In My "Spare" Time: Year 19, Week 22, Day One (week 1022)

Year 19, Week 22, Day One (week 1022)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-08-19 Saturday

High feathers, some lower puffs. A shockwave came through at about two to give mom’s plants the watering they needed. The Fort Lauderdale Department of Tourism contacted me and warned me about using four letter words in my notes. The last time in a long time I will use this word. RAIN is not to be mentioned. It is LIQUID SUNSHINE. I must try to remember that. I will say that mom does not have to water her plants this week as nature provided the hosing they needed.... This weather report is brought to you by The Pompano Beach department Of Tourism.

We found two yard sales today on the way home from breakfast. Mom got me a stick style vacuum cleaner. I have not used it yet. She said it is perfect for my floors. I figure it will be good to vacuum my sticks before I carve on them... Oh, sorry not that kind. It is where the motor and everything is in a slim straight unit. My apologies ...

I went out back and did several small projects. I painted the crank wheel on the lathe’s tail stock to protect the metal. I gave the wheel two coats and my hand one coat of paint. I was holding it by the knob and twisting and turning it in the spray. I guess I moved my hand wrong and got paint sprayed over the back of my hand. It took all day with multiple scrubbings with a brush to get the last sign of paint off..

My kitchen chairs have three stretchers holding the legs in place. One across the back and one on each side front to back. One of the front to back stretchers had come off one of my chairs. I found they had used dowels to attach them, they drilled both the end of the stretcher and the side of the leg and glued a dowel into the holes to secure the leg in place. The dowels on both ends of the stretcher broke in half.
I took my knife and shaved off the bits of the dowel wood sticking out from the surfaces. I made sure I could place the stretcher right.
I then drilled for screws through the legs, dribbled glue all over the ends of the stretcher and on the legs. I found I could not hold the stretcher in place to work. I drove one screw in and the stretcher spun around once the screw got a bite. It needed to be clamped to hold everything where they needed to be. I did not have a clamp big enough so I took two of my long clamps and hooked them on each leg. I had the end of one hooked on the leg and the sliding part with the screw of the other clamp hooked on the leg. That allowed me to catch the screw part on the head of the other and use the screw to pull them tight. It worked.
With everything tight, I tightened the first screw till there was about half an inch left, then I put in the other screw part way in, then worked them both in as far as the drill would drive them. I put the screws in on the other end.
I was using very long screws, I could have used screws half as long but did not want to search for them. When the screw got near the head, it would stop and the phillips head bit would spin wildly on the head of the screw. One of them I backed out, added a little oil and screwed it back in and that helped some. But it was not quite enough. I should have run a smaller drill into the hole to ease up entry of the screw. There are times that, even when you are doing something right, one should take some extra time and add a few steps to the project. I really should have done the screws, making sure everything fit before adding the glue, and I even didn’t need the glue. Just the screws would have held.
When done, the whole head and a very tiny bit of shank still stuck out from the surface of the legs on both ends, but decided that was going to have to be good enough. I doubt many people will look at the chairs closely anyway. I do know that the stretcher will not pull off or break without something catastrophic happening.

Last week I added a handle to my tea pot. I gave the handle a good coat of super glue and then sanded the surface, along with the rest of the vase. The super glue was to fix the handle so it will be less likely to break. The sanding was to clean it up some more.
One problem with sanding is that as you work, little flaws show up. Those flaws require even more sanding, and then more sanding follows that. You are supposed to get finer and finer sanding as you go until you have a fine finish t hat feels good to the touch. Depending on the wood, some people stop at 320 or 400 grit for porous wood and will go to six thousand grit (yes it is available, sometimes at auto shops or on line) for super hard wood that can take a finish. I have seen hardwood pieces that was simply sanded to a super fine grit and a little wax that looks better than a dozen coats of varnish.
There are times when I feel good to get past 80 grit sandpaper on my work. Since I really don’t like sanding, I tend to not finish pieces at all, or not finish them well. Many guys in the turning club polish their work till it looks like glass.

Mom’s neighbor had a fence put in and the fence people cleaned up the back yard and put the garbage out back for bulk pick up. The bulk garbage pickup did not come last night and it also did not come this morning as we had expected. I forced myself to leave the pile alone except for a couple pieces. I fight my nature constantly to keep from accumulating a warehouse worth of wood. I barely can use a car’s trunk worth of wood in a year, let alone all the wonderful pieces one could get at times. Like yard sailing, there are times I kick myself for not getting wood when it is available.

Harbor Freight is a dangerous place. They have stuff you never see anywhere else outside a specialty store. Santa said I could have the entire contents of the catalogue if I am a good boy. I sure hope he does not learn about all those incidents....
A few weeks back I picked up a set of brushes for engine cleaning. There are a combination of twenty wire and nylon brushes for cleaning bolt holes and other small holes. The largest is about two inches in diameter when the bristles are fully extended. The back end is designed to fit into a screwdriver type handle. It comes with an extension and a handle.
The spout of my tea pot had something like an attached ball of thread that did not want to go away. After trying to use the brushes with an in and out motion, I mounted a brush in the drill and spun the brush forward first, and it was not coming off, so I spun it in reverse with in the spout to clean it out nicely. They are good for getting into tight places. They are really intended to be used up and down the length, but spinning them works well too. I have steel brush wheels of various configurations that do well on cleaning up some types of work. This type is just for a different situation.

I did not accomplish too much, but got something done.
Will see what I do tomorrow.

Year 19, Week 22, Day Two (week 1022)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-09-19 Saturday

Nature gave Mom’s plants a good hosing during night and then it was cloudy all day. It got up to 83, but mostly was in the high 70s in the morning and evening. While it was hot, it was also humid around noon. A school of steamed fish swam around our heads at one point before the light wind lead them away from us. A good day to have air conditioning. Weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism. I

My brother and I went to Harbor Freight. With all the stuff I have on hand, I still never have the exact one I really need. The worse thing is that with the other store location, I had to plan to go there so I was safe. Here, it can be a spur of the moment thing. That is dangerous.
Mom suggested I get these furniture rollers, that movers use, to put under my lathe since I am having problems with the wheels. I picked two up, that will give four spaced pairs of wheels for beneath my lathe. I will have to take the big blocks with wheels off my lathe before I can put these on. I can use the big blocks for other projects. Some of the wheels might be useable for other things. The pavers I have the lathe is not smooth or even and the side impacts on the wheels are doing damage. They are not turning right and end up dragging. I picked up a few other things. Now I have to get myself in a situation to use all my finds.

I decided that drawing the leaves on the bowl I made with pencil was not working. It is hard to see. I decided to paint the leaves on my bowl. Well, I did it all wrong. I am going to have to put it on the lathe and sand it clean and start again. I painted them in two colors. My intention was to have the leaves on an angle and then other leaves on the opposite angle, overlapping. I would carve some leaves lower than others so it looks like two intersecting patterns of leaves. I made the first batch upright and accidentally double spaced around. I then put the second color between them. Not what I was after at all. They are lined up like soldiers around it, not a “swirl” of leaves. I have to sand them off and start again.

Mom had handed me a ham she was given and asked me to slice it up. I have three slicer bodies and two motors. As an experiment this week I put my older motor onto the new body and it worked fine. Same gear size. The new motor has a tiny switch set into the body on the back. The old motor has a big switch right on the end. When you have to turn it on and off while working, it is nice not to have to feel behind the motor for a switch, getting meat juice all over it. I like the big switch.

Because of the fish swimming around our heads, We finished our day watching videos of trains. One of them was of the largest steam engine made, a BIG BOY, which had a wheel arrangement of 4884, where there were four lead wheels (small) two sets of four axle drivers, and 4 trailing wheels (small). It happened they had one of the modern diesel engines attached in line just in case there was a problem with the steam engines. What surprised us was that the diesel was as big as the big boy. The big boy did not look as big as it used to be.
It had been a very long time since I even looked at my model railroad. I figure the corrosion and dust build up on the tracks is such that it will take a hammer and chisel to clean the tracks so the trains could run. That is after I unload the stuff piled on top. Every flat surface becomes a shelf. It cannot be helped.

We will see what we do next week.

2079

the braised repaired whe4el.