In My "Spare" Time: May 2020

Year 20, Week 15, Day One (week 1059)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-02-20 Saturday

80s, blue skies, light breeze, a perfect day to do something outside. I was indoors most of the day. This winter is the wettest I have ever seen down here. For most of the winter, we were getting rain every weekend. It is hard to do wood working in the rain, especially with electrical equipment. We are in what is more normal for us, a dry period that might last a week or so. Our normal winter is where in April, they start talking about water rationing. It is usually dry and sunny with only a random front passing through from month to month. Water rationing is not even in their vocabulary this year. In June is when our wet period starts and July is when the humidity really amps up.

It has been a while since I have been able to write. A changed schedule eliminated my writing time. I also am still exploring some interesting health situations.

I had a friend’s birthday coming up so I cut some wood from a large block Dad had left me years ago. I think it was basswood. I was able to get two pieces from the cut I made, and made two eggs. One slightly bigger than the other. Neither one was really good as eggs. I then cut the top like it had cracked off, and then carved the outside in a spirals to create scales using a dremel. I then carved heads of dragons. One was to be Waxy dragon and the other to be Laslo dragons from our Companion Dragon book series.
I painted both eggs black, then applied color to them. Laslo’s egg was green with yellow upper edges on the scales. Waxy’s egg was a lot of different colors. Many colors did not show well against the black. I also did yellow on the upper edges.
Looking at the eggs, I decided I needed to make the scales smaller and carved grooves through many of the scales, then repainted them. It was an improvement. I gave them a couple coats of clear gloss when done.

Another project I took on was something I came up with years ago, and last year did the very first steps for doing it but never got any farther. I wanted to make a bouquet of flour. The joke is the guy leaves his mothers house covered in a white powder. He said he gave his mother a bouquet of flour and she through them at him.
I had located all sorts of brands of flour labels and printed them at the size I wanted them to be. I gave the paper a bunch of coats of varnish on both sides to seal the ink in place. I had made a few wooden blanks to fit them onto, but never went farther than that last year.
This year, I dug them out and made a bunch more wooden bag blanks for them. Some were out of a 2x2 I had shaved down and sanded to a rough shape. Some were from a 3/4 x 2 molding I have used for a few projects. I cut them to size and did light shaping on them too.
Finally, I dug out my glue and scissors and cut the labels off, with lots of paper around them, and glued them to the wood. I folded the edges over onto the sides, top and bottom. Mom suggested I do both sides so I cut more, that matched so the labels were on both sides. My cutting and folding job was not spectacular and a little rough, but it makes them look more like the bags of flour in the folded paper. I drilled holes and added a skewer so they could be stuck in a vase. The results came out much better than I expected.

I brought out the metal lathe and have made a few items to use in my wood lathe. It is a learning experience. My brother made a tool holder that I can rotate and can move in and out. I found out that the movement is not spectacular. My little lathe has the ability to rotate the head to different angles as the motor is mounted on the head. I found an angle of the head, the angle of the tool to get the shapes I was after.
One project was to make a drive spur from a bolt. I learned a couple things in the process. Stainless Steel bolts are harder than my tools can cut. That is not good. But I learned that I can sharpen my tools again. That is good.
With the drive spurs, I intended to cove out the inside, possibly have several rings, and then cut teeth into them to dig into the wood and force it to spin. What I am going to have to do is to take out my saws-all and cut into the head and create just a set of teeth by cutting straight down, then cutting on the angle for digging in (hopefully get the right angle). Not what I planned.
I also made points for the tail stock. I purchased a tail stock that came with six points. I have lost a couple and am making a few more. Mostly cones or points are used, but sometimes tubes or inserts can be used also.

After Christmas, I tried to make some sailing ship Christmas ornaments. My attempts were not good. I am in the process of exploring some other designs. I run bamboo rods in as masts and use card paper as sails. I am trying to find a good size and shape for the hull of the ship. Some ideas solved some problems, such as cutting a corner off the square stock for the deck, but the results were not good. I am exploring using the square stock and using a band saw and disk sander for shaping. I seem to be getting better results but have a ways to go to be sure. Once I get it right, I will work on making more. I need to come up with more Christmas ornament ideas for this year. Now is a good time to get started on them. I ALWAYS think I have enough time to get them done, then am struggling to finish them on time.

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Year 20, Week 15, Day Two (week 1059)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-03-20 Sunday

Blue sky, light breeze loads of sun. warm but not humid, which was nice. If it stayed like this all year long, I might think of myself in heaven, though we would need some nighttime rain to water everything....

I set up out back and decided to work on two projects at the same time. I really wanted to turn something but had no idea what. With one project, I grabbed some wood I got at work last year and cut it to size, mounted it on the lathe and started turning what is supposed to be a natural edged bowl. I shaped the outside and then started hollowing. I have a lot more to do, but the results so far have been good. I chipped up the edge at a few spots and that will require clean up, but not until I am finished with the hollowing. The outside needs cleanup but I might do that off the lathe with a sander.

My other project was to take some two by twos and shape them into the hulls of boats. I made six this time, five of them were out of a two by two and I made them the sailing ships with the high front and rear and low middle. The other one I used a strip of molding and I made it more like a rowboat. All will end up with masts. I likely will add sails to them too.
I sanded them with the sanding disk on the lathe to square them up and give me a clean surface to work from, then used the sanding disk to start shaping the blocks to look like a ship. I had learned in my previous attempts that there should be some straight wood below deck before it curves in. I tipped each block on an angle and sanded the bottom, rotating it toward the bow of the ship to give that curve.
I then took them to the bandsaw and cut the center of the ship down so the ends would be higher. I removed what wood I could with the bandsaw, and then resorted to the knife. White pine, which these are made in, can be brittle along the grain and on a couple of them, I chipped off a bit of the wood and had to cut them down more to get past the damage.
What I did to make them nicer was to use the dremel to set the deck down below the edges of the ship to give it something like a rail. They need clean up but they don’t look like shaped blocks of wood any more. I will make a bunch of boats from the molding, to give me something that looks different. They will get triangle sails while the others will get square sails. I have to put the sanding disk back on the lathe to clean up some surfaces on the ship. I likely will do what I can to finish or destroy the bowl I am making first. It tends to be bad luck to remove a piece and put it back on. Something is never quite the same.

During the day I would do some turning or bandsawing, then sit down and carve a little, then get up and do some more standing work. I got a lot done that way without wearing myself out.

Next weekend I expect to work on the ships some more next week. I have a lot of cleanup on them to do before I paint them. I will add the mast before painting, but after the clean up. The sails will be the last of the project.
I figure I will try to finish the bowl. I also need to use the disk sander on the lathe, which will require the bowl to come off. I might try to finish the bowl first.

I will see what I actually do next week.
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