Week 624 Wood Working

Year 11, Week 49, Day One (week 623) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-17-11 Saturday

70 degrees early morning, 78 degrees in the afternoon. Some weather just in this area before breakfast and it became less and less threatening as the day went on. It turned out to be a pretty good day, except there was no blue sky, let alone any sun. Otherwise it was nice. This weather report is brought to you by the city Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism
DURING THE WEEK

I started painting my Christmas cards I think my design will work out nicely. the background went fairly fast, except for waiting for the paint to dry. I am now doing the figure on the front. I think it will end up looking pretty good. After this set of nine is done, I have to grab another pack of cards and start another set. Since many get mailed out and given out before Christmas, I have a lot of cards to make and send out. My biggest problem is that I am now very busy at work. That is killing in my crafting time.

I did some touch-ups on the vase with the scene inside. I added a star shaped bead on top the tree, placing it point down into the tree. If I had more time, I would have run a wire through the bead and put it into the tree the right way. It still looks good in spite being upside down. I was worried about the weakness of the tree, in spite the fact that I had doweled it in place. I gobbed glue around the base, and then added all sorts of shapes of beads around the base and against the tree. I figured it would add strength to the tree. I also found it added something to the scene.
If I had time, I would have made little houses to put into the scene and maybe a few other scene elements to really make it nice. It turned out to look good. I got lots of comments from my family, from those at work, and at the turning club.
I ended up selling it to my boss. It was far lower than what it was worth, but the chances of selling it elsewhere at any higher price was slim. I like his money more than I like my wood.
Now that I have done that with this vase, I can see opportunities to do it with other works should they be of the right kind. To protect the tree, which could still be broken off, I cut the bottom out of a paper cup, then cut a slit down the side. With a little overlap, it fit into the mouth of the vase, protecting the tree nicely.

village vase as seen at the Turning club meeting

THURSDAY

We had the turning club meeting on Thursday. We have a video camera and TV set up so that the audience can see details you cannot see unless you are right next to the machine, especially since they are on the opposite side of the lathe as the operator.
The demonstration was of winged bowls. One takes a board, mounts it on a screw chuck and turns the underside of the board. One forms the outside of the little container in the middle, and then curves the rest of the board, deep at the center and curving toward you as you get closer to the edges of the board.

the edge view of the winged bowl just turned.

One then turns the board around and matches the surface to the underside you already made. You then turn the inside of the cup, following the outer bowl you had made on the first side.
He makes a lid to fit the piece.
He then draws out and carves the "wings" of the bowl in interesting shapes. It is something I might try when I get some time. I do have wood for it.

Several finished winged bowls after they were carved.



Me holding the village vase



me holding a Norfolk Island pine vase and the vase itself.


Me holding beaded cups.

I had won the bring back prize last month, so I had to pass on my creation to the next winner. The winner was a young lady that is just learning to turn. She seemed to like my present a lot.

The bring back prize and me with the winner

One of the members cleaned out his garage and brought in a bunch of small tools. I ended up with quite a few. some will become presents for someone else. Others I have a good use for.


SATURDAY

I visited only one yard sale. I picked up some lidded jars with the metal clasps. I have a use for those in my kitchen.
I also picked up some JINGA blocks. I don't play the game, but do see how they can be made into carved and turned items easily. It was cheap enough to make full use of them in my wood working.


storage jars



Jinga block game

The cat was a sweety today. He was a bit irritated at me in that I did not stay seated as long as he wanted me to, and I was not giving him the attention he felt he rightfully deserved. He did get some, though.

I saw a wood turning program where they made a turned bird. The technique was simple and the results were pretty good.
I decided to give it a try. Not fully sure of the full technique, I chose to make it small, using two by two wood rather than the large pieces he made his from.
I mounted the piece in the chuck. My chuck closes down enough to hold the two by two in place on the flats. If that does not work, I can turn the wood some and hang onto it where the jaws dig into the corners.
On my first piece, my gouge slipped and I dug way too deep. I took that piece of wood off and tossed it. I mounted a second piece of wood on and this one worked right.
I rounded off the corners first. Then I hollowed out a cone into the end. I made that the way I liked it, and then turned the outside, following the inside, making the wall fairly thin.
About at the point of the cone, I turned a ball for the body. I parted it off after I finished sanding.
I turned a second ball that was smaller than the body and parted that off.
On the TV show, the host used a band saw for this cut. Since I was working small, I used my dremmel with a grinding wheel. I marked and cut away the underside of the cone, creating the bird's tail. where the tip of the cone met the ball of the body, I ground a transition so the cone inside blended into the body ball shape.

The completed bird and the parts of the bird.

ON my first bird, I mounted a piece of oak from a wine barrel into my little machine lathe and machined a pointed stick which became the base, and a rod that became the leg of the bird. I drilled holes into the head and onto the body and put a dowel into the holes to mount them together. I glued the beak into a hole on the front side of the head, and drilled a hole in the bottom to mount the leg. I also had a square base and mounted the leg into that.
ON my second bird, I took a large skewer and shaved the ends to fit into the holes. I used the pointed end of the skewer for the beak. This ended up being much faster.
I like the size of these birds. they are going to be Christmas Ornaments. If I work in production mode, I can make quite a few of these quite quickly.

A couple weeks ago, I had started a Cornucopia. I finished carving the fruit today. I just needs to be painted.


finished pieces for Saturday

Because I was playing around with the birds, I did not get much done. I was also planning on leaving early, which I did since I had a bunch of stuff to do.


Tomorrow, I need to make a couple more turkeys, and a few more of these birds, and really need to make more of all my other ornaments from this year. I won't be going to Mom's house next Saturday, so I need to make up my carving basket so I can work on Christmas day at my brother's house where we will have Christmas Dinner.
I basically have a month's worth of work to do in less than a Week.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


Year 11, Week 49, Day Two (week 623) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-18-11 Sunday

75 degrees, blue sky, strong breeze, some clouds around the horizon, especially over the Everglades. Early morning sky over the Atlantic was pastel reds with distant clouds looking like mountains. Very pretty. I did not take a picture, though. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

Mom saw some flowers on sale at the nursery so we went to get them. I got one flower, a begonia, I think. I liked the color and velvety texture of the petals. I have a pot at home where the plant died so I stuck the flower in there. They had the plant under the shade roof area so I think it might do well enough on my porch. I will see how long it lives.

My new flower

On the way home from the nursery, we stopped at several yard sales. They were sales that were not put out yesterday because of the weather. I picked up a set of four metal end tables. I will use these as work tables here at home.

Metal coffee tables.

I also picked up a real long spade bit. I guess electricians use these. Later, I mounted this in the handle I won in the bring back prize last month. I made use of it on one of my turned birds. I will likely leave the bit as it is for now, but I plan on re-grinding it as a turning tool later. NO rush on that. I have plenty to work with now.

Drill bit in package, drill bit in tool handle.

After petting and feeding the cats, and setting out my equipment, I dragged out the lathe and made three of my birds. I turned the body first, making the tail the cone, and then the ball of the body. I parted it off after a good sanding. On the third body, I was using too long a piece of wood and a slight catch would send it off center. I ended up taking that off and using shorter wood.
I then made three beads, balls for the head, out of the same piece of wood. I would make one complete, part it off then make the next one. I could have made all three, but this way if I messed up and had to go bigger, I was not wasting a partially done bead.
A bit later, I shaped the tails, drilled and doweled to put the heads together. With these three, I did not add the base. I can do that later but not right now.


all my birds,

I made one blank for a polar bear and cut some wood for turkeys. I started turning one and it came off the lathe after a catch. I decided I will do them with the knife entirely.

I turned a blank for a polar bear and selected several pieces of wood to go into my carving kit. I won't be going up to Mom's house next weekend so I wanted my carving kit with me for the Christmas day Dinner.

During the week, I have to finish my first batch of Christmas cards, and then start a second batch. I have a lot of stuff to pack, some of it is being mailed out. They will get there late but they will get there. I will be picking out a bunch of my ornaments to go.
We have a practice of opening our presents on Christmas eve so the children can have all Christmas morning to play with their toys. I expect to spend all of Christmas Eve, Saturday, packing and wrapping things.
I am about two weeks behind where I need to be.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.