More Pens

There was a request for a set of pens to give as gifts, so I'm showing here the six pens I made.

I think the top one is bloodwood, and number 4 & 5 are Myrtle wood. The rest is all a guess.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Santa Set

I've been carving some Santas that are meant as gifts for friends. These are about 6" tall, basswood with wood burnt beards and hair for texture. There is a fourth Santa in the picture that was carved for me.

 Here you see them, each with a different design, but the same basic shape and face. My next step is to paint them, along with a couple of other Santas I started last year but did not finish.

The woodburner I used is the soldering iron type and the best tip available was the soldering iron tip. So I took a piece of copper wire the flattened it with a hammer. Once it was thin enough to fit in the knife cutter adapter, I shaped the end to facilitate texturing the beards and hair. While it did work the temperature did not stay hot enough to do as nice a job as I would like. Copper also gets soft when heated so maintaining a good edge was difficult.

In addition I turned a globe from WP and carved a bead design around the shape. Then I wood burnt the holly leaves and berries on the globe and it to is ready for painting.

Enjoy, and be careful of the cold.

Can I have it Tomorrow?

I just got a request on Monday to create a round ornament for the artist son of my wife's boss.  My wife needed to deliver it on Wendsday, so I had one hour Monday night and two hours onTuesday. I hate rush jobs since I don't get paid anyway.

The wood had a WP on it in crayon, so I'm thinking it might be white pine? It turned easily, but I did have some minor tearout, which sanded out easily. The globe is 3" diameter, and I think the finalies. are Myrtle wood. I used no finish on it. I hollowed it out through a 3/4" hole in the end to about 3/16" thick.

Enjoy, and be careful of the Holidays.

Keeping it Warm

Now that Fall has hit and the temperatue has dropped off, the heater has failed. It was a 4000 watt 240 V heater that I rarely turned on high enough to pass the bottom 10% of its range. It was used and free to me, so I wasn't out much. I checked on line and that model is no longer available. What failed was the power switch, which I could not remove, nor did I expect to find a replacement as it included a separate circuit for the heater.

I picked up the following heater as the replacement from HD, same brand, but a newer model.

It seems to be working fine, and no rewiring the plug as the outlet let 20 or 30 amp plugs work.

Note that I mounted the brackets at a slight angle to keep the heat bouncing around the room instead of straight across and back.

Enjoy, and keep your fingers warm

Sandpaper Shelves

Here are pictures of a sandpaper storage unit I made in an effort to get the shop more organized. The first shot shows the base box. The sides are 3/4" MDF with 1/2" plywood for the top and bottom. The slots are 3/8" deep and cut in 2 passes to make them so a hardboard will slide in them.

Total height is 18", 13.5" across. I added a piece of 1/4" ply for the back. After that I cut several hardboard boards for shelves and hung it using a French cleat.

Here it loaded and hung. I'm still debating about adding a door.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Cleaning Up

IIt's been a while since I moved into the shop and it was time to clean and rearrange. There were things I didn't like and some of these made it less user friendly.

I started the day by pulling out any item that sat on the floor, including all of the anti-fatigue mats. Then I took apart the table I had placed behind the table saw. Another place I gained space was removing all of the buckets of scrap destined for the fireplace.

I then moved the table saw so the front right corner was in the center of the room. At the end I placed the jointer, while moving the router table to square off that edge. I decided to place the thickness sander behind the table saw as it is probably the easiest tool to move when necessary.

The picture shows where other items have landed, including the carving bench in front of one window and my work bench in front of the other. I brought all of the mats back in and I ended up with a path around the machines.

I'm still putting things away, and figuring out what I need for better storage.

Some stuff hasn't moved, but that is mostly the stored wood. I also moved my heater to hit the path and not at the tables themselves.

I need to clean the work bench and make some proper storage underneath it.

So, for now, enjoy and watch out for the spiders.

Indexing a turned object

For my current project, I needed to accurately mark positions on a turned item. I had an indexing wheel, but had not yet made a way to lock it in position. I took the wheels off my center support, and using the same vertical riser I made a bar from corian to run the pin through. On the backside you can see where I drilled a hole to epoxy a nut. Yes, I had already drilled through for the bolt. The pin was 1/8" diameter so I drilled a hole for that after the epoxy dried. This allows me to adjust to the appropriate ring of indexes when marking my turned object.

Currently I am making a small table to mount and be able to slide a pencil on its side. Again I will use corian for stability. The table will have a post that I can mount on the slide ( 5/8" ) with a table that is offset to one side. Right now I am waiting for the glue to dry cause I needed to glue 2 pieces of corian together to get the size I needed, as corian is only 1/2" thick.

Here is the project I am working on.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Small Box

This box was for me. I use Breath Right strips and have never liked the cardboard boxes in my bathroom cabinet. Besides being too light to stay put, they were just ugly. Here is a box I made from spalted maple I had in the shop. I squared up the wood and cut 3/16" off the bottom, then cut out the center of the remainder on my scroll saw. The scroll saw did not like the thicker maple for this job, but with patience it worked. I used a file to clean up the inside cuts and assembled the box with wood glue. The outside was sanded only to 180 grit, then finished with a walnut oil and shellac combination.

This box is about 2.5" tall.  No I never pulled out a ruler to do this project.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

The latest box

Here is the last box that I completed, again as a gift to a retiree.

I added felt to the bottom. The box is Myrtle wood with juniper accents.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

A long wait

Sorry it has been too long since I have posted any work here. Seems like this year I am gone more than I am here. But then again, there are no paid subscribers to this blog. The latest project I have finished are a pair of boxes to be given away as gifts for 2 additional retirees at work. I also took some shots of the beginning of a third box.

All of the boxes are made from Myrtle Wood and the first two are about 5" x 8".

Here is the wood I will use on the third box. Again it is 3/8" Myrtle Wood and I'll use 1/4" ply for the bottom. This box has been joined at the four corners with miters, but I am still working on the lid. The size of this box is 8" x 9", but still only about 3" tall.

I have only 3 days to finish the last box, so I won't write much here tonight.

Enjoy and I'll try to post more soon, but be careful of the splinters

New Turned Project

It seems like forever since I made anything to post on this blog. Actually I've started running to lose weight 4 nights a week and it has taken a month to not feel completely drained when I get done. Anyway I have here a shot at a bowl I turn from an African Mahogany. The shot with the ruler shows the bowls size and how it looked with no sanding. The second shot is sanded and I've turn a small rabbit in the top. I then took a piece of maple and I turned a matching lip to fit the bowl top. I haven't hollowed the center out yet but I'm carving a wavy edge as seen by the lines drawn along the edge of the maple. Once that is done I will remove then center of the maple and mount it onto the mahogany bowl. Then it will get one final turning to clean up the fit on the inside of the bowl. Somewhere along the line I will turn the bowl bottom too.
Wonderful, another day that Chrome doesn't let me load pictures. The iframe pops up but there are no buttons.

I'll save this version as a draft and try a couple of other browsers. Hey, it worked in IE 10. What a switch, usually IE is the worst offender.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Cascade Wood Turners Mtg

Tonight was the Cascade woodturners mtg. The demo was performed by John Beaver where he showed the method he uses to turn his wave bowls, that you can see on his website using the link to his name. It was a very cool technique and he made a couple of special jigs to create the bowls. While some of it was easily achievable, it took some thought to create the jig that he uses in the process. These are techniques that I would like to try later for my own stuff.

Visit his site and enjoy the gallery, but be careful of the splinters.

The Grape Vine

A neighbor of mine trimmed his grape vines down to try and produce some better grapes. I don't think he had done it in years. He gave me some of the trimmings and after 2 years I tried to see what I could make from them. Very few branches were straight enough to get to get 6 inches without a knot,a bend, or a branching. I did find places where there looked to be enough wood for a bottle stopper, so I cut a few pieces from the pile and headed into the shop. I cut enough out to try and turn 2 pens and 3 bottle stoppers, even though I had no idea if they would turn at all and what the wood looked like. I got real lucky, it appears, on the first pen. The picture below shows how the wood looks after working through the moss and bark on the outside, to a very decorative and interesting wood.

After completing this pen, I had high hopes for the rest. As it turns out, the grape was full of cracks, wormholes and a soft core that seemed to reflect a central core, although it was hard to tell as it did not run very straight. Here is a picture of a second pen and 3 bottle stoppers I turned and then added colored epoxy in all of the cracks and holes I found. After a second turning, all four pieces when back to the bench for a refill of epoxy. you can see the epoxy I used, as well as the paint I used to color the epoxy. I only used a single drop as that seemed to be sufficient and I did not want to weaken the epoxy too much.

I'm now waiting for the third batch of epoxy to set before I finish turning the pen and bottle stopper. Maybe I'll dig through the pile and look for another chunk for a pen.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Goofing around

I had a small piece of myrtle wood in a chuck so I turned a small bell shape, which I turned into a small 'critter'. This was all done in fun for me. But Myrtle wood is hard to carve, so I used a rotary tool to get the shapes I wanted. I also tried wood burning on it, which actually worked quite well. A touch of paint, even some extra paint that I didn't see until I blew up the photographs. You can see from the carved area around the legs that the shape was a tad thin. The shaped area is the result of cracking when I tried to reverse mount the shape on the lathe so I could turn the top. All of the carving and wood burning was done at my bench, most of the time with a magnifying viewer. The legs are from bass wood scraps. Other than the paint around the eyes and feet, there is no finish on this piece, yet.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Retirement Box Revisited

I posted a picture this morning of a box that I made for a man I worked with for 19 years. Here are some pictures I took of the box prior to adding the finish. The primary wood is Myrtle, with a spalted maple top, the hinges are Cherry, the handle I think is Bloodwood, the sides of the drawer is Ceder. I included a ruler on one shot so you can better gauge how tall the box is. Along the corners are also pieces of Bloodwood, which I used for contrast. While the Bloodwood is currently a red/orange color, I understand it will turn brown with exposure to sunlight. All the rest of the wood is fairly stable, as far as color goes.

This is the most challenging box that I have made, and I am glad I pushed myself to get to this stage. The next retiree won't be so lucky.

I lathered BLO on the spalted Maple prior to assembly to allow it to absorb as much as it could before I assembled the box initially. I put 2-3 coats each day for 3 days, and it was still soaking the BLO up. The box bottom (above the drawer) is myrtle wood that I sanded down to about 1/8" thick. Planning Myrtle wood can be hazardous as it has a tendency to tear, so I always finish the last 1/8-1/16" with a drum sander. I also wetted the outside surface of the Myrtle wood with water, then finished sanded it to 240 grit. The inside I sanded only to 150 grit.

Here are some additional pictures taken last night before I wrapped it up.

This final set of pictures is with a finish called Doctor's Workshop, that is a combination of Walnut Oil, Carnauba Wax and Shellac. I brushed it on and wiped off the excess.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Another retirement

I've taken a set of pictures for this project, but was waiting until after delivery to post them. Delivery is today, so here is the box.

Flower pot revisited

Glued the two halves together last night. Not as good a fit this time. I should have used a jig to make sure all of the staves were the same size. Now that I relooked at them, at least one stave is visibly a different size.

This new pot will be about 4 inches tall when I'm done. I still haven't tried to re-load the picture, maybe this weekend.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Another pot

Of the stave pot, I glued it together yesterday and tonight sanded the top flat. I tried turning a lip in the bottom so I could insert a bottom piece, but the cedar is soooo soft that it tore more than turned on the end grain. At his point I knew I would not try to turn it round. I turned a bottom to fit and glued it in. 80 grit sandpaper really helped get a decent glue surface. I then later went out to the shop and grabbed the scrap from the first project and set up a jig to cut another set of 8 staves. Here you see these pieces glued as two halves, rubber banded together while it dries. Then I'll sand them to fit and glue them together. Since it is tall, and too small at the base, I will probably whack off the bottom 1/3 of this before I try cutting a base.

Bummer. The picture link software is not working tonight. Probably the java update messed it up. I'll have to post the picture later.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Tapered Staves

I've always wanted to turn a flower pot, so today I cut some cedar fencing into some tapered staves. I went for 8 staves and made them relatively small so I was sure I could handle them on the lathe. The angle of the miter gauge was supposed to be 4.85° and the table saw blade at 21.89°. Like I was going to hit those numbers. I went with 5° for the miter and 22° for the table saw. I set it so the base of each piece was 1.5". The boards were all cut to 6" in length. I butted 3 joints together and used painters tape to hold them together, added lots of glue and used tape to hold 4 sections. After the two semicircles were together I added rubber bands to act a clamps. A close look at the top will show that the two halves do not meet perfectly as expected, but they are closer than I thought it would be.

After the glue dries I will sand each half flat and join them together. Once dry I will throw it on the lathe and turn a fitting for the bottom. But the shape is already kinda cool, so I may not end up turning this one at all. I'll run it by the chief gardener.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Bracelet Setup

I said I would post how I setup for turning bracelets, so I grabbed a bunch of pictures tonight to post them. I started with a shot of the multi-tooth spur drive I use for the initial turning. I have two spur drives and this one is the larger size. Both came from the Woodcraft store. I then take the block of wood, and these are about 2.5" thick and about 3" square (more or less). I use the yellow plastic gizmo to locate the center by drawing a center line from each corner. Rarely do they actually meet, but they get close enough that I can use an awl and punch a center point. Using the center points as a guide I then mount the block between the centers regardless of the two facing surfaces being flat.

Once the wood is clamped securely, I run the lathe at a speed I feel comfortable with, in this case about 1800 RPM. Using a roughing gouge I bring the block into a round shape. I then use a parting tool to reduce the diameter at the end away from the drive spur to create a surface and a shoulder to grab the block with in one of my adjustable chucks, as shown. At this point I am ready to begin turning the block into whatever I want, and most recently that has been bracelets. Later on I'll include more pictures of those as well as finish the process here. The length of the tenon is about 1/4".

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Bangles

I took a break from working on the new router cabinet, and created a set of bangles, or bracelets from myrtle wood. There was one not pictured that I used to gauge the size I needed. It had about a 2.35-2.4" inside diameter, which turned out to be slightly small. I had 4 differently ladies try it on, and it did fit 2 of them. Anyway I gave it to one of those two and went back to the shop to create some more, with a slightly larger inside diameter. Here are three more each at 2.5+". It does not take much of a size change to get them to fit. The outside diameter is about 3", meaning each band is about 1/4" thick. The bracelets are 1/2" tall and are sealed in a walnut oil-shellac mix.

I started each bracelet with a 2" thick piece of wood that was glued to a waste block. I turned and separated the bracelets and from the leftover center I was able to create this small bowl. The rim is actually larger than the center of the bracelets as that was part of the original wood block leftover after separation.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.