Another Birdhouse

This is a collection of pictures I took while turning the second birdhouse. The pictures show it all. Note that I took these with my Acer tablet and wrote this while I was waiting for the drill to cool off.

With any luck the pictures stayed in the order I took them. The software I used is called Blogger and was written for the Android tablet. No preview to see how it would look, also no editing of the pictures and all of the writing is with my thumbs.

I had to move into the house to get close enough to the wifi to post this article.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Note that the pictures did not come in the requested order, I went in and re-arranged them.

Turned Bird House

Here is a quick project that was fun. Again, as with the pens below, this is a project to raise money for our Holiday Party in December. The body of the bird house is Myrtle Wood and the roof is spalted maple (I think). The perch is walnut and the red bird I carved from basswood and colored with water colors. Yes, the house is hollow out and the walls are about 1/8" thick. No reason to get too crazy here. The bird is attached with super-glue. The finish is a walnut oil & shellac mix.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Getting Ready for Our Summer Auction

Every year at work we raise money for our Holiday Party with an auction of donated items. Here are two corian pens and a Cedar Bottle Stopper I turned. The first pen was from a piece of corian that I thought was to bland to be very viable. As a pen, it looks pretty good. As a counter, just not enough color for me. The second pen is from a small piece of blue corian that I thought was pretty good looking, and it is. I think I would like to try the blue again using a black tip and center band. That means I would have to turn those too, which doubles the time and work. The fit and finish on these pens are good, so with a replacement ink cartridge I would sell either for $45.


The last item on today's posting is a simple bottle stopper I made from ceder and put a walnut oil/shellac finish on it. Cedar turns quick and sanding is more of a concern due to the softness of the wood. The two colors are because the piece is off the edge of the log, giving it a lot more character.


Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Pen Box

Well, I did decide to try and make a small box for the pen. The first picture shows the box, cut with 10 degree angles. I cut the channel of both the top and bottom as one piece using the table saw, many passes across the saw, then hand sanded to remove the resulting grooves. It's about 7 inches long. The main body is Myrtle Wood and the ends I think are from Yew. Whenever I cut or sand it it smells bad, more like 'ewww'. Still, it looks nice though yet unfinished. I hand-made a single hinge for the box also from Yew thinking that it would be strong enough for these pieces. The hinge pin did not drill exactly centered. When I opened the box you can see how the lid cants to one side. Not good.

I removed the hinge from the box, (no it wasn't easy) and put supports to lock the lid in place on both ends. These I cut on the scroll saw and sanded them to fit. I made a handle from Yew for the top and it has become a lift-box. I sanded a little from the ends of the lid to allow the lid to slide on a little better. On shot shows the pen set into foam that I had available. The finish is BLO and a layer of Watco wax. It looks nice.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Duck Pen

It has been a while since I posted. But visiting Maui does get you side-tracked. Here is a pen I made for a student graduating from the University of Oregon. The nib, center-band and top were turned from a black piece of acrylic to match the ribbon in the block I picked up from Woodcraft. Of course I had a few issues but the pen looks good and the fit is great. All three pieces I added fit perfect. I replaced the ink cartridge with a Cross brand so it will write better.



Still need to decide if I should make a box for it, or pick one up at either Woodcraft or the Rockler store.

I found a mouse to use as a prop for the pen, no significance, just handy.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.