In My "Spare" Time: Year 19, Week 17, Day One (week 1007)

Year 19, Week 17, Day One (week 1007)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-04-19 Saturday

During the past few days, we had a storm off the coast and got some weather like you would not believe. Today We had high humidity of about 77% and it was 86 degrees. That feels hot. 86 when it is dry is nice. 86 and humid is when an A/C is needed. I worked to get myself used to the heat so I could work outside when it is this hot and humid or even worse. If I didn’t, I would never be able to do woodworking in the summer. The wind was strong but was so humid that it did not help too much. There was a bit of water on the workbench beneath the awning and it was not evaporating.
Later in the day I sat between the two houses so the northbound winds, focused by the houses, cooled me down. I sat there for about an hour and enjoyed the cooling wind. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

On the way home after breakfast we stopped at a yard sale. They did not have much. The one thing that caught my eye was a package of kitchen knives. They were not the expensive type. I grabbed my ear and dragged myself to the car admonishing myself that I don’t need any more knives. I have two knife blocks made with plastic rods where you can stick the knives in any way you want and as many as you want. I have like ten knives in one and fifteen in another, plus the possible near dozen knives I have in the kitchen itself for regular use. I don’t need any more knives. I also don’t even know anybody I could give knives too.

I later went out on my own along my usual yard sale route. I found one other yard sale. While they had nice things, the only thing I really looked at carefully was a tiny Sony laptop. I forced myself not to get it. Hours later, I remembered I had picked up a laptop something like that a few years ago and it was strictly an internet computer. It had no memory, no hard drive and was just for browsing the internet. Basically it was useless for my needs. I am glad I did not get this one. I looked at it, though.

After I got home, I worked on my vase and got good headway on it. I got the spout cut back quite a bit, then drilled for the spout. I started with a small bit and got a start fairly straight up and down. I then used a larger bit, then, I took one of my 36inch bits I got from Harbor freight and after measuring TWICE, I bored until I was well into where the chamber will be, but not too much more. I remounted it and started shaping it a lot more. The tools are sharp, but I can see my technique needs work. I am not getting the smooth surfaces with tools that I know I should be able to obtain. Little pauses or rushing causes ridges and valleys that I should be able to avoid. I intend to remove a lot more wood around the spout. The spout will most likely be shorter too. I may drill it out with a bigger bit next time I work on it. I will have to see.

I found a big divot on my tool rest and I started grinding metal back before I realized it is deeper than I was thinking it was. I will talk to my brother as to whether he can weld or solder across that gap. The edge of the tool rest is supposed to be smooth and even so that when you slide your tool smoothly all the way across it, you are not supposed to get catches or bumps from the tool rest. In this case, the gouge was hanging up on the notch. I have no idea when that notch appeared. I just happened to notice it today while trying to follow the shape of the wood smoothly.

On a lark I had cooked some pork loin in the BBQ sauce all night in the crock pot. I shredded the pork and poured the sauce back into the bottle, marking it cooked. I might use that for cooking something else. I found that the meat was dry. Apparently pork loin is not the best pork for shredded pork. The cuts that have more connective tissue and fat such as the boston butt or the shank are likely much better.
We had it for lunch on slices of bread and it was good. It was also filling. I had suggested that we have it for dinner tomorrow but when the two of us were done, we had put a gigantic dent in the meat. There was not enough for the whole family. That becomes meals for work. Mom likes when I share in the lunches like this. What I did works, but would be better with a different cut. I might use that cooked sauce for some chicken and see how that comes out.

I have several Garmon Nuvi trackers I have picked up over the years at yard sales and am trying to figure out the best place for one to be to read the streets and have it out of the way. I sort of wanted my tacker up by the viser as that looked like the best place where it was out of the way but can easily seen. I tried velcro that sticks on but the glue would not stick to the plastic of the window column. I looked at the several holders I have. A couple have suction cups , one has a base that fits in cup holders, some have bendable supports to get the right angle.
I took one of the suction cup - flexible arm units and stuck it to the top of the window, and used a wire to hold it to the attachment of the visor next to the window column. The suction cups lose grip after a while and the wire is to keep the weight off of it. It also won’t fall down while driving as easily. It is just above eye level to my right.
This might not be the best place but it seems to be about where I was wanting it to be. Over the past few weeks I had considered making a clip using wood, a clamp, or something else to attach it to the visor itself. I was not thinking about anything permanent like screws. It will take me some time to see if this is where I actually want it be. It is mostly out of my view but where I can easily read the street names. It is a bit annoying but I will have a better idea of the best place by the end of the week.

Will see what I do tomorrow.

Year 19, Week 17, Day two (week 1007)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-05-19 Sunday

Mostly sunny, 77 early morning 84 in the afternoon, 94 under the awning at about three. Some puffy clouds moved by. Shield clouds showed up at about four as we were packing up to leave and the air started cooling off quickly. Radar showed showers at the edge of the Everglades early on, but even as the radar arrived it in our area it was just a fine mist, heavy enough to get you wet, but not enough to warrant an umbrella. This weather report is brought to you by The Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I drove my yard sale route. And only saw one yard sale. They were just putting their stuff out and I decided not to wait. I realized I had seen these signs yesterday and did not react in time and continued on as I did not see them clearly. I was looking some place else.
The Snowbirds have left at Easter, and the traffic has really died back. Slow traffic is faster, more room on the roads. For much of this year the number of yard sales have cut back. Rather than having six in a day, like last year, we might have had mostly one or two. It might be a sign of the economy where people are not needing to sell their stuff to make ends meet.

I touched up a round nose scraper and my bowl gouge on the grinder and worked on the tea pot I am making. WOW!! I have never gotten shavings like I am getting now. The difference in how I am sharpening my tools is really how you present them to the grinder. I seem to be a bit more careful and consistent. I do know I could not teach someone else how to do this. At least not yet. I am still learning to do it, and I have not intellectually figured it out. It is more intuition than knowledge. Hopefully I will figure it out so I won’t lose it and also to be able to pass it on. It has a lot to do with matching the angle and shape of the tool. Looking at it at the right angle helps
With the bullnose scraper, I was using it to shave the surface smooth and fine long shavings were coming off rather than dust like I normally get.
Now I have to work on my handling of the tools. I have to get my motions even so I don’t get divots where I dig in or just bumps in the curve. I cut back the diameter of the spout of the tea pot. This teapot is smaller that I was hoping it would be, but when I compared the piece I had cut off for the lid and the diameter of the vase, I have not lost too much. I needed to work with a much bigger piece of wood. I have a few but am not sure if I want to use it for this. Maybe I will get this one finished and after working out the details of the process, then make the next one in the larger pieces of wood.

I dug out some other tool rests and while they work, they don’t work well. They are more for reaching inside bowls. I one pair (comes in two pieces) and am using it, but the handle to tighten them are in the wrong place. The way I am positioning them, the handles are next to the work rather than on my side.
When My brother came over, I showed him the nick and he said the best way to deal with that is to just keep grinding. I have plenty of material left after I ground down that far.
I took out the sanding disk I have used on the lathe for a while and started grinding and found that the disk has developed a cup where the outer edge is farther out than the center. The divot is near the center so I cannot use that disk for grinding away metal. Maybe next week I will take that sanding sheet off (it is pretty much used up), flatten the disk and put a new sheet on so I can sand away the cast iron metal of my tool rest. This is the main reason many turners go to stainless steel rod tool rests. Ah, I just remembered that one guy glued a rod on top his tool rest. I will have to contact him and see what he did and how it has worked over time.
My other idea is to get some stainless steel rod and cut them to size, then give them to my brother to weld together when he gets around to welding stainless steel again. I will check out my options.

After that, we talked about videos and shows we saw over the past week. I get videos on Facebook, capture the link and E-mail them to myself. When I get a chance to view them, I then send them to my brother. Of course, some videos are just in Facebook that you cannot see without an account, and we talk about what we see, such as log cabin construction, guys destroying things (using molten lava rock or a hydraulic press or melted aluminum) as experiments, or modifying some tool or making something from scratch.

I’ve whittled on a steam engine ornament over the past many weeks. I picked it up and took one of my knives and started carving on it at a knot where the wood needs to be shaved down. The knife was not doing great there, or even other places. One problem is that my carving basket is outside under the awning. The sheaths do not cover the whole knife. If the knife is not inside something, it will develop some surface corrosion (not yet rust) because of the damp air.
The knife I was trying to use had some surface rust in several spots so I decided to sharpen it with the diamond hone. Harbor freight has the diamond hones, three for a low price. There is a 180 grit, 260 grit and a 360 grit. Each has a different colored backing and when I open a package, I mark with a marker the grit of the stone so it makes it easier to know which one to grab. I think I was using the 260 grit.
I quickly found out that the surface of the blade was not evenly ground. There was a spot where the rust was not getting removed. I sat there and ground it and ground it on the hone until the problem spot was shiny too. The other side has an even angle only half the blade. It the changed angles. I did not worry about that but just worked on the part the edge is at. After I got it nice and clean on both sides and gave it several single strokes on both sides to straighten the wire edge I stropped it on the leather (a piece of belt I glued to a block with a handle). It now cuts nice and I removed some wood to form some detail. The end grain is at the front and back of the steam engine and I was trying to create the light up front. End grain is never easy to cut. I have not started on the wheels yet and a lot of other details need to be developed. Since it is not Christmas yet, I am not rushing. I really need to get more of the two designs I did not get a chance to do last Christmas done, and see if I can come up with something new.

I will see what I do next week.

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