Year 11, Week 50, Day One (week 624)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-24-11 Saturday

I have no idea what the temperature was this weekend. I am thinking it was in the high 70s. The sky was partly cloudy, about half blue sky, some sun and some shade. There was a light breeze. Quite comfortable over all. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Fort Lauderdale Department of Tourism.


DURING THE WEEK

I finished my first batch of nine Christmas Cards. I decided to give them out early. It was good as I had forgotten about one person and had to give his card the next day. I got a lot of compliments from everybody in the office saying it was a professional quality card or that it was the best I had done. I gave my brother one of the cards and he said essentially the same thing.
I started my second batch of 16 cards and ended up working most of the day Christmas Eve trying to get them finished. They were not as good as I had hoped, but came out pretty good. Everybody who got them really liked them. White card stock of the first batch is so much easier to work with than the brown card stock of this second batch. I have a few that have to be finished. They got skipped because I did not put them out to dry in the right place and forgot about them. Just a short bit of time is necessary to finish them. I will end up with four spare cards, actually five because I kept one.

I had to use creative boxing of several of my presents I gave out. With one, I took the box apart and refolded and taped back together for a fairly flat but large package. The wrapping paper I was using did not come in a solid roll like most rolls come in. They had curled cardboard that the paper was wrapped around. I took one of these and folded it in half and was able to use that as hard containment wrapping of that present. the wrapping paper then covered the cardboard.


SATURDAY CHRISTMAS EVE.

We have the tradition of opening our presents on Christmas Eve so the kids can play with their toys all Christmas morning rather than having to wait until everybody gets together. That meant I had to rush to wrap packages and finish my cards.
Most of the presents I gave out were thrifted from yard sails over the year, especially the past month or so. A couple things I gave were things I already had, but found lower quality replacements for them that I would keep instead. It seems like everybody really enjoyed what I got them. One of the last presents I packed was for my sister in law who I had almost nothing for. Ages ago, I somehow got hold of a cracker cheese server. I cleaned it up and pack it. She really liked it, commenting that she was thinking about getting one but never got to it. Talk about good gifting.
I also gave members of the family some of my ornaments. With my nephew and his wife and with my brother and his wife. I split the ornaments of the year between them so I did not have to give two sets.

I decided that a knife would work better for cutting wrapping paper than scissors. I had cut a sheet of paper and sort of waved the knife. It nicked my finger on my left hand. It was like I hit my juggler vein. It kept bleeding. I had to change Band-Aids four times before it finally decided to stop bleeding. It was such a small cut too. It barely went below the surface of the skin. It did not even hurt.

I got gift cards, a manicure kit, and a AS SEEN ON TV hamburger maker. They will all get used.


SUNDAY CHRISTMAS DAY.

I got a late start. I planned to bring some coffee and forgot that, and I forgot my camera. It ended up that I would not have taken any pictures anyway. I just hate having it just in case.

I arrived early and settled in back and carved while my brother did some sheet metal work. I helped him in several stages. I carved a turkey ornament. I could have carved a couple other ornaments but one was enough. I used a different design plan to make it and it came out all right. Paint will tell people what it really is, just like the other three of them I made.

The project my brother was doing was to make a metal box for his sockets. The body was already done, but I helped him with the top. I helped him bend it with the bender. I watched him while he brazed it sealed. He brazed the hinges in place. after sorting his sockets to figure out what he needed, we tack welded it together. It was quite a project. It will last longer than the plastic box he used before. The technique to build it was actually quite easy.

I spent much of the time playing with my PALM PILOT. Yesterday, I found the battery was dead and lost the data on it, so I put new batteries in and used the sync on my computer to put the data back on. I decided to play with it some.

Christmas dinner was excellent. I over ate and did not care.

I have to wait a week or so before I can post pictures of my second batch of Christmas cards. they are going to get mailed out this week and I want to keep it a surprise.


I have the next two days off. I have a lot of work around the house, re-arranging things and straightening up. I want to be able to find project materials. I have a story I want to send out this week and have to finish editing it, and I have some painting projects to do.
Next week I have loads of projects to work on. I need to make some more ornaments so I am caught up on what should have been made. I have a dragon and a five face vase to make. I have a couple projects I would love to try my hand at, such as a popper fishing lure, a winged bowl, a couple more of the bird ornaments, but bigger, just to name a few.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Year 11, Week 51, Day One (week 625)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-31-11 Saturday

60 degrees early morning, 66 degrees when I got out back, 78 degrees when I left in the afternoon. Clear blue sky with a barely felt wind. This weather report is brought to you by the city Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

DURING THE WEEK.

I had finished a short story I've worked on the past couple months and fired it off to the publisher. I don't know if it is worthy of accepting but they have it now.
I decided to paint a scene based on the story. I am using Acrylic paints and I started by adding a light wash of colors. I was thinking of final surface, but after my first session where it was not looking great, it dawned on me that what I started and what I need to continue to do, is a sketch showing tones, and then do my final painting over top that.
I have not done anything else beyond that first session as I have worked late each day and have not had time to work on it any farther.


Saturday

After breakfast, we checked out a couple yard sales. I ended up getting an ironing board for a dollar. This ironing board is designed to be set on a table, by folding down some small legs. Every once in a while, I have had to iron something, be it patches on pants or heat transfer of something. I decided I might be able to use this ironing board. I also thought that if all else failed, I could use it for holding my stuff I am varnishing. for a dollar, it was worth taking it home.


I am now in "get ready for art show mode". The LIGHT HOUSE POINT YACHT CLUB art show will be March 11, 2012. I don't have much time to get ready for the show.
I have two main projects to get ready for the show. Anything else I do between now and then will not be of great importance.
One project is a face vase with five faces on it. I have the wood and need start turning the outside shape, leaving the nose high, cut in for the brow, cut in even deeper below the nose for the mouth and chin. I then hollow out the inside leaving just enough wood to allow for carving of the facial features.

My other project is a dragon I started. I decided that was going to be the project of the day today.
I started by taking a plush dragon named Scarland, that I got up in Connecticut. He has roughly the right kind of body shape to use as a guide for the wooden dragon I am making.
A few weeks ago, I humiliated a piece of wood to get a block that would be my wings for the dragon. Today, I looked at the piece of wood and decided I needed to flatten it and clean it up.
To do this right, I decided to dig out the thickness planer. Now this is a major project. It is buried in the back of Mom's garage with all sorts of wonderful things stacked around and on it.
I went in there and gave it a long look. I decided it would not be quite so hard to get it out if I work logically. I moved things across the pathway that is left in the garage. There were flattened boxes and some boards to shift, then I found safe stacking places for other things. I freed up the planer and pulled it out and took it around back.
I have not used this thing in a couple years and my brother used it early this year. it does not get a lot of use. It was one of those "I want it so bad I could taste it" kinds of things where you get it and seldom use it. The fact that it is buried aids in it not being used.
After the first couple passes in the planer, the block of wood that the wings were in, needed to be trimmed. I accidentally pulled the band-saw blade off the wheels twice. Reinstalling the blade is always a "fun" project.
I decided to use a chisel to remove some cut pieces of wood and then when I returned to the bandsaw, I removed less wood to make the planing work a bit less.
Using a push stick, I made several passes with the planner, flipping it over, until I had two flat faces. I then trimmed one side so it was generally square, and then ran it on the side through the planner until I had two parallel sides. I trimmed the ends and then gave the wood a good look.
My intention was to tip it up on edge and cut it at the top corner on one edge and the bottom corner on the opposite edge to create matching wedges. Mom pointed out that I have part of the center of the tree and it has created a great pattern. I decided to cut the slab in half.
My band-saw is a low power one and the blade is getting dull, so it took some time to "re-saw" or cut in half the slab. I then ran the two pieces through the planer. One piece caught and a corner of it broke off. I finished planing both pieces, each at the same setting s they would end up the same thickness, and then cut both pieces so the missing side matched on both of them.
While these wings are blocks right now, they will be heavily carved, with lots of depth and design to them. I will try hard to make them match each other when done.

I have some Black Walnut that was out in the weather and was showing some signs of rot. Since I had the planer out, I ran them through the planer, not trying to square them, but just to get rid of the damaged surface. That cleaned them up nicely.

A while back, the metal bands failed around a half barrel that Mom had a fountain inside. After messing around, I ended up with the staves.

since I had the planner out, I decided to straighten them out. The staves are arched, bowing to the outside. I ran the first couple with the outside up first to flatten that side, then I flipped them over and while holding the end down, I started the inside through the planer and then pressed down on the other end as the wood finished. this knocked off the ends first.
After the first few, I looked and saw there was still a bow in the wood. It was then that it dawned on me that the wood would flex as they went through the planer.
The planer has a pair of rollers to draw the wood through the machine with the blades in between. The rollers have to push on the wood at a certain pressure to guide the wood through.
What I figured out to do, was to send the wood through several times at each setting. The pressure on the wood with each pass would be less and the wood would take on the natural bend rather than being flattened.
When I was done working both sides, there was still a bow in the wood, but not as much as when I started. They were a whole lot thinner too.
I flattened about a third of them so I can put them to use immediately. I now just have to come up with the right projects.

I got some gift cards for Christmas. I had a $25 gift card from either last Christmas or my birthday. I cannot remember which. I got a $50 card this Christmas. I decided I needed sand paper for my disk sander and decided I would get a couple other things while I was at it if they had it. I wanted to use up the old gift card at least.
While looking through the tool isles, I found the nine inch sand paper that my disk sander uses I noticed they had eight inch sand paper, with a few more sheets at the same price.
My brother gave me back a face plate that came with the big metal lathe I purchased year before last. My brother was going to modify it and never got to it. He gave it back to me last weekend.
It dawned on me that I can make a good sanding disk for my lathe very easily. I then realized that the face plate would be perfect for this project. I would mount a piece of wood onto it and bring it down to the diameter of the sand paper. I would then have a sanding disk on my lathe whenever I needed it. I can slow it down or speed it up as needed. Now all I have to do is to make a table to fit on the lathe to hold the work at the right height.
I also got some metal grinding bits and a cutting disk set for my dremmel. the set which has like a hundred pieces was just over twice the price of one tube of cutting disks.
I stopped at Lowes and realized that I have Home Depot cards so I held off on my purchases. I think I have what I wanted anyway. I will see tomorrow.

I was on my feet nearly all day long, at the band saw, at the planer, along with the stores. I had not been on my feet that long for a long time. My feet were tired. I used to have serious foot problems before I got some medical inserts for my shoes. Now I only hurt if I over-do it like I did today.

Tomorrow, I need to start carving on the dragon in earnest. This is one of those projects that is going to take a couple months to finish. I want to start on the left hind leg and tail tomorrow. The hind leg was something that has giving me problems on getting the position right for the way the wood is shaped. this was a naturally occurring piece of wood that I am correcting to become a dragon.
There are a couple projects I would love to do for the turning club. One of them is the bird ornaments I did this year, but I want to do it a bit bigger.
If I have some stainless steel rod of the right size, I might make it into a turning tool. Some grinding, drilling, and threading will be involved in that project.

I WILL SEE WHAT I DO TOMORROW.

Year 11, Week 51, Day two (week 625)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-01-11 Sunday

60 degrees early morning 64 when I got out back. I forgot to look at the temps late in the day but they predicted 80 degrees. It felt good. wisps of cotton clouds meandering across a deep blue sky with a really bright winter sun. There was a haze everywhere in the morning. I should have stopped to take some pictures along the way but was in the wrong lane. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

I overdid it yesterday on my standing. I stood at the planner, at the band saw, walked several stores all with little breaks. Last night and this morning, my feet let me know they did not like that. after I got going in my morning, though, the soreness of my feet disappeared, completely forgotten.

I went to bed at my normal time last night, and was waken periodically by loud reports of fireworks. I work fifteen minutes before midnight so stood on my fourth floor porch and watched fireworks from my fourth floor porch. I slept in this morning but that was not enough.
I went to Mom's house and after feeding and petting the cats, I laid down for a couple hours. I was still tired and not at full energy but decided it was time to get to work.

I petted the cat some more, then dragged out the lathe I decided to do something simple. I looked over my woods and decided on a three by two and a half piece of wood. I can never remember the name of the wood. I fist lopped off a length off the end sufficient for the project I was doing. I was making a big version of the Christmas ornament birds I made.

I mounted it on the lathe so after turning, I would have a square piece, then realized I should use the bandsaw to square it, save me some turning time.
There is a rule of thumb in metal working and it works for woodworking also, though I tend to ignore it often enough. It says THE MORE TIME YOU SPEND AT THE SAW, THE LESS TIME YOU SPEND MACHINING. The saw is your best friend. In metal working, it takes time to machine metal. Harder the metal, the more time it takes. Using the saw to remove waste materials will save you a lot of extra time when actually making the final cuts.
I use this with my Christmas ornaments all the time. I will use the lathe, bandsaw and other tools to remove waste wood so my actual carving is on the surface rather than removing excess wood.

After cutting a slat off the wood, I re-mounted it in the wood, rounded it roughly, with some of the flats still showing, and made a tenon so it could be held by the chuck. I turned it around, mounting it in the chuck and rounded the end for a distance.
I then pulled the tail stock back and started hollowing the end, making it a cone for the bird's tail. I used the long spade bit drill I got at a yard sale, held in a tool handle I won as the BRING BACK prize in the turning club. I bore it out a depth. I then turned to my turning tools to make the inside a cone going to a point deep inside I tried to make it even as possible.
I sanded that and then started on the outside, roughly matching the inside angle. I went just past the end, and then formed a ball to be the body. I made this one slightly oblong on purpose.
Now as I was working, a crack formed in the cone and a piece broke off. In many cases, that would be a disaster, but in this case, I will be cutting away some wood anyway to make the bird. This just decided for me where I was going to do it. I continued on as if it did not happen.
About the point I was going to part the work off, I started another ball for the head, slightly smaller than the body. Once I had it partly formed, giving me good access to the parting point, I sanded between the two pieces and then parted off the body and then finished the head, making it oblong and the part at the chuck had a slight taper. I finally parted it at off after I sanded it also.
Now I needed to shape the tail better. It would be nice to have a jig for this but I am too lazy to make a jig. I am not sure where I would keep all the jigs I need. I drew a line to show how I wanted the tail to be cut. Since the place where it broke off was fairly flat, I set that up against the bandsaw blade with my finger partly beneath the body ball which is smaller than the cone. I started the bandsaw and while holding it in that position, I cut the cone about on my line.
I touched up both pieces with the dremmel. I carved the meeting point between the tail cone and body ball. I was quite thick on the tail so I feathered back the edge so it looked thinner.
A piece of oak slat I worked yesterday, became a good piece for the base. I measured and cut squared and sanded the oak square. I drilled a hole in the center, though the hole ended up with a slight tilt. I did not use the drill press.
I was going to carve a piece of oak and that was not working so I mounted a piece of oak in the lathe and after knocking the corners off with a knife, I started turning it round. I guess I had a catch as the piece broke. I will work them with the little lathe later.
For the beak and leg, I ended up using a skewer. I also drilled a hole to mount the head to the body and glued everything together.

The bird needs sanding and then finishing.


I have tomorrow off, but since I was not feeling right today, I decided to stay home and do some work around the house tomorrow. I got a whole lot less than I planned to do this weekend.
I do have wing blanks for my dragon. I had my plush dragon with me and saw how I will design the wooden dragon to match the natural shape I already have. I also have something to show at the turning club meeting this month.
Next week, I really need to get some work done on the dragon. If I can make some serious headway on it, that will be good. I have a lot of work on it and three months is not going to be a lot of time. I still have the face vase to turn and carve.
I also need to visit the Antique shop and see what was going on there. That is a Saturday trip unless things really get slow at work on Friday.

I WILL SEE WHAT I ACTUALLY DO NEXT WEEK.

Year 11, Week 52, Day One (week 626)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-07-12 Saturday


54 degrees early morning, 60 degrees when I got out back, 74 degrees as the high. Blue skies as far as I could see. In this weather, at least in the morning, it is easy to spot the natives and the Snow Birds. The Snow Birds dress like they are in the tropics... This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Yesterday, I stood half the day making blueprints and my feet decided I was on them too long. Today, I could feel it to some degree all day long. Last week when I was on my feet all day long, my feet recovered the next day. I guess I was on my feet more yesterday than last weekend. My feet seemed to mostly recover by the end of the day.

We went Yard sailing. Actually only one yard sale. I spent more than I should have.
I picked up two stylized dragons. They were pretty and I decided to get them. I spent far more on them than I should have. I think they are pretty.
I got some audio cables, not that I am desperate to use them.
I then got a printer/fax/scanner. The printer I have been using has some problems with the print head. It is gummed up. I got it working once but it stopped up again. This printer was very inexpensive, cheaper than the ink at the store. I have needed a printer for a while and like having the scanner function. It also will take camera memory cards too. Now I have to make sure I don't drop it on the floor like I did the other really good printer I once had....


The shelf bracket of my freezer broke this week. You would be surprised at how much space you lose when that happens. I picked up some ARM AND HAMMER BAKING SODA and dug out my super glue.
Refrigerate your super glue. It will stay good for years or even decades. I had gotten a super glue kit at around the year 2000, and stuck it in the refrigerator. Just recently, I started using the glue.
The plastic of the refrigerator did not conducive to super glue. I had to add accelerator to the joint, the glue on one side and the accelerator on the other and held them together till it was solid. I then added the baking soda and glue, layering it up thick. The baking soda becomes like concrete with the super glue. It is hard to get a stronger joint than this.
I built up the soda glue mixture on both sides, but not in a way to interfere with how it locked into place on the door.
I since installed it back in the freezer and it works nicely. It feels as strong as the other side that was not broken.
I have another bracket that needs repair and might do that tomorrow. Will see.

I decided the sand paper on my disk sander needed to be replaced. I had picked up some sand paper last week. The previous time I replaced the sand paper, I had problems with it staying on. This time, I struggled to get the sand paper off. I basically shredded the sand paper in getting it off. It was some work. I finally got the disk clean and installed the next sheet of sandpaper.
I like the course, 100 grit, sand paper for most work. 60 grit is even better for two reasons. Usually, we are horsing off wood to get something square and straight. The other is that when the sandpaper gets clogged, the course sand paper will continue to sand a whole lot longer.
I drew "fingers" on the dragon wings, then used the new sandpaper to remove the drawings, twice. I wanted to see if I could get the surface smoother. Nope.

I finished another granny square in crochet. I need to lay out all my granny squares to see what size baby blanket I can make and to see whether I need to make more to square it up. I also like to need to figure out how much needs to be filled in between the squares.
I started a new square today but messed up, it was not coming out square because of a small error that caused more errors on later rows. I pulled it out and will try again later.


Since I am working on Fridays now, I went to the Antique shop today. I disassembled my display completely, swept the floor around it, and set up the display differently. I don't particularly like it, but it is different and that was what I really was after. Changing it around each time makes it look new again.

At the thrift shop, I saw a drill press attachment for a Dremmel for twenty bucks. I have to talk to my brother and if it is something he would make use of. It would be nice to have, but not really useful as we have small drill presses and big drill presses. I am thinking that it might be useful with the lathe, holding the dremmel while we machine stuff with the grinding bits. I will see.

I played around all day today.
Tomorrow I must start carving on the dragon. I could mount the face vase on the lathe, but I am thinking more that the dragon is farther along and will take a bit of time. Also I get to sit all day long too. I must get some production and now. I don't really have that many weekends to have these two projects done and they are time consuming.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 11, Week 53, Day Two (week 626)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-08-12 Sunday

54 degrees early morning, 65 when I got out back, 76 degrees late in the day. Blue skies, sunny, fibrous wisps of clouds soldering across the sky. If there was a wind, I did not notice it. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I set up the printer last night and it works wonderfully. It is one nice machine. I found out that each of the inks costs more than the printer. I did not have enough money on me so I held off on getting more ink. I will have spares soon while I have some money to spend.

I stopped at a yard sale on the way to Mom's house.
He had a dozen or so bow style hand saws. He said he left them outside a little bit. I ended up with three of them. When I removed the plastic blade shield and the protected side was in good condition. I sanded the rust off the exposed side on all three blades.
I then took a piece of Norfolk Island Pine wood and cut a slab off it as a test of the blades. Using the saws to cut some wood really cleaned the blades up. I sprayed them with WD 40 and put them away.
I have used hand saws before and this was the best test of the blades I have done. It is still a lot of work.
The blade wandered a little while I was cutting from different sides and ends, so I finished my cut on the band saw.

He had some weight lifting weights. I gave my brother two ten pound disks and a five pound disk which he may machine into face plates for his lathe. I kept two plastic covered lead weights of five pound each. they will end up beneath my lathe to help hold it down when turning off center wood.

I got some storage jars with the bail clasps on the lids. I have uses for that kind of container.


I got to Mom's house and fed the cats and the female pigeon that comes over. she has gotten used to us and will come quite close, though she is wary when she does.

I started carving on my dragon wings. I marred the surface t show what had to be cut in, and then decided I would RE-SAW the wing to make it two thin sheets I drew a line about half way all the way around the edges and then set it up on end on the band saw and carefully followed the lines as I pushed it through. I did quite well on the cut. a quick sanding on the cut side showed that there was no really noticeable wandering. Since the wings will be carved on both sides, any variation of thickness or blade wandering will disappear.

I had bit that I had machined the shaft to fit into my Fordum. I found this morning that it would not go into the dremmel chuck. I took out several of my grinding disks for the Dremmel and turned the piece in my hand while waving the grinding disk over the shaft to cut it down. Some grinding disks get eaten up faster than others. When I finally got it to the size to fit the Dremmel Chuck, I put it to use.
this bit has sharp long spikes that eat up wood nicely. It is also broad which covers more surface area that it cuts. It was doing great at cutting into the wood, and shaping it. I am not exactly sure how it happened, but it like got a catch and bent ever so slightly and started vibrating badly.
The metal of the shaft is not designed to be that thin for the forces the bit goes under. It was originally to be used in a fast drill. I will have to straighten it out before I can use it again unless I use a very slow speed.


I carved a bit on the dragon but not enough for anybody to notice. I have that worry that if I do something wrong it might be very difficult to correct. Once I commit myself, the carving will go fast.

Mom had trimmed back a tiny Cleardendon tree that had gone through the bottom of the pot. The main trunk died, but several of them came up from the root. I cut the main trunk off with a jig saw and then carved a little man out of part of it.

I did not accomplish anything like I had hoped. My feet bothered me a little from the past few days of being on them too long so I did not do any turning which might have had more to show for my day.
Next week I MUST get production on my carving. both the face vase and the dragon are going to take a number of weeks even if I am very efficient in my carving. I don't have enough weeks to waste.

I will see what I actually do next week.