In My "Spare" Time: Year 15, Week 28, Day One (week 725)

Year 15, Week 28, Day One (week 725)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-02-14 Saturday

94 degrees, some moisture during breakfast but after that, mostly clear and hot,. The clouds mostly stayed over the Everglades with thin edges coming directly above us. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

We hit a church yard sale early and even went back for a second look. I picked up a tiny bit of yarn and a coffee grinder. I did not need either. I looked at it more like a donation.
I saw a lot of yard sales but I had something else to do with most of the morning.

yarn and yarn stretcher.

Coffee grinder

Last night my battery light came on. It would go off if I doubled my idle rpm. This morning, with that going wrong, things went really good. I did not hit any lights and the closest I came to stopping, about a mile from home, the charge looked good. I drove to my mom’s house and decided not to take the more wandering route that checks for any new yard sale signs out before I get to Mom’s but instead headed directly there. Again all lights green.
When I took my foot off the gas to coast into my parking space, the engine died. I did not bother testing whether it would start.
A bit later in the morning, we took my battery to the parts place I was hoped it would be the battery that was the problem since that is easier to deal with than an alternator. Darn, the battery was good. As I was buying the alternator, I was telling them about how inept I am at mechanics and there just happened to be a guy there who was a mechanic and was willing to come over and replace the alternator for me.
In less than twenty minutes after he pulled up, he had swapped the alternator and had left to help a woman who had the same problem and her car died about two blocks from his shop. There was about six things I would have not known to do if I were to do it myself. It would have taken me about three hours. I could do it in about an hour now after I had seen it done. One thing was he had the right tools, and He had more strength to break free the first bolt that was put on with an impact wrench. After he was done, I started the engine and it was perfect.

After a break and a nap, I headed down to Pearls Arts and Crafts. They are closing down their stores. This one has been there since I’ve been in Florida. Most of their stuff is for the professional artist.
Everything is 40% off or priced as marked. I walked through nearly all the isles to see what they had. They did not have yarn, and the types of paints in the colors I wanted to get, and they did not have blank greeting card stock.
I did see some stuff I could use but will wait a while and then see what they are selling for. They had some good basswood in sheet stock and sticks. They also had some model railroading scenery stuff in one area and some “scale lumber” in the basswood section. I don’t have any time for model railroading right now so I could not see getting any. I have stuff from my last “blast” of model railroad structure and scenery making sitting around that needs to be used up.
One thing I THINK I have use for is they have the calligraphy pen tips. I have thought off an on to get a bunch of them, and then make my own handles out of various wood. I was not quite ready for them, though.
The big problem is that I kept seeing things for arts and crafts that I am not doing right now, that I don’t have any time to do them even if they were not superceded by more important hobbies. I may go back next weekend and see what is going on.

I changed colors on a scarf I am working on. The first row was an orange red. The second color was a orange yellow. It was wider than the first. I shifted to an orange red. If you compare them in the sun, you will see a difference but in low light they are close enough. When I get that to the same size as the first color, I will have to decide if it is wide enough of should I do something else to make it wider.

Between yard sailing, taking care of the truck and going to Pearls, and had a late lunch, there was no time to do much else. I hope to be able to get something done tomorrow.

I will have to see what tomorrow brings.

Year 15, Week 28, Day Two (week 725)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-03-14 Sunday

85 degrees, cloudy, some wetness later in the day, no breeze until one of the storms approached. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

I got to Mom’s house and settled down with the idea of doing something simple. I took my scorp set, which is a set of chisels that are pulled sideways rather than pushed down the length, and worked on the bowl of my ladle I have worked on this month. The scorp did some work on cleaning it up but I decided it was not going to pass muster. I found a rotary rasp I had was too bit. I dug out my dremmel and first removed the tear out caused by the chisel and to even out the sides and bottom. I then went to flap sanders to clean up the marks caused by the bit I used first. I then hand sanded with varying grades of sandpaper. There are still some dremmel grinding bit marks in it.
I finally re-mounted the ladle on the lathe and adjusted the handle. I did not quite get the effect I was after, but was not about to do any more with it. I disk sanded the top until it was even and looked right, then shaped the outside to match the inside of the bowl. I got that were I wanted it and did some hand sanding. I finally soaked the ladle down. I will sand it one more time to remove the raised grain. I will call it done. This ladle is not exactly what I was after, but it came out pretty good. You can tell it was not factory made.
These are kind of fun to make so I may well make more.

I started working on my magic wands by trimming with a knife, but then the wind picked up and since the clouds were heading north, there was something dark to the south so I picked up.

I hope to finish the wands next weekend. I have lots of wood waiting for the sawdust to be removed from them to see what is beneath the surface.

I will see what I do next weekend.