Year 19, Week 05, Day One (week 995)

Year 19, Week 05, Day One (week 995)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-09-19 Saturday

Early morning pretty good, two sets of weather passed through early mid morning, watering mom’s plants, then the weather became nice the rest of the day, Not to the South or North of us, though. Their plants must have ordered more water.  Mostly medium high clouds with plenty of blue around them.  Light breezes most of the time, but strong winds near the weather cells. This weather report was brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I tested out the wooden feet on the cane. One broke quickly as it was cracked in the first place when I installed it. I lost one somewhere and a third was cracking so I took them off. My problem was I made them with the grain running up and down. Wood splits easiest With the grain. These were also very thin. Next time, I must make them bigger, and I must drill the hole across the grain. Then it should not split. Pieces might come off the bottom, over time, but it won’t split. Of course, if they were much bigger, they would not have split either, as there would be more wood to hold them together. It was an interesting experiment. I went to add rubber feet onto that cane, and the small ones I had were too big. I will have to buy the right ones. Some other time I will try this again, just not right now.

After breakfast, on the way home, we stopped at a yard sale. There was loads of wonderful looking things there. They had some collector dolls, a few with the red velvet dresses. Nice but not cute enough to take home. I will buy collector dolls, but they have to be really cute wearing pretty dresses, otherwise, why bother?
They had several large skeins of yarn. I might have taken all of them for the price  they were asking for one, and I likely would have gotten it for that price should I have asked, but I have a life-time supply of yarn and don’t need any more cream or white, right now. Now if it were cotton, rather than acrylic, I would have it at home right now... 
This was a three family yard sale and there were lots of decorative pieces. They had a bin of stuffies. Luckily for me, their calls to take them home with me was muffled as they were stacked one on top the other. 
I don’t know how it happened, but I ended up leaving with some reference books. Just what I needed...... I already have a 26 foot long wall of books. 

We got home and I looked at the radar and decided to work out back rather than run for other yard sales. The radar also told me not to bring the lathe out yet, either.  Within a half hour, a dark cloud showed up to the east which was where the weather was coming from. 

My first project was to do some sanding. I am not sure if I told you, I don’t like sanding. I have a turning club meeting week after next Thursday and I want to get this gnome home done. That meant sanding. 
I had soaked the wood for about three days in varnish. I added varnish on Tuesday, trying to get as much inside the body as I could, I added more varnish Wednesday and then Thursday. Friday I took it out of the varnish to dry as some varnish had jelled up on the back. I figured that would be enough to stabilize it once it dries out completely. 
I started with a small sanding disk to smooth it out. While digging in a shopping bag of sanding stuff,  I found the fixture for it. Last week, I had removed the threads in the plastic of the disk so the drill could hold it in place. When the cloth shopping bags get into a bad condition, they become storage for tools, projects, or materials. The disk gummed up quick. I then decided to remove the tenon on the back. I started it on the disk sander and got most of it gone, but the sandpaper was really gummed up to uselessness. 
I have one of those sanding erasers somewhere, but have not seen it in a long while. You hold that to the sanding disk and it removes some of the build-up. The condition of the sandpaper was that where the eraser would not have been helped clean this disk. I took the old sandpaper off and put a new sheet on. I have one sheet left. I need to see If I can get some more as I want to make a sanding disk to fit on the lathe. I have no idea what happened to the one I had.
After I changed sandpaper, I went to the work bench and dug out a wire wheel for the drill. I went over most of the surfaces with that first. It ate away the tenon on the bottom and most of the tenon on the back. It cleared up some bad spots and edges too. The problem is that it left scrapes from the wire as it dug into soft spots on the wood. By then I was down below the surface varnish. I then finished it on the disk to make it flat. There was some gumming but not bad by this time. I then went over the whole thing with progressively finer sanding disks on the drill. By then any sign of weather was gone.
I pulled out the lathe out and glanced around for a piece of wood that needed to be made into sawdust. Some time ago, even from before I had put up the lathe for a storm, I had a crotch of a tree with three branches and stubs of another. I had tried to turn it back then and could not keep it on the lathe. I was not trying hard at that time. I decided to give it another try. 
I noticed the tenon I had on there was not centered, so I re-measured it and marked where the real center was. I then decided to cheat a little bit. I put the branch side of the piece against the chuck (no spur, just the force of the tail stock holding it in place), and the point of the tail stock in my center point and started it spinning. The crotch found its own center against the chuck. 
The old tenon was well off center, so I turned that into a post, then created a new tenon, removing more wood from the bottom. this tenon was a tiny bit too small but I went with it anyway. I flipped the piece around and started hollowing it. I developed a post in the center where the tail stock was holding it to the chuck, and had some depth when the piece came off the lathe. 
A bit of wood came off on the post, preventing the point of the tail stock from remaining in place. I have to level it to continue. By then it was time to pack up, clean up, and get ready to pick up lunch. 

I expect to sand more on the gnome home and likely will turn more on that crotch piece. 
I will see what I actually do tomorrow







Year 19, Week 05, Day One (week 995)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-10-19 Sunday

Nice day all day, lots of high clouds but nothing threatening.  Light breeze intermittent sun. This Weather Report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism. 

On the way to Mom’s I found two yard sales. One has had sales before. She had a lot less stuff, partly because she usually has other people at her previous yard sales. I ended up picking up a couple cook books. Just what I need. I already have about 70 cook books.... She said it did sprinkle yesterday, but she had tarps ready to cover the tables until it passed.
The other yard sale had interesting stuff, but nothing that needed to load down my truck. 

I got out back and leveled the post on that piece I was working with yesterday with my knife, and made sure the center indentation was deep enough to hold the tail stock point in place. I started turning and some bark inclusion started showing. I kept turning deeper and deeper. I also started widening the opening more to improve the shape . It came off again and the post had broke again. I leveled it with a knife, poked the center so the point would stay.
Thinking back, I should have been using a different point in the tail stock. I kept working and more of the bark inclusion showed up. I got deep enough that the whole post that the tail stock was stuck into was surrounded by bark inclusion. The post broke again. 
I did something I wish I did not do. I took a hammer and knocked the rest of the post off, and drove off the center of the wood out. The center was held ONLY by the bark inclusion. I should have left it alone, and filled it with resin or super glue, but you know how things go when you are after quick results.
Now I have many ways of saving this piece. One is to get some resin and cast the center, then turn it again. Another is to add a false bottom to it with another piece of wood and turn it so that becomes part of the piece. I could also just stick a face plate on it and turn it the rest of the way and leave the center open. It could also end up in the garbage. My main problem is I only have a few hours each weekend to do anything so I really am unable to spend time repairing mistakes. It is better to start fresh and forget about it.

I sanded a little more on the gnome home and gave it a shot of varnish. I will take it home with me and work on it during the week. 

I will see what all happens next weekend.

1745

the bottom of the work piece I turned on

The top of the piece.

The gnome home

this drill had died last week. I disassembled it this weekend.

the sanding disks the drill can use and the fitting they go into.

A block of wood I picked up on the side of the road. nice cracks in it, but still useable for me.

the cracks was why it was tossed. 

the work piece after I knocked the center out. I should have left it in.

this is looking from the hollowed side. 

I did not work with the outside as I had not decided what to do with that on the shape yet.

A pair of crochet hooks I made from toothbrushes. 

I had to remove the first hook I cut into it the blue one as it was too weak. 

that made the hook a lot shorter.