Year 13, Week 22, Day 0ne (week 698)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-22-13 Saturday
   
    95 degrees, baby milk blue skies to the east, hazy blue above. Puffs seemed to form directly above us and march west all day long. with a brisk wind all day long. The puffs built up as the day wore on and I did drive through a drizzle on the way home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of tourism.

    We hit a couple yard sales but I ended up with a couple computer parts that I could have lived without. Yard sales is slow right now. The questionable weather makes it tough.
   
    We got outside and fed the kitties. The babies are now eating cat food. Mom has the momma cat somewhat tamed, at least when she is alone. One kitten is really skittish and will bolt at the slightest provocation.
    Later in the day, I went out for a project and was "attacked" by all five cats. Momma cat and her three babies, and Scarface, which I don't get to see too much. They were all eating nicely, me petting Scarface. A short time later, I moved wrong and one kitty bolted to safety. I needed to do some projects and the cats blinked out of site when I started the disk sander. Momma kitty returned but blinked out when I started the palm sander.

    The project I was working on when feeding the kitties was to repair a very old cutting board. It was given to my by my mom, I think, and had it for a number of decades. It hung next to my stove the entire time. I completely forgot it was there when I was looking for cutting boards.
    Anyway, the surface was extremely rough from use and the wood was deeply soaked with oil. I decided I wanted to refresh the surface. I first used the disk sander and the sand paper started clogging up. I then used the palm sander and again the sandpaper clogged up. I resorted to hand sanding with sand paper. I used some 32 grit sand paper to even out the surface to remove all but the deepest score marks on the wood. I then went to successive finer sand paper until I decided I was not going to get much farther with this.
    This was a project that a cabinet scraper would have been perfect. I don't have one that I know of and have never used one, but do know the theory on sharpening it. Now I could have also used a plane, but never thought of that.
    The problem I was dealing with was that the oily wood stuck and clogged sandpaper easily. This cutting board was  heavily used. I needed to scrape away the soft wood first before I started thinking of sanding, if at all.
    



 Pineapple shaped cutting board. It has a leather loop to hang it with on the bottom of the picture. It could have used more sanding but it is good enough for now.


    Last week, my mini lathe was acting up. I decided to take a chance and see if I could find the cause of the problem. I am one of those people who are well known for taking pieces apart and never getting them back together. I was taking a real chance considering my reputation.
    After a short test, where the motor started bogging down again, I dismounted the motor from the lathe, and then opened the motor. I removed the armature, wiped most surfaces and then put it back together. It ran well for a while, then started acting up. I did get several rods made before I gave up at around lunch time and put everything away.
    I now have eight general rods of black walnut made. They will need to be machined down to the actual size of the crochet hooks I need.
    I had decided to spend my time just rounding the square cut pieces of wood until I had all I needed, and then concentrate on making them the right size. The way I look at it, rounding is a different operation than machining to size.
   
    Those hair bands I picked up last week show that they are not up to the challenge of the lathe. After a short time, they stretch out, unable to handle to forces applied on them for too long. They will do in a pinch, though.

    I might play with the lathe motor some more tomorrow. I might get more rods made in spite the motor problem.
   
    I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
       
   
   
Year 13, Week 22, Day Two (week 698)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-23-13 Sunday
   
    94 degrees, larger puffs filling the western sky in the morning. They moved off, riding a brisk wind to the west a bit later in the morning. There were still puffs in the west, but the east cleared up and stayed that way over us most of the time.
   
    During the week I made some lasagna using my own home made noodles, crock potted pork and my own sauce, along with cheeses. It came out good. I took some in a small loaf pan to work and ate a third of what I brought for breakfast, and then accidentally ate the rest for lunch, which was overeating. It was that good.
    I took a larger loaf pan with me to a meeting last night. One woman brought her own lasagna, which gave everybody a chance to compare them. I liked her lasagna a tiny bet better. Several people said mine was better, mom liked mine better, and several people could not tell the difference, they were both that good. I am not complaining. I think I did well. It was the best I have ever made.
   
    On the way to Mom's I stopped at a yard sale. He had a pasta maker, extruder. I walked past it three times and then decided to pay the guy for it. It was one of those things that you know you are going to kick yourself if you don't get it when you had the chance, and you will kick yourself if you get it. You don't win either way.
    I did test it out when I got home and found that the finest of the 10 orifices clogs easily and are hard to clean. I also don't have the consistency right. I will have to download the instructions later.
    I don't use all the kinds of pasta it is designed to make. My crank pasta maker is going to be what I will use the most.
   
 Pasta maker with drying rack and ten different dies for extruding the noodles.



    I decided to cut some oak staves I have into pieces that will be handles for my black walnut crochet hooks. I learned my brother was coming up so while getting ready to cut them up, I also dug out my mini lathe and got that set up.
    I have to make a decision on the oak staves. I can either use the big lathe to round them, or cut them a little shorter and use the mini lathe as they are longer than the little lathe can handle. It is hard to be precise with the big lathe as I would love to have them all the same diameter, and as big as possible. Cutting off a piece to make them shorter is just a bit of a waste of wood. I did not think about the length when I cut them in half. If I planned ahead, I could have had a useable piece left on the second cut, rather than a bunch of small pieces I will end up with now.
   
    I ran the little lathe before my brother arrived and came up with a hypotheses. When I spin the motor by the pulley, I sort of move it out a little. I took a point of my mini lathe and when it started bogging down, I pushed in on the end of the shaft and the motor picked up again.
    My brother sat down with me and directed me in taking apart the motor for the lathe. I showed him the push on the end of the shaft. He took some shims and swapped them around to move the motor in a little. We gave it a test and it was working a bit better but still not right. We took it apart a couple more times and then my brother noticed that there was a lot of play with the end bearing. It would shift side to side. He has one of those plyers designed to remove those ring springs, which was holding the bearing in. For me, those things tend to go "ping" and flash into the future where it will never be found again.
    He disassembled the bearing system, and found that the bearing stay was backwards. He swapped it around and put it back together. We reassembled the motor and gave it a test. It ran perfectly.
    I ended up running it for a while, finishing up the black walnut rods I had sticks for, and making some small oak rods I had also cut. I have a few more of them to do.
    I am going to get some more of those hair bands and give them a test with a motor that is working right. I hope to go on line and find the proper belts for the lathe. I may well look later this week.
    I am glad the motor is fixed.
   
    The kitties did come out several times today, but really only when Mom showed up. My sister-in-law wanted to see the kitties and they stayed hidden for most of the time that she was there. Mom finally did coax them out to be seen.
   
    My plans for next week is to make the oak rods for the handles, and start machining the black walnut to the needed diameters.
   
    I will see what I actually do next week.