(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-28-14 Saturday
85 real early morning, 90 around noon. Good breeze, but the lulls made it hot. Blue sky early morning, becoming feathers, puffs and finally thunder boomers that headed west. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
We hit quite a few yard sales. Most had interesting things I did not need. An example is that one church yard-sale had a wooden bread box with the rolling slat front. It was only two bucks. Oh I wanted it, but have absolutely no use for it. I just hated walking away without it, but I did. The other yard sales had items that was easier to walk away from. I did look closely though.
We were on our way home and ran across a yard sale that had some sewing machine supplies. I purchased three sewing machine foot peddles. When I got home to examine them better, one was exactly what I was after, with a socket in the middle of the cord you can plug something into and it controls the speed of the motor. The other two had the two pin-prong plugs. I went back and she had some other cords, but they were three pin-prong sockets that plug directly into the machine. They were not going to help me.
I decided to keep the two peddles and stopped at Ace hardware to see if I could jury rig something together. After some careful looking, I got what I thought was needed.
The peddle that was exactly what I was after was marked SINGER.
One of the other peddles was also SINGER, and had the molded rubberized plastic end. I was not going to change that unless I really felt it was worth it.
The other was marked MERCURY and had a end that one could unscrew. I removed that end and added a normal two prong socket. I plugged it into the outlet, pressed on the peddle with my hand and it seemed all right. I then put one of those in-line sockets on it. This is one where you just close it on the wire and it puts little holes through the insulation. I then found that my Dremmel would not go into it as the dremmel has polarity ends. I took one of those Three-to-two prong adapters and ground the wide prong to match the narrow one. I plugged that into the cord, plugged the dremmel into that, and then plugged in the cord to the socket. The dremmel ran. When I pushed down on the peddle, it slowed the dremmel a little, and then the peddle started smoking. I pulled it instantly. I removed the socket in the middle of the cord and it still smoked. I do not know if I did permanent damage to it. I have to get with my brother and see his opinion of what has to be done to make it work. I think I have to just tap into one line rather than both. The one with the plug already in the middle will be home and my single speed dremmel will be used with that as the speed control.
The left sewing machine peddle is by Singer and has the outlet mid cord.
The middle peddle is also by Singer and has molded two prong plug
The right peddle is by mercury and has an un-screw-able end on the cord.
While I am not good at using up the wood I have, I would have loved to have gotten some of those branches as they were a nice size.
All I did today was the electrical stuff. No woodworking. Hopefully, I will do something tomorrow and make up for today’s lack of production.
I will see what I do tomorrow.
Year 15, Week 23, Day Two (week 720)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-29-14 Sunday
85 in the morning, 94 in the afternoon. Light breeze, lots of sun. The breeze picked up in the later afternoon and clouds started building up in thickness and size. There were a few drops coming down as I drove away to go home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
Yesterday, just as I was about to leave, I grabbed the old brace I broke several months ago and took it home. This morning, I removed the straps, padding and velcro so just the frames were left. The straps really took a beating and were fraying on the sides and the buckles were wrapped with stray strands. I took the brace itself back to Mom’s as I am sure there is a use for the joints and other things. I just have to wait for an idea to come.
I was looking around for something to work on. I already decided to turn something. I had a cut-off of Mahogany. A can of varnish leaked on it and the can left a circle on it. I decided that I would round that. I was thinking more of a platter. On the band saw, I knocked off the corners to make it an octagon to make turning easier.
Usually, when one turns something, you mount it in a chuck, or screw it to the face plate. After I marked the center on both sides, I simply placed the point of the tail-stock on the center, and forced it against the closed jaws of the chuck. I was strictly using friction to hold it in place.
Using a gentle touch, I first rounded the outside. Because this is a full two inch thick, platter was out and bowl came to mind. I got the outside close to the way I wanted it, and then started hollowing it, leaving a post in the center than the tail stock was connected to. Once I got the inside hollowed out, cleaned up the way I wanted it, I adjusted and cleaned up the outside. I sanded my work and thinned the base of the post to make it easier to remove later.
I then turned it around and the chuck just fit inside it. Again I just used the pressure of the tail-stock to hold it in place and I worked the bottom. I sanded the bottom, leaving a little post in the center. I sanded the outside again since it was turning the opposite the direction I had it before so the grain that laid down when sanding before, got stood up and sanded flat again.
Done on the lathe, I used my knife to remove the worst of the post on the inside, then the dremmel grinding wheel to flatten and even the surface. I also removed the post on the bottom too. I then used a flap sander to smooth everything out and remove any signs of the dremmel work.
I need to sand it some more with progressively finer grit, varnish and sand it several times to get the kind of finish it should have. I am not in a rush to do that. It will be a cup for change or like that, more than anything. At least I got a project done.
The bowl / cup upright view
Next weekend is the 4 th of July. I don’t plan on doing anything on that day, which is Friday. Saturday and Sunday should pretty much be normal.
I would love to get some real work done next weekend. I have no idea what I will work on though. Turning wood into sawdust does give one a good sense of accomplishment. I have more than enough wood begging to become sawdust.
I will have to see what I actually do next weekend.
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