In My "Spare" Time: Year 19, Week 27, Day One (week 1027)

Year 19, Week 27, Day One (week 1027)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-13-19 Saturday

The weather was not too bad. It started at about 83 degrees and got up to 90 with 65% humidity. We had high feathers and pebbles with some lower puffs slowly moving across the sky in the morning. Later in the day there were showers over Fort Lauderdale, to the south of us coming off the ocean but missed us. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

After breakfast we stopped at a couple yard sales, one was where the people had not set it out yet. They had the time set for nine. We did not wait. After we got back, I stopped at Publix (grocery store) and then the dollar store, then did the north part of the yard sale route.
At one yard sale I picked up a little something that might end up being sent to a friend later. At another I picked up two small bowls with three small pestles. I have one mortar (the bowl) that was missing a pestle. The larger of the three will work for my existing mortar. I have a larger set also but this one was just a bowl until now.
I visited two or three other yard sales but they did not have anything I wanted.

When I got home, I grabbed a bunch of stuff and went out back.
A couple weeks ago, I had picked up a pair of new carafes for my flavored coffee. One of my existing carafes has a cracking surface. I decided to see what could be done to clean it up, or at least keep it from coming apart.
I dribbled superglue on the handle over the cracking surface. A later after the glue had plenty of time to set, I saw that I did not like the results so I sanded the glue off. I sanded off the cracked surface on the handle, then on the really bad spots and I ended up sanding half the vase.
It needs more sanding of the surface to make it more even. Then I need to sand with finer and finer sandpapers. I am thinking of having to give the surface a varnish finish to seal the plastic or somehow lightly melt the plastic surface (too easy to over do that). At the moment, the plastic is not in great condition.

I sharpened a couple tools and then finished the drum sticks I started last week. They are not perfect but they are done. I have a few mistakes but those mistakes don’t effect their usefulness besides the fact that they are not quite the same diameter. Usually I use the heavier one in my right hand.
Several weeks ago, I had started a bowl and stopped because of the humidity. I mounted it on the lathe today. I nearly had it finished on the rough turning, everything was going just right. I just needed to finish leveling the bottom and then touch up the sides. Oops. I went through the bottom.
I now have a bowl for when you are on a diet..... whatever stays in the bowl is you can eat. You will lose weight fast. I was going to start another attempt, but decided I did not have time. There was going to be some setup before I could even turn.

While I was working out there, I was reminded that I am not in as good of condition as I could be and am showing some signs of getting old. Different parts of my legs took turns in reminding me that they exist.

Even with a big mistake, it was still nice to accomplish something.

Year 19, Week 27, Day two (week 1027)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-14-19 Sunday

Nice breeze 84 degrees early morning 90 in the afternoon with 62% humidity. The day was clear all day long. This weather report is brought to you by The Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I found two yard sales today. One had a leather-stamping set in a tackle box. The guy said his father was working leather. The box had a whole bunch of the stamps and tools of many of the designs. There was also a little bit of leather in there. I really did not need the kit but I got it anyway. After making the payment I found I was out of money so I dashed down to the bank then drove near mom’s .
I saw I was not going to make the light and there was a couple cars ahead of me which would have forced me to sit and wait so I turned on a side street and found a yard sale. After looking at all sorts of art supplies, I picked up some felt. I don’t need yarn.
Then, continued on my yard sale run. On the way back to moms after a long stop, I stopped by the yard sale again and ended up with a box of yarn, a bunch of cross stitch books, a box of cross stitch kits, and some of those plastic cross stitch sheets. I got all of that for $10.
I did not need any of this, not in any way. When I went there the first time, she was asking $5 a bag on the yarn. The second time I found that they were closing up and said they were going to donate that stuff so I got it cheap.
She had done cross stitching and other crafts as she was a stay-at-home mom, and had to give it up because of arthritis. She said she never could get the hang of crochet. When I came back the second time, I showed her the pictures of the teddy bear dresses I had on the camera and she loved them.
I slightly sorted the yarn, photographed it and then stacked it back in the box in some form of order. Later I will have to sort it better and put it with yarns of similar colors.
What I really should do is take out ALL my yarn and sort them in more detail. My red box has light red, brown, red, dark red, variegated red, pink and a few colors that by a slight bit of imagination could be called red. The same with green, blue, yellow, white, etc.
I said I did not need any of my purchases. I was not planning on getting involved in cross stitching, and I already have a lifetime supply of yarn. This batch does not help. Once in a while, you get something simply because it will be “gotten rid of” if it is not sold.

Yesterday, I saw that I had lost one of the feet on my four footed cane. They were the wooden ones I had made many months ago. Today I made eight more, broke two, one broke on the cane. Because I made extras I was able to get another foot on the cane with very little trouble. The last one I did not use will be to measure the wear on them. On the three feet that were left on the cane from before, there was a definite wear of the feet. I did not mark which foot was each, but one was nearly a quarter of an inch shorter.
Last time I used one inch wide yellow pine wood (a two inch board that I cut down). This time I used a 2 inch thick piece of yellow pine wood this time so they are taller, but I had drilled the holes kind of deep so there is not as much wood between the ground and the hole as they will wear out.
I made these first with the portable drill press to drill all the wood at the right depth so they are all the same depth, then used the disk sander with a rod in the hole of the wood to round them off. I drilled four pieces of wood in each line of the block and should have only done three so I could and adjust the diameter there so the hole would be centered. I ended up with several off center, leaving just a little bit of wood on one side. The two that broke was where I was much too close to the edge with the hole.

I cut a blank for making a bowl, but because brother and I cannot talk while I am turning (too noisy) and it was hot, I decided to just sit back and talk with him in the awning with a light breeze taking away some of the 90 degree temps.

I have a turning club meeting this week. I will see what I accomplish next week.

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