Ornaments

Hi y'all. I have been moving wood from one storage place to the old shop. That and I turned an ornament last week for fun. Took me a while. Barb liked it though and asked if I could turn about 20 more. Here are 2 pictures of the first 10 globes. As you can see they are about 3" by 1" tall. I hollowed them out to make them lighter, and as typical, the last one is much lighter then the first one. In fact it was only taking about ½ hour each when I finished the last of these. Imagine how I'll be doing after another 40.

On the side view shot, the 2 nearest the camera show the side I hollowed them out and the back side which I only guessed at. I'd eyeball using a square and 'that looks like an inch,' so I drilled that deep and use that as my guide. One globe I put a reverse on the bottom and just caught the edge of the hollow. I'll need to fix it. Also note, these were all cut from the same piece of wood.


Tomorrow I'll turn some black walnut finials for the top and bottom. With any luck I'll get another picture so you can see the progression.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

The Palm Pen

Sounds like another phone knock-off. Well this palm is often used for texting and sometimes as a pointer. It's one of the first batch of pens I turned in the shop.

It's been almost a year since I've been able to turn, or make anything. This one is made from a palm tree and its actually the second one. The first palm blank blew the sides out 'cause I put to much pressure on the drill when drilling the hole. You can see where the sides ruptured on the block holding up the pen. The fibers tore easily as I turned it, so I started coating the blank with super-glue, turn off a layer, add another layer of glue down and so on until I got the pen in shape. Needless to say, the finish is super-glue followed by BLO in rapid succession, then another layer of super-glue and BLO. After letting that dry I did a final sanding of 8000 - 12000 grit paper and put on a layer of walnut paste wax.

I turned 5 pens, the palm, which I may keep a while, and 4 others, 2 of which I have already given away. It nice to get back into the shop.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Been a week

I'm skipping the personal stuff. I've moved a lot more stuff/tools into the shop this week and I've been cleaning out the old shop. Went ahead and got a rolling cabinet from Sears. It's the cheap one, but it will get some of the tools and supplies into drawers for now. Also went to the Woodworking show this weekend. One of the local tool retailers, Barbo Machinery, was there selling tools, including the General International line out of Canada. They had a cabinet saw there at the show that I liked real well. Smooth running gears, nice size (not to big), plenty of power (2HP), rifing knife as well as a splitter with the blade guard. The model is the 50-220R, and a big point is that Barbo Machinery does support the products here locally and carry parts. While they do sell the same saw with a granite top for about $200 less, the rep wasn't sold on them yet. They add weight, but they also stain and chip.

The bad news is that I need to wait 2-3 weeks for one to get here. General International is putting a distribution center in the USA this next year, so in the future that will speed things up.

I also get wheels under the table and a sliding miter gauge as free accessories. I'll try and write a review when I get it set up.

I also decided it was time to pick up a pair of the 'Gr ripper' hold-down tools and keep my fingers away from the fast moving parts.

Tons to look at. Lots of stuff being pushed, but as a hobbyist it is hard to justify owning it all, or finding a place to put it. Next I'm looking for a thickness sander.

All together I spent about 6 hours at the show, did go to a few seminars, but after buying the saw and picking up the Grripper tools, decided I'd better stop spending money this year.

Yes I had a good time, lots of stuff I wanted but left alone.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

Movin' In

I've been moving tools and supplies into the new shop all weekend. So I've included a few pictures to show how it is coming. First is one of me hanging a French Cleat along the south wall of the shop. As you see later this is where I'll put all of the shelves that I've made over the years. The second shot actually is me after another hand-full of screws.

The final 3 shots is how it looked when I quit Sunday night. I've moved most of the tools in already, still need to move my Radial Arm Saw and a wheeled air filtration unit that I made (3 filters and a furnace fan). There are still some loose tools (like specialty drills) I need to move, but I need some drawers to put them into. The wire rack on wheels is new, from Costco, and it can be one tall rack or 2 short racks, but only one gets the wheels.


I still haven't moved the Sheetrock and plywood laying in the middle of the floor. I had to put a longer power cord (was 3' now a little over 6') on the heater today, but at it's lowest setting it was keeping the room at a balmy 62 degrees. The mount for the heater is the only new thing I made today, hanging with a French Cleat, of course.

I have more to clean and re-arrange in the old shop, including tearing down the wall between the garages.