Year 16, Week 11, Day One (week 845)

Year 16, Week 11, Day One (week 845)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-26-16 Saturday

75 early morning 82 in the afternoon. There were a few lines of showers when I first got up but they faded out before I left. I did drive through one shower but it was small. A quarter mile at most. The rest of the day was nice. Mostly cloudy, brisk wind, a couple moments of sun in the early afternoon, then nearly clear sky late. This weather report was brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Friday

I had sharpened the blade of my meat slicer last weekend and decided to give it a try. I got some hot sausage (like super sized hot dogs) and also roll of wet Salami (as opposed to the dry you normally see). I set the meat slicer really thin and sliced both types of meat fine (they had to be rotated to keep the skin from danging on the back side). It was a real pleasure to be able to make the meat thin. I bagged the meats and then cleaned up. I then noticed the screw that holds the blade in place on the meat slicer disappeared. I hunted and could not find it. 
A bit later I took out the hot sausage to put the meat in the freezer, laying in thin layers on plastic wrap. On the second handful, there was the screw. The hot sausage was the second meat I sliced and the screw somehow got in with the meat. I decided one project was to get some replacement screws. 
I do have the other frame and blade, but I don’t like the attachment system on that one quite as well. That has a spring, a washer along with the retaining plate that retains the blade. It is easier to deal with a screw and the retaining plate, so getting extra screws is a good idea. It would be harder to find the right screw if it disappeared first..


SATURDAY

I was not full of energy when we finished breakfast. We hit a few yard sales in our general area with mom driving. One of them had a sale a month or so ago. I had passed on some silicone cookware. I decided to get them this time. I got a good deal, not that I was expecting it, but since I was getting three pieces, she gave all three for the price of the cheaper one. 
We got back and Mom said “you can go out on your own.” I said, “I think I will take a nap first.” Then she said while looking in the paper, “Auntie’s Attic is going on. Let’s go.” 
Auntie’s Attic is mostly collectibles. It is in a lunch room / meeting hall. Lots of tables this time. The last time, they had some empty spaces.  I did a quick walk through all the isles to see what they had at first, then slowed down and looked a bit more closely. I saw an old Singer Sewing machine but chose not to get it. I did not know if it was electric or treadle powered. It caught my eye anyway. I find my eye going to obviously old things that do something.
Part way through, a pair of TY collectable Beanie-Babies drop kicked me to the ground from behind, pulled out my wallet and gave the woman some money. Then they refused to let go of me as I got up off the ground and staggered away. I had to take them home. I did like the colors of them. Teddy bears have a cute giggle when they come home with you.
Later, I picked up an insulated pitcher. I use one of them at work and have another at home. I try not to get more than two of things I know I have, but these are extremely  useful.
I had walked past a friend of mine three times before her daughter caught my attention. Sorry I am sometimes so blind. Also sorry she had nothing like what I was looking for. 

When we got home, I laid down and zonked out for a few hours. It helped a lot.

I went out back, photographed my finds, and then repaired a children’s step stool I had gotten a couple months ago. The lower step was loose, which is likely why I got it. I popped the step off, pulled the brads out with a pair of plyers and then straightened them out again. Not perfectly but good enough. 
I gobbed glue at the mating surfaces and put the step back in place. I then drove the brads back into the holes they came out of and set it to the side to dry. It might not be a professional repair, it will likely hold far better than the original design would hold, as it wsa just four wire brads keeping it in place.  I am thinking, though, that I should have clamped it to dry, rather than depending on the brads and the stick of the glue. 

I then needed to find something and figured the best place to find it was the Festival Flea Market mall. This is a mall without the big stores most malls have. On the back side are some stores, but the rest of the building is filled with little booths of many sizes. It happened that two of the four stores I was looking for, were at opposite ends of the mall from each other. I started at one end of the mall and hit two stores going, got to the one at the far end, and then the last one part way back, then had to walk all the way back to the end my truck was parked and go out to the parking lot. Luckily, I parked close to the building. 
That is longer than I really should walk. I likely would not have minded it quite as much had I found what I was looking for. I had seen it around Christmas time, but no one had it this time. It was fun looking at what is in the various booths as one goes down the isles even if I did not pause.
On the way home, I stopped at Ace Hardware (actually it is now a True Value, but it will always be Ace to me. It is owned by the same guy who has several Ace Hardware stores in the area). It was a short walk but I felt it. I was looking for replacement screws for my meat slicer. I found the screws. They were just a little longer than the one that came with my machine. 

I got home and laid down and rested with my legs up, listing to music and playing games on my tablet until it was time to leave. 

I will see what I do tomorrow.

Year 16, Week 11, Day Two (week 845)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-27-16 Sunday

Low puffs, medium puffs, and high feathers, with a haze in between. Some sun now and then, especially in the afternoon. A wind that caused one to pull the hat down a little tighter. This weather Report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of tourism. 

The screws I got yesterday turned out to be a little long. I have several ways to handle it. One is to grind them shorter. The other is a bit more major and that is to modify the screw hole on the frame itself, drilling the screw hole to go all the way through and then any length screw will work. The ones I got were phillips and the original is slot head. I like phillips a bit better. They are easier to deal with, though a slot head can be turned with a knife or other utensil.  

When I got to Mom’s we headed out for lunch with some friends.  Between every seat filled, slow service and lots of talking, that killed three hours right there. No work was to be done.
I did go out back and put a couple screws to the grinder to shorten them. I held the screws in a pair of plyers. When the grinder was just starting up, I touched the screw to the stone and then had to pick it off the ground. The roughness of the stone caught the end of the screw. One needs a bit of slide instead.  Once it was going fast, it did not grab. The screw did twist a little in the plyers. I really needed to taper the last thread a bit more so it would go into the threads easier. 
I tried the screws when I got home. The shortest one needed to be a few more threads shorter. The second one I shortened needs to be shortened even more. I had not touched the other two I bought. It would not be too hard to shorten these. I likely could do it with a grind stone on a dremmel. I will see if I do it this week or wait until the weekend. I will be happier with spare screws, as long as I can find them when I need them. I will have to figure out how to keep them together in an easy way.

I have to get my truck serviced next weekend. Because I will be waiting, I will likely do a lot of crochet. Beyond that, I have no idea what will be going on. 

I will see what I do next weekend.
1616

\Silicone baking dishes, two loaf pans and one muffin pan. silicone is a rubber material that can bend easily. Really great for removing foods that stick.

the two teddy bears that kidnapped me The pink one is a centennial bear.

insulated pitcher. I have two others. 

Year 16, Week 10, Day One (week 844)

Year 16, Week 10, Day One (week 844)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-19-16 Saturday


Temps were in the 70s, with really high milk clouds most of the day. A breeze that tugged lightly on hats and blew light things over. In the afternoon, it was 79 in the afternoon and a string of showers from an approaching front came by. A bit later we had sunshine for a while with more showers expected later. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

THURSDAY

The turning club meeting had a demonstration on creating a bowl with leaves on it. The spaces between the leaves were removed through piercing and then they received a little detail. 
He had gone to the craft store and picked up a stenciling pack of clear plastic stensils that had four kinds of leaves of various sizes on it. He was working with Maple leaves for his project this time.
He would trace the leaves, including the veins, on the vase or bowl. He would always make sure there were three points of contact. Otherwise the leaves could break off easily. If there was some overlap between leaves, so much better.  He marked the spaces that needed to be removed as after a while, it can become quite confusing.
He suggested that you leave a rim around the top of the vase for strength, but on the one he was demonstrating, he removed it so the rim was the tips of the leaves with gaps between. 
He said that for large spaces such as at the removed rim, rather than slicing off a large chunk, one should remove tiny chunks each time, so there is no binding on the tool (which can do damage) or breakage of material you did not want to break.  He said it is best to turn the work thicker than a sixteenth of an inch thick, tending closer to an eighth of an inch or even thicker. With thinner wood, the for the veins can easily go through if it.  
I forgot to mention that most of the turners use dental drills for this piercing. They run (I seem to remember 3000 rpm)  a whole lot faster than a dremmel can run . His machine though, was much faster. The number I thought I heard was 36,000 rpm. It essentially burns the wood away because it is spinning so fast. It leaves the wood edges blackened which is a nice effect. He pointed out that if the charcoal of burnt wood comes off, just use a marker to blacken the edge again.
He then showed how to an add (alcohol based) dye to the wood to accentuate the leaves, sometimes shading them on different sides. He sometimes colors the inside of the bowl to make the leaves stand out. The bowl he was demonstrating with was black inside. 
If the wood is interesting, he will leave the wood below his leaves showing. If it is rather plain wood, he would add dyes to it to sort of hide the wood and make the leaves stand out.


SATURDAY

The concert I went to last night was three hours long so I was not at my best when I got up. I was refreshed and ready for the day after we finished breakfast. Even so, if I was doing the driving for yard sale search, I would have taken a short nap first, just to be extra safe. Mom was driving, so yard sailing was on as soon as we got home from breakfast and got turned around.
The weather report was questionable for the day, but it definitely did not look questionable. People had their sales out. 
We intended to go in a different direction, but we saw signs for a big yard sale and headed to find it. We could not find the yard even though we were sure we passed the house. They may have decided not to set up or were late starters. Sometimes people put up their signs at night and then set up in the morning, and/or decide not to do the yard sale and forget about their signs.  We hear that people show up at yard sales when the owners start setting up at five in the morning. Some people, especially collectors, try to get to a yard sale as early as possible to have the best selection of goods. Many times we get to a yard sale and they say they sold most of their stuff already.  
Since we were heading North, we came through the Deerfield / LightHouse Point section from the North rather than from the South like we planned. That actually worked out for us later.
We hit quite a few yard sales as we worked our way south. There were a lot of exercise equipment out and a few people were moving. I saw a lot of battery powered drill kits and accessories all over the place. I have some battery powered equipment and have not used them in a very long time. Mine would have to be charged before I could even think of making use of them. After we crossed the main road we live near, Mom found a yard sale that was run by some friends she has known for years, and had lost track of. That made our initial mistake work out nice as we likely would have headed North rather than South.
We did not spend much money this time, just getting bits and pieces of items that were interesting. 

At the end of the yard sailiing Mom drove over to a art show. A group of black painters, called the Highwaymen, were showing their work in a historical building we also wanted to see. The building had been relocated from the original site and now hostese small events there.
Back in the 50s and 60s, a group of black painters were not allowed to show in any galleries because they were not white. As a solution, they sold their work along side the road, mostly in central Florida. Because of an article about them in a paper, they become well known. They mostly do landscapes of Florida. If you do a search of “Highwaymen Paintings”, you will see web sites of a couple of the artists and see the kinds of pictures they like to paint. 
It happens that one of them is going to teach at a painting seminar Mom is going to. She wanted to talk to him about the classes. 
This historic  house is two story with really high ceilings (possibly 16 feet tall). I am not supposed to do stairs, but the guy Mom wanted to see was on the second floor and I wanted to see the rest of the artists work. There were also no chairs anywhere. 
They love to paint with fan brushes, really big brushes, pallet knives. A lot of their paintings are brightly colored. There were a couple paintings I drooled over as I could sit and stare at those pictures for quite a long time. The paintings were selling. I saw several people who walked out with five or six paintings. They are not cheep either. 
I’ve painted at times in my life and I can recognize techniques. There is nothing in the paintings that is done using a complex or difficult methods. I know how the brush strokes were used to create the effect . The only problem is that I don’t have the knowledge of the absolute best place to locate the brush strokes to create work of the quality they show. There is a lot more to painting than just applying paint.
When comparing the works of many painters doing similar works and using similar techniques, one can spot quality differences in the paintings. One can also see the differences in effect between a light touch and a heavy touch has., Being an artist, I was able to spot a few mistakes. Of course, I would happy to have only those mistakes in my paintings. 
I actually learned quite a bit looking closely at the work of these artists. When you stand back, though, the differences of technique fade away. And then it is strictly composition and choice of color that makes a difference. You can see skill differences at this point too. This group loves the Royal Poinsettia and Jacaranda trees (similar in form but different colors of flowers) and it is almost a trademark of their style. 
Seeing their work almost causes me to want to make time to do some serious painting. The problem is that I don’t have the time to do the hobbies I have already. I even struggle to fit in my Christmas cards in my schedule when the season arrives.  

When we got back, I laid down and slept hard. I woke several hours later and intended to go out do something when a shower hit. A streamer of the front caught up with us. After it stopped, I went outside and the cat kidnaped me. She wanted food, but especially wanted attention. While she was eating, I rubbed her tummy and she leaned into my leg like she wanted to lay down. I picked her up, and for ten minutes, she inhaled the concentrated attention. Some large drops hit the awning and she dropped to the ground and hid. I put a few things away. By the time I went in, it was coming down pretty good. 

A couple hours later, it was nice and sunny again and only some puddles showed evidence of previous downpours.  I sorted some items from the belongings of a friend that passed a couple months ago. I was getting the kitchen items. I found the blade of my meat slicer that I had given to her to take to a blade-and-scissor sharpener for me. It never got there. 
During the week, I experimented with the meat slicer and the blade I got from the yard sale. The blade fit on both machines, but would run really rough on my frame. My motor worked on both frames all right. I cannot figure out why it runs rough when the new blade is on my machine. My old blade is definitely duller than the new one.

I will see what I do tomorrow.  


Year 16, Week 10, Day Two (week 844)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-20-16 Sunday

High 70s. I never looked at the temps. Spaced dots of wetness came through like a train in the early morning, a high unbroken layer of clouds lingered all day long. The wet clouds were lower. There was a strong breeze when the wetness came through, but it was somewhat calm otherwise  (The tourism officials won’t let me use the R word for the wetness. It is officially Liquid Sunshine).  Long narrow clouds zipped along across the sky here and there like a train riding on a track. This weather report was brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

My brother arrived before I did. I showed him the meat slicer blade and we talked about sharpening it. I had not looked at the edge carefully before this. During the morning, I had given thought about how to sharpen it. I thought about holding the blade in the lathe (off) and bringing each edge in line with a grind stone and giving each face a few strokes. I could use something as stops to hold it in place as I worked each tooth. 
As my brother and I looked at the blade, we saw that the tops of each tooth was on an angle. To get that angle on each and every tooth at the right angle was going to be a bit more of chore than what I thought. While looking at it, he suggested (he admitted it to be a guess later) that if I worked the stone against the flat of the blade, it would remove a tiny bit of material to cause a new sharp edge to form on the blade.
The way scissors are sharpened is the blades are separated and the matching surfaces are laid flat on the stone and rubbed. The sheering edge becomes sharp again. Years ago, one guy at work tried to sharpen scissors and did it like a knife and ruined them. At that time I did not fully understand how to sharpen them either but knew his method was wrong when he started it.  This is also the way to sharpen the serrated edged knives. Lay the flat side on the stone and stroke it. Except for points that are bent up due to misuse, the blade will become sharp.
I examined the blade and saw that I could use the chuck of the lathe to hold to the gear on the back side of the blade and just hold the stone against the front side as it spun to sharpen it.
Once this blade is sharp, it will eat flesh nicely (including fingers), so I slowed the lathe to the slowest speed for control purposes. I put the blade in the jaws and then started the lathe. With care, I put the diamond stone honing plate against the blade, with half the plate a distance away from the blade itself for safety, ( and made sure my hands were far from the blade’s edge as possible.) I put more pressure on the edge of the blade than on the center. After a very short time, I stopped the lathe and checked the blade. It was sharper. I turned it back on and did it a bit more. The blade was now nicely sharp. I had never realized it was so easy to do. I could even do it on the cutting frame itself.  I have an idea of how to do each individual tooth effectively but this was so much easier.
Once I got home, I did some experimenting swapping blades between machines. On my old meat slicer, the new blade bogs it down and vibrates. My old blade works nicely on both machines. The new blade has a plastic gear attached to it. The old blade’s gear is metal. The depth of the two sets of teeth are different. I have not measured it, but I think the plastic teeth might be shallower between the teeth so the gear driving the blade is bottoming out on the old machine. The deeper teeth on my old blade makes no difference on the new machine as the spacing between the teeth are the same. This might be solved by swapping the gear that transfers motions from the motor to the blade. 
After I had put the frames away, I thought I saw that one of the machines had another hole in which to put the center gear, which might be slightly farther away. I will check that sometime when I have extra time.
It happens that I like the blade  attachment system of my old machine’s blade better than on the new one so I will stay with my old machine. Knowing I can easily sharpen the blade while it is on the machine makes it easy to maintain from now on. 

I have no idea what will happen next weekend. I will have to see.
2571

Showing leaf drawn on vase, a few holes pierced and areas of rim to be removed.

A more complete vase showing how it is a step farther, some rim leaves exposed.

A completed leaf bowl with stained leaves. Lower part of bowl died to hide ugly wood.

Another completed leaf bowl with the raw wood showing.

Two driver bit sets

Two mouse pads I purchased from one of t he Highwaymen artists. Mouse pad on left with the Jacaranda tree is signed.. The right one with Poinsettia tree is unsigned.

My meat cutter blade in the lathe.

Showing how I held the diamond stone against the blade when I sharpened it. I had to keep my hand as far from the blade edge as I could and still do a good job of sharpening it.

Year 16, Week 09, Day One (week 843)

Year 16, Week 09, Day One (week 843)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-12-16 Saturday

75 early morning, 80 afternoon. Blue sky with periods of clouds zipping by with hat-tugging gusts. A truly beautiful day in Paradise. Come visit and spend your money, then return home and tell your friends about your visit here. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

We knew there were some yard sales to the south of us, but we headed north. Neither one of us were full of energy this morning. We hit two yard sales on our road. At one, run by a church, is going to be the last that church will do for a long time. The officials don’t like the mess of the stuff having to be gathered and stored for several days before it happens. They don’t have any storage space for this stuff any more. Much of today’s stuff was from a woman who passed, and gave it to the church to help the kid’s club items. I got a little nothing and paid more than it was going to go for.
A second yard sale right near by, had part of a meat slicer. The motor was missing. I also got some buttons. I later cleaned this slicer up and realized the blade might fit the slicer I have at home since I am missing a blade. When I got home, it did fit so I have a complete slicer now. In a real world test, I found my motor worked better on this frame, than when I put that blade on my frame.  I am sure someone out there has a broken frame of a slicer and the slicer frame might help them. I will pass it on in some way.
Later, I picked up a coffee warmer. It just gets warm enough to keep a pot of water or pan of food warm, but not hot. I am going to try to stop grabbing things for the replaceable cords. I have enough, I think. 
We were almost home, hitting quite a few yard sales that had everything except what we needed or wanted  We had skipped a couple such yard sales during the day because from the street you could see everything they had. With this last yard sale, it took a little effort to find this it. There was almost nothing on display and were going to leave when we noticed they had some wood laying there. Out of curiosity, I asked if they were sale. I liked the price and got them. There was some nice square 4x4s, slightly rounded 4x4 fence posts. and some 2x4 and some one bys. I really don’t need more wood, but this was a good deal for some boards that were useful. These were all cut-offs, not full length. That did not matter to me. The wood was worth it.
A couple months ago, a friend had passed. I was given two milk crates of books in the evening. I did not have time to look at what I got.

We got home and we all took a nap. Mine was short, just enough to refresh me. I went out back, sorted my finds and took pictures.
Now the square 4x4 posts were yellow pine. It was exactly what I needed for a project. A couple of weeks ago, I had made a platter with a knob in the middle for a friend, and it was not what she was after. Last week, I picked up some small glass bowls at the dollar store with the intent of making a base for them to be held at the center of the platter. During the week, I was trying to figure out what wood I needed. I might even have had to glue two pieces of wood together to get the size I needed. If I did that, though, I would not be able to turn the piece until the following week as the glue has to fully set to work with it.
I checked and found these 4x4s were just about big enough. I had founda solution so I could finish my project! 
I used the SawsAll to slice a chuck off, more than I really needed. It cut the wood nicely. I prefer this saw to other methods of cutting wood like this. I considered using the band saw but then I realized I would have to change the setup and also it has that meat cutting blade and does not work good on anything thick. The chain saw could have been used but the kerf of the cut is so wide. The SawsAll was easy to grab and less work to set up than the band saw or any other cutting implement I might grab and the blades are thin. The idea of using a hand saw was out of the questions. I have my morals, you know.....
I marked the centers of the wood on each end. I opened the jaws of the chuck all the way, which was smaller than the end of the wood, put the tail stock in place, right on the center, and tightened everything up. I knocked off some of the corners but little else, and then next to the point of the tail-stock, I turned the end down until it would fit inside the chuck as a tenon. A technique I learned with making crochet hooks on the mini lathe from square stock, is that I know that the end at the tail stock will be spinning at center. The three jaws on the mini lathe cannot gab a square object, they are only good for round stock. I basically let the rest of it be as out of straight it wants to be. I just round the tiny part at the tail stock, in this case, cutting it down until it will fit inside the jaws of the chuck. What little out of alignment it might be, is not enough to matter. 
I flipped the work around and clamped down the chuck while making sure the point was dead in the center of my marks. The error from straight that the tenon because of possible angles, was not enough to effect anything. It was centered on the point of the tail stock.
I nearly rounded the work with the point holding it in place, because there are strong forces of the corners slamming into the cutting tool during this process. I did not want the piece to slip in the jaws of the chuck and be thrown out of center
Once it was nearly round, I removed the tail stock. Now there is sometimes little errors caused by possible slight angle differences or stresses in how the chuck holds the wood alone comparted to when held by the tail stock point. With the work now supported only  by the chuck, I rounded the work a little more, stopping with a couple flat spots on the sides still showing. They were not important as when I got to them, they would be removed as I shaped the piece. 
I addressed hollowing the end. I had not done this in a while. I had to remember some things as I was going. I am not totally satisfied with how I did it. I could do it better, quicker and  get a cleaner cut. Hopefully, next time I will get it right. When the bowl was close, I used the glass bowl to check the fit. I kept checking as I removed material, until I had a nice solid fit, which including removing a slight bump in the center. I then used a scraper to get a really good surface and then sanded until it was right enough (my work is never actually good, since I cannot sand through all the grits while the work is on the lathe, but good enough is what I was after).  
Then I addressed  the outside. I got the area just below the lip nice and smooth, well sanded  before I went any farther. Then came cutting in the base till it fit the knob on the platter. I had gone quite a ways down when I realized I should measure the piece to see if it would fit nicely on the knob of the platter. I grabbed a clamp since it was at hand and set it to the diameter of the knob, and then put it to the cup I was making.  I found I had gone in deeper than I intended to go, so I marked on the curve of the bowl where the diameter was found, and cut in there so I had a bead. I then shaped to the bead, and then cut the bottom flat while creating what could have been the stem of a goblet. This  would have made a nice goblet at this point, but I was after something else. When I got the stem small enough to act like a dowel and everything sanded , I cut the work off. 
The next step was to drill a hole in the knob of the platter to fit the stub of the bowl. I drilled a tiny hole straight and true, then made it bigger using the original hole to make it also straight and true and then a little bigger. I did not have a  drill bit that the dremmel could hold of the final size I was after.  I was not in the mood to drag out a drill or take the work to the drill press. Instead I took a conical grinding burr I had that was close to the diameter (slightly larger) and used that as a drill. I had to trim the stub a couple times to make sure it was short enough, globed a lot of water-poof wood-glue into the hole and on all the surfaces, and pressed them together. After cleaning up a tiny bit of overflow and rotating the cup to make sure the grain pattern has some logic to the pattern on the platter, I set it out to dry. 
I might try another project like this again. I do like the results. 

Someone tossed out a little stair climber unit. The cable had jumped the groove of the pully and dug into the plastic. I picked it up, out of curiosity, partly to see if I could fix it. Partly to see how one of those things worked. 
I completely disassembled the pulley assembly. I was supposed to use a large allen or hex wrench on one side, but instead held that bolt with plyers on the sides of the head while turning the nut on the other side. Once I was able to slide the pulley out, I could see exactly what had happened. They must have loosened the knob a bit too much and the cable slipped. Then when they applied pressure, the cable slid beside the pully and damaged the ridge of the disk. 
It was at this point I figured out how the thing worked. There are shock absorbers to slow the motion and give resistance. As one places weight on one peddle, it is pushed down, and the cable pulls the other pedal up. The second foot essentially has be lifted  to make the next step and overcoming the weight on the first foot,. This is where the exercise comes from. I put the bad part of the groove on the opposite side of where the cable restedand put it all back together. The pulley only turns less than a quarter turn, at most, with each step so the bad spot never comes into play. It is fixed. 
It is not coming home, that is for sure. I don’t want any “Mediaeval Torture Devices” anywhere near me. “Confess or you get ten more minutes!”

I am not totally sure what I will be doing tomorrow. I will have to see. We have the time change and plans might be shifted around.  I never know exactly what I will do.







Year 16, Week 09, Day Two (week 843)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-13-16 Sunday

75 degrees morning, 79 afternoon. A nice clean blue sky early morning. A line of clouds came by in the late afternoon to the south, watering the plants nicely. It was about a mile wide at most. It was blue sky to the east of the shield clouds of the shower line, and mostly blue sky to the west of the clouds. Typical for Florida. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism. 

You know that hour I lost this morning? That was the hour I planned on exercising during. Oh well...

While my brother and I talked, I dug out my dremmel and a flap sander and worked on removing signs of glue on the inside of the bowl. Of the goblet I broke and repaired last week. I dipped the goblet in some water. Where the water was repelled was where the glue was. If water could not penetrate, neither any finish I might try. That is why you need to be very careful when you are gluing. I then sanded to remove as much as I could before I tested it again. 
I got it to where only little bits of glue within little tear-outs (signs of bad technique)  I had in the bowl was where the glue was showing up, that and the very center where I glued in the stem. For now, this is pretty good. Everything I do could do with more sanding. 

My brother brought the piece of metal he is working to become a knife. He had welded soft metal outside the file in the center, and cut strips from a circular saw blade and welded them on the outside. He then folded it over and was working on welding the fold together. 
He has a problem from the fact that he is using charcoal briquets. They get the metal hot enough for bending and forming, but he could not get the fire hot enough for a proper welding. He could get the metal yellow hot, but a good weld is white hot. He only had one bag of charcoal on hand so he could not really build a proper mound to get the heat he needed.
He has learned a lot from a knife making competition he has watched on TV. These metal workers have a limited time to make something from the materials they are given. There are different tests they have for what they made. My brother said that on one show, two guys made knives from files. One ground off the teeth before he started. The other did not. The guy who removed the teeth did not have lots of problems. In another competition, they had to use at least three different kinds of metal One guy meticulously cleaned the pieces of metal before he welded them. His welds were quick. Another did not and he spent a lot of time just driving the slag out between the metals with the hammer. 
My brother’s fire is small, he can only do half the piece of metal when heating it. That makes it tough to heat it in the center. He is going to change his forge so he can get a better angle on the metal (he built his own forge). A bigger pile of charcoal might help too..  He says that even though he knows a lot of what he is doing, because he read a lot and seen a lot of shows, there is still a learning curve. He is hammering with his weak hand as his dominant  arm is messed up right now. He found it is easier than he thought, though. 

A friend of mine passed several months ago and her executor finally got access to her belongings. I glanced through some of her books I got last night and separated them in three sections. One pile was cook books and game books which I intend to keep for a while, the other is novels, and the third was a few devotional booklets. Mom got the devotionals. (I will keep some of the cook books and pass on others) I was told I have a chance to get some of her kitchen stuff next week. Whether that happens will be something else.

This is going to be a really big week. I have the turning club meeting Thursday night. I have my chip and dip platter and that goblet to show off there.  Friday I was invited to a concert and will be going to that. Since both these things are well past my bed normal bed time, I do expect to sleep a lot on Saturday in an attempt to recover. If I do more than yard sailing, even if the weather is good, I will be really surprised.

I will see what I do next weekend.
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flat stock with explanation of what they are and how I might use them.

post stock. the partially rounded woods on the right are fence post cut offs.

warmer burner

meat slicer without motor.

square stock mounted on lathe. Just using friction to hold it against the chuck to spin it.

Corners knocked off and a tenon made

most of the corners removed.

Just about rounded, ready to remove the tail stock to work on the ends

end cupped out

matching the hollow to the blow.

ready to part off

bottom side to be parted.

The two parts ready to glue together. Note stub on bowl and hole in platter.

Just checking, moments before gluing

chip and dip plate as shown at the turning club

Cleaned up goblet standing on print  at turning club showing how badly it was broken.

Year 16, Week 08, Day One (week 842)

Year 16, Week 08, Day One (week 842)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-05-16 Saturday


66 degrees early morning, 80 in the afternoon. A small cloud needed a diaper early in the morning over part of the area over and just to  the south of us . It messed up a couple yard sales where they were unable to open early because things could get wet. A Light breeze was nice during the day. The combination of low and high clouds kept it cloudy all day long.  Almost from the moment I left my house, the sky had a pretty color coming beneath the clouds. It shifted from purple, to red, to a light pink at the time I got to Mom’s house. If I was using a film camera, I would have shot two to three rolls of film of the sky. Digital just does not handle sunrises right. I did not even bother to try. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

The sky was dripping lightly when we went out after Breakfast. We were not expecting much in the way of yard sales. About eight blocks north of our area, the ground was dry. 
We found several yard sales in Light House Point and Deerfield Beach. One guy had several telescopes, one with one of those motor drives so it will follow the start as it moves across the sky. Back in the 80s, when I was heavily in photography, I would have sold my soul for one of those. He also had some boat stuff. One thing that caught my eye was a fishing pole in a case for back packing. It was not something I really, really wanted, it was just a “nice to have” item, that was why I decided his price was higher than I wanted to go. 
In other yard sales, everything that I saw that was interesting, was stuff I already know not to get. I did get a couple items nothing worth mentioning. 

I headed out back soon after a quick nap. 
This was a day of “Dumb Rookie Mistakes.”
A friend gave me some posts he removed from a bed. I had told him I would make something from some. I decided to make a set of tiny goblets copying the shape of the balls on the posts. I started working from it and realized it was way too long for the lathe to hold the wood while I was hollowing out the bowl. 
The chuck uses only a tiny bit of metal to hold the wood in place. The farther the work is from the chuck, the less pressure it takes to move it. In this case, I was actually holding the work by the base of the jaws, not the “teeth” There is nothing in that part of the jaw to dig into the wood to hold it. It is pure friction of smooth metal. It does not take much force to cause the wood to slip. The reason for holding the work there was that the piece of wood was too small to fit properly. SOMEWHERE, I have a set of jaws designed to hold small items, but I am way too lazy to locate them and then remove eight screws to swap them out for one project. SOMEWHERE I also have another jaw and should get that set up for the “pin” jaws. I think that is going to require me to unload my tool cart. That sounds like work!!!!
I took a chance and started hollowing it with a post in the middle. One can always grind that away later. I got partway in and the knob broke. That was the first of my Dumb Rookie Mistakes. There was several ways of doing it without breaking the stub, which includes using proper tools, using a light touch, paying attention to the angle of the tools, but I was not using any of those methods. With this kind of work, these breaks don’t go very far or do too much damage. I have had it pull the tool on me before, causing my hand to hit the tool rest hard, but it did not do that this time.
I cut the piece shorter and mounted it in the lathe. I then got it roughly centered and then worked on the inside of the bowl. It was not exactly centered and had a slight wobble (possibly a 64th off), but I got the inside nice and clean, then started working on the outside. This made it a bit thinner than I intended, but was thick enough. 
As one develops skills, one tries to get thinner and lighter. If you make a usable bowl, you might get twenty bucks for it. Make it very thin and one might get a hundred dollars. Pierce and carve it  and one can get thousands. The more air the piece has, the more it is worth. 
Before I went any farther, I sanded all I had done pretty well. I was not about to sand when it is held by a really thin stick of the stem. 
The stick of wood I worked with had white paint on the outside, so I had to shave that off as part of the process. I was not going to try to sand it off. Just remove a thin layer of wood that had the paint. Since I am not spectacular with the use of my tools, I lost a bit of the original shape, but felt I had something good. I then worked on the stem, shaving down the wood until I got to the right diameter. Mistakes with the tool lost the original shape of the lower bead on the bottom of the cup.  I sanded the stem after I had gone part way, then continued on, sanding at each stage as I went, leaving a lot of stronger wood to hold it in place before I cut farther. 
I had the stem the way I wanted and started sanding all the stem to make sure it was the same the entire length. I was using a light touch.. 
I did not have enough of the waste wood sticking out in order to part the base the way I wanted. When I had started, I removed too much surface length when I was working between center before the nub broke. That caused the Second of my Dumb Rookie Mistakes
WARNING. 
NEVER EVER wrap anything around your fingers when you are working with the lathe. If you make handles for sanding strips or burning wires or other strip style tools, make them so they can slip out of your hands!!!!! Otherwise you can easily lose a finger or even worse damage!!!!!
I was using a strip of emery cloth. I do this all the time. I strictly use the friction of my fingers on the strip to hold it but it is not wrapped around anything on my body. While trying to sand the bottom as close to the chuck as I could, the chuck caught the sandpaper. 
The chuck jaws are four pieces of metal that when closed all the way form one tight ring. The gaps grow larger as they are opened,. When chucks are made, they are usually a solid ring that is machined to shape. Then they are cut apart to become individual jaws. 
The jaws were slightly opened to create a small gap. It was just enough. I had the lathe at 2000 RPM which is the fastest this lathe could go. The slowest is 500 rpm. Not a good range of speeds. The gap in the chuck caught the edge of the cloth sandpaper strip and pulled it in as it spun. The strip came out of my hands but not before giving my right thumb enough speed to slap against the wood and bruise it ever so slightly. Then the sandpaper slapped around until I stopped the lathe. Also a piece tore off the strip. After I got my wits together, I sanded some more before I called it good enough.
I then found the center of the base, which was just a hair off but not bad. A 64th of an inch looks really badly off when it is spinning. I set the tail stock center to my mark and set the cup against the chuck. Only friction and a slight pressure was holding it in place. I started it spinning and started the process of parting the excess wood. 
This is where my Third Rookie Mistake came in The goblet is delicate. One ABSOLUTELY DO NOT apply any force to It at all. Never twist. In reality, You NEVER mount the work of this kind this way. What I was dong is an absolute no-no. There is other, safer ways of doing this part of the project. I was smart in cutting the slot really big to prevent binding. It is just that I made a little mistake. I somehow caused the parting tool bind in the wood. I may have twisted slightly or pushed in too much. The goblet itself split into three pieces and all three pieces separated from the stem. I broke it big-time. 
I took the stem to the bandsaw and sliced off the worst of the waste wood. I then dug out the dremmel and cleaned out the stub at the bottom of the base This is never as good as if it were turned off. The dremmel, by nature, makes it rougher than it should be. I fitted two halves of the bowl and glued them together. Later I glued the third piece to the first two. I had many options with the resulting bowl. One, which I was going to try, was to reattach the stem. Another would be to make it into a flower with a little bit of carving. I would see what my results were after I was done.

I drew on a piece of whitewood how I wanted the new angel wings to be. I then took them to the bandsaw. If you remember, previously I added a meat cutting blade in the bandsaw. It does not do curves because there is no set – outside bend – to the teeth. I cut the shape of the wings out of the block of wood, I mainly did straight cuts. For the parts in deep, I would cut wedges off so I could get better angles and then scraped the wood back and forth on the blade to help clean it up. The blade is not square, top to bottom. It cuts a little deeper on the bottom than to the top. This bandsaw should be replaced, but it works so it stays. 
I put the sanding disk on the lathe, since it has newer sandpaper than the disk sander has (Reminder, buy another package). I cleaned up the shape of the wings with the sanding disk. 
I then marked and then sliced the shape into four sets of wings. Since the bandsaw needs some adjustments and the throat plate has a big gap, I did not get the cuts parallel and clean. I used the sanding disk on the lathe to clean them up. I needed to take some thin sheets of wood I have and clamp them on each side of the blade to give me a tiny slot so the pieces don’t fall into the gap. There are times one is too lazy to do what would save a lot of effort....
I decided I would make a second set. I used the best side of the first wings to draw the second set. I followed the same technique on them. I got the spacing wrong and two wings were thick, but one was really thick. I started cutting it and the blade twisted slightly (which was why it was too think in the first place) and I could not go straight. Instead of coming up with two wings, I shaved the wing down in thickness, and then had to sand quite a bit to make it even. 

I sat with the dremmel and ground some spots to clean them up, especially where the bandsaw could only cut straight in. It was rough there. Here is where I made My Fourth Dumb Rookie Mistake.
My hair is kind of long and pulled back in a loose pony tail. I usually tuck it in the back of the shirt. It was not in place at this time. A chunk came off one wing. I bent over with the dremmel still running, and reached for it on the ground. My hair got caught on the grinding bit I was using. Luckily, the dremmel is not a strong machine. The hair stopped it. After turning the switch the wrong way once (it only moved a little before it bound, I turned it off.  
NEVER EVER WEAR ANY LOOSE CLOTHING, HAIR OR JEWELRY around machinery. It is a great way to get seriously hurt. After a tiny bit of tugging and pulling, I unlocked the bit from the dremmel and then slipped the hair off the shaft itself and finally the bit itself. This bit has little points sticking out that eats wood nicely. They also hold hair well. Once I got the bit out of my hair, I ran my finger through my hair to loosen tangles. Except for a tiny knot, it all came apart with no problems. 
I have a machine called the Fordum. This is a stronger version of the dremmel, but it uses a foot peddle for power and a flexible shaft to bring the bit to the work. The motor is usually hung next to you. The fordum, being a more powerful motor, could well have done damage if it caught in my hair. I don’t use it as it is a hassle to set up and put away. I also lost a part to work the chuck properly. 
The piece of wood I reached for was not the one that came off. I found the other just moments after I stood up.  It had gone beneath the table. I glued that back on. 

The wings need shaping. I intend to give them a cup form so they look like bird wings at least in rough shape. As they are, they are way too thick. Shaping them will also reduce the thickness and make them look even better.

I finished up the little project I had, and cleaned up. Many wood workers do their work in a shed or garage, basement or some other well enclosed place. One can simply stop and walk away for several days and pick up where they left off. They can also hold off on cleaning for another time of the day or another day. I cannot do that. I have to clean up and pack up everything before I can call it a day. That includes sweeping down the equipment and the work area before putting everything away. Everything has to be covered or deep enough beneath cover to be out of the weather. It is usually the clean up that does me in at the end of the project. I tend to stop on the project when I have had enough. Then it is too late. 

I laid down and did my FIFTH Dumb Rookie Mistake. I have a little fan blowing past me for fresh air. I decided to move it. I reached up and my finger went into the hole of the protective grid that is SUPPOSED to keep hands away from the blades. My finger went deep enough in to contact the really fast moving blades. The blade speed was transferred to my hand as I jerked back and away from it. The blade slowed to a visible spin, then sped back up. Other than a tiny nick on the end of my finger, I was all right. 

I WAS REMINDED.....
One should think about what you are going to do, not do it automatically. 
One should take a moment Before doing anything to make sure nothing is hanging out to get caught.
One should watch carefully what you are doing and not just reach. 
One should remember the suggestions, rules, lessons, others have learned by hard experience so you do not have to repeat it. 
I was lucky that all my “injuries” was mostly to my pride.

I have several projects in mind for tomorrow. I will have to see what is going on as to what gets done. 




Year 16, Week 08, Day Two (week 842)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-06-16 Sunday

66 degrees early morning, 75 when I hit the road. It stayed there all day. The light breeze made the clean blue sky nice to be under. This was a WINTER DAY that makes Florida so wonderful to live in. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

My brother and I spent most of our time talking. Yesterday I realized I had some files and rasps in my tool cart (the box they were in had fallen during the week). I dug them out and we examined them. My brother took two files, one is almost knife like already as it was a triangle (I had two). He will have to see how well they clean up. If they clean up, he will use them. If not, he will make them into a knifes. He found he had a file at home worse than the one he got from here last week. He decided to weld some soft metal to the file and will forge them together when he is making the knife. The hard file metal will end up being the hard metal for the edge and run through the core, and the soft metal on the outside will give the knife flexibility. He has been watching some knife making shows and has learned quite a bit. He knew mistakes they made as they made them. My brother might not be able to hammer much but he thought he would try this project. At the moment, I am not really in the need of another knife but might make one a bit later. I have the materials available anyway. 
I fitted the stem into the goblet bowl. There are bits of wood missing. I decided to use a water resistant wood glue to fill the gaps. The dried glue seems to be close to the color of the wood itself which helps hid the repair. I doubt the glue will take a good finish, but dry, it looks pretty good. I have a bunch of sanding to do to clean it up. I have a dremmel at home and might use that to speed some of the work up. I did use the glue to fill gaps so they are not as noticeable.  One thing I have done before was to paint the glue to give it a color closer to the wood color.
Last night, I went to the Dollar store and got some small clear bowls. I now have a project to do. I need to turn a wood cup or pedestal that will hold that glass bowl, and add that to the platter I made last week, the one with the knob in the center. It will become a chip and dip platter. I will have to do a glue-up of a couple pieces of wood to make it work, or might be able to do it in one piece of wood. To make sure the new piece of wood stays in place, I am thinking of using a dowel or a hidden screw to hold the two pieces together more firmly than just with the help of glue. I have several ideas of how to make this and will have to see what ends up working. I want to make it out of the yellow pine the platter is made from so it has some continuity. 

I have another weekend to get these projects ready to show off at the Turning club meeting. They can be raw and unfinished wood, but must at least be presentable. 

I will have to see what I get done next weekend. 

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The original post along side the mate I was working with.

I cut the excess off and readied to hollow the cup

First batch of new wings for the angels. Shows how my first angel had fairy wings.

The nub broke while hollowing. 

I was cutting the base when I broke the bowl.

The platter with the clear cup on top. will have a wood pedestal to hold it

The goblet reassembled. 

Year 16, Week 07, Day One (week 841)

Year 16, Week 07, Day One (week 841)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-27-16 Saturday

50 degrees, clear skies in the morning with a range of blue mountains over the ocean as the color grew in the eastern sky in the early morning, becoming a white-capped mountain range after the sun showed up. I stopped noticing it during the day and the mountains had left later. . Some puffs showed up over parts of the sky in the afternoon with a temperature of 75 degrees. The sky is still dark when I leave my house but the sky is lightening up as I near Mom’s house. That tells me that the dead of winter is now past. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism

After an early breakfast, Mom had a meeting to go to. I dawdled around a short time before I headed out yard sailing. For some reason, the humane society’s yard sail did not happen. Because It is off my normal rabbit run I left there differently than the way I came and got to the end of the Lighthouse Point - Deerfield run which is usually good, and worked my way south. I nearly missed the first yard sale except the car in front of me turned, and then I saw the little tiny sign and followed the car. 
Many people who do yard sales don’t consider reading the sign from a fast moving car.  I have heard people who wrote their sign with a small marker saying, “they can get out and look.” It is better to make it as easy for people to find you as possible. Now when yard sailing, one has to discern in a few seconds, whether the sign is for a yard sail, open house, upcoming fair, house for sale, or “elect me.”  Arrows are really nice as long as there are enough on the route to get you where you were going. Last year, I was following a series of yard sale signs and when I got near the end, there were none and I could not find it.  I’ve noticed this weekend the good practice of placing the sign on the side of the road you will be turning. I will have to watch for that to see if it is as common as I think it is.  A lot of signs are in day-glo colors which is nice. You can see those several blocks away sometimes.  
After that first yard sale, I was either very lucky or saw the signs. One yard sail I drove past going to another, but a woman asked the owner about other yard sails and he mentioned one around the corner and I then saw it when I was leaving. I have no idea how I missed it. 
I was wearing a short sleeve denim jacket and once the temps ranged above 60, I was able to drive with my window open. It was nice day. 
At an estate sale, I found a cast iron pot and a small stove top percolator coffee pot. Getting them both allowed me to get a deal. That cast iron pot is about a third less the size of my other pot I got many years ago.  “I think I am addicted to cast iron. I will do something about it if it becomes a problem....”
The coffee pot is a 1/3 sized pot. As long as I know that, I can compensate. One always need coffee when there is a power out such as from a storm. Electric coffee pots tend to have plastic bottoms that do not like being placed on a burner or a fire.
One yard sale was a club fund raising event for the Coral Springs Crafts Guild. I did not find anything there that was useful, but I did talk to one of the members and was invited to join. I don’t have the time right now. It would be fun. What I understand is each month they have a different project for everyone to try, like last month they did a painting since most of them don’t paint.  In my yard sailing, I have been invited to join various groups doing things for charity or clubs. If I was retired now, it might be worth joining. 
When there is a lot of people at a yard sale, I have the practice of saying something like “good morning.” The owner tends to be the one who replies. At one yard sale, I saw who the owner was ahead of time, but I said Good Morning. He said, “You are the first one to say that to me. I will give you a deal because of that.” I ended up with a adjustable metal saw horse. While I was driving, I was thinking about how to use it. One idea was for the band saw when using long sheets or sticks or for the table saw. The last yard sale I went to, a friend happened to be looking there. He is a cabinet contractor. I showed him the saw horse and he ended up with it. It will help him when he is working alone. 

I relaxed when I got home, then after lunch, I went out back. I thought I had more round wood disks than I actually have. A friend asked me about a tray to carry some table stuff. I decided to give it a try. This would be made shallow and fairly flat with a handle in the middle. 
I used a two by disk that was about 11 inches diameter in the rough form. I found the center and the mounted it on the lathe. This time I used the chuck to back up and drive the wood. I simply opened the chuck all the way out and put the wood against it with the tail stock holding it tightly in place. 
As usual, I did the back first. I made the foot of the plate quite large. After that was done, I flipped it and could not quite get it as centered. I should have verified the center on the back side before starting.  I could have verified it before I flipped it. I worked the top, leaving the center nub that the tail stock was against, much bigger than I normally would, as I wanted to use it as a handle. 
I used sandpaper to clean up the edge instead of cutting the off center wood away. No one is going to see the difference between the bottom and top of the disk. It might be an eighth at most off between the two sides. When spinning at a thousand RPM, that looks like a whole lot. 
I cleaned up all the shavings and saw dust. One interesting thing about the dry yellow pine shavings. It sticks to hair really well. My arms were covered and I had it in my hair. I used a whisk broom to brush the shavings out of my hair and to get it off the arms. It also gets inside shirts and into everything else. I had to work to get clean of all the saw dust and shavings, and some still appeared later when I was inside the house. 
Since I had helped Mom with a quick little project, which was actually quick, when I had first gone out. I had the folding table set up and the dremmel still out. I ground away the nubs on last week’s platter and this week’s. As  usual, the grinding wheel (sold as a “saw”) left marks where it went off the nub. A flap sanding wheel for the dremmel removed the worst of the grinding marks but left different kinds of marks. While touching up with some hand sanding, I found that there were some errors with my tool working. There were a few ring waves going around the piece. I was not even in my drawing the cutting tools across the face. It was not visible to me on the lathe. I have a whole lot more sanding to do. Did I ever tell you that I don’t really like sanding????? Whenever you use power to sand, they add different kinds of marks. One ends up having to do serious hand sanding in the end. 
The yellow pine looks pretty good. With the tray, I might turn a handle or a holder for a dip cup and attach it in the center. I have several ideas of how to do each. Each method has advantages and difficulties. 
After everything was put away and cleaned up, I went in. I had done far more than intended.  

I will see what I do tomorrow. I never know what Mom has planned.



Year 16, Week 07, Day One (week 841)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-27-16 Saturday

62 degrees early morning 75 in the afternoon. Flat puffs soldiered across the sky in an even pattern. One almost did not notice it when one was over the sun. They were moving that fast and were that thin and small. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

On the way to Mom’s, I stopped at a yard sale and got a pair of C-clamps that were about 18 inches long. Big heavy ones. My brother got them from me. He said he could have used them last week. We think they were used to clamp big beams together while they glued and bolted them together. My brother said one had a repair weld on it, but it was still useable. I never noticed it. 
My brother came up intending to make a knife out of a file. We knew had a few in the garage. The garage has become more storage than anything as of late. If you don’t know where you want to put it permanently, stick it in the garage. I started moving things out so I could get to the cabinet I thought it was in. It quickly became a treasure hunt. I found a few things I did not realize was in there. I first moved stuff out one side of the garage stuff, just in the front. 
The cabinet at that side was finally cleared to open. Dad had all sorts of neat tools. 
All sorts of wood chisels filled a drawer. I’ve never done much with carving with a chisel, sticking to a knife. My theory was that I should learn how to use one thing well, rather than a few hundred things poorly. I now understand chisel carving much better than any time in previous years. One chooses the sweep of the chisel to match the radius one is working with, change to a different sweep as the curve changes. There are several projects where a chisel would have made it a whole lot easier to do. I tend to work either with a knife or a dremmel. I do have a couple chisels in my work kit but use them rarely. 
He had a small drawer of paint, which is in colors I don’t use. I had picked out the colors I needed long ago. I just now remembered that he has a complete set of colors in another cabinet. I had made two complete sets, one I use in my basket and one in that cabinet. The drawer I glanced at had the colors I would never use such as flesh.  I prefer wood colored when possible. I also have a set of the same kinds of paints at home. 
He had some power tools, bits for a Fordum (much more powerful than a dremmel and users a shaft to transmit power to the bits while the motor hangs nearby) or dremmel. 
We then moved out some more equipment and stored stuff on the other side of the garage and found more tools. Dad had quite a few planes. If I were doing furniture, I would use them a lot. 
We finally found the files we were looking for. I picked out  a round file and two small files, while my brother picked a large file with the most worn grooves on it. There are more there. 
After I rough swept the exposed part of the floor, we put everything back. That project was enough work for both of us.  It was fun to be reminded of what Dad had in there, and imagine the projects I could do to use them. 
With all the tools we have there, and that my brother has, we can make absolutely anything at all. All that is really required is time and effort. 
Afterwards we sat and talked until lunch time. 
I make my files differently than my brother intends to do it. He plans to heat the file to remove the temper (hardness), then grind it into a knife, then heat it again and put in the temper in again. 
I just grind and hope that the hardness goes all the way through. 
Many modern files are case hardened, where the hardness is only part way into the material. The inside of the metal is still soft. It is cheaper to make them that way They are also less likely to shatter if they fall a distance. The soft metal inside will give and spring a little. 
I simply grind the file into a knife shape that I am after. If only the outer surface is hardened, my knife will have to be sharpened often.  His method is better for knife making but mine can be done less knowledge about metallurgy to create.
We all talked quite a while during and after lunch, then we had to leave. 

I have no idea what project I will work on next week if any. I do have some more angle wings to make. I also might do another platter if the weather is good. I have a lifetime supply of wood to work with if I could apply myself to it and two life times of ideas. 

I did find out that the project I made yesterday was not what my friend was after. She was after a larger tray and did not need to be lifted by the center. I have some ideas to make one but it will require a different skill set to create it. I can do it, but will have to think about whether it is a project I really want to handle.  

I will see what I do next weekend.
2442

1/3 pot coffee pot

cast iron pot

Using chuck to back up and drive project this time.

I love knots in these projects

This will be the bottom

Bottom about done

The top with the knob in the center

the bottom  with nub to remove

Tops of last week's plate and this week's project. Nub removed

Bottoms of both projects, nubs removed. Much sanding has to be done yet.