Year 21, Week 06, Day One (week 1100)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-20-21 Saturday
60 early morning, around 66 when I finally got out back, 72 as the high. Clouds came and went, mostly broken clouds with lots of sun. They moved fast really strong winds gusts blowing sand paper and silk flowers off the table, especially in the morning. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
During the week, I stopped at a couple Dollar stores and picked up some white flowers. I love Daffodils so I picked up a couple different types of them at each store while I was at it. At one of them, it was usually the best stocked store with some really good stuff. It was really picked over this time. I got third in line behind a woman who was buying several dozens of soaps, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, tooth paste, etc. Her bill came up to $230. My original thought was she had a school or something like that. Someone else I had talked to suggested that she was reselling them. Hours later, it dawned on me that she might be buying them to either send to the islands, or even to send them to Texas. It took some time to scan all that stuff, and there was only one line opened.
The other one was just freshly stocked and had everything I would need, especially flowers and the flower foam.
I keep some supplies in a basket that I am allowed to keep in the house. Last week, I had heard a crack and saw a piece come off the wheel as I pushed it into place. Today I started pulling on the basket and the wheel came off. The plastic spokes broke off the hub. I carried and dragged it out back. I had a basket in my truck I picked up at a recent yard sale. I had only used that basket twice to carry groceries into the house.
I swapped the stuff between baskets. Wood working magazines with projects I might do, dozens of bottles of acrylic paint, ornament wood projects that were not done, wood for other little projects, materials for aluminum flowers I did late last year that I want to try again on, wooden dowels and skewers of various sizes that I decided I did not need to leave with my carving basket. That stuff adds up eventually to some weight.
Now I have another project I might or might not do. I could make new wheels for the basket out of wood. If I make it the size to fit the tires, I would have to heat the tires to make them pliable to stretch into place. I learned that a long time ago when I tried to make wood wheels for a wagon. At that time, there was a lot I did not understand about what I was doing and I never mounted the tire on it, nor did I put the wheel on the wagon.
This morning, my first project was to lay out all my flowers and photograph them. I needed to see what I had and wanted to show them. I then took out the googly eyes package I got and laid them all out for pictures. I put them in a different bag that would close tightly, and the rest of the day I was finding them on the ground everywhere. How they got there, I have no idea.
I had picked up some buttons a while back with the idea of using them for eyes. The large “back loop” buttons were even too small. They are brown and have a lighter ring around the center, making them look like eyes. I made some duck and chicken bowls and used these buttons for the eyes. They added a bit of lifeto them.
I had gotten some big round buttons with the idea of shaping them for the nose. They were not quite right for eyes or nose. I could paint the pupils and such on them, but the large googly eyes will work as well.
While sitting outside working, I heard my first mocking bird for the year. Using different kinds of chirps They do other sounds too), it sang for about five minutes and then left. They may well be around all the time, but I am never outside to hear them. Those are my most favorite birds. I even like their greyish coloring with the white patches on their wings. I have never been impressed with brightly colored birds. The one’s color I like best is the palm Warbler. It is brown with tan spots. As it moves around, it flicks the tail.
I took down the Valentine’s Day ornaments from the tree. I have not decided whether to throw the tree out. If I do, I will remove the red bows and then put it out for trash removal. I will do that on trash day. I had more crochet hearts than I expected. Most are doubled layered with white edging, but one pair are single layered, just bare pink yarn. I should stitch those together like the others. Of course, I had the red hearts with white hearts in the center, and the Camphor hearts with pink edging. I also had some chains with heart shaped beads and paper lace hearts. With all those added to the tin that has my crochet ornaments, I have two popcorn tins of ornaments. I need to letter on them in white what they are.
I have a pair of scissors that one of the handles broke on me. I quickly found that the metal is better than my good drill bits. I was going to make a wooden handle replacement but needed to be able to screw it in place. No hole, that idea was gone. I then decided to make them into knives. One had a handle that was fairly straight to the blade, the other handle took a strong angle. Checking and marking several times, I put the angled blade into the vice and pounded it to the side with a hammer. I adjusted it and used the claw of the hammer to bend it the other way. It broke. I then took both of them to the grinder and removed the scissor edge, and then shaped the handle end. The one with the angle needs more shaping to fit right in a handle. I likely will make it even shorter than it is now. I would grind a little bit on one, set it to the side, grind on the other one, set it to the side. I decided to start grinding the sides on an angle and used a pair of plyers. It was not really the right way to do it as it would rotate down in the jaws. After little bit, I decided to stop for now. I will do more later. I do have a start. I need to work smarter on this. The tool rests are garbage and unuseable so I was holding them by hand. That is not the way to do it.
One bowl I received back from my boss was a bowl I made in 2008. I had made it on a face plate. The bottom stand was mostly square but the corners had a slight round. The bottom was the natural wood surface, not really sanded. The outside of the bowl followed the inside, then flared out for the bottom stand.
I decided I was going to fix it. I found the center of the bottom and stuck the mouth of the bowl over the sanding disk I have on there. I cut down the bottom and continued the taper. I then made a new foot, a lot closer to the bowl. The wood, mahogany was fighting me a little as I made a ring on the bottom and it kept chipping. I got it done, with one tiny chip. I also cleaned the outer surface of the bowl. I could see that cracks had formed in the bowl.
I turned it around, the bottom in the jaws of the chuck, a ring style replaceable point in the tail stock and let it self center itself. I started cutting on the inside and I found that the bowl had warped into an oval. That told me that I would have to use more manual methods of cleaning it up. I was not sure if there was enough wood to cut away the oval to make it round again.
I sat down at the table and used the dremel with a really course sanding paper on a sanding bit I had modified to fit the dremel. I knew it would do a lot of damage but it was worth it to get the varnish off. Varnish takes some effort and time to remove. I got the worst of the varnish off, both inside and out. Then I took 80 grit sandpaper and just sat and rubbed the surfaces, removing varnish traces and scores from the power tool. When I had it about right, I glued the cracks back together and, because I could not find the large clamps (found them later in a box) I used a nylon strap to hold it together. A bit later I used the glue to fill some cracks and re-glue the joints. I set it to the side.
I sanded some more on the apples from last week. I had some spots that needed work. I also sanded more on the bowl I started cleaning up last week.
I then took a banana bowl I had made, where I used power to sand it and then varnished it. It was really ugly. I used power again to remove the varnish and clean it up. Then I hand sanded it. I did not get it completely sanded the way it is supposed to, but it was much better than it was.
I think I mentioned last week that I hate sanding. I am not sure why I am sanding rather than making things. I did not get past 80 grit today. I will go to finer sanding grits next time. The biggest problem with sanding, is that you have to sand it as much as 5 times. You have to sand it with each higher sanding grits. I was using 80 grit today. I then have to use 100 grit, then 220 grit, then 350 grit, and then 400 grit. To sand something, you are committed to do a lot of sanding, and each step shows things you missed the sanding before and many times I have had to re-sand something at 100 grit that I was already working at 400 grit on because the stuff missed was so bad. I am being more careful with my sanding but still not up to where I should be.
I finally packed up, and after spending some time with Mom, I headed home.
I will see what I do tomorrow.
Year 21, Week 06, Day two (week 1100)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-21-21 Sunday (nice date)
68 very early in the morning, 75 which was the high when I got outside. The strong wind moved sandpaper and all the trees were waving at me. There were lots of cotton puffs, thin enough to not really block the sun when they went in front of it early on. Later in the day, the clouds matured and over-ate, so they started blocking the sun with just a little bit of blue between them. The state got their act together and fixed the clouds so it was no longer broken, though they were made up of a lot of glued-together puffs. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
After gassing up and stopping to pick up some groceries, I got to Mom’s house and set up for sanding again. I needed some more grits to work with and while digging in the shed, I found some 40 grit sandpaper!!! Wow, I needed that. I have used 32 grit before. There was some work that really needed some wood removal to get it right.
Several years ago, I ordered a box of sandpaper from a company. They sold sandpaper for belt sanding machines and these were cut-offs. They packed it with a wide variety of sanding grits. This 40 grit sandpaper was from that shipment. I got several other grits I needed too.
A tea pot my boss gave me needed some light finishing as it was scuffed. I sanded it with 400 grit sandpaper, finding varnish blobs and stuff and spent a lot of time getting it cleaned up. When I decided it was done well enough, I was going to varnish it. I wanted to do a rub-out finish, but needed liquid varnish, not spray. I consolidated some spray cans into one box and found a can of varnish I was excited. The best finish I had ever gotten was a rub-out finish.
I dug out some disposable rags I have and after folding it into a pad, I dipped it into the varnish and started rubbing all the surfaces of the vase with the varnish. You keep rubbing the varnish until it becomes dry. There are no drips, no blobs, the surface is not a high gloss finish but comes out smooth and clean. You are supposed to wear gloves when you do this as the chemicals in the varnish might enter your body through the skin, and it leaves a difficult to remove mess on your hands. I did not have gloves on hand. I did not think of them until much later. The varnish left black on my hands that take some effort to rub off.
I had sanded the apples, both bowls to a finer finish. I remembered one of the other tea pots I had, had a rough finish. I dug that out and sanded that with 400 grit sandpaper, showing my brother what it felt like before and after I sanded it with 400 grit. While talking to my brother I demonstrated a rub-out finish on the tea pot. I then added varnish to both bowls and both apples. They were not sanded fine enough, and the bowl I had modified has glue marks on the surface that I did not remove. I set them out to cure. The tea pots looked better than they did. They will need a few more coats. Everything else will need more sanding and cleaning.
I had all different grades of sand paper in different shapes, and each had a different curl. I combined them into one roll and stuck them nicely in my carving basket.
I love flavored coffees. One coffee I like is what I call a Cuban Dark coffee. It is a super dark roasted coffee that is finely ground. You can use it for espresso. I brew it like regular coffee for the most part. The bags they come in is a stiffer plastic, packed like a brick. I usually have to stick it into a zipper bag as there is no way to close it properly. I dug out a small coffee can and cleaned it inside and out, sanding the outside and scraping glue off.
I then hit it with a coat of white paint. After the paint had set, I took some brown acrylic paint and wrote “Cuban Dark” on the outside. It was so ugly, I took a wet rag and removed the worst of the lettering, and then gave the can another coat of paint. Once the paint set again, I used a marker to write “Cuban Dark” on it. That was better. I have to wash it really good and then let it dry before putting the Cuban Dark coffee in it so I can scoop out of it and close it up nicely.
I will have to see what I work on next week.
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