In My "Spare" Time: Year 16, Week 46, Day One (week 877)

Year 16, Week 46, Day One (week 877)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-19-16 Saturday

68 degrees at six, 78 high, some meandering puffs, sometimes blocking the sun for a while. Negligible breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

THURSDAY

I went to the turning club meeting. We had our elections for officers. As with most organizations, finding people who will do the work is tough. Our bylaws allow only two terms for president. That forces us to mix it up periodically.

The demonstration was on Sea Urchin ornaments. We have done these several times over the years. This was a new technique. Before, we would do stuff like glue the finial and top cap to the shell and hope the shell holds. We would sometimes fill the shell with a spray foam to give it some strength as Shells can break easily.
With this new technique, he made it so a “rod”went between the finial and top cap so the shell was not holding any weight at all. He said he used super-glue inside and out to give the shell extra strength. There are other methods to do the same thing such as other glues or fillers. I am using the terms Finial and Top Cap, simply because it is common to have the long dangling part on the bottom. One could have it on top if that is your design preferences. You could even have finials on both ends. Whatever you have on top is the top cap.
Now the guy he saw this method from, would simply drill holes in the finial and in the top cap and glue in a separate rod (like a skewer) between them. This demonstration, though, was to turn the rod as part of the piece.
I will say that this member doing the demonstration is a nationally known master turner who demonstrates at many of the symposiums around the country. Since I turn like Godzilla, I am not sure I will ever get that rod the right diameter.
With this method, the shell holds no weight at all, and is not taking the stress of mishandling. It is just held there in place between the two pieces.
He said that it is best to use a hard wood with straight grain if you intend to go very thin. Concentrate on getting the farthest end from the motor exactly the way you want it before you move on. It is best not to touch the finished end once you get it right so you are not placing any force on the piece while correcting something.

I have not turned since before the hurricane passed so all I had to show was the spiral ornaments I carved a few weeks back.

SATURDAY

Mom and I visited several yard sales together on the northern loop. Several of the yard sales we visited also had them last weekend. While several had more stuff, I did not get anything else at them. We visited a sale by some people who have had them several times a year. They separated the men’s stuff from the woman’s stuff. She had a mini muffin pan with some 20 muffin cups. It was brand new, still had the label on it. I barely use the ones I have. There were other things where I just did not have room for or would be a long time before I could use. I walked away from her section empty handed.
The man once had a warehouse for his business and he finally closed it out. He had some tools available. When I was trying to figure one tool out on my own, I thought it was a puller for removing pulleys from shafts or something like that. I then learned that it was a tenon cutter for cutting ends of rods like found in chair. I don’t always get my guess right. There were other small items that I could make use of. It came home with me along with a few other small items.
At several the yard sales, there was a lot of Christmas stuff. Some people are upgrading, down-sizing or discarding extras so they might have room for something else. Mom used to have loads of Christmas stuff that filled a shed, and has gotten rid of most allof it over the years. I sometimes tease her about it by saying, “they have some Christmas stuff here.”
I saw bookshelves at three of the yard sales. I am not ready for them but I would love to have gotten them. One never has enough bookshelves.

When we got back, I headed out on my own. I needed to stop at the hardware store and another place, so I used that run as an excuse to continuing to look at yard sales. I was surprised at how few yard sales there actually were. This excellent weather was predicted all week. Of course, there were a couple sections I avoided entirely as I was in a hurry.
One yard sale I stopped at is with an elderly gentleman who has sales two, possibly three times a year. He has a lot of stuff. I understand he took stock from a couple stores that were closing. He had a big box (two by two by three foot tall) filled with stuffed animals. The entire time I was there, they were screaming at the top of their lungs for me to take them home. It sometimes is almost enough to make one cry. I ended up getting hit by a six inch cast iron fry pan and had to take it home with me. I will stop buying cast iron pans when I see it is becoming a problem...... I do notice the floor sagging in the area where I keep them....

I arrived home and took the two by fours out to the back. I wanted pressure treated lumber for the base of my lathe. I found out that I only needed one board, not two. I intended to measure before I left and forgot. I brought out my Saws-All and when I pulled the trigger, it did not work. After a few minutes of making sure power was coming to it, I remembered that it had died on me just before the storm.
I cut the board in half with a hand saw. The “branch cutting saw” would cut a little bit then get stuck as the moist treated wood expanded and bound on the wood as I cut. I rotated the board several times until I decided the saw would not work any more. I then put the board on an angle and applied weight on one side and heard a crack. I flipped it over and applied pressure and it broke.
I then took out a solid two by two as I needed screw blocks. Mom got me her Saws-all style cutter from Harbor Freight. She told me it had no guts. It did bind a lot until I found out how to handle it. With a light pressure and the blade a distance away from the base, it cut quickly. I have some fence post pieces and cut them to length also with the cutter.
I pre-drilled the blocks for the screw that goes into the 2x4s. I am not good on the ground, but since I was not in the mood of lifting the base to a working height, I got on the ground to work. I set the block in place and marked where the screw that goes through the legs of the lathe go. I then started the screw into the wood and backed it out, and then placed the block in place, working both screws down in stages. The legs are at an angle in two directions which makes it tough to get in the right position to drive a screw .
Once I got all four blocks partially screwed in place, I tipped the lathe stand up on end and tightened all the screws in a more comfortable position. Finishing the tightening of the screws only took a minute.
At this point I was looking at the blocks that the lathe will sit on when the wheels are up and the wheel assembly and was sort of at a loss as to how to go next. Later on in the day when resting, I figured it out. Not as hard as I was thinking, but not as easy as I first imagined.
After mounting the boards it was time to pack up. It does slide on the boards which it would not do with the bare ends of the legs. If I had to, I could use it like this, but will put the wheels on.

I hope to have the lathe all back together next weekend. It will free up a lot of space. As my stuff is well scattered.

My brother is not coming up tomorrow so I figure I will stop at Mom’s for a short while since I will be in the area, have lunch with them, and then head home.

I have a lot of projects in mind. I really want to try making rocking horse ornaments. I think that would be an interesting project. I need to re-paint my angel ornaments and decorate my paint brushes. I traditionally get my ornaments done by the end of November and show them off all December. Most of my ornaments end u p as gifts. I had hoped to have a whole lot more done by now. The storm really threw me off my pace.

I will see what I do next weekend.

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