A New Link

I found a website that was full of videos that shows different wood techniques used by professional woodworkers and artists called WoodTreks. Very good. I highly recommend a visit if you are into any aspect of wood working.

Enjoy.

Cribbage Board

While waiting for the glue to dry on my table top, I made a new cribbage board. I wanted to use an inlay in the top, but I'm still learning how to make the inlay. So I made the board from a piece of walnut from the pile. The walnut was sanded and routed along the edge before drilling. After drilling there was too much tearout around the holes so I ran it through the thickness sander a few more times to clean it up. Its not perfect, but better.


I needed new pegs, and since some that I've made in the past have broke, I wanted to use a brass tip to make them less fragile. I started with 5/32" brass rod that I picked up at True Value for less than $2. I pulled my old Enco metal lathe out and turned the first ½" to slightly smaller than the holes in the cribbage board and narrowed the tips for easy insertion. I left a 1/8" center band full width, then turned the top ½" to just under 1/8", matching the drill I was planning to use.

I pulled out some holly and a piece of Myrtle Wood from the wood stash to make the pegs. These were trimed to 1 inch long, drilled out on the Enco lathe and super-glued onto the brass pieces. Because of how close the space was I was unable to use my collet for the wood lathe so I turned them on the metal lathe, a much, much slower operation. I used wire to burn a design in the Holly but left the Myrtle Wood plain since it is already dark. The finish is super glue and BLO.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

More on the Bench

I did get more work done on the carver's bench this weekend. I was able to slice up the boards to 3" height. I then ran them through the thickness sander to clean up the faces and to let the glue have a better grip on the wood. I then laminated the first half and the next day sent that section through the thickness sander. This gave me a real nice and flat top on at least half the boards. To fit the top on the table I routed insets for the hinges that are ½" deep. I drew the pattern on cardboard, cut the hinge locations out, the laid the pattern on the bottom on the table and traced the pattern onto the wood.



When I routed the opening I made sure to remove the pencil lines with the router as I would rather remove to much, then too little. I used a punch to mark all of the screw hole locations then pre-drilled for the screws. For half a table it looks great. The wood grain will not be the same on the second half, which would have been nice. I may glue the two pieces together here on the table. I haven't decided yet. The second half is ready now, but I was working on a different project while waiting.

The carving bench

Here is the carving bench, the legs made from Myrtle wood, and the top will be of pine. The 2x10s will be cut to the 32" length you see standing on the floor, then I will slice them to 3" widths. After that I will joint and surface them, and glue them together in batches. I'm going for a 24" wide top, by 32" (or thereabouts) and 3" thick. This I'll mount to the hinges and add a vice on one end.

I haven't worked out a plan to hold it upright at an angle yet. I've seen a couple of methods, but I didn't want to get to far ahead of myself.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A Turned Birdhouse

This is an ornament size birdhouse, about 4 inches tall. I turned the outside shape, then picked a forstner bit to fit, leaving about ¹⁄₈ for the sidewalls. I then used a scrapper to round out the bottom and make it a little lighter. I used the instructions from the latest Wood Turning magazine that is currently in the stores. This birdhouse is from Myrtle Wood, a piece that was starting to spalt for the body, and a piece full of worm holes for the top. The post was a ³⁄₈ dowel I turned down for this project. I think I got the opening and post hole too high, but that becomes more of a aesthetic as opposed to function. It did work, and not too many problems. BLO is on the outside, although it is real hard to get it into the many worm holes.

It wasn't really that hard of a project to do, and I enjoyed the process. I think on the next roof I'll use a piece without the worm holes, or maybe a contrasting wood for color. I also need to sharpen my tools.


Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

An Ornament Stand

While the topic isn't exciting, I got to try a couple of new things on the lathe. I started with the instructions from David Reed Smith. First off was turning an offset disk for the stand base, then I deviated from the plan and turn part of the post and carved the curved portion by hand. I think it came out pretty good for a first time. The web-site has a lot of other ideas I may try, so it is a good place to bookmark. Anyway, I used Myrtle wood through-out. I made this one 14 inches tall, which now looks a bit high for most of my projects, but I have had a couple that would need a stand this tall. Also, if you want to sell these, don't hand carve the post, follow David's article for a quicker finish.



The last two images have a BLO finish on them, while the first one is still unfinished wood.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A Small House

I did this little caving last Saturday between activities. It started as a 2x2x3" block, and I used instructions from the last woodcarving magazine. It was different than what I usually carve, so I wanted to give it a shot. Not that only doing Santa and Caricatures get boring, but I needed a change of pace. It's not painted yet, (that's 3 with no paint) but worth the show.


Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.