Coasters for Holiday Party

As a group our department at work elected to create a basket with a beer theme to auction off at our Holiday Party. Since others could bring beer, I made a bottle opener, seen earlier, this set of coasters and a bottle stopper. These are all from Myrtle wood. First time I tried to make multiple pieces that look the same. In this case just similar. They are all the same diameter, and the inside is within 1/16". Close but not as good as I'd like to learn how to do. To me this is a learning experience, and I did learn while doing these coasters. The holder was fun too, as it is the first time I'd carved away part of the turning. Actually I'd seen the design at a craft bazaar this year. I think his coasters were all thicker, and made from a variety of woods, and more accurately sized. A jig would help there, but I only needed four of these.

The finish on the coasters was a polyurethane that did not seem to dry. They were supposed to be dry in about 4 hours, I had to let them dry overnight, about 20 hours, before I could add a second coat. On the carrier is a spray varathane.

In addition to the coasters, I made this bottle stopper for the basket. Though I would never use on in a bottle of beer, they are quick to turn and make a nice gift.

The finish is a shellac, walnut oil, wax combination that goes on easy a provides a nice look to the wood.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Birdhouse ornaments

I made a couple of birdhouse ornaments this last week, using a spalted wood from my wood pile.  The spalted wood is not real hard anymore buts it still turns nice and has such an interesting grain pattern to it. The tops were made of myrtle wood on one, and wysteria root for the other. The posts that the bird would stand on is not directly under the entrance. I followed a design by Dale Nish and thought it was an interesting departure from what I would have normally done. Both the posts and the finial are made from black walnut. I hope you enjoy them.

While I was at the lathe, I stuck a dowel into a third piece of spalted wood and turned a bottle stopper. I did not hollow it out more than 3/4" into the center, again to make sure that this is not too fragile.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

New Ornament

Here is a new ornament I turned from spalted wood and black walnut. The spalted wood has nice color on it. The stand is one I turned a couple of years back, but I still like it. I may look at creating another stand like it again.

I'm posting this from my phone, just to see how well it works.

Enjoy, and be careful of the typos.

Bottle Openers

I took the day off so I would be here for a furnace maintenance person could tell me why my furnace won't turn on. While waiting, I turned the following 2 bottle opener handles. These are for a kit that Rockler sells. They have a chrome version, as well as the pewter color that I bought. There is an insert into the handle that you screw the opener into. Anyway, one handle in Myrtle wood, the other I don't know. The unknown wood version had a pair of cracked knots that I filled with green epoxy after the initial turning. I then cleaned up the mess on a final pass. While I like the larger size, (big hands) I think the preferred size would be the smaller (green) one. I'll keep one and the other goes into a 'Beer Basket' a group of us are preparing for an action at work.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Lathe Steady

This is a shop tool that I made to help make it easier to turn thin spindles. But it will also help stabilize a bowl or urn when turning the inside by reversing the side it is mounted on. I started this project by buying a pair of used roller blades from a local Goodwill for $10. That gave me 8 wheels to work with. The body of the steady is made from Corian. I laid out the wheels on a piece of paper to start so I could get a feel for their size and the position I needed so they were close together. I was also able to lay out where the mounting hole would go where this attaches to the vertical riser. I laid out and drilled the holes, then cut the Corian to shape. I then rounded all of the corners. After that I mounted the wheels to test the fit and saw that clearance was needed between the wheels, so after removing the wheels I cut a V shape in the center on the bandsaw and rounded those corners also.

The next part was making the support, so I started this with the vertical riser. To position the hole I stood the riser on the lathe and using the tailstock center as a guide marked the first of 2 holes I drilled. I drilled the second hole directly beneath the first and used a file to smooth out the slot this created. Then I took a long base piece and cut a notch on one end so I could glue the riser to the base. Again I smoothed out the cuts with files. I glued the riser and base together with medium viscosity super-glue using a square to make sure I kept the riser straight up. As it was setting, I grabbed a 45 degree scrap I cut from the wheel assembly and also glued that to the riser to provide additional support.

After attaching the wheel assembly to the riser I realized the knob I wanted to use had too short a bolt on it and it would not reach all of the way through 2 pieces of Corian. So I removed the wheels again and drilled a hole large enough to put in the nut and epoxied it in place.

I wandered away for about 4 hours to let the glues dry.

When I got back I assembled the steady and located where I wanted to place a slot on the base support. I marked one spot as if the item I was turning was about 1/8 inch thick. I made a second mark where I would be able to steady a 5 1/2" object. I drew a line between to two marks and headed over to the drill press. I then drilled holes all along this line. After that I took a jig saw and connected all of the holes. It was still rough so using files I smoothed the slot. Since the slot was done I was able to mark an end of the base, which I cut and again rounded off the corners.

In the pictures you can see the parts individually and the assembled unit. I still ran into one final problem. The metal base and 5/16" screw on a handle that I had were not long enough to fit, so I need to get/make a handle for the lathe steady base support with a 2" screw.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Still Halloween.

Just to show you I'm not all wood stuff. I drew the pumpkin freehand, scanned it to the computer and darkened the fill using Paint Shop Pro.

Have fun.

It's Halloween!

So I had to make a pumpkin. Okay, I had no plans and winged it. Not my best effort, but I learned along the way. I found a couple of cedar fence boards in the wood pile and ran them through the thickness sander to knock off the high spots. I laid out a design that I could make using just the two boards. Using pocket screws and glue I attached a set of boards together for both the front and back of the pumpkin. Naturally the boards were so warped that neither set was flat, so I ran them through the sander again to knock off the new high spots. As this pumpkin is layered on the front I needed a decent surface to glue the next layer onto.

Using paper patterns, I cut 3 pieces for the face of the pumpkin and sanded them to almost make them fit. There was no need for perfection or I would lose the 'feel' I was attempting to achieve with this design. These pieces were screwed to the backing group cause the boards were not flat enough to glue. I also routed a lip on the inside of the front and back of the pumpkin to provide a mounting surface for the boards that join them. These first three pictures show it a bit better than I am describing it.

I layed out a design for the face and cut that with a jig say, very carefully. After the face was cut I painted the interior parts of the pumpkin with a black paint as it was easier to do now instead of later. While the paint was drying I cut a bunch of 3 inch long blocks to tie the front to the back. I did not take enough care when assembling the pumpkin so the whole thing has a sideways cant to it that was not on purpose. But air nails and glue kept me from taking it apart and trying again. That frustrated me some, but I got over it.

After assembling the pumpkin I grabbed a small can of orange paint and painted outside of the pumpkin and called it good for the night. 24 hours later the paint did not dry. I grabbed a spray can of orange and gave another pass over the pumpkin trying to only hit the wet spots. At least it seemed to cover the 'wet' paint and made it so I could handle it. By then I was really pissed at my attempt.

About a week later I finally went out to try and finish painting the pumpkin using an airbrush I had. Below you see the results. While not a great project, there were parts that were fun, and I did learn. The pumpkin will go on the front porch this year, but may be firewood later this winter. Not decided yet.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Finished the Last 5 boxes

I was unable to make each box unique, due to time constraints. I did use brass hinges on the boxes as I didn't think I had the time to fuss with making wood hinges. I actually started to put wood hinges on one box but was unable to find a 3/32" drill bit that was 4" long to drill out the center pin of the hinge. So I cut off the tabs and routed slots for each of the hinges. It was faster, but not that simple. I set the router bit deep enough to let the upper hinge leaf stay just barely above the top of the box, so I wouldn't have too much gap between the box and the lid. I was able to use blocks to set the positions of the openings and repeat the cut on all of the boxes. One box is slightly larger than the rest so I had to adjust that one, but only the one.

Three of the lids came off a single piece of myrtle wood that I jointed, then split, jointed again, then thickness sanded down to the right size. That kept all three very similar. The other two lids came from a piece that had already been prepared.

I grabbed a scrap piece of Black walnut for the knobs. After I jointed and thickness sanded the piece, I used the router to create a 1/8" lip, so I could glue the knobs over the front edge of the box. Then I cut the routed portion and some of the main piece off using the bandsaw, then cut that to size and sanded them round. Anyway, you can see them mounted on the box lids.

One thing you don't see is that I put green felt in the bottom of each box. I cut a cereal box down to size so the cardstock would fit into the box without sticking. I cut the felt larger than the cardstock, by about 1/2" all the way around. I sprayed 3M glue on the felt, laid the cardstock on the felt and rubbed it down, cut the corners off the felt so I could fold the excess on each side over to the back. Stuck the felt in the box bottom and I'm done.

I got hugs from all the recipients. Here are the pictures I took.

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Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Boxes 5 of 7

My kitchen is nearly done, so I'm back to making stuff. We have 5 more retirements at the end of the month, and here are the 5 boxes that I am working on. the outside dimension is about 5.5 x 8.5 inches, and 2 inches tall. The sides are Myrtle wood, the bottoms are ply inset into the sides by about 3/16 all of the way around. As you can see each corner is mitered. One shot shows a bag of the clamps that I used.

I cut key slots as shown in the picture for both looks and strength. The keys will be black walnut that I cut to fit the slots. I will cut the keys a tad oversize, glue them into the slots and cut them down flush prior to sanding the outsides.

Each lid will be a little different, and I contemplating building the hinges as part of the lid. More on that as I get one done.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Box 2 of 7

Another retirement tomorrow, so naturally I finished the box with very little time to spare. It currently is sitting open so that it will air out and dry.

The sides are myrtle and mitered together, birdseye maple trims the top of the box, maple is used in the keys I cut in the corners to get it a bit more strength. The lid is a myrtle frame with a piece of spalted maple fill in the center. Inside the lid is a layer of mahogany veneer to hide the sins. The hinge is a piece of birdseye maple that I rounded on the bottom then pinned with a brass rod. Inside I inserted a piece of green felt glued to cardboard. The top only opens vertical.

The lid was too thick in my mind so I made a 10 degree cut of the stiles before I put it all together, so the outside edge was thicker than the inside. After the lid was complete, but before I added the hinge piece, I decided to cut an angle on the outside at 36 degrees. This lightened the box up considerably.

The finish is as thin a layer of BLO I could get on, then a layer of a combination wax and walnut oil to protect it.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Finished Box

Here are the pictures of the latest box I made. The sides and top are Myrtle wood. The legs are cherry, the hinges are from popular. The finish is BLO, then a walnut oil -shellac mix. The hinges have a dark walnut stain them. Inside I attached a piece of felt to cardstock ( cereal box ) with 3M spray adhesive and it is set in place on the bottom. The hinges use a hollow brass tube for the pivot. It was well appreciated by the new owner.

To make the hinges, I hand cut joints and did so badly I tossed them in the fire bucket and went to Rockler and bought a jig and spiral upcut router bits. They worked perfect and gave me the joint I was unable to cut by hand. I hand tooled the top of the hinges using a small bit in my Foredom.

I'm already working on another box for the next office retiree. At the end of September there will be 5 more people retiring. Maybe I shouldn't have started making boxes for people as they retire. Who would have known the office would provide an incentive. The good thing is no-one will get laid off next year. The following year is still up in the air.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A Gift Box

I couldn't find the camera so I grabbed the tablet and took these two pictures to show some progress. The box is 1/2" myrtle wood with cherry corner posts and a myrtle wood top. I think the hinges are from maple, but I'm not sure. Each hinge has a brass tube for the pivot (fulcrum) and is 3/8" thick. As you can see in the second picture, no assembly has been done, nor is there any finish. I'm thinking of darkening the corner posts, to black, and using BLO on the rest of the box letting the color go where it may. The box is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"

Enjoy and be carefully of the splinters.

For anyone that follows this blog, I'm almost done with the kitchen so I will be posting more often.

Kitchen Remudel

I have posted anything new lately, as I'm in the throes of a major Kitchen remodel. Moved one wall 13" and taking the top half out of another. Actually, I finished putting up the stud walls today, both for a short one at 41" and another the full height of the room. But that is only part of the story as I had to move a lot of electrical service outlets. I also pulled the kitchen light switch out and put 2 three-ways in it's place. Part of the cupboards are down, with the remaining set waiting to be emptied. All of the upper cupboards need to come out so I can remove the soffits for the new cupboards, which are taller. Probably need to build a small step to get up to the higher shelves. Thrown out half of what was in a couple of cupboards cause it was old, some as far back as '89. While I know some people would use this stuff anyway, since I'm supposed to eat less, I might as well go for the better flavor. With any luck tomorrow I'll be getting some material to bring the additional floor space up to level, then add sheetrock to the walls. After that I may post a picture anyway. I still need to take the current ceiling texture down (embossed wallpaper) and scrap the popcorn of the roof in the dining and living rooms. At the last meeting of the Cascade Woodturners, Stuart Mortimer from England demonstrated how he turns spirals on the lathe. It was great to see such a gifted turner. While Stuart showed two traditional ways to create to spirals, he also showed the technique that he uses to get the job done quickly. I was indeed impressed. I will be attending the AAW Woodturning symposium next week in San Jose. And I'm looking forward to that. Enjoy, but be careful of the nails. Bill G.

Progress Report

I finally got back to my drawers for my shelving unit. I made the drawers 1 inch smaller than the opening width, but a full 12 inches deep to get the max space. I was unable to buy the full length slides at the store cause neither store had a set the length I needed, though I could have ordered them in. They also cost $16-18 a pair. So I kept looking around and found some medium duty slides at Lowes for less than $5 that were for 16" drawers, but since they were stamped channels and only two bearing each side I took a pair home to try them out. I started off by cutting 4" off the slides and drilling a new hole for the screw near the cut end. They did work, but not perfect. The catch to keep the drawer from coming all the way out limited travel to 6", which meant I only get to open the drawers half way. On the second set I used pliers to flatten the catch and the drawer can open all the way, but at that point it falls out. Neither scenario is good. Full length slides would be better. Another choice is to make my own guides. Later, if I'm feeling rich.

Anyway, here are two pictures, one showing the face, made from the same wood as the sides of the cabinet. The drawer sides are popular and the back is pine, cause that is what I had on hand.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Carved Cat

Finally, a real original design. I carved this cat, which is not painted yet, from my own sketches to give me a tall skinny cat. It is meant to be a folk art type piece and the eyes will be painted in. It is a simple design, but one that I like. I'll post it when I finish painting it so ypou can see the differences.

In addition, last Saturday I created this small box from cedar. I had issues that I expected using a router with cedar, mainly the tearing of wood chunks at the edges of the wood. Other than that, it looks good and I want to try this same box in a hardwood, which I know will hold up much better with the router. I used the video set from youtube for basic instructions and tried to follow his tips and suggestions. With a different wood, I'd like to try adding the border inlay that was shown, but was afraid the ceder would keep tearing due to its soft nature.

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By the way, the box is 3"x3"x3". The rabbits and lid separation was done on the router, the mitered corners were done on the table saw. Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Folk Art Chicken

This is a folk Art Chicken as described in the Carving Magazine in their anniversary issue. The design came from Dave Disselbrett's article, but I made some minor changes to his design. I didn't like the way that the tail was attached as a separate piece, nor it's shape, so I incorporated the tail in the base design here. That is a fun part of carving, nothing is set in stone, unless you are carving stone of course. This chicken is a tad smaller, to fit with the size of the basswood I had. As I recall it is 1 ½ x 2 x 7, I think. I could be wrong there. I did like the separate wings although I could not see the details used in the original carving, which left me open to interpret the design any way I wanted. All in all, this was a fun and quick project, about 2 hours for the carving and 2 hours for the painting. I've yet to spray a finish varnish on the bird cause the final coat of black on the shoes was still wet. Any way, here it is.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Some metal work

I've been taking a metalsmith class at MHC and I attached a project we are working on. It is a 'memory' box, made from a piece of copper that was embossed in a roller mill then shaped in a hydraulic press to form an impression into a piece of plastic that we cut the negative design into. Does that make sense? anyway, we the cut a rim around the depression to form a flange, kinda like a bowl. I then cut a piece of brass to match the shape, laid out the design and cut the internal openings. Once that was done, I cut a 1/8" thick piece of acrylic into the same shape to sandwich between the copper and brass. After tapping the three layers, I drilled holes for the screws and put it all together. The layers did not quite line up, so I cleaned up the overhang with a disk sander so all three pieces match. It actually is a lot more work than what I just said. I put 2 fish-hooks in it to remind me of an earlier time when I would fly fish in the local rivers.

Since I had a thin piece of copper that was very soft, I thought that I would try spinning it to see what would happen, not having any of the proper equipment and no training other than to watch y-tube videos. I turned a form for the finished birdhouse, and a support for the tailstock. Well it didn't work, which was not surprising, but I did get an interesting shape and results. I tried to use an oak dowel to move the metal around the form, but a steel ratchet extension worked much better. You can see where the oak dowel caused it to fold, and I grabbed the steel extension afterwards and got better movement, but the damage was already done. Haven't decided if I should still try and make something from it or not. The curved portion of the metal is hard, while the flatter portions are still soft. An interesting project. Penn State has a kit for setting up a mini-lathe like mine for metal spinning, which I may have to get.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

For the Birds, very small birds

I've added pictures of a birdhouse that I just finished, almost. Actually, there is no finish, which is what I need to do next. The main part of the birdhouse is turned, and hollowed to just below the peg. Since you can't get in it, I wasn't going to get too carried away. The top started as a 3-sided turning, but it was simply too small to see the difference between the sides. That and the spalted wood was soft and hard to get a good finish. So I grabbed the Foredom and carved the top. I tried to give it some character so it has 4-ridges along the roof-line, as you can almost see in the pictures. I also carved underneath the roof, so I added a picture showing that. I attached the roof to the body of the birdhouse with Kwik Wood putty (epoxy) that I picked up from Home Depot. I like this product so far as it was able to fill the gaps where I carved an opening for the roof and hold it in place. I understand that this is often used for setting eyes in carved animals, too.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Foredom Flex Shaft Mount

I got my last Christmas present mounted last night. I was looking at using 1/2" water pipes to make a holder for the Foredom, but by the time I added up the material costs it was cheaper just to buy a stand from Foredom. I took a shot that Harbor Freight might have one, since they often sell tools that are similar to other manufacturers. Didn't find one, but I did find a garden stake for plants that looked like a perfect holder for the flex shaft ($2.30 USD). In the pictures you can see it mounted, with 2 clamps holding the 2x3 to the carving table. Once I decide on the height and position I may just screw the 2x3 into the legs. Until then, it's adjustable.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Dust Collector

Last Saturday I went and visited all of the local wood working stores in the local area to see what they had for dust collectors. On Sunday, I bought a new Steel City dust collector model 62500 from the local Woodcrafters store. The price was good and they had it in stock. I opted to go with a bag filter instead of a canister as a cost saving and for the small size of my shop I thought that it would be sufficient. They spec the bag as 1 micron and 1200 CFM, which is what I need for my current tool set. The ShopSmith DC3000 just didn't cut it after 30 years of use. I have pictures showing the DC connected to my thickness sander and a second shot showing the fittings between the DC and table saw. I picked up a quick disconnect kit at Rockler and added the fittings to all of my 4" ports. I just drag the hose to whatever machine I'm using. The hose will reach up to 21 feet, in theory. At this point it works great as I get no blow-back on any of the tools I've used it with.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

New Cabinet for the Shop

I have finished a new cabinet for the shop. I used particle board scrap for the main box, trimmed with Myrtle wood and sized to fit in the opening of my lathe stand. Pictures show a lot, so I'll try to hit jut the highlights. The drawer sides are popular, the bottoms are 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood. The front of the drawers is Myrtle wood that I cut from a single board into 3 layers, each piece finishing into a 5/8" thick piece. That's how I got the bookmatch effect across the face. I used wood guides and an over-sized bottom to separate the shelves, picture included. The drawer face is rabbited to hide the plywood bottom and I used pocket-hole screws to hold the sides and face together. The finish is BLO (boiled linseed oil). Inside one of the drawers I placed all the different adapters for my Nova chuck, to help get an idea of size, about 13.75" across on the inside. The back of each drawer is a thin piece (about 3/8") of Myrtle wood that I cut to fit and is not attached but sitting in a dado I made to hold the back in place. One picture shows the oversized drawer face, where I kept the sides short anyway, and some of my push blocks I use on my table saw.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.