Woodworking - 45

This like an on-line diary. I write my activities in my hobby of wood working, bragging about my accomplishments, crying about my failures, and mentioning what else is going on in my life.
In spite of the fact of my regular postings, anybody can post here, on any subject, at any time. Join in the fun and let us know what you are doing.

year 10, Week 1, Day One (week 523)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-16-10 Saturday

This weekend is the anniversary of my starting woodworking. I started January 17th 2000, which on that year, was a Saturday. This year it is Sunday. I go by the nearest weekend. Dad was trying to get me into carving a couple years earlier, but at the time, I was not interested. One day, it dawned on me that he was in his 80s. I decided I did not want any of those “I wish I had said, I wish I had done,” kind of things, so I borrowed one of his knives and a piece of wood and carved a little man. The brim of his hat was supposed to go all the way around, but it kept breaking until it was an off center baseball style bill.
When dad started carving, he had problems getting deep into the wood. He was afraid to do something wrong so he would not cut in deep. Keeping that in mind, I dug into the wood, trying to be bold in the wood I removed. I am still impressed with that first carving I did.
Now in October 2003, I got a lathe and that changed a lot of what I was doing in my woodworking. My dad thought that all one could do was spindle turning, such as baseball bats and chair legs. My bowl turning impressed him, even though I did not really know that at the time.
I am still following his legacy, and following different paths. I am not, and never will be, as good a carver as he was. What I have done is so much different than what he did, my own style, my own subject matter, my own direction. I am constantly thanking him for giving me the opportunity to learn this skill.
I must say that he had a great way to teach me how to carve. I would carve something. He would then “pat me on the head and tell me to keep carving.” For my personality, that was the best way to teach me to carve.

It finally got into the 80s, at 81 degrees. During the early week, though, we got a lot of cold weather. So cold that the Politicians were seen with their hands in their own pockets. Getting warm weather was really nice. I opened my doors and windows for the first time yesterday to air out, and left them open all day today to air the place out even more.
There was a strong breeze coming off the Ocean. The cloud movement was interesting. the lowest clouds came off the ocean, heading west. the middle clouds were heading east, and the high clouds headed north.
In the morning, the clouds were heavy, with a little broken blue sky, but later it was mostly blue sky with high feathers and thin, low, cotton puffs dancing across the sky.
this weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department of Tourism.

The day started with a quick yard sale stop. I picked up a Dremmel. I never tried it when I was there, but when I got home, I had to do a very small repair. The lock pin was jammed in place. I drilled the lock pin and use the thread of a screw to slowly twist the lock pin out. The lock pin is still way to stiff to be useable. I stuck the flex shaft on and used it most of the day. It has one problem where the flex shaft moves inside the shaft, to where it disengages. I will look at it, but it might be as simple a repair as to stick a loose dowel inside the space of the chuck so the core of the shaft does not go inside the chuck.

I worked a bit on the flower vase. I made the stems stand out slightly, and then drew on leaves four times and erased them three times. I have to erase them again and try one more time.

Another project was to work on the handle of a beer stein. I cut the relief for the lid, and cut a groove through the top of the handle for the hinge. I also cleaned up the handle quite a bit. It now just needs finer and finer grits of sand paper. I mostly need to make the hinge system for the lid. I made one piece but don't think it is quite right. I need something more elaborate, possibly even turn a decorative cap for the lid. I will decide more tomorrow.

I filled some sea urchin shells with insulating foam. One of my projects was to disassemble and clean out the "straw" of the foam can. I learned that the cleanup of the straw is easier than I thought it was. I have a drill bit that fits inside and draws out the dried foam inside. I will clean out the straw again tomorrow so I can start fresh.
To keep the foam from breaking the shells, I stuck a skewer into center of the shell, spun it, and then pulled out a little bit of foam in the center so the foam had some place to go. I did somehow break a small piece off one shell. Have no idea where the piece went. I will figure out something to do to decorate that spot.

Beggar was his irritated self in the morning, but he started acting like a cat in the afternoon. I was packing up and he came out and settled between my feet and likely would have stayed there for a couple hours, but I had to be going so I interrupted his lounging. the big problem is that is more like what I want him to be. he only gets that way after his noon time nap.

tomorrow, I will work on the same projects, trying to get something actually done.

Will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 1, Day Two (week 523)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-17-10 Sunday

78 degrees, fast moving clouds on a blue background in the morning. Clouds building up to rain at around eleven thirty as a front passed over us. I packed up before I left. It is supposed to plummet to 51 degrees this afternoon, again below the 56 degree frost temperatures. If the water on the streets don't evaporate in time, I could be slipping and sliding on ice on the way to work. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Mom is out of town. Yesterday, when I arrived, her front door was slightly open. My brother came later in the day and did a fix, which seamed to work. There was an angle going into the hole of the jam, giving the bolt something substantial to hit. We cut it off, moving the hole slightly forward.
I arrived today and the door was ajar again. I dug out my tools and moved the catch plate forward. It did not hold the door. I built it out by placing washers behind the plate. Still would not hold. Examining the problem since my solutions were not working, I figured out that the bolt was not going into the hole. I moved the strike plate down a little and now the door locks in nicely.
My brother pointed out later that the door, being made of many separate parts, sagged which was why it was missing the hole.

Beggar actually acted like a cat today. I am not sure what got into him. while my brother was here, Beggar actually let me pet him completely for quite a few minutes.

I dug out the sea urchin shells I added foam to. One had collapsed. I think what happened was that the foam over expanded, breaking the shell, then it withdrew a little There still might be a way to use the shell. Will have to see. It would not be the first to toss.

I looked over my beer stein, removed a piece of wood I planned on using as my hinge. A bit later, I glued it back on again, deciding that my alternate plan would not work.

I decided I would do some wood turning. I wanted to make some platters. I had two I had started, ran into some minor problem, and set them to the side.
I mounted the first one on, and it was not quite square. It had a wobble. I trued it up and found I lost the edge because the wobble was more than the thickness of the edge I had. I tossed that one. I took the second one and started turning again. I did the work I needed on one side, and needed to turn the piece around.
I am using double sided tape to hold it in place. I gave the platter a rap to knock it off the wood face plate I was using. The tenon of the face plate broke instead.
I began to feel a few dribbles, so I put everything away and cleaned up.

I dug out my ornament blanks and sat comfortably and carved a wise owl. I intended to do more, but my brother showed up so I stopped. I have to do the eyes, and decorate it, and it will be done.

I solved the problem with the flex shaft of the Dremmel I picked up yesterday. the flex shaft stopped turning many times. it dawned on me that the shaft inside the housing slid inside the chuck so it would not engage the hand held chuck. I solved the problem by sticking a skewer inside the chuck. The Interior shaft cannot go very deep inside the chuck so it stays engaged on the other end.

I did not do anywhere near what I hoped for this weekend. I hoped to have something done to show for the turning club meeting this week. Instead, I ended up with nothing complete.
I have loads of projects to work on and not enough time to finish them by the end of March. I need to become efficient and get things done.

Will see what I do next week.

year 10, Week 2, Day One (week 524)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-23-10 Saturday

76 degrees, unbroken clouds in the morning (reminds me of Seattle except warm), a light drizzle of liquid sunshine for about an hour, a bit of blue sky showed in the distance. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department of Tourism.

Wood turning club was Thursday. The demonstration was showing how one guy purchased jigs and gauges for sharpening turning tools on the grinder. then another borrowed the tools and made copies out of wood that work just as well. Looks simple and logical abut something is usually lost in the translation.
I took pictures of everything on display and drooled the entire time. Even some of the beginning people are doing well.
They had a wood raffle, where one buys tickets, and then after the meeting, we gather by a wood pile. They call out a ticket number and that person gets first choice of the wood. they go until they run out of tickets or wood. I purchased six tickets and got ten pieces of wood. One four foot long piece of orange tree, one six inch long piece of Norfolk, and the rest were Live Oak (called that because it never loses all the leaves in the winter so it looks alive compared to other trees).

Had one of those days where everything got in the way. We stopped at a couple yard sales, then the neighbor was having a yard sale so I helped mom get some stuff over there, plus I brought over a few other things that I got out of my house.

Beggar could not decide whether to be a cat or a Grinch. He caught me twice, lightly, with his claws. A bit later, he was happy to snuggle between my feet.

We went to a model railroad swap meet. I did spend a little money, but it was almost nothing. We left after we both ran out of drool.

I did get some woodworking done. When you purchase a chuck for your lathe, they give you a special screw. They have different names for it, but the head is designed to be held in the chuck, and the screw has thin, but aggressive threads to it. It is designed to be able to hold wood in the chuck, yet be easily removed. this is a easy-off version of the screw plate you can purchase. I decided to give that a try.
I drilled a hole about the size of the shaft, and twisted the screw into place. The wood I was using was the green oak I got from the club. I put the screw in, then mounted it in the chuck, and used the tail stock to stabilize it. Of course, I found out after I was working, that I had the wood slightly off center.
I mounted the wood cross way to make more saddle bowls for ducklings. I turned two of them, the second one was better. Experience helps. Neither one is finished as both have a post of wood in the center that the tail stock used to support the piece as I was hollowing it out.
With pieces this small, the hole of the screw is bothersome.

I have plenty of projects to do. The problem is what projects will get priority. I have several duckling attempts made. I might clean them up and make them useable. I also have the flower vase to make and have a lot of time to apply to that. I have carved ornaments I have blanks for that need to be carved. I have other projects half started that need to be finished.

I will see what I actually will do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 3, Day One (week 525)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-31-10 Sunday

Saturday: 80 degrees, good breeze, mostly cloudy. No humidity made it so it did not feel like 80s. Light front passed over during the night.
Sunday: 72 degrees, breezy, heavy cloud cover. Temps started to drop at about three. Won't drop past 60 degrees. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism. Our stores and entertainment is open for you and your money.

Saturday,
No wood working at all. We went yard sailing!!! Mom is a master navigator. I picked up a good drill and we got several trays of parts and pieces for a couple bucks. I got some wire we need for the model railroad.
At a church rummage sale, I got some books. We went to a condo yard sale, a condo with hundreds of apartments, we got some kitchen stuff. We then went back to the church sale and got a whole bunch of books a few other things. I spent about twenty-five bucks total!!

One thing I got at the church rummage sale was two Christmas displays. One is a little Bavarian band. They are off their mount. The other was an unopened wooden Christmas tree with little hooks and tiny figurines to hang on the hooks. I got all of these for decoration. the idea is to if I have a piece I break, I can make it into a little amphitheater or use these pieces in my own ornaments. One time, I had carved my own little people for such a project, but it turned out to be too big a project for the time I have to work. I sold the little people individually.


Sunday.
I got some woodworking done. Nothing finished, but made some good headway.

I petted Beggar several times. He actually acted like a moody cat, rather than a grinch. He tolerated my brother being there, but because my brother did not sit still, there were several times where Beggar would leap up and be gone for a while. He is very skittish around strangers.

I got to Mom's house early, and was setting up when My brother also arrived early. It took me a bit to get set up to actually work. My brother sharpened his drill bits using the DRILL DOCTOR 400. He found that the drill bits, all by the same manufacturer, required adjustments on the "advance" of the twist compared to the setting that the Drill doctor suggests. He said that this was one thing that has taken him a long time to figure out. He was fighting his drill bits all the time until he figured this out. the more expensive units likely adjust for this, but this unit does not.

I dug out a couple drills and One was having problems. My brother opened it up, re-did the wire and put it back together. He used it for a while and finally we figured out that the switch was what the problem was, not the wire as I thought it was. A yard sale special from many years ago.

I searched Mom's garden for appropriate leaves I wanted to add to my flower vase. I carried the vase with me and quickly figured out that leaves had to be very small. I gathered half a dozen different leaves, sat down with the vase and examined what would have the right effect. I forgot what plant I took the selected leaf off. I traced around it, placing only two leaves on each side of each stem. Once I had leaves I was satisfied with, I started grinding wood away.
I set the background back a little around each leaf, then I shaped the leaves slightly, creating a vein down the center of each. I could have sat and ground a whole lot more, but I was satisfied with my progress.
I should concentrate on getting the blossoms exactly the way I want them. they will set the highest point on the surface, everything else is to be set back in relief. I have a whole lot of wood to remove to get the final thickness I am after for the background. I may do some serious undercutting of the flower, stem and leaves when I am done.
I have a good half inch to cut into and I can do expansive relief carving in that space. Consider how thin a dime is, and how effective their relief carving is.

I searched out a piece of cherry I had cut for a project and chose not to use. It was glued to another board for a rocket powered race car, one who's design I changed to a more solid design.
I band sawed right down the joint, separating them. I then took the small piece of wood and drew, about five times, a duckling head on it before I felt I was ready to cut it out. I wanted a bigger head, but could not get the size and proportions correct.
What I ended up with is about the same size as the other heads I made last week, but this one is wider. I need to re-shape it more, basically make the head itself round, while it is sort of flat on the top. I have more of the wood and if I get it right, I will make more heads with that wood.
I took one of the duckling bodies I made, a bit bigger, out of Sea grape, and started carving the feet. When I made the bowl, I had a saucer around the base. I have removed the saucer from the side and back of the bowl so the feet stick out, out front. I have a lot of work to do, but got a good start on that bowl too. It needs a lot of finishing that mere sandpaper is not going to solve.

Playing around, I did not get as much done as I should have. I did have a good time working and made headway.
Next week, I have loads of projects to work on but nothing will get completed. They will get another step closer, though.
I will be visiting the antique shop where I have my work on display, and see how things are gong. I get to visit a thrift shop on the way down there and will likely end up with more books, not that I need any more.

I will see what I actually accomplish next week.

year 10, Week 4, Day One (week 526)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-06-10 Saturday

78 degrees. fairly clear skies at dawn, some heavy cloud cover mid morning, then blue skies with lots of puffs in the afternoon. Stiff breeze and plenty of sun shine most of the day. it is supposed to get below freezing, at around 50 degrees tonight and tomorrow night. I have to move to a warmer climate. This weather report is brought to you by the Fort Lauderdale Department Of tourism.

I checked in on my stuff at the antique shop. He has not sold any of my stuff. They have been in there a year. So far, he has purchased a few of my cheep items, two saucers and a pear, to make something of his complete. Even so, it is on display. That is good enough.
Next month, I will be bringing my stuff home so I can refinish the pieces that are below my finishing skills.

We went yard sailing again. I ended up with some books, some kitchen stuff, and a bag of plumbing and electrical stuff for my brother.
Mom and emptied the canvas bag that had the plumbing and electrical stuff, and we sorted through it, separating them out in quart zipper bags. We figure there must have been a good hundred dollars worth of stuff in the bag. we took out the screws and fender washers, and still there was loads of stuff in there.
One thing I did was to keep a few fittings to use for ferules for some tools. They are about the right size.

I did get to do some woodworking after lunch. I needed to change the thumb piece on the beer stein. I needed more wood for the hinge itself. I did something stupid. I tried to pry off the piece I glued on, rather than cutting it off and sanding off the remains. It broke off. I then tried cutting that little piece off, and the saw found it so it was unusable. I cut the gap square, then cut a piece of wood to fit in there and glued it in place. Since it is where the thumb lever is going, it won't be a problem. It sticks out from the edge of the lid, so I will have to cut it to size and do some surface sanding. Luckily, it won't matter if it is seen.

I also applied myself to the duckling bowls. They have a saucer like piece around the base to be the feet. I chose which part of the bowl would be the front, and cut the saucer off the back. I then shaped that to match the shape of the bowl. None of them are perfect. They will come out good anyway. I have a lot of work to do on them, inside and out.

While I did not get too much done, I did get something done. That is one step closer to being finished.

Last month, I had taken everything out of my spare bedroom where I have a permanent model railroad layout. All the boxes got stacked in front of my finished woodworking. I have filtered through a good number of the boxes and most of it turned out to be papers to toss out. I can now access my finished woodworking. I now need to take those pieces out to sand and refinish to the level I can now do it. I still have more stuff to sort through and put away, so I am not sure when I will actually get to work on finishes. It has to be soon as I have a whole lot of pieces that need to be improved. I also have new pieces coming up that will need loads of work.

I want to finish adding the lid on the beer stein, which I might be able to do tomorrow. I also have to glue on the lid. Then I can work on the finish of that piece.
I need to do some strip sanding and dremmel grinding on the duckling bowls and finish up the duck heads I made. I need to work on the flower vase, digging in deep to make the flowers and leaves to stand out.
I have decided to hold off some projects until after the art show, but there are some that really needs to be done.
I do need to make some finials for the sea urchin shells. I also need to make a few platters. Whether I will actually have time to make them and get them finished, will be something else. The platters will have to be carved which will take even more time.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 4, Day Two (week 526)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-07-10 Sunday

Below 60 degrees strong wind with stronger gusts with wispy puffs, against a blue sky, in the morning. 64 degrees with a weaker wind, great sunshine in the afternoon.
What a difference from the beginning of the winter. When the cold first arrived, we were walking around, bundled in coats, at 70 degrees. Today, I was working outside for a while, noting that it was sharp, but quite tolerable, when I saw the temperature at 58 degrees. that was one shocking surprise. When I was ready to carve, I sat out in the open, soaking in the sun, the wind slightly blocked to make the weather warmth stick with me more. Of course, on the way home, I cranked up the heat in my truck and had the hot air blowing on me all the way home.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

Mom had a yard sale this morning. I arrived early and went out back to get to work. After dragging out my equipment, fully planning to carve all day, The urge to turn wood came over me and I had a project that would need to be carved anyway.
I dragged out the lathe, after petting the cat twice, and mounted a platter I had started a while back. I had a few mis-steps on centering it, but got it figured out and got it pretty much right. I used some thin double sided tape to attach it to the wooden face plate that was held in the chuck. I also used, at times, double sided tape for the wooden face plate I used to hold the plate in place.
The design of my system is to have one face plate act as a template for cutting out the rim of the base. That rim is then just big enough to fit around the other face plate, automatically centering it.
I made a little mistake on this piece. I forgot about the matching size of the inset of the base. I made it bigger than it was supposed to be. Centering it was out of the question the way I planned. I then got a great idea. Since it was still centered by the face plate held in the chuck. I added double sided tape to the tail stock face plate, centered it and applied pressure with the tail stock. I spun it to make sure it was centered. I then was able to turn the piece around, pry off the opposite face plate and hollow out the inside of the plate. I will have to remember that technique.

After I made the platter and cleaned up, I brought an electrical cord out by the shed at the back of the lot. I got a chair, and something to act like a table. I printed a flyer for the art show and cut the light house out. I then glued it to the platter. I traced the line with a Dremmel bit called an engraver. It has a super tiny cutting bit. I got the impression of the light house of the flyer. I cut back the background slightly, around the drawing. It shows a little better what it is going to be, but I will have a whole lot more work to do on it to make this work. I could have worked more, but chose to work on something else.

I attacked the flower vase. Now that I have a good idea where the flowers and leaves are I dug in deep, sending the backgrounds farther back, and sending some leaves farther into the background so they go under others. This made a big difference in how the vase looks.
I admitted to my Mom that I had no idea how I was doing it, but somehow, it was appearing out of the wood.

I glued the handle onto the beer stein. I still have to attach the lid. My Sister-in-law saw it and said "I want a set." Yah, right. I can barely make one, let alone a whole bunch of them.

My brother came and he was excited about the stuff we picked up at the yard sales. He was drooling. A whole bunch of the stuff was stuff he was about to buy or would soon be buying.
Mom had gotten him a hundred foot long roll of solder and he had me make a spool so we could have some for my model railroad layout. I took a two by two, rounded the center to about an inch in diameter, and we simply wound the solder on it while it was on the lathe. we tried using the motor to wind it on, but the solder had some weak spots and broke, so we started the end again and I wound it by hand. Got a good length of the solder. That is known as quick and dirty tool making.

For today, I had the best woodworking day in many months. I am proud of my accomplishments. if every woodworking day was as good as this one, I would be in heaven.

Next week, I will be working on more of the same projects. the problem is that we will be going to a Renaissance fair on Saturday. I do not know if I will be able to go to it twice this year. I will have to see. We usually have no time to do anything else after the fair.
I expect any production I do, will be on Sunday.

Will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 5, Day One (week 527)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-13-10 Sunday

Saturday:
45 degrees in the morning, got up to 64 in the afternoon, heavy breezes. A front shot through last night with really strong winds and a shockwave of rain. Everything was dry by morning, though the wind sucked the heat right out of a person. Even people from up north were bundled up and shivering. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of tourism.

I did no woodworking, but instead went to the Renaissance fair. This fair will continue until March 14th. I have no idea if I can go back there again.
I learned years ago, that if I tell about my woodworking, the people give me that "Oh, sure you do," type of look. To solve that, I started carrying my woodworking with me to show off, to prove I know what I am talking about.
This time I brought with me a male and female pixy, a hatching rabbit, an owl, and a few other finished pieces. I also brought with me my partially carved flower vase.
I got some comments at how good the flower vase was. That was nice.

I purchased a couple prints, ate well and had a good time. I walked around the fair grounds twice, taking four hours, checking in on vendors all the way around. Many of them remember me and are happy to see me. There were new vendors there to meet, some old ones missing.
The only time I really sat down was to eat dinner and the rest of the time I was on my feet. The Orthotics I got last year really helped. I have not been exercising, walking as much as I should have been, but I sure did well on my feet.

We did go to a couple yard sales in the morning. I got a box with some corner clamps and a saw. Mom picked up and gave me a slow cooker. I also got a gold leafing kit. I came out pretty good. Not only that, I DID NOT pick up a plush lion cub that had caught my eye....
I had learned a little bit about gold leafing back in the 80s and know of some opportunities to do some more leafing.


Sunday:
40 degrees in the Morning. 56 degrees when I got to Mom's house and it got up to 62 degrees when I went inside. Blue sky with a little bit of cloud here and there, light breeze. This Weather Report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I petted that thing we call a cat. He actually acted like a cat today, I petted him quite a bit and he swatted at me only once, no claws extended. Moments later, I was petting him again. he really is doing well.

I set up at the shed at the back of the yard, where I could sit in the sun. Of course, I pulled out the long extension cord as I was using a drill and dremmel.

On the platter I made last week, I needed to set the light house carving up above the surrounding surface. What I did was to grind the wood down around the light house. I then feathered the wood, sloping it back up to the original surface a good distance away. Later in the day, My brother mentioned about how I made it stick out. It works. I have to do some heavy sanding on the surfaces to remove plenty of tool marks. I should do that before I really get into carving as I may add some scenery stuff there or some lettering. I have to reprint my picture so I can get the design right. The light house is a frame style structure and I am thinking I want the cross braces to be raised. I will be cutting the background a bit deep. I will need the picture to make sure it is right.

I then turned my attention to my flower vase. I worked on the background in a few places, and then worked on the flowers. It is finally feeling like it will work.
One of the fun things I did was to add more movement in the leaves, sending some behind others and behind the stem. There was one. where I had not formed the end that went under the stem, so I roughed in the shape on the background, then went by a bit later and ground that off, so I had to re-form it again so the background around it is even deeper. That is all right, It adds more depth to it. Everybody I showed it to was impressed with what I have.

Next week, I really need to get production out of both days, not just one day, and only half of that.
I intend to work on the flower vase and the light house platter.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 6, Day One (week 528)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-20-10 Saturday

56 degrees early morning, 64 degrees when I arrived at Mom's house, and 73 degrees when I left at around three. the sky was mostly high jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing. It was mostly sunny all day long. I had sat in the sun for a while when I first set up to work, but quickly decided it was not needed, and more than warm enough to not have to be in the sun.

Thursday was the Turning club meeting. It was another demonstration on adding inlay to our work. this time was on applying it to the sides of a work, rather than on the top. It is done a little at a time. they showed several ways of turning the stones you get, into pieces small enough to inlay. they basically use metal pipes with caps.
I picked up a tap. This is a device to add threads into holes. This tap is one known as a 1"x8 tap. It is for a one inch hole with eight threads to the inch, which is standard for the lathe mounts. With this tap, I can drill a hole into a piece of wood, and mount it directly on the lathe, without having to use a metal face plate and screws, or a chuck. One can make wooden face plates or attach whole chunks of raw wood directly onto the lathe.

Saturday:
I got all my junk laid out, I spent most of my day working on the flower vase. I dug out the sanding drum for the dremmel and smoothed things out.
I was shown the kind of flower I am doing. I now cannot find the E-mail to tell what the name of it is. I had a good look at the pictures and now know what I am doing. It is nice where one designs something, then finds there is something real to resemble it.
I am at the point where I wish I could wave my hand over the piece and it be done. I have a lot more to do.

I did a little bit of work on the light house platter I am doing. the big thing I did was to use a pencil to mark where the support members of the light house is located. I have to cut the spaces between the members.

I want to do some new projects, but need to concentrate on projects already started. I have that tap I want to try out. I also have some Christmas ornament blanks I need to finish up

I will see what I will do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 6, Day Two (week 528)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-21-10 Sunday

72 degrees when I arrived at Mom's house, and it got up to 80 degrees. A cloud bank zipped by and the temps dropped down to 78 and stayed there. The sky was mostly blue sky, with high ripples, plates, feathers and ripples. Other than the cloud bank that zipped by, it was sunny all day long. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Yesterday I had done some yard sailing. I picked up a wire rack, a FAR SIDE book, and a sweater.
On the way home, I stopped at Home Depot and picked up some Boiled Linseed oil which is a finish, some acetone, a thinner, and a drill chuck for my battery powered drill. The chuck on my Harbor Freight drill had died, jammed up. This gets that drill back to operating again.

I told Mom today that someone must of swapped beggar out again. today he was actually acting like a cat. I wished I could have spent a whole lot more time with him. He did get a whole lot of attention.

I got to work. Yesterday, when working with the pin that holds the lid of the beer stein on and able to swing up, I broke a piece out. Today, I re-drilled the hole, twice, to get it where it works. I then filled the old holes in and a broken spot on the top. Two of my fillers had become solid so I had to toss them. One was the right color I needed. I cut the tube open and got a bit of useable filler, since I really only needed a pinch.
I have to work out the exact system I will use for the hinge pin. The wire can work only if I can hide the ends. I won't pin the lid on permanently until I get the finish on.

I looked at the three apples I have, and decided that I needed some bananas for a fruit bowl. I still have to make some pears to complete the minimum fruit plate.
The bananas are made from a Whitewood 2x4. I got two within the four inch width of the board. I made four bananas, approximately 7 inches long. Note that Bananas are not round. They are actually faceted, with some rounding on the faces. I was surprised to learn that they have five sides. My wooden bananas are generally eight sides, though six tends to be better. I was lazy, so these are eight. I used the band saw to get the basic shape (good to trace around a real banana for the first ones) the disk sander to do the angles.

I did not do too much with the flower vase, mostly looked it over and figured out what I need to do next. I need to start under cutting the flowers and leaves. Get just enough to make them really stand out I will then need to make the background look the even depth, and get it to a fine finish. Once I get everything sanded to a good polish, I will then cut in the veins of the leaves.
I have decided that after the art show, I will daylight the background, leaving just the flowers themselves as the vase. For now, I will leave the vase solid.

I sat with my brother and carved some wise owl ornaments. I have to do the eyes on them, then I can paint them and finish them. I have some touch ups on them but they are close to be done.
I also carved on some of the swan blanks I have. when I cut them out, I have some pieces of wood that was not sliced off the blank by the band saw. I sat and cut off the excess wood, but did no more carving of the wood.

I did a tiny bit of hand sanding on the light house platter, but not much. I need stronger sand paper and likely some good power to smooth out the rough background, and I have some grinding to correct some errors, before I start actually carving the light house.

Next weekend, I need to concentrate on projects I have started. I also need to cut down on some projects in my home, and start re-finishing many of my completed pieces. Some of them rally need to be sanded down to bare wood, and then refinish. I can do better than I did in the past, and have to spend time on it. while I am looking at them, I will consider what pieces should be carved to make them interesting.

Will see what I actually do next weekend.

year 10, Week 7, Day One (week 529)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-27-10 Saturday

49 degrees when I woke at four, 60 degrees when I got outside to work at eight, 72 degrees as a high by noon. High ripples and blue sky early morning, and they thickened as the day went on, followed by heavier lower clouds in the afternoon. A light mist happened around lunch time when I was packing up. showered from a front arrived at about three, after I had gotten home.
Cold again, in the high 40s, tonight again. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The beast acted like a tame cat today, well as tame as he is ever going to be. He faked nipping me when he did not like what I was doing, but let me continue doing it anyway. I gave him a lot of time, but not as much time as he really wanted. he was in the mood where I should have just sat and read while petting him. Instead, I needed to do some work.

I put my hands on some boxes of stuff that I need to go through for the upcoming art show. one bag had a platter in it, so I set that out to take with me today, without even looking in it. The platter was really the only thing I needed. I was out to see what all I had.
The platter was as bad as I expected it to be. When I made it, I was lazy and did not sand the platter well, not going through the proper sanding grits. It was full of scratches from course sand paper.
I sat and sanded on it, knocking down a lot of the scratches on the bottom. I have a whole lot more corrective work to do just where I did my sanding before I apply myself to bringing it up to a good finish. I still have the center of the back, and then the whole inside of the platter. I will use it for my fruit plate.

Since it was cool, I decided to do some wood turning first. I am on my feet, moving around so I am less likely to get cold. I cut a piece if oak I got from the club and mounted it in the lathe. I turned two small pears with it. They are smaller than I liked so I then hunted for another piece of wood.
I had planned on shaping multiple pears, then parting them off, but instead I made the two pears, one at a time, remounting the wood on the lathe after I had removed the pear. oak has a great look, with rays and veins all on display.

I cut, then rejected a piece of orange a couple times. This piece was rippled, not round. There was a shrinkage crack in it. I took it back to the band saw that I cut the piece off with, and cut the ripples off length wise so I would not have to turn that wood off the piece. One has to be careful when cutting a log length wise in the band saw. If the log is round, it will want to roll. There was some problems with the shape of this piece, and because this is really hard wood, the blade talked to me a bit about how hard it was. I cut the worst of the pleats off the trunk.
I then mounted it on the lathe between centers and round the entire piece. While I was doing this, I let the gouge slip off the end of the tool rest, it caught on the wood and thwacked the end of my little finger. Very slight purpleness, a very slight more puffy than the other little finger, and a bit more tender. Not bad otherwise. Little moments of distraction like that can result in some serious injuries.
Citrus is hard wood. I should have sharpened my bowl gouge but did not. The wood came off the gouge, following the flute of the gouge, and was hitting the top of my index finger painfully. Also bigger chunks came off and hit my finger when I was first removing the remaining corners from the cuts. Quite bothersome. I changed how I was using the gouge, scraping rather than cutting and that solved that problem.
I made a tenon on one end and then mounted it in the chuck. that made working with the wood a whole lot easier.

I started rounding the end of the wood. I quickly determined that this first piece of the orange wood, wanted to be an apple. I made the apple, sanding it while it was still on the lathe. I then parted it off.
I then made a pear the same way I made the apple. Because of the crack in the wood. I cleaned up the crack which I later filled with wood filler with close to the right color.

One of the first things I did with the pears and apples, was to drill for the stem and blossom. I will carve a stem out of scrap wood, and use a clove, popping the bulb, for the blossom on the bottom of the fruit. I needed the holes to attach them to the wooden fruit.
I then did some clean up on the fruit with the disk sander and the dremmel.
With the apple, the two ends are set below the top and above the bottom of the fruit. I had cut in for the top of the apple, but it still had a nub that the tail stock held it in place with. The bottom was rough cut straight across. I used the dremmel to clean up and shape the top and bottom so they look a bit more real.
The pear ends are not set in so I just cleaned up the ends on the disk sander.

I took my four bananas to the disk sander. I had eight sides to the bananas. I decided six would look better. That meant that I needed to change the angle of the top and bottom shoulders to eliminate the side. I have some touch ups on these. I will use the strip sander to clean them up and then will have some hand sanding to do to bring the bananas up to a finished level.

I have several colors of filler. Of course, I never have the exact color. Last week, I tossed out a filler color I really needed because it went hard on me, dried out. I took walnut colored filler and filled in some nail holes and bad spots on some cedar apples I made previously. I had used "natural" filler to fill the cracks in the apple and pear made from the Orange trunk. I had done some sanding, but had to add more filler to fill in where I had left some gaps caused by not shoving enough filler into the crack.

I did a little bit of hand sanding on the flower vase, but no one would ever notice it. I had intended to do some carving, but when I packed up for lunch, putting everything away just in case of rain I never went back out to work.

Tomorrow I plan to do some carving and also some sanding. If I apply myself, I can get a lot of work done. I don't need to do any new projects.

Will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 7, Day Two (week 529)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-28-10 Sunday

46 degrees this morning before sunrise, 56 when I arrived at Mom's house at nine, 68 degrees as the high. Pure blue sky all day long, horizon to horizon, from dawn to dusk. breeze from the north cooled things down a little in the morning but ignorable completely later in the day. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I think someone swapped the backyard beast for a cat. I hope they like what they got. Beggar was, for him, a sweet little kitty and soaked up all the attention I gave him. When I did something he did not like, he simply gnashed his teeth at me, slowly, and I took the message. Otherwise, he accepted whatever I did to him.

We went to a yard sale that a guy was setting up. He was 82 years old and going back home to Argentina to retire. All he had to sell was tools and parts. We picked up a bunch of stuff from him at a really good price. A bit later, I helped him set up, moving stuff out. I left with a bunch more stuff. Later in the evening, I took my brother with me and we came home with even more stuff.
My brother and I sorted all the tools and stuff we got. In the process, I ended up emptying the back of the cub cab of my truck, going through all the tools for the truck I had, then putting all the stuff back in. I ended up with finding a bunch of stuff I had lost or forgot about. I re-packed the back of the truck but have more stuff to take out of the truck Monday.

On the wood working front, I did not get anywhere near as much as I hoped I would do. I actually wanted to sit out in the sun and sleep, but chose not to.

I advanced on the light house plate. It is fighting me tooth and nail. I am considering removing every sign of the carving and painting the lighthouse on. I have time to make that choice so I will continue carving it to see if I can save it. I hate projects like that.

I also worked on the flower vase, undercutting the leaves and getting closer to undercut the stems. the flowers is where I really need to concentrate, to make them look right, as they are the hardest part. I went around the vase about twice, working on various points that needed it, but have a lot to do. I sort of got tired and frustrated on that project.

I took the strip sander and sanded on the bananas. I cleaned up the six sides I have, that was once eight. They look better. Now they need to be sanded to a fine finish. Once I have a good finish on them, I will add the black marks of a real banana that is not green, and that will make them look real.
I also hand sanded a tiny bit, not much, on the apples and pears. I still have a lot of work to do to bring them up to a finished level. I see that the apple and pear made of orange wood is going to be tough. It is a really hard wood that resists my clean up of tool marks.

I sanded a lot more on the platter I started sanding yesterday. I still have a long ways to go. The worst part is that I have a good number of pieces that need the same kind of sanding. It is strictly time consuming and labor intensive.

The better your work is when you take it off the machine, the less effort it will take to bring it to a presentable level. I had always been sloppy and even now, my work is not good. I depend heavily on hand work to finish a piece. It is a habit I need to get out of. Part of the problem is that I am working outside. Also I only work on weekends. I cannot let a piece sit on the lathe or on the bench for my next session. Everything has to be put away so they don't get damaged by the weather.
My work time is limited so getting pieces made is more important than getting them finished. Because of this, I have to spend time with sand paper, and other tools, at a later date to make a piece right.

I spent more time playing with our yard sale purchases than wood working. Some of the tools will help my wood working later.

During this week, I have two quick projects to finish, then I will start my sanding and varnishing my collected work. I will pick out what pieces are well designed and well executed and see what needs the most work of them, and work my way up until I get everything a step higher in quality than they are. this week will be the start and I will go up to time to pack for the art show.

Next Friday, I will be going to the antique shop to see how my stuff had done there, and to collect them for the art show. I will be checking over the finish of all those pieces and upgrading them if needed. I know I can do better than I have, so I just need to do it.

Next week, I must get farther along on the light house carving, and get the flower vase closer to being finished. I would like to be able to spend several weeks sanding and finishing it so it will be worthy of the effort I am adding to it.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 9, Day One (week 531)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-13-10 Saturday

I almost had my ark built when the rain stopped yesterday. We got about two inches of rain in some places from the front that passed over us this week. There were even tornado warnings at a few times during the day yesterday.
69 degrees early morning, 74 degrees as the high. Fast moving low grey clouds with high pebbles early morning, blue sky with a few wispy puffs in the afternoon, Sunlight from late morning to evening. A steady breeze blew hard all day. this weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

We went to two rummage sales and two yard sales this morning. One is a higher class kind of sale we have been to many times called Auntie's Attic. Other than getting three servings of popcorn, and a little postal scale, I got out of there cheap.
The other rummage sale was in our neighborhood and I saw two things I gave a lot of thought about, but left without them. One I know was a dollar and the other might have been about that price too.
We went to two yard sales. I picked up a metal protractor with a long blade sticking out for the pointer, and at the other yard sale, I picked up a torque wrench.
My lathe has a nut beneath the head that is part of the locking system. It is best if it is set to a specific torque. I have not had access to a torque wrench so I have had to guess on the setting. If it is set tight, the head cannot be locked down, resists the tightening wrench. If too loose, it slides. I now have a wrench to set the torque. I now have to dig out my sockets and find one that fits and put it to use.

I got outside at a good time. Beggar was acting exactly like a cat. There were a few times where he would snap his head around to tell me to stop. I held my hand in place, he would look away and let me do what I was doing. An example was that when he gets onto his side, he never allowed us to pet his side. I started stroking him, from his cheek, down his neck and to his side. He gave my hand a sharp look, then let me do that for quite a while. He was hungry for attention today. I still have to watch him carefully, but he is becoming a cat.

I started out by cleaning the baby dragon carving, removing as much paint as would come off. I then spray painted it white. I am going to repaint it one more time. I will likely go with a simpler paint scheme so I can make it look good.

I took a sea urchin shell that was dirty and painted it white. I then took two finials and made them fit the shell and glued them in place. To make it stronger, one finial goes right through the shell into a hole in the lower one. the upper one is just a little above the shell with the eye hook.
I had one shell where I added the foam to fill it, and the foam broke the shell. I took some filler and worked that into the bottom, shaping it to be fairly even, roughed up the surface with a tooth brush, and then spray painted that white. this one will also need a final that goes all the way through. I will work with that one tomorrow, I think.

I worked with my flower vase. I decided there is no way I can finish the vase the way I want it in the time I have left, so I went with plan "B" where I will accept it as it is, and finish it up after the art show. It is pretty good. When I made the vase in the base, I had left in a little line before the vase flared out. I used some 80 grit sand paper to remove it so there is no sign that was ever there.

I worked on the light house vase. I filled in some holes where I made a mistake, and then corrected the top of the light house so it looks right. I fixed up the support structure a little. It is not right, but will be passable. I then lettered the message on the plate, using a really tiny engraving bit in the dremmel. My lettering could be a whole lot better, but that will do. I will use a fine tip stabillo to darken the lines of the letters and call that part done. I will touch the light house with color to make it stand out, and also do some background color while I am at it. I think the platter will be nice when done. I could have simply painted the platter but wanted to carve it to make it something else. it is not what I had hoped it to be, but it will impress people anyway. I might write who it is from on the bottom. will think about that.

I filtered through my bags of stuff that I carry with me everywhere, and sorted out the stuff that I will never work with until after the art show.
I now have the projects that will take the most of my attention until the art show. There is a limited amount of items so I can make sure I get them done.

I took out my wise owls and finished them up. I used the dremmel to make the eyes, which are big circles, and then used a stabillo to add the dark details like filling in the groove around the eye, adding the pupal of the eye, and made the miter black. I still have to sign them, and varnish them to make them complete.
I still have several swan blanks that I need to carve. I do not know if I will get them done, but kept them out just in case.

I have not decided whether I will take my finished stuff with me tomorrow. If I do, I will set them all out in the sunshine and examine them carefully as to what condition they are in. I might add tags as to what needs to be done.
Another project is to photograph all the pieces, then make a sheet with pictures of all the pieces, and their prices. that can, of course, be done during the week.
Another project I really should do tomorrow, is to pull out all my big carvings and examine them to see what needs to be done to them to get them ready for display.
If I bring my work, I can set up a table, three foot by eight foot, and see what room I have to fit on the table. Even if I don't have my small stuff, It will be a good view of what I am working with.

Thursday is my turning club meeting so I want the flower vase and the platter done, and might have the fruit plate done also. I plan to sand on the fruit tomorrow.

I have loads of plans as to what I want to do tomorrow. I will have to see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 9, Day Two (week 531)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-14-10 Sunday

60s early morning, 78 degrees as a high, well spaced puffs of clouds separated by a light haze. It was mostly sunny, though I did see the sun dim a few times during the day. A good brisk breeze kept the trees waving and the clouds moving. During this week, we will have temps in the 70s as the highs, but low 50s or high 40s over night. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Beggar is still acting like a cat. he was no interested in heavy attention today, like he was yesterday. He would get enough and then leave to sleep.

It took a bit to get everything laid out. Since I had the torque wrench I got from yesterday, I dug out my sockets to set the nut holding the head of the lathe. I also had to dig out the instructions to the lathe to find out what the setting was. I set the book down, then picked it up again and everything was in Spanish. it took me a long moment to realize that they printed the booklet in two languages, and the other is turned around, starting from the back of the other.
I had to go out to the truck and get my sockets. Of course they were buried. I pulled most of the stuff out, got the tool boxes out, and decided to pack things differently. the tool boxes are next to the door now, and my drill and dremmel are on top of them. The box of turning books and all the other stuff are packed back out of the way.
I see a number of things I can pull out of there and never notice they were gone. I tend to gather things I had a use for, once, in decades of owning a vehicle, even if I never need them ever again. I struggle to get them out of there because of the "just in case" situation.
I took the tool box with the sockets to the back. I am not sure if the torque wrench is good or not. I tightened the nut and it seams to lock the way it is supposed to, though it might actually be tighter than it should be. Of course, since the nut was beneath the motor, I turned it the wrong way at first.

I cut a piece of orange tree wood and then sliced it up. orange, like most fruit trees, are very hard and strong. I cut pieces of the orange to become stems for my wooden apples and pears. With a couple the previous stems broke. I used my knife to carve the wood to a stem shape.
I sanded some on the fruit, but have to do more to make them finished.

I sanded quite a bit on the light house platter. I used a detail sander to remove some tool marks. It could use a whole lot more, but time is a problem.
I used a fine tip pen to darken the lines of the lettering. the end of the pen came out and that ended that project. My replacement pen was almost dry and had a shorter nib. I will work on that during the week. The darkening of the lines can hide some little errors in carving the letters into the wood where the bit wandered a bi.

I dug out all my large carvings. I examined them for damage or work they needed. I have one where I need to remove some paint that smeared when I painted the eyes I will do that next week. I had to repair a wing of the very first fairy carving. It broke in a few places. I glued them back in place, then painted over the glue repairs. It would have been better to replace the wing, but that was beyond the effort it would take.

I messed around with other projects during the day but that was the key points I accomplished. Not too bad.

During this week, I want to lay out my turning pieces, which I have at home, and see what I have and what would make the best display. I need to start finishing the pieces I have worked on the past few weeks. the flowers of the flower vase needs a coat of super glue so they will be lighter than the rest of the vase. I will finish the vase by soaking it in oil, then varnishing it. The vase does need some other work but that can happen after the art show.
I also need to drag out my small carvings, which I also have at home, and see what I want of them in the art show and what I can leave home.
I have a turning club meeting Thursday
One project for next weekend, is to set up a three foot by eight foot table, build it up with boards and stuff since I don't have that sized table and see what I can do for a good display. I will bring more than I need and whittle down what I need. I can also work on a few projects that have been started, but not likely to be in the show. It depends on what pieces need serious work.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 10, Day One (week 532)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-20-10 Saturday

54 degrees early morning, 78 under the awning very light breeze, blue sky, almost no clouds, mostly around the horizon. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Thursday was the turning club meeting. I brought my sea urchin ornaments, my face vase and flower vase. I asked the carving club director about it and she said that the face vase was so much better. She gave me a price on the flower vase about half that of the face vase. I trust her decision.
I asked about the Linseed oil finish. I was told that you should soak it for three days, which will make the wood more transparent. then let it sit and dry for about a month. I was also told that wipe-on poly varnish has driers so it will dry the piece faster.
I took pictures at the turning club and will drop off a CD of the club tomorrow at the WoodCrafts store we have our meeting at.
The demonstration was on hollowing deep pieces. I saw new tools I can make or get, and picked up a few points of technique.

Friday, I gathered my finished pieces an took pictures of most of them. I then packed them up to take with me on Saturday.

Saturday, after breakfast and some yard sailing, went out back and bothered that beast that mom keeps in the back yard. it is really strange. he acted exactly like a temperamental cat. I mean he was a cat, not a Grinch. On Thursday, I had stopped at Mom's house and went out to feed him. I made the mistake of placing hy hands on his face from the front, and rubbing his chin a little with my thumb. He simply pulled his head out of my hands and turned away. Even six months ago, My hands would have been raw meat, or at least bleeding from a scratch, had I made that mistake then. He is letting me handle him more than he ever had before. He still has an attitude, but his claws stay on the ground and he simply pulls away. He does not look me off too often now.

I had loaded the truck up with all the turnings and small carvings worth looking at. At mom's house, when we got back from running around, I dragged everything into the back yard. I needed to set up a "mock up" of the table I would use at the club so I can see what will fit and what won't.
I first made the mistake of making the table ten feet long. I piled stuff on it, then was reminded it was eight feet long. That changed things. At ten feet, I had some boards spanning the to tables. One is four inches shorter than the other. At eight feet, the two tables are next to each other. Not easy to span the height difference. I had to dig out some four=bys to raise the lower table up till it was close enough.
the lower table is three feet across, but the other table is only two feet. I placed some boards along the back edge to give a little bit more width.
I had most of my turnings and small carvings on the table. I then picked out stuff that just do not need to be seen. I was fixing things as I was going. One of my female pixies is holding a flower. The flower disappeared. I made a new one, using a dremmel to shape the petals. I painted it in two colors so it was more flower like, and glued it onto the wire that was the stem. Not as good as the original flower which I actually turned to create, but not bad.
I dug out all my wooden ear rings and hung them on a wire and varnished them with spray varnish. They are better than they were.
I fixed a few other things. My apples and pears needed a blossom on the bottom. I picked up some cloves at the store. cloves have a little puff ball on the end. Remove that, and a four pointed "flower" appears. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the fruit and stuck the puff-less cloves into the hole. they look more like the fruit they are supposed to be. I gave them a bunch of varnish. These are not my worst fruit, but they are nothing near my best. For the show, they will be passable, and they will be cheap.

I laid everything out, changing arrangements changing the way things are displayed. I never got the large carvings out, but did well to get something that resembles a passable display. I have to do some changes to get the big carvings on the table but I have a good feeling for what I have shown.
I needed this practice to see what I had and what would work and won't work. With what I have, I could use three tables worth of space and not really be satisfied.

I have a four place setting -- saucers, wooden silverware, goblets. that I would love to set up as a display. I have pumpkins, pies, the fruit plate all would be a nice display together.

I decided when I got home, to varnish the flower vase and the beer stein. It changes some plans but I decided I needed them done. I should sand them tomorrow and varnish them again.

Tomorrow, I will set up the table again, this time with the large carvings. I will see what arrangement is best for them.
I need to sit down and work out the prices of my pieces. The way I price things, is that I know the price of a couple things, and then decide if I like something better or worse than the one I already know the price. the better I like something the higher the price. the less I like something, the lower the price. I want some cheep stuff to shove out the door.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 10, Day Two (week 532)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-21-10 Sunday

Lows in the high 60s, high of 80 degrees. Strong, brisk wind, fast moving low clouds, some dark grey. We got a few drips during the day, maybe two or three drips a minute. We also got some sun now and then. It felt like 70 degrees.
The tail of a low is about to slap us again. According to the ten day weather forecast I saw yesterday, Saturday and Monday is supposed to be a bit weathered, but Sunday is supposed to be sunny. That is exactly what we need for the art show as some people will be outside.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

There is a cat in the back yard that resembles the beast. He still has an attitude, but he has not retaliated to anything I have done to him and he has really enjoyed my attention. Each time I go up there, he acts more cat like. Surprising what two and a half years of taming can do. when I started, he would swat at you after you petted him six times. I would give him a few mouthfuls of food, pet him his six times, then give him more and pet him again. Now he wants attention more than he wants food. I never expected him to get to this point.

I set up the tables again and laid out my work. this time I got the big carvings on display. Mom, my brother and his wife, all liked my work. My brother and I figured out that the unusual pieces, such as natural edged work, and the carved/decorated pieces are where I am at my best. I have very few "normal" pieces in my display.
I have enough room for all the pieces I have picked out, but it is not enough room to display it properly. I could easily use twice or three times the space.
I would love to set up a dinner table arrangement. I have candle sticks, saucer sized plates, wooden silverware, goblets, fruit plates, wooden pumpkins wooden pies, that would be a nice display all by themselves. I just don't have the room. Everything ends up being jumbled together, rather haphazardly. It cannot be helped.
I see that my turnings take up most of my space. that is not a problem as most of my turnings are carved anyway.
I did not have it exactly the way I wanted, and had not placed some items where they needed to be. I was still working on various projects while getting things set up. I saw some really dark clouds coming and decided to pack up the display. The clouds passed without notice and the sun came out soon after. By then, I was involved in another project.
All my turnings and small stuff fits into two bins. My large carvings will have to go into several boxes simply because they would break if stacked.

I had made two female pixies holding flowers. Yesterday, I ran across one without a flower. I took some time to make a flower from the remains of a turning I had. I simply cut off a disk at the end and did a little grinding to shape it like a flower.
I was shocked when I pulled out a female pixy today and she was missing a flower. I looked in the bin and the flower was not there. I then realized this was a second one I had made.
I took the end of the turning and made another flower. I had it painted and was attaching it to the wire that was the stem, when it split in half. I tried repairing it but the joint had not set long enough. I realized it was not going to hold even after it was glued I took the end of the turning, and with some grinding, shaped it to a flower and cut it off.
Always wear glasses or a face shield when working with cutoff wheels on dremmel. those things can really fly when the break. I as cutting off the flower. the piece came off, and the cut-off wheel shattered. A very hot piece hit my arm, then went down inside my shirt. I got it out of my shirt, and then found the flower and also turned th dremmel off. the piece actually left a tiny burn on the side of my upper arm. ouch!
I later took the dremmel with the square grinding bit and shaped my flower. It is conical shaped and has five petals. I painted it red, with pink on the ends, and a yellow center. I have no idea what it is but it looks pretty good in the pixy's hand.

I forgot to mention yesterday, that one project I did was to remove the date from the lighthouse platter. Mom said it did not look good and should not be on there anyway. I ground it off and then sanded it smooth, before adding varnish to make ti match the rest of the platter.

I dug out my paints and started painting the baby dragon. My results were not as I had hoped. I don't have that paint color at home so some corrections will be in a different shade of red. I think I can get it right this time. will see. She was painted white overall. I now have added red as a body color with some features still white. I will then add a blue or green as a second color and leave her like that. My main thing is to get the edges clean. Sitting here, looking at the candle she was based on, I see she was colored a bit differently than I am doing it, but since I need an air brush to match the candle, I am using a bit of logic in the color.
when flying, one would expect her to have her legs trailing behind her. Most creatures have a light underbelly and dark top. for land animals, it reduces contrast when in the sun. In the air, the white helps them blend with the sky when one is looking up, and the dark upper body blends with the ground below, I have her belly and insides of her front legs white, along with a stripe down the underside of the tail.
It is not exact but seams to be better than it was. It sure is easier to paint, that is for sure. I am not trying to reach between the tail and arms that are holding the tail, to paint.
I had decided not to exactly copy the candle since my painting skills are not that good.

When I got home last night, I soaked the flower vase and the beer stein I am making, in wipe-on varnish. I was going to give them another coat, today but forgot the varnish at home. I let them set out in the wind and sun to dry some more.
I have a bunch of sanding on both of them to do, then will give them more varnish.

I picked up some stickers on the way home today and now can lay my pieces out and decide exactly what price the pieces need to be, and add a sticker for that price. Little will remain the way they are marked. a number of items will be more expensive, while others will be a whole lot cheaper. essentially, the more normal a piece looks, the less likely I will want to hang onto it.
I also went to WoodCrafts picked up a few of their fliers. In previous shows, I have tried to tell about where they are to people who needed carvings or turnings, or wanting to learn. I will now be able to hand them a flier which has the map and address.

Next Sunday is the art show. During the week, I will be doing some finishing on selected pieces. Friday, I will be going to Mom's house and try to finish a few projects. I will also set up the tables again and see if I can come up with a better arrangement. I will also see if I can figure out the best way to pack things so they come out and be placed quickly.
Saturday, I will likely prepare pencil head blanks to speed the carving of them. I can do some pre-cutting and shaping so I have less wood to remove when I carve during the show.
One thing I do before every art show is to sharpen every knife I have. I have had art shows where I was dulling knives vaster than I was sharpening them. I might get a nick and have to go to another knife. I learned more about sharpening and more about knife usage, but getting every single knife sharp seams to be a good habit. I will also get my carving kit together, removing stuff I don't need and making sure I have things to make the show more enjoyable.
I also may work on projects that don't have to be done. I have plenty of projects in process that I can work on, to fill the day a little before it is time to leave.
during the week, I have to check over my ABOUT THE ARTIST paper and see if it needs updating and then print some more out.. I also need to print up some more cards.

I will see what I actually accomplish next weekend.

year 10, Week 11, Day One (week 533)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-26-10 Friday

80 degrees, windy, fast moving pregnant clouds, a moment of real sun. A wave of a front passed early morning. there was a break, then a second wave of the front passed in the afternoon right after I had packed up and was about to go home. It is sunny after the second wave passed. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Surprise, surprise, I did woodworking on a Friday. I had some stuff I wanted to do in preparation for the art show. I handled today like a Sunday, leaving a bit later than I would on a Saturday. I got to sleep in a little.

One project I had was I wanted pictures of everything on a sheet, so I could write the prices, and then mark what was sold. I started pulling the pictures into my drawing program, then realized this was going to be a big project. I then remembered that my printer will do "contact sheets" of all the pictures. That works. I have to remove some pictures from the sheet as they are from the club or not woodworking related. it will work, though.
I also had taken the time to take pictures of everything so with just a few exceptions, I have everything that will be on display.

I have worked on painting the baby dragon. I am getting close to where I can say it is presentable. I planned only having three colors on it white it was painted over all, a red that I covered much of it, then blue. Well the blue came out really dark and seamed to ruin it, so I added yellow so the blue became a thin line of color. It helped. It is about the best it has been painted so far. I am at the stage where I am correcting corrections. I am not careful with the brush and the paint will go where it does not belong, so I will touch up those parts. it will be right soon. This is a carving I want to make several of. Other than the color, I like the way this carving looks compared to the candle it is based on. I know I can do better too. it helps to have something to go by. I did not want the candle where it can become damaged, so I had to go by guess and by golly a on a few features.

I brought all my pieces to be displayed, along with some racks to help display them with me. I saw we were dealing with a front, so I chose not to bring extra boxes for the larger carvings.
After checking the radar after arriving, I set up the tables to practice with my display. Mom had a quarter inch sheet of plywood that I laid on the tables. This was better than the board system I was using as it was more stable and bigger. I got my full eight food by three foot size to practice with. One change I made was I brought a stainless steel dish drainer and silverware basket with me. My wooden silverware went into the basket, and the saucers and a natural edged bowl and a few plates went in the drainer. this freed up space for me to display some of my relief carvings I have.
I did not bring out my big carvings, and I left my small stuff in their baggies. Part of this was because I had no way to really judge when the weather would appear, and partly due to laziness. I did have the rest of the stuff on the table. I don't like my display much. I will work on it some more tomorrow. it will be a full display and I will work to get it right. I will then work out the best way to put things away to speed the project of getting them out quickly on Sunday.
Satisfied with what I had, I then packed things up and took down the tables.

I had been looking all over for my beer stein. I wanted to sand and varnish it. Well, I found it today. It was on a gardening table next to the woodworking shed. It had been outside all week long, in the wind, sun and rain. Some of the glue got a little wet. I let it dry for a few hours, then took time and sanded it really good. I got rid of some problems it had. The handle feels better too.
Once I got home, I stuck that in boiled linseed oil and will soak it for at least three days, likely longer, then let it dry for at least a month before I do any finishing on it. Since the cup of the stein is Norfolk Island Pine, the oil will make it translucent. One will be able to put a light in it and see the light through it.

I had nearly all my knives with me and I took the time to sharpen them. One knife had a few little chips on the edge, so I flattened the edge past the chips, then sharpened it all over again. I tested them out on some yellow pine. they are all nice and sharp now.
This is a practice I do every year before the show. I make sure all my knives are shaving sharp. I carve during the show and have had the knives chip or get dull while working. If I hold off on sharpening too long, it becomes a long process to correct the dullness of the blade. it is faster to just grab another knife and continue carving. Usually, though, I will simply strop the blade when I stop for a moment to do something.

I took some pencil head blanks and worked on them a little. I used one for the knife test and trimmed corners off a couple others. I will do more on them tomorrow so they will be ready to work with.

It was about one, I put everything away and got ready to go. That was when some drops started falling. There was a fairly light drizzle the entire time that the remains of the front passed over us.

I had forgotten some projects at home that I wanted to work on. that will be the main thing for tomorrow. I will work on those projects after I set up my display and work out some details. it will be a full dress rehearsal and I will make sure everything is satisfactory, then will try to put things away so it will make for a quick setup the morning of the show. The sooner things are on the table, the longer time I have to make sure it is presentable.

During the next week, I will sort through my stuff, get them put away, and also get a bin ready of stuff I want to take to the antique shop for display on Friday.
I do know that on Sunday, I will be wore out when I get home.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 11, Day two (week 533)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-27-10 Saturday

60 degrees AM when I got to Mom's house, 80 degrees by noon. Light breeze that just moved the light leaves, blue skies, a bit of white puffs over the everglades most of the day. This Weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The beast came to me in the form of a cat, about five times during the day. He ate each time, but what he really wanted was attention. I sat and petted him for long periods each time, but several times cut the attention short. One problem is that I would sit down and start petting him, then remember several things I needed to get up to do. Even at his worst today, he was a nice kitty. He now PRETENDS to have an attitude.

I got out the tables and set up my display. I examined it as I was setting things up. I looked at it from different sides moved things around. it took a couple hours to have everything on the table. I did not like the way it looked, so I changed it. I did this several times. items swapped, I would line some things up going back, then change them to line on an angle, I would then make an arc around something.
I took stuff off the wire racks I had to prop things up, and put some table covers over the racks. I had picked up white plastic party table covers at the dollar store. Some I cut in half, others I used whole. I would drape the sheet over the table set the racks on top the edge, then pull the sheet over the racks to dangle behind the table. Since I unfolded it the minimum to cover, it did not dangle much. it did improve the appearance.
I had an arrangement that was passable but did not like it. It was all one elevation. I took a couple boxes and did the cover thing on them too. that raised several pieces up above the rest. that was also an improvement.
I have some stepped racks, where they give two or three levels to set things I covered them too. Rather than looking at wire racks, they are a slightly bit more elegant set up. I needed to add a bit more time on them but it showed what can be done to hide the underpinnings.

I touched up the baby dragon carving's paint job. I finally have it acceptable. It is not perfect, but is acceptable. I had the multi color on the top of the muzzle, and it looked like she was wearing a mask. I ended up removing the multi color so that there is color on the side of her head, and the stripes on her bak stop on her eye brows. Big improvement. I won't make any more changes. I have had enough. I will make a new one and paint on that

I had a leaf bowl, where it looks like it was just leaves stitched together to make a bowl. I bumped one thing, that bumped another and it and something else fell to the ground. the bowl, which I was careful with all along, broke into several pieces. I picked them up, compared where they are supposed to go and there appears to be a piece missing. I looked all over and could not see it.
I doubt I can assemble it again, but I will figure out how to make use of it anyway. I might make it part of something else. It was good carving.

I finally packed things up. I started at one end of the table and set them in the bin, piece by piece, or for the small stuff, bag by bag. when that bin was full, I then filled the second bin. Finally, my large carvings went into a few boxes.
I have less boxes than I usually take to the art show, but it will still be a big load.
It will take about four trips from the truck to the table to be loaded up.

I painted the ends of the bananas, adding black paint to represent the darkening on the ends. I started adding streaks of black down the side on two, but did not like the effect, so I sanded that off and sprayed it freshly with varnish. After the varnish dried, I did just the ends like I did on the first couple.

When I set up tomorrow, I will make some changes I thought of after I was done. I won't be satisfied with my display, but it won't be horrible. It was better than my first attempt last week.

Tomorrow is the show. I will carve on pencil heads and talk to visitors. I know from experience that I will be wore out when the show is over. I tend not to take breaks.
A perfect show is where you leave with empty boxes and a full wallet.

I will see what happens tomorrow

year 10, Week 11, Day three (week 533)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-28-10 Sunday

Mid 60s in morning, 80 as the high, high humidity, clouds looked pregnant all day long, really brisk breeze. Several people placed outside had to change their arrangements because of the wind. Beyond the threat and the breeze, it as a very good day. Last year, they were complaining about it being so hot.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Lighthouse Point Department Of Tourism.

Today was the art show. I started by getting to Mom's house after seven, and loading up the truck. I had every thing set up so loading was easy.
I then gave the beast thing, that resembles a cat, a lot of attention. That was what he needed. He was in a very good mood.
I left and arrived at the art show, about two miles a way, by eight and they were already going in. Three trips, one where I moved the truck where it needed to park for the show, and I had everything at my table.
I use a wooden children's wagon to move things. it works perfectly for moving a lot of stuff safely.
I had my display set up by about ten. I looked around at the other art. some brilliant ideas. it was fun to see that kind of art. I should have taken pictures but for some reason did not. I did not even take enough pictures of my display.

We had a brunch which was excellent. I over ate. they had it where I could have gone for a whole lot more, but I just did not have any room for it. Several people mentioned my weight loss. twenty pounds in the past year.

I returned to my table and had to mess with the stuff behind my table before I could settle down and start carving pencil heads.
I ended up carving three pencil heads, these are wood heads on top a pencil. all three were designed to be carved with beards, but I carved one with long hair instead, by placing the beared part in back. I sold one of the new heads a while after I set it out on display.
Children loved the pencil heads, and also the shaving flowers.
The shaving flowers were where you shave down a piece of wood, but you leave the wood attached. you keep shaving around and around until you run out of wood. What you have left resembles a dandelion. We sometimes add color and other times leave them wood.
I also sold a couple ornaments. also to kids.

I had a lot of comments on my work, even by people who know my work. detailed an imaginative were the most common comments. I got a chuckle from most women by lifting the lid on one of my pies and asking them if they wanted some empty calories. The pies are hollow.

Things thinned out, so I took one last glance at the artwork. when I came in, this was about three, everybody was packing up.
It took me a bit to get my act together, but I went and got my truck and pulled it closer, then brought the wagon in. it took a bit to disassemble everything and pack them up. I was able to get everything out of the spot in only two trips.

when I got home, I took out the big carvings first, I found that a couple need repairs. they are minor and will take a few minutes to do once I get set up.
My carving tools went out back. I bothered the cat a while, before heading out to go home.

With the T-shirt I got, the nice meal, and the $33 worth of stuff I sold, I guess I broke even on the entry fee.
These shows are something wonderful to do... once a year.

For this week, I have to sort through my work and pick out what will be going down to the antique shop to go back on display. I will deliver them Friday.
I have a beer stein soaking in linseed oil. I will take it out about mid week. I will then let that sit and dry for about a month. Unless I made a mistake somewhere in the process, this should look pretty good.
Next weekend, I will make the quick repairs on the big carvings. I will then work on some project that has been on hold the past two months because of the show. I have existing projects I need to finish up.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Year 10, Week 12, Day One (week 534)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-03-10 Saturday.

84 degrees as a high, sunny, thin high clouds, a slight haze, some low puffs of no consequence. A medium breeze made it nice to work all day long. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

During the week

After I got myself together after last week's art show, I laid out the pieces from the show. I knew I did not have a lot of room for all the work at the antique shop. I pulled a few small pieces out because they were just not as good as the others.

Friday:

I went to the shell shop and thrift store that are just a few blocks from the antique shop. I picked up two snail shells that look like they might be interesting ornaments. I found out that the shell shop is open all year long, while the citrus store next door will be closing soon. I got an air popper and a couple books at the thrift store across the parking lot. I don't need more books, but you know how it is with interesting things.

I went to the Candlelight antique shop in Dania. He opened up a little bigger space for a possible additional something his shop offers. My normal space was gone. He decided to have my stuff in on a dresser with a mirror. It is a dark, but you can see my stuff anyway.
while I was clearing the dresser so my stuff could go onto it, Another man had come in and they were talking about how to improve a little fountain that is in the shop and a few other things. Marty talked up my work and had me show some of my work. They asked if I could come down to their place to show the work to his wife.
I finished my display, of course with some of my best pieces, but I held back a few just in case. I did not have any real room so that was not a problem.

When done, I went down to the Dania Water Gardens and showed my pieces off. I never even knew that place was there. It is an old mansion where the grounds are used to show off all sorts of fountains and gardens. I showed off my stuff and they decided they like my stuff to put it on display. They took nine pieces.
I got great ideas as to what to concentrate on for my next projects. One of which is the yellow pine platters. She liked the looks of the two I had on display, but did not like the painting of a tree I put on them.

Saturday:

There were no yard sales this weekend, so I went out back fairly quickly.

There had been a cat hanging around the backyard beast. they seamed to get along fairly well. Mom has not seen the cat for a while.
Except for one incident, the backyard beast acted exactly like a house cat. That one incident, I did something too many times and he made a biting motion against the back of my hand, then went back to enjoying the attention I was giving him. Just six months ago, I would have had a claw mark on my hand. If I were not involved in some projects, and had a book in my hand, I know he would have loved to have slept between my feet all day long. I have not tried to lift him in six months, and those times I set him on my lap and he was back on the ground in a moment. It had been even longer since I tried to hold him in my arms. He just tried to push out of my arms, but nothing else. I just have not bothered to mess up the comfort zone he is having right now. I gave him attention about eight times between going out at around eight, and leaving at around three.

Since I was told that my yellow pine platters would be interesting, I decided to try to fine tune my method of making them. I am using wood face plates and double sided tape. I am finding My big problem is that the double sided tape either won't come off, or it won't stick. This is a typical problem with tape. I can get it right some times, but not always. I did find one problem. My face plates are not all the same size. I used the small face plate to make the base of the plate, and then tried to use a slightly larger face plate to attach it and it would not stick.
I think my first project for today is to make the face plates all the same diameter. that will solve a bit of my problem later. I think. I seam to remember that I ran into problems where one had to be a little smaller than the other for the system to work.
I also figured out yesterday that I need to take the platter off the lathe to remove the face plate I used to hold the work to the lathe on the first try. the force of trying to drive a putty knife between the two pieces of wood, dislodged the work from the second face plate that the chuck was hanging onto.
One thing I am after with this system is to come up with a system to create platters with a consistent design, and do it quickly. The cutting part is not hard with this system, if I can get the holding part of the system correct.

I brought my second rate works with me today and I set them all out on the workbench. I then examined each piece and classified them as to whether they just needed a new finish, which will likely require them to be sanded to wood and revarnished, or whether they need to be re-built.
Like any beginner, my early woodworking is of the wrong design and gets really thick, especially near the base. I am looking at what needs to be re-mounted on the lathe and re-cut, and what might not be save-able.
Part of the project is to figure out what will bring the best shape out of them. some might never be "presentable" but they will be better than they are. Those that are not up to quality, might end up being gifts or sold for a few bucks at yard sales. I will decide that after the first few whether this will be a viable project.

After I got home, I got a call and had to run to help my brother. He had an engine problem with his work truck. The original plan was for me to tow his trailer home. Instead, he went and got the part that failed and was able to drive the truck home. I mainly sat and watched his truck.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 10, Week 12, Day Two (week 534)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-04-10 Sunday.

84 degrees under the awning, official high was 79, lots of blue sky, widely spaced thin ripples, nice breeze, no humidity. This is the kind of weather I thrive on. I was comfortable and really enjoyed the day.
I have reason to think I got a very slight sunburn during the past two days. Standing at the lathe, I am facing west. Most of my lathe work is in the morning part of the day. The sun starts behind me, and on my left. The left side of the back of my neck is a tiny bit tender.
I noticed the top of my head sore. I could not figure out why. Nothing I could feel. It dawned on me that when wearing the face shield, the top of my head is exposed to the sun. I cannot wear a hat under the face shield head gear. I don't have a thick mop of hair any more, it is thinning out. I may have gotten a little sun-burn on top my head. I won't be in the sun all week so I will recover easily and start tanning over the next few weeks, which will become protection against the sun.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I stopped and picked up a two by twelve inch by eight foot yellow pine board. I got it to make more platter blanks.
After petting the beast of the back yard, who is acting like a house cat, I went to the shed to get out the circular saw so I could cut the board. when digging for the saw, I ran across several blanks for plates I had made before. I set the board to the side for later projects, and dug out the blanks.

when I make the blanks, I start with a square piece of wood, and draw lines from corner to corner. I then draw a circle centered on where the lines cross, to the biggest diameter I can get from the closest edges. I then put the blank onto the band saw and knock off the corners following close to the line, but just outside it.
The corners get trimmed into square stock with one of the "tails hanging down. These become bearded pencil heads. Cut with the grain and one can carve it.
The blanks were already trimmed. I chose which side would become the face of the plate. On the face side, I took a compass and, measuring my wood face plate radius, I drew a circle on the board. I then added my double sided tape and centered the wood face plate in the circle.
I mounted it on the lathe and set the second face plate on the other side, held in place by the tail stock. With the lathe spinning, I first trimmed the edge which is always out of round. once the edge is round, I trued up the face and back of the bowl, at least an inch in.
I take a thin parting tool and cut deep right against the tail stock face plate, which marks the inside of the base rim. I then move out a short distance, quarter or half an inch and cut in a second line. Anything outside this line becomes the rim of the plate.
On the edge of the work, I go in from the face, which is the motor side of the lathe, and cut in about half an inch down. It is thick for a plate, but when all is said and done, it will be thinner.
Finally, I trim down the excess wood on the back, essentially from the base of the groove near the face plate to the cut on the edge of the board. I usually allow about quarter to half an inch cut in on the base. some of that will be lost later in truing up the piece in the last steps of finishing.
Once I get the back of the plate shaped, I sand, and then remove the tail stock face plate and cut out some wood on the inside of the inside groove. I try to make that as flat as possible, no angles center to edge. After sanding that, I put double sided tape on the tail stock face plate and place in into the inset, and apply tail stock pressure.
Finally I turn the platter around. the back is now in the chuck. I cut in the inside of the plate so if follows the back. You can see both sides if you position yourself right. I sometimes will stop and feel the thickness between my fingers. some people can do this, others cannot.
Once everything but the wood beneath the tail stock is done, I remove the wood from the lathe, pry off the face plate, and then remount it. I finish removing the wood, and try to make the center indention the same size as the bottom ring. The face plate can fit into it.
I will bring the tail stock up against the wood and leave a post in the center as the double sided tape does not always hold well. The longer the tail stock secures the piece, the better the final result and less trouble you will have. The farther away from dead center you get, the more forces on the tape you are applying, both in pulling away from the face plate and also in causing the work to spin on the tape. Removing the final post has the least amount of forces on the whole project.

ON one of my pieces, I was removing the post from the piece and caught on the side. it popped out, taking a bit of the bottom with it. I have glued it in, and have removed all but a nib of the post. I will grind that off a bit later and sand it flush. One may, or might not even know something happened there. There are other ways of hiding the mistake.

I ended up making two platters today and two yesterday. That is not too bad. Both days, there were interruptions and I could have made three both days if everything fell together. My system for making these platters is not perfect. I am getting better results, and making them faster than I have in previous times.
the big difference is having the work held in place by the tail stock until the last cuts of each side. I need to play with the process more and see what I can do to improve my results.

Between the platter, but after lunch, My brother and I replaced a headlight on my truck. I had noticed the blinker was brighter than normal and had no idea why. I had followed my brother last night and they saw one light was out. Not as expensive as I was expecting and we solved a trim problem while we were at it.

I need to see about going down to the Dania Water Gardens some time during the week and leave my bio for their display. If I cannot make it this week, I hope to make it down there Friday. If it is Friday, and I work at it, I could have these platters to take with me.

I will have to see what all I do next week. I don't know if I will be making more platters, fixing some existing pieces I have, finishing some projects I have in process, or working on something new.


I will have to see what next weekend brings.

year 10, Week 13, Day One (week 535)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-10-10 Saturday

80 degrees, good breeze, thicker puffs of clouds surrounded by light fuzz to appear like solid clouds, but allowed some sun to shine. Blue sky appeared periodically as the day wore on. The rain we were supposed to have, was mere driplets that were gone after a few minutes. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

There were no yard sales in the early morning after Breakfast, so we came directly home. Mom went out a bit later.

There is a cat out in Mom's back yard, who is pretending to be the beast. A couple months ago, it would not let us touch its side when it was laying on its side. Today, I was petting his side and his belly as he laid there. I am going to have to do a search to find out where the beast actually went. It is, though, nice to have a cat in the yard....

My first project was to make the three wooden face plates I have, to the same size. I put the smallest wooden face plate in the chuck with double sided face, centered the other to the best of my ability, and then cut the second one down so it was the same. I also adjusted the tenon the chuck grabs, adding a bigger slot so the chuck can have a better grip.
I then turned the pair around and turned the tenon on the first face plate for the better chuck grip.
I then attached the third face plate and made the same corrections.
One thing I should have done was to re-do the "center" of each so that the compass knows where the center is, and also the tail stock can find it.

My next project was to dig out a natural edged bowl I have that really needed help. Since the bottom is slightly larger than the face plates, My first project was to try to find the center and then draw a radius the size of the face plate.
This was a very early piece and was made before I got a chuck, I used face plates and screwed the wood in place. I had four screw holes, one in the center, and three around the outside. I commonly added a wooden face plate with the screws in it. I do not remember if that is what I did, but I seam to think so with the center screw.
I quickly found out that the center screw was not in the center. I then found out that centering on the "bottom" of the bowl, was not in the center either. I took a ruler, one of those school rulers with inches on one side and millimeters on the other side. and sighted the sides of the bowl.
I chose the scale that gave me something with numbers that are very close to the dimensions, which in this case was MM. I then visually lined up the two sides on the ruler and marked the center. I turned the bowl ninety degrees, using the first mark and did the center. this second mark should be center, but I checked it by turning the bowl a few more times just to make sure. I then measured the radius of the face plate and set the compass to that.
Finally I drew my circle on the bowl. added double sided tape to the face plate, and very carefully, lined up the face plate with the lines on the bowl. I had to set it a couple times, but got it very close to centered on the face plate.
I put a second face plate against the inside of the bowl to help hold it in place. I spun the bowl, and trimmed the outside first. This bowl was really thick and had a few other problems. One thing I did was to cut the bottom down very slightly next to the face plate to mark the real edge of the piece, and pinpoint the location of the face plate on the bowl. That saved me later.
I sanded the outside quite a bit, knowing that any change I do will cause a wobble.
I then scraped the edges on the inside, cleaning them up and making the inside and outside parallel. I removed the wood face plate, and put the tail stock directly on the bottom inside. I cut in the bottom, making it deeper, which was a problem this piece had. Except for the post in the center, I had the bottom right. I took the tail stock away and trimmed away the post so the bottom was nice and flat.
I added double sided tape to the rear face plate and stuck it inside the piece and turned it around. I carefully removed the first face plate to work the bottom and found that the inside face plate would not stick. I tried several times and it would not hold. I gave up on that project.

We got a few driplets right after lunch so I packed up and cleaned up. I then took out the strip sander and ground down the center of the platter I made last week that I broke and glued back together I sanded it really good. One can see some sign of the repair on the back, but the front looks good.

My brother's truck was in the driveway when I arrived. He had another freeze-plug leak. He and his son dropped the engine and transmission to get to the rear freeze plugs. I had to cut some blocks so he could get the jacks to reach high enough. He had made a bracket for controlling the transmission. It worked perfectly.
He found out he had some really bad news. The freeze plug dripped into the bearing, turning it into scrap metal, and that chewed up the end of the transmission and the end of the crank shaft. That truck is dead. His other truck has been down due to a broken transmission.
Their next project was to get my truck hooked up so it could pull his trailer back home. By this time, the dealers were closed. We found that only the dealer had the plugs for the trailer. My brother, instead, had to run wires all over to get everything hooked up. He then road with me as I drove his trailer home. He guided me and taught me how to drive with a trailer.

During the time my brother was working on various projects, I was sanding on my work, getting them closer to being finished.

I could well have done a lot of work during the day after the lunch sprinkle, but was not sure when anything was happening and wanted to be somewhat ready.

Tomorrow I hope to get more work done.

year 10, Week 13, Day Two (week 535)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-11-10 Sunday

80 degrees, The weather report said it would likely get bad at around eleven. By noon, the clouds went from thin plates with lots of blue, to grey pillows and then solid piles of grey pillows. Nothing came down until around two and did not get hard enough to get anything wet until three. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I got to Mom's house at the normal time. I went out back, gathered my stuff together, and then petted the thing in the back yard. It is not the beast that is supposed to be back there. He will lay on his side so you can stroke him all over, head, belly, side, under the chin. Mom actually gave him a couple strokes on the back when he was well away from the feeding area, which is usually the only place one can touch him. His main desire today was to be petted and to lay between my feet. My problem was I needed to get some work done before expected weather was to arrive.

Mom's neighbor decided to have a yard sale. I took out my box of junk pieces and pulled the pieces that I am sure I can re-make really nice. I then took that box across the street. I wrote on it, HAND MADE. five bucks a piece. There really are only a couple pieces that cannot be fixed. Whether they are worth the effort is something else. I later retrieved the box as driplets started falling and sold nothing. I never expected to. She started too early and Saturdays are better than Sundays.

I took the bowl I worked on yesterday, and re-mounted it on the face plate, making sure it was centered. I then taped the face plate on the inside. This time it stuck. I turned the piece around, made sure it stayed, then removed the rear face plate. finally, I was able to fix the bottom of the face plate, until I had just the post left from where the tail stock was holding it in place. I removed the tail stock to remove the post and the tape let go. I used the strip sander to remove the post. I touched the edge of the rim with the strip sander in a couple places and will have to correct that. Not that bad a problem.

I took a Camphor bowl I made years ago. I could not find my compass. That took some time to search fruitlessly. I have a circle cutter for plaster board and used that as my compass. Since the base was smaller than the face plate, I drew my circle on the face plate. This was where my not getting the center located on the face plate caused me problems. there is an impression there, but it was not exactly in the center.
I got the bowl close to center. It still had a wobble. I chose to let that go and make the inside thinner anyway. This piece is going to be carved into leaves, anyway, so a slight difference in thickness is not a problem.
when I made this piece, I soaked it in varnish. I was surprised that there was that wonderful scent in the wood. I love the smell of camphor, at least sometimes. When I carve this, I will smell it quite a bit.
I never touched the outside, letting that be. the bottom was really thick so that got cut in fairly deep, and the inside was trimmed right to the rim, and I cut the rim down slightly so a repair I had done was now even. It is a whole lot better.

I still had some time, so I took a platter blank and made a platter. This one has some great knots in it. The knots make turning slightly bit tougher, but the results are excellent. this piece needs loads of sanding to finish it.

Seeing the weather coming, I packed up and cleaned up I was taking pictures of the day's projects when I saw the first driplets. I finished my pictures then helped pack up the yard sale.
I later sat and sanded for a while before calling it a day. By then the driplets became steady. On the way home, outside of Pompano, I went into an area of rain that would have been red on the weather radar.

I stopped and picked up two gallon recloseable bags for an experiment I wanted to try. I took that broken platter and stuck it in the baggy with the Linseed oil. The gallon bags I normally use, were just slightly too small for the plate. I want to see how the linseed oil effects the yellow pine. I want to see if it comes out dramatically different than with just varnish. some woods are effected differently by finishes than others.

I have a turning club meeting Thursday. I have several projects I need to get complete before then so I can show them off. That means they need to be sanded to a finished level, then given many coats of varnish.
The platters have to be complete, including signature, by the end of the month. I do hope to make a few more next weekend. By then, I will know the effect of the oil on the wood.
I also want to remake a couple other pieces I have. It is quicker and easier to correct them than to make them. Less wood to remove, though centering is always a problem.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.

year 10, Week 14, Day One (week 536)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-17-10 Saturday

80 degrees, broken clouds. they finally got them fixed after noon. some sun before then. light breeze with brisker gusts. At around two, there were a few drips from a pregnant cloud, but that was all we saw. I was already cleaning up by then. This is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

During the week, I was sanding and varnishing. I had soaked one of my platters, the one I repaired last week, in linseed oil. Since it was damaged, it was worth experimenting with. I then simply varnished a platter. the linseed oil platter is darker in the darker rings. Just slightly prettier. I do see that I have some repair sanding to do on both platters. there are places where the tool dug in, compressing the fibers, and that came out darker, obvious, than the rest of the platter.
I had also varnished my beer stein and my repaired bowl. The repaired bowl needs more sanding in a couple places inside.

The night of the turning club, I put a wire in on the beer stein to hold the lid on. When I got it to the turning club, the lid at the joint there, broke. I super glued it and that worked for the night.

The turning club meeting was pretty good. The demonstration was on carving bowls and stuff. he was using one of those dental drills. Because of the speed it goes, it burns the wood so you get a wood burning effect along with the carving. there are many bits you can get for it. some are rather interesting.
There was a lot of really good pieces on display. Like I have for several months now, I took a whole bunch of pictures. I give them a CD of the pictures for the web site.
After the turning club meeting, they had a wood auction. I took pictures of the wood but did not get involved. I have more wood than I can use, if I choose the right projects.


Saturday,

The day started with some yard sales. I got a workbench/vise like thing. This one can be put on a stand or on a work bench. I got it because it was cheap, not that I needed it. I got another go-by that I would like to carve.

I decided to make a platter. I put my face plate on the lathe and found it wobbling slightly. I have seen my chuck has a slight out of center wobble. I needed to mark which jaw fit where on the face plate because when I made the face plate, I took that into account automatically.
I made a platter and was getting lots of out-of center- reactions. I found that the platter lifted slightly on the face plate and the double sided tape rolled. I got it made, but now see I need to try something else. I have a tap that fits the screw of the shaft. I think I will make another set of face plates, drill it out, and screw it directly on the lathe, rather than use the chuck, and see if that works any better.

I had a dollar store tooth brush. this is one where the whole thing vibrates. I got some foam and attached that to the tooth brush in the place of the bristles. I added a small piece of peal-and-stick sand paper. Not really a lot of movement even with two layers of the foam. I am using aggressive grit and that might have something to do with the lack of apparent sanding.

I did some hand sanding but by then the day was ending. It was time to pack everything up and get going.

Half of tomorrow's projects will be finding the tools I need to make the new face plates. I know I have the tools, but I just have to figure out where they went.
After I make the face plates, I will give them a good test with another platter. I should note that there is no difference between a platter and a plate. Platter just sounds better.

I have to have all my turning done next weekend, and all my sanding and finishing before the following weekend.

I will see what I can accomplish tomorrow.

year 10, Week 15, Day One (week 537)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-24-10 Saturday

87 degrees brisk winds with some good gusts, teased out cotton clouds with a few a bit thicker. Sunny all day long. We sat in the afternoon, with the breeze blowing under the awning, quite comfortable and happy for the conditions of the day. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

During the week, I was sanding on my plates during the week, an realized there was some impressed wood from the turning. The two plates I finished to show at the turning club had impressed wood and varnish does not soak in the same as regular wood. It shows.
I remembered something I read long ago. The thing said that one can impress a design into wood, sand it till it is flat, and then soak the board. the impressed wood expands out, making a raised design on the surface of the wood. Knowing that, I took the plates and wet them down really good.
When the wood dried, the grain was raised, of course, but also the impressed wood was raised also. They were not as big as I expected. I used 50 grit sand paper to remove the worst of the raised fiber, but it needed something more.

After breakfast and stopping at a couple yard sales with nothing for me. I went out back and fed the beast and the cat friend. Lots of petting was needed before I headed out to help mom with setting up for a neighbor's yard sale. I carried some boxes and other things across, along with my box of junk pieces, and then went back to bother the beast a little more before getting to work.

I mounted the plates on the lathe as centered as I could, which was not good, and had the lathe on low. I sat there with 200 grit sand paper and sanded the rim, inside and out, until I was satisfied with the surface all the way around. I then shifted to 150 grit, which was the finest I had on hand. I left the centers till later.

I had a vase I made back in 2004 that had started cracking. I glued it back together and used glitter to hide the cracks, give it sort of a design. I stuck wood face plate inside, to drive the vase, and found the center of the bottom. I cold not get it centered to the way it wobbled. I did not think about it, but I should have sued a big face plate that the lip of the vase met to and got it centered that way. It happened that I could not find my double sided tape so I could not mount it the way I wanted to.
I trimmed down the outside, getting rid of the wobble. I found some double sided tape that has a strong glue, and thick foam. The foam has a little give and the strong glue guarantees that it is not going to let go when needed. In this case, it is messy. The double sided tape I normally use is almost like masking tape, but with a good glue on both sides. when it comes off, it does not leave anything behind.
I mounted the vase on the lathe and that was when I saw I had cut through slightly on one side. I wrapped some packing tape around the outside and started cleaning the inside, which really needed it. More of the thin side cut out. I pried off the vase, tossed it in the garbage, and cleaned the wood face plate so I could use it again.

I was going to turn some more platters, but I could not find my good double sided tape. I still have no idea where it is.

I sat down and power sanded the centers of the plates. First with a disk sanding attachment for the drill. I then used the detail sander to fine tune the sanding. I finally got them to a level where I can hand sand them with finer grit. I will have them done for delivery on Friday.

I also sanded the natural edged bowl I worked on this month. I used the disk sander and also the detail sander to work the inside and outside. I think I have it now where I can finish it up during the week.

As mentioned in weather, Mom and I sat with the cat sleeping between my feet for about an hour. We were talking about the her garden. Flowers are popping up. She lost only a couple plants during the winter cold.

Tomorrow, I will look again for the double sided tape I need. I might mount some other kind of wood and turn something new. I also might dig into my junk box and turn something in hopes of saving it.
Of course, I will give the backyard beast more attention.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 15, Day Two (week 537)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-25-10 Sunday

87 degrees, brisk wind with strong gusts, filtered sunlight with some blocked sun. Sky went from filtered puffs, to thick, to thin high platelets, to puffs. A front is sliding in, and will be here tomorrow. The temps were nice with the breezes that got under the awning. It also made for less sweeping of sawdust. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Once I got to mom's house, I petted and fed the beast and his friend. Both were good kitties.

I took the two plates I had finished early in the month for the turning club meeting, and mounted them on the lathe and spun them slowly so my hand, holding the sand paper, could follow the wobble as I did not get them set absolutely square. The one with just varnish cleaned up pretty good.
The one I soaked in oil clocked up the sand paper. I grabbed some 50 grit sand paper and soon the grit was blocked up. there is a way to clean it up since it is designed to be spun by power. It will come to me later. I also used an 80 grit sanding strip and it got clogged up too. I did get it sanded.
I put the plates under water to get rid of the impressed wood, and then sanded them again.
I ended up re-mounting the oiled plate and cutting away some of the bad surface. it was not easy as it wobbled. I ran the lathe slow and tried to follow the movement of the wood. Some additional sanding got rid of some edges. They both look pretty good right now.

I took out a piece I made back in 2004. it is a bowl with a stand. the bottom was too thick. I used a bit face plate to go over the mouth of the piece, holding the base in the chuck to make sure it was close to being centered. I then clamped it in place and worked the outside, truing that up, cleaning it up. I removed the face plate and worked the bottom and the inside. the piece was really thick near the base of the walls, so I thinned that down. I had to stop and re-center the piece several times as the edges of the base are thin and the wood holding it cracked, and the chuck is not really designed to hold something that thin.
I got the inside almost acceptable, then I turned it around and stuck the chuck inside. I put the tail stock directly centered and cleaned up the base.
The piece is better than it was, but not really all that great.

I never found my double sided tape. I have no idea where it went.
I did find something else. I have some sanding disks that screw onto a rubber backing. it takes about half turn to screw it on. I have not seen the mount in many months. I ran across it today and got it with the sanding disks now. I Used that in my sanding today.

I think I fixed the beer stein. the pin was breaking out on one side and he lid was not going down straight. I will check it later today to see if it is completely fixed.

I took the day fairly easy and while I accomplished projects I needed done, I did not do anything major.

During the week, I will be sanding and varnishing. I need to get the pieces I worked on this past week, completely finished. about two hours of work will do the job nicely.
Next week, I will drop in on the antique shop and the Water Gardens to see what is going on. I will bring my finished pieces and will decide where they go.
I get to start on some new projects too. I will see if I want to make more platters. I do have a number of works that need reworking.

I will see what I actually do next week.