76 degrees, patchy clouds, good breeze, the clouds wept a couple times, actually getting the ground wet once, some sun. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
FRIDAY
I went down to Dania Beach to the Candlelight Antiques to check on my stuff and let him know I would be taking my stuff out next month. He has some new stuff in the place that was really good. too bad I cannot get any of it.
An Indian Princess at the antique shop that I really love.
SATURDAY
Yard sailing, I got a new chair for at home. I only paid five bucks. I saw a number of other things that I considered getting but held off.
My new office chair
Over the week, I made some clay frogs, exploring the design. Today I took a two by for and cut the end off, and then shaped it with the band saw. I then used different grinders to turn it into the king frog.
The way he is designed, is that he has a robe over him. All I had to do was to give indication of his shape beneath it. Only his head is really out of the robe, and you can just see his front legs. I shaped and carved the crown on top his head and shaped his face somewhat and it looks pretty good. I will do a little more work on it then I can paint him.
I selected a good mushroom for him to sit on. Now I can finish up the second fairy.
King frog
I did not like the design of the base for the rain fairy. It was glued up two boards and I had shaped it some. I sliced off the top piece of wood, then took a worm eaten piece of oak and removed the bark. I then ground out the ends so it looked slightly hollow. Finally, after getting the locations right, I notched the log for the mushroom to fit solidly.
I will carve on the base so it does not look quite so much like a board, and then I can assemble the carving, there will be touch-ups to it, such as removing some wood I left beneath the fairy.
the other week, I had cut some disks off a tababulia log I got. I had previously made a container and a saucer out of the wood. The wood was freshly cut and the bark shrunk on the pieces as they dried. I looked at the disks and decided they would make good sun flowers. I turned two of them, and then added skewers for stems. The thin ones I used first allowed the flowers to wave too easily because the wood is so heavy, so I got some bigger ones and, after removing the old stems, I drilled and added the new ones.'
One of the tab disks before I started turning.
It is held to the open jaws of the chuck by friction and the point holds it to the jaws
Saturday's sun flowers in Tababulia
I was given a hatchet made from a piece of pipe and some diamond plate. I sharpened it and then hacked at a piece of oak. I need to sharpen it a bit more, but it does work.
I added new sandpaper to a orbital sander I have and I sanded the surfaces of the pieces for the cannon. I need to do the edges, but it really snapped it into shape. If I sand a little more, I might actually start assembling the cannon tomorrow. Will see.
I brought with me the saucer and container made from Tababulia and re-sanded them. I had soaked them in wipe-on varnish, but will now actually finish them.
It was an excellent day. I did not think I did much until late in the day. I created a lot of sawdust from my grinding. I made great headway on several projects.
I planned on this mainly to be a carving day and that was what it was. I did turn some, but it was light turning. I have more carving planned for tomorrow. The frog and changing the rain fairy base has given me some incentive to get them done. I wanted to dig into finishing the face vase. It is slightly less priority. Much of it will depend on how I feel as I get to work. I likely will do some metal working when my brother shows up.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 11, Week 08, Day Two (week 582) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-06-11 Sunday
81 degrees, strong breeze. The on line weather report said there was going to be Liquid Sunshine in the afternoon and there was a front off the west coast of the state on the radar.
Clear and slightly hazy early morning, cleared up by the time I was ready to start work. The sky became hazy and the haze thickened into clouds. Planning for the upcoming weather, I got the wood turning out of my system early and then put that away. I dug out a folding table and set that under the awning so my brother and I can work on the metal lathe even if we got some weather. I finished the worst of my gluing before my brother arrived. The weather arrived first as almost unnoticeable drips here and there. It then came down in a torrent and some buckets had a half inch of water. There was a lull and then another gully washer came and we had a full inch of water in the buckets. There were a few light showers of Liquid Sunshine and then it stopped completely and the sun actually came out once.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I started out by gluing the blocks together on the cannon carriage. I set the end blocks carefully so they were square, then added the center. I found I only had two bricks to hold the blocks in place. I stuck a hammer on top the other one. After those dried, I glued the sides in place.
Later, I drilled through into the inside blocks and glued in dowels all the way around. I did a whole bunch of them all over so the cannon really looks like it is made strong. I found quickly that I just needed to cut partway through the bamboo skewers I was using for the dowels and break them off. I sanded it really good and then set it to the side.
front view of the cannon (barrel just sitting in place).
Note the pegs on the side.
Top view of cannon
Yesterday, I had taken a piece of oak, cleaned it up and carved it some. Today, I touched it up and notched it for the stem of the mushroom. I then glued, drilled and doweled the stem in place on the log.
I ran the grinder over the base of the rain fairy to give it some interesting texture. I glued and doweled the log in place through the bottom. I positioned the fairy and glued her in place and also drilled and doweled her in place.
I finally drilled through the mushroom cap and then glued and doweled it in place. I will have to do some more dowels for strength as people will want to pick the carving up by the mushroom. I don't want to be repairing the mushroom. I will have some cleanup and then some painting. Last will be some finishing.
I have considered making her base bigger by adding another board beneath what I have. I will think about it.
I took the last two disks of Tababulia and made them into sun flowers. I made them thinner. One lost a section of the bark but the design allowed for that so it looks pretty good. I did try to glue the piece of bark back in place but decided it was not going to work without using different methods than I was attempting. It was a piece with a gap and ti broke off when it hit the tool at some time. To make fixing it, I needed to grind the inside so it followed the curve of the wood. It came off when I was working the first side, so it was a lot thicker than the rest of the piece. Once I glued it on, I would have had to grind it to thickness. That was more effort than it was worth.
Sunday Sunflowers in Tababulia
My brother arrived and we sat down with the lathe. He opened the bearings and added grease to them. They were dry. That was much a surprise. From what I understand, the person who had it before me, loved to take things apart to see how they worked. I doubt he would clean everything of grease, but there was no grease there.
We have gotten a sound out of the machine and we figured out that the motor was making the noise. it requires a special socket that is thin walled. None of our sockets are that thin. The motor needs to be lubed and possibly bushings added. We are holding off on that for now. My brother added some washers to act as bushings between the pulley and the frame. It cut down the noises.
While he was working with that, I cleaned the body of the lathe with mineral spirits, a tooth brush and some rubbing. It could be cleaner but I got the worst of the mess.
My brother has a tactic of teaching me. when we had to take the motor off the bracket, he had me remove it and then later had me put it back on.
This machine uses pins through the shaft that fits into tiny slots in the pulleys to hold them in place. We messed up a couple pins. We could not find wires that size. We made what we had left to work, but should replace them.
Two oil fittings were blocked and we did not have wire that tiny to clean the hole. Another thing to work with.
I went through the instructions to learn how to reverse the jaws on the three-jawed scroll chuck. These are stepped jaws and if the high points are in the center, it will go down to nearly zero in diameter. By swapping the jaws around, I can hold something nearly two inches in diameter. it does not go quite as small. The jaws and slots are numbered. Jaws one and three are swapped when turning the jaws around. I now know where to find the instructions if I don't remember the details.
All I need now is material and I can be machining a lot of tools and parts with the little lathe. A lot of them will be for my wood working. The thought has crossed my mind to machine some pieces to add to some of my woodworking. Will see.
I did not get to carving on the second fairy, and did not do any more work on the king frog. he needs touch up and some details. I got the whole cannon at home and will work on during the week. More sanding and possibly start adding a finish.
Today I did not work on as many projects, but I got a lot done on the projects I did work with.
Next week, I need to do more finishing of projects in process. Less new stuff. I have but a month and a half to be ready for the art show.
I will see what I actually do next week.
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