Woodworking - 47

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 01, Day One (week 575)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-15-11 Saturday

75 degrees in the afternoon, 64 when I arrived at nine, 56 early morning, blue skies with random wisps of puff clouds and a light breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

This is the 11th anniversary of my starting in wood working.
My dad was dared into learning carving by an art teacher he was with. For years, he would travel to carving conventions around the country each summer and then see the rest of the country with my mom. At the conventions, he learned carving from the masters.
Years later, he was asking me to start carving with him. At the time, I had no interest in carving. I would go up to their house and write, or work on buildings for my model railroad. one day, I realized that he was in his 80s and I did not want that "I wish I had said, I wish I had done," kind of thing.
On January 17th, 2000, I took one of his carving knives and a piece of wood and did my first carving. I remember that Dad had a problem of getting out of the square of the wood, afraid to remove the wrong wood. I dug in deep and created the top of a man. He was supposed to have a brim all the way around but it kept breaking, so It ended up like a baseball cap slightly askew, and I had given him a big nose so he looked like a French foreign legionnaire.
I kept track of the number of carvings I did until I got a couple hundred carvings (some really small) and lost track.
I have carved ever since, picked up wood turning in 2003, and am now adding carving to my wood turnings.
I never realized how good Dad was in his carvings until his last year or so. He had real talent. His training with the masters helped, but he was able to make a face that looked like someone. I never appreciated or saw that until the end of his life.


This week

I added beads, as belt buckles to my last two dress vases. Both of them have problems with the finish, mainly they needed a lot more sanding before I started varnishing them. The beads, pinned and glued in place, make for excellent buckles. One has jewels around it and the other is a decorative metal bead.

I spend one of my Christmas presents, a Sears gift card. I got sand paper for my disk sander, and a set of spade bits with hex ends.

Later, I went to Constantines, a wood shop, and picked up a set if riflers. These are small rasps of several different shapes. I have had some projects where I would have loved to have these, though It would have been nicer if there were different "grits" on these tools.


Saturday

After yard sailing, I went out and bothered the cats. Beggar was not in his best mood, but I remember when I wished he was this sweet and nice. when I do something he does not like, he will look at my hand, He used to shy back and swat!!! It is really something on how he had tamed over the past few years. I got my equipment out and had to pet the backyard beast again.

I had several projects I wanted to work on. I mounted the face vase on the lathe and made a new tenon, centering it the best I could. I then hollowed some and then broke the tenon. I replaced the tenon and then broke that one too. I decided to go with "plan B" and put the two inch spade bit in the lathe and worked it in as deep as needed.
I then took the "worm screw" and inserted that on the bottom, and tried turning with that I would start working and the piece would start to wobble as there just was not enough bite on the worm screw. I got a lot of wood out of the inside, though.
It then dawned on me that I would go deeper into the wood when I do my carving, so I left it at that, I will use other tools to finish hollowing it out when the time comes. The extra wood will reduce errors for now. If needed, I can shape the inside to fit the carving.
I marked in pencil where the features will go. I had to look at the knots to know what would work for each face and what would not. some were close and others were wide. I considered having each eye shared by two faces, having six faces instead of three, but decided against that this time.

I tackled the rain fairy. She is holding her hand out to check for rain. I added some detail to her top so it looks like she is dressed. I then selected a new piece of wood the same wood. I then shaped and carved a brand new head, bigger than the one I had on there. I changed the hair style, got her looking up the way she is supposed to be.
I then removed the old head and doweled the head to the body and added glue and filler so the new head will blend with the body. I turned the head so it is looking to the hand held out. Mom said this was the best female head I have ever done. I have not done well with female faces. This one is not good either. Old Men are easy in comparison.
This forces me to see how I am not as good as My dad.
This carving looks good now. I have to cut her off the block she was made from, and finish her pants. There are details I need to add to her clothing too. I did take advantage of the head not being on to get some clothing shaping in.

I took a few cuts on the other fairy, but set that to the side. She really needs something to entertain her and I will have to carve that first. I need to know if she is looking up or straight.

Tomorrow, I will work more on the rain fairy and may start on the face vase.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 02, Day One (week 576)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-22-11 Saturday

64 degrees when I got out back, 73 at the high, and 67 when I left in the afternoon. A thin fog and light mist all morning, sometimes getting hard enough to consider getting out of it. That was all but gone by the time I got out back. At the warm part of the day, there was blue sky with scattered puffs, but the puffs merged into a grey pebbled sheet.
There was light breeze barely strong enough to be noticed during the day. It is supposed to get down to 40 tonight. There is some water on the roads in a few places so I will have to watch for black ice on the roads.... This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


THURSDAY

The turning club meeting was good. I took my dress vases and creamer to work. My boss showed interest in the creamer. I just have to decide on the price. My nephew was at Mom's house as someone drove over her water meter and caused a leak which my brother fixed. My Nephew looked at the dress vases and said "You have to get out more."

The club meeting was good. I got some compliments on my dress vases. I saw what everybody else had and was a little deflated. I have to work more on the quality of the finish.

The demonstration was on three cornered bowls. One roughs out a bowl on center, then moves it about half an inch off center and turns. Most of the wood is out of reach of the gouge, but one side will pass the gouge and get cut back. Since the radius is larger than the diameter of the bowl, that side is slightly flattened.
One then relocates the bowl a third of the way around and turn it the same way. Relocate the bowl a final third and turn the same way, one ends up with a three sided bowl. He turns the inside of the bowl on center on the tenon he had created before he started. he carved the inside of the bowl of one of his examples to make the inside appear three sided also. I like the effect. I will have to give it a try.

The Woodcrafts store we meet at is going to be closing in April if they do not find a buyer. The owner has two other stores, one in central Florida and one in Georgia so the stock will be shipped to them. The equipment in the classroom will be sold off when the store is closed.
The club is looking at other sites, preferably closer to a major highway. That will be sad as it is right next to Jo-Anne's Cloth World.



Saturday


We yard sailed. I got some cards and fiber fill to stuff things, and then got a bunch of yarn and some stuff made by a friend of my mom. I had promised myself that I would not accumulate yarn. I would only have what I needed and no more. I just learned that a real deal is nearly impossible to pass up.
With the finished stuff, I likely will use some of it as part of some bigger project. A few are basically done. They may be passed on to other yard sales. Will see as I get to them.

I had bothered the cats before we left, giving them food and some attention. they both decided they wanted more food and attention when we got back from our breakfast and yard sale run. The beast ended up laying at my feet for about an hour while I carved. He mostly wanted company, not attention at that time as he swatted at me a couple times. Nice to see that the beast is still hidden within that sweet kitty....

I got my stuff out, and then tackled the shed. I got the idea that I can bore out my cannon with the new tools I got. I had to find the cannon. I pulled the stuff out from the floor that I had moved a few weeks ago when I repaired the shelf that was buckling. I was after the other side, though, so some more stuff had to be moved. I found the cannon quickly, and I also found some interesting wood to work with while I was at it. I straightened up some tools and stuff, then put my interesting wood up front where I can get it easily, and put everything else back. I somehow ended up with a little more room in there. Now I have to find stuff to put there.

I started on a project a friend asked for. Our friend is really bad off. there is a four inch step-up out of his bedroom. My friend is taking care of him and asked for a ramp to make it a bit easier to wheel chair him out when needed. I assembled something from some pieces of wood that was available. I found out that some woods split in all directions when a screw is driven into it without pilot holes. I was able to jury rig up the ramp pretty well. I delivered it on the way home and it holds my weight when I stand on it. It will do.

I found that when I made the cannon, I did not have a tenon. I think I started that before I had the chuck. I had made it between centers.
I mounted it between centers and worked the surface, improving the finish. When I had it about as good as it was going to be, I decided to drill it out. I will say that this was an interesting project. One does not usually drill something out between centers. There is really nothing holding it to the head stock other than the pressure of the drill bit in the wood.
What made this even more fun was that I had to move my head stock (motor) to the end, and the tail stock almost hanging over the other end, to get the drill started in the hole. The cannon was just that long. I had to even move them closer to the ends when I added drill shaft extension, which was started after the hole was drilled as far as I could drill it with the bit and tiny extension.
When I was done, I had drilled the canon a little less than half way in, but that is more than far enough to look like is fully bored If I could hold it in a tenon, I could drill it farther with the boring bar. The cannon is 37 inches long and I drilled about sixteen inches. That is deep enough to give the impression it goes all the way in.
I have loads of sanding to do on this. I want it glass shiny when done.
I will make the carriage out of cheap wood, preferably with lots of knots. I will sand and polish that to furniture quality also.

Over the week, I painted the fairy I carved last week. There were problems with her that I fixed, but needed to cover the repairs to see how the end result looked. Painting her showed me what problems I had, which were few, and showed me how I could improve the carving.
I decided she needed decorations. I sat down and added design to her clothing. I cut triangles out of her cuffs and hems she looks more carved. I will have to fix a lot of painting errors, but I will paint the hems and cuffs yellow with green dots. I would have brought her home today but I forgot to fix her hair. I want to cut grooves into the hair to make it look like strands rather than a solid block like it is now.
I need to work out the base before I remove some excess wood on her legs.
I found out that the wood she is carved out of is Tupelo. this is harder than balsa wood but softer than basswood. It needs a very sharp knife to carve as it has a tendency to crush. It also breaks easier than basswood.

I took the dress vase I made last week and cut it so it has one strap. I have a lot of corrections to do, thinning and shaping, but I think it will look good. It is not as easy to do as I hoped and is not quite as good as I imagined she would be. I will work with it more. I want to do one more dress vase, and that will be a strapless dress.
It is surprising that you will see certain shapes or types of wood all over the place around you. When you come up with a great project that uses them, you cannot find them anywhere. I will have to look closely for the next one.

I have more carving to do tomorrow. I have to work on the dress vase, finish the hair of this fairy, then carve on the second fairy. I have to look at what stock I will need for the cannon carriage. I will turn the wheels on the lathe. I have the face vase to carve on, and have ideas for other projects to work on such as a three sided vase or platter.
I have loads of projects. The ones already started will take time to complete. I really should not start new projects until the ones I have started are done. The problem is that I tend to work only on what excites me and new is the most exciting.
I also have a bunch of old projects that need refinishing or repair. Some might be saved with carving, while others might not be saved ever.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Skipped this post

year 11, Week 01, Day Two (week 575)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-16-11 Sunday

56 degrees early morning, 70s all day long. Blue sky with puffs in the morning, they got closer together and heavier in the afternoon. Many looked pregnant, but nowhere near term. Light breeze all day was nice. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

After bothering both cats, I got my stuff out. Beggar got plenty of attention. In the afternoon, after my brother was there, Scarface showed up and got fed again. We made some noise and he scampered away but came back for food. Beggar did not come when called. He will show up later after I left.

I decided I was going to make a mushroom, or a base, for one of my fairies. I took a piece of pine I had taken from a tree that was taken down. I chainsawed a length off, and then bandsawed a disk off A chunk came off the disk, I drew a circle around what was left and bandsawing it when it came apart again.
I will have to split that piece of log and turn it sideways. It is not useful because of cracks through it for turning on end. The piece would split apart.

Since I was at the lathe, I found a piece of orange that had a split of a branch and some excellent twists and turns in it. I trimmed the bottom so I could fit it on the lathe, and then cut it to the length, measuring with one of the other dress vases I made. I mounted it on the lathe and started shaping it. I got the shape where I wanted it, then drilled it out with the spade bits I got this week. I broke a bit extension in the process and dug out another one I had.
Spade bits have along point that digs leads it into the wood. When one is dealing with not going through the end, the spade bit limits how deep you can go because of the point.
I used the spade bit to do the holes for the arms. I measured, leveled lined up and still got it slightly on the wrong angle.
I ground off the ring I did for the breasts everywhere except for where it needed to be. I saw then that the front, based on a bit of bark at the breasts, was off center from the flat of the front of the dress. the back was way off line. It has basically become a walking dress. It is pretty good.
There was a crack running down one side of it. The design of the straps I planned was not going to work. I ended up drilling across the crack and slipping skewers to dowel it. I then worked glue into the crack and let it sit till next week when I can clean up the mess and continue with the design.

I finished carved my latest fairy's body. I had messed up on one hand so I built up the thumb with wood filler. I have to smooth it out a little, but I will be leaving the exposed skin bare wood.
I may make some changes later, but I am going to paint her for now. I brought her home and gave her a coat of wipe-on varnish to protect her, the glues and fillers.

My brother gave me a drill extension I asked for. it works well. I can now use Forsner bits to go deep into my work. Forsner bits create flat bottoms.

I forgot to mention that I had to repair two of my older fairies yesterday. The one holding a worm, the top part of the worm broke off. The butterfly of the one with the flowers had come off the wire and the wire came out. I replaced that with a skewer I painted green. It helps to fix the position exactly that the wire never really did.

My brother is making some wood toy trucks for my grand nephew. One problem we had was how to drill the axels. I have some three foot long drill bits. I drilled the wood on the lathe, the chuck holding the wood and the drill bit passing through the tail stock right into the wood all the way through. The toys he is making are MODEL T style. He has the first one done except for some dowels to make them stronger, some final details, and the wheels. It looks good already.
My dad made some wood toy trucks for my brother's kids. I got a few of them too. I have wanted to make some wood toys but have not had the opportunity to do so lately.

OOh!!! I just now realized that I could finish a cannon I had started ages ago. I could not drill the barrel deep enough. The only problem is digging through the shed to get it. Finding the book with the plans would be a challenge to find, but I remember the basic design. I will have to fix the finish of the outside as it was not well done at the time. My image was a cannon of highly polished wood. I will have to look for that and see if I still have it.

Thursday I have a Turning Club meeting. I will be showing off my dress vases. Of course, I will be taking pictures.
Next weekend, I have a dress vase to finish, another fairy to finish, the scenes for both fairies which will include mushrooms which I can turn. I have baby dragons to carve, and a face vase to carve.
I have a full weekend planned, and other projects could surface too.

I will see what else I will do next weekend.

year 11, Week 02, Day two (week 576)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-23-11 Sunday

41 degrees early morning, 62 when I got outside and 68 degrees as the high of the day. Blue sky with nicely moving patches of clouds. I do remember once that a cloud actually had the nerve to block the sun. It may have happened more but I was mostly under the awning working.
There was a nice breeze, but the temps said they were not needed. I would have saved them for a hot summer day. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. If you don't like your weather, come experience ours.

Around mid day, the beast of the back yard was replaced by a similar looking cat. He wanted attention. He soaked up every bit of attention I could give him. I kept running out of it. He would walk away disappointed.

I dug out a piece of oak that was somewhat the right shape and made a strapless dress vase. The wood was not really right, and it does not look great without the strap of some kind. I worked on the single strap vase, grinding and shaping on it. It is a lot better now. I had to glue a crack in the strap while I was at it. The hard part on these is that the "fabric" has certain twists and turns and one has to have the thinning appear in the right place. I can see I can do better on some of my other pieces. Each of them needs some work here and there. Experience shows you your mistakes.
On the two I did, they need heavy sanding and polishing along with varnishing and shine.

I fixed the hair on the rain fairy, and then dropped her, breaking her arm off again. I glued it back on and added filler to blend the cracks. She needs to be re-painted again so that is not a problem. Her being made of Tupelo makes her fragile. I had already reinforced her arm but this is the second time the wood broke around the dowels.

I made a few cuts into the wood of the face vase. I mainly showed where the wood is to be cut back. I have a lot to do, but mainly wanted to mark it so I could say I worked on it. It is a start.

I picked out some wood and cut them to become part of the carriage for the cannon. they will need heavy sanding as this is heavily weathered wood. I mainly cut the sides to shape. I was going to set it up with the cannon facing backwards. My brother corrected me and explained where to set the balance when I attach the cannon to the carriage.

My brother finished a toy car for his grandson. it was a team project. I drilled the holes for the axles. My nephew and niece made the wheels. We all expect it to be broken within a week of the boy getting his hands on it.
My brother is going to make a pickup truck of the same design. He says that he now knows the process so he will take time on it and sand more.

I had a good day and got a lot done. If I was as productive every day as I was this weekend, I would work evenings on woodworking too. I will have days where nothing gets done or nothing goes right, but these days make the hobby a true joy to be in.

I am not sure exactly what I will do next week. I have loads of projects such as the cannon, fairies, face vase, and a number of other projects.

I will have to see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 03, Day One (week 577)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-29-11 Saturday

46 degrees at dawn, 60 degrees when I finally got outside, and a high of 70. We had blue skies and a very light breeze just strong enough to blow dust into my face. Tomorrow morning will be in the low 50s so we will have the start of a warming trend in the coldest winter on record. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

A friend is giving me some tools he can no longer use. I got them to mom's house but have not had time to lay them out to see what I have. That is a project for tomorrow. I will be getting more. Also, he has a little metal working lathe and I am planning to buy it from him.

I painted on the fairy I had finished. I need to do touch ups, but she looks good. I have to either find wings I had my dad make for me, or make new ones on the scroll saw.

Did some yard sailing today. A condominium has a big sale each year. I picked up two cast iron pans at a dollar each. A coffee grinder for a dollar, two pillows at a dollar each, and some little toy soldier parade ornaments for fifty cents.

I talked to a dear friend most of the morning on the cell phone. It was nice, though no wood working could be done.

I started by sanding on my cannon. I sanded it backwards for a bit, then turned it back around and sanded it more that way. It is nicer now.
I sanded on the boards for the sides and found some problems. I then chose a piece of wood that has a wonderful knot in it that will look great, but I removed a bark inclusion and decided it had better be filled. I might decide to use this for something else. Will see how the filler looks when done.
I figured out a useful trick when dealing with thick materials in tubes such as filler. I work the material away from the end, then fold the end over. I then place the piece between the jaws of a vice or between the jaws of a clamp and apply pressure. The material will squeeze out of the tube. apply more pressure and it will come out fast, remove the pressure and the flow will stop. this sure beats trying to use your hands to try to squeeze the stuff out.

I needed to correct the dress vases I have. I figured out that the way I have the "cloth" of the straps were formed to fit the body, was not quite right. I used several different grinders and sanders to shape them a bit better and get rid of a couple other minor problems. They are now ready for some serious sanding.

It was a nice day today, even if I did not accomplish much. Tomorrow I will work on the cannon. I will develop the carriage for it farther. I have a fairy and a face vase to carve on. If I do any wood turning, it should be on making mushrooms for my fairy scenes. I will pick through the tools I got to assess what I have and check out the condition.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 03, Day two (week 577)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-30-11 Sunday

57 degrees early morning, 60 when I got out to work, 71 during the day. super high feather and streaks on a bright blue sky. Puffs formed over the Everglades and started crowding toward the ocean in late afternoon. If this weather is better than what you have, come for a visit. Our hotels have plenty 0f room. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The beast of the backyard has acted exactly like a cat. It appears as if Scarface has adopted Mom. He is hanging around quite a bit and is out there every morning to be fed, and is hanging around a whole lot longer.

My first project was to sort through the tools my friend gave me. The power tools are well used and may need some maintenance. One drill is geared slow and really powerful. The chuck appears to be rusted in place, but the motor runs.
Among the rest of the tools, someone made a hatchet out of diamond plate and a pipe. The blade was stuck in a slot in the pipe, the pipe was crimped to the blade and welded. Cute. I sharpened another hatchet and used that to split a piece of log that had strong checks in it.
There were a bunch of files. They need to be cleaned up. My brother has some stuff that will do that. He will use it on a four jaw chuck, one where each jaw works separately. He says he will get that working nicely and give it back to me so I can do off center turning.
There were other tools I went through, some got cleaned up lightly, others just resorted and put away.

That took the entire morning. I then used the ax to split a piece of weathered log that had lots of checks in it. The checks were actually held strong. I had wanted to be able to split some of the wood I have. I removed the checked part of the wood and had a nice piece. I split it to half the length and mounted it in the lathe. It fought me tooth and nail as I tried to make a mushroom out of it. It was a hard wood, possibly oak, but I am not sure. The spur did not want to dig into the wood properly. I had to reset it, pounding the spur into it with a hammer, several times. I ended up flipping it around and making a tenon on the rough side. I then rounded it and made it into a mushroom. I worked my tools into the space beside the chuck to start the shaping and hollowing that will be needed when I get serious about the underside.

I took my original pieces of cut wood for the sides of my cannon and sanded on them. A buffer-grinder I received had a course sand paper on it so I used that to really remove some problems and clean up all the sides and edges. I then took it to the disk sander with medium (100 grit) sand paper and cleaned up the edges. Of course, I tipped the board wrong and added a little curved divot in it. It was such divots was one reason why I used the buffer sander in the first place. I now realize how they got into the wood in the first place.
I need to work with these pieces more to get them to where I want them. Loads of sanding with finer and finer grits.
I need to locate the book with the plans for the cannon so I can see how it is supposed to be constructed. I can do it just about anyway so I might as well learn to do it right.

I had a gift card so I went to Woodcrafts and picked up some wood. I picked up two blocks of basswood. I considered one big block and decided two small ones would serve me better. It was about the same price.
I also got two sheets of thin plywood. I need to make wings for my fairies, unless I can find the ones Dad made for me years ago. I sm positive I have another set to go, but think I have to dismantle the shed again to get to them. I will trace the wings on one of my other fairies, using them as the basic pattern. I, or my brother, will scroll them out. Without wings, my fairies are just women in green outfits.

Next week, I have a fairy to carve on, mushrooms to make, wings to make, a face vase to carve. I also may have some more tools to sort through. I will make an offer on a mini lathe for metal working. It is a real nice machine. My friend cannot use it so my getting it will guarantee that it will be used.
I will also be going down to Dania to check on my work that is on display. I will drop off some dress vases I have made to add to the display.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 04, Day One (week 578)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-05-11 Saturday

80 degrees, lows in the high 60s, light breeze strong enough to blow fine sawdust all over the place. Blue skies over the ocean and puffs of clouds getting thicker the farther west one looks. Clouds blocked the sun often but that was not a problem. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

Friday

I went down to Dania Beach to check on my work and drop off my dress vases. The Dania Beach water gardens is closed, of course. There is stuff still in the yard, but nothing like there was. It is being emptied out.

I stopped at the antique shop and dropped off my dress vases. He has some child sized dolls that are beautiful. One was an Indian Princess and the other was a bride. My display looks good. I stuck some of my wood flowers into the dress vases to show what they are.

I stopped at a thrift shop and got a base plate for a router that allows it to do circles or can act as a guide.

I stopped at a friend's house where I got some tools and gave a bid on a metal lathe he has. He loves the machine and will think about whether he wants to give it up, let alone at what price.

Saturday

I planned on going with mom to a meeting, but I found it was going to take far more time than expected. I was not going to do any wood working when it was all over. I decided to stay home and work. Mom said that the featured speaker did not show.

Yard sailing, I got a bunch of buttons. I see some that just have to be used. Some might be gifted. I got far more than my dollar's worth.

I located the book with my cannon plan. I made changes to the design but am following it for the most part. There is a bracket that holds the cannon in place. I cut them on the band saw and sanded them. I narrowed the cannon which I decided would look better. I have some more work, but it is looking good. Loads of finishing is needed.

I had one dress vase where the strap broke. It was in oak, so I cut off a piece from a branch. I measured and shaped it, getting the grain close to being right. while sanding on the disk sander, the piece caught and slipped out of my grip. My finger got sanded on the end. it really does not hurt except when I type.... even then it is not bad. The repair is quite good.

I carved on the baby dragon, which is in Tupilo. I don't like the results at all. Nothing seems right. I may toss it as it look ugly. It is not going to work. I will see later.

I dug in the shed to see if I had any fairy wings. I found the basket with half a wing. It actually had two of the same wing, One was removed from a fairy when I replaced the wings, and the other was a really bad scroll saw job, several pieces missing.
I took the eighth inch thick plywood I got last week and found I could trace those wings in a way where I can get eight of them from one sheet of plywood.
I took one of my fairies and traced the missing wing. I then traced the tracing and cut out the holes, then searched for the most efficient way to get those wings on the plywood. I can get six of these wings on the plywood. I thought they were smaller than the other ones. I may scroll these out tomorrow.

In my digging in the shed, I found a whole bunch of cut-offs I was given. One someone was making a vase, they would part the piece off the wood holding it on the lathe. "The remains tend to get tossed. I was given them with a whole bunch of other woods. I decided they will make great mushroom caps for my fairies.
I took one that was interesting and turned it. Like the one I made last week, I have to do the stem. The cap, though looks good even if it has a shrinkage crack.

I did a little bit of work on the second fairy, but not too much. I have a figure to carve that she is looking at. I am not sure what that will be. That is more important than finishing her. Other than her face, the rest of her can be done in just a couple weekends.

Tomorrow, what I work on will depend much on whether my brother shows up. I have stuff to do that depends on him. there is stuff I will do whether he is there or not. Then there is stuff that I will do only if he is not there.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 04, Day Two (week 578)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-06-11 Sunday

83 degrees, partly cloudy with one leaky puff that passed with just a few noticeable driplets. Mostly blue sky and sun, with a wind in the morning that barely moved leaves, but picked up a little in the afternoon.

The backyard beast acted exactly like a cat. It is really convincing. He is a very good actor.

I looked at the baby dragon carving I started yesterday and figured out what I did wrong. The wings don't come to the front. Also they were designed wrong from the start. I took a piece of basswood and cut a blank. I will start carving it next week possibly. The softness of Tupilo did not give me time to actually see what I was doing until I went too far. I tossed the first attempt.

I started serious carving of the face vase. It never works out like I planned, but I think it will still look good. It will just be a lot of work.

I sanded some more on the cannon. looking at the book, I decided that it was just too long. I cut it shorter and it looks better. I still have wheels to make, more sanding, and may put a bottom on it just for strength. It does look good. I also need to cut the end of the muzzle off. period cannons end with a strengthening rib and I have some barrel beyond that. Norfolk Island Pine has an interesting growing habit where the branches grow in a ring, with a space in the trunk before the next ring of branches. I turned the cannon so the reinforcement rings were at the branches. I have one ring just before the end and that is where I need to cut the end off.

I have some small cutting boards and they are just too small. I have a big sheet of wood that was glued up. I cut a nice sized piece off it and after lots of sanding, made it into a cutting board. it is about sixteen inches by two feet. Food is not going to fall over the edge onto the counter now.

My brother is making wood trucks and cars for his grandson. He pointed to a tank truck as something he could make. I said I could turn the tank. I dug out a three by three and turned it for him. It was actually bigger than a three by three. I set it off center so the bottom would be flat. A quick turning and we had the tank. He made the rest of the truck out of two by fours, some glued up.
He also had me drill the axle holes for him. I clamp the wood in the chuck and line it up center with the point in the tail stock and tighten it down. The bearing system I am using in my tail stock it hollow and has interchangeable points. I replaced the sharp point with a hollow point and was able to run a three foot long drill bit (quarter inch diameter) into and through the wood. My brother then cuts the wood to specification for the project.

I had found a bunch of cut-offs yesterday among my stuff. Usually, when you make a vase, you will part it off the lathe before the chuck, leaving a piece of waste wood on the lathe. Someone gave them to me, they for the most part are round disks. It dawned on met that they will make good mushroom caps. I then just have to make stems.
I made another mushroom cap today. That gives me three of them. None are as big as I need for the scene I am making. They are big enough for things to be sitting on them.

I have loads of projects to work on next week. A baby dragon, a fairy, more mushrooms, more work on the cannon, possible figures for fairy scenes, the face vase, plus any projects that come to mind between now and then.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 05, Day One (week 579)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-12-11 Saturday

56 degrees early morning and until I got to work, 65 in the afternoon, Seattle morning, a light drizzle, just enough to make things miserable but not enough to warrant a rain coat or umbrella. A breeze picked up in the afternoon, strong enough to send sawdust everywhere. The drizzle stopped as I got out to get to work. The sky became high fairly quickly and then that thinned out and we got blue sky. We will be getting 47 degree temps tomorrow morning. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Tuesday

One of my friends at work gave me a big piece of Golden shower tree, tababulia. He mentioned the thick bark and I said I could do a lot with that. I got it to Mom's house Saturday and painted the ends with red paint to slow the drying on the ends.

I purchased the machine lathe from my friend this week. It is a Unimat lathe. A wonderful machine. It is light enough to carry it and the wood box that contains it and the parts. It needs cleaning up and I am not totally sure I know what everything is. Sunday I will get with my bother and go over everything, and then he will take it home and clean it up. It will likely eventually end up at my Mom's for my use. I plan to make tools with it.

Saturday

Went yard sailing after breakfast. It was drizzle so the only thing available was at a Clubhouse center. I ended up getting some good looking kitchen knives and a single portable burner for ten bucks. I was after one knife and the others, 11 in all, look like they are expensive knives.

I dug out the scroll saw and scrolled out the fairy wings for my fairies. Because of the way I did them, the pairs of upper wings are not interchangeable. If I break one, I either have to use one that is completely different or replace all the wings.
It had been years since I scroll sawed. I was not following my lines, instead re-designing the holes as I went. Their shapes were not important as long as the pair is the same.
I figured out quickly, that to do a sharp turn, I pull the work forward so the back of the blade is against the wood or it will make a wide curve. I never knew that in my previous attempts of scroll sawing.
The main reason I don't do more scroll sawing, is that I have other projects, carving and wood turning, that take up the same time. I scroll sawed today as the weather was still not cleared up and I needed these wings done.

I found a sea urchin shell I started to prepare for an ornament. I decided to take some cut-offs and make a finial for the shell. I took a small piece of yellow pine and made a cap. I then found a long piece of pine, I think it was yellow pine, and turned the longest finial I have made to date.

My cannon needed wheels. Mom had found a couple pieces of yellow pine, so I cut four squares out of them. I then drilled the center, and then got a threaded rod that I stuck through the center of them. I used double sided tape to keep them together. my hole for rod was too big. I could not locate the right diameter drill bit. I also did not look for a second nut which would have made the project easier.
I mounted the shaft through the head of my lathe, which is hollow, and used my tail stock to hold the wood itself to the chuck which was closed. The screw was forced against the tail stock end of the wood with the tail stock pushing on it.
I knocked off the corners and slowly rounded the pieces. With them all together, I tried to make them all the same size. because the rod was slightly smaller than the holes, there was a little bounce. I got the visually right, then swapped them around into a different order and turned them again since the ends might be a different size.
A bit later, I put a wood block in the chuck and turned a nib just the size of the hole. I put the tail stock with a wide point into the hole on the other side and was able to clean up the surfaces with a skew and then sandpaper, rounding the corners.
When done, there is a slight difference in the diameter of the wheels, but they look good and are close enough to where I can pair them up.

After I had the wings made, I painted a set black, and later glued lower wings to upper wings. I had to remove the paint from where I was gluing them.
I took the fairy and measured carefully and then used the dremmel and a fine bit to start cutting slots for the wings. I had measured the spaces for the wings where they overlapped. AS I was cutting, I got them wrong so to correct it, the spaces were made to accept both wings.
When ready to add the wings, I worked filler into the space, to make the fit of the wings tight, and then inserted the wings, packing the overflow back in. I will have some clean-up and paint touch ups, but she looks good.
I had told people that I carve fairies because I wanted to carve pretty women and not look like a leacher.

I got a lot of work done today and worked till five, which was a surprise. I have a lot more to do on many of the projects I did today, but was quite satisfied with the results.

Tomorrow I want to trim the end of the barrel of the cannon and work more on the carriage. I will finish the ornament. I had glued the top on but not the bottom. I will work more on the fairy, cleaning up around the wings. I will also get with my brother on the lathe. I may make something from the log.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow

16 )
.
This idea came from the soul searching concepts mentioned in Idea 10 and 11, but a different take.
Particle physics found that there was something to the spiritual magical beliefs. it was found because energies were not matching expectations and little bits of strange effects were seen outside the experiments.
Once that was found, other scientific fields started exploring and finding evidence for magic everywhere. Soon, examining religious practices scientifically based on the newest research pointed to the way to a "higher authority," but not beyond that.
It took some time, but they found that there was really a soul. There was no evidence of heaven or hell, or that the souls went to the higher authority, but the automatic assumption was that souls likely went there. An accident with mind experiments allowed some patients to look into their souls. The researchers were stunned at the descriptions.
Soon, the accident was replicated and perfected. the churches, who were masters of religion anyway, took over the systems.
A group of ten people came to a temple. they knew this was supposed to be a cleansing, a gauge of how close to heaven they wee. they laid down on the tables and the equipment was hooked up. Each one had spent a month studying what they would be seeing and how to deal with it.
A woman was a pillar of the church and she joked that her test would be boring. A beggar off the street, who had just cleaned himself up, was also part of the tests. He was not comfortable and said he had not lived the best life. Others had various comments in between.
The equipment came on. the beggar sort of dozed off, then woke up in a cave. he did not walk, but sort of moved through. He recognized that the shape of the place he was in, was that of a pre-born baby. There were places where the surface was deformed, encrusted masses here and there, but generally clean. He saw the start of the umbilical cord and it was shiny and clean.
After moving all the way through all places in the form, he examined closely where the messes were. he somehow knew the causes of them, a slow anger that could be brought to high violence, several addictions, some bad habits. He decided since he was cleaning himself up already, he would work hard on those items. He came out of the experience with a smile. He told the priest that he had some work to do.
The woman entered the form. She found she had to pick her way through crud and encrusting debris that nearly went all the way across the form. She went through the whole form. She somehow recognized the form as that of a unborn baby, but there was really no clue that she could see. There were no large spaces anywhere. She turned and passed into a space she missed. She could see an umbilical cord passing beyond the clear bubble, but there was no hole. The cord looked shriveled and deformed.
She stared at it a long time, then she realized what she was seeing. Her soul was so corrupted by the way she acted, the things she did when no one was looking, her entire past as an outwardly wonderful person but pure evil behind the scenes. She realized that her soul was pinched off from the path it would take when she died.
Horror flowed over her, She hit the hard deposits and nothing happened. She felt trapped, she could was not sure how she got to this point. She slowly picked her way along the mess and somehow reached the point she started at.
When she woke, she broke into screaming sobs and they could not stop her. An ambulance took her to the hospital.
None of the other people had as extreme reactions, but none were satisfied with what they saw.
They had finished their session of soul searching, searching their souls to see how clean and pure they were and find out what they needed to do to purify themselves. Few people did not change from the experience.
The beggar eventually entered the priesthood and was good at it. The woman was finally released from the hospital and she was almost a different woman. She lost her drive and almost stepped completely out of society. She was prone to sobbing fits. There were rumors that she was going to the poor people and asking for their help. The few that were willing to talk said that she would find motherly like women and become like a little girl around them.
It took a while for everybody to link the soul searching she had done to the way she was acting. Even then no one was quite willing to say that was unquestionably the cause.
Nearly a decade later, she did the soul searching again. There was a lot of debris everywhere, but the umbilical cord was clear and looked healthy. She changed a little more after that until her death half a decade later.

year 11, Week 04, Day Two (week 578)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-06-11 Sunday

83 degrees, partly cloudy with one leaky puff that passed with just a few noticeable driplets. Mostly blue sky and sun, with a wind in the morning that barely moved leaves, but picked up a little in the afternoon.

The backyard beast acted exactly like a cat. It is really convincing. He is a very good actor.

I looked at the baby dragon carving I started yesterday and figured out what I did wrong. The wings don't come to the front. Also they were designed wrong from the start. I took a piece of basswood and cut a blank. I will start carving it next week possibly. The softness of Tupilo did not give me time to actually see what I was doing until I went too far. I tossed the first attempt.

I started serious carving of the face vase. It never works out like I planned, but I think it will still look good. It will just be a lot of work.

I sanded some more on the cannon. looking at the book, I decided that it was just too long. I cut it shorter and it looks better. I still have wheels to make, more sanding, and may put a bottom on it just for strength. It does look good. I also need to cut the end of the muzzle off. period cannons end with a strengthening rib and I have some barrel beyond that. Norfolk Island Pine has an interesting growing habit where the branches grow in a ring, with a space in the trunk before the next ring of branches. I turned the cannon so the reinforcement rings were at the branches. I have one ring just before the end and that is where I need to cut the end off.

I have some small cutting boards and they are just too small. I have a big sheet of wood that was glued up. I cut a nice sized piece off it and after lots of sanding, made it into a cutting board. it is about sixteen inches by two feet. Food is not going to fall over the edge onto the counter now.

My brother is making wood trucks and cars for his grandson. He pointed to a tank truck as something he could make. I said I could turn the tank. I dug out a three by three and turned it for him. It was actually bigger than a three by three. I set it off center so the bottom would be flat. A quick turning and we had the tank. He made the rest of the truck out of two by fours, some glued up.
He also had me drill the axle holes for him. I clamp the wood in the chuck and line it up center with the point in the tail stock and tighten it down. The bearing system I am using in my tail stock it hollow and has interchangeable points. I replaced the sharp point with a hollow point and was able to run a three foot long drill bit (quarter inch diameter) into and through the wood. My brother then cuts the wood to specification for the project.

I had found a bunch of cut-offs yesterday among my stuff. Usually, when you make a vase, you will part it off the lathe before the chuck, leaving a piece of waste wood on the lathe. Someone gave them to me, they for the most part are round disks. It dawned on met that they will make good mushroom caps. I then just have to make stems.
I made another mushroom cap today. That gives me three of them. None are as big as I need for the scene I am making. They are big enough for things to be sitting on them.

I have loads of projects to work on next week. A baby dragon, a fairy, more mushrooms, more work on the cannon, possible figures for fairy scenes, the face vase, plus any projects that come to mind between now and then.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Year 11, Week 06, Day One (week 580)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-19-11 Saturday

59 degrees early morning,70 when I got out back to work and a high of 79. Blue sky with a light breeze. Perfect working weather. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

THURSDAY

I took my fairy to work and got a lot of comments. One of my bosses that tends to ignore my woodworking, looked the fairy over for quite a while. I felt good about her after that.
I went to the turning club meeting, showed my fairy off at the carving club and then at the turning club. I also had a sea urchin ornament I made.
I told the club that I am turning the mushrooms and other scenery elements for her.
A few people had some wood we could take. I got a mango branch and a few pieces commercial wood.


SATURDAY

After breakfast, we stopped at a couple yard sales. I got a few items at one. I got two pair of ice tongs, some old fashion pump screw drivers, a old screwdriver kit where the bits are held in a wood body, and some nut picks. No, I don't need any of it. I will offer some of them to the antique shop if he wants them. I also got a item used in machining. I will discuss with my brother what it is, but I think it is used to make sure something is centered on the lathe by measuring bounce.

I sanded more on my cannon, fixing some things. I decided to assemble the carriage. I have some more work and it is not as good as I hoped it would be, but it looks all right. I now have to run dowels into it to hold it together. Right now, just some glue is holding it together and it is not going to be strong enough to handle play.
I have to add the barrel and wheels and will have my brother help me with them. Darn! I just remembered that my brother told me how to get the axles square. I have to disassemble the carriage to do it. Oh Well. He told me to put the two sides together and drill through both of them. I guess that will be an early project tomorrow. It won't be too hard.

Last week, I was given a Tababula (golden shower tree) log. I decided to cut a piece off and make something.
I took the log and stuck it in the band saw. I started cutting and found a bit of bark sticking up a bit too high to cut. I started backing the blade back out and accidentally twisted it and the blade came off the wheels in the bandsaw.
Bandsaw blades use tension to move them. There are two wheels inside the housing one wheel is powered by the motor, The blade, which is a loop, is held in tension against it and turns a second wheel. The instant the blade loses contact with the wheels, it stops. Well, as I backed the blade out, it caught in the wood and the blade stopped.
To slide the blade into place or slip it out, it goes through a thin slot in the table. Trying to get the blade out of the slot and out of the wood, it ended up getting well kinked up.
I had to take the electric chain saw and cut the log from the other side to finish the cut to free the blade.
Since I had the chain saw in my hands, I cut a second chunk off the log.
I tried to straighten the blade without removing the "set on the teeth. Saws work by having teeth tipped one side and the next to the another. This causes the channel cut by the blade to be wider than the blade itself so it does not bind. There is a couple places where the blade is bent front to back. That was beyond what I wanted to deal with at the time so I set the blade to the side. The only other blade I had was a half inch diameter blade. the one I bent up was a quarter inch blade which does scroll cuts quite well. It is not designed for cutting well straight and not really good for cutting green logs.

I took one second of the log and mounted it on the lathe. The bark on this wood is thick and soft. I wanted to keep the bark on the edge at least. I mounted it between centers to make a tenon for the chuck to hang onto. I then started turning it. I decided quickly to make it a hollow bark container. I hollowed it until I had it deep enough, I was going to part it off, then changed my mind as I was cutting in. I decided it would have a pedestal. I coved in and made the base. I got the stem where I felt it would look good. I removed the piece, turned it around with the chuck against the bottom on the inside, and finished the bottom.
I did some grinding on the inside with a grinder and with my knife to fix a few problems which I made a little worse, and got some stuff inside and it darkened the wood a little.

I have a crochet project that I have to undo a lot of the yarn. I had decided I needed a something to gather up the yarn as I pulled it off. I took a piece of Cedar and sanded it on the disk sander, then drilled two holes and glued in some dowels. I will wrap the yarn on it as I remove the yarn from the crochet project.

I took the other section of the tababula and sliced it up into disks. I mounted one in the lathe. I opened the chuck as wide as possible and just used the tail stock pressure to hold it against the chuck. I gently cut a saucer inside on the tail stock, then turned it around and closed the chuck so it fit inside and did the bottom. I used a grinder to remove the posts that I used for holding the piece in place.
I started a second one and got a catch and broke the post holding tail stock I have ways to work around that and will do so tomorrow. I had cut eight of these disks and will try again tomorrow most likely.

The backyard beast acted so much like a cat that It was impressive. He came to get attention and food six times during the day. It is hard to believe that he has tamed down this much. It has been over a year since I last tried to pick him up and don't plan to do so. He does well enough as it is.

I did not do any carving, and should really get onto the face vase. I also need to spend more time making mushrooms and base for the rain fairy.
I really need to get some clay to form a king frog for my other fairy. I need to have something to go by to the shape right. I have not seen anything that fits my image of a king frog I like.
I really need to carve some ornaments. The ones I made this year are all but gone. I want a few more of them for the art show. I might not have room for them, but would like to have them on display.

I have loads of work to do between now and April and really do not know if I can get it all done in time.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 11, Week 06, Day two (week 580)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-20-11 Sunday

78 degrees as a high, sunshine, blue sky above, some clouds around the horizon. there were some gusts of wind to move sawdust but mostly it was quite calm. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

The beast of the back yard has picked up a new trait. He will meow like a kitten sometimes. He is just letting me know he is waiting again.

Mom had me scrape some sand along side the road for her garden. I got her nine buckets of dirt, but had to take a break and never got back to it.

I had started making saucers yesterday with the bark on the edges. I had cracked the post the tail stock stuck into and set that to the side. Today, I decided that was going to be a mushroom. I remounted it and shaped the outside first, then flipped it around and did the inside. I handled the post a bit differently and that solved the problem.

I glued some yellow pine boards together after measuring carefully how the fairy would sit on them, and set that for the glue to dry. I then sat down with the dremmel with a grinding bit and started shaping it for the base of the rain fairy. I have a long ways to go to make sure it does not look like a board.
I also shaped the stem of the mushroom. It might need more work but is a good start.

My brother arrived and called me out front. They are putting in sewer and water lines and the road is dirt right now. it has been this way for a while. My brother came in with his company truck and it sunk into the dirt on the side of the road. When he tried to back out, his bumper hit dirt and he was stuck. He would not have gotten stuck but the tire in the"road" dug in too. He knows how to handle such situations and the road was compacted poorly other than in the center. I got out boards and he jacked the truck up and we put the boards in place. He then was able to get out of the hole. We filled the pits but it is still soft. We did not plan on starting that way but that was how it went.

We dug out the little metal lathe and played around. We took out an aluminum dangle from a wind chime and machined the end of that. We then took a bolt and removed the head. I dug out some cutting bits I had and my brother made a special bit for parting metal off. It worked nicely.
We then figured out how to do angles, It requires turning the lathe head on an angle. It worked pretty well.
I tried machining some wood with the grain going across it. I broke one and was doing well on the other, but because I had the lathe at high speed, we had to stop it as one of the bearings was talking to us.
The lathe needs to be cleaned and lubed, but works pretty good especially at slower levels.

I brought home the cannon barrel. I will "paint" it with boiled linseed oil. We regularly soak Norfolk Island Pine in linseed oil to bring out hidden colors in the wood. Because of the thickness of this cannon, the oil will not go all the way in and it is not necessary. I will add the oil to the surface of the cannon over several days to get the colors I am after.

Next weekend, I will work on the cannon, the rain fairy base, the saucers I started. I will also likely do some new projects. I should carve on the face vase and I have some ornaments I need to carve. I have a lot of projects to do. I do not know if it will be next week or the week after, but I do want to go to the Renaissance fair.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Year 11, Week 07, Day One (week 581)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-26-11 Saturday

63 degrees early morning, 82 degrees as a high, blue sky, some clouds around noon but that cleared up, little breeze in the morning that picked up in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

MONDAY

A very good friend of mine, James T Duke, died on Monday. It was his birthday and he was 73 years old.
He was a professional sign painter and I took sign painting classes from him back in the 1980s. I lost touch with him for several years, and then he contacted me and we started getting together again. He had been treated for cancer caused by the solvents used in the paints, and was suffering the effect of lead poisoning as he used lead paint for decades.
I kept in touch with him after that, helping him through Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Wilma. When a friend I was visiting in the nursing home died, I shifted over to visiting him each week. As he started getting bad, I started visiting him twice a week. He had the son of an old friend who move in with him and took care of him to the end. I visited the day after he had died.
A few weeks back, I purchased a mini lathe and he gave me a bunch of tools. I wish I had spent more time with him, but second guessing is useless. I did what I could do at the time.

WEDNESDAY

I started the process of applying Linseed oil on the cannon barrel. I took to pouring the oil inside the barrel as a reservoir, and then wetting a cloth and wiping the outside down. I would then stand it up so whatever was inside the barrel would soak in. It really make the wood stand out.

I picked up some putty at the grocery store with the idea of making a mockup of a carving I want to do. 'the problem was that this stuff slumped at room temperature, becoming a puddle after about an hour. that did not solve my problem. I am not sure what I will do with it.

SATURDAY

We went yard sailing after breakfast. I picked up a hand powered food processor made by Tupperware. I did not need it but it was two bucks. I also picked up a pair of roller blades, also for two bucks. They were in bad shape. I am happy to get them as they are going to be a tool for the lathe, a STEADY REST. That is a set of wheels that are placed on a piece in the middle to hold it steady. There are times when you can place them on the end and not need the tail stock.
I removed the wheels from one of the roller blades. I will have to see what design steady rest I will make. I stopped at a friend's house on the way home and he showed me his design. It was not what I was thinking, and not one I would have thought of.

Last week, My brother took a rusted four jaw machinist chuck I got from Duke and heated it up with a torch. He had soaked it almost all week in a de-rusting solution he made. The de-rusting solution did not do the job. After he got the chuck fully hot, he dropped it into water, quenching it. this allowed us to disassemble the chuck.
Today I took the parts and cleaned them up, sanding on them, brushing them, working them. My brother showed up and gave me a bunch of stuff for the little lathe. He told me that the jaws had to slide through the guides with hand pressure. At the time I had to drive it through. I took a file and filed the guides and suddenly the jaws slid nicely. The screws that move the jaws had a little problem. I figured out that one had a bigger Allen Screw socket than the other three. To use this chuck, I have to use two Allan Wrenches. I got the chuck working sweetly.

To test the repaired chuck, I stuck a white pine two by two and marked the tail stock end with a bunch of off center dots. I centered the jaws of the chuck first, and turned both ends round. I then shifted the jaws off center, and moved the tail stock point off center. I then turned it. I did this about six times, essentially making a badly designed crank shaft. I was excited as that proved a concept of using the chuck to do offset turning. There are projects where offset turning is highly desired for specific effects. Now I can do it easily.

I emptied the box the little lathe was in, cleaned it out a little and re-packed it. I then took some purple heart cuttings and decided to play around. This purple heart was cut off the end of the board so the grain goes across it rather than down the length. I mounted the piece in the lathe and machined off the corners of the piece. I had it basically round. I stopped with the bit against the wood. When I turned the lathe back on, the bit caught and broke the wood in several pieces.
I will say that machining something is very time consuming. You don't "horse" your way through the material. This lathe uses belts instead of gears to transfer power and is prone to slipping. I broke a fine rubber belt while working. It is known as a rooky mistake.
My brother came and gave me a "care package" for the lathe, bits of metal to work with, some milling bits, some turning bits. It adds to what can be done with the lathe.


I stopped on the way home and picked up some molding clay. I am making a king frog and need to make a model before I start cutting on the wood. I just made a frog, but used too much clay and did not have the robe and crown. I will make another one either later tonight or sometime tomorrow and make it right. I also picked up some bandsaw blades. the blades were more than I should have spent, but I am not sure where I will be able to get them after the local WOODCRAFTS closes.

I am thinking of starting over on the carriage for the cannon. I just don't feel it is as good as the cannon itself. It is not square and has some problems. If I do make a new carriage, I will use the table saw to get my cuts square. It will be a royal hassle to get the saw out of the garage but well worth getting quality cuts. I want this an art piece and I made too many mistakes for this piece to be artistic. It is more junky. I can use it for measurements, though.

I have loads of projects waiting for me to do and deciding which project takes precedence is the question. I really need to get to the stuff already in process.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 11, Week 07, Day Two (week 581)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-27-11 Sunday

85 degrees, breeze enough to blow sawdust around, blue sky with some patchy clouds that disappeared. It conditions were exactly like this weekend all year long, at least on weekends, I would think I was in heaven.
It should be noted that the 85 degrees right now does not feel as warm as 85 degrees will feel in the summer. For one thing, there was no humidity to speak of. The air is not carrying a whole lot of heat within it. Everything not air is still cool, not heated up. In the summer, everything you touch is 85 degrees. The wind even feels warm. Today the wind was cool and felt good. Of course the humidity makes the air thick and that makes it feel even warmer.
This weather report about a perfect day was brought to you by the City Of Pompano B3each Department Of Tourism.

I got to Mom's house earlier than planned. I started by bothering the cats. Scarface is a sweety and likes attention, but has his limits. He eats his fill and walks off.
The beast of the back yard back-slid yesterday. I rubbed his head while he was not in the right position. as I pulled my hand back, he swatted me with a claw out. I got a light scratch out of it. Other than that one moment, he was a super sweety, not really interested in food, but really interested in attention. I gave him attention six times yesterday and four times today. He would eat just enough to justify him receiving attention, and then just relax and soak up my petting and rubbing him. If I was willing to sit there all day, he would likely have let me pet him the entire time.

I decided the carriage of my cannon was below par. It was nowhere near as good as I wanted it to be. I decided to start over. this time I dug out the table saw. It was buried by all sorts of storage and yard sale stuff in the garage. I unloaded it and then dragged it out into the drive way. I sliced the slightly rounded edges of the boards first, then measured and cut them to size. It took me a bit to remember how to cut things properly. the fence is your friend. I got them the same size by setting the fence to one piece and then cutting the second piece.
I did run into a problem. Not having used the saw in a long time and only limited usage then, I was cranking one of the wheels and saw it was on an angle rather than upright. I crouched down and figured out that I was turning the wrong one. I turned it to straighten it up and when it got near zero, the wheel disengaged. I ended up removing the wheel, seeing that the plastic that was supposed to key into the flat of the shaft was stripped. I drilled a hole and stuck a screw in. I tightened the screw once I had the wheel on and that cured that problem. I was able to get the saw square, though I did do some cuts accidentally at five degrees and had to trim that. I had set the wood on end and they were tipping, which was how I found it.
Once I got the saw set up and worked out how I had to do things, I got the pieces for the carriage cut. The plans had a bottom on the carriage so I decided to do that too, which had me cut the braces differently.
I have to sand the surfaces. I cannot find the stick on sand paper for the disk sander. If I can find that, I will put some course grit sand paper on and clean up the pieces. I may have to go to "plan B" if I cannot find it.

I had a tool handle that was drilled out way to big. It was given to me. I decided I was going to make that into a cannon for my grandnephew. I showed it to my brother when done and he decided that my old carriage was too heavy for it. I broke the old carriage apart and my brother will use it for pieces and parts for his toy trucks. I can use them too.

I have a flap sander for the drill. I have several. Flap sanders are pieces of sandpaper looped in strips on a shaft. when the shaft spins, the sand paper straightens out. You press them to the wood and they will bend on contact and then straighten out, getting into tight areas. I had one that was a size the dremmel could handle, but the shaft was too big. I dug out the little metal lathe and after some fiddling and some mistakes, I machined part of the shaft so the dremmel can hold it. Perfect. I have a flap sander that was a bit bigger, but decided to leave that shaft as it was as it was really too big for the dremmel. the dremmel goes way to fast for something that big.
It was great to be able to fix the shaft of that flap sander. All I really need is some raw material and I have a number of projects that the little lathe is perfect for. My big lathe could machine things, but holding the bits to metal is difficult and it is really impossible with my setup to get things straight and square.

My brother arrived and decided he wanted to mill something. He mounted the motor like a drill press and changed the bit holder to a hold down. He then milled a slot in a piece of metal. He had me do it and I made a few little mistakes like intending to tighten the chuck and turning it the wrong way. Once I got the bit at the right setting, I made a few mistakes on changing the height.
My brother then had me put the machine away, which was good as I saw the setup as I took it apart. I think I can now set up for milling. More projects appear in my mind as to what I can get done rather than buying them.
I found that if I am shown how to do something in machining, I can understand how to do it on my own. My brother showed me how to use the hold downs which now makes sense.
My brother took some measurements and will be making a vice that will fit on the machine to hold parts we are working on.

Last night, I made two clay frogs and they looked like frogs. I planned on making one at Moms house and prepare a blank. I never got around to it. I did find a piece of wood that will be perfect for it. I likely will do the body and apply the legs separately. I will make a few more of them to get the design fixed in my mind.

I visited a friend on the way home and he showed me a different design of a steady rest. it is a simple design and could be easy to do. It does have problems as it requires good friction to stay in place. I have some designs in mind and will see what design I lock onto.

Next week, I will be going to the antique shop and check to see what is going on there. I will give him advance warning that I will be picking up my stuff next month for my art show.
I will work on my cannon, fairy scene, frog, face vase along with dozens of other projects I am looking at.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 08, Day One (week 582)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-05-11 Saturday

76 degrees, patchy clouds, good breeze, the clouds wept a couple times, actually getting the ground wet once, some sun. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

FRIDAY

I went down to Dania Beach to the Candlelight Antiques to check on my stuff and let him know I would be taking my stuff out next month. He has some new stuff in the place that was really good. too bad I cannot get any of it.

SATURDAY

Yard sailing, I got a new chair for at home. I only paid five bucks. I saw a number of other things that I considered getting but held off.

Over the week, I made some clay frogs, exploring the design. Today I took a two by for and cut the end off, and then shaped it with the band saw. I then used different grinders to turn it into the king frog.
The way he is designed, is that he has a robe over him. All I had to do was to give indication of his shape beneath it. Only his head is really out of the robe, and you can just see his front legs. I shaped and carved the crown on top his head and shaped his face somewhat and it looks pretty good. I will do a little more work on it then I can paint him.
I selected a good mushroom for him to sit on. Now I can finish up the second fairy.

I did not like the design of the base for the rain fairy. It was glued up two boards and I had shaped it some. I sliced off the top piece of wood, then took a worm eaten piece of oak and removed the bark. I then ground out the ends so it looked slightly hollow. Finally, after getting the locations right, I notched the log for the mushroom to fit solidly.
I will carve on the base so it does not look quite so much like a board, and then I can assemble the carving, there will be touch-ups to it, such as removing some wood I left beneath the fairy.

the other week, I had cut some disks off a tababulia log I got. I had previously made a container and a saucer out of the wood. The wood was freshly cut and the bark shrunk on the pieces as they dried. I looked at the disks and decided they would make good sun flowers. I turned two of them, and then added skewers for stems. The thin ones I used first allowed the flowers to wave too easily because the wood is so heavy, so I got some bigger ones and, after removing the old stems, I drilled and added the new ones.

I was given a hatchet made from a piece of pipe and some diamond plate. I sharpened it and then hacked at a piece of oak. I need to sharpen it a bit more, but it does work.

I added new sandpaper to a orbital sander I have and I sanded the surfaces of the pieces for the cannon. I need to do the edges, but it really snapped it into shape. If I sand a little more, I might actually start assembling the cannon tomorrow. Will see.

I brought with me the saucer and container made from Tababulia and re-sanded them. I had soaked them in wipe-on varnish, but will now actually finish them.

It was an excellent day. I did not think I did much until late in the day. I created a lot of sawdust from my grinding. I made great headway on several projects.
I planned on this mainly to be a carving day and that was what it was. I did turn some, but it was light turning. I have more carving planned for tomorrow. The frog and changing the rain fairy base has given me some incentive to get them done. I wanted to dig into finishing the face vase. It is slightly less priority. Much of it will depend on how I feel as I get to work. I likely will do some metal working when my brother shows up.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 08, Day Two (week 582)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-06-11 Sunday

81 degrees, strong breeze. The on line weather report said there was going to be Liquid Sunshine in the afternoon and there was a front off the west coast of the state on the radar.
Clear and slightly hazy early morning, cleared up by the time I was ready to start work. The sky became hazy and the haze thickened into clouds. Planning for the upcoming weather, I got the wood turning out of my system early and then put that away. I dug out a folding table and set that under the awning so my brother and I can work on the metal lathe even if we got some weather. I finished the worst of my gluing before my brother arrived. The weather arrived first as almost unnoticeable drips here and there. It then came down in a torrent and some buckets had a half inch of water. There was a lull and then another gully washer came and we had a full inch of water in the buckets. There were a few light showers of Liquid Sunshine and then it stopped completely and the sun actually came out once.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I started out by gluing the blocks together on the cannon carriage. I set the end blocks carefully so they were square, then added the center. I found I only had two bricks to hold the blocks in place. I stuck a hammer on top the other one. After those dried, I glued the sides in place.
Later, I drilled through into the inside blocks and glued in dowels all the way around. I did a whole bunch of them all over so the cannon really looks like it is made strong. I found quickly that I just needed to cut partway through the bamboo skewers I was using for the dowels and break them off. I sanded it really good and then set it to the side.

Yesterday, I had taken a piece of oak, cleaned it up and carved it some. Today, I touched it up and notched it for the stem of the mushroom. I then glued, drilled and doweled the stem in place on the log.
I ran the grinder over the base of the rain fairy to give it some interesting texture. I glued and doweled the log in place through the bottom. I positioned the fairy and glued her in place and also drilled and doweled her in place.
I finally drilled through the mushroom cap and then glued and doweled it in place. I will have to do some more dowels for strength as people will want to pick the carving up by the mushroom. I don't want to be repairing the mushroom. I will have some cleanup and then some painting. Last will be some finishing.
I have considered making her base bigger by adding another board beneath what I have. I will think about it.

I took the last two disks of Tababulia and made them into sun flowers. I made them thinner. One lost a section of the bark but the design allowed for that so it looks pretty good. I did try to glue the piece of bark back in place but decided it was not going to work without using different methods than I was attempting. It was a piece with a gap and ti broke off when it hit the tool at some time. To make fixing it, I needed to grind the inside so it followed the curve of the wood. It came off when I was working the first side, so it was a lot thicker than the rest of the piece. Once I glued it on, I would have had to grind it to thickness. That was more effort than it was worth.

My brother arrived and we sat down with the lathe. He opened the bearings and added grease to them. They were dry. That was much a surprise. From what I understand, the person who had it before me, loved to take things apart to see how they worked. I doubt he would clean everything of grease, but there was no grease there.
We have gotten a sound out of the machine and we figured out that the motor was making the noise. it requires a special socket that is thin walled. None of our sockets are that thin. The motor needs to be lubed and possibly bushings added. We are holding off on that for now. My brother added some washers to act as bushings between the pulley and the frame. It cut down the noises.
While he was working with that, I cleaned the body of the lathe with mineral spirits, a tooth brush and some rubbing. It could be cleaner but I got the worst of the mess.
My brother has a tactic of teaching me. when we had to take the motor off the bracket, he had me remove it and then later had me put it back on.
This machine uses pins through the shaft that fits into tiny slots in the pulleys to hold them in place. We messed up a couple pins. We could not find wires that size. We made what we had left to work, but should replace them.
Two oil fittings were blocked and we did not have wire that tiny to clean the hole. Another thing to work with.
I went through the instructions to learn how to reverse the jaws on the three-jawed scroll chuck. These are stepped jaws and if the high points are in the center, it will go down to nearly zero in diameter. By swapping the jaws around, I can hold something nearly two inches in diameter. it does not go quite as small. The jaws and slots are numbered. Jaws one and three are swapped when turning the jaws around. I now know where to find the instructions if I don't remember the details.
All I need now is material and I can be machining a lot of tools and parts with the little lathe. A lot of them will be for my wood working. The thought has crossed my mind to machine some pieces to add to some of my woodworking. Will see.

I did not get to carving on the second fairy, and did not do any more work on the king frog. he needs touch up and some details. I got the whole cannon at home and will work on during the week. More sanding and possibly start adding a finish.
Today I did not work on as many projects, but I got a lot done on the projects I did work with.
Next week, I need to do more finishing of projects in process. Less new stuff. I have but a month and a half to be ready for the art show.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 09, Day One (week 583)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-12-11 Saturday

50 degrees early morning, 64 degrees when I got out back, and 74 as the high. Light breeze, blue sky in the morning, puffs approached in the afternoon.

FRIDAY.

I experimented and printed a pdf scanned book as a booklet, something I have never done. It printed half the book on one side of the paper, then you had to turn it upside down and put it back in the tray and it printed the other half. I then needed some items to finish it.
I also remembered to bring some dollar tooth brushes for cleaning things at Mom's house. I searched everywhere I thought they were. I did find some right where they were supposed to be. When I was looking for some things for the print job, I found the package of toothbrushes I was really after. I also found some other things I knew I could use, mostly for the metal working.

Saturday,

We went to a yard sale after breakfast. I picked up two stainless steel rods and a calculator all for a wallet busting three bucks.

The beast of the backyard inhaled attention today. I did not get a chance to sit down often but when I did, the beast was there demanding to be served petting and food.

I dug out the mini lathe. In my hunting on Friday, I located a dead electric screw driver kit that had sockets and screwdrivers. I took them with me. I took the motor off and carefully measured to find the right sized socket. I then measured carefully for how much I needed to cut the outside of the socket to fit into the hole to get the nut.
After mounting the motor back on, I placed the socket in the jaws of the chuck and machined the outside down to fit into the hole. Sockets tend to have an angle to guide the nut into place. I cut that flat. I took the motor off and THE MODIFIED SOCKET WORKS!!!!
My brother went out of town, so I will have to wait until next week to have him fix the motor.

I worked mostly on the cannon today. I used a fly wheel circle cutter to remove wood in the center of the front brace. That took some doing as I was balancing the piece on the small end. it took some doing but I got partial circle cut out. I figured out that I could not drill for the wheels there.
I messed up the brackets that are supposed to hold the canon in place. I quickly made a new pair and then drilled them out properly. I also drilled the barrel through the side for the supports.
I got an idea to use my lathe to drill for the axles. I placed boards beneath it to get it to the right height. I measured from the end of the cannon in. I put my three foot long drill bit in the chuck, the end going through the head. I then used the tail stock to push the carriage into the drill bit. I figure this is about the only way I could get them this accurate. One was a quarter inch off after running all the way through the wood. the other came out right inside the end of the tail stock point.
I found I had to grind down the other two braces to allow the barrel to lay down properly. I finally added the barrel to the carriage, and I then added the wheels.
the cannon is basically done. I have some touch up to do on it tomorrow, and then apply my finishes to it.
This project was long in coming and it is nice to see the end.

Tomorrow, I will finish up the cannon and then start on the fairies. The rain fairy needs a wider base to protect her and balance the carving better so I will add another board to it. I need to carve on the other fairy and see if I can get her done. I have to make her base also.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 09, Day two (week 583)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-13-11 Sunday

77 degrees, nice breeze, blue sky with cotton puffs. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I figured it out. The beast of the back yard is a PET cat. It is not a carry cat or a snuggle cat. just a pet cat. He does love being petted.

I touched up the cannon, sanding some stuff and adjusting the reliefs of for the cannon to lay down properly.

I then addressed the rain fairy. I glued a whitewood board down beneath the base I had. I then ground and sanded them to blend them together. I also turned some mushrooms, two at a time. I mounted them between center and turned them where the caps were in the center. I bandsawed them apart and sanded with the dremmel and flap sanding bit.
I touched up some other places on her while I was at it. I have to replace a thumb on her and I put in a dowel to keep it in place. I forgot to dig out the filler to form the thumb around the dowel.
I can say she does look good.

I did carve a tiny bit on the second fairy, but not too much. I pretty much used up my day by then

When I got home, I added linseed oil over the entire cannon, especially the new parts and where I did work. The fairy got the oil too, except for on the hand that needs repair. I will add another coat tomorrow and then let them dry for Thursday.

I have a turning club meeting this week. I will bring my cannon, my fairy, and a couple other pieces with me to show off. This club meeting will be at a new location and it is always fun finding a place the first time. I prefer to go there ahead of time so that I am not under a schedule to get there. It is also in my area rather than in Mom's area, so I have to come up with a different plan on what to do from the time I get off work and go to the meeting. This week I will likely spend part of it just finding the place.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Next week, I will work on the fairy, on the metal lathe, on the face vase, likely on the cannon I made the barrel for, for my nephew,

year 11, Week 10, Day One (week 584)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-19-11 Saturday

64 degrees early on in the morning, 83 degrees as a high, blue sky with some puffs of clouds, dry air with a light breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

THURSDAY

We had our wood turning club meeting. It was in a new location since our WOODCRAFTS store is closing. It was in a school classroom. The teacher arrived about the same time I did and he had to pull some GATOR powered carts out of the classroom to give us room to move around.
The club purchased a new lathe and it is sweet. Our demonstration was the first one for the lathe. the demonstration was on a bandsaw box. It was cut up and the center removed, then it was glued together again. He then turned the outside so it was a square inside round box.
I had added linseed oil to my cannon and my fairy, and took them, along with some Tababulia pieces with me. At WOODCRAFTS, we would use work benches to display our instant gallery. I got the idea of taking two rows of desks and placing them together in a long line. It worked great The desks are flat so nothing would roll off. The best way to describe it is that my stuff is Rustic, does not have the quality finish everybody else's stuff has. I need to sand and varnish the cannon, but wanted to show it off this month.

SATURDAY

I started out emptying my dremmel box completely, removing the sawdust, and then re-packing it, separating and grouping things better. I found a few things I forgot I had. Nice to have it neat for a moment.

I sat down with my knife and carved a little on my second fairy. I did a little detail but did not get far.

I signed my fairy carving. My mom said I should write it on top so people could see it. I decided to make a little plaque with the name on it. I found a dry branch with the bark on it of the right diameter and cut a piece off. I cut it flat and then cut the base. After sanding, I drew the name on the stick, then used my dremmel and a dental bit to carve the name over the name I drew. I used my pen to fill in the letters and I sanded away any excess pen marks. I glued and pegged the name plate in place. It looks good. I have a little paint touch ups, and then the fairy will be done.

I got an idea. I dashed over to an ACE HARDWARE store which is about three blocks away and picked up some 3/4 by one inch bolts. I then sat down with the grinder, then the mini lathe for an idea I had.
the live center (live centers have a bearing, while dead centers is just a metal point or nail) on my tail stock has multiple points that can be swapped out for different jobs.
I got the idea to take a bolt and machine the head to fit the tail stock. That way I can screw a piece of wood onto the bolt and then shape the wood to hold a project in a special way in the tail stock. It is a fun project anyway.
I should have been carving but this concept got my bug. Using the mini machine lathe, I found the bolt unscrewing itself in the chuck, coming loose. I came up with using a chuck with a tail stock point (too far for just the tail stock to hold it) and kept the bolt in place.
I ground the corners off the nut and then mounted it in the lathe and have started machining the head down to fit into the hole in the tail stock's live center.
I got half way in but decided I was out of time. I did make a mistake. I need to keep part of the head in the normal shape so I can use a wrench to drive it into and out of the hole in the wood.

Tomorrow I need to carve more, and likely do some metal work. If my brother shows up tomorrow, he will fix the motor of the metal lathe and I will likely finish my experiment.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 10, Day One (week 584)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-19-11 Saturday

74 degrees when I got to mom's house, 84 as the high with the sun shining under the awning. Blue skies with wispy puffs marching across the sky. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

This last week, I got word that at the art show, if the weather is good, I will be outside. I will get two tables instead of just one, so I can have a more effective display. The weather has been good there each year, so I am hoping the pattern continues.

I accidentally mistook the beast of the backyard as a cat. He did not mind that too much, as long as I fed him and gave him lots of petting. I sat and carved most of the morning and he laid next to me for long periods of times before wandering away, then returning again.

I spent the morning carving on my second fairy. I decided the carving is finished. I took it home and started painting on it. It looks good. She has one of the best faces I have done to date.
I have to finish painting the king frog, and paint the fairy this week. I will add wings and start building her scene. If things go good, I could have the fairy done next weekend.

I finished turning the threaded tail stock point. I had just a little bit to go to get it to fit, and then went too far. I think it was one cut too much. It will work though. It won't be off by too much.
I started cutting a second one and then realized it was off center. I stopped.

My brother dismantled the motor for the lathe using my tools. He had to find some washers the right size to act as spacers. He tried making them and drilled them off center. He added a little oil, then reassembled the motor. We gave it a good test. It does not heat up as much and now runs smoothly. We have ourselves a good machine.

My nephew came over. He wants to do black smithing eventually. We have a water heater that can be made into a forge, and an anvil. We could get close to starting. Really all we need is fire brick and clay.
We decided to see if we can ruin him on machining. We set the lathe up as a milling machine and demonstrated it. You set the seed and see if it grows.

Next week my main project is to finish the fairy, and get to work on the face vase to see if I can finish that up. I need to sand and varnish the cannon too. Those are the last major projects. I need to start digging out the stuff I have packed here at home to see what I have and their condition.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 11, Day One (week 585)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-26-11 Saturday


84 degrees, very light breeze, blue skies without anything that resembled a cloud, wonderful day for working. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

DURING THE WEEK

I sold the bark bowl to my boss this week. Never as much as I would like to sell it for, but I like his money more than my wood. He told me that this was one of my best pieces I have made. His wife said she loves it. He joked that he is saving all the pieces he buys from me because when I die, they will become valuable...

I painted the second fairy and soaked her in some linseed oil when I saw that the yellow of her hair blended with the light wood. I have commonly oiled my fairy carvings, usually using motor oil. It darkens the wood slightly which adds to the look.

FRIDAY

I wanted to relocate an indoor antenna and that required me to get into the corner of the living room where I have a bunch of boxes piled. It happens that my art show stuff was scattered within the pile. I decided two excuses was worth digging into the mess,
In the process I made a little more room to stack stuff by placing some plastic and wire shelving in the open space between two bookshelves. I now have access to some cords that were previously unreachable and can get through them through the plastic shelving, and I separated the pile into three stacks: Art, crafts and junk.
I also emptied and scrubbed the kitchen counter, emptied and rearranged my desk giving all six teddy bears a good long hug.


Saturday

No yard sailing. We went to Ace hardware and I got some nails for one of my next projects, replacing the little lathe box, and a connector for the indoor antenna.
At the end of the day, I stopped at Home depot for several items. I got some glue and piano hinges (lathe box project), along with a two by two for carving and I got some two by fours for mom.

Mom needed a suit case pulled out of the closet and it was jammed. We pulled it out and we found the carpet beneath it was wet. We pulled everything out and are drying that. I ended up calking the shower which was next to it as that was likely where the water was coming from, The two by fours I got at home depot was to put the stuff up on in case there is another leak. The two by twos mom had were big enough for the plush carpet in there.

I looked at the little cannon barrel I made for my grand nephew and decided it needed sanding. I mounted it on the lathe and ran sand paper on the surface. It is oak and the fibers stick up. It is better but will need more sanding, with finer sand paper. I should get some wood filler for it. I doubt I will, though.

One of my bathroom cabinet doors had come apart a long time ago. I glued it back together, but it came apart again and I never did anything about it again. I removed the hinge piece off the case, the only part still attached, and took the whole thing with me. I cleaned up the joints, and then glued it back together. This was the first time I had seen metal splines used in joinery. After it dried enough to handle. I drilled holes for dowels through the corners.
While drilling with the dremmel, the drill bit slipped off the plastic coating they used as a finish and the drill caught the webbing between my thumb and fingers. I have no idea how deep it went but it was not just surface wound. The dremmel was running quite fast but it was just a touch and while I did see that it was not just on the surface it hardly bled. For a couple hours, it felt like that part of the hand was tired. That sensation went away and the hole closed up so it just looks and acts like a surface boo-boo.
I ran skewers into the holes. I want to add some more glue and then trim the skewers which I left hanging out before I install it. It should stay put now.

I chainsawed a piece of the Tababulia and made a new bark bowl. I think I did not go quite as deep into the bark. This was an end piece where it was split off when it was cut. that caused a crack to run up under the bark. I made the bottom a lot thicker than I planned because of the crack. I will soak this one in linseed oil so it will dry slower.

I painted a set of fairy wings, should paint all of them and get that out of the way, and I installed them onto the fairy. I need to dowel them in place so they stay put, then clean up the joints. A little paint will hide any repairs.
I never got onto the base which is a project for today. He said the frog king looks cute.

I went out to dinner with the family in the evening and then went to a book store. I picked up a machining magazine to read.
I had stopped at my brother's house and he has started making the forge from a water heater. I never knew the shell was that thick.

The early morning disaster slowed up my activities and I had left earlier than planned because of the dinner.

I will set up the little lathe when I get there as my nephew may drop by and will give him a project to work on. I will also work on the fairy base and see if I can get that done today.
I may cut another piece of Tababulia to turn, and may also cut a few pieces for carving.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 11, Day two (week 585)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-27-11 Sunday

85 degrees, strong breeze, no clouds until some appeared over the Everglades in the late afternoon. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

At a yard sale about six months ago, I picked up a palm pilot 3 with a cord and keyboard. I did not have the software to get it to work. In the past month, I located the "desk top" software that allows your computer to talk to the unit. I then found the software for the keyboard. After a couple missteps, I got it operating. I loaded a 33 page story into it and it split it up in some 20 notes.
I have to get used to the folding keyboard, but this may well be quite serviceable for typing quick notes and ideas. It is nice to have it working. There are a lot of APPS on line for it so I might look to see what is available and what will actually be useful. It seems to have more memory than I ever expected which is quite impressive.
I might make use of it on days where working is not a priority or when traveling, though I need to figure out how to keep it balanced on the connector on the keyboard. It is barely on it and easily bumped.

I arrived later than planned. I bothered the kitties, unloaded the truck and got half set up.

My first project for the day was to make the base for the fairy. I wanted to mount the fairy, mushrooms and frog on a log. I went to my wood pile and picked up a oak branch for measurement. It was too small to get the angles I was after. I searched my wood pile and tried several pieces. I then took a large piece of wood. I cut a section off and then cut it in half lengthways. Nice, but not quite right. I then decided to make some boards. I cut a board from each side and, after cutting the straightest edge, I sanded them straight and glued them together. I did not cut the boards straight, so I decided to use the thickness planer to bring it even.
Many years ago, I got several gift cards for Home Depot. I decided a thickness planer was exactly what I needed. with deals and sales, it cost me $200. I think I have used it a total of six times so far. My brother has used it about twelve times. The big problem was that I am not doing the kinds of projects I had in mind.
Well today, I decided to use it. Mom's garage is a pathway down the center. There is tools and stuff stacked on both sides. Some of that is for yard sales she is tired of having, and some of it is just storage and "In case I need it."
I took about half an hour moving all the stuff out of the way and drag the planer out of the garage. I then took about fifteen minutes planing down the wood on both sides so it was flat rather than two opposing wedges. I then took about half an hour getting things back where they belonged.
I positioned the fairy and a few mushrooms several times so I know what I want to do. I may take a branch and use that as part of the scene. People liked the effect on the rain fairy.
I took the board and the fairy home and am soaking the board in linseed oil. part of the reason I love to soak my wood is that it is an effective way to kill any critters that might still be within the wood.

Mom needed her frame made to hold her closet stuff up off the carpet in case there is a leak. I measured carefully and cut carefully. I then screwed the thing together. somehow, I got one board off angle so it is askew. I should have taken pictures but did not think about it. My battery powered drill decided to drain the batteries over night and within minutes of using them. The electric drill I chose to use decided to have a switch problem. I had a knock down fight with it.
My brother told me that in the main board I am drilling through, there is no grip to help hold the piece together. That can be a lose fit. It is only in the second board that any real grip is achieved. I could have made my job a whole lot easier if I drilled.

I was pretty much out of gas as for working. In my unloading the garage to get the planer out, I got some tools that is of use. I found a caliper for checking board thickness, and I found an angle drill attachment so you can drill sideways in a smaller space than your drill.
I decided to test a concept with my metal lathe. I put the angle attachment in the chuck, and took a jig saw attachment for a drill I got and mounted that into the chuck of the angle attachment. All I need to do is make a wood table and I can use the angle arrangement to "scroll saw" wood. Put in a metal blade in the jig saw and can cut metal. That is just another thing that little lathe can do.

My brother and I talked about several articles in the metal working magazine I got last night. he took dimensions for a tool post that will allow me to machine on angles. The big thing we were doing was looking at the advertisements and figuring out how to make those parts. One thing he told me is that I can get regular router bits and use them on mild steel, aluminum and brass with no problems at all. I guess I will have a reason to look at router bits and see what machining might be possible.

Overall, the day was rather unproductive for the art show. There was better ways of designing the base, but I just had the idea of making my own boards into my mind and went with it. I will say that it sure used up a nice day of work.

The spot I poked myself with the drill bit has closed up and looks like a normal boo-boo. It only hurts if I rap it which I did a few times today. It does have a little swelling but not bad, I missed it but my mom saw it. There is no pain to it and the hand works normally.

Friday, I will retrieve my art work from the antique shop. I will have just a couple weeks to go over it to see what damage they have, and possibly fix the finish, and figure out a better pricing for his work.
I plan to touch up the paint on the fairy so the filler I used as part of the wing attachment does not show. I should have doweled the wings in place but other things distracted me on that. I can do that here but don't know if I will.
I want to get her base made and have her ready for display. I have a face vase I need to sit down and carve on. It is really the only big project not done.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 12, Day One (week 586)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-02-11 Saturday

76 degrees when I got out back, 85 in afternoon, blue skies, clear, light breeze with a few slightly heavier gusts, A great day to be outside doing light work. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach. "Florida's Warm Welcome."

FRIDAY

I went to the antique shop to pick up my work for the Art show. The shop next to him closed and the building owner offered him deal on the closed shop. He did not want to get bigger, but at that price he could not skip the deal.

I dug out all my battery powered drill stuff to go through Saturday. I have a lot of stuff and wanted to know what was good and what was not.

SATURDAY

We stopped at a couple yard sails and I did not buy anything. While mom was in a store, I was trying out my palm 3 PDA and somehow lost the stylist. At the end of the day, I checked and found that some large skewers would pass as a stylist for the screen, so I made a temporary one out of bamboo. I have some modifications to do, but I wanted the glue to dry first. I had to stick a second skewer into the first to act as a clip to pull the stylist out of the holder. I messed up one skewer, but it turned out to be the wrong one anyway. I had made a couple changing the points to fit what I felt would work best. I found I needed to step drill the hole, each drill slightly bigger than the first. When I got it to the right size I flattened one side of the skewer I was sticking into the hole so it fit closer to the first. I then drove it in tight.

A couple weeks ago, I made some large mushrooms for my fairy carvings. I had mounted them in the chuck and made the caps, and then reached next to the chuck as deep as I could with the gouge to hollow the underside of the cap. At that time I was not sure how to finish the stem. Since then, I figured out I can mount pieces without the spurs digging in. I can press it against the chuck itself.
What I decided to do was to mount one of my tail stock points in the chuck and use the light friction of that to drive the mushroom. I had to use very light cuts but I worked the stem down on two mushrooms.
I made the stem also a tenon. I figured I can drill a hole and fit the tenon inside to hold the mushroom up.
I took a piece of orange tree wood and chopped up both ends to look like a broken log. I then used my dremmel to grind away the saw cuts so it did not look like it had ever seen a saw. I added a light wash of brown paint to hide the freshly cut wood.
I then drilled a hole for the stem of the mushroom and glued and filled that in place. When that dries, I might dowel it for extra strength as people will likely pick it up by the mushroom.
My king frog will go on top the mushroom. I need to make several small mushrooms to fill out the scene before I attach the king frog and the fairy.

I laid out all the pieces I retrieved from the antique shop to look for damage and quality of finish. A couple pieces really need to be sanded and varnished, but I doubt that will happen for a while. I brought them home and will get out the rest of my stuff.
I expect to be up at mom's house Friday to do a practice set up to see what I have and how to make the display look good. I will do that again the weekend of the art show. It will make setting up a whole lot faster, especially if I pack things in the order I take them off the table.

I went into the house for another reason, and the couch grabbed me and pinned me in place until I fell asleep, I mean passed out.... I napped only a half our but that really helped.

I laid out all my battery powered tools. My Makita battery powered circular saw seems to be what can best be called the most universal battery. I found I can charge several of my pieces of equipment with that charger, and can use the Makita batteries in several other things, and can charge their batteries in some other chargers.
Each manufacturer likes to add little slots and tabs so you cannot use anyone else's equipment with theirs. It does create problems. I have one pair of drills that the charger does not work. I can get them running with other batteries, but they don't fit quite right.
I will dig them all out again, go through them one more time, and put stickers as to what fits what.
I found one battery powered drill where the charger plugs into the drill itself, the battery is integral. I found out that this drill will run plugged in, though most tools like this says you should not. Since I don't have the instructions, I will follow my own. this is going to be a regular drill for me to use since it does run while plugged in.

Tomorrow, I will go through the batteries, chargers and equipment. I will add stickers telling what goes with what.
I will finish the base for the fairy, including turning some small mushrooms, and get that out of my hair finally.
I have some work to do with the mini lathe, the baggies I have the scrap metal is getting cut up and need to do something different. I really should not have that metal in the lathe box as it adds to the weight when carrying it over to the work area. I should carve on the face vase.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 12, Day Two (week 586)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-03-11 Sunday

85 degrees, Blue skies, wind enough to blow some light sawdust around, but not enough to be a problem for papers and bags. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. Florida's Warm Welcome.

I got to Mom's house a little early and after bothering the cats, I got my stuff out. One project was to lay out all my drills again and place stickers on everything. The sticker thing never actually happened.
I did match everything up again. My brother showed up on his way to another job and had a look at all I had. I have two Craftsman drills and the charger is dead. We opened the part the battery plugs into and no power was reaching there. Since it is a 14.4 volt battery system, I am to keep my eye open for a charger in that range. We can re-wire the system so we can get them working again. I will go on line and see if I can find the charger and see what it will cost.
I had tried to plug the battery into the Makita charger. I found that both companies have slots and ridges of plastic to keep you from using them in other company chargers. I modified one battery and got it to plug in. The charger gave an error signal. Oh well. It was worth a try.
Several things went back into their boxes. One battery powered drill works while plugged in which is nice. It dawned on me that I have, somewhere, a drill with two batteries. One battery has a socket to plug directly into. I will have to see if I can figure what I did with that.

I made two small mushroom. I planned to make more, but when I checked my fairy scene, I saw that three small mushrooms would be enough. I had one small one from before so I stopped at two mushrooms. It helps that I destroyed one mushroom while making it, the tool slipped, and the mushroom cap shattered and scattered. I just turned the mushroom around and finished that cap on the other end, then made a second mushroom where that one ended.
I put together my fairy scene. I had already glued the big mushroom on the log. I drilled and doweled the king frog and then glued him in place on the big mushroom. A bit later, I glued the log and fairy down. I waited a while and drilled for the mushrooms and glued them in.
My brother saw the carving when it was almost done and said it was the best one yet. I agree. He said the face was also the best.
I will see if I want to add a name plate to the fairy next week, otherwise, other than being signed, it is done.

I dug out the little lathe and took everything out of the box again. I had brought a small cardboard box for my scrap metal since the metal was cutting through the plastic baggies. For the first time, I saw exactly what metal my brother brought. I can do a whole lot with what he gave me. I just have to work out which projects to do and figure out what will do the job best.
I can see it will be much like my wood working. If I have a project in mind, I will not have the right materials. If I choose the project based on what I have on hand, I have plenty to work with.

I carved on the face vase. I remembered that young men have narrow chins and lower half the face than older adults. I tackled the young face first, adjusting the shape to look younger. I worked a bit less on the middle aged face but got that to come along. I touched on the old face but that has a long ways to go. This is all dremmel grinding work and it creates a lot of sawdust that finds ways to get into one's clothing.
I have to get the two older faces into better shape, then start working my way into some details. The eyes are always my weakness, but they are coming along a bit better than normal.
Unless I get all the wood working done on this piece next weekend, there is no way it is going to be available for the art show. That is not really a problem. It would be nice to have it finished. I will see if it happens.

A couple months ago, I purchased stick-on sanding disks for my disk sander. I took one sheet out and I have no idea what happened to the rest of them. Today, I checked at Sears for the charger and also picked up another package of sandpaper. Maybe I won't lose this package. Maybe I will think to put it away and find the other package right there...

I went to Woodcrafts. They will be closing in a couple weeks. I looked around at what they had. There is one thing I am really after, which I decided on after I looked around. My brother said that woodworking router bits will work on mild steel. I want to get a couple dovetail bits. I have some small straight bits, but some dovetail bits will complete just about anything else I need to do. Next week I might have the money to get them.

I have next week as a full week to be ready for the art show. I am thinking of going to Mom's house Friday and work some, just to get some extra work done.
One project is to get all my woodworking, carvings, turnings, and such, to Mom's house and do a "mock-up" of the tables and see what looks good together. It will also give me a chance to look over absolutely everything in case repairs are needed. A tradition I have is to sharpen every knife I have before the art show. I might do that next weekend. Other than the face vase and pretending to set up my table, I may work on something fun I have thought about.


I will see what I actually do next weekend.