, but I am improving the piece. Once I finish this pass, fixing the piece, I can then cut out some of the fluff and bring it down to where it needs to be.
I am at a point where a major change in the story has to happen to get the ending I am after. I have the basic concept to the change, but have to work out some little details to make it plausible and interesting.
On the story idea front, including the one I am posting tonight, I still have 53 ideas in my compost pile. My story ideas are staying short, just getting onto page two for most of them. I used to have a lot of pride in them being as long as possible, but I don't have time to write like that and still write on my work in progress.
I have given up some on line time used to post story ideas. I will write them, and then post them the next day. I learned that my on line time eats into writing time. it takes just a little longer to post two or three notes as it does to post one.
I still get those ideas that I just have to write and now, but have dug into older ideas more recently.
I got my truck back last week and it is so nice to be able to move around on my own. I am about to the end of that period where you listen for every noise, feel any change in how it runs, sniff for smell in case something else is going on. It is doing well. Last week I mentioned about the idea of whether you could survive in any of your stories. I can now say absolutely not. I clocked the total distance I walked last weekend when I walked part way home from work. Humiliating! At most, it was two and a half miles. I thought I had walked over three. I could never live in a place where walking was the only mode of transportation.
On the wood working front, I have a demonstration in wood turning to do next week. I had a wonderful practice session this weekend where nothing really went right. I had one practice come within a short time of being finished, but two others barely got started when I had failures.
People involved in knitting and crochet talk about how yarn somehow appears in their baskets at the stores, or they leap into their hands. This weekend, I went to pick up a board I needed for my demonstration. A four by four board leaped out of the rack and started hitting me. the only way I could keep it from hitting me was to hold it down on the cart with the board I was after. It calmed down only after I paid for both boards. then I was stuck bringing it home.
To use that as story idea, consider a maker of magic items. there is a magic around him that is supposed to catch his attention to stuff that will be useful in the varied magical items he needs. The spell was not quite made right and he cannot turn the spell off, and cannot change it either. The spell does not want to be ignored in the suggestions and it looks at things he might need years from now, for anything he might use, even if it will go bad long before he can get to it.
He walks through a story and objects literally fly off the shelf into his basket. larger, heavier objects will tap him to get his attention. In some cases, the tapping will become abuse if he ignores them hard enough.
He walks into a hardware store and knows he needs some heavy boards, but wants to save his money until he needs it as he may have to use the money for some thing else first. he grabs the board he needs right now, and a large beam lifts up and starts hitting him. It is floating in the air as it bangs on him. it hurts to block it. He finally catches it and pins it down on his cart. He knows that burying it in a stack of the same kind of board, will simply be an invitation for another board to rise up and attack him.
He holds the board down, figuring he can let it go near the cash register. Each time he lets off the weight, it starts to rise. It also tries to bang his hands against the other board or against the metal of the cart.
He ends up buying it, even though he cannot really afford it. His spell defeated him again.
As to the question of the day,
I can honestly say,
YES, I WROTE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Week 552 Wood Working
year 10, Week 30, Day One (week 552)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-07-10 Saturday
90 degrees in the morning, 96 in the afternoon under the awning. High streaky haze with random low puffs, mostly sunny in the morning with the puffs increasing as the day passed. A breeze picked up after the early morning. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
WEEEEEE!!!! It is fun to be able to drive around again. Two weekends without a ride was a royal bother. I spent the first few days listening to any little sound our any feel that was not normal. I think I am now to the point where it is normal for me.
Friday:
I went down to Dania to the Antique shop and the Dania Beach Water Gardens. I stopped at the antique shop first. He had found the box that had my woodworking, so I set up my display. Everything was wrapped nicely. It was like Christmas as I had forgotten what all I had. I ended up with a display we both agreed was nice.
I went to the Dania Beach Water Gardens to drop off the face vase. I missed the owner, so I decided to drop the vase off at the antique shop for "storage." I will pick it up from there later to drop off. I have an agreement with the Antique shop where I can "borrow" my work if I have a show or something. I just have to let him know ahead of time. I don't have that agreement with the Water gardens.
Saturday:
We went yard sailing in the morning. I found a pump style coffee dispenser. I had been looking for one since Christmas. I also found some gifts.
I had gone to a craft show in the area many months ago and there was a really good wood worker. He happened to have a yard sale and we talked a bit. He was selling some extra tools. No, I did not buy any.
The beast, that is pretending to be a cat, really missed me. Mom gives him just enough attention to for him to eat his fill and that is all. He might get it twice a day, but that is it. I will stop and give him attention several times during the day. when he saw me, he knew he would get some happiness. He was quite satisfied with me just being there. He loved the company even when I was ignoring him.
Mom had a greeting card holder. It was a set of curled wires to hold the cards, set in a base. Mom wanted the wires to be cut off so she could labor a bunch of the plants she was afraid she would forget what kind they were. It ended up that there was one she got last year that she has no clue what it was.
My dremmel with a cutting disk did a good job of slicing through the wires. I kept the base as it is brass. I messed up the threads of the screw-in insert, that the wires were brazed to, in my attempt to remove the wire ends. It was well brazed.
Mom had a bunch of screws and screw driver bits in a box. I separated out the bits. Mom put them in a jar.
My first woodworking project was to take my last dress vase start and re-mount it on the lathe. I had to cut a tenon in the base so I could try to hollow it out more.
I then turned it around. It was not quite centered. I tried several tools and they were not working. My brother made me a boring bar and it had a set screw to hold the bits in place. I dashed to get a shorter one as this one stuck out way too much. when I got back, I wondered if forsner bits would fit in the hole. It looked close to the right size. I had to draw the set screw out a little, but the forsner bit went in nicely.
I had also run to the little hardware store to get a shorter set screw for the boring bar as the original one (the one my brother had) stuck out too far. With the new set screw, I was able to work without it scraping on the wood.
I tried the forsner bit with the boring bar. I am working in oak, and it did not want to cut the wood. I would lean into the wood with the bit, and the lathe would start to roll. Another thing was that the vase was not exactly centered for some reason so it was shaking my entire body as I leaned into it.
My lathe is set up so that I have two levers I can release and the wheels will tip up out of the way and the lathe will sit on some blocks attached to the underside of the frame. that was so the lathe could be rolled around easily, but I could set it down solidly. I have not used that since they were added. I simply let it sit on the wheels.
I really needed to drop the wheels so the lathe would not roll. I only went in about half an inch, even going to a smaller bit, before I gave up. Oak does not cut easily and since these are really old forsner bits, they might be dull.
I took out the carving basket but got side track and ended up packing everything away instead.
I did quite a bit of stuff, but accomplished little. I can say, for once I got to work wood today which was better than the past two weeks.
Tomorrow I will work wood again.
year 10, Week 30, Day One (week 552)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-08-10 Sunday
90 degrees, high rippled clouds in the morning, mid level puffs slipped in and some lower, "pregnant" puffs came through. About the time I put the very last things in, some dripping had started. It appears like we are getting a tropical depression. My brother and I sat out and read a while during a gully washer. The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of tourism reminds me to tell you that we never get rain here in South Florida. All we get is Liquid Sunshine.
I stopped at Home Depot for a board. I was after a two by twelve yellow pine board. white pine does not get big enough. I chose one with tight rings with the pith running through it.
While I was there. a four by four attacked me. The only way I could keep it from hitting me was to hold it on my cart along side my selected board. It relaxed only after I paid for both boards.
The beast of the back yard acted very much like a cat. He absorbed all the attention I could give him. Scar face showed up and I gave him some petting too. He is not as scruffy looking, in spite the fact that Mom says she has seen him only once the past week.
I cleared the space in front of the grinder and sharpened my bowl gouges. It had been a long time. What a difference this made. These were the original bowl gouges I got and there is not much fluting left in the gouges, I have worked them down so far.
I got a good shape on the tips and then touched them with the diamond hone to make them that much sharper. That really made a difference in how they cut.
I needed to cut some of the two by twelve into squares. I was looking at what I could use to cut it. Me and hand saws don't get along. My drill kit's batteries were all dead so I could not use the saber saw. I went into the shed and looked around. I missed it twice, but there was the black case that contained a circular saw. I got that out and that solved my problem. I cut four platter blanks.
I found the center of the platter blanks and then drew circles around the edges to show where the corners needed to be cut. The band saw removed the corners of three of them. I had set the fourth to the side as an example of what one starts with when one makes the platters.
I turned one plate. I sort of forgot a couple steps, but did them differently to make it work. I had the very last nib of the platter to remove when it hopped off the lathe. I tried cleaning it up a little more and it hopped off again. I stopped on that one.
I tried turning two others and the tape decided it was not going to hang on. I went though a bunch of tape and it just would not hang on. I decided that was good enough. and set them to the side.
I decided to cut some pieces off the four by four. I used the band saw for that. I carefully held the board well away from the saw and moved it into the blade. It is not the best way to do it, but I got no binding and the cuts were not grossly out of square.
I mounted one piece on the lathe but had the wrong tip on the tail stock. I have a tail stock with many points. I had an open ring I can run a drill through. It did not have a good hold on the end of the wood so when I touched the corners with the bowl gouge, the work hopped off the lathe. I decided that was good enough and ended my day by cleaning up.
Several weeks ago, I worked with one of the club's mentors, showing him my technique on making the platters. He yelled at me for not having sharp tools, and then showed me how to use the tool to get better surfaces. Today was the first time I could really try it out.
When I turn, I usually get "flour" and grit. This time, most of what I got was hay. The sharpened tools and the new technique really made for nice surfaces, even though it was not even because my tool rest needs work, to be made flat and smooth.
I need to replace my sanding disk on my disk sander, so I think I will use it up fixing my tool rest next week.
In all, the day went pretty good. I need to do some work on technique but did get some results today. I got some more wood to play with. I now need to apply myself to make full use of my time to use it up.
Next week, I need to get ready for the turning club meeting. I want several platters made. The way the rings in the platter looks is different if the center is toward the top or bottom. The next platter needs to be opposite than the one I made today so I can have that as an example.
I need to make some platters up, stopping at each stage just in case I run into problems. I will do the demonstration on one platter, but if I run into problems, I will be able to grab a platter at that stage and continue to work.
I want to make something out of one of the chunks of four by four.
I will see what actually happens next weekend.
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-07-10 Saturday
90 degrees in the morning, 96 in the afternoon under the awning. High streaky haze with random low puffs, mostly sunny in the morning with the puffs increasing as the day passed. A breeze picked up after the early morning. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
WEEEEEE!!!! It is fun to be able to drive around again. Two weekends without a ride was a royal bother. I spent the first few days listening to any little sound our any feel that was not normal. I think I am now to the point where it is normal for me.
Friday:
I went down to Dania to the Antique shop and the Dania Beach Water Gardens. I stopped at the antique shop first. He had found the box that had my woodworking, so I set up my display. Everything was wrapped nicely. It was like Christmas as I had forgotten what all I had. I ended up with a display we both agreed was nice.
I went to the Dania Beach Water Gardens to drop off the face vase. I missed the owner, so I decided to drop the vase off at the antique shop for "storage." I will pick it up from there later to drop off. I have an agreement with the Antique shop where I can "borrow" my work if I have a show or something. I just have to let him know ahead of time. I don't have that agreement with the Water gardens.
Saturday:
We went yard sailing in the morning. I found a pump style coffee dispenser. I had been looking for one since Christmas. I also found some gifts.
I had gone to a craft show in the area many months ago and there was a really good wood worker. He happened to have a yard sale and we talked a bit. He was selling some extra tools. No, I did not buy any.
The beast, that is pretending to be a cat, really missed me. Mom gives him just enough attention to for him to eat his fill and that is all. He might get it twice a day, but that is it. I will stop and give him attention several times during the day. when he saw me, he knew he would get some happiness. He was quite satisfied with me just being there. He loved the company even when I was ignoring him.
Mom had a greeting card holder. It was a set of curled wires to hold the cards, set in a base. Mom wanted the wires to be cut off so she could labor a bunch of the plants she was afraid she would forget what kind they were. It ended up that there was one she got last year that she has no clue what it was.
My dremmel with a cutting disk did a good job of slicing through the wires. I kept the base as it is brass. I messed up the threads of the screw-in insert, that the wires were brazed to, in my attempt to remove the wire ends. It was well brazed.
Mom had a bunch of screws and screw driver bits in a box. I separated out the bits. Mom put them in a jar.
My first woodworking project was to take my last dress vase start and re-mount it on the lathe. I had to cut a tenon in the base so I could try to hollow it out more.
I then turned it around. It was not quite centered. I tried several tools and they were not working. My brother made me a boring bar and it had a set screw to hold the bits in place. I dashed to get a shorter one as this one stuck out way too much. when I got back, I wondered if forsner bits would fit in the hole. It looked close to the right size. I had to draw the set screw out a little, but the forsner bit went in nicely.
I had also run to the little hardware store to get a shorter set screw for the boring bar as the original one (the one my brother had) stuck out too far. With the new set screw, I was able to work without it scraping on the wood.
I tried the forsner bit with the boring bar. I am working in oak, and it did not want to cut the wood. I would lean into the wood with the bit, and the lathe would start to roll. Another thing was that the vase was not exactly centered for some reason so it was shaking my entire body as I leaned into it.
My lathe is set up so that I have two levers I can release and the wheels will tip up out of the way and the lathe will sit on some blocks attached to the underside of the frame. that was so the lathe could be rolled around easily, but I could set it down solidly. I have not used that since they were added. I simply let it sit on the wheels.
I really needed to drop the wheels so the lathe would not roll. I only went in about half an inch, even going to a smaller bit, before I gave up. Oak does not cut easily and since these are really old forsner bits, they might be dull.
I took out the carving basket but got side track and ended up packing everything away instead.
I did quite a bit of stuff, but accomplished little. I can say, for once I got to work wood today which was better than the past two weeks.
Tomorrow I will work wood again.
year 10, Week 30, Day One (week 552)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-08-10 Sunday
90 degrees, high rippled clouds in the morning, mid level puffs slipped in and some lower, "pregnant" puffs came through. About the time I put the very last things in, some dripping had started. It appears like we are getting a tropical depression. My brother and I sat out and read a while during a gully washer. The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of tourism reminds me to tell you that we never get rain here in South Florida. All we get is Liquid Sunshine.
I stopped at Home Depot for a board. I was after a two by twelve yellow pine board. white pine does not get big enough. I chose one with tight rings with the pith running through it.
While I was there. a four by four attacked me. The only way I could keep it from hitting me was to hold it on my cart along side my selected board. It relaxed only after I paid for both boards.
The beast of the back yard acted very much like a cat. He absorbed all the attention I could give him. Scar face showed up and I gave him some petting too. He is not as scruffy looking, in spite the fact that Mom says she has seen him only once the past week.
I cleared the space in front of the grinder and sharpened my bowl gouges. It had been a long time. What a difference this made. These were the original bowl gouges I got and there is not much fluting left in the gouges, I have worked them down so far.
I got a good shape on the tips and then touched them with the diamond hone to make them that much sharper. That really made a difference in how they cut.
I needed to cut some of the two by twelve into squares. I was looking at what I could use to cut it. Me and hand saws don't get along. My drill kit's batteries were all dead so I could not use the saber saw. I went into the shed and looked around. I missed it twice, but there was the black case that contained a circular saw. I got that out and that solved my problem. I cut four platter blanks.
I found the center of the platter blanks and then drew circles around the edges to show where the corners needed to be cut. The band saw removed the corners of three of them. I had set the fourth to the side as an example of what one starts with when one makes the platters.
I turned one plate. I sort of forgot a couple steps, but did them differently to make it work. I had the very last nib of the platter to remove when it hopped off the lathe. I tried cleaning it up a little more and it hopped off again. I stopped on that one.
I tried turning two others and the tape decided it was not going to hang on. I went though a bunch of tape and it just would not hang on. I decided that was good enough. and set them to the side.
I decided to cut some pieces off the four by four. I used the band saw for that. I carefully held the board well away from the saw and moved it into the blade. It is not the best way to do it, but I got no binding and the cuts were not grossly out of square.
I mounted one piece on the lathe but had the wrong tip on the tail stock. I have a tail stock with many points. I had an open ring I can run a drill through. It did not have a good hold on the end of the wood so when I touched the corners with the bowl gouge, the work hopped off the lathe. I decided that was good enough and ended my day by cleaning up.
Several weeks ago, I worked with one of the club's mentors, showing him my technique on making the platters. He yelled at me for not having sharp tools, and then showed me how to use the tool to get better surfaces. Today was the first time I could really try it out.
When I turn, I usually get "flour" and grit. This time, most of what I got was hay. The sharpened tools and the new technique really made for nice surfaces, even though it was not even because my tool rest needs work, to be made flat and smooth.
I need to replace my sanding disk on my disk sander, so I think I will use it up fixing my tool rest next week.
In all, the day went pretty good. I need to do some work on technique but did get some results today. I got some more wood to play with. I now need to apply myself to make full use of my time to use it up.
Next week, I need to get ready for the turning club meeting. I want several platters made. The way the rings in the platter looks is different if the center is toward the top or bottom. The next platter needs to be opposite than the one I made today so I can have that as an example.
I need to make some platters up, stopping at each stage just in case I run into problems. I will do the demonstration on one platter, but if I run into problems, I will be able to grab a platter at that stage and continue to work.
I want to make something out of one of the chunks of four by four.
I will see what actually happens next weekend.
Monday, August 2, 2010
August 02, 2010, Did You Write?
August 02, 2010, Did You Write?
Here is a place to brag about your accomplishment, cry about your failures, and otherwise tell about what is going on in your life.
By reporting, good or bad, how you did with your writing, this note will become a prompt to get you to write weekly, rather than a bunch of writing one month, and then nothing for three months before you write again. Knowing this note is coming up each week may get you to open your work in progress just so that you can report that you wrote something. That might, over time, become a habit, to lead to getting a couple projects finished and possibly published.
As a group we write different things. I don't distinguish types of writing. Any new writing, of course is writing. But editing is also writing. We will harp about word counts added, but in editing, especially for the chance of publication, one might actually be working if you are slicing off wordage to fit within the maximum word count.
editing, even if it is not yours, critiquing, poetry, writing assignments, technical writing, blogging, article writing, world or character development, are all writing. E-mails can be writing if they are wordy and pertain to writing or story. If you have to ask if it is writing, we say the answer is yes.
I have been writing. I had a piece that was 25707 words and had to cut it down to 15000 words. With a large number of passes through the work, time available due to vehicle problems, I was able to cut it down to the 14942 words, and fire it off to my writing partner. She read about 10 of the 24 pages and I see I need to rework it. It still does not get to the "story" soon enough. Luckily, I would do a pass or two and then save it with the date in the name and then continue in the original files. I think about 20 thousand words was where it was the best. I will see which version was the best writing and story, and hack off the beginning and see how that effects the word count.
On the story idea front, I have really cut down on how much I've written in the story ideas. I am keeping up with the ideas, but am not writing them as fully as I used to. In March, for example, I had 58 pages of writing in the 31 story ideas of that month this month I have only 38 pages of writing. A few really deserved more words to be put into them, but I could not spend that time on it as I have real writing projects that have precedence.
On coming up with story ideas, the past couple weeks has been a little dry. the last time I counted my ideas was the end of June, and had 58 story ideas in my compost pile. I did my count here and had 54 ideas in the compost pile. that sounds good, except I came up with like six new ideas this weekend. I had dug a little deeper into the compost pile this past week. when they are not right on top, they tend to end up not being very good, or are very difficult to write. I do have a few excellent ones but they deserve some work to do them right. I have one with a Sherlock Holmes type character. It should be written in that style. I am not that good, and it would lose something if just told like what I am doing now.
I finally got my truck on the road yesterday. The problem we were having was caused by a mistake of the manufacturer. They skipped a step in the finishing and that ended up causing us all sorts of problems in getting the transmission back in place. Luckily, my brother is learning machining and was able to solve the problem. We almost needed to go buy a special tool, when my brother figured out he could make it himself. Really simple concept, easy fabrication. All you needed was the concept.
I had the advantage that my company was willing to loan me a truck. On the last day of work for the week, I could not borrow a truck for the weekend, so I walked part way home. I took a bus part way and a cab at the end, but walked less than four miles. It had been a couple decades since I walked that far. I have some medical insoles to correct a foot problem and since I have gotten myself in condition to walk a mile, my feet did excellent over the distance I walked. I did suffer later, and it took me two days to fully recover, but I was able to cover the distance.
The last reminded me of a question I have asked in some places before. We make our characters better than normal so they can survive in the situations we put them in.
With the precise knowledge, experience, skills, and physical condition, could you survive in one of your stories?
My answer for me is no, I could not, not one of them. I cannot walk more than four miles in a day. Give me a pack and I would travel even less (my recent story) I know nothing about horses or space ships. I would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn at ten paces, and would tire swinging a sword or a rifle for longer than a couple minutes. What I know and can do in machining or wood working, would be really useless in a real life situation and could never make a living doing it.
I cannot even lift my weight or even hold it for more than a minute or two, especially if the surface is rough. I have little or no fighting skills or experience.
The story idea to write, is to actually place yourself in one of your stories, not improving your skills at all. You may have to try what you write about, to see if you could actually do it. Would your character survive? How would you make them survive.
As to the question of the week,
YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Here is a place to brag about your accomplishment, cry about your failures, and otherwise tell about what is going on in your life.
By reporting, good or bad, how you did with your writing, this note will become a prompt to get you to write weekly, rather than a bunch of writing one month, and then nothing for three months before you write again. Knowing this note is coming up each week may get you to open your work in progress just so that you can report that you wrote something. That might, over time, become a habit, to lead to getting a couple projects finished and possibly published.
As a group we write different things. I don't distinguish types of writing. Any new writing, of course is writing. But editing is also writing. We will harp about word counts added, but in editing, especially for the chance of publication, one might actually be working if you are slicing off wordage to fit within the maximum word count.
editing, even if it is not yours, critiquing, poetry, writing assignments, technical writing, blogging, article writing, world or character development, are all writing. E-mails can be writing if they are wordy and pertain to writing or story. If you have to ask if it is writing, we say the answer is yes.
I have been writing. I had a piece that was 25707 words and had to cut it down to 15000 words. With a large number of passes through the work, time available due to vehicle problems, I was able to cut it down to the 14942 words, and fire it off to my writing partner. She read about 10 of the 24 pages and I see I need to rework it. It still does not get to the "story" soon enough. Luckily, I would do a pass or two and then save it with the date in the name and then continue in the original files. I think about 20 thousand words was where it was the best. I will see which version was the best writing and story, and hack off the beginning and see how that effects the word count.
On the story idea front, I have really cut down on how much I've written in the story ideas. I am keeping up with the ideas, but am not writing them as fully as I used to. In March, for example, I had 58 pages of writing in the 31 story ideas of that month this month I have only 38 pages of writing. A few really deserved more words to be put into them, but I could not spend that time on it as I have real writing projects that have precedence.
On coming up with story ideas, the past couple weeks has been a little dry. the last time I counted my ideas was the end of June, and had 58 story ideas in my compost pile. I did my count here and had 54 ideas in the compost pile. that sounds good, except I came up with like six new ideas this weekend. I had dug a little deeper into the compost pile this past week. when they are not right on top, they tend to end up not being very good, or are very difficult to write. I do have a few excellent ones but they deserve some work to do them right. I have one with a Sherlock Holmes type character. It should be written in that style. I am not that good, and it would lose something if just told like what I am doing now.
I finally got my truck on the road yesterday. The problem we were having was caused by a mistake of the manufacturer. They skipped a step in the finishing and that ended up causing us all sorts of problems in getting the transmission back in place. Luckily, my brother is learning machining and was able to solve the problem. We almost needed to go buy a special tool, when my brother figured out he could make it himself. Really simple concept, easy fabrication. All you needed was the concept.
I had the advantage that my company was willing to loan me a truck. On the last day of work for the week, I could not borrow a truck for the weekend, so I walked part way home. I took a bus part way and a cab at the end, but walked less than four miles. It had been a couple decades since I walked that far. I have some medical insoles to correct a foot problem and since I have gotten myself in condition to walk a mile, my feet did excellent over the distance I walked. I did suffer later, and it took me two days to fully recover, but I was able to cover the distance.
The last reminded me of a question I have asked in some places before. We make our characters better than normal so they can survive in the situations we put them in.
With the precise knowledge, experience, skills, and physical condition, could you survive in one of your stories?
My answer for me is no, I could not, not one of them. I cannot walk more than four miles in a day. Give me a pack and I would travel even less (my recent story) I know nothing about horses or space ships. I would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn at ten paces, and would tire swinging a sword or a rifle for longer than a couple minutes. What I know and can do in machining or wood working, would be really useless in a real life situation and could never make a living doing it.
I cannot even lift my weight or even hold it for more than a minute or two, especially if the surface is rough. I have little or no fighting skills or experience.
The story idea to write, is to actually place yourself in one of your stories, not improving your skills at all. You may have to try what you write about, to see if you could actually do it. Would your character survive? How would you make them survive.
As to the question of the week,
YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Week 551 Wood working
year 10, Week 29, Day One (week 551)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-01-10 Sunday
93 degree, mostly sunny, spotty clouds, breeze from the wrong direction early morning but it picked up in the afternoon. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Fort Lauderdale Department Of Tourism.
To save some of you some reading, I did no woodworking this weekend other than adding finish to the face vase, which I ended Monday.
Thursday:
I left work without borrowing a truck, since I was not going to work Friday. I walked about one and a half miles to the bank. I then took a bus to a grocery store I usually stop at as it had something my normal store does not carry.
I then walked about one and a half miles to a my normal grocery store. After I got my groceries, I took a cab the two miles to my house.
At most, I doubt I walked four miles, but it was far farther than I have walked in years. Periodically, I will walk around the 1.3 mile block and do well there.
the walk I did would have been utterly impossible two years ago. I could barely walk around a store as I had foot problems. That I could do this distance with one blister on my foot, and some cramping during the night, was good. I will have to do some short distances to get stronger.
Saturday:
My brother brought me over to his house and we worked on the truck.
when the crankshaft was made by the factory, they did not machine the hole, where the transmission shaft goes into, properly. when they put the truck together, the bearing was on the end of the transmission shaft and they stuck it in and bolted it in place. The bearing was not set all the way in. The bearing bound to the shaft and spun in the hole.
My brother machined a bearing to meet what he thought the tolerances needed to be, but decided it was too loose, so he machined another bearing.
We drove the last bearing in, then put the transmission into place and it would not go in, it bound. We got the bearing out (fill hole with grease and drive a shaft in. the grease forces the bearing out.). We had to make a new tool to remove the bearing as he had modified his previous one for something else. after we got that bearing out, we put that tool in my tool box.
We put the loser one in and accepted that as being good enough. the tolerances we are dealing with are measured in thousandths of an inch. The original bearing is .830. The one we put in was machined (with a file this time) to a setting of .826. The one that we tried first had a setting of .827 which was just enough to cause a bind when driven in.
Sunday:
My brother picked me up and brought me over. We had to get brake fluid for the hydraulics. We were given synthetics and that was not what was in the truck. My brother had to drain out the entire system, which was not much, to correct for the error. We had simply asked for the fluid that the truck needed and that was what they gave us.
We had to go and get some bolts when a few bolts disappeared. We then had to go to get transmission fluid as the stuff we got when we started last week, seamed to have disappeared too.
The truck all assembled, we gave it a quick test, running it through the gears. Everything worked but we still had to add the transmission oil.
My brother looked at the plug and said "oh no! what tool will work for that?" The plug has an inside hex. There is nothing to grab onto.
We were about to go to the store to see if they had that tool, then he got an idea. He found a nut that fit the hex of the plug, then braised a nut onto that, and that became his tool to work the plug. That is also in my tool box. I love how we were abler to make several of our own tools, and figure out a solution to the problem, on our own.
We brought the truck down, and it was stiff at the beginning of my drive around his quarter mile block, but then it settled in. We made sure all the tools were taken care of and I was able to drive home in my own truck.
I had some old parts in the back of the truck. I was driving home and hit the brakes to slow down and heard a loud thump, what one would expect if a rope caught on something. I saw nothing tumbling on the road behind me. I pulled off, got out. the instant I saw the parts in the bed, up by the cab, I knew exactly what I had heard. The parts had slid forward.
Next week, I plan to do some woodworking!!!!!!!!
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-01-10 Sunday
93 degree, mostly sunny, spotty clouds, breeze from the wrong direction early morning but it picked up in the afternoon. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Fort Lauderdale Department Of Tourism.
To save some of you some reading, I did no woodworking this weekend other than adding finish to the face vase, which I ended Monday.
Thursday:
I left work without borrowing a truck, since I was not going to work Friday. I walked about one and a half miles to the bank. I then took a bus to a grocery store I usually stop at as it had something my normal store does not carry.
I then walked about one and a half miles to a my normal grocery store. After I got my groceries, I took a cab the two miles to my house.
At most, I doubt I walked four miles, but it was far farther than I have walked in years. Periodically, I will walk around the 1.3 mile block and do well there.
the walk I did would have been utterly impossible two years ago. I could barely walk around a store as I had foot problems. That I could do this distance with one blister on my foot, and some cramping during the night, was good. I will have to do some short distances to get stronger.
Saturday:
My brother brought me over to his house and we worked on the truck.
when the crankshaft was made by the factory, they did not machine the hole, where the transmission shaft goes into, properly. when they put the truck together, the bearing was on the end of the transmission shaft and they stuck it in and bolted it in place. The bearing was not set all the way in. The bearing bound to the shaft and spun in the hole.
My brother machined a bearing to meet what he thought the tolerances needed to be, but decided it was too loose, so he machined another bearing.
We drove the last bearing in, then put the transmission into place and it would not go in, it bound. We got the bearing out (fill hole with grease and drive a shaft in. the grease forces the bearing out.). We had to make a new tool to remove the bearing as he had modified his previous one for something else. after we got that bearing out, we put that tool in my tool box.
We put the loser one in and accepted that as being good enough. the tolerances we are dealing with are measured in thousandths of an inch. The original bearing is .830. The one we put in was machined (with a file this time) to a setting of .826. The one that we tried first had a setting of .827 which was just enough to cause a bind when driven in.
Sunday:
My brother picked me up and brought me over. We had to get brake fluid for the hydraulics. We were given synthetics and that was not what was in the truck. My brother had to drain out the entire system, which was not much, to correct for the error. We had simply asked for the fluid that the truck needed and that was what they gave us.
We had to go and get some bolts when a few bolts disappeared. We then had to go to get transmission fluid as the stuff we got when we started last week, seamed to have disappeared too.
The truck all assembled, we gave it a quick test, running it through the gears. Everything worked but we still had to add the transmission oil.
My brother looked at the plug and said "oh no! what tool will work for that?" The plug has an inside hex. There is nothing to grab onto.
We were about to go to the store to see if they had that tool, then he got an idea. He found a nut that fit the hex of the plug, then braised a nut onto that, and that became his tool to work the plug. That is also in my tool box. I love how we were abler to make several of our own tools, and figure out a solution to the problem, on our own.
We brought the truck down, and it was stiff at the beginning of my drive around his quarter mile block, but then it settled in. We made sure all the tools were taken care of and I was able to drive home in my own truck.
I had some old parts in the back of the truck. I was driving home and hit the brakes to slow down and heard a loud thump, what one would expect if a rope caught on something. I saw nothing tumbling on the road behind me. I pulled off, got out. the instant I saw the parts in the bed, up by the cab, I knew exactly what I had heard. The parts had slid forward.
Next week, I plan to do some woodworking!!!!!!!!
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