year 11, Week 13, Day One (week 587)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-09-11 Friday

82 degrees when I arrived, 88 degrees around noon. No breeze early morning, and a breeze picked up before noon. Blue skies with some cotton puffs. None got in front of the sun, or they were too thin to make a difference. There were some state birds flying around when I first arrived. Our small mosquitoes have landing lights. The wet season has not started so they have not gotten bad. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. Florida's Warm Welcome (I saw a couple weeks ago that the City Of Pompano Beach made that their official slogan).


Because of the Art show next week, I decided I needed to come to Mom's house Friday since I had the day off. It was like any other weekend day, except the traffic was tougher.

My very first project this morning was to get my stuff to Mom's house. I took most of my carvings with me, but left the shaving flowers and empty boxes at home. I will take them with me tomorrow. The shaving flowers tangle with each other nicely so I wanted to take them where I had the room.

After feeding and petting the cats, I got my stuff in back. When I separated the boxes, I found I broke the stems of three of my carved flowers. I cut them flush, drilled them, and glued in a new skewer stem.

I sanded my first cannon and then gave it a spray of varnish. It does not meet my desires for what it was supposed to be. Maybe in a month or so, I will try a new one and try to make it a furniture quality cannon.
The toy cannon barrel had a little problem, so I re-mounted it in the lathe and fixed it. The cannon has five reinforcing bands around it, where I turned it thicker. The one on the muzzle end almost was not there. The sections between the bands were not all the same diameter. I cut down a couple sections and then sanded the whole thing. It is better.
I selected a board that will be the cannon carriage. It is three quarter thick pine, about six inches wide. It was well weathered. I sanded off the "silver" surface and the patina below has lots of colors. I will have to sand it some more, but it is going to be pretty wood. I will dig out the table saw tomorrow and start cutting pieces for this carriage. It will be a two wheel trailer. I am thinking it should look pretty good.

I showed my king and the fairy carving to someone else this morning and she mentioned about the turtle being cute. That was one person too many. I happen to have all my carvings with me and I found a carving I did in 2000, when I started carving, that was of a frog. It was marked Carving #11. Because of multiple piece carvings I was doing, I lost count of my carvings around carving 20. Anyway, I decided to make that my frog.
I cleaned it up with the grinder and a few other tools, fixing little flaws I had when I carved it the first time (Partly power carved originally). I then gave it a new paint job, painting over even the eyes.
I then got an idea and made a crown on the lathe. I turned the outside so it was on an angle, and then used a parting tool to cut straight in on the inside, parallel to the outside, until I was past the outside bottom. I then parted it off so I had an angled ring. After a little touch-up on the sander, and with a grinding bit, I then cut in the points of the crown. I went a little too deep, and squeezed a bit too hard, and the crown collapsed. I went and made a second one, a bit taller.
The crown fits around the eyes which stick straight up from the top of the head. One point of the crown fits between the eyes and each eye looks through the valleys. It is cute.
I then ground the spaces between the points. I figured out how to do it more efficiently. With my first crown, I ground straight down, then cut the sloping sides separately. On this second crown, I had my grinder on an angle and cut down on one side to the bottom, the straightened up the other side. It was faster. After I got it right, I painted it yellow, then glued it in place. Once the glue set enough to hold it, I put in one dowel to fix it in place. I shaped the bottom to fit a little better around his head, and probably should have done that before I painted it.
I took some seed beads and drilled a pocket in each point of the crown and glued one in each point. the front has three beads. these represents jewels. I can say now, that there is no question this is a frog, or that it is a king. The frog is on the mushroom now so he can talk to the fairy.
A last minute thing I did was to make a name plate for the carving. I may re-make it tomorrow as I got some of the pith in the lettering. I had made a mistake, so I sanded it back quite a ways and the pith showed up. Not professional.

Last week I had picked up some sand paper for the disk sander. I put it on today. The sand paper I had on there decided not to come off easily. I tried to use my skew chisel to scrape it off while it was spinning and it flattened the edge. I then tipped it on the side and sanded the angles flat till I had a point again. I finally got all the glue off and then put the new sandpaper back on. I then noticed that the sparks from the chisel had put the sawdust on fire. I tried pressing it out and it was not going out, so I got some water and that took care of it. There are problems when using a wood sander for metal....

I made ice coffee last night and I took the pump pitcher with me filled with the coffee. When I got home, I had one cup left. That was better than what I normally drink. I am set up to do it again tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I will likely re-make the name plate for the fairy and the frog, and peg it in place. I will also sign the base. I need to set up my table and test out how to display my work. it will give me an idea of what I have and how it is going to look. I will also see what I don't need to display. Most years, I seldom show off my ornaments. I might have room if we are using two tables for the display. That will depend on the weather next weekend.
I may turn something new, and do have the face vase to work on. I will likely cut the wood for the toy cannon. I should turn the wheels. I am half thinking of something with spokes. I would scroll saw the spaces between. The scale will dictate what all I will do.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 13, Day two (week 587)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-09-11 Saturday

74 degrees when I got out back, 88 degrees when I left at noon, blue skies only marred by some ocean puffs early morning. A light breeze developed as the morning progressed. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. Florida's Warm welcome.

Yard sails were sparse and the couple I stopped at, had nothing I wanted.

After feeding and petting the beasts, I drug out all my boxes of stuff. I then had to figure out how to set up the tables for a three foot by eight foot mock-up. One table I have is three by three, the other is two by six, and they are different heights. I put the three by three on blocks so it was the same height, and then spanned the two by table with some wire racks and then laid a sheet of plywood on top. the plywood was four foot, so I put the excess wood on the back side, and then placed a two by two board to mark where the table ended.
Once that was done, I started unloading boxes. I stacked stuff on the table in any empty space. once the boxes were empty, I sorted my work by types. I dug out my shaving flowers and filled some vases with them. I then started pricing my pieces, and found that some of my signatures were fading, written by Stabillo. I re-signed quite a few.

I picked out some pieces that needed new finishes and a few needed sanding too. I had several flowers with broken stems, and a couple new flowers, so I added new stems to them, then gave them, especially the new flowers, a coat of varnish. A couple flowers, goblets that broke, really should be shaped, but that won't happen this month. I still have to work on pricing. I need to see if they are price according to their quality.
I have a special pricing system. I decide what one piece is worth, and then decide if I like the next piece more or less than the first. The more I like it, the higher the price. The less I like it, the lower the price. My thought is that if I really like the piece, I will be more than happy to take it home. If I don't care as much about the piece, I won't cry if it disappears.

The local Woodcrafts Store is closing Friday. I went there and nearly everything is 40% off. I picked up two router bits, normally $17.99 each, together was $22. One was a straight cutting bit, and the other was a dovetail bit. I will see if they have anything on Friday that is of interest before they shut the doors.

I found some pieces that need to be finished. While it would be nice to get them finished this weekend, it won't happen so they are going to sit until later.

I finally decided I was wore out and packed up the display. I will have to put all that stuff back out again to see what is not going on display. That will likely be next week as tomorrow, my main project is my carvings. I need to see what all I have and what condition they are in. Some may need repairs, others may be good enough. I will first set up the tables and then drag out all the carvings and see what I have. Like my wood turnings, it will be a bit of fun to see what I have.
I do know that I don't have a big supply of carvings. I more than expect to have room on the table once I get it all out.
Part of the project is to box everything up so they don't get damaged. I might take a moment and change boxes the turnings are in. I have a big box and can stack the turnings in there since they are not as fragile as the carvings are.

I have a box of turnings that need work, or need completion. Many were early work that are just too thick. I do have a lot of carvings I started and abandoned. At most, the two of them would fill a quarter table.

I never got around to making the carriage for the canon. I was tired with all the time on my feet. If things go quickly tomorrow, I will dig out the table saw and cut the wood.
In my digging, I found the plywood for making a new box for the mini lathe. The box it is in has seen better days. It must have sat in water as the wood on the bottom is in horrible shape. I don't have to do anything with it right now as I had attached pegboard to make it stronger, but it would be nice to give it a brand new home. That will be an after art show project. I doubt I will work on the latest face vase until after the art show.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 14, Day One (week 588)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-15-11 Friday

89 degrees, changing skies (some blue, a cloud shield passed, lots of puffs) no breeze at eight, nice breeze by eleven. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism (Florida's Warm Welcome)

DURING THE WEEK

Last week, I changed the king frog, taking a frog I made back in 2000 and using that instead of the recently made frog. During the week, I painted a crown on his robe, and added beads to his crown to look like jewels. It looked better.
I finally took the cabinet door I repaired several weeks ago and put it in place. I had to trim flush the dowels I added for reinforcement of the corners. Unless you look, you are not going to see them. It is not going to move.


FRIDAY

It took several days to make the decision, but I decided I had enough projects to warrant going to Mom's house to work.


When I got there, I found that my rain fairy had fallen down. I checked and a wing and some fingers were missing. I searched for it and could not find it anywhere. I will find it in about six months....
I cut away the remains and bored out where it entered the fairy's body. These fairies actually have four wings. Upper and lower wings on each side. The upper wing on the right side was the only one missing and I have one pair of spare upper wings. I will have to make more wings later.
I glued in the upper wing and since I could not find some close pins to use as clamps, I took a pair of vice grips with it cranked wide, I set it over the wings and screwed it down until it held the wings together and then propped it up.
The fairy is made of Tupelo, which I like to describe as a very hard Balsa Wood. I dug out a small block of the wood, a cutting from another project, and worried out a tiny piece of it more than big enough for the fingers of the hand. I rough shaped the wood where it met the hand and glued it in place.
Tomorrow, I will grind the new attachment into shape and hopefully it won't look much different than the rest of the hand.

I had several pieces that needed to be signed or priced. There were a few others where the signature was fading and needed to be amplified. I picked through them and signed them, then worked out what I thought was a good price for them.

I took a mushroom I made last month, and changed the shape slightly. The dome was too sharp for what I needed so I flattened it quite a bit. to do that, I was holding it in the chuck by the stem, which was how I made it. At that time, I reached the tool next to the chuck to hollow out the inside some.
I turned the mushroom around, placing the mushroom cap against the chuck with some sandpaper as a buffer and using the tail stock in the center of the stem to hold it in place. This is not the best way to do this, but it gets the job done with the least amount of effort. I then thinned out the mushroom stem to a nice shape. The cap needed some extra sanding from the chuck scratching the cap when it moved a couple times.
With the Rain fairy I had a piece of yellow pine that I had ground on to make it look sort of like a rock. I decided to use that as a base for the king frog. I had cut it off the old base and the bottom was rough. I tipped it up so it was flush against the bandsaw blade and carefully ran it through, flattening the bottom some more. I then sanded it the rest of the way flat.
I drilled the base for the mushroom and doweled the mushroom in place. I then put a dowel on the top of the mushroom and glued the king frog in place.
I made a slight adjustment on the mouth of the frog so it looks aa little more frog like and painted the repairs.
I fitted the king frog over the dowel on the mushroom cap and glued it in place. that is now a new separate carving.

While I was on the phone for a while, I sharpened at some of my chisels and knives. I have a practice of sharpening nearly every knife I have just before the art shows. I have more to do and have to dig out some more knives.

I sanded my toy canon carriage. I needed to sand some tight areas and knew I had done something like that before, but could not remember what I used. about three minutes later, I remembered I had a strip sander. That did the job perfectly. I was a bit sloppy and rushed to glue this carriage together. It was not flush and does have a few little gaps. My sanding flushed up the unequal boards.
I then cut some squares out of a two by six and held them together with a screw and mounted that on the lathe. I used my "Jacobs chuck" which is a drill chuck on a taper that fits into the hole of either the tail stock or the head stock of the lathe. I used that to clamp onto the screw to spin it. Because of little drilling errors the wheels are not even or square, but they do look pretty good. I still have to drill for the axels and then put the wheels on. I then have to make the brackets to hold the barrel in place to pivot. It is gong to be close to finishing tomorrow.

I have a metal working idea I want to work on. I am making a tool for my little lathe. I decided I want to make the tool out of wood to see if it is going to work. I cut a couple pieces of Orange tree wood, which is hard and strong, and rough squared them. tomorrow if I have the time, I will set the lathe up in the milling machine configuration and make the part using the router and milling bits I have. This will be a test of concept to see if it is even going to work. If it does, I will work out the dimensions more accurately and eventually make it out of metal.

In metal working, one is always needing small pieces of metal of various sizes and shapes. While reading a machining magazine, I learned that the box they keep the small pieces in is called a CHOWDER BOX. I guess a chowder is something with lots of little bits. There have been times where I have considered that for my wood working. One is always needing small pieces of wood for one thing or another, but I learned from experience that the pieces you have are all the wrong size and shape, or wrong kind of material. it was not really worth hanging onto bits and pieces.

My main project for tomorrow is to get everything boxed up so I can just grab them and put them into the truck to take to the art show. The fairies and other large carvings will be in separate boxes or carefully arranged a couple to a box. My turnings are all in just a couple boxes.
If I have time, I will do some experimental milling on Orange wood. it will be an interesting project.
I have to finish up on the rain fairy, re-carving her fingers and making sure her wings are in place and any filling and painting is done.
I will try to finish the toy cannon, but doubt I can do that. I will charge up all my batteries so that If I need a drill or dremmel, I will have the power to do the job. I will also make sure I bring some other stuff from home and get them in place for the art show.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 14, Day Two (week 588)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-16-11 Saturday

78 degrees early morning, and after a long period in the mid 80s, it got up to 90. We got some liquid sunshine but since I was doing little projects, I was easily able to work around it. It dried up by mid morning and the sun shown up somewhat steady by the time I packed up to leave. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism, Florida's Warm Welcome.

I shaped the replacement fingers of the rain fairy. It looks pretty good now. there are little things that need fixing, but not until later when I have plenty of time. It is good enough as is. The most glaring "flaws" are not noticeable unless you look for them. the effect is good.

I dropped the frog king carving and the stem of the mushroom broke. I had turned that piece of wood on the side so the grain went across the piece. I drilled down through the stem until the bit passed out the base. I then set the mushroom cap in place and drilled from the base up into the upper stem and into the cap. I then used a lot of glue and ran a dowel up to hold it in place.

Yesterday, I sharpened a bunch of my knives and put them in a plastic bag. Today, the bag was in my way so I moved it. I was setting it in a place where they could fall out, so I put it down firmly to settle it. One of the knives that has a sharp point came through and stuck the side of my hand. A little blood but that was about it.
When My dad used to make knives, he had learned to make them with a long sharp point. It was great for removing wood deep. The problem is that carving gloves are not designed to defend against stabs. They are designed for slices.
I was making a knife from a file. My knives are a whole lot longer than Dad's knives. That is because of the way I use them. I broke the file in half, with one half a lot shorter than the other. I finished the knife and it was good. I then decided to make a knife out of the other half. Instead of making a point on this knife, I left the end flat, blunt, square. I quickly found out that I liked that end. It worked like a wedge. All my knives are made with square ends now. I do taper the back to the blade as it comes to the point so it has more room to get into tight places, but they are all square ends. One big advantage to this design is that the point does not stab the way Dad's knives do. wedge at the point does stab but not anywhere near as much as a long fine point.
I have the very first two knives I ever started carving with which has nice long points, and one of my early made knives which comes to sort of a blade like point. The rest of my knives have the square ends.

I finished the little cannon. I marked where the axle was going to be, and then stacked wood on the lathe until I had the height I wanted. I put a long enough drill bit into the drill chuck and put the point at one spot on the side, and set the tail stock on the other side of the point. I then used the tail stock to push the wood into the drill bit. the way this works is that the force of the tail stock being cranked out, puts the pressure exactly in line with the tip of the drill bit. this means that unless you make a major mistake, the drill bit will come out the other side of the wood right an the point of the tail stock.
The bit I used was too small, but once that was drilled, it guided the larger drill bit through each side of the piece to meet in the center. I did have a little forcing to get the axle shaft through as the big bits were not coming through absolutely perfectly, but that was minor.
I drilled all the way through the cannon for a dowel, and I also had glued "brackets" on top of the cannon and then drilled through the joint of the center. I put a dowel through. I had a choice of having it turn on the brackets or turn on the cannon. I decided the cannon will pivot on the shaft, and the ends will be pegged.
I had to curve out the end brace in back to give the cannon a little more tip up and down as the pivot was not quite high enough. With that, I buttoned it up and called it done. there is a lot of work I can do on it, but for now, today, it is done enough. If I still have it after tomorrow, I will do more work on it.

I broke one of my favorite drill bits too. It was a long one that just barely fit with the other drill bits. While drilling the barrel of the cannon, which is oak, I applied too much side pressure and it broke into three pieces. one was inside the wood, one was on the counter, and a small piece was in the drill chuck. I was able to use the long shaft to finish the hole after I got the rest of it out of the wood. I drilled holes around the drill bit, then tipped the drill on an angle and opened the flanges between the holes. I went around and around, going deeper until I could get needle nose pliers to grab hold and twist it out. This was a guide hole for larger drill bits. I forgot all about my spade bits and my Fornser bits so I used the dremmel to grind the hole a bit larger.

I think I killed my two Dremmels. I have a normal one and was doing some grinding and it shut down and won't start. Then I finished the grinding with the battery powered drill and it then shut down. I got it started and did a little bit of other work, then it shut down again and would not start. I don't know if it is the motor or the battery. I will figure out both of them next weekend. I do have a FORDUM, which is a very powerful motor with a flex shaft. I may have to start carrying that around with me everywhere. It is a bit more cumbersome to use, but is a good machine.

For the show, I do have battery powered drills. They will use the dremmel bits though they turn a whole lot slower.

I boxed up my carvings and set aside a couple extra boxes. Packing up after the show takes more boxes than when you go there. It is the nature of the job. One carefully packs things to prepare for the show and after the show, things get tossed together to get it back in the car as quickly as possible.

After I packed everything up, I am thinking of things I need to bring with me to the show. stuff like wood, band-aids, paper towels. blanks, paper, cards, colored paper, All night tonight, I will be thinking of stuff I will need, or remembering where the stuff I cannot find are located.
I stopped and picked up some napkins and plastic silverware. I wrapped the silverware in the napkins and they will go into my turkey bowl, and the napkins will go into the rooster bowl and that will show what they can be used for besides looking good. It might help sell them.

I did not practice my layout, other than pulling everything out and having a look at them. It will take a bit longer to set up than last year. I do know my best stuff goes onto the table first, and then anything else will go into place if there is room and if it will help the display. It would be nice to have some room around my stuff. I will see how things look as I go along. I will be setup to carve. I will be carving pencil heads, though I might do a few shaving flowers while I am at it. I do have to remember to grab that stuff while I am packing up. I forgot to gather them today.

Tomorrow is the art show. I will see what actually happens tomorrow.

year 11, Week 14, Day Three (week 588)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-17-11 Sunday

High 80s, 90 under the awning with the sun shining in from the side, lots of clouds of various kinds, some looking a little pregnant. I saw no showers until on the way home and I skirted something to the south, getting only a few driblets as I drove home. The good breeze helped. Several people's paintings and two mirrors fell over, one mirror broke. I stayed under an umbrella for the most part which helped.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Light House Point.

I arrived at the art show at quarter to eight and they let us in at eight. I immediately went out back to find my table. I found that if I brought my stuff in through the building, I would have to deal with some steps. I walked down to the dock, ten feet below the area I was to set up (five feet above water level at the time) and walked around the building. I found that if I parked at the back of the building near the water, I could bring my wagon down a steep but short slope, along the bumpy dock, and up a long steep slope to the patio. I felt this would be best. About six trips later, I had my stuff at my table. I parked my truck a distance away and came back.
I set up my table. I did not like how it looked. We had a brunch which was excellent. I over ate but ate healthily.
When I returned to my table, I rearranged things and decided it was pretty good. One by one, people starting coming by.

I carved two pencil heads. My drill kit has a jig saw so I used that to cut the heads off the stick of wood, and then drilled for the pencil. they need painting but they are pretty good. I may touch them up a little next week.

I was giving little girls flowers. their mother came by to pay me for them and I got them to take three pencil heads for the money.
A young man purchased a goblet. It broke up a set but that was not a problem. I sold a wooden flower also. Finally, An artist purchased several of my bowls for a whole lot less than they were worth. I had a lid to something that I could not figure out what it went to. I put it on a small vase and it fit and was the same kind of wood. She selected a vase and I took the lid and put it on there and that was the vase it went to. We decided to leave it on the little vase instead. It matched close enough.

When I got home, one of the fairies lost her wing. I pulled some more stuff out of the truck and found the wing. It will repair quite well because one wing-let pulled out while the other broke. that is an easy repair.

During the art show, I did a lot of walking around, and standing. I saw what most artists had on display, and stood to talk to a lot of the customers. There was always a reason to be on my feet.
I somehow made only four trips to load the stuff back up. At mom's house it took three trips to unload the stuff that went there. At home, I got an idea and parked next to the elevator, stacked stuff there, then parked my truck in my own spot, then shoved everything in the elevator, went up, then shoved everything out, and then it took three trips to get stuff down the fifty paces to my door.
During my trip home, my feet complained horribly. when I was unloading the truck, it felt good. When I walked to my apartment, they were bothering me. Right now they are not all that happy.

Like a football game, there is a lot of anticipation to the event, and there is excitement during the event, then the event is over.

I have a turning club meeting Thursday and have to get my stuff together to display for that. Friday is sort of a rest day. During the week, I will pick through my stuff here at home and get things sorted.
Next week, I have a machining project to try. I will do it in wood first to see how it comes out. I will also have my brother look at my Dremmels and figure out what happened to them. I may have killed a battery for one. The other motor may be dead.
I will disassemble the toy cannon and make it child proof. Right now it needs work.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 11, Week 15, Day One (week 589)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-23-11 Saturday

78 degrees early morning, 90 in afternoon, some hazy blue sky, some patchy clouds, a brisk breeze to make it all nice and comfortable and to blow fine sawdust everywhere. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism, Florida's Warm Welcome.


THURSDAY

Went to the turning club meeting. I had my little cannon and my Tababulia bark bowl. The members were pushing the limit on quality. My stuff was, by the best description, Rustic, compared to theirs. I also had pictures of my table displays.
One piece I really liked was really two pieces. The guy turned a piece that was open at both ends. He had two tall ribs around the outside. When done, he cut it in half length ways so he had two pieces. He then ground down the ribs so that there was feet on the bottom of the piece. He removed the ribs entirely on the first one he worked and realized he liked some ribs showing so he corrected it in the second piece. It was an excellent effect. It will be something I will have to try sometime.
They are going to have a club challenge in making tops. They demonstrated making tops, and had some very expensive tops also on display. One top was pierced, and the upper part opened up. Another was hollow and the upper part opened. One was wood burned with feathers all over it. A couple had a bunch of really tiny tops inside.
The demonstration was simple and easy and effectively showed the process of making tops. I should be able to make something.
With the challenge, they simply give people a ticket and they draw a ticket to find the winner. It is not a competition, but mainly a way to get people to make something they normally won't make.


SATURDAY


I had one main project in mind. I figured I would gain a lot out of doing this project.
My metal working lathe is designed to cut metal long ways, or across the bed, but to do angles, the head itself has to be turned. The problem with that is if you are working with a really long piece, one cannot reach the tail stock end. One also cannot hold the piece with the tail stock when one is working angles either.
My brother and I talked about making a tool rest that will move the cutting bit in and out, at whatever angle it might be. I started drawing up concepts of what the part would look like and after about eight attempts, I came up with a basic design.
Over the week, I worked out the process for doing the job, figuring out the steps to do each thing that needed to be done. I was excited.
Today, I got out the machine lathe and got it set up. I had to remove the motor from the base and put it on the milling stand so it works like a drill press.
A few weeks ago, I had cut some Orange tree wood into fairly square blocks. They were not exactly square.
The clamps used to hold the work are a bit of a challenge to use. It uses friction to keep the work in place. It is really designed for pieces less than an inch high and the wood I am working on was about two inches tall. I was using high bolts and had to make sure the chuck was not going to hit them. it was close. I have two chucks, one is like a drill would have and another is like used in wood turning. the drill style was too small to hold the router bit I was working with. I found out that it took some extra care to hold the bit in place. After about six times the bit started slipping out, I figured out how to make it hold.
I flushed one face, which was end grain. I then worked down one side. I found a little problem. the wood was splitting out as I worked. I also got to a point and it would stop as if the wood got hard. After several attempts, It dawned on me that the chuck was hitting a tall bolt.
I machined the top, then flipped it over and machined the bottom, then used the disk sander to fix the ragged side.
I then took an existing tool holder to get a measurement for the slot I needed. I milled that in to the right depth and width. I then set the piece down upside down and started machining the inside. I miscalculated on part of it and changed my design as I worked. I was supposed to have a flange stick up on one end, but because the piece was too narrow, I left that off. Later, I glued a piece on as a replacement for the piece that would have been on there. I did not have enough material for that.
I dovetailed a slot on the bottom, and then decided to make my job easier and make the project stronger by machining one side straight, since it was up against a piece that stuck up high.
That piece done, I turned to the bottom. My choice on the dovetail made the bottom easier to make. I had less to fiddle with to get the angles right.
I did have some problems of the material rotating as I worked so my dovetail was not straight. When I tried to fit the two pieces together, I found I needed to do some filing and sanding to get them to slide across each other.

After eight hours of work, I had pretty good results and it is a nice mock-up for the part I want to make. I need to drill some holes for screws. That might show that I will have to make the piece wider to give all the room I need. It is better to work this all out in wood than in metal which is more expensive and harder to work with.

The beast of the backyard was annoyed with me. He wanted me to sit there quietly and pet him, but instead I was using the machine and he always left when I turned that on.

Last week, I got home and found a wing had come off one of my fairies. I glued it back on today. It needs some touch up paint, but otherwise looks good.

Tomorrow, I will add dowels to the toy canon so it will be child proof and I can fix a couple things that bug me about it. I have a couple other pieces I need to work on, and if my brother comes up, I want him to look at my dremmels and see if he can figure out why they stopped working.
I have my FORDUM so I will be able to do some grinding and cutting and such. If the dremmels are toast, I might move all their bits and stuff to the Fordum box. I do have to fix the switch on it, I just remembered.

I will see what actually happens tomorrow.

year 11, Week 15, Day Two (week 589)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-24-11 Sunday

78 degrees when I arrived in the morning, 89 at the last time I looked. blue sky with patchy clouds. I never saw the sun dim so either they never crossed in front of the sun or they were too thin to make a difference. A good brisk breeze made the temps comfortable.
The difference between now and summer, is that in the summer, it is 85 at night, and second, the humidity is high in the summer, making it feel so much more hot. Right now, the earth has a chance to cool down some and takes time to heat up so while the air is hot it does not feel quite like it is hot (Those who live in air conditioning will feel it and suffer).
This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism, Florida's Warm welcome.


I took today as sort of a lazy day. I had a folding TV table that was missing a screw. I first had to search for a screw that was long enough to go through the necessary parts. I then had to search for one that would fit the imbedded screw. I could not find any, but had a screw with a nut. I tried to drill out the thread and the imbedded nut came out. I put in the screw and tightened the nut. I tried closing the thing and found the long bolt was in the way. I saw that the nut was not in the way. I took a hacksaw, and stood there cutting the piece off. My Dremmels were not working and a little motor tool I had, had no guts. to cut it. That is now fixed.

I figured I would remove the wheels from my cannon, add decorative and strengthening dowels into the cannon, and fix the wheels. I found I could not get them off. My brother later told me that the end caps are of a type that does not come off. I found I bent the wheels and marred one wheel. I may touch it up during the week with a grinder.

I have a cart where my spare turning tools are piled. I emptied it out and separated the spare metal from the tools and sorted things. I found several items I had thought I lost. It had not been too long ago that I had sorted it.
What I had was rod stock I thought would go good for making tools, and some pipes and fittings that would be good for ferrules around tool handles. With the little lathe and milling machine, I am looking at that metal with a slightly different eye. It dawned on me that absolutely nothing is barred from me in designing and making tools as long as I can fit it into my machines.
I looked at the metal pieces my brother gave me and compared it to the wood tool holder pattern I made and saw that I would have to learn welding to make use of that stuff for that project.

My brother fixed my FORDUM. It only went backwards. It took some doing and searching for tools, but we found out that it was mis-wired in the factory. The wires are supposed to cross, left to right, right to left. What they did was twist the wires around each other so they ended up not actually crossing. Now I have forward and backwards. Dremmel tools that screw on will no longer unscrew themselves.

My battery powered dremmel and my electric dremmel are dead. I guess I killed the battery and my plug-in has had a long life. We decided not to deal with either one for now. My brother said that we have a lot of Dremmels laying around so building one from the parts would not be too big a problem. Since the Fordum is working, I am not in a big hurry. I will swap out the tool boxes so I have all my favorite bits in one place.
I stopped at a box store looking for battery powered Dremmels and batteries but that one did not have it. I know each store has different selections. Maybe in a few weeks I will go to a store that I know has them.

I showed my brother the machining project I did yesterday. He was impressed and said that the design would work. I would have to make certain places thicker, but it would work. We discussed design differences we could do. He showed his design. Mine is flat while his is upright. He had me figure out how big the stock metal would have to be if I were to make mine. Mine would be two pieces of two inch by two inch by one inch stock. I probably should make something in metal from my stock just so I can see how it would be really like to work metal. I am already giving it some thought.

One rule of working with a lathe is that you check for wrenches and tightening bars before you turn a machine on. One of those flying can do damage, to the machine, to things around you or to yourself, and it is a royal bother to have to search for the or make new ones.
I forgot about one of the tightening bars for the chuck. It was still in the hole in the chuck. I flicked it on and heard the metal hit near one of the potted plants. I never found it. I then made a new bar since I had some rod the right diameter on hand. I was then working on a project and one of the rods disappeared. I made two more.
Without a dremmel and a cut-off disk, cutting metal is a bit time consuming. I used a hack saw and then broke one off half way. I did dig out a small motor tool, but it had no guts. It nibbled at the metal and I decided the hacksaw was likely faster.
I did not bother making a few extra bars. I later found the second one. I think it rolled through a hole inside the lathe box where I was working at the time, and then onto the table. I moved the box and found the rod.
One project I had yesterday was to figure out what thread that lathe used for the tools and parts. I figured out that it is metric. It is M-12, but has machine thread. The Ace Hardware I went to did not have machine thread that big. My brother wants to make a part for the lathe and wants it to screw on.

Of future projects I want to work on, I want to make the tool holder like the wood one I made. I want to make a taper that will fit into the shaft of the lathe. There are some tools and parts that can be made to slip on to work. I cannot do threads yet.
I have to make a replacement box for the lathe. I figured out that I will make the box closed up, top, bottom and sides, then saw the lid off. The box I have now has a metal plate to hold the lip in place and piano hinges on the back. otherwise the top and bottom just meet.
I want to make a steady rest for my big lathe. when working with long projects, it is nice to have something to hold a piece steady. I have a number of designs I can do.
I need to start working on Christmas ornaments. I have ones I made over the past few years that I am short on, and need to come up with some new ones for this year. Now is the best time to start.
I want to make a tiny toy cannon to match the trucks and cars that my brother is making for his grandson.
we have a club challenge next month so I want to make a few tops for the challenge.
that is a good start for now.

I will be returning a bunch of my work off at the antique shop I have my stuff on display at. Beyond that, I will have to see what comes to mind between now and then, and see what is the most exciting project to work on. I do have a family get-together.

I will see what I will do next weekend.

year 11, Week 16, Day One (week 590)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-30-11 Saturday

85 degrees early morning, I forgot to check the high temps. Mostly and partly cloudy, with one pregnant cloud to the south in the afternoon leaving wet streets to drive on when I went home. A good wind blew light sawdust around and made things very comfortable. This weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

FRIDAY

I brought my stuff to the antique shop. I took just about everything I had in turning.
He had taken over the store front next door and moved half his stuff over there. It made for easy walking and great looking. I drooled all over the place for stuff he had. One guy rented some space and had some tools I loved. some planes, some blacksmith tongs, cooking implements, and even an old time soldering iron where you stuck it in the fire to heat it up.
My table was in use. We decided to take a section of wall for my stuff. I laid out my stuff and it just looked junky. I decided to use two of the boxes to give some of my stuff separation. I came up with a pretty good display after some work. I also displayed nearly everything I brought. I could well have put it all out, but decided they were not needed.


SATURDAY


It was getting light when I got to my mom's house at 8:30. It was dark just a couple weeks ago.
We checked on two yard sales and neither were out. That gave me more time to work.

The cats wanted extra attention. Scar Face has been fighting again. He is in good shape but has some pin scabs everywhere. I assume he wins most of his fights.
The beast acted so much like a cat for much of the day. He did pat at me with closed claws when I did something he did not like, but basically wanted attention and got quite a bit.

I have a box of pieces that desperately need work. I took a Sea Grape bowl I made in 2004. It was thick and clunky. When I turned it, one part of the original under-bark wood surface still showed. One of the points for my tail stock has a ring with a sharp point in the center. I had a tiny hole near where the original center was so I put that center point into the hole. It was not exactly centered but that did not bother me.
I flattened the bottom, then reshaped the outside. I got rid of all but a tiny bit of that original surface and sanded the outside quite a bit. I still had some tool marks but really could not get rid of them.
I flipped the bowl around and worked the inside, reaching in with the tool next to the center which was now deep inside at the bottom. I cleaned up the inside and changed its shape to match the outside more. The bowl is not really much smaller than it was, but it feels and looks smaller. It is much nicer.
I filled some tiny shrinkage cracks and bark inclusions and then after that sanded the surface filler away. It needs hand sanding and then finishing. It looks a lot better.
What I am doing is fitting the chuck into the interior of the bowl, and simply using the pressure of the tail stock and friction of the chuck against the inside wood to hold the piece in place while I work. When I turned the piece around, I had a "foot" around the rim of the bottom and the bottom was inset. I opened the jaws of the chuck to apply outward pressure on that ridge to spin the piece, and then used the tail stock to push into the bottom of the bowl. Simple holding and pressure kept the work in place.
After I was finished, I used a grinder to remove the nub on the bottom and flatten the inside bottom so they were both flat.

During the week, I came up with a great design for a part holder for my milling machine operations on my little lathe. This was a holder to stop slippage for side to side motion. The design was essentially a cross shape, one part had two slot screws to hold it in place, and the other was a sliding piece that went across it. I figured a dovetail joint would work perfectly here.
The idea was that the two screws could be in the same T slot or separate slots. The arm would stick out and touch the work piece to prevent twisting or sliding, depending on where I put it.
I looked at my work and had some pieces I really did not want to cut up, partly because I did not want to take the time to cut them, and then there was the fact that I could use them for something else.
Looking at my pieces, I got the idea that I could use some metal disks, like washers, my brother created when he used a hole saw to cut some sheet metal. I could simply put a T nut through the hole and bolt it in place. It would simply add extra friction to prevent movement.

I needed some T bolts so I took a piece of rod bigger than I needed and set up the milling machine. I changed my design several times and worked out the best way to work. I did make several mistakes which I worked out after the fact. Every one of them can be easily solved.
I used the milling machine to cut the sides of the rod until they were narrow enough to fit into the T-slots. Before I had done anything, I should have used the lathe to find the center of both ends. One end had a bit of metal machined out of it and that created problems in getting it centered.
I milled the sides of the bar for a short length and but did not mill the end square which would have been a good idea too.
The machined end was useful in placing one of my clamps to hold it in place firmly. It just would have been nice to know where the center was first.
After I had the end machined for the T slot, I mounted it in the lathe (taking the motor off the upright shaft and placing it in the base) I could not quite get it centered on either end because my chuck is a three jaw chuck and the milled sides required it to be held in a four jaw chuck. I did not have the exact center of the other end so I had to guess. the piece was just not quite centered. I figured I could make adjustments in the end.
I started reducing the diameter of the bar. I have to do it in two steps. I did not have enough room to machine the entire length.
What I wanted to do is to reduce the diameter down to that of a standard nut, and then thread it over the entire length so I would have my own machined T bolt. Until this week, I never considered being able to make my own screws and nuts. I now know I can, but have to plan ahead a bit better.

I took the day easy beyond that. I have a large number of projects to work on but did not get to them.
My brother had fixed my FORDUM last week. the switch was mis-wired in the factory. The wires were supposed to cross and instead they twisted them so they did not cross. He got the wires right and it works great.
A FORDUM is a motor connected to a shaft. Dremmels have such shafts available, but the FORDUM is much more powerful. They also come with a foot switch where you can control the speed of the tool easily. It costs about four times that of the Dremmel.
I used it today and it worked perfectly. My dad used FORDUMS all the time. He has hooks along the workbench so you can hang the Fordum motor so it is out of the way. this is the first time I used the hooks since he died.

I stopped at ACE HARDWARE. I was looking for square headed nuts or square headed bolts. They had what are called SIDEWALK BOLTS. These are bolts that have like a one inch diameter slotted heads. I am thinking they are used to fill the screw holes that your shutters bolt into. That is a guess anyway.
I decided it would be much easier to machine those heads to fit my slots, than it was to make my own bolts. the bolts and a nut was cheap enough for an experiment.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a microwave at a yard sale, from a friend. Because the cord was about two feet too short, I plugged it into what looked like a very strong power strip. I found that when I ran it for longer than ten minutes, it would flip the strips breaker because it was heating it up. While I was at ace, I picked up a three foot cord designed for heavy appliances like air conditioning. I won't worry about this extension cord.

I am not sure what will be happening tomorrow. I have a large number of projects to do but will have to see what I am in the mood for. I do not know whether my brother will be coming up. What I do may change if he shows up or not.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 16, Day Two (week 590)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-01-11 Sunday

90 degrees, good breeze lots of patchy clouds with a good mix of sun and shade. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism, Florida's Warm Welcome.

On the way home yesterday, I picked up some "sidewalk bolts." I am not exactly sure what they are used for, but one guess is to fill in the screw holes used for hurricane shutters. These have really big heads with a slot all the way across and a Phillips socket in the very center. I have a need for some slot screws. Yesterday, I was making one by scratch and made a few planning errors. It was a good test of concepts. Yesterday, I was looking for square headed screws and nuts and the ACE HARDWARE did not have those. I saw the usefulness of the sidewalk screws so I picked up for of them.
Today, I mounted the sidewalk screw under the milling machine. I took time to get the screw lined up square and straight. I decided that the slot should be running corner to corner so there would be less chance of the piece splitting in the center of the slot.
I then sat and machined the sides of the head, measuring often, until I got the head the size of the slot. I then machined the top. It fought me tooth and nail going across the top. There was some fight when working on the sides, besides the fact that the bit kept slipping out of the chuck when I bore down hard.
I found out that there is a big difference in the cutting power of the bit as one comes across it. I was working with the piece left to right and back on bed. I would have the bit working in front or behind the bit as I worked. There was trailing and leading forces, along with side to side forces. When machining along the top, there was all sorts of movement, slop. Part of learning machining is to know the best direction to address the bit.
I wanted to slide the work in one of the T-slots once I got it to fit, but found the shaft a bit too long. It would interfere with the chuck of the lathe. I should have been using the drill chuck but the lathe chuck needed more force to come off than I was willing to give it at the time.
I flipped the piece over and eyeballed the square and machined the last side of the square head. I had to do some filing to get rid of burs to get it to fit. I decided to mount it in the machine as a lathe and thin down the piece by flattening the face. A bit more filing and the piece fits nicely in the T-slots.
I showed it to my brother and he said it was an excellent job. I need to make a bunch more of them and cut them at different lengths to match the work I will be doing.
I figured out that I could get the job faster by using the grinder to rough out the square, and then machine it to fit into the slot. I will be making more of these and speed is important. I spent a few hours making this square head. I would rather spend a few minutes to do the job instead.
What I loved about this project, in spite of the fact that It is my first finished project, is that I was able to figure out how to do it on my own.

My toy cannon was taken to the Antique shop. I decided to make a new cannon for my grandnephew. I had used a tool handle for the barrel of the toy cannon I already made, and had cut it short. I took the remaining piece of barrel and used that for the new cannon. It ended up thinner than I ever planned. I wanted it big in diameter. Instead it somehow kept getting smaller and smaller.
Over the next few weeks, I should make the carriage for it. I will not get it done for his birthday next weekend. I could, but doubt it. It does need sanding as it is.

My brother and I sat and talked, looked at books and magazines. I had picked up a 1954 Popular Mechanics encyclopedia. My brother kept showing me tools and projects they had there. A lot of their stuff will work today, though some parts, like a Ford Truck axle to make a tractor powered post hole digger might be a bit more difficult to do as they are not designed the same way, but much of the projects are "make do" and can be made even today.

Next week, I have the cannon to build. I have a face vase and another vase that is supposed to be carved into flowers to do. I have some ornaments from the past years that I should carve so I can get caught up on what I need. I have some wood that needs to be turned. I have a few pieces of work that I can clean up with little problem or effort. I have more of the flat head screws to make. I should be thinking about new ornaments, I could make more shaving flowers and more turned and carved flowers. I had decided that replacing the lathe box is lower on the priority list as it is holding up now. I saw a new design for a steady rest for the lathe and may make that design for practice.
I will have more ideas between now and then.

I have a birthday party Saturday afternoon so I will likely only work till noon.

I will have to see what happens next weekend.

year 11, Week 17, Day One (week 591)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-07-11 Saturday

86 degrees in the morning, 90 degrees in the afternoon, a very light breeze that made the trees wave their little fingertips, and take away whatever heat there might have been. half clouds half sun kept the reflective heat down. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism, Florida's Warm Welcome.


Friday

Last week I had filled in some cracks in the Sea Grape bowl I re-worked with wood filler. While digging for something, I found I had some decorator sand in several colors. I had seen in the club where they pulverized stone to make inlay. I decided the sand was about the size I could use for inlay. I scraped the filler out and cut some cracks a little bigger. Using super-glue, I set the purple sand in cracks. I had a bright red and now think that would have been better. You are actually wanting the inlay to stand out. I also have yellow and white sand. I nearly made it flush but have more sanding to do as I got super glue on the surface in one place and when I added a coat of varnish, it stood out. I have to add some more coats of super glue to get the proper surface on the inlay, making sure the spaces between the stones are filled. It looks good.


SATURDAY

We went yard sailing in the morning. A friend had a yard sale so we went to it. I picked up a boombox. The CD does not work but the radio works perfectly. It is replacing a radio I have at home.
I picked up some Campbell’s cook booklets. don't need them but she pushed them on me. I don't follow recepies very often.

There was some porcelain dolls there. One in yellow and one in blue. I absolutely loved the blue dress she had on, and her face was perfect. She was beautiful. She is now on one of my shelves.
I am more picky on what porcelain dolls I buy than the teddy bears I bring home. With this one, her expression was just right. her dress color is my favorite blue, the price was right, and also it was from a friend. I haven't a clue where to look and what to look for to find out if there is collector value to her. I did not buy her to sell her. She is now on a shelf in my living room, protected by half a dozen fairies and a wizard.
At another yard sale, Mom and I picked up a "saws all" by Makita that will be a birthday present for my brother. It is new, never been used. The price was pretty good too.


The turning club periodically have club challenges. These challenges are to get people to make something they never made before, rarely or in a very long time. At one time there was a beginner and advanced competition, but they decided to take the competition out. Now when one brings them in, you get a raffle ticket. They then draw tickets from a hat for the winners.
Next month they will have a challenge of making spin tops. I decided to make one.
My very first one was out of a two by two and I had the proportions wrong. It won't spin. Not broad enough for the height and it has a big nob on top that reduces the spin you can impart. That will now be a dangle Christmas ornament.
I then took a piece of four by four yellow pine post. I got the shape right, but when I tried to spin it, it was not spinning well. After looking at it a while, I got out my Fordum with an aggressive grinding bit and started decorating it. At first I planned on having it hollow with fillagree, but should have hollowed it out first for that. Instead, since it was solid, I started grinding it out so it would have spokes. I had four spokes that were flat vanes.
I decided to remove the webbing so the four spokes became eight spokes, four top four bottom. When I was about done, one set of the spokes had broken through because of a flaw in the wood. I chose the wrong location for the spacing of the spokes. I then removed that pair of spokes, and then the opposite pair of spokes,
The inside of the outer rim is rough. I will set it in the lathe, and hold the grinder at the thinnest place on the rim. I will then turn the piece against the grinder so it ends up the same thickness all the way around. I will have to do some shaping of the spokes so they will look good too.

I took the last three sidewalk bolts and squared the heads in the grinder so they are closer to being a T-slot bolt than what they were. I left them slightly larger so when I machine them, I can get them centered on the shaft. It only took a couple minutes for them while it took me like an hour for the one I machined entirely.
I should pick up a few more of them and prepare them too. When I get to machining, I can do some production machining, one after the other. I need them in different lengths so I could use quite a few of them.
I could well make them entirely on the grinder, but I have to do more setup than I have done so far. I just held them in the plyers and pushed them into the grinder until they looked close to size. The grinder could well be a lot faster to finish these up. I do need more practice in setting up to machine. Setting up the parts in the machine is really what machining is all about.

Tomorrow, I will finish up the top I started, and may make another one. I would like to make the next spin top hollow. I need practice with that anyway. These could be a nice turned Christmas ornament to offer next year.
I will likely work a bit on those T-slot bolts. I have a face vase that needs more work on, a vase that I want to carve flowers on, and a number of various projects to work on along with anything new I might thick of.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 17, Day Two (week 591)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-08-11 Sunday

84 degrees in the morning, 90 in the afternoon, light breeze to make things comfortable but not enough to move sawdust around. We had variable clouds, clear blue skies when I arrived at mom's house, A while later a rippled shield was over us, then patchy clouds, then blue sky, then patchy clouds. It was different every time I looked up. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

After arriving, I took pictures for my mom, and then took pictures of all her flowers. I took flower pictures yesterday but some did not come out so I took more. I also got pictures of the Curly tailed lizards and the cats. I plan to put them on line sometime this week.

After I got all the equipment out, I decided I would take a grinding bit I got from my dad, which has a shaft a drill can use, and make it so it will work with the Fordum and dremmel. I had a little bit of difficulty keeping it in the machine lathe and it damaged some of the spurs on the grinding bit, but I got the shaft down to where the smaller machines can hold onto it. I only did a little of the end so I could also hold it in the drill.

I took the top I made yesterday and mounted it in my wood lathe. Using a sanding bit, I held the sanding bit in place and rotated the work so any high spots were ground down. I cleaned up the inside of the outer rim and a few other places. It looks pretty good, but could have been done better.

I sanded more on the bowl I added inlay on. It is looking a bit better. I will do some finishing on it during the week.

I used the hole saw in the drill press to cut some disks out of 3/4 board. I then ran screws into the holes and mounted them on the lathe. I trued up the disks and then undercut the inside and outside. These are the wheels for the cannon I am making for my grandnephew.

I cut some boards for the toy cannon I am making. I got the body of the cannon assembled. I cut three boards the same size, one had the two wheels cut out of it. The second was cut for the body. the third had a strip cut from it. I was able to make all the pieces I needed from what I had left, cut-offs from the body.
I have to add the pivot rod for the barrel and install the wheels. I also have to add dowels to peg the pieces together. Glue is not strong enough to hold it together under the destructive power of a little child.

While I had a lot of projects in mind to work on, I did get a bit done, though it was not as productive a day as I had hoped. It never is. All those projects are still available to work on next week.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Year 11, Week 18, Day One (week 592)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-04-11 Saturday

90 Degrees, blue sky, though clouds appeared over the Everglades later in the day, light breeze took the heat away. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano beach department of tourism, Florida’s Warm Welcome.

We stopped at a couple yard sales today. We really weren't in the mood. At one yard sale, I hit the mother-load. I got 18 game boy games and a game boy unit for $12. There were two games I had. There are several new games I do like. There are a few that I will never play. This game unit has a poor speaker but that does not matter much.
This gives me 30 total games (2 repeats) and 4 game boy units (1 black and white). My problem is that I have not had time to play any of my games.


It felt like a lazy day. I drilled and doweled, using bamboo skewers, the cannon so it will take more than the power of the child to take it apart. I went deep where the wood was being held. I then went shallow where there was nothing to hold, for a decorative effect. I sanded the sides so the skewer ends were clean.
I then drilled larger holes for the metal shafts. One shaft as for the wheel, and one was for the cannon barrel. The cannon can shift side to side, but is on well.
I plan to give that to my grandnephew tomorrow. It looks pretty good.
When getting ready to drill for the dowels, I set up the little machine lathe to use it like a drill press. I found out that the total throw of the drill press mechanism was as thick as the wood I was working. It would not drill into the wood on the other side.

I started new spin tops. I planned to hollow both of them. I made a mistake with my first one. I thinned to much to the point before I got around to hollowing. It started to wobble with even the slightest pressure. That is not good. It will break easily. The piece of wood I used had shrinkage cracks on the end. I cut it long and then was cutting it in half to do top and bottom, and realized they would be long enough for two. My first one was the inside wood and was solid.
The second one had lots of shrinkage cracks on the end and that started giving me problems. I ended up breaking a piece off the point, then breaking it in half. I have it glued right now. I will re-mount it and do a little correction and then sand it. My idea was to pierce this so it will be really decorative.
I may drill out the first one and then work from there.

I have a party tomorrow afternoon. I considered not going to mom's house to work because I won't be working for very long tomorrow. I have a turning club meeting Thursday so I want to get these spinning tops done so I can display them. I might hold off on giving my nephew the cannon until next weekend so I can display it.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 18, Day Two (week 592)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-15-11 Saturday

85 degrees, started with blue except over the Everglades. A front was on the radar off the west coast, predicted to hit around ten. The sky clouded over quickly with a few broken patches, but they got those fixed quickly.
As the sky to the west started darkening, I started picking up my stuff so I would have less to deal with when I finally had to clean up. I got the worst of the stuff put away, and then got back to work. When I decided I had done enough, a few drops of liquid sunshine started coming down.
I heard on the radio that we have had a very dry winter and they are starting the water restrictions. The wet season really does not start until July or August.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism, Florida's Warm Welcome.

I broke the jar of my Osterizer last week. It was plastic but it was quite old. I looked at the price of a new jar. They have new machines for twice the jar's price. My machine is made of metal while the new ones are plastic. Mom had a jar for the machine, and several other jars that fit (canning jars) also. She gave them to me yesterday, but I forgot about them. I got them home now.

I have a turning club meeting this week so I needed to work today. Since I have something going on in the afternoon, I started really early in the morning for a Sunday. I ended up working from about seven till about eleven. Not too bad for a quick day.

I had two spin tops that I needed to finish. I had made mistakes on both of them. I took the one I hollowed out yesterday. Shrinkage cracks were causing it to come apart. I glued it back together yesterday. Today I sanded it on the lathe, I then parted it off. I took some Mahogany and made the top, fitting it to the hole. I would have loved to have a friction fit, but I missed that. I glued the new top on.
Later, I drew a set of double lines and pierced the spaces between the lines. The thickness I turned the inside was not even. I was a bit thick also. My piercings were not even as I was in a hurry, racing the weather. It is sloppy, but I got something done. If I sit down with some files I could clean it up nicely. I doubt that will happen.

I took the other one I had, where I had turned too fine near the point. It was unstable. I have a turning tool made with a allen wrench. I tried to hollow beside the point. It was not working so I changed tactics. I made a top out of mahogany that fits over it, and then changed the profile of the body creating a new point that is shorter.
I drew a set of lines and ground into the spaces. I broke two small grinding bits, dental drill bits, while working. I was using them to drew the lines on the outside of the spaces.
I rough leveled the spaces. I later painted the spaces black, and then sanded the ribs so they were clean.

I have a turning club meeting Thursday. I have no idea what projects I will work on next week. I have more than enough, just not sure which.

I will see what I do next weekend.

year 11, Week 19, Day One (week 593)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-21-11 Saturday

85 degrees early morning, with some clouds. One bit of drippy liquid sunshine hit but not enough to warrant getting my equipment under cover. The rest of the day was blue skies, light breeze and sunshine bringing the temps up to 94. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Feet were bothering me the past several weeks. I decided I needed some new shoes. The old pair was so worn on the bottom that the air cells inside the soles were opening up. I got what should be a good pair of shoes. Hopefully they will last a year like the last pair did.
My hip decided to start bothering me. It is like a tendon is tired. It effects me the most when I twist or change direction. It is a bother, more than anything else. There are times I feel like I am walking like an old man.

THURSDAY

It was the day of the turning club meeting. I brought my pieces to work. One boss that seldom takes notice of my woodworking, liked the spin tops I made. I know what I will make this weekend. They can pass as Christmas ornaments so that gives me double reason for making them.

At the club meeting, I displayed my three spin tops, the toy cannon and the Sea grape bowl. I am always impressed with the work others bring in and disappointed with the work I bring in, in comparison. My work is so different than theirs so I have that to my advantage.

The demonstration was on making boxes. The hard part is always getting the lid to fit tightly. It was good to see the process again.

We then had the club challenge. The club challenge is to get people to make things they never made before or in a very long time. There were some rather interesting designs people did. I learned that for the tops to spin, the weight has to be really close to the bottom. This gives the top stability. Also, it does not have to be very wide if the wood is extremely dense. In light wood, you need it with a big radius to carry the spin around.
They had us spin the tops to see how they did. As each person came forward to demonstrate, they gave them a raffle ticket. My two carved ones did poorly, but my big one did well. One guy made the old string style top where you wrap the string around the lower part of it, and then you throw it, hanging onto the top. Those really spun nicely as the string gave them great RPM. He had one with a metal point and another with a plastic point. He said that the metal point one was damaging floors.
After everybody demonstrated their tops, they then drew three tickets out of the “hat” and the winners got gift certificates. To Woodcrafts. They used to have actual competitions, but this is much better system. The main purpose is to get people to try the project.

Someone had brought pieces of Mahogany stump for the club members and as I was leaving, I saw his truck and him standing there. I stopped and took the last piece, about twelve inches in diameter.


FRIDAY

I took my little cannon over to my grandnephew. He wanted it the instant he saw it. I handed it to him and said “boom.” About a minute later he said “boom” He ran off with it in smiles.
I doubt I will make another cannon unless I get an order for one. I may well make a few more wooden toys, though.


SATURDAY

Mom had some projects for me. She had fallen a couple months ago and hurt her shoulder and it is still bothering her. She has not maintained the yard as well as she would have liked. She decided to get some projects done and needed my help.
Dad made Mom a light house years ago and it had a couple lights inside and Mom strung white Christmas lights around the platform and up and down it. In recent years, it was showing signs of decay. The plywood walk way around the light was drooping it was rotted so badly. Mom decided it needed to be taken out. The walkway came off with a tug. I then unscrewed the plug and light switch box from the side of the piece so I could cut the wires. That allowed us to pull the body off the base. I was breaking the wood as I was lifting it.
The base was the only thing not rotted. Dad had run tie-down screws deep into the dirt and had two chains attached to it. There had been a rash of such displays being stolen so Mom wanted it to remain. I had to dig into the ground to get to the tie downs, and then pull the chains to get them free, then draw them through the holes in the base.

Then mom had me trim a palm tree, cutting the fronds and seed stems.
The neighbor had yard people trimming their yard. They cut out a Bougainvillea and left the stump in place. I got the electric chain saw out and cut it as close to the ground as possible. A bit later, Waste Management came by an picked up the bulk garbage. One long piece of the tree was laying there, left by the claw. I picked that up too.

Mom has a plastic rack for hand tools in her laundry room. It had been overloaded for years. The plastic rings finally gave and the thing came down. Mom told me to fix it for her. The plastic had twisted from the uneven weight.
To fix it, I cut two pieces of wood and put one small strip behind the plastic and screwed through the big piece of wood into the small piece of wood, through the plastic. Several screws made sure they were bound together.
I then screwed it on the wall where it once was. It will hold nicely now. Mom was loading it up as I was going back outside. She was happy with that.

One of mom’s plants was doing good. All her plants were in pots. This plant was leaning into the walkway. She had me pull it back and we found the reason it was doing well was that it had gone into the ground. That is not allowed. We broke off the roots sticking out of the pot.

I finally was able to work on my projects. I made two spin top blanks. I then sat down and ground away wood, carving them. I made one with three spokes, and another with four spokes. Since I knew what I was doing this time, they went fast. I accidentally cut into one spoke on the four spoke spin top, so I cut the damage away, took a piece of tenon that was still in the lathe and made a replacement piece. After it dried quite a bit, I shaped it so it is hard to find where the damaged piece was.
I took a piece of the Bougainvillea that had two stems. One big stem and another small one that had been cut previously. I tried to hollow the big log (about five inches in diameter). Because of the angles, getting smaller as it went to the base, and the base which was not square, I got it off angle and cut into the side of the piece. I ended up grinding the inside instead to get the shape right. I used a spade bit to drill the small stump, (two and a half inches diameter) and then grind it deeper. I am considering ways to finish it up. I may work the base a little more, possibly using a saw to make it more acceptable a design. It was cut in a wedge cut that really makes it tough to deal with. I will explore some concepts a bit later.

Tomorrow I should try to finish up the stump bowl. Beyond that, I really don’t have any projects that really need to be done. I do have loads of projects and lots of wood to work with.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 19, Day Two (week 593)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-22-11 Sunday

86 degrees early morning 94 when I left. Random thin puffs to add interest to the blue sky. A light breeze just strong enough to move the lightest dust around. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I started the morning cutting a piece of the long Bougainvillea and mounting it on the lathe to make what is called a banana bowl. I had a design for the bowl based on the features. A knot on the side, angles of the existing cut end, ripples on the top, and so on.
As I started shaping it, little design changes were required. I first created a tenon on the base while it was between centers. Once I was satisfied with the way the tenon was made, I turned the work around and mounted it into the chuck.
Because of something I saw at a turning club demonstration one time, I now stick the drive spur into the chuck and close the chuck down on it. It is not really a good practice as it could dig into the sides of the taper. The taper uses friction between the taper and the shaft to hold very tight. My method of using the chuck to hold it could eventually cause problems on how the taper fits into the shaft if you decide not to use the chuck. Little ridges and indents could compromise the friction fit. The advantage is that changing from chuck to taper is only a moment, just releasing the jaws and it comes out. I have not noticed any mars on the surface and assume that is because it is a super hard finish.
As I worked, the knot I was trying to keep was coming apart. I got to working the inside and intended to have it thick where the knot was. As I worked, that concept faded away and I ended up going with thin walls. Design changes as I went caused my original shape to disappear.
Once I got the inside about where I wanted it, the post that the tail stock was holding it in place, caught on the tool and broke.
I turned the piece around and fixed the bottom of the piece before permanently taking it off the lathe. I then sat down and removed the remains of the posts with the grinder and doing some touch up.

I then started grinding on, cleaning up the Bougainvillea trunk bowl. I wanted to figure out the best way to fix the bowl. I decided the best way to fix it, to make it nice, was to plug the gap that formed while making it. I took a piece I cut off when I started that had a bit of bark on it. I was a bit hesitant on messing up, but decided to go for it.
I cut the piece a little longer than I needed and then worked both the piece and the gap of the bowl to get the piece to fit in nicely. I would grind a little, then fit, then grind a little more then fit. I finally got a good fit within the gap where the bottom gap was blocked nicely. I then loaded up the glue and stuck the piece in place. I then took sawdust from the grinding and worked that into the glue and worked it into the gaps. I will see for sure, but this seems to be a good filler for me.
After it dried a bit, I shaped the inside, made sure any gaps were filled, filled in a few other thin spots and worked the wood all around.
This piece actually looks pretty good. It will need a lot of sanding and touch-ups, but considering the problems I've had with it, it looks pretty good.

I took it easy after that, resting, cooling off with the fan running just to make sure air was moving around, and dust was blown away from me when I was grinding.
I did cut off a stub of a branch and tried to cut what was supposed to be a bird head for the banana bowl. I have done that many a time, where I made them into bird bowls by carving heads and sometimes tails onto them. My results are not satisfactory. I likely will try again next weekend if I decide it is worth doing.

Mom started dinner then found out that my brother was not going to be able to come up. Twenty minutes earlier and Mom would have fixed something simple for the two of us and I would have taken the uncooked chicken back home. Instead, I brought home a whole bunch of cooked chicken, potatoes, vegetables, and so on. I will be eating good this week.
We have a tradition where I provide the meat and mom fixes dinner for my brother and his wife, and mom and I, and sometimes someone else who might come up. This tradition started when a new store opened up near my house and had fantastic prices on the meats. I kept bringing up whole bunches of meat to stock up mom and dad, and it took them a while to get me to understand that I should only bring up for the Sunday meal. I have done that ever since. It worked well for all of us.

I don't have any idea what I will be working on Saturday. I will come up with something.
I think I will be on my own Sunday as Monday, I think we are having a gathering at my brother's house on Monday where we can really test out the forge he made or work on other projects we can come up with. I will gather my carving stuff and have them in the car, though I might not ever touch that when metal working is possible.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.

year 11, Week 20, Day One (week 594)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-28-11 Saturday

84 degrees when I got to work, 94 when I packed up. Blue sky with some puffs. A nice breeze kept things nice. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


DURING THE WEEK.

I had worked with bougainvilla last weekend. On Monday, I noticed my right wrist was itching. Later, I recognized the allergic reaction was developing - tiny bumps all over my wrist that itched and broke when I scratched. I instantly took an antihistimine, which I knew would knock down the reaction.
When I looked on line about whether Bogainvillea was a poisonous wood, all I could find was that the leaves were not harmful in small amounts and the wood could be used as bird perches.
A friend pointed to allergic reactions. Using allergic as a search word, I found out that Bougainvillia is a relitive of Poison Ivy. My search mostly told about getting pricked by the thorns. The sap is what is reactive.
It was one thing to just grab the wood to toss it in a pile. It is another to have the saw dust, both from turning it and griinding on it. What really confuses me is the fact that my left arm got more covered than my right arm did.
What you are supposed to do is to wash your exposed skin with soap and water immideatly after exposure to remove the toxins. Since I did not do that, and had the dust on my skin for extended time, I am self medicating myself by taking antihistimines and applying a steriodal cream, both only when I feel any itching. It seems to be working.
I sent out a warning to the turning club I am a member of. If one covers up and washes immideately afterword, there should be no problem working the wood.
I decided to hold off on any sanding of my bowls until the wood dries some. I gave the "nut bowl" them some varnish to stiffen the fibers so it could be sanded. I will wait a week or two before I work the surfaces.
I think it is much like Brazillian pepper, which is also in the Poison Ivy family, where once the wood has dried, it will be more than safe to work with. One just has to wait until it is dry.


FRIDAY

I was looking for something I need. I decided the walk in closet was a good place to search. First thing I was reminded of was that I have a lot of boxes of old papers and bills. I pulled them out of the closet. Also any clothes on the floor got tossed in the hamper. I found a jacket that my mom made for me when I was a teen and it fits. It is a just fit, but fits. I located some old charcoal drawings I did back in the 80s. I never found what I was looking for.
I now have to figure out what I did with my paper shredder. Until then, I will sort through the boxes and fill some bags of old bills that I don't need to hang onto any more.


SATURDAY


We stopped at a couple yard sales. I picked up a wood cutting board at one. It had some surface damage.
Later in the day, I took the sanders to it and cleaned up the surfaces, removing the old oiled wood. This will go to my niece. She needs it.

At a church yard sale, I saw some yarn. I knew I could get a deal for it. I did not realize how great a deal I was able to get. I have no idea what I will do with that yarn, as I am not doing that much crochet. It could amount to a life-time collection of yarn.
Later in the day, I realized I would never have time to untangle it at home, I took the time to sit and separate the whole tangle of yarn and lay it out so I could take a picture of all of it. I also wanted to know what I had. I love some of the colors.

I have a wood turning tool that uses an allen wrench to cut into small holes. I thought I would fix the tool by machining the surfaces level and flat. After some work, I found that it is too hard a metal for the cutting bit I was trying to use. After a while I gave up on that.
While I was at it, the lathe uses a lock pin to set it at zero. That lock pin was made from a nut but was not quite machined small enough. I mounted it in the lathe and ran a file on it while it was spinning. That little bit allows the pin to fit perfectly into the centering holes without effort.

While I had the lathe set up in the machining mode, I decided I would tackle the T-nuts I started making on the grinder. After fiddling around a tiny bit, I decided to finish them on the grinder.
With some care and measuring, I was able to get all three T-bolts made so the heads fit nicely inside the slots. I used a file to remove any burrs and to clean up the surfaces. The grinder does make the job a whole lot quicker than machining them.
I also see the T-nuts don't have to be precise. they just have to fit into the slots and be big enough that they don't twist around. It is not absolutely critical that the screws are absolutely centered, as long as they do not come into contact with the breach that the bolt sticks out. That is bigger than the bolt itself.

The beast of the back yard sure acted like a cat today. since I was spending most of my time sitting, He laid at my feet and soaked up what attention I gave him between work I was doing. He would have loved more, but he got quite a bit.

Tomorrow, we are having a family gathering at my brother's house. He built a forge and has an anvil. I hope to be pounding on metal tomorrow. I brought my carving basket but really don't intend to work on anything in particular. We may work on other projects too. I might cut some metal to work with on my little lathe. Beyond that and eating, I have no idea what the day will bring.

I will see what I actually do Tomorrow.

year 11, Week 20, Day Two (week 594)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-29-11 Sunday

I don't know the temperature. I was at my brother's house and spent my entire time beneath a spreading oak tree that killed much of the heat. A light breeze made it nice. We had mostly blue sky, clouds periodically got in front of the sun which helped. Some clouds were heavy and some were light.
Around eight in the evening, when we were pretty much done, we did get a tiny bit of liquid sunshine, but only enough to make some noise on the awning.
This weather report is brought to you by the city of Fort Lauderdale Department of Tourism.

I started early, I had a lot of food to take with me, both food I was bringing and food my mom gave me to bring. I had other things with me too. It was a big load. I wanted to get my refrigerator back.

I settled outside, and decided not to do any carving. I did mess with a piece but did not do more than mar a piece of wood. I assisted setting up an awning. The free-standing frame is light metal and everything kept coming apart when we needed to move it. We ended up dropping the legs. Once we had it in place and back together, we had to figure out how to put the tarp onto it and had it upside down twice. The instructions was written by someone who knew how to put it together.

I sat and played games on my palm pilot most of the day.

We finally fired up the forge. We were not running it the way one should, turning the blower off between heats, instead we had the blower running all the time. The blower was a heat gun where the elements had died on it. There is more that we have to do on the forge. It has more parts and pieces to be added, but we were able to do something with it.
My brother gave us some re-bar, reenforcing bar used in concrete, to work with. Rebar has ribs down the length to hold it. I pounded the end of the bar square, with the re-bar ribs only showing on the corners. I then narrowed the end to a blunt point.
I saw several times that I was not leaving the metal in the heat long enough. I see it lost heat fairly quickly too. I had a maximum of about a minute of pounding to get it to whatever shape it needed to be. and usually about thirty seconds. My nephew liked to use a heavy hammer and go splat on the metal, slow individual strokes. I used a lighter hammer and tapped on it quickly.
After making the point, I bent the end over. At that point, It dawned on me that we needed a coal hook to moved the coal around in the forge. I had seen a blacksmith show where that was one of the first projects he made. I flattened the bent end, making it wider. I used the technique of pulling the hammer on impact to draw the metal out to the edges. it worked as well as the books said. A bit later, My nephew said that the coal hook was quite helpful.
My nephew had flattened the end of his bar, He then turned it ninety degrees and flattened the next section. He then made a second bar the same way. With my brother helping him, he heated it and used a punch in the pritcher hole in the anvil (Anvils has two holes, one is a square hole for different fittings like cutters, and one is a small round hole called the pritcher hole). They then cut a small piece of rod and fitted it into the hole, pinging the ends over into a rivet.
After a little bit of work, they got the tongs working nicely. Because it has flat ends, it does not grab the rounds stock we were using very strongly, but it made a big difference in some work he was doing. He now has to make tongs with a rounded jaw to hold round stock and square jaws to hold square stock. At least he made something he really needed. He will have several dozen tongs when he is done.
I could have done a whole lot more work but this was all I did and I sat back down to play games. I will have to make a set of tongs next time. My nephew will be over far more often so he will be doing a lot more black smithing while I will be instead, going to my mom's house to work wood and machine metal.

Because it needed the same electrical outlet that the forge was using, we later mounted some heavy square stock into the power hacksaw to cut me a couple pieces for the cross slide I want to make.
A power hacksaw is a motor with a couple reducing pulleys, with an arm that moves a slide guided hacksaw blade back and forth. it is a wonderful machine. You get it cutting, and you can walk away while it cuts through heavy metal stock. What is great about it is that it uses standard hack saw blades and They last for dozens of cuttings, even in stainless steel. When you cut with a hacksaw by hand, you change the angle of it ever so slightly with each stroke. That twists the blade, reducing the life span of the blade by a dramatic amount. Whether it takes a couple minutes or an hour to cut through a piece of metal, the power hacksaw keeps cutting whether you are there or not. there are no sparks as you would have with a cut-off saw and if you need to do machining, the metal does not heat up very much either which would change the dimensions.
A cross slide is a tool holder for the lathe that allows you to rotate the cutting bit in my machine lathe to cut on angles. that is one tool that I desperately need on my little lathe.
I had machined some wood as a prototype of what I wanted to make my cross slide to look like. It was to test the concept and see what problems I would likely have. I have not made it because I was missing the metal I would need. By getting the blanks of the right size, I can make my cross slides when the opportunity presents itself.

We were celebrating a combined birthday of my brother and I. Our birthdays were just a week or two apart.
Mom and I gave my brother a new Saws-all that we got at a yard sale. He liked that it had a blade lock that did not use allen wrenches to hold the blade in place.
We both got gift cards and money. My gift cards were Home Depot and Sears. they will get well used.

Of course, everybody brought food and I ate far more than I should have. As soon as one of the Bar-B-Q meat was done, I would sample it. I later had a few more of them. I ate just a tiny bit of whatever was there and skipped most of it to keep from over-eating on stuff I don't need.

Tomorrow, I have some work to do around the house so I do not expect to be leaving the house at all.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 21, Day One (week 595)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-04-11 Saturday

90 degrees as a high, nice breeze, blue sky with thin puffs moving by. I did not notice the sunlight dim so they were very thin. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

DURING THE WEEK

There is a one of those square wheeled garbage cans that someone left right at the edge of the road. the hinge sticks out about six inches farther. The road there is not wide so it is common to move closer to the edge of the road when there is a car coming the other way. Last week, My mirror hit that thing twice, the first time was a warning shot. The second time broke the mount slightly. Thursday, My mirror hit it again, breaking the glass.
A bit later, I bumped an insulated pump coffee dispenser with my knuckle. I turned around and watched it tip over and hit the floor. The shatter told the whole story. I had been filling that with ice coffee and taking it with me when I went to Mom's house. Oh well.

FRIDAY

I finished a washcloth I was making in the truck. I would do a couple stitches at a long light, at laundry mats and at doctor's offices. I started this near the beginning of the year. it will be nice to work on something else.

I visited the antique shop. I was just a mile away when I realized I left my camera at home. I wanted to get pictures of the blacksmith tongs. Oh well, Next time.
I left my Sea grape bowl with inlay, at the store there.


SATURDAY


We stopped only at one yard sale. I stopped there twice. I went alone the first time and picked up some bolts and some tap-con screws. the second time we went, I picked up a bunch of conduit fittings and a belt sander.


Mom had a "little" project for me. With the construction going on, the planter out front had taken a beating. She had them pull a palm tree out and the root ball was still in there. She and I dug and pulled the roots out, then filled in the hole. she had removed what was left of the gravel before I attacked the root ball so once we leveled the area, she laid down some weed fabric and put that gravel back over it, mainly to hold it in place.
I made two trips getting five buckets of gravel each and dumped them into the planter. You know, that is a lot of work. The road construction had a small pile of small gravel and my mom got permission to get some so I went to the pile and filled the buckets.

I finally had a chance to work on my stuff.

I got all my tools and equipment out and set up the metal working lathe into a milling machine. I stuck a grinding bit into it and mounted a block of metal into place. I was going to true it up.
I came to a surprising discovery. This two inch piece of metal is the maximum this machine can handle. I played with the setup, changing things around, re-aligning it, to find that it will be a challenge. I will be milling it later into a cross slide. Right now, I just had some fun moving things around.

I picked up some pieces of plywood cut-offs a while ago. it dawned on me that I had a good project for them. I measured carefully, and cut carefully, and found that I am not good at cutting and measuring.
Mom has a child's wheel borrow she got at a yard sale. The plastic has been breaking up over the past year. It started by my "tapping" it upside down to knock some stuff out of it, and then another time, dropping something heavy onto it, then the plastic just started degrading so now pieces of coming off very easily.
I took the pieces of plywood out. I measured the wheel borrow, cut the wood and fitted them together. I had some small nails I planned to use to make a new box for my mini lathe. I drove them in and besides bending them and kinking them, I found they don't hold too well in plywood.
I dug out screws and put them in to hold it in place. They were fairly long screws and probably half of them came out on one side or another.
I realized it was not as strong as I would like, so I cut some plywood strips and attached them as braces. Where the screws went into the edge of the plywood, I put the strips so they went through the center. Then I drilled also into the edge of the strips.
Once I had the sides and ends all together "nicely, I did a search through our stock and found one more sheet of the same plywood. The bottom of the box was bigger than one sheet, so I put both sheets in place with one side down the center of the box and the edges overlapping. I drew around the box so I could cut the bottom to fit.
I turned to the bandsaw and decided to cut both sheets at the same time. When I returned to the box, I somehow was slightly off. Luckily, there was enough overlap to be able to screw it in place.
I showed my results to my mom and she was so delighted. I still have to remove the old box from the wheel borrow and put the new one on. I might see if I can get my brother to do it for me. Will see how things go. If he does not come up tomorrow, I will do it.
It is slightly smaller than the old one, but not horribly smaller. I might add more screws underneath and might even add some bracing along the bottom just to be sure it won't come apart. I will make that decision tomorrow. Considering how weak the original plastic was even when it was new, this box should last quite a while.

I went to pick up some screws at Ace Hardware that is nearby. I got the wrong screws. I got out to my truck and turned the key. there was nothing. I messed with the battery a couple times, brushing the terminals with my finger, before reattaching it. It finally started and started ever since.

Tomorrow, I will see that the wheel borrow is finished. I have the Bougainvillea bowl to sand. That belt sander might come in handy. I have a number of projects partly started that needs to be finished.
I could also set up the metal lathe into a milling machine and start on my cross slide since I have the metal. I just have to draw on it exactly where the metal needs to be removed.
I could also grab a piece of wood I have laying around and make something new. I do have a turning club meeting week after next.

I will see what I actually will do tomorrow.

year 11, Week 21, Day Two (week 595)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-05-11 Sunday

90 degrees, blue sky with horizon puffs now and then, nice breeze to carry away the heat. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Before I left home, Mom called me with a "help." She uses Juno and it crashed on her again. The E-mail folder gets corrupted and the program won't load, just tries to solve the E-mail problem. I had to re-name directories and re-install the program. I did a search for where the program (Windows 7) hid the file. It was still searching when I left. I left a note for her with instructions.

Mom had me get some more gravel. I worked a bit more intelligently this time, parking on the same side of the road so I did not have as far to carry them, and set them directly on the wagon so there was also no carrying. I gathered all the buckets she had and filled twelve five gallon buckets. I had the wheel borrow box with me and filled it with a five gallon bucket of gravel. That is a good size.

I reinforced the bottom of the wheel borrow box, and then removed the old plastic box that was on it. It broke some more just trying to twist the nuts off.
My brother did not show up so I could not pawn the job of replacing the bin onto him. This became my project from beginning to end. A couple years ago, he replaced the wooden handles with bent metal tubing so we don't have to bend over as far to lift it up.
I got the bin off the frame and then carefully measured for where the box was supposed to go. It has four bolts that go into the bottom and two that go to brackets in front. I settled it where I thought it needed to be, and then bolted the brackets in place, after I got longer bolts as the wood was thicker than the plastic.
I turned the thing over upside down to work the bottom bolts and then saw that it was not seated quite right. It was held up slightly. I removed the bolts from the bracket, and worked from the bottom first, drilling and running bolts through. I had to hunt for longer bolts, again because the plywood was thicker and I had two thicknesses of the plywood to go through as I had added reinforcing.
The two brackets were not quite right, but they will have to do for now. My bolts are too long, and I have screw points sticking into the box. I could fix that, but that will be something to talk about whether it is worth it first.
Once I got the thing completely assembled, I found that a bit of the bottom wood rubbed against the tire. I used my carving knife to remove a little wood, and then got one of my ruffler rasps out and used that to clean up the edge and make sure it was far enough from the wheel. I will have to see how it works under a load, but it actually came out better than I expected.

Because I was spending time inside on the computer, I really only sanded a little bit on my bougainvillea bowl. It is about as good as it is going to be. I will do light sanding, but mostly just building up a good gloss coat of varnish.

The beast of the back yard has really impressed me. If I did not know better, I would say he was a domestic cat. I do know better though. Yesterday, I was rubbing his head with my thumb, and had my fingers under his chin and HE WAS ACTUALLY PURRING!!! There are times when I am attending him, he will close his eyes as if saying, "This is so good."
I was in and out quite a bit during the day and he got plenty of attention. There are times when I wish I could spend all day giving him attention.

For next week, I have a number of projects in mind. I do expect, though, that Mom will have plans for me. She is starting to work on her yard. Her shoulder is not up to power yet but she feels it really needs to be done. She will be dragging all the potted plants in the planter on the side in front, and weeding it. She will then be putting gravel down again. This means she will have lots of work for me to do. she will do what she can.
I had a number of projects in process that I should apply myself to, which includes two vases I am carving. I have plenty of wood that demands to be used for projects. I have to get started on my ornaments, making old ones that I am out of, and coming up with new designs. I should make some shaving flowers all I have are at the antique shop and should have some at home if I need them.
I also have the cross slide I want to start making. I have the metal and the design. I have to mark my cuts on the metal and start removing shavings. There are a number of other projects waiting for me and new ones I can come up with.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Year 11, Week 22, Day One (week 596)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-11-11 Saturday

Sunny 88 degrees, lots of thick puffs, mostly sunny. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I learned something about the weather reports down here. They will give you the percent chance of rain. It always seems meaningless to your day. What I learned is that when they give you the percent chance of rain, it is for the whole reporting area, which can be more than one county, and it is for the whole day.
An example, is that if there is a stationary band of rain at the southern border of your county, they report the whole area as if it is getting that rain. If it is going to rain in the evening, they will give you the percent chance of rain for the whole day based on that evening rain.
I tend to use weather radar to base my activities. One can get a good idea of how fast any rain bands are moving. Saturday, they had a high chance of rain, but the rain never came until the evening and not much in the area I was in.

Started the morning after Breakfast with working on the front yard planters. We moved some rocks around, and then repotted a couple plants. One of the palms in the big planter is a type that spreads It will send out roots that will send up a trunk. One big root was a trip danger. We cut it next to both trunks. We then removed a third trunk and removed the root right next to the second trunk. I kept the wood and will see what it is like after it dries. it might well be garbage.

We hit only two yard sales. At one I got one of those battery powered vibrating saws that was broken. I don't know if it is the battery, charger or motor. I got it for a dollar so he did not have to put it back. I figured it had some things my brother might be able to use.

I had an hour to kill while my mom went to a meeting, so I sat out back with the cat and crocheted.

We went to a Picnic a bit later. There was BBQ hotdogs and hamburgers, and lots of other foods. They gave out raffle items. Mom donated a painting and the person who got it was really excited. Another person knew who got the painting last year and was really impressed. She gave my mom a great compliment. She asked if I was Mom's husband.

After I left the picnic, I stopped at several stores looking at pin or brad nailers. I needed to know what was available and what they were going to cost. Home depot has one for $60 that can use more nail sizes than the $35 one at Sears. I will look a bit longer and see if I can get the right one for the kind of money I plan to buy. I talked to my brother Sunday and he thought it would be a great thing to have.

Year 11, Week 22, Day two (week 596)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-12-11 Sunday

88 degrees, lots of good moving puffs, thickening up as the day went on. a little bit of liquid sunshine at the end of our work day. This weather report is brought to you by the Departments of Tourism of Both the City of Pompano Beach Florida and The City Of Fort Lauderdale

Last night, I needed a specific colored yarn for a project. I looked in the bag of yarn I got last month and could not immediately spot the yarn I needed. I ended up emptying nearly every yarn box and bag I had, sorting them so similar kinds of yarn were together. I have cross stitch yarn, tapestry yarn, bits and pieces, new and barely used balls of yarn. I can now put my hands on what I need, at least until I need them.
One project I am working on in the truck when I get stuck at lights or in some place where I have to wait, is to tie bits and pieces of yarn together and crochet them into one piece. I get bands of different colors as one yarn is used up and the next one comes along. I put all my little bits and pieces together in a bag and got that in the truck so that when I use up the ball I am working on, I can tie a bunch more together and continue working. This is a great way to use these up in a useful project.

I went to Mom's house fairly early. I got out the metal lathe and set it up as a milling machine. I took the block of metal I had and was doing the set up to cut the tool holding slot on the edge. I found that none of my bolts are long enough to hold it down from the top at that end. I came up with a way to hold the thing down but did not have enough nuts to make it work. I sat and looked at it for a long while, before I decided to do something else.

I dug into my box of failed pieces, or pieces that need serious work. I had one piece that was going to be a tea pot. I never finished it as it was not working at all. I decided it could be a good project to fix up. I mounted it in the lathe and cleaned up the outside dome. It will need sanding.
I had turned the piece side ways, so the center of the wood spins around. I have some of the under-bark wood exposed between the wood cut by my turning tools. this piece happens to be thick and clunky.
I just started cleaning up and thinning it out from the inside, when I got a call that my brother was not coming up. Mom decided to remain at her meeting. My nephew was at my brother's house and was going to do some black smithing.
I cleaned up and put everything away, gathered a bunch of stuff I was giving to my brother, and then headed to his house.

My brother's radiator had sprung a leak so he was off trying to find the right one. The one he got first was the wrong one. His truck was built between changes of model years so he had stuff from the next model year in his truck.
I kept him company for the most part, with my nephew helping, to put the new radiator in.

We finally got out back and fired up the forge. My nephew was making another set of tongs, while I was just pounding metal, making another re-bar square. I started flattening it some when we stopped.
We just don't have the right hammers. They are either too heavy or the wrong design. One that was reasonably good to work with was starting to slip off the handle. Need to add a wedge to the handle. I could do it in just a few minutes. Someone had driven screws into it to try to give the wedge strength. I am at a point where I can fix something like that fairly easily now. I should have thought of it while I was there. It will be interesting to see if I think of that next time I am there.
We were nearly done packing everything up when some Liquid Sunshine started dribbling down. I was on the road when I heard of strong weather in the cities at the edge of the Everglades.

Thursday I have the turning club meeting. I will show off my Bougainvillea bowl there. I am adding the finish now.
Next weekend, I should get to do some milling of metal. I have an idea of what I need to do, but just have to get things together to make it work. I plan to finish the tea pot. I might turn the outside to remove any sign of the wood that was under the bark. I have a lot of wood that demands to be worked. I have plenty of carving projects to do, some are in the wish list stage such as doing a relief carving, and others are already in process such as the face vase and flower vase I have already started.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Year 11, Week 23, Day One (week 597)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-18-11 Saturday

86 degrees, variable clouds from blue sky, wispy high shield, big puffs and thunder heads over the Everglades covering the sun. A very light breeze most of the time with some gusts every now and then, but mostly calm. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


THURSDAY

I got to the turning club meeting place very early so I gathered my yarn pieces and started tying them together into a single ball. I finished up all my smallest pieces just as the club meeting started. I learned later that this kind of ball is called an ODD BALL. When you hear that someone is an odd ball, it is a person who is made up of disjointed bits of yarn.

The turning demonstration was on adding fluting to a vase, the grooves that run up and down on the piece in this case.
He showed a table that fits into the tool rest base. He said that the pipe he got was too big so he ground it down until it fit. This is a brand new lathe and the he had to drive the table down to the proper height with his hand.
He then showed the "sled" that holds his pencil to draw the guide lines down the vase. The table is set so the pencil is at dead center on the lathe. He used the point of the tail stock to check it.
He then showed the sled the die grinder or router fits in. He ground away the wood where the tool extends beyond the body of the tool.

He showed the indexing wheel he uses and explained how he made it. He used a metric tape measure since it was in small increments. He turned the disk until it was exactly 96mm in circumference. He then marked each metric number around the outside both on the top and the edge.
He mounted it in the bandsaw with a sled that uses a nail for the center. He had fitted a disk into the center hole that was used for the turning. His sled was set center and he added blocks to limit the back and forth movement, and side by side movement, of his sled.
He would slide the disk into the saw blade to the stop, cutting right on the line. He would back it up, turn it to the next line and make another cut.
The way he made it, it slides onto the shaft of the lathe, rather than screw on the threads. The chuck tightened onto the shaft holds it tight. It won't be turning so that is not a problem.
He made a block that he clamps onto the top of the lathe and that has an angle iron that is thin enough to fit into the slots and is hinged so he can lift it slightly.
He decides how many flutes he plans to put onto the vase. 96 can be divided into many different numbers of divisions which is why it is used. For example, if he wants to have 12 flutes, he just counts the slots and makes a mark with a chalk that he can erase easily if he makes a mistake on every eighth slot. He continues those marks all the way around.
With the disk in place and the angle iron in place, he fits the angle iron into a marked slot. He then slides the pencil along the work to mark his line. He then moves to the next mark and draws a line. When he is done, he takes the grinder sled and sets that on the table and routes along the lines. He might do several passes, each time using larger and larger bits until he has the effect he is after.

We have a turning challenge for September. We are to make goblets. I have a number of ideas, both serious and silly. Will see what I come up with.

On the way to the turning club meeting, I stopped at the local INTERNATIONAL TOOLS STORE. I ended up buying a dremmel. I did not know it, but dremmel makes several and the number on them is important. They are priced accordingly. I got the 100 series. It has on and off only for speeds. their 200 series has two speeds besides off. The 300 has 3 settings, the 400 has four settings. I could not afford a 400 so got this one. It seems strong so it should do. I would love to have a real low along with high speed but can live with this. I used a gift card so I only had to pay about six bucks out of my pocket.

I found out that one of my favorite Jo-Anne's cloth worlds is moving. This was a small store so they had what was important, not just everything to fill shelf spaces of the larger Jo-Anne's near my mom's store. Everything was 50% and 75% off. I walked out empty handed as I have all the paint (and don't remember what colors I need) and yarn I need to do any of my projects.


FRIDAY


I stopped at Wallmart to see if they had curtains since I could not find my old one. I know it was not thrown out but have no idea where it migrated to.
At Wallmart, I saw that they had blinds for $20 that was for sliding glass doors. I got two. I checked measurements and found that they were too short for the whole sliding glass door, and two long to double end to end on the back of my room. I put one up just for the opening side of the sliding glass door. The other side is blacked out.
I considered taking the second one back, but the wall did not look right. On Saturday, I put up the second one, overlapping, but higher. That is not a problem as I don't have to open it all the way. The first one was level even though I could not find the level. This second one is slightly out of level. I think the last bracket was a bit high. It is not bothersome enough for me to change it. If I remove some shelving along the side wall, I would have to adjust the blinds anyway to go to the end of the wall. It definitely needed the second set of blinds.

SATURDAY


We stopped at a couple yard sales on the way home from Breakfast. I picked up some pans and grates for a toaster oven at one yard sale. I then got some folding coffee tables at another at a very good price.

When we got home, Mom kid-napped me to work on her planter. We scraped up some gravel to try and save it. We figured out after the fact that it was more effort than it was worth. We removed all the movable plants and then laid down some weed fabric. I then dumped 12 buckets of gravel all over the fabric. 13 if you count the stuff we saved. Tomorrow I have to get more gravel.

I finally got into the back yard to do my work. I got my equipment out, and then sat to pet the cat and crochet a little bit. he was more irritated that I did not give him as much attention as a king is worth.
I finally decided to make a goblet. I chose a piece of log that would make a nice sized goblet and cut a piece off it. I then uncovered the lathe and found the tea pot I had started still on there. I changed projects to the tea pot. I thinned down the outside, getting rid of more of the under bark wood. I also worked a bit on the inside to clean that up more and reshape it to follow the outside better.
I removed the pot and mounted a piece of wood for the lid. I did not get any farther than that, deciding it was a good time to clean up and get going. I had a couple stops to do.

I stopped at Sears and could not find a part I was looking for. I saw it at another sears.
I then went to Home Depot. I used two gift cards and eight bucks to get an ARROW ET-200 electric brad nail gun. I also picked up three sizes of the brads to go with it. I figure we will use the longest ones the most, but got all three just in case.
I still have a Sears gift card otherwise, I have spent my Christmas Gifts.

I stopped and talked to a friend of mine, telling about my fun with metal last week. Out of nowhere, a thought appeared. I don't have to get bolts and make special fittings to machine the piece of metal I failed to work last week. I can cut a slot on the flat side of the piece at a comfortable height, and then fit the clamps onto that slot. I no longer have to reach over the top of the piece when it is on edge. I just have to figure out where I want to put that slot. It will be machined out of existence later. That solves a lot of problems. he told me they will thread a hole during their work just to make their jobs easier even though later, the threads will be machined out of existence later.

Tomorrow I will get more gravel and scatter than in the planter. I like. I could do metal working. I also could carve. I could even start making the new box for my mini lathe to replace the old one.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 11, Week 24, Day One (week 598)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-25-11 Saturday

86 degrees in the morning, 94 in the afternoon, no breeze in the morning picking up as the day went on. They sky had high sheet of thin clouds early, went to mostly blue with sun, then thunder boomers started building over the Everglades as I was packing up. I did drive through some wetness on the way home, but it was not hard, barely enough to warrant windshield wipers. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

My weekend was all mess up. I needed to work Friday to try to get a special project done. I got a lot of work done, but a half hour before I went home, I learned I have to change a whole bunch of stuff. I had not worked Fridays for almost three years now. Not having Friday off left out a lot of projects I intended to work on.

I have determined that the nail gun I got last week in inadequate. It won't set the nails deep in any wood of substance. I have to relocate the sales slip and then take it back.

The turning club gave a wood alert about a Norfolk Island Pine cut down near my mom's house. Right after Breakfast, I dashed over and got some wood. There were some big chunks, about two, two and a half, feet long that I would have loved to take but I could not lift them. I likely could, but chose not to.

I got back and had to fill 12 buckets of gravel. I then poured out 10 of them into the third front planter. We had to depot a palm tree that had started going into the ground and stuck it into another pot, only to find that the new pot was the same size as the old one. Again, mom did a whole lot of work before I arrived and she put down newspaper and cardboard before I put down the gravel. Soon, Mom will work in the back yard.

I cleaned off the branches, removing the fresh growth containing the needles and stuff. Norfolk has weak branches that will break off if there is too big a wind, protecting the tree. Hurricane Wilma stripped a lot of the branches from the Norfolk, but they remained standing, though not always as tall. They looked sick after the storm. They are now filling out nicely.
Norfolk is a fragile tree. When the Europeans first saw them, they were excited that they would be great masts for their ships. When they cut them down, they shattered on impact with the ground.
Wood turners love them because the wood, when one adds oil to them, develop great colors. The branches grow in a ring, then there is a space and then another ring of branches. The wood turners love the effects of the knots running through their work, especially if they follow the surface of the work.

I filled the garbage can and took it out to the curb in time for the garbage truck to take them. I had some branches I had gathered from Hurricane Wilma and bugs got under the bark and ate holes into them. I stripped the bark off and they weathered nicely. I finally decided they were no longer needed and took them out to the curb with the garbage and they are gone also. I will likely kick myself later as I will see I had a great use for those...

I took a branch from the new tree and cut it into sections. One branch was pulled out of the tree and it had sort of a fire look to it. I removed the bark from it, and then carved a little bit of the flame. I mounted it on the lathe, after the cat decided to stop sleeping beneath it, and started turning the handle of the torch. I made a mistake on the centering of it and turned it off center near the flame. I have not decided whether it ruins it or not. I likely will finish it anyway. It just won't be near as good. I will try to re-center it on the flame and then finish the handle.

I spent most of the day working on a crochet project. I am making a bag to hold my crochet in the truck. It is made up of bits and pieces of yarn tied together, known as an odd ball. I finished the bottom and started up the sides. This is mainly a red-light/ doctor's office/ laundry mat/ type project. It was a way to sit in front of the fan and cool down while petting the cat once ion a while.
At home I have nearly finished a dress for my teddy bear. I will start planning on making a few stuffed animals next.

tomorrow, I will visit the wood pile again and see what I can pick up. My own wood pile is bigger than it should be and really should not be added to until I use some of what I already have. Norfolk is fairly rare for me so I want a bunch of it and it tends to last a while.
The mango tree is getting thin on fruit. The owner said that when it is done, he is going to cut it down. He is going to give me some pieces of wood from it. I may dig through my wood pile and get rid of some wood that has been there a while. It is good to look to see what I have anyway. I have some oak that should be debarked to bother the bugs that are eating it.
I will likely finish the torch I started. I need to make a spout for my tea pot. I have two vases that need to be carved. I, of course, have lots of wood to turn. I could also machine some metal.
On a lower level of priority, I could dig into my wood pile and sort it. I could empty the shed and re-arrange it. I know Mom will have an early morning project to work on. I should do a little work on the finish of the bed of my truck. The rails need to be sanded and then given several gloss coats.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 11, Week 25, Day One (week 599)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-02-11 Saturday


85 degrees in the morning with broken clouds. They got the clouds fixed in the afternoon with 89 degrees. There was a light breeze that got stronger in the afternoon. Most of this week, the weather has built up sometime after noon. I saw the report for that today, but it did not build up at all while I was outside. We are essentially in our summer mode, but the humidity has not set in yet so the days have been pretty good considering the temps.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.



FRIDAY

I worked on Friday again. The company was starting the day like a normal day since we are off Monday. I normally open the office during the week and the boss wanted me to do so on Friday so he did not have to do it. I only worked till mid morning then left.

I went down to the Antique shop to check in on what was going on down there. The building he was in when I first started visiting him at, is now gone. The big hotel on the corner should be gone when I come there next month as they had the heavy machinery there.
I took a lot of pictures this time. I drooled over several items while I was there.



Saturday

I had picked up some Sea Grape during the week from a friend. I hauled it around all week long in the back of my truck. I unloaded the pieces and put two pieces in my wood pile. I took the wedge piece and started cutting it up. I learned how dull my chain saw was. I tried cutting the wood, whish is hard, and the blade was scorching the wood rather than cutting. I got Mom's chain saw and it ate through the wood fast.
I got one slab off of it and used the band saw to cut it into a block that I started turning. I am mainly dealing with the end grain spinning around and lots of shrinkage cracks. I am not exactly sure what I will make, but will see what the wood tells me it wants to be.
I then tried to cut a disk out of the other slab and I guess I cut wrong as the cut side was not parallel to the side I was trying to follow. I am not sure what happened. I now have two wedges instead of a wedge and disk.

Mom said she wanted to get some mulch. the then saw an advertizement that Home Depot had some cheap. We ended up getting 18 bags of mulch. She is going to spread it around the walkways later.
She was going to pull a bunch of plants out from the fence, lay cardboard and then lay down some mulch, but found that several pots did not want to move, a couple had plants that went into the ground. She decided to do it easy and just mulch around them. I was making sawdust at the time.
While we were getting the mulch, I took back the brad nailer and got my money back. I had high hopes for that thing but it just would not drive the nail through wood. The electric hammer in it was not strong enough. It left nails really proud. I guess I have to go with air power. Now I have to figure out what I can use that gift card to get.

I dragged out the biggest piece of Norfolk I got. This U shaped piece was really heavier than I could handle. got it to the work bench, and using boards, wagon and wheel barrow, I lifted it onto the work bench. I then took several minutes finish cutting it in half. It was a lot of work because, as I learned later, my little electric chain saw was dull. I worried my way through the wood until there was just a little holding the two pieces together. I aimed it at the ground so it would fall on one side and the force would cause the limited among of wood holding the two pieces together, to break. It worked like a ch arm. I can handle two individual pieces easily.

I took the squared chunk of sea grape and rounded it, cut a tenon on it, then cut it in half, leaving a tenon at the cut. The shrinkage cracks are giving me fits on getting the outside smooth.
I figure I will start hollowing it. I seem to see a goblet in it, but have to see how deep the shrinkage cracks go into it. I might work around it, possibly doing some off center turning on the stem. I will see tomorrow as to what the wood tells me.

I was cleaning up to move everything under cover to take a break and My cleaning up ended up putting everything away. I took a short nap and then got ready and left.

I realized I had a sears card. I have two Craftsman drills where the charger died. found a charger on line a month or two ago. After much searching and not noticing a note on the web pages after a search, I found the charger again. I went through the steps to order the part and then found I could not put in a gift card purchase. I even called the sears service number to verify it. Tomorrow I will go to the store and see if I can order the part there.


I have a number of projects to work on. It will depend a lot on the weather. I have projects that will have me outside in whatever weather we might get. I have projects to work under the cover. I also have projects that I can work on inside the house.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 11, Week 25, Day Two (week 599)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-03-11 Sunday

80 degrees in the morning with loads of broken clouds, little wind and high humidity. That cleared up into high feathers with lots of blue sky and sun and 86 degrees stronger breeze and dryer air. The weather report was all wrong.

We started the morning by moving a few plants around. re-potting a palm tree. We then worked edging along the side walk. This was tough as the ground was imbedded gravel. We had to move our new gravel out of the way, pull up the fabric, then clear the dirt away from the sidewalk a fair distance down, before we could slip in the edging. I am not used to working on my knees so it was not an easy task. We got that done and cleaned up in time for mom to go to her meeting.

I sat down with the cat and started carving on the torch. The natural torn wood is the flame. Last week I had mis-made the handle on the lathe. I corrected it some with the disk sander, and now have done some more corrections.
I carved on the flame, cutting deep so some of the red heart wood of the branch shows. I had carved a ball on the base of the handle just because it seemed to need something there. I am now soaking it in linseed oil, bringing out the color of the wood. I an already see different shades in the flame. I will take it out of the oil likely Tuesday and let it dry a week before I start finishing it.

I did little else during the day, just feeling like taking it easy. It was a perfect day for doing some real work.

The beast of the back yard was so much like a cat I forgot myself. He wanted company and attention. I sat there for him but did not give him the attention he really desired. He let me rub his tummy which was something he would never do before this year. yesterday, I picked him up and set him on my lap. He lasted about three seconds, about the time to get off my lap. He then settled at my feet again. He is not a lap cat. He is a pet cat. He likes me to pet him.

I left early as I had a few stops to make.

I went to Sears to see if I can order my charger for my two craftsman drills. We found out that to order it, I must use a credit card. there is no way to use a gift card to buy it. I now have to figure out what I want there that will take the gift card. I will decide whether I want to get the charger and order it on line from home.
Last time I was at this Sears, they had grinder accessories on display and some metal cutting bits for them. I searched about four times this time and could not find them. they would be perfect for my metal lathe. Not able to find them, I left without making that purchase either.

I am off tomorrow so I will go to Mom's house at least for a short while. If I get into a project, I will stay longer, but likely will leave after lunch.

I will see what I will actually do tomorrow.