Week 572 Wood Working

year 10, Week 50, Day One (week 572) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-26-10 Sunday

56 degrees early morning, and a front passed with a thin line of weather. 64 when I arrived, 62 when I left in the afternoon. a cold front passed and it will be in the 30s tonight. Brooding clouds early morning, becoming widely spaced puffs with sunshine. Strong winds sapped any heat one developed as it was too warm for a coat and too cold to be without one. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of tourism.

During the week,

I finished my first batch of cards and gave them out. I then painted a second batch of the same design, but done differently, for a much better effect. I got a lot of comments from the first batch of cards. the family got the second batch and loved it.
I ended up with three spare cards, and will be giving a friend one of them. One I was keeping for my own collection of painted cards.

I gave the bosses some of my woodworking. My supervisor had given me some wood several months ago. I made a coin cup, a platter, and the bowls for two goblets from the wood. I finished the goblets using different woods, and gave my supervisor the two goblets. One of the other bosses had given me a piece of wood and I turned it into a saucer and gave him that. I gave another boss the Sea grape pencil cup I made last week, and another boss who has been my benefactor by buying a lot of my woodworking, got a set of mahogany saucers. some of what he got from me is played with by the children. this boss, and many of the other people in the office got my cards. One of the people there had commented when I showed a plate I made, that I should make a bunch of them, they should sell. I gave him a set of four plates out of yellow pine. His Wife E-mailed me, thanking me for them and saying I had a lot of talent.

Christmas Eve, Friday

when we open our presents, I gave my brother some machine stuff another friend gave me, a caldron for melting metal, and a trim router. I gave my mom three pencil cups, and two wash cloths I made. My sister in law got a wash cloth and some kitchen utensils. My niece in law got pans. My nephew and nieces got money and some cheap stuff.
Everybody appeared to appreciate what they got. I got some gift cards and will use them.
I saw it last year, but truly understand it this year. We are always told that it is better to give than receive. I spent a lot of time making or finding things to gift and found that a real joy. By the time Christmas came around I did not care if I got anything. I was happy with the effort I gave and watching their faces as they opened their presents.
We had a wonderful Christmas and I well over ate as we had snacks and munchies to have as things became available.


Christmas Day. Saturday

I had forgotten to load up my carving kit last week so I had to work on something else. My brother and I decided to finish up some tools we were making. He had already cut the bar in half as it was in his way and he needed a piece of it anyway.
In our previous session, which may well have been last Christmas, we had turned some narrow sections on the shaft, and then machined the top flat.
today, we drilled and tapped the holes for screws, and then cut the pieces in half. The narrow shafts were cut in half, and then the wide areas were also cut in half so I ended up with five pieces, which came apart "face to face, shaft to shaft."
We putzed around on other things but that was really all the work we did. Of course we over ate again, but this time was a Thanks Giving style meal.

Boring bar, bit holders and one bit.

Sunday

I got to Mom's house early. I went out side, fed and petted the cats. I got my equipment out and had ideas for some projects. I had a little problem. the stuff I needed was buried deep in the shed.
One of the plastic shelving was buckling. I decided I needed to fix it. That meant emptying half the shed.
I first had to clear out most of the floor. there was a lot of junk in there. I then started emptying the shelves, and realized that the sheet stock spanning between the two side shelves needed to be emptied out. There were loads of bug droppings on the floor. When I put the sheet stock back, I looked carefully at each sheet to make sure no bug eaten wood went back up. I really found only one sheet, though there was another where the bugs would "come up for air" and then dive back down, leaving a very shallow trace. The sheet with the most damage got tossed.
I then finished emptying the shelves than must be emptied.
I ran across a lot of stuff I forgot about, or did not know we had. I had not realized how deep one of my projects was buried.
I dismantled the damaged shelving, and then swept the floor. I reassembled the shelving with the buckled part on top, and the best shelves on the bottom. We should get a few more years of use out of these shelves before we have to do this again.
I started placing stuff back in place, changing the layout as I went. A lot of my stuff is still hidden, but I have a good idea where they are, for now.
It is mainly the sheet stock spanning the two shelves that caused the problem. that is a heavy load and while it is supported in two other places, most of the weight is there as we want access to the small sheet stock.

I picked up some screws to fit the pieces I helped my brother make. When I was about to work on them, my brother showed up. I out the screws into place into the pieces, a few had to be forced in to work in the threads.
I then mounted one of the pieces in my boring bar and turned on the grinder. I moved side to side, turning the piece, getting rid of the sharp shaped edges everywhere except for the top where we machined it flat. This was so it would not catch on the wood. I ended up shaping two of these, which does not take long.
I then cut a piece off a planer blade. It had a whole at the right spot and I mounted that onto the fitting. I have not had a chance to try it yet. I left the end square and this is going to be for cutting straight into the wood from the end for things such as pencil cups.
Tomorrow I will cut off a couple more and shape them so they will be for scraping inside or out in other shapes. I have five of these fittings so I can have five different bits to swap between. Of course, I can change the bits themselves.
By making my own bits, I can make exactly what I need for the project I am doing.

I was searching for two fairies I had in process. One was made years ago. My dad was making two of everything, and keeping the best while trying to sell the other. I decided I would make two of everything too, then realized I was only working like eight hours a weekend, while my dad was working ten hours a day. I finished one and let the other one go into my incompleted junk pile. I got an idea for finishing this one. It is the same shape as the completed one, but I can do a different setting.
the other project was a fairy I was carving where I ended up with the wrong wood. It was not as strong as the Basswood I thought it was. I decided I would try to finish it. I found that one arm broke off so I glued that back on. I can see where I need to work, and I can see I need to do modifications in a few places. I happen to have another block of that wood so I can cut pieces for what I need. I stopped this one as the wood was wrong, but I think I can fix the problems. It will be good with the scene I was planning for it.

Checking the rain and sitting pretty
blanks for fairies


The strap on the dress vase I made last week broke. I cut a piece of wood from the same branch that came from and glued it on the space after I ground back the break area a bit more to give me more surface to glue to. Tomorrow I will grind the repair until it matches the existing, then finish shaping the piece.
In my digging, I think I found two more pieces that might make good dress vases. I will have to see when I examine them more.

I am off tomorrow, so I will be gong to do woodworking again. I will finish the dress vase, finish the pieces and cut more scraping bits for the lathe, and then choose a project to give them a good try.
it will be cold but like I need to work when it is hot, I will work when it is cold.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



year 10, Week 50, Day One (week 572) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-26-10 Sunday

45 degrees early morning, a lot warmer than predicted, 55 degrees as the day high while I was working. Blue sky, deliciously warm sun, brisk wind that sapped some heat from you. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I started the morning by feeding the backyard beast and Scarface. They were hungry this morning. The backyard beast has a really thick coat. Of course, it is cold and it is winter.

I took out the remains of the planer blade I am making bits out of and made several two more bits. One comes to a point, and the other is rounded, sort of D shaped. I gave them a test by taking a four by four yellow pine and starting on another pencil cup.
One bit is pointed like and arrow. That would be for boring or for scraping with one edge.
Another bit is D shaped and that is for shaping rounded forms like the inside of a rounded vase.
The third piece is square and I made that for cutting straight in with a clean straight side.
These bits are not the best shaped bits, but work for the most part. The pointed one is a bit long and a good catch could snap it off.


boring bar bits

Yesterday, I cut a piece of oak and glued it onto the dress vase to be a strap. Today, I dragged the extension cord out to where I could sit in the sun and plugged in the dremmel. I shaped the strap, thinning it, creating the right curves, and blending it. It came out pretty good. there is a slight color difference, but I think that if I soak it in wipe-on varnish as I had done with the rest of the dress vase, it might blend even better. Even so, one has to look to see it.
I used the wrong colored filler for some worm holes and will hide it with paint to blend them in. I have done that before quite successfully.

I had found two wooden flowers that I had started a long time ago and never did anything with. yesterday, I added skewers to be the stem. Today, I took the Dremmel and modified them so they look a bit more like they have petals. Not spectacular, but it is a few more flowers in my collection.



Miniature daffodil


Conical flower


I left kind of early. I stopped at Home Depot to get a sanding disk for my disk sander. I never saw any. I will go to sears at the next opportunity. I then stopped at a friend's shop and forgot that it was Monday, not Sunday when he is usually there. Oh well.

Now I will work on the dress vase during the week and see if I can finish it up. I have some carvings I want to dig into and finish up. I have ornaments to finish up for next year and to get rid of some blanks that are accumulating.
I would like to get with a friend next Monday, which I have off, and see if I can teach him to carve. I need to make up some blanks for the demonstration.
I want to make more turning bits for my boring bar and give them a real test to see if they work as well as I think.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Week 571 Woodworking

year 10, Week 49, Day One (week 571)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-18-10 Saturday

75 degrees, a few passing drips in the morning, then rapidly moving clouds. After noon, the drips started ganging up until we were getting really good showers of Liquid Sunshine. The front almost passed after I got home. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

The battery of Mom's van died last night and she got a jump to get home, but it did not start this morning. We went and got a new one. The hardest part was to find a wrench or socket of the right size. I had stuck the wrench where I would easily find it, and never looked there till a bit later. I dropped two wrenches down the front of her engine and only one came out the bottom. Never did find the second one.

My first woodworking project was to do one final act on the dress vase I've been making. Last week I got a bunch of beads at a yard sale. I found one that was sort of like a flower and glued that in front of the blemish of the wood so it looked like a buckle. I got some straight pins and drilled through the hole of the bead, I cut the pin short, and after adding a little glue, I put the pin into the hole to make sure the bead did not come out. Looks good.
I showed it to a friend and he said not to let it go for less than a couple hundred bucks!!!

finished dress vase


I took a fork of a sea grape branch and mounted it on the lathe. At first I thought I could make it into another dress vase but it was too short. I turned the inside first, leaving the bark on.
I was given a replacement chuck for a drill and had previously fitted into the chuck as a test. Well, I tried it again and the chucks would not close down enough. I removed the Cole Jaws off my newest chuck and used that to hold the drill chuck.
I fitted a Forsner bit into it and figured out that I needed to hand hold the piece in my hand and guide the bit through the wood. I got a good start, then decided that this was not the easiest way to work. Instead, I sat down with an aggressive bit in my dremmel and ground away the wood.
I had to clean the bit twice while removing wood as the still green wood clogged up the bit. this bit is like a wheel and has hundreds of spikes, burrs, sticking out. this bit has long burs, but still it clogged up.
I used some acetone to try to soften the gunk. I tried a brush, a knife point, and ended up sticking a brass wire brush on the dremmel and used that to clean the burs.
What I ended up with was a creamer with bark on the outside. It looks interesting.


Creamer server in Sea Grape


One of the bosses at work was working with a pine board. I commented that I make plates out of that wood. He left a small piece in my office. I mounted it on the lathe with one of my wood face plates, and made a little platter out of it. I made the bottom first, with the center up against it as I do not trust double sided tape. I had a post where the tail stock fit to the piece.
I then turned it around, removing the face plate and using a drive spur. It had a slight wobble, but I continued anyway. I was keeping a knot in the rim and the grain of the wood gave me a few minor catches. Because white pine is soft, the spur ate up the post on the bottom as the spur spun in place. Each time it did that, it changed the wobble slightly.
I used the dremmel to remove the remains of the posts and the dig of the spur. It came out pretty good for a quick project. Needs some sanding but whether it actually gets it is something else.


white wood platter

I finished up a couple Tunisian Crochet hooks I made last week. I will be testing one of them this week to see how well it works. they all need to be tested just a little.
I sanded on the two natural edged Walnut bowls I made, I had not used care when sanding and did not put a lot of sanding time into them as I should. When I added some varnish, all sorts of blemishes and scratches showed up. I sanded at some of the messes to clean them up. I will see how they look tomorrow.

I stopped at a friend's shop and showed him my work. He said I was improving. He gave me a whole bunch of stuff in the process as he is trying to make room in his shop. I also got a piece of wood where the heart wood bleeds red when it gets wet. Part of it has the right shape for a dress vase so I will give it a try.

I was basically finishing up when the weather started sneaking in. I got a whole lot done which was a surprise. I picked up a few tricks in the process.

I will try that new wood tomorrow, starting by drilling the hole for the vase first thing, then worrying about shaping it. I have some projects to finish up also. The weather should be good so that won't limit the work I do.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 49, Day two (week 571)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-19-10 Sunday

64 degrees when I arrived, 66 as a high, then dropped down to 63. It was a high solid shield of cloud cover all day long, only to break up and the sun came out as I was packing up. A brisk breeze took some of the heat out of you. It was cool enough to wear a light coat, but not cool enough to make it worth wearing a coat. The ground was wet when I got to Mom's house but dried out as the day went on. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of pompano Beach department of Tourism.

I spent my morning sorting stuff that will be gifted. I have a long ways to go, but made great headway. The worst part was I was thinking I had one more weekend to get things done. Nope....

I got to Mom's house and after feeding the backyard beast and Scarface, I considered my next project.

I picked up the piece of oak I first considered for a dress vase, and saw that it really could become a dress vase. My first project was to make tenons on it so I can hold it in the chuck. I mounted the wood so the flair was by the head stock and I made a tenon for the chuck to hold the opposite end. I then flipped it around and made a tenon on the base. Flipping it around again, I readied to drill the vase hole in it.
Yesterday, I was given what is called a Jacobs Chuck. this is a drill chuck that is fitted onto a taper. Drills, lathes, and many other machines use a taper that simply wedges into the shaft. It seldom turns due to the friction, but a rap will knock it out.
I removed my tail stock point, which is a taper, and then put the Jacobs chuck in place. I put a fornser bit in and slowly drilled into the end of the turning wood, cranking the drill in and out with the tail stock. I had to move the tail stock in a couple times.
I used a smaller bore because I had to carve the outside of the wood, but used a larger bit so I could get the end of the chuck into the wood a bit deeper. Even so, the hole is not deep enough. I need to look into getting an extension for these forsner bits.
I then took a hand drill and drilled holes into the side for the arm holes.
Finally, I started shaping the piece, a ring bulged out for the breasts, a square bulge where the belt goes. Once I had it the way I wanted, I turned it back around and removed the tenon on the bottom and put a ridge to lift it slightly off the shelf. Because of the shape of the base, which is narrow and long, the ridge appears only at two spots.

The rest was carving it with the dremmel. I intended to have it as a Marilyn Monro type dress where it goes around the neck so the back is open, and the straps are only in front, but getting too thin next to the arm hole forced me to change to the two strap design. the straps was too thin to support the design I intended. I got thin because I had the grinding bit that I cut away the excess wood at the wrong angle.

There were some worm holes in it, and I found some live worms in a couple of them. I filled the holes with the wrong colored filler. I will hide them with some creative painting.
I got it home and did find where I broke through on one strap. I will splice a piece of wood on that part of the strap to make it stronger.


Front and back of the dancing dress vase


I will see about finishing it up next week since I will have some days to play.

When I visited the club member's shop yesterday, he gave me a piece of LOG WOOD. It is rare down here. It is a wood where the sap wood is white, and the heart wood is red. The heart wood will bleed a red stain if it gets wet, which can be removed with lemon juice or possibly vinegar.
He gave me a piece that has a nice flair that will make another good dress vase. I chose not to use it because the ground was wet. I will use it on a dry day so I don't make a big mess.


I finished this two color Tunisian Crochet this morning. I show the front and the back (the striped side). It really shows how the stitch works.


I am nearly finished with my first batch of nine painted Christmas cards. I then have to do another, possibly bigger batch, ten, possibly more. Will see.

Next weekend is Christmas. I have Monday off. I have to get all my work done on things to be gifted by Friday. We open our presents The night before, so the children can have all Christmas day to play with their toys. We get together Christmas day for a big family dinner. I will have Sunday and Monday to do woodworking.
I usually arrive early Christmas Day and carve, but since I totally forgot about bringing my carving kit, I will either work metal, read, or crochet. I do have carving stuff I can gather from here, but won't bother.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.

Week 569 Wood working

year 10, Week 47, Day One (week 569) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-04-10 Saturday

55 degrees at nine, 75 mid day. clear blue sky with a very light haze (not a deep blue sky), light breeze. After the sun was out for a while, it was a very nice day to be out and about. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourist.

During the week, I finished up my ornaments. I added paint, I decorated them, such as adding presents and bead ornaments on my little Christmas trees. They look really good. The only thing I did not do was add eye hooks, which I still have not found. I had purchased a bunch of them last week and just cannot figure out what I did with them. Two places I did not look today was in my dremmel box and my drill box.

FRIDAY:

I went down to Dania Beach as I usually do each month. The Dania Beach Water Gardens is closing at the end of December. I went down there to gather the stuff I had on display. Donna did not really want to say goodbye. I gave her two ornaments. I gave Tom an ornament, and gave one of the helpers an ornament.

I took my stuff over to the Antique shop I have my stuff on display and swapped out pieces. I rearranged the display so it looked good and showed everything off better, including his stuff. Some pieces I brought back could well be used as gifts or simply held till later.

this is my display at the antique shop after I re-arranged it.



SATURDAY:

After yard sailing, I got to work out back. The backyard beast did not get as much attention as he is used to. He did get some though.

I had gone and gotten some more eye hooks at an ACE HARDWARE, which is just two blocks away.
I finished up a bunch of ornaments with hooks, then fixed up two shell ornaments, one that lost the piece I had stuck the hook in, and another I made all new finials for. That one has a missing piece which I have to figure out how to replace. Should not be hard.
One thing was I was able to use cut-offs from other works to make some of the pieces I needed for these ornaments. It saved me from messing with large pieces of wood. The real problem is that there is a limit as to how much of these cut-offs you want to have around. They end up not being used very much.

I went to a yard sale by several members of the turning club. They had wonderful tools available, at prices I drooled over. My problem was I was completely tapped out. I walked away empty handed. Not really, there was some stuff to be tossed out and I got my hands on them.

I started carving on a piece of wood cut from one of Mom's plants and decided to get going as I had a stop to do.

Last week I had picked up some Sea grape. Tomorrow I want to make something with it. I want to make something from a piece. I also need to carve on some remaining ornaments. I see that the spool ornaments are popular so I may make more of them.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.




year 10, Week 47, Day Two (week 569) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-05-10 Sunday

52 degrees early morning. 75 in the afternoon. Stronger breeze than I like as it blows sawdust around. High "platelet" clouds with blue cracks. They darkened in the afternoon over the west and blocked out any sun that we were getting. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I started the morning by painting a bunch of cards. these cards are pre-printed for some charity. I got them at a yard sale. I decided to paint them with spray paint them so the printing does not show.
The wind made this a miserable process as the cards kept flipping, landing on the ground or on top each other which was worse. A calm hot day would have been better for this. I can use them all.
I ran out of white paint which almost needed three coats, so decided to use blue paint (the fullest can) which covered in one coat. I then got the idea to hit the edges with red, sort of a cloud effect. I planned on clouding the center of the inside with yellow so the lettering could be easily seen.
The process got stopped because of other projects so I have more to do next week. Once the cards are all painted with the background color, I will then paint images and letter them for my Christmas cards. I have no idea what images I will paint this year, but at least I am making the first steps on it. I do have blank, white card stock too.

While the paint was drying, I dug out some goblet bowls I had made from some wood I was given. The wood mainly became a platter, but I had room enough to make some goblet bowls.
I took some wood I had and made some long stems to fit the bottom of the bowl, and then another kind of wood for the bases. I have not taken the time to examine them carefully, but I think one is very slightly tipped. I can fix that no problem. I use white glue to attach them. When varnished, they will stay together. I have loads of sanding to do before I can call them done.

Each time I started to carve on my ornaments, I would remember something else that needed to be done. I got almost nothing done on the carving front. Oh well.

This weekend, I have given quite a few ornaments away. they got all messed up, in wrong boxes and separated out. I dumped them all out and sorted them, counting them. I have not gotten a total count, but do know that I have a lot of pieces to display. some could use more pieces made, but some likely will never be repeated.

My brother, with my help, replaced the starter on my truck. It took far longer than I ever expected. It was not even on the side of the truck I thought it came off when we replaced the transmission.
One wire gave us fits. It would not give us the room to maneuver it. It was only after we traced the wire that we found there was a clamp we could remove and that allowed the wire to move enough to work.

Mom's water heater is starting to leak. She and I went and picked up a new one. This was right after we got the truck all buttoned up and everything put away. This was our test of the starter. It works. I will watch it for a while. There is always doubt there, like there might be something else going on.
I do love having a pickup. I slipped the heater into my bed and got it home with no problems. Mom thanked me for helping her. This was why I got a pickup in the first place. I don't have to schedule with someone else and I can help others. I am always at Mom's house on weekends, so we use my truck to get her stuff when needed.

This week, I will have my ornaments on display at work. I strongly doubt I will sell anything, but will have them on display. I figure next week I will pick out pieces to gift, but at least this week, I will display them.
I am trying to be ahead this year rather than doing things the day of Christmas in hopes of getting done before having to go to meet the family.

Next week, I will finish painting the cards so I can do the artwork. I will try to finish up some more ornaments I have blanks for. I have some good wood to play with and should get onto them. I have some projects that need finishing up, some just sanding and some requires more work.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Week 565 Woodworking

year 10, Week 43, Day One (week 565)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-06-10 Saturday


50 degrees early morning, 58 degrees when I got out to work at nine thirty, and it got up to 68 degrees when I left in the afternoon.
One must remember that here in South Florida, we are in the sub tropics. Water freezes at 56 degrees here, rather than 32 up north. You should have seen the way the area glistened from the frost on everything. My truck slipped on ice several times on the way up to Mom's house. Had I known it was going to get this cold, I would never have moved here......
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Friday:

I went down to Dania to check in on what is going on down there. The antique shop had not sold any of my flowers, or anything else, but that is all right. They are on display and my stuff looks good.
I picked up my face vase there and took it and a few more things to the Dania Beach Water Gardens.

Antique shop display

I left my two latest bowls and the face vase at the Water Gardens. I was told that while they are doing well financially, the family decided to shut down the place at the end of the year. I will go down there next month and see what is going on and likely pick up my stuff. Will know for sure when I talk to them then. My stuff looks good there. I took pictures of several items of interest that I might copy in wood.

Dania Beach Water Gardens Display
Saturday:

We hit half a dozen yard sales. I saw a few things of interest but did not buy anything.

The cat had his moods, but mostly showed up every now and then and get some attention, before walking off into the sun or to sleep somewhere. Scarface made a showing and he got some attention too.

Yesterday I saw something in E-mail that might be a good ornament. I decided to give it a try. I needed to turn a ball first on the bottom of the ornament. I then cut the upper part free of the stick and the rest was hand carved.
I carved a face on the upper part. I quickly realized that this was not going to work as an ornament. I finished it up so others can see what I had in mind. Mom said it was not cute so it would not work. What I had was a carved face, this one a man with a mustache, with a ornament ball for the body. She was right. it did not work. I will have to come up with something else.


face ornament with two snow people

I stopped and got a bunch of Eye hooks for my ornaments. I cannot find what I did with the ones I have had, since I put them in a logical location. These were on as deal. Instead of the seven brass eye hooks, these were fourteen steel eye hooks for the same price.
I then went and got some wipe on varnish for finishing my work.

I took out the Norfolk Island pine piece I have. It has two sets of knots in it. Norfolk Island pine has an unusual growing pattern where the trees grow in a circle around the trunk, then there is a space and then another ring of branches. It is almost like a horsetail plant, for those who know it.
On this piece of wood, One ring has six knots which is good for the faces, and the other had some nine knots. I cut the nine knot piece short so the face vase has the most wood to work with.
I then made a simple vase of what was left, having the shoulder of the vase at the knots so some of the knots streak along it. and then the mouth spread wide out again. All I had to do was to finish the bottom to call this piece finished.
I took two shortcuts. One of them would not have given me any problems. The two of them together caused a not-nice situation.
I had mounted the piece with the mouth in the Cole Chuck and only used half the rubber stoppers to hold it in place (short cut number one). I then did not bring the tail stock up to the bottom of the piece to hold it in place while I cut the wood away (shortcut number two). The rubber stoppers were not strong enough to hold the piece in place. While I was cutting, I got a catch and the bowl went out of center and then flew off, bouncing on everything on the way down to the ground. Two chips came off the lip of the vase.
I now have to decide whether to do some decorative cutting of the edge of the mouth to make it look like I intended to have pieces of wood missing, or I could cut the mouth shorter which might mess up the design. I will have to give it some thought.


Chipped Vase

I also carved two more of my snowmen. Mom said that the arms are not needed so I left them off these two.

I have loads of projects I should be working on. One is to empty the shelves under my lathe, take everything off the bed, clean and protect everything, empty the roller cart of all the wood an tools, then re-stack it all in a logical order, possibly all the tools on the cart and all the wood on the lathe.
I have some work on my truck to do, such as sanding and varnishing the bed rails since the clear coat is pealing away.
I need to go through all the surface areas of the awning area, and clean everything and sort them so it will be easier to find things. I should empty the shed and clean it up. I know that some bugs have enjoyed some of the wood in there and I need to get rid of them or at least mess with their minds.....

I will likely be working on Christmas Ornaments tomorrow. I have swans, snow people, cats to make. and should make some Christmas trees while I am at it.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 43, Day Two (week 565)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-07-10 Sunday


It was 50 degrees early this morning, got to a steady 72 degrees, with one point with full sun where it got up to 76 degrees. That was gone quickly, though. We had what is called an Indian cloudy day, "A-patchy...(Apache) There were periods where we had full clouds, but those times passed quickly. A few looked pregnant but they passed without incident. There was a brisk breeze that blew wood chips everywhere. It made the day feel quite cool.
this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Today was strictly a carving day. I dug into some ornament blanks I have. I started carving under the awning. The cat would come in, get petted munch a little, then go out to the sun. I then moved out into the sun and the cat did not like being fed away from the awning. I did get some carving done out there, then returned to work under the awning the rest of the day.

I dug out the blanks for ornaments I had. Swans from last year, snow peoples, and cats.

The snow people were easy to do except I kept breaking off the rim of their hats.

One of the cat looks strange, but will leave it like that.

The swans need some work, mostly sanding to get rid of bits caused by the dremmel I worked with. It raises fluff on the surface. I spray painted the swans white, but a lot of that will go as I clean them up. I will then paint them by hand.


Cats, snow people and swans

Basically, I have to paint all of them to finish them up.

I need to explain about my lathe a bit and the accident that happened yesterday. The way my lathe is set up, is where I can have wheels down, to roll the lathe around the work area. It is then designed so I can lower the lathe onto four by four wood blocks so if I am working on something that is really out of center, the lathe won’t be traveling around the countryside. I usually don’t drop it down onto the blocks as most of my work don’t need that steadiness.
The wheels are welded to boxes, and the boxes are welded to a shaft that goes across the bottom shelf behind the blocks. When I raise the wheels to set the lathe down onto the blocks, the box of the wheels get raised up and the wheels stick out sideways.
Now on the opposite side I work, there is welded a lever set so that the wheels are straight down when the levers are level. The levers are held down by blocks that can be twisted over top them. That locks them in place to roll around. When I drop the lathe onto the blocks, the levers point up.
What happened was that the lock block for the wheels on the end where my feet were, slipped and that end of the lathe dropped. The box the wheel is attached to came down on my instep. If you remove unmentionable words, I said ouch...

Last night and this morning, I dipped my cats and snow people ornaments in wipe-on varnish to seal them. They will now get spray varnish to give them a good finish.

I sent a picture of the vase I made to a master wood turner in the club. He said the design was good and shortening the rim to get rid of the chips would ruin it. He said to make a decorative edge instead.
He also said that He needs to work with me on tool control to remove the tear out he sees.

Next week, I will likely make some more ornament blanks. I might decide to start on the face vase.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Week 558 Wood working.

year 10, Week 36, Day One (week 558)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-18-10 Saturday

90 degrees, a breeze good enough to not need the fan, well separated puffs of clouds that never seamed to block the sun. Perfect working conditions. Only one cloud that looked,, like it might contain weather, but it was down wind of us and seamed to just disappear. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

THURSDAY:

I had sanded and varnished my ducklings. I also painted eyes on them. that made a big difference in how they looked.
The turning club meeting day came up. I grabbed my ducklings from the drying rack and found I made a little mistake. I varnished them all over and set them on the rack. The varnish stuck to the bars of the rack, and left resulting lines. When I went to Mom's house for dinner and to get some stuff, I hit the "feet" with a disk sander, signed the ducklings, and then hit the feet with several coats of varnish. They were presentable now.

The turning club meeting was very good. My stuff was not up to the quality of the worst stuff there. while in the club meeting, I saw that the knot pattern on one of my pencil cups was interesting when viewed upside down. It had either two big eyes and two small nostrils, or two big ears and to small eyes. I decided that cup needed to be turned upside down.
The demonstration was of making spider boxes, where grooves are cut into the lid of a box, off centered on top and centered on the inside, that makes it look like a spider web. it was shown before but there was new techniques and tools involved.


Me holding vases and flowers




Pencil vase showing the face I had seen, shown upside down.


SATURDAY:

After breakfast and yard sailing, I went out back and dealt with the beast of the back yard. He had reverted a little bit, and actually half heartedly swatted at me when I was doing something he did not like. Nice to see the beast back, and not that dumb cat.....

I did bouts of making shaving flowers, a total of 18, and I made a new pencil cup.
I turned that interesting pencil cup around, and was getting set up to finish off the new bottom. it was not quite centered I adjusted it and kept hearing some creaking. then one more adjustment, turned the lathe on and it came apart in four pieces. Darn.
I will glue it back together. It is too cool looking to not fix it.

I did not get as much done as yard sailing went late and had a number of interruptions.

I hope to get more done tomorrow. I have four sticks for shaving flowers left, so I will finish them up. I can get either four or five flowers from each one, depending on how the process works out.
I want to make at least one more pencil cup tomorrow. One project is to get my things together for my vacation that starts next weekend. I will bring my carving stuff, even though I doubt I will do any carving. I need to pick out what knife, glove, strop and sharpener I want to bring.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 36, Day two (week 558)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-19-10 Sunday.

90 degrees, little breeze when I arrived, but it picked up a bit later and kept things feeling cool. There were puffs of clouds everywhere, but just a few had the audacity to block the sun.
We have had a rather strange summer. What I remember most about summers here, is that we will get an afternoon rain, and then the humidity would get so thick you could almost touch it. The temperatures would be lower, but the humidity would be oppressive. this is the kind of weather I have been preparing myself for all year.
This year, We have been getting temperatures into the 90s, very little noon time rains to make things really thick. when the rains have come, the winds blew the humidity away. the air has remained comparatively dry all year long.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I mis-read the clock this morning, really bad. I ended up leaving a whole hour earlier than I planned. I made up for it by stopping at Walmart, but the pharmacy was closed. I stopped at two permanent yard sales at warehouses. One had completely changed their space around. She apparently opened a store front some place. I did not find anything I wanted at either place and was at each of them for a few minutes.

I feed the beast of the back yard. He started out as the beast I almost remembered, and then became a cat as the day went on, falling asleep at my feet for quite a long time.

I got all my equipment out. My drill set, my dremmel set, my carving set.
I took the cup I broke yesterday and glued it back together. I used tape to clamp it together. It needs clean up but is presentable. That will be my personal pencil cup. One problem with this cup was that it was too thin. When I clamped the jaws of the chuck on it, it was not strong enough to hold under the pressure.

Broken vase

I made another pencil cup today. It is simple and came out of the wood quickly.

Having some extra time, I dug out two pieces I made a while back. Both were supposed to be hats for face vases, but they looked really stupid as hats. I remounted each one, and finished them into bowls, giving them a good finish. One of them has cracks in it, so I worked filler into the cracks and did some light sanding.
My new chuck with my cole jaws on it, really made the project nice. I could hold the bowls nicely in the old tenon with my normal chuck, getting everything I could reach with the work facing that way. I then turned the bowls around, and mounted them in the Cole chuck and held them safely and easy to finish up the bowls.
I showed my bowls to my brother and he said he likes the designs. They are different.

While letting the cat sleep at my feet, I made, in several sessions, 17 shaving flowers. Most were painted, only two remained in wood color. Those two were among the best I have made. Looking at the flowers I made yesterday and last week, together, there needed more color flower in the bouquet.

The day went well and I accomplished a lot.

I have some finishing on some items during the week.
I will not be doing any wood working the next two weekends. I am going on vacation to visit a couple on line friends.

If I post a woodworking diary, I will be very much surprised. I am bringing my carving knife but don't plan to use it. Just bringing it just in case.

I will see what happens over the next weeks.

Week 557 wood working

year 10, Week 35, Day One (week 557)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-11-10 Saturday

98 degrees, sunny with showers in the area. While in Palm beach county, we drove through some weather that was heading to the botanical gardens when we left there. The weather at Mom's house was sunny, very slight wind, humid. This weather report is brought to you by the Palm Beach County, and the City Of Pompano, Departments of tourism.

This past week was my dad's birthday. We went up to visit his grave at the military cemetery. There are times where I am embarrassed to admit I was his son, as I am afraid that people would expect more of me.

The Palm Wood turning club had a display and demonstration at the MOUNTS BOTANICAL GARDENS Orchids Show and Sale. Since we were near that far north, we went to the botanical gardens and look at the orchids. While there, we had a look at the turning club stuff. I got some fun ideas for projects, not that I need more I did not take many pictures this time. I mainly just looked.

When we got back, we had lunch and then I got my stuff out back to work.

I am angry. someone replaced the beast of the back yard, WITH A CAT!!!.
At least that is how he was acting. He came up to me and laid down at my feet and let me pet him all over. He would lay over on his side to let me rub under his chin and side of his head. He would lay there for a long time. I think he only got up when I ignored him, not giving him enough attention. He came back for more many times. Next month will be the start of my fourth year of taming him in October. I started taming him October 11th, 2007. We have done well.

My main project was making shaving flowers. I have a use for a couple hundred of them. I mainly sat and shaved flowers one after another. I made about thirteen flower and then, added the stems which are bamboo skewers, then painted some of them. I picked out the very best, and gave them a clear varnish coat. I then separated out the rest and painted them either red, blue or yellow. Some of the flowers actually look a little sick for one reason or another. The color makes them look better than they really are.

I had started some duckling bowls a while back. I decided to glue the heads on them, even though the bowls need sanding and other work. I will have to make some more heads a bit later.
I decided I will finish them up tomorrow. It will be easy sitting work using the dremmel.

I also dug out some swan ornament blanks from last year. I glued a broken head back on, and will finish them up soon. It requires some dremmel work to remove waste wood where the knife has problems reaching, before I get to serious carving on them to finish them. I can get them finished on a day or so, once I get to them.

I need pencil cups. I can use three of them at home. I found out my mom can use several. I know I will need some more for a few other people. I have a turning club meeting this next week, so I might as well make them for display for that too (good for displaying the flowers too).

Tomorrow will be busy and if I put my mind to it, I can get a lot done.

Tomorrow, I will see what I actually get done.


year 10, Week 35, Day Two (week 557)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-12-10 Sunday

95 degrees, blue sky, very little breeze until the afternoon, Some distant towers to the east in the afternoon, closer ones to the south, good afternoon breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The beast of the back yard was pretty good. He was a little more like himself, gnashing at me a couple times because I was not doing what he wanted, or doing something he did not want. Nice that he was back to his old self and not totally like a cat, today.

My main project was to make some pencil cups. I worked with the first one. It had some nice knots on the outside, which, of course, made making the inside difficult. The knots resisted the tools as I hollowed it out.
I made the first one, but did not remove the tenon on the bottom yet. I then made the second one. I finished the second one, and fixed the bottom of the first, and decided I had to go inside. I was standing out in the sun, except for a half hour period where I sat with the cat while making shaving flowers, for about three hours. Dinner was about ready too so it was a good time to cool down and dry off.

A while back, I started making some duckling bowls. this morning, I glued the heads on, and then later I added more glue and I also did some sanding. I have more work to do with them but I want to try to get them ready for the Thursday turning club meeting. I at least hope to get them ready for that.

I sat and made a few flowers. I wanted to mix my turning with my carving and ended up only making four flowers. I ran out of time to do more. I ended up making 28 of them this weekend.

I have a turning club meeting Thursday. I have my flowers, my pencil cups, and my ducklings I would like to display. Whether I can get it done, is something else. I hope to sand and varnish enough to make them presentable.

Next weekend, I have to get some things done for my vacation the following week.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Week 556 Woodworking

year 10, Week 34, Day One (week 556) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 09-04-10 Saturday

90 degrees, blue sky with a changing mixture of clouds, some of which blocked the sun for a while. Nice breeze made it comfortable. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

Friday:

I went to the Antique shop. The people I needed to see was not at the Dania Water gardens. While at the antique shop, he showed me where he got a whole bunch of wooden rose buds. These were professionally made, mass produced wrapped shavings. I was impressed.
He has a guy who designs his shop to look good. That guy was there while I was there and he said he was impressed by my work. He also liked my display. That was nice. I left a set of wood platters there. I have a bunch more in process so I don't need those.
I showed, on my camera, a picture of my shaving flowers. He said he was interested in seeing them. they might also be something that the Water Gardens might like. I am making a bunch of them.

Saturday:

I had a pretty good say today.
First off, the back yard beast attacked me. He pinned me down in my chair and forced me to pet him several times during the day. such horrible torture! He was so mean, he almost fell asleep at my feet while I was carving!!!

After I got all the equipment out, I started on another pencil cup. It started out really good, but I accidentally got so deep while flattening the bottom, that I actually started to cut through the tenon in the middle of the bottom. That is deeper than the bottom.
I decided to fix that. I had cut the piece from a longer block, so I mounted the other piece of block, made a tenon that would fit into the mouth of my pencil cup. It took some work but I got it to fit nicely. I have not been lucky like that too often.
I glued that as square as I could, and let it set on the lathe. After It dried, I cleaned up a little wobble on the outside, then cut away the old bottom and trued up the inside. After I did that, I noticed I made a little mistake. I should have lined up the rings of both pieces of wood. Because it was not lined up, I decided to remove as much of the bottom as I could, to hide my mistake.
I put the piece into he cole jaws and put a center on the end and cut down and cleaned up the bottom so it is a thin ring. It looks pretty good now.

Shaving flowers as they were when I arrived on Saturday
A few were painted pink, but the rest are natural wood


I had picked up some paint and varnish. I painted a bunch of my shaving flowers, red, yellow and blue. I will have some of the flowers in natural wood color as a contrast. I could use white, but chose not to.
Today I took a three quarter inch board of basswood and sliced it down the middle, making two boards, then cut both boards into sticks.
I have enough sticks for about a hundred flowers. How many I get, will depend on how long I make the petals. Shorter they are, the more flowers I can get, but the longer petals look better, usually.
The grain in one of the sticks was going the wrong way and it was splitting, instead of shaving. I ended up with a few sick looking flowers.

Tomorrow, I will make more shaving flowers, do a bunch of sanding, bother the cat, I have a turned figurine in oak that needs to be finished.

I will see what all I actually do tomorrow.



year 10, Week 34, Day Two (week 556)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-05-10 Sunday

94 degrees, blue sky, sunny, a few changing wispy puffs of clouds here and there. Some mountains of clouds over the everglades in the late afternoon, but not coming here. A tiny bit humid in the morning, but a light breeze in the afternoon took that away. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The backyard beast acted so much like a cat, I was a little worried about him. He did give me "the look" twice, but otherwise, let me do whatever I wanted to him. He even slept at my feet for a long while, until I finally got up to get back to work.
The Curly tail lizards are getting big and fat. They get a few morsels of cat food each day. When we are out there, we will toss them a piece or two.

I got the equipment out, but did not really need to use the lathe. I then decided to take a piece of Florida Mahogany and make a bowl out of it. I left the surface that was under the long gone bark, as it was, and just hollowed it out and made a good base under it.
Because of the size of the piece, I decided to turn it between centers rather than make a tenon to fit the chuck. It needs sanding, but is passable as an ugly bowl. It had been chainsawed and that left a really bad surface, which is my rim. That is really why it is ugly. I could have leveled it, but wanted something different.
Will see how that finishes up.

My ugly bowl and my pencil cups.


My brother came by and repaired a brace of our awning. it had rusted through. He needs to fix all of them. the drain holes had plugged and that was causing the damage. He will do them later. He had a problem with an electrical outlet in the garage or he would have done some scroll sawing.
We went out for dinner to a Chinese buffet. Our normal one appears to be out of business or on vacation. so we went to a different one.

I made a bunch more shaving flowers. I made two out of mahogany. It was not cutting right and I gave up on it. I left the best of the new flowers in wood color, and painted the ones that are not as good. I will be doing that from now on.

Shaving flowers. white ones are natural wood.


I have tomorrow off, so I will be working wood again. I have sanding and varnishing to do, and have a whole lot more of those shaving flowers to make I also need to finish up on the crochet hooks. I had started the process to change their design to something that works a bit better.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



year 10, Week 34, Day Three (week 556)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-06-10 Monday

85 degrees, blue sky with high feathers and streaks, filtering the sun. Afternoon puff columns built up over the Everglades, their tops spreading to cover the sun in the afternoon. Light breeze just strong enough to make it comfortable, but not strong enough to really notice it. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

After the beast of the back yard decided he had guarded me enough, I was able to get out of the chair and get to work.

I had started a dress vase in oak, at least a month ago. I mounted it in the lathe and tried to drill it out some more. Oak is a hard wood when it is dried. I think I drilled it, at most, two inches deeper. I still have at least four inches to go.
One thing I have to be careful of, is that when I am changing Forsner bits, They get very hot. I have more work to do before I can really take it off the lathe for good.
My lathe stand is designed that the wheels can be tipped out of the way so the lathe will stand on wood blocks. I did this today because the lathe was rolling when I pushed against the boring bar. When done, I just rotated and locked the wheels back in place and rolled the lathe into the space under the awning. I don't do that too often. I tend to be a bit lazy.

I sanded a little bit on my crochet hooks. They will require a lot more sanding before they will be ready to test.

I made more shaving flowers. A couple looked rather sick, so they got painted, while the really good ones got a coat of varnish and called done. I have a blister on my index finger where the knife rubs on it. It will be gone when I work next week.

final display of shaving flowers
painted and natural wood


I remembered that the antique shop was open today. I cleaned up, packed up everything, and headed down there. I brought the flowers in and he loved them. It was then that I saw how good they really looked. I also gave him my pencil cups that I made. He is starting with five bucks piece for the flowers, and ten bucks piece for the cups. Good prices. He said he can lower the flower prices if they don't sell. I used to sell these shaving flowers for a dollar a piece so anything he sells them for is good.
I showed him that unfinished ugly bowl I made. He said,”What is so ugly about it?” I guess it looks better than I thought.

For next week, I will be making more flowers. I now have a good reason to make more. They are easy to make, look good and might be worth having for a market.
I will likely work more on the dress vase. Holding and pushing the boring bar is hard on the hands. I have no idea how much I will get done on it.
I will likely make some pencil cups as I need a couple and dropped them off at the antique shop.
One thing I planned to do this weekend and never did, was to unload the lathe completely, clean it up and replace the sheet plastic dust skirt I have around it. plastic sheeting degrades outside, even when it is not in direct sunlight. Sawdust is getting onto the shelving and into everything on the shelves.
I have some platters I had started for the turning club demonstration, and should finish them up.
I still have not started my Christmas ornaments and now is getting too late. I at least looked at some swan blanks from last year, but that was all.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Week 32 Wood working

Year 10, Week 32, Day One (week 554)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-21-10 Saturday

94 degrees, blue sky in the morning, becoming a high shield filtering sunlight, then low clouds blocked up the sky, mostly to the west, in the afternoon. Weather hit after I got home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.


THURSDAY:

The turning club meeting. I was doing the demonstration on using jam chucks and double sided tape for doing platters.
I had found that the tail stock on the lathe was out of square. I decided to give it a try anyway. In my checking, I found a second little problem. The Live Center on the tail stock (the point mounted in a bearing so it spins with a wood, rather than the wood spin on it like on a nail) was too small for the way the project was going to work.
The wood face plates face plates I had to work with, were ones I had drilled and threaded to fit over the shaft that spins the wood. the actual spinning part of the live center was small, and had a big piece running around it that did not move. The hole rubbed against the unmoving part of the center.
I quickly made a jig. I took a piece of wood and made an insert into the hole. I turned it around and did a center mark for the tail stock to go into.
When it became time to start, I felt I was ready. I told about what I was after for the project and why I was doing it, showing examples I had. I showed the steps of mounting the wood into the lathe and I turned it on.
I work at maximum speed with my lathe at home, but this was at a third the speed and it looked fast. It started wobbling instantly because it was out of center. The wood came off and I got the lathe turned off almost fast enough. No disaster. the piece spun against the tool rest and did not fall off the lathe. A bit of the tape still stuck. The second chuck, not taped on, came off. someone picked that up for me.

Because I had prepared wood at each step, In case of some form of failure, I used them to show and explain the different stages I work, and explained what I did and why I did it that way. I felt I was a bit disjointed, as I had not practiced what I was going to say and do. I just knew the points I was after.
When I was done, I passed the examples around so they could see what it looked like at the various stages of the process.
There were several things I thought of later I should have said, but forgot at the time. Several people came by and told me I did very well and they learned something. That I never tell people that unless I mean it, I take that as something really meaningful.

I talked to a new turner, he has taken classes but has not assembled his own lathe, about the wood. He did not know that yellow pine can be used because of pressure treating. I told him that I get my wood at Lowes or Home Depot, and that if it is greenish, it is pressure treated, but they do have untreated wood too.

I have no problems talking to someone one on one, and to a few people. I am always in front of the group taking pictures. I found that my mind set changed once I started my presentation. I had taken some acting classes back in the 80s and actually was on stage once. I noticed then, like I noticed now, that even my vision changes before the crowd.
The best way to describe it was that I "stepped back," My vision was more wide angle, less focused. I sort of shifted into automatic. I was not "thinking" on my feet, but instead, reacting, more on instinct.
I can see why some people would panic before crowds. I would rather have been talking to them like I was face to face to them. It is a slight sense of not having maximum control over the situation..
I will say that if I have something to demonstrate, I will do so again. I have to say that I did have fun. One just has to prepare properly in case of mistakes and know what you are doing.

The club gives a gift card for doing the demonstrations. I had a partial gift card in my wallet, along with a gift certificate that the club members get after a certain number of purchases, the store's version of a discount for club members. The certificate was going to expire next weekend.
The store had a chuck on sale. Over the past several years, I had missed other sales on these chucks and they were something I had always wanted. I ended up buying one, at a third the normal cash I would have put out.
The chuck is designed to grab the wood and hold it in place while spinning the wood for you to do the cutting. The chucks come with different jaws, to grab different sized pieces of wood and holding them different ways. Some jaws (Coles Jaw) are designed to hold finished projects as you touch up the bottom, for example. This chuck comes with two jaws. the standard 50 mm and a 25mm jaw for small work. It also has a "Worm Screw" which is a special screw designed to fit into a drilled hole and has special threaded to hold the wood better than a normal screw.
Having a second chuck is of a great advantage. I can have different jaws on them, so I can shift the project to different ways of holding it without having to do a dozen screw operations. One can also have the same jaws on the chucks and leave a piece in the jaws while working on a different project for a moment. This improves accuracy. since nothing changes for the piece still in the jaws.
This was not money I really should have spent, but I had to take advantage of the situation. Now I have it.



Me at the turning club meeting



The chuck I purchased. the box, and laid out.

Saturday:

We started out yard sailing. I got a GAME BOY COLOR with one game and a case, four small cast iron fry pans which I am seasoning now, a coffee grinder, and a little fairy who's position I like for my next fairy carving. I also got a book on making historical navigational devices. I did not spend all that much money for all of it, either. It was more than I should, but not as much as I could have. I kept my hands off several items that I considered getting.



The four fry pans the fairy

I started the morning by unpacking my new chuck, and checking it out, taking a couple pictures. I did not mount it on the lathe until the afternoon when I needed to work on my crochet hooks. It does not close down absolutely to zero, but it does close down enough (without the jaws), to hold all my crochet hooks, some are really tiny, just slightly bigger than the minimum.
I found my tools for tightening and loosening my old chuck are the same, so that is good.
I mounted my crochet hooks and sanded them some more. That helped as many were not in good shape. I also worked the new handles I had made for them and they are better. Some ended up off center, so I re-cut the outside to make them centered. I also changed the profile to make them better on the hands.

Crochet hooks with handles.

My first project I decided to do, after unpacking all the stuff I took with me to the demonstration at the turning club, was to make a pencil cup out of a yellow pine four by four I recently. I like the look of the wood and I have a lot of them. I have a use for about four pencil cups. They are quick and simple to make and look pretty good to me.


Yellow pine Pencil Cup.

I got a lot done but not as much I as could have.

Tomorrow, I will make another pencil cup, possibly hand sand on my crochet hooks, maybe make a couple more hooks using the new chuck. I might also dig out some bass wood. I have several projects. One is to carve another fairy, so I can draw it up and cut out the blank, removing the worst of the spaces and get the basic shape. I also could spend some time and make some shaving flowers. That is a good project to do while just sitting in the shade and cooling off.
I have the partially done pieces I used for my demonstration that I should finish up too.
I have a lot to do, but will have to see what actually comes up.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



Year 10, Week 32, Day Two (week 554)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-22-10 Sunday

88 degrees in the morning, 95 degrees when the sun finally shown under the awning in the late afternoon. High thick pebbles blocking the sun early morning, It got lower and thicker late morning, thinned out with big patches of blue sky and sunshine in the afternoon, but a thick high mountain of thunder towers appeared on the horizon on the other side of the everglades very late. Light breeze picked up to comfortable level in the afternoon. some humidity in the morning but that was gone with the first puffs of wind. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

After petting and feeding the beast, I dragged all my stuff out and got ready to work. it seams like a lot of stuff, drill kit box, dremmel box, carving basket, lathe, tools and stuff on a cart, bits and pieces all laid out.
I selected a piece of 4x4 and measured the middle, and cut it in half. I then mounted it between centers and rounded the piece, and made a tenon on one end. finally, I stuck it into the chuck and after making the outside right, I hollowed it out. I used my bowl gouge to get near depth and give me some space to work.
This is a soft wood I am using my skew chisel to run down the inside, making it straight. I whittle down the thickness of the walls in several passes. Just a little bit of work is required to do the bottom.
I could well have done four in the time I worked for the day, but I wanted to do something different. I put my lathe stuff away and cleaned up. I do make a lot of sawdust.

I dug out a piece of basswood with the idea of making a new fairy. I went inside to my fairies, which are on display in my mother's house, along with some other larger carvings. I pulled on one carving and several fell, right on top of a couple others I spent some time to glue pieces back in place. One of them had the pieces just glued on the base and the glue gave way so I glued them in place. Another of a father holding a fishing pole, lost his shoulder and his other hand. They are now back in place. I still have to stick a butterfly, on a wire, back in place on one carving, but decided not to deal with that right now.

Since I was messing with basswood, I looked at my stock, since the board I had was a bit too narrow. I did not have anything the right size. I would have to do a glue-up and I am not good at that.
I had an idea for a project and found a 3/4 inch board. It would be good enough for the project planned.
I drew along the edge of the board a line in the middle. I then re-sawed (bandsawed) it in half, making two thin boards. I then cut one of the boards into square sticks.
A bit later, I sat down and started making shaving flowers. The way this is done is you taper one end of a stick, which is the base of the flower. You then reach as high as you can with your knife and cut thin slices, stopping above the base and try to keep them attached. I started on the corners, and then as the piece became more rounded, I kept going round and round. One keeps doing this until there is no stick sticking into the flower. That naturally breaks off and one has a dandelion.
The fewer shavings that you accidentally cut off, the better the flower is. It seamed like one side always had some shavings where the knife slipped off before it got to the base.
Once the flower is free, I drill a hole in the base and glue in a skewer to be the stem. I might later color the flowers. I have to be careful. They will straighten out and look more like a cone, if the fibers get wet. I will try spray clear and spray paint to see if I can do it without effecting the shape.

Pencil cup and shaving flowers


My brother finished up two clocks he was scroll sawing. He had assembled it last week and today he added a finish. One of them is going with his wife to visit her sister.
He just started his Christmas ornaments. He selected his boards, cut them, glued them together and applied the patterns he will follow. They will dry for now and he will start cutting them out over the next few months. He does not always have enough time, so he will start on the ornaments that have the date, as they will be useless after this Christmas, and then do the others as time comes available.

For next week, I have a number of projects. I will look at what it would take to do a glue-up of basswood for a fairy. I will likely make some more flowers. I have no end to the projects I can work on. I just have to pick one or two and do them. During the week, I hope to have time to sand on my crochet hooks. I need to get them to where the wood does not catch on the fibers.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Week 459 Woodworking

year 10, Week 27, Day One (week 549)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-17-10 Saturday


94 degrees, hazy blue sky from dust from Africa. The dust crosses the Atlantic. The Bahamas catch the dust destined for Fort Lauderdale, but in the northern part of the county and north, the dust and sand reach the shores and build up high sand dunes along the beach. Fort Lauderdale beaches are flat in comparison to, say, Hillsboro Beach sand dunes, which can be forty or fifty feet tall.
Lots of irregular shaped clouds, high streaks, nice wind, lots of sun. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Monday:

I had put the face vase into linseed oil on Saturday, and the plastic bags I used, leaked. I had put it into one zipper bag and that leaked. I then put one bag into another and refilled it. I walked away and it fell to the floor and spilled. I refilled it and then found both baggies leaked and stuck it into a bucket. I took it out Monday.
Linseed oil smells nice initially, but after a while, it is bothersome.
The face vase has air dried for a week and still smells. They say one should let it air dry for a month. I will start finishing it this week.

Thursday:

The turning club meeting was as good as it has been.
The quality of the work displayed in the club is well above what it was when I first joined in 2004. Once beginners are now skilled and the variety of techniques and styles the people are doing is so vastly improved. Everybody learns from everybody.
The variety of the works on display this month was fantastic. The craftsmanship is impressive. As an example, as good as my face vase was, I felt it was insignificant in comparison. I have to step up my quality.

The demonstration was a Saturn bowl. This bowl resembles Saturn with the sphere, the planet, with a ring around it. The ring can be rotated on the sphere. What the demonstration showed was really simple technique, but by his demonstration, it is but not all that easy. He either parted off the same piece of wood, or found a piece of wood with similar grain to each other. He made the base that would hold the ring, shaping the outside. with the still attached ring. the ring has to have parallel faces and be fairly thin. He hollowed it, and parted the ring from the body of the bowl by cutting a V into the body, through the ring, cutting in from each side. The demonstrator messed up and accidentally cut through the bowl while trying to part the ring so it would turn. He was then to make the matching lid that had a close but not tight fit, and make the sphere even all the way around.
I expect to have disasters worse than that when I do my demonstration next month. It is something to look forward to.

Face vase three views after soaking in linseed oil.


Saturday:

I did some yard-sailing and ended up with a palm pilot with a folding keyboard. I have to figure out how to use it and what it is used for. It does work, though.

The city of Pompano was giving out free trees. It is usually two weekends each year, and is intended to get native trees into the landscaping, fill the city with trees.
This was the first weekend of the give-a-way. One has to show you are a resident of the city to get them. My mom is, but I am not.
Mom got her two trees, a Fox-Tail Palm tree. the frond ends look torn up with this tree. She also got a red maple tree. These are saplings.
I see that my interest in trees have an ulterior motive. It has something to do with woodworking... grow a tree to use later.

I left the oak dress-vase at home so I went to other projects. It turned out to be one of THOSE days.
At the yarn shop, they have metal crochet needles with wood handles on them, essentially dowels, looks like it might be some kind of palm, to make gripping the smaller hooks easier.
I decided to make some handles for the crochet hooks I made last week. My wood hooks are shorter than they are supposed to be because of the stock I grabbed at the moment, so the addition of the handle brings them closer to preferred lengths.

I had a Norfolk Island Pine vase that was way too thick. It was in my "junk" box, which is filled with pieces that are ugly, unfinished, poorly made, basically useless unless "rebuilt."
I had a Norfolk Island Pine vase that had a poor outer shape and the inside did not follow the outside.
I mounted it on the lathe using the double sided tape and reshaped the outside, getting rid of a little bit of wobble. I turned to the inside and immediately had a breakout. When I corrected that, a knot broke out. Once I got that leveled out again, the tape decided not to hold any more and the piece started wobbling. when I started, the inside had little wobble. by the time I got to working the inside to cut it to follow the shape outside, it was wobbling too bad. I stopped.
Since it was not going well, I may use "manual" methods to finish it.

The cat wanted attention and company. I sat and crocheted while he napped at my feet at one point. I had to rip out several lines of the crochet to get rid of a mistake, and then worked a couple lines back on. I then decided to get up and do some more woodworking. My plan was not to bother the cat. The problem was that I forgot about the yarn that was dangling down beside the chair. I had the ball and the fabric in my hand and the dangling yarn slid over the cat. It leaped up in shock, then stood there and looked at me like he was calling me a bigger idiot than cats usually consider people to be.

My clutch is acting up on my truck. It started Friday when I was near home. It was kind of good at first this morning, but got worse when I neared Mom's house.
On the way home, I had to force the truck out of gear at the lights and then struggle to get it back into gear to move. I drove in a lower gear just to avoid having to change gears. I went home, then to my brother's house, relearning how to shift without the clutch, though I always pushed it in. I am not good at it, getting it right about a quarter of the time.
he had me dig out the book and we learned that there is no cable adjustment for the throw of the clutch peddle. the problem is that I need a new clutch.

I went to a birthday party and over-ate and I kept it small and cheap. I got an appetizer sampler and with bits I got from others, it was far more than I normally eat.
I talked to my brother more about the truck, and to family of my niece about all sorts of other things.

I decided during the party that I was going to stay home on Sunday. I will use the time to apply a finish to pieces rather than going to Mom's house and make sawdust.

Next week I will most likely I will be under my truck with my brother to lower the transmission so we can replace the clutch.
I will try to bring the dress vase with me to work on, to finish.

I have lots of projects I really need to work on. I have a fairy blank I need to finish. the hard part is to come up with a surrounding scene that is different than the sister of that blank is in. I had made two blanks of this fairy, on the idea of working on two pieces at a time like my dad was doing at the time. He would keep the best one and try to sell the lesser piece. I started both of these, then realized I did not have the time or gumption to work on two of everything so this blank went into my junk box.
I need to start on my Christmas ornaments. I have several good ideas for this year's ornaments but really need to get to carving them.
I need to, but doubt I can do so, pick up some wood for next month's demonstration on the 19th, and get it all set up with work at different stages of finish. I will try to do one from start to finish during the club meeting, but if I run into problems, I want to have several at successive stages that I can grab and continue to work with. I should practice some between now and then also.
I would like to carve some more pixies, carve another baby dragon, and have some relief carving ideas I would like to do. I should also start another face vase.
This does not count all the different turning projects I would like to do such as the Saturn vase or making a vase to pierce. I have a bowl I want to carve.
Of course, I don't have time for all my projects so most will never actually be made.


I will see what I actually do next week.