84 degrees early morning, 90 degrees in the afternoon. Blue skies with tall puffs passing by from the ocean, a few were a little pregnant, dropping a little bit of LIQUID SUNSHINE on me as they passed by. It was never enough to get the ground wet, but if I were not sitting and petting the beast of the back yard, it would have had me rushing to get my equipment under cover.
THURSDAY
We had our turning club meeting. Our video guy was out of town so it was my job to run the camera. Other than one time where I got in front of the TV, no one complained.
The demonstration was on making natural edged mushrooms that had tops that rotated and tipped. When one is very skilled, it is a very easy turning project to do. One needs sharp tools to do it right. That, I think, Is my biggest problem.
I showed off my ribbed cup and sea grape vase both with inlay. Most of the work on display makes my stuff look primitive. Considering that I had forgotten all about the meeting until Saturday, I did not do horribly.
Someone showed how use a grinding disk on the lathe. He made some jigs to hold the disk in place when the tail stock is used to hold part of the system in place. One of the great things about this is that if you use it to sharpen your tools, you will have it at the right height and angles for turning, also. Most of us have face plates laying around unused. He mounted one part on the face plate and he drew lines on the wooden mounts and on the grinding disk to line it up true each and ever time.
FRIDAY
I moved some stuff around the house. I found the second ribbed oak cup the match to the one I showed at the turning club meeting. I could not find this one no matter where I looked. it had been sitting on the floor right next to me filled with some wooden beads I made. BLIND!!!
I finished a granny square, took pictures of all my granny squares on the bed to see how many more I will have to make, and found a paper shredder and battery powered sewing machine in my digging. They were not where I thought I put them. How did they get buried?
I broke one of my bamboo skewer crochet hooks. I was shocked that it broke at my handle rather than the hook itself.
all but two of my granny squares and parts to be expanded. The green squares shows the size I am trying to match. The left bottom square is not by me. I expanded the other non-green squares in the first two rows. The rest will be expanded later
My last finished square. Note the shades changing on the way out. I kept running out of the yarn in the small balls I was using. If planned, one can get really good effects by having each row fade from light to dark, or dark to light.
SATURDAY
Mom was still out of town. I went directly for breakfast before I went to Mom's house. I saw one yard sale and picked up a wheeled basket which I really did not need. The price was good, though and it was in good condition. There were some plastic chairs that looked interesting, but I did not want to go close to the price they were asking for, as cheap as they were.
Wheeled basket.
The beast of the back yard and Scar Face both met me outside when I got to Mom's house. I had to spend a lot of attention giving them time as they both needed love. The beast made me sit for quite a long time after Scar face left. He needed extra love.
I had the sand that I glued to the tea pot body last week, so I mounted the vase on the lathe. I used the dremmel to hollow out the inside of the mating surface on the handle, and then got the lath spinning the vase fast. It sanded the surface quite well. I could have held it there a bit longer to get it absolutely perfect, but I got it pretty good. I now have to shape the handle so it is comfortable to hold.
Since the sand still was good, I took the piece of wood I drew the spout onto and with some hollowing on the mating surface, I spun the tea pot and ground the spout wood until it mated perfectly.
I found that if I tipped the piece of wood too far on the leading side of the sandpaper, the wood would slip off and I would brush the vase with my hand. I have a few little scrapes on my finger.
The main purpose of hollowing the inside of the mating surface is so less wood has to be removed when creating the mating surface. It is essentially the outside part that has to match the tea pot, not the inside. If I had left it there, a lot of sanding would be to get rid of the wood in the middle which is the high point of the wood. When I was done on both pieces, very little of the hollowed surface remained.
The handle set on the vase after I had sanded it to shape. You can still see the sand on the vase.
Tea pot spout sanded to shape. The drawn spout is upside down but since it was only drawn on there, that does not matter. I just now have to create the spout to fit
I then had to remove the glued on sand from the tea pot. I have a scraper that has a circular bit in it. I put that to the wood and was scraping the sand away. I stopped and realized that I had sanded away some of my metal. Luckily, because it is round, I just turned the flat spot to the back of the support so it is nowhere near any wood when in use.
I took a stainless steel rod and used the sand to round the end of that. I am going to make that into a crochet hook later.
I used a roughing gouge I seldom use to remove the worst of the sand, and then used a couple other tools to finish the process. I guess I should have a "sharpening party" tomorrow to get my tools back into condition.
I did find that gluing sand onto wood does work. I might take a wooden disk I have that is supposed to be a platter, and make it into a sanding disk. The grit will not be known since I won't be sifting them to size.
I brought my metal hooks for crochet, so I made handles for them. This makes them easier to handle as they give me something more to hold onto and to twist. I drilled the holes out with whatever drill bit I had available, and then put wood filler into the holes before I stuck the hook into it. When the filler dries, it will hold the hook tightly.
I re-drilled the hole in the handle of the broken hook and glued the hook back in.
I took two of my rods I made on the lathe and glued them into handles too. I then cut the hook into them. Other than sanding, a quick test showed them to work. I will want to make more hooks later.
two metal hooks with new handles, the short hook was one I broke and repaired, the other two are new.
I looked at several projects and realized I have several projects to do. Because the cat wanted attention and I did a phone call, I never got to the dragon. Maybe tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will dig out the little metal working lathe. I want to test out making dowels with it now that I understand the machine a bit more. I had not taken it out of the shed in months. When My brother comes, I will likely change over to a metal working project. There are many I can do including working on my cross slide project that I have not touched in many months. Likely it will be a simpler project. I would like to take some pieces of planer blades I have and make round scraping disks for my turning tools.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 11, Week 36, Day Two (week 610) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-18-11 Sunday
86 degrees early morning, 92 in the afternoon with lots of sun with mixtures of high feathers and streaks, low puffs and very short towers with grey bottoms A nice breeze had gusts that moved fine saw dust all around.
After giving the cats food and some attention, I dug out the metal working lathe. I decided I would machine some wood for crochet hooks. I normally get a lot of bounce in the middle when using the big lathe. I figured that the small lathe would spin a whole lot faster and the machine tool would avoid the bounce by just hitting the high spots until it was round. I took a two by two piece of Black Walnut and after cutting it to length, I split it into quarters. I took one quarter and mounted it into the lathe and started the process of rounding it. I kept rounding it until it was half the diameter of the original square.
I then took another square from the two by that I cut, and cut it into quarters and machined it into a rod. I did two of them. While I was machining, the cat was nowhere to be seen. He does not like the noise. I took a break and called him over. he laid down, got some periodic attention, but mostly left him alone. He dozed off for a while. I got a phone call and while on the phone the beast of the back yard, got up and looked to the sidewalk, alert. My brother appeared and the cat disappeared.
First rod for crochet hook being machined.
Machining the rods for crochet hooks. I figured out on this one to machine one end to something that was round, then turn it around and work the second end to size, then turn it around and finish the first end to size. The three jaw chuck does not hold four sided things too well.
My total collection of hooks I worked on this weekend. The dark wooded hooks were made today
A short time later, my nephew arrived. I was machining a black walnut rod to be cut up into handles and set that project to the side and started cleaning up some.
My nephew wants a beer tap handle made. I started turning it, then let him do some work, then I did the final design. We have to get a cheap beer tap so we can find out exactly how it is attached and I can then finish the piece to fit exactly.
My nephew scroll sawed for a while. We went for lunch, then came back and I started taking some rods I made and turning them into crochet hooks.
I cut the slots in, with some hand sanding. I also glued some handles on a few pieces to finish them off. Over the weekend, I ended up with 10 hooks made. I will have to give them a serious test and make adjustments to make them work perfectly. I can do that with emery boards used for fingernails for most corrections.
I showed off the many projects I have in process, explaining what I have to do with them. Those are projects I should work on next week. I never touched the dragon, never addressed the ten knot log, I have a couple vases that need work. I have tools I need to sharpen, some really need it bad. I have some detachable bits to make for some of my tools.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
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