In My "Spare" Time: Year 19, Week 04, Day One (week 994)

Year 19, Week 04, Day One (week 994)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-01-19 Saturday

65 degrees early morning, 75 late afternoon, showers before I woke up and dried out, cleared up by the time we got back from breakfast. A good wind felt nice, strong enough to move branches, but not a big thing at ground level.
The winter months tend to be our dry season. I remember a couple years where they were discussing water rationing at this time of the year. Usually, that was caused because a wet hurricane was coming during the summer, so they would lower the water levels of Lake Okeechobee in preparation for the storm, then when the showers never came, the water levels in the lake would be too low for this time of the year. The lake was the main charging point for the aquifers that the south florida cities would get their water from. A shallow lake creates many problems. They built dykes around it to retain the worst of the water when the lake raises up. The downpours we have gotten has kept it filled and charged the aquifers in the region, and did a good job of watering the lawns. The weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I did not expect many yard sales out this morning as it was still drying out, so I immediately went out back of Mom’s house after breakfast. I had a couple projects to do and was not exactly sure how I was going to accomplish either one. Both were new to me.
First I wanted to make wooden feet for a four-footed cane I have. The rubber feet wore out and I was “too lazy” to dig out the spares I have in a pile of stuff. I’ve wanted to try this for a couple years. I’ve seen some projects on line that gave me the basic concept of the process I intended to use..
I took a piece two by three by four inch thick of yellow pine and cut it into cubes. They were more like rectangles than cubes. I decided I would work through the end grain, rather than the side grain like I was originally planning. I figured the end grain would last a little longer. They were close enough to cubes to not matter that much.
First I needed to drill some holes. None of my regular drill bits were big enough to match the pipe the legs are made of. I have a short spade bit set still in the box, but could not remember what I did with them. I will likely run across them a few weeks from now. The only available was a half inch spade bit about 18 inches long.
I decided to use the lathe. The first thing I found was that the tail stock was not hollow. It has an insert that is solid. That kept me from running the shaft through the tail stock and using the tail stock shaft as a guide.
I then tried to run the bit through the head stock pipe. It worked, but It was not cutting at all when I was holding it with pliers and pushing hard. I decided to use a drill. I marked where the drill bit was when it touched the wood, then took it out and measured how deep I should go. I then stuck the bit into the drill and started drilling. It was doing well, then the drill stopped. Not able to run. I tried plugging it in other plugs, plugging other things into the same plugs. It was the drill.

I dug out another drill and as I tried to drill work, I could not keep the bit tight in the chuck. I did get a couple holes drilled, but I then sat down with the drill while mom had come out to talk. I poured a few drops of oil into the chuck and then cranked the chuck completely closed, then open again. It took some cranking to get it to move. The oil was beginning to work by the time I got the chuck fully open. I then cranked it closed and open again. It was so much better, I figured that was good enough. It likely could use another bit of oil. When I returned to drilling, the drill held the bit tight. I drilled six pieces of wood. It is always best to make a few extras. The oil does not seem to effect the grip between the metals, which I had seen over the years with other drills.
The drill running through the chuck did not go straight in so several holes were not centered, one was very close to the side. Had I did it again, I would make sure the long ways was up and down so I would have used something to place the drill bit point exactly where It.
My next step was to make them round. I took another piece of wood, white pine I think in this case, and turned it so a peg stuck out that fit the holes I drilled. This was my pin chuck I had to shorten it once and flatten the surface behind it a bit more, but I used the tail stock to hold the work tight against it. I had to use a light touch as there was not a lot of friction to hold it in place. I intended to have more wood on them, but because I was so close to the edges on a couple of them, I made the feet small.
Once I had them turned, I grabbed one and sanded the area around the hole fairly flat, then chamfered the edge, then I rounded the other end. As I worked on the others, I used the first one as a guide to the length and made them all about the same length. One was too close to the edge to use so I left that. I stuck my bowl gouge into the hole and used that to hold the piece as I turned rotated it against the sander to clean it up and round the ends. That made it easy to get them even. Without real measuring and fitting, the end result was fairly even.
Now the holes were just a hair too small so I used my dremmel with a burr bit to make the holes slightly larger. Of the five completed feet, one was a shade too long so I made that the spare. These will slip and are hard on the ground, but I want to see how they last with a little abuse. They are much like the hard plastic feet you can buy.
Using the peg to hold a piece on the chuck is a very common practice for many types of projects but I have never given it a try before. It worked pretty good. I could have left it a little bigger so the fit was tighter, but it did not do horrible. The real idea is to have sort of a suction fit so the work will stay on and not spin when removing wood with very light shaving cuts.

My next project was to copy a tea pot I saw in a wood turning magazine. It is basically like a rubber bulb used for squirting water, a ball with a long tapered spout, and the hole and foot is set to tip the spout up to lid level. I thought it would be fun to try.
I looked at a number of pieces of wood with the idea of using them. Some were too good to use they are really for special projects. Others were the wrong dimensions. I wanted to make this small so it would be a quick project. I had a nice piece of wood with interesting colors in it. I sliced it in half and it turned out to be Camphor. I immediately stuck that in the shed. I figure the smell might help with any bugs that get in there.
I tried some oak my brother brought over several years ago. Bugs got into them so I stuck them into the garbage. One piece was nice on one end where I cut it, but the other end was not good enough.
We then dug into some garbage cans we have that have wood in them. They were put in there to keep them dry, with lids and plastic bags covering them, but plastic does last long under beating the sun and constant weather. I found one piece that was interesting we drew on it a couple times. I trimmed the worst of the wood away with the SawsAll.

Oh I love these saws. I could have used it for a number of things in the past six months if I had thought of it. The blades are more aggressive than the band saw. It is a whole lot safer and easier to use than a chain saw. My blades are not really sharp, but it did nice in shaving away wood.
The piece of wood had some punky materials in it. I shaved away the worst of it but it still had some. It is better if the piece is not banging your turning tool with every revolution. The more wood removed by the saw, the less turning is needed to get to the rough shape.
With these vases, there are two ways to make them. I had to make a decision. One, is to hollow the wood first, then turn the bowl and stem shape. The other was to turn the shape first, then hollow it.
I drilled for the stem first, using the half-inch mile-long spade bit. It was hard to get the piece in the chuck just right as I was not dealing with flat surfaces. Once I drilled into the center (I measured where the bit touched the wood, and then measured so it would go past center before I drilled) I decided to turn it to shape first.
With the neck in the chuck, (I used the small spur to fit into the hole so while it was not the perfect situation for holding it, it helped spin it nicely) I started turning mostly air, then as I knocked the high spots off, I started getting into the wood. I found I had miscalculated on the shape of the thing. The way I had it, I had half round on part of it, and there was a large flat-ish area where the wood was not available. I realized this was going to be a problem for the type of tea pot I was trying to make, but decided I would continue and just get some experience with the design anyway.
I finally stopped. The bowl was not round, or anything close to it. I would have to do a lot more turning to get it there, but I had a design to look at.

I will see what I will do tomorrow. Today was pretty good.

Year 19, Week 04, Day Two (week 994)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-02-19 Sunday

Sunny, a few clouds, light breeze, 68 as the low, 88 was the high. This was a great day to be outside in. I would not complain if all highs were about this. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Last night, I tested out the feet on the cane. It does slip, and is a bit noisy, but worked better than the metal sticking through the rubber feet. I will see how they hold up over a period of time.

I visited three yard sales on the way to Mom’s. I picked up a few things I did not need at a home where a guy is retiring. He had cancer surgery and they are down sizing. He had a lot of construction style tools, so I figured he was getting out of the business. I never asked which business it was but I am thinking he was working on interiors. A couple things I picked up will likely be passed on to someone else later.
He had some sheets of plywood there. He was selling it cheaper than the store. It would have been nice to get it, but I have no place to put it. I do have some projects they would be good for, it might be six months before I get to those projects. It will be better to pick it up when I need it.
One yard sale was just setting up and had a whole lot of Christmas stuff. The last yard sale had some interesting things that I forced myself to ignore. I don’t need another coffee grinder. Much of what else they had was easier to ignore.

I had shown a picture of the tea pot I was making and she suggested that I make it a gnome house. When I looked at it again, I saw it really demanded to be a gnome home.
I sharpened my bowl gouge and did as careful cuts as I could to smooth out the turned surfaces. I improved it but it was still not great. I will have to do some heavy sanding.
I then sat and measured for the center of the bowl both front and back. The back was a really an uneven flat. Mounting the small spur in the center of the round section, and the tail stock point to the back side of the piece, I started the lathe spinning. I had to wait until the spur buried itself into the wood, then it was spinning nicely. I knocked off the high spots and got the center evened out and made a tenon to hold it in the chuck. I then flipped it around and started hollowing it. I guess I got a catch inside (I did not get very deep) when the piece came off the lathe. I had broke the tenon.
I don’t know what kind of wood this is, but it is not very strong, and it is punky in some spots. Stuck the spur back inside the hole, and held it in place with the tail stock to flatten more of the back and make a tenon again. I can remove the tenon later and it will fit flat against a wall now.
Part way in, I started digging into the punky wood. Hollowing it out went really fast at that point. I had one spot that with thin and use that as the size limit of the hollow. I cut into the hole I drilled which was supposed to be the spout. The biggest reason to hollow this out was to lighten it. It is good practice anyway.
After I got the inside the best I could, I sat down and shaved on the really bad outside surfaces with the knife. I cleaned it up quite a bit but it will require more. When I created the tenons to hold the piece, I had left a stub sticking out. I used the disk sander to remove them. I figure when I am no longer going to put it on the lathe, I can use the sander to flatten the tenons completely.
Next weekend I hope to take the sander to it and really clean it up. I want to get it down to 250 grit at least in that session. I need to check to see what the most effective method of stabilizing the punky parts of the piece. I will then make parts for it, like a round door that will be open, a chimney coming up from the top. My brother suggested having a ladder to climb up to it. He even suggested to make several of these and have a rope ladder, rope bridge going between them. I don’t expect to make many, unless I make a mistake on the next tea pot experiment. Other than that, it should be a stand-alone piece.

This was a pretty good weekend for projects. I had fun and had results.
I will have to see what I do next weekend.

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