80 degrees in the morning, 84 degrees in the afternoon, solid low clouds that were fairly bright. I saw the shape of the sun in the clouds at one point. A brisk breeze moved sawdust everywhere so very little was available to sweep up. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
We stopped at a yard sale and I picked up four pillows at a dollar each. I felt it was a great deal.
During the week, I was playing around with Tunisian Crochet and found that my only hooks that were long enough for the project was too big in diameter. I decided I was going to have to make new hooks at a smaller diameter. I found two missing hooks on Friday, they were on the floor propped up against my bookcase. I decided to make new hooks anyway.
When I was first making crochet hooks, I was excited that I had found large bamboo skewers to make hooks out of. I am now at the stage where I am after smaller hooks for the types of crochet projects I am working on.
I selected two skewers each smaller than the ones I had thought I lost, and I cut the hook into the end using the dremmel and a cutting disk. On the smallest skewer, I cut to thin several times and had to cut it off before I got it right. Don't go much more than half way through the rod or it will break too easily.
I found I had two black walnut rods I made on the lathe before, so I added the hook to them. I added a handle to one of them as it was too short for real effective use.
On the way home, I picked up a new gauge to measure the diameter of the hooks. I lost the one I had. It just disappeared. Now I can mark my hooks for the proper size that they are.
crochet hooks I made. the two on top are Black walnut. The two on the bottom are skewers. they all work quite well.
This is a knitting and crochet hook gauge. I lost one in plastic so I picked this one up at the craft store. You stick the hook or needle into the smallest hole it will fit to find the size.
I had picked up a four legged stool that was missing a couple rungs. It was all loose too. I took two rungs matching the ones that were missing so I could measure the replacement. Many months ago, My brother gave me the bottom of a stool he cut down. I knocked that apart and mounted the rungs onto the lathe. they were too big in diameter. I turned them to something close to the right diameter and sanded them. I then cut them to length.
I completely disassembled the stool. It had allen wrench screws holding to the rungs. I glued and screwed the stool together, added a couple more screws, which went into the new rungs as the holes in the old rungs were a bigger diameter than my screws. It is now really strong.
I sprayed two coats of varnish to the new rungs. They are not quite as yellow as the original rungs, but are fairly close. I will add a few more coats of varnish and call it done.
the stool I repaired. I One of the low rungs and one of the high rungs were replaced. You can tell them by their being slightly lighter yellow than the others. It is not a professional job, but is is a job that makes it quite usable.
About the time I picked up a stool, I picked up a chair. One of the rods in the back was missing. The back and legs were painted while the seat is wood colored and varnished. The chair has had seen better days.
Chair to be repaired. I have to make another slat for the back.
Since I fixed the stool, I decided I would also repair this chair. I looked at the wood I had available and choose a piece of mystery wood about the right length. It was not in great shape. Since it was not square, I bandsawed it square, removing the worst side.
I mounted the piece between centers and started rounding it. It kept slipping on the drive spur whenever I hit a corner where the grain was going wrong. I got the tail-stock end fairly round and then flipped it as the other end had a flat side yet. I used the chuck to hold the piece in place and started rounding it. I got the new tail stock end, the very end, down to the right diameter and was working the shape down. The piece was bouncing as the corners hit the tool. I then got a bad catch and the piece broke near the end. I set that piece to the side as it can well be used for other projects.
I checked around and found that I had an oak rod from a chair I disassembled. I measured several times and decided I would work on it tomorrow if I decide other projects don't have priority.
The fun part was I now know I can fix some furniture. I figure the chair I am fixing, will be sold at a yard sale. I have not decided about the stool yet.
I mounted a two by two in the lathe and made some blanks for snowmen. The problem was I made a mistake and made them the wrong kind of snowmen.
The ones I wanted to make has the feet sticking out front. they are made by mounting the wood nearer to one of the corners and rounding the body with a pointed hat, and leaving a section square which will be carved into feet and legs.
The ones I made are for the classic three ball snowmen with top hat. I will touch the surfaces with the knife, but they were not what I was after.
Snowmen made at one time on a rod. Then snowmen after cut apart.
My mom has an incomplete model railroad layout on one side of the yard. She started it back when dad was alive with the idea of being outside with him. My brother had done most of the work for her. Dad died and she lost interest and other interests took over. the cats have used it as a sleeping place and a shelter.
We may disassemble it since it will never be made operable. Once it is gone, she will move plants into the space.
Another project is still that stupid tree I need to trim.
I have a tea pot to finish. I need to shape the spout and then attach everything. It needs a lot of sanding too.
I have to work on the dragon. I had taken a clay copy of it home with me and never got around to working on the design of the legs.
I could make more crochet hooks. I want a couple complete sets of hooks with black Walnut rods and white handles. It does take time to make the rods.
I have to make more of the Christmas ornaments from previous years and still have to come up with new ones for this year.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 11, Week 40, Day two (week 614) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) `10-16-11 Sunday
85 degrees, solid fast moving clouds, strong winds, some moisture here and there, very much like Seattle, except that it is not 40 degrees and the water evaporates as soon as it lands. Heavier downfalls after I got home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
Today was a Mom's day. She dragged me out back and we took on removing the train set. It had been some five years since anything was done with it. It was strictly a place for the cats to hide.
I took some pictures of the process to have a record of what we had and what we ended up with. We got a bowl of screws out of the project and the plywood with the track attached are out front to be picked up for garbage.
One of the fun parts was finding a drill to remove the screws. both of my battery powered drills were out of juice. One drill turned out to not have the reversing switch. The one we used was not in great condition. the bearings were complaining, but it did the job and will likely run for quite a while.
I gathered some of the legs from the train set and set them to the side to convert them into turning stuff.
Left side of the layout with tarp over it. That dirt was beneath a concrete block and plants were growing in the dirt. That is just accumulated dust from over the years.
An image of the area behind the swing with the tarp still over it. There were three layers of tracks there which we removed.
Left and right side of the railroad layout before we removed it.
Debris, parts of railroad layout removed and ready to be disassembled and tossed out.
Mom painted the background of the layout, shown here with the whole layout removed.
When we were done with the hard work, I took out the metal working lathe. I decided I needed to do some metal machining.
I set up the Unimat into a milling machine. I put the post in place and mounted the lathe onto the post so the chuck was aiming down. I placed the first piece of my cross slide beneath it and locked it down. My first step was to cut a slot in the piece. I have to cut a slot on the edge of the part and my clamps to hold the work in place were not tall enough.
During my last time with this type of machining, I figured out that if I cut a slot on the side of the piece, I could put my clamps in the slot to hold the piece down while cutting the slot on the edge.
My project today was to cut the slot in the metal. I started with a tiny milling bit my brother gave me and it was doing well. I then realized I was going to have to make a lot of horizontal passes to get the slot wide enough, along with many passes with depth of the slot. I had purchased some router bits for wood based on something my brother read about using such router bits for mild steel which I am working with.
I had to swap chucks, the drill chuck was too small to hold the router bit so I put on the three jawed chuck on and re-adjusted everything as the router bit was longer.
I made several passes and the router bit did well. It did get some chips, but that might be operator error. My brother came and was impressed that the bit was working.
I have a lot more to do but I mainly got it started and proved that it works. Next time I get into a machining mood, I will do more of that. I am making another tool for the lathe!!!
The slot being made, the bolts up front are the hold downs. the slot in the metal when I stopped. I have to go deeper to be able to use the hold downs to work a slot at the left side shown in the black mark in pen.
I got little else done today, mainly cleaning up all the tools that we had drug out with all our projects going on. The threat of weather, even if it was just a few drops until it was time to leave, was enough to keep from doing a lot, being ready to pack up.
I have a turning club meeting Thursday. I will show off my crochet hooks.
For next week, I have Christmas Ornaments to make, chair to fix, a dragon to carve on, which I forgot about this week, a tree to trim, wood to convert into sawdust, a teapot to finish, a couple vases to carve, metal to work. I also need to charge a whole bunch of batteries for drills and such. they are all dead.
I will see what I actually do next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment