Woodworking - 46

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

year 10, Week 25, Day One (week 547)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-03-10 Saturday


86 degrees in the morning, an got up to 90, but then the sky clouded up and I forgot to check the temps. We did have some sun, but most of the day was heavy clouds with blue sky between them, though at the end of the day, storms over the Everglades and to the north in palm beach shaded our area. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Friday,

I went down to Dania with some of my latest work to show off. Dania Water Gardens are changing their display around and my stuff will be right in the entry rather than in a back room.
I had some platters in yellow pine. She had one glance at them and did not like them. The platters she saw the first time were a tighter ring pattern and softer difference between the light and dark rings. The wood I used for the platters are very pronounced ring pattern and widely spaced.
I showed her my butterflies, and she said there was not enough work in them. She showed no interest in my mice or lady bugs. She liked my flowers but did not need them right now.
I had my incomplete face vase with me to show what I am working on and she said she wants that in her display.

I went to the antique shop. He has moved across the street. His place looks really good. His old place was dark, dingy and because it was smaller, it was hard to really see anything. He still has some stuff to move but is not really rushed on that.
My work is still in one of twenty boxes he has not had time to dig into. It will be a while before he can locate which box they are in and get them on display.

I then stopped at the thrift shop in Dania They had what looked like a palm router. I got a good deal on it. What it really is for is to route, trim laminate. I don't have it in front of me right now so I cannot tell you exactly what brand and type it was, but when I put in the name, among the first links listed was about using these to pick locks. I need to examine it more and do some more research to see exactly how to use it to my advantage.

Saturday

I started the morning, after breakfast and yard sales, petting the cats. The beast seamed to really want attention this morning. It was so cat like, it was uncanny.

I remember seeing a carving apron and decided to see if I can find it. I took a bunch of stuff out of the shed to see if it was deep in. I found a few things I could use, I emptied a box and consolidated it with another box. I found a couple pieces of wood I need to do something with. there is a whole lot more wood in there that needs to be worked with, but I decided that these two were priority.
At the Dania Water Gardens, I saw a couple interesting vases. They are standing evening gowns. There is no person in them, Even the straps are up high. Looking at it, I can hollow the piece fairly easily, and then do much of the shaping on the outside with the lathe. Then some additional shaping on the outside by grinding wood to flatten and add proper curves, and it should not be too difficult to get acceptable results. I have a piece of ash that looks like it might work for this project if I choose to do it. I got the ash out so I can grab if the time for the project becomes available. there are better woods for this, but the ash is the right size.

I found a small tackle box with the two trays that nest on top of each other, but scissor apart when the lid is opened. I decided I would move my dremmel stuff from the dremmel box which has some problems, and use the tackle box as my dremmel box. I have a whole lot more room inside with only a slight dimension difference between the outside of the two boxes. The big difference is that the dremmel box is designed with an interior intended to nestle the equipment inside and keep them from moving around. I need the room as I keep ending up with more stuff to fit in the box.
Last week, mom gave me a whole bunch of dental bits she used in wood working with her motors. Today, I laid them out based on the type and size of bits. I then picked out the best pair of each for my uses, and then changed my mind and picked out just a couple of my selection for use. We put the rest some place we can find it, if we remember they are there.
I did some sanding on the face vase, but really accomplished nothing even in that. Lunch time came and Mom intended to go to the Festival Flea Market a bit later, so I packed up my work and got ready so we could get going.



I hope to do a whole lot more work tomorrow. Will see how things go.

year 10, Week 25, Day Two (week 547)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-04-10 Sunday

78 degrees, unbroken clouds, afternoon gully washers. It appears as if a cold front is passing through. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Fort Lauderdale Department of Tourism.

I got to mom's house at my normal time, but I was there only for a short time. I petted and fed the cats, but not as much petting as they expected. I then got together the stuff I needed for the day's session. I did have to go back for something I forgot, and then forgot something else later.

I had made arrangements to work with one of the Mentors in the Turning club. I wanted to show him how my method of making platters worked, and then wanted him to help me make my system better.
I gathered my platter blanks, tools and materials. I had to go back to Mom's house as I forgot the double sided tape which was the key to my system, and I found out I forgot my face shield, which he had a spare for me to use.

I have a system of using wooden face plates and double sided tape to make platters. The face plates do double duty. They are on the other side of the double sided tape, holding the wood to the lathe, and they also are used for measurement of the "foot" of the plate and the inset inside the plate.
I showed my friend the process of making the platters with my system. He was working on another project but when I got to a change point, I showed what I was doing and explaining how it worked.
The big thing he showed me was how to do my cuts without getting tear out, and how to sharpen my tools better. I got berated at how dull my turning tools were. To be sharp, the edge should catch on your thumb nail.
When I was done with my work, he told me that he heard something about this process being done, but he had never seen it before. he said that many in the club will be able to use the concept in other projects.
I got some confidence that my system actually works. I was impressed myself.

I do need to practice the tool work and the sharpening. Otherwise, this was a fun session.

I hit rain on the way to Mom's house. I was looking around for Noah's ark at one point. There was a bit puddle in front of Mom's house. there is road work being done and the drainage of the area is really messed up.
I petted the cat, put my stuff away, and then headed home.

I decided I need to finish the face vase. I have a lot of work to do, so I will be going to Mom's house tomorrow.

will see what I actually get done tomorrow.

year 10, Week 25, Day Three (week 547)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-05-10 Monday

80 degrees, high interlaced feathers with random low puffs in the morning. dark heavy clouds moved in, in the late morning. Another wave of a front is passing through long after I left. don't have to water the plants today. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Fort Lauderdale Department Of Tourism.

I saw that we were expecting some weather, so I decided to get an early start in the morning. After breakfast and petting the cat. I turned to get started in a project and realized that I left the face vase at home. that killed my big reason for working today. I wanted to remove the tenon on the base of the face vase so I can concentrate totally on sanding the vase. I can do a lot of finishing while the tenon is on the piece, but there is no way I can place it in the linseed oil to develop the finish I hoped to get.
I decided I would make the dress vase I saw Friday. I started hollowing it in Ash. I then remembered something. There is a reason one uses ash for baseball bats. It also shows up when you are trying to hollow it. it is not an easy wood to remove the wood from it.
I do have one problem. I need what is called a STEADY REST, in order to really do this right. A steady rest is a set of wheels held in a frame. One rounds the outside of the piece and then put the steady rest around the piece, and bring the rollers in contact with the outside surface. The steady rest holds the piece in the middle or near the end, to prevent it from wobbling while you are working on the inside.
The wood I am working with, was a bit too long for the chuck to hold it in place alone. When I took the tail stock away to work inside, the piece started wobbling instantly and it just got worse.
I decided I would hold off on doing more on that piece. The strength of the wood and the wobble was more than I wanted to mess with today.
I then took a small piece of wood and decided to try the idea smaller. I ran into the same problem, even though the pine two by two was softer. I also think I made the hole too big. What I am seeing, is that this really should be more like a weed vase, where it is essentially a hole straight through the piece. Because of the carving that is needed to get the precise shape needed, anything more than shaping the top of the hole to fit the upper part of the dress, any real hollowing would break through the wood some place where the wood is shaped if the hole was not simply straight in.

I cleaned up my mess, pet the cat and came home.

At home, I have sanded on the face vase and am sorting through decorations, placing them in a tackle box I got a couple months ago.

I do want to finish turning the face vase, and get it so I can add a final finish to the piece. I also have several projects to work on.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 26, Day One (week 548)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-10-10 Saturday

98 degrees, sunny, some lone puffs here and there, clouds on the horizon to the north and east. Cloud built up to the west as the day went on, and once or twice the sun was blocked by a cloud, but directly over head was blue sky all day long. The wind picked up as the day went on. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Stopped at some yard sales first thing in the morning. I picked up a really cute hand made ceramic incense burner in the shape of a sad little baby dragon. It is designed for the incense cones and the nostrils are big for the smoke to come out. I loved the way it looked and had to have it.
I also got a magnetic chess set. I have one already and have opened it once since I got it and only to see what the pieces looked like. half a dozen other chess sets are stashed away and have not looked at them either. One is wood and I do not know if all the pieces are there. I have no idea why I got this magnetic chess set, but got it anyway.

After petting and feeding the cat, my main project was to finish up the face vase. This was a step I was supposed last week when I left it at home. I intended to work on the finish, removing some tool marks during the week, but that never happened either.
My first project was to remove the tenon on the bottom of the face vase. I was given a jam chuck a while ago. A jam chuck is a conical piece of wood that fits in the jaws of the chuck. you make it to fit the project you are working with. If done right, your work won't come off when you take the tail stock away. It turned out that this jam chuck fits my face vase.
I mounted the face vase on the jam chuck and removed the tenon I had, and made a base ring. I also used techniques I learned last week to cut the bottom again with minimal tear out. Learning to use your tools properly is a good idea. I get results, but not good results....
After that was done, I started sanding and finishing.
My plug-in dremmel runs a little too fast for what I needed to do. I brought my battery powered dremmel with me and used that to remove the tool marks on the face vase. I have some sanding tubes that do not like being run fast and the lack of power the battery powered dremmel has, allowed me to sand just as much as needed.
I have a set of tools called a SCORP. Most chisels require you to apply pressure on the end of the handle, either pushing or rapping with a hammer, to work the blade into the wood. A scorp is a chisel where the blade aims to the side. It is pulled with the fingers, like a knife, into the wood. For some, this is safer and easier to control.
I have a set of four, and the V tool is the one I used the most. The others have varying amounts of curve to them. I think in terms of a knife and these are used like a knife.
The main reason I do not get into chisels, is that you are supposed to use a different curve for each thing you do, to make the cut look best. I decided I was not going to go through that effort of learning when to use all the many tools one tends to acquire. The scorp is a compromise. Generally, though, I am using either a knife or power, to do my carving.
After I had the beard and mustaches done, I showed mom, and then had her draw in some eye brows. I then carved them in over each eye.
I declared the face vase done, on the wood working part of the project. I am now in the finishing stage and at this second it is soaking in a mixture of mineral spirits and linseed oil. That will bring out all the colors that is in the wood. I will soak it for several days, then take it out to dry.

I decided to do a test of concept. I had seen vases in the shape of evening gowns. I had started something last week and it was not working right so I set it to the side. Today, I took that piece out which was rounded and had some hollowing in the end. I re-mounted that piece and shaped the inside a bit better. I then ran a two foot long drill bit into the end, through the tail stock, to make a place where you can slip a weed into.
That done, I did a little outside shaping, then took a forsner bit to cut out the arm holes for the straps of the dress. I got a good start on the hole, then it broke out. I made the hollowed out area too thin. the wood broke rather than cut. I tossed that piece into the garbage and then grabbed a piece of Yellow pine two by two I had cut. this one I drilled the hole for the arms first with the forsner bit. I then rounded the piece, then ran the long drill through the center to the depth I felt was right.
I then rounded the piece, then shaped it, going in for the waist and tapering out for the gown. Once I was satisfied with the shape, I took it off the lathe, bandsawed the tops of the straps and cut in a V from the top of the strap to just below the circle of the straps, removing the wood. I did the rest of the work with the dremmel, flattening the back, removing the breast mound all the way around except the front. I flattened the tummy and the front of the dress. I did not cut in the curves of the fabric as I was testing a concept, not working on the final piece.
When I drilled the holes, I wanted the stripes of the rings to go up and down the front, and thought I did it wrong. When I had the piece finally shaped, I saw I got it right.
When I do this again, I will make the arm holes smaller in proportion to the piece. I will have the hips as wide as the widest point of the dress to give it a more feminine shape. Mom said I had the straps wrong in front. I have them closer together in front than in back and they should be more even (though making them cross might be interesting sometime.
I broke one strap and it is glued right now I now have the proof of concept and will try it again sometime, preferably bigger. As it is, it is about seven inches tall and a little over an inch in diameter, about what is expected from a two by two.

I don't have a big project to work on tomorrow. I have a lot of little projects in mind, several carving projects too.

I will have to see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 26, Day Two (week 548)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-11-10 Sunday

96 degrees. Morning blue sky with high smudges. low puffs started building in the west and above before noon, actually blocking the sun several times. The morning breeze was so light one had to look carefully to see any movement of leaves, and picked up as the day went on. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Last night when I got home, I put the face vase in a combination of mineral spirits and linseed oil. I am to soak it for at least three days, possibly longer depending on what goes on. I put it in a zipper bag and set it on a "workbench" on my porch.
I got up in the early morning and smelled the liquid. I looked and saw that the bag was not as full as I started it. I knew it had leaked. When I got up for the morning, I checked it and there was liquid on the floor. I moved it into a new bag with another bag over it. I filled it up, turned away to take care of something. I then heard a thunk. I looked and it had fallen to the floor and dumped the liquid everywhere. I refilled it and put it up again, this time I made sure it was closed. I got out the mop and bucket and sopped up all the linseed oil on the ground, and then filled the bucket with soapy water and mopped the concrete of the porch.
When I got home, I looked and the zipper bags leaked again!!! I have some more liquid on the floor. I stuck the bag in the mop bucket and that will contain the leaks. These were the cheapest gallon bags I could find...
One is supposed to put the liquid in a bucket and soak it that way. I don't finish enough stuff to make that worth the effort. I instead use bags to do the soaking, flipping the bag periodically so every surface is well soaked in the liquid.
Linseed oil brings out the color of the wood, and makes the wood semi transparent. it is how you make lamp shades to pass light through them. the mineral spirits half and half oil, allows the oil to soak deeper into the wood.

I got an early start this morning. I petted and fed the cats, scarface fought some more this past week.
I then drug out my equipment.

Yesterday, I stopped at Jo-Anne’s Cloth World. In the CD I am using to learn crochet, I found that I will eventually will need a yarn needle. I looked at the yarn needles they had on sale. Several were plastic, but they also had metal ones. It dawned on me that since I made some crochet hooks, I could make the needle too. Why buy something I can make myself?
Today, I took a piece of orange wood and drilled holes for the top and bottom of the eye, and then used my dremmel to cut a slot between the holes. I then mounted the piece in my lathe and turned the tapered shape of the needle. I took it off, freed it from the wood and did a lot of grinding and shaping. When I was almost done, I realized I could have made it without the lathe. Just sanding and grinding could have done it. I had an even taper the lathe gave me as a guide, but I made the needle flat and made adjustments while sanding it on the strip sander.

I made four more crochet hooks. I actually made two more, but they got tossed. One, I made a mistake when making the hook so I turned it around to the other end and made another hook. When I cut one hook off, I found I removed the wrong one. It went into the garbage. I had another that was near finished on the lathe and I applied too much pressure and broke it. They need heavy sanding before they can be used.

I started on another dress vase. I had a piece of oak at the start of where it branched off. The wood has nice waves in the surface. I decided to leave the bark on the lower part as part of the design. I mounted it between centers and made a tenon. I then mounted it with the skirt at the motor and started shaping the top. I allowed enough space for the straps and shaped the breast, the waste and the shape of the dress to the bark. I took a Forsner bit and drilled a hole straight through for the arm holes of the strap.
A bit later, I removed the tenon on the base (mistake) and then used my drill press to drill a Forsner bit down through the top. it only had length to reach just past the arm holes. I should have left the bottom tenon on and used my turning skills to hollow out the inside. Not thinking. When I removed the tenon, I did make a base ring. I might be able to put a groove in to mount that into the chuck so I can work on the end. Will have to see next week.

I have a turning club meeting this week, on Thursday. I intend to show off my face vase in whatever condition it is in. I don't have anything else to show. but that will be enough.
I have no really big plans for next week, other than to try to finish the face vase before the end of the month.

I will see what I actually do next week.

12 )
.
Branlyn walked across a field one day, a thunderstorm was a distance away. the hair stood up on the back of his neck, but he did not link the feeling to the incident. He got hit by lightning and was unharmed. he got hit six times before the storm was over. Other than some charring of a few bits of clothing he was all right.
word got out and officials declared him to have super hero powers. He entered basic training for super heros, and was giving his tights that showed who he was. He decided that with the tights, he was an official super hero and went out into the world to do good deeds. One of the officials tasked with watching over him, got fired because he was not at his post. Branlyn was not supposed to leave the training center until the training was complete. the boy was too dumb to understand what his powers were or how to use them. He also had no instruction as to what to use them on.
Branlyn walked through town. thunder and lighting filled the sky. A kitten was curled up, afraid. He rushes over and picks the kitten up. the kitten fights him, trying to escape, but he holds on. He keeps saying that he will save the kitten. Twelve lightning bolts hit him in fairly quick succession. he is holding a charred mess where the kitten was in his hands.
After a number of incidents where he tried to save something and got hit by lighting, He finally gets the idea that he should be doing real work. He learns where a special antenna was located for the local super heros. A thunder storm is coming. he decides he has to save it. He breaks in, something he seams to be good at. He goes in, in a way that no one would ever think anybody would try. It would be too dumb. he is not smart enough to know they won't work. He gets to the antenna and it, and he, gets hit by lighting, damaging it.
Branlyn soon becomes a threat to the super heros and the local defense system. He keeps trying to protect people and things from the storms, not realizing he is drawing the lighting to what he is protecting.
With training, he would be doing this behind enemy lines, devastating them, rather than his own. the super heros cannot catch him because they do not know how to be that dumb.
they finally trap him. Thunderstorms are coming. they pile on him and try to hold him down, to stop him. he gets hit by lightning, and a good number of super heros are hurt badly. A few though, are immune in some way to the lightning so they make sure he feels the pain they do.
He does not understand why he is being punished, but he is put deep underground, out of reach of lighting and given brutal training, turning him into a fighting machine that cannot be defeated. He is trained in what to look for, what will do the most damage if hit by lighting, but they tell him these are parts that must be protected.
The last act is that he is dropped behind enemy lines with no way to get back. He hears lighting, and realizes he has to protect something. He looks around and sees an antenna that is exposed to the lightning.

year 10, Week 27, Day One (week 549)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-17-10 Saturday


94 degrees, hazy blue sky from dust from Africa. The dust crosses the Atlantic. The Bahamas catch the dust destined for Fort Lauderdale, but in the northern part of the county and north, the dust and sand reach the shores and build up high sand dunes along the beach. Fort Lauderdale beaches are flat in comparison to, say, Hillsboro Beach sand dunes, which can be forty or fifty feet tall.
Lots of irregular shaped clouds, high streaks, nice wind, lots of sun. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Monday:

I had put the face vase into linseed oil on Saturday, and the plastic bags I used, leaked. I had put it into one zipper bag and that leaked. I then put one bag into another and refilled it. I walked away and it fell to the floor and spilled. I refilled it and then found both baggies leaked and stuck it into a bucket. I took it out Monday.
Linseed oil smells nice initially, but after a while, it is bothersome.
The face vase has air dried for a week and still smells. They say one should let it air dry for a month. I will start finishing it this week.

Thursday:

The turning club meeting was as good as it has been.
The quality of the work displayed in the club is well above what it was when I first joined in 2004. Once beginners are now skilled and the variety of techniques and styles the people are doing is so vastly improved. Everybody learns from everybody.
The variety of the works on display this month was fantastic. The craftsmanship is impressive. As an example, as good as my face vase was, I felt it was insignificant in comparison. I have to step up my quality.

The demonstration was a Saturn bowl. This bowl resembles Saturn with the sphere, the planet, with a ring around it. The ring can be rotated on the sphere. What the demonstration showed was really simple technique, but by his demonstration, it is but not all that easy. He either parted off the same piece of wood, or found a piece of wood with similar grain to each other. He made the base that would hold the ring, shaping the outside. with the still attached ring. the ring has to have parallel faces and be fairly thin. He hollowed it, and parted the ring from the body of the bowl by cutting a V into the body, through the ring, cutting in from each side. The demonstrator messed up and accidentally cut through the bowl while trying to part the ring so it would turn. He was then to make the matching lid that had a close but not tight fit, and make the sphere even all the way around.
I expect to have disasters worse than that when I do my demonstration next month. It is something to look forward to.

Saturday:

I did some yard-sailing and ended up with a palm pilot with a folding keyboard. I have to figure out how to use it and what it is used for. It does work, though.

The city of Pompano was giving out free trees. It is usually two weekends each year, and is intended to get native trees into the landscaping, fill the city with trees.
This was the first weekend of the give-a-way. One has to show you are a resident of the city to get them. My mom is, but I am not.
Mom got her two trees, a Fox-Tail Palm tree. the frond ends look torn up with this tree. She also got a red maple tree. These are saplings.
I see that my interest in trees have an ulterior motive. It has something to do with woodworking... grow a tree to use later.

I left the oak dress-vase at home so I went to other projects. It turned out to be one of THOSE days.
At the yarn shop, they have metal crochet needles with wood handles on them, essentially dowels, looks like it might be some kind of palm, to make gripping the smaller hooks easier.
I decided to make some handles for the crochet hooks I made last week. My wood hooks are shorter than they are supposed to be because of the stock I grabbed at the moment, so the addition of the handle brings them closer to preferred lengths.

I had a Norfolk Island Pine vase that was way too thick. It was in my "junk" box, which is filled with pieces that are ugly, unfinished, poorly made, basically useless unless "rebuilt."
I had a Norfolk Island Pine vase that had a poor outer shape and the inside did not follow the outside.
I mounted it on the lathe using the double sided tape and reshaped the outside, getting rid of a little bit of wobble. I turned to the inside and immediately had a breakout. When I corrected that, a knot broke out. Once I got that leveled out again, the tape decided not to hold any more and the piece started wobbling. when I started, the inside had little wobble. by the time I got to working the inside to cut it to follow the shape outside, it was wobbling too bad. I stopped.
Since it was not going well, I may use "manual" methods to finish it.

The cat wanted attention and company. I sat and crocheted while he napped at my feet at one point. I had to rip out several lines of the crochet to get rid of a mistake, and then worked a couple lines back on. I then decided to get up and do some more woodworking. My plan was not to bother the cat. The problem was that I forgot about the yarn that was dangling down beside the chair. I had the ball and the fabric in my hand and the dangling yarn slid over the cat. It leaped up in shock, then stood there and looked at me like he was calling me a bigger idiot than cats usually consider people to be.

My clutch is acting up on my truck. It started Friday when I was near home. It was kind of good at first this morning, but got worse when I neared Mom's house.
On the way home, I had to force the truck out of gear at the lights and then struggle to get it back into gear to move. I drove in a lower gear just to avoid having to change gears. I went home, then to my brother's house, relearning how to shift without the clutch, though I always pushed it in. I am not good at it, getting it right about a quarter of the time.
he had me dig out the book and we learned that there is no cable adjustment for the throw of the clutch peddle. the problem is that I need a new clutch.

I went to a birthday party and over-ate and I kept it small and cheap. I got an appetizer sampler and with bits I got from others, it was far more than I normally eat.
I talked to my brother more about the truck, and to family of my niece about all sorts of other things.

I decided during the party that I was going to stay home on Sunday. I will use the time to apply a finish to pieces rather than going to Mom's house and make sawdust.

Next week I will most likely I will be under my truck with my brother to lower the transmission so we can replace the clutch.
I will try to bring the dress vase with me to work on, to finish.

I have lots of projects I really need to work on. I have a fairy blank I need to finish. the hard part is to come up with a surrounding scene that is different than the sister of that blank is in. I had made two blanks of this fairy, on the idea of working on two pieces at a time like my dad was doing at the time. He would keep the best one and try to sell the lesser piece. I started both of these, then realized I did not have the time or gumption to work on two of everything so this blank went into my junk box.
I need to start on my Christmas ornaments. I have several good ideas for this year's ornaments but really need to get to carving them.
I need to, but doubt I can do so, pick up some wood for next month's demonstration on the 19th, and get it all set up with work at different stages of finish. I will try to do one from start to finish during the club meeting, but if I run into problems, I want to have several at successive stages that I can grab and continue to work with. I should practice some between now and then also.
I would like to carve some more pixies, carve another baby dragon, and have some relief carving ideas I would like to do. I should also start another face vase.
This does not count all the different turning projects I would like to do such as the Saturn vase or making a vase to pierce. I have a bowl I want to carve.
Of course, I don't have time for all my projects so most will never actually be made.


I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 28, Day One (week 550)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-24-10 Saturday

Sunny with fast moving clouds, nice wind. warm but not bad.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Fort Lauderdale Department of tourism.

Friday:

I started my run and my transmission failed. My brother towed me to his house. He had one of those nylon carry straps. Hooked to his truck and mine. I set the emergency break on, and he towed me, not going over thirty miles per hour. He would signal me and my job was to stop both of us. this was to keep the tow strap tight at all times. It required both of us to be on the ball all the time. My breaks were not good because the engine was not running and I was stopping both of us. If he stopped quickly, I would be up his tail pipe, so we had to be careful.
We had only one incident where he stopped a tiny bit faster than I did and when he started out, the strap jerked, but other than that one time, it was a perfect pull. it was not fun as small cells of rain shot by, wetting us down for a minute or two and then was gone.

Saturday,

My brother picked me up at home and we jacked the truck up on jack stands under all four wheels. We made sure the truck was stable. We then went to see about parts. I had priced clutch kits and the prices were high. I also got a figure on a shop fixing it. I would not have that kind of money for a while.
We picked up a book at one parts store so we could know what had to be done, but they did not have the parts in. We stopped at another and it was cheaper than other prices. we got the hydraulic slave and it was almost as cheap as prices given to us just for the clutch kit.
we went back and dug into the truck, taking everything down. We got a call by noon that the parts were in. by three, when we were expecting the parts in, we got the transmission down I had a glorious failure in there. we needed the hydraulic slave after all. It was damaged.
We picked up and put in the parts, and then spent about two, three hours trying to get the transmission back into place. We could not get the transmission in exactly the right position to get the end of the shaft into the bearing on the crank shaft. We were out of time and wore out. My brother said he would be able to work on it Tuesday.

Sunday,

Other than signing the face vase and giving several coats of varnish over the signature, I did no wood working. I could have sanded on some crochet hooks but worked on a writing project instead.

I have loads of projects to work on next week. A dress vase to work on. I need to pick up some wood and practice making platters for my demonstration, I have carving projects I can work on. I should start making Christmas ornaments for this year. Now is as good a time as any.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 30, Day One (week 552)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-07-10 Saturday

90 degrees in the morning, 96 in the afternoon under the awning. High streaky haze with random low puffs, mostly sunny in the morning with the puffs increasing as the day passed. A breeze picked up after the early morning. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

WEEEEEE!!!! It is fun to be able to drive around again. Two weekends without a ride was a royal bother. I spent the first few days listening to any little sound our any feel that was not normal. I think I am now to the point where it is normal for me.

Friday:

I went down to Dania to the Antique shop and the Dania Beach Water Gardens. I stopped at the antique shop first. He had found the box that had my woodworking, so I set up my display. Everything was wrapped nicely. It was like Christmas as I had forgotten what all I had. I ended up with a display we both agreed was nice.
I went to the Dania Beach Water Gardens to drop off the face vase. I missed the owner, so I decided to drop the vase off at the antique shop for "storage." I will pick it up from there later to drop off. I have an agreement with the Antique shop where I can "borrow" my work if I have a show or something. I just have to let him know ahead of time. I don't have that agreement with the Water gardens.


Saturday:
We went yard sailing in the morning. I found a pump style coffee dispenser. I had been looking for one since Christmas. I also found some gifts.
I had gone to a craft show in the area many months ago and there was a really good wood worker. He happened to have a yard sale and we talked a bit. He was selling some extra tools. No, I did not buy any.

The beast, that is pretending to be a cat, really missed me. Mom gives him just enough attention to for him to eat his fill and that is all. He might get it twice a day, but that is it. I will stop and give him attention several times during the day. when he saw me, he knew he would get some happiness. He was quite satisfied with me just being there. He loved the company even when I was ignoring him.

Mom had a greeting card holder. It was a set of curled wires to hold the cards, set in a base. Mom wanted the wires to be cut off so she could labor a bunch of the plants she was afraid she would forget what kind they were. It ended up that there was one she got last year that she has no clue what it was.
My dremmel with a cutting disk did a good job of slicing through the wires. I kept the base as it is brass. I messed up the threads of the screw-in insert, that the wires were brazed to, in my attempt to remove the wire ends. It was well brazed.

Mom had a bunch of screws and screw driver bits in a box. I separated out the bits. Mom put them in a jar.

My first woodworking project was to take my last dress vase start and re-mount it on the lathe. I had to cut a tenon in the base so I could try to hollow it out more.
I then turned it around. It was not quite centered. I tried several tools and they were not working. My brother made me a boring bar and it had a set screw to hold the bits in place. I dashed to get a shorter one as this one stuck out way too much. when I got back, I wondered if forsner bits would fit in the hole. It looked close to the right size. I had to draw the set screw out a little, but the forsner bit went in nicely.
I had also run to the little hardware store to get a shorter set screw for the boring bar as the original one (the one my brother had) stuck out too far. With the new set screw, I was able to work without it scraping on the wood.
I tried the forsner bit with the boring bar. I am working in oak, and it did not want to cut the wood. I would lean into the wood with the bit, and the lathe would start to roll. Another thing was that the vase was not exactly centered for some reason so it was shaking my entire body as I leaned into it.
My lathe is set up so that I have two levers I can release and the wheels will tip up out of the way and the lathe will sit on some blocks attached to the underside of the frame. that was so the lathe could be rolled around easily, but I could set it down solidly. I have not used that since they were added. I simply let it sit on the wheels.
I really needed to drop the wheels so the lathe would not roll. I only went in about half an inch, even going to a smaller bit, before I gave up. Oak does not cut easily and since these are really old forsner bits, they might be dull.

I took out the carving basket but got side track and ended up packing everything away instead.
I did quite a bit of stuff, but accomplished little. I can say, for once I got to work wood today which was better than the past two weeks.

Tomorrow I will work wood again.

year 10, Week 30, Day One (week 552)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-08-10 Sunday

90 degrees, high rippled clouds in the morning, mid level puffs slipped in and some lower, "pregnant" puffs came through. About the time I put the very last things in, some dripping had started. It appears like we are getting a tropical depression. My brother and I sat out and read a while during a gully washer. The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of tourism reminds me to tell you that we never get rain here in South Florida. All we get is Liquid Sunshine.

I stopped at Home Depot for a board. I was after a two by twelve yellow pine board. white pine does not get big enough. I chose one with tight rings with the pith running through it.
While I was there. a four by four attacked me. The only way I could keep it from hitting me was to hold it on my cart along side my selected board. It relaxed only after I paid for both boards.

The beast of the back yard acted very much like a cat. He absorbed all the attention I could give him. Scar face showed up and I gave him some petting too. He is not as scruffy looking, in spite the fact that Mom says she has seen him only once the past week.

I cleared the space in front of the grinder and sharpened my bowl gouges. It had been a long time. What a difference this made. These were the original bowl gouges I got and there is not much fluting left in the gouges, I have worked them down so far.
I got a good shape on the tips and then touched them with the diamond hone to make them that much sharper. That really made a difference in how they cut.

I needed to cut some of the two by twelve into squares. I was looking at what I could use to cut it. Me and hand saws don't get along. My drill kit's batteries were all dead so I could not use the saber saw. I went into the shed and looked around. I missed it twice, but there was the black case that contained a circular saw. I got that out and that solved my problem. I cut four platter blanks.

I found the center of the platter blanks and then drew circles around the edges to show where the corners needed to be cut. The band saw removed the corners of three of them. I had set the fourth to the side as an example of what one starts with when one makes the platters.
I turned one plate. I sort of forgot a couple steps, but did them differently to make it work. I had the very last nib of the platter to remove when it hopped off the lathe. I tried cleaning it up a little more and it hopped off again. I stopped on that one.
I tried turning two others and the tape decided it was not going to hang on. I went though a bunch of tape and it just would not hang on. I decided that was good enough. and set them to the side.

I decided to cut some pieces off the four by four. I used the band saw for that. I carefully held the board well away from the saw and moved it into the blade. It is not the best way to do it, but I got no binding and the cuts were not grossly out of square.
I mounted one piece on the lathe but had the wrong tip on the tail stock. I have a tail stock with many points. I had an open ring I can run a drill through. It did not have a good hold on the end of the wood so when I touched the corners with the bowl gouge, the work hopped off the lathe. I decided that was good enough and ended my day by cleaning up.

Several weeks ago, I worked with one of the club's mentors, showing him my technique on making the platters. He yelled at me for not having sharp tools, and then showed me how to use the tool to get better surfaces. Today was the first time I could really try it out.
When I turn, I usually get "flour" and grit. This time, most of what I got was hay. The sharpened tools and the new technique really made for nice surfaces, even though it was not even because my tool rest needs work, to be made flat and smooth.
I need to replace my sanding disk on my disk sander, so I think I will use it up fixing my tool rest next week.

In all, the day went pretty good. I need to do some work on technique but did get some results today. I got some more wood to play with. I now need to apply myself to make full use of my time to use it up.

Next week, I need to get ready for the turning club meeting. I want several platters made. The way the rings in the platter looks is different if the center is toward the top or bottom. The next platter needs to be opposite than the one I made today so I can have that as an example.
I need to make some platters up, stopping at each stage just in case I run into problems. I will do the demonstration on one platter, but if I run into problems, I will be able to grab a platter at that stage and continue to work.
I want to make something out of one of the chunks of four by four.

I will see what actually happens next weekend.

year 10, Week 31, Day One (week 553)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-14-10 Saturday

98 degrees under the awning (I was out in the sun most of the day), a feathery shield up high all day long, thicker in the morning to diffuse the sun slightly, thinner during the day, some low puffs, one had the nerve to block the sun for about twenty minutes, light breeze after the early morning made it nice. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

When I walked into the back yard, I was tempted to wash the beast's mouth out with soap. He is not supposed to use that kind of language around me. It was horrible. When he saw me, he said "meow!" Oh what foul language he uses.
Other than later in the day when all he wanted was my company, The beast acted exactly like a cat. Sweet in his own way.

It is not woodworking, but I finished my first wash cloth in Crochet. I finished it with a stitch I had never used and it came out good, not perfect, but good. I gave it to Mom and she says it works quite well.

I have a wood turning demonstration on making platters with double sided tape. I needed to prepare several props for the demonstration. What I needed was examples to show what happens when the center of the board is near rim and base of the plate. I had one made last week but needed to make the other. the base gives an oval shape, and the top gives an hour glass shape to the rings.
I then wanted several pieces at different stages of construction. These props are for in case I run into problems during the demonstration. I set the error to the side and continue with the next one. I can also do partial wood turning and swap pieces to gain some time.
I now have the two examples of grain patterns, and then one that is almost done, except the center of the inside. I had one with some great knots that the tape would not stick to. I need to go to another piece and do that later.

Tomorrow, I have to finish my pieces for the demonstration, and then box up all my tools so I can grab then Thursday. I need to try not to forget anything. I likely will, but will try not to.

I will see what all I accomplish tomorrow.

year 10, Week 31, Day Two (week 553)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-15-10 Sunday

98 degrees as the high under the awning, Filtered sun in the morning by a high feather mesh, that got thicker, then lower clouds slid in after lunch. Some showers in other cities but good weather the entire time I was working. A breeze picked up from nothing in the morning to being helpful in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I started the day by petting both cats. Scarface is looking good and he got a lot of petting. He ate his fill and left. The backyard beast did not get as much attention as he wanted. He had laid down for a bit after eating, and when he came out, his sign for "tend me, plebe," I was busy at the lathe. He got tired of waiting and went back to bed and I never saw him the rest of the day.
Little curly tail lizards were out. These are larger than the natives, but are still small. Mom found out last year that they like cat food so we feed them every once in a while, and they also pick up wayward pieces at times. They come quite close under the right conditions. They got a few nuggets.

My main project was to prepare for the turning club meeting. I selected another rounded piece of wood and mounted it on the lathe. I used a wood face plate that was drilled and threaded to fit on the shaft of my lathe. I found that it was not square when I mounted it with the tenon, so I removed it from the board and re-finished the surface so it was square.
Each chuck has numbered jaws. If you mount something in the jaws, one should mark where one of the jaws is so you can re-mount it in place. The reason for doing this is that chucks might not be exactly square to the shaft for many reasons. This improves how square the piece will be if you take it off one or more times.
I then mounted the board again and shaped the underside of the rim and stopped there.
I found that the double sided tape sticks better if it sits for a while, especially under pressure. I have also found the tape where it will not stick, no matter what. That is the problem with the tape, either it sticks, or it won't and it is never when you want it to be that way.
I noticed that I had left my better wooden face plates attached to the work so I have to use some second rate face plates during my demonstration, simply because they were what I had left.
I gathered everything together, tools pieces, stock, materials, all within a box. I will check it over when I pick it up Thursday and make sure I have everything I need.

I had finished my platter turning and wondered what I should work on next. I opened the shed and saw the four by four I got last week. I had cut some pieces off, so I went back to the lathe and got a piece of wood. mounted it and made a pencil cup. I do like the look of yellow pine.

Several weeks back, I made some crochet hooks and accidentally nicked the inside of the hook, making them useless for crochet. I lopped off the hooks and put new hooks on the other end of the wood, doing it right this time. Because they are short, I have swapped the bigger handles I made for other crochet hooks. This saves them where they would be tossed normally. I have a bunch of crochet hooks that need serious sanding and finishing.

My brother finally finished some clocks he had started a couple years ago. All that needs to be done is to apply a finish to them and add the mechanism.

Thursday I will go to the Wood Turning Club meeting. I will demonstrate making platters using double sided tape. I know I will mess up royally as I am not nervous at all.
Next weekend, I hope to make something of interest, but not sure what. I have a number of projects that don't involve wood working that I have to work on, so I don't expect to get anything done this week to demonstrate to the club.
They do have a club challenge of platters. People will bring in their platters and a winner will be selected randomly. It is fun to do these projects.

I will see what really happens next weekend.

year 10, Week 32, Day One (week 554)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-21-10 Saturday

94 degrees, blue sky in the morning, becoming a high shield filtering sunlight, then low clouds blocked up the sky, mostly to the west, in the afternoon. Weather hit after I got home. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.


THURSDAY:

The turning club meeting. I was doing the demonstration on using jam chucks and double sided tape for doing platters.
I had found that the tail stock on the lathe was out of square. I decided to give it a try anyway. In my checking, I found a second little problem. The Live Center on the tail stock (the point mounted in a bearing so it spins with a wood, rather than the wood spin on it like on a nail) was too small for the way the project was going to work.
The wood face plates face plates I had to work with, were ones I had drilled and threaded to fit over the shaft that spins the wood. the actual spinning part of the live center was small, and had a big piece running around it that did not move. The hole rubbed against the unmoving part of the center.
I quickly made a jig. I took a piece of wood and made an insert into the hole. I turned it around and did a center mark for the tail stock to go into.
When it became time to start, I felt I was ready. I told about what I was after for the project and why I was doing it, showing examples I had. I showed the steps of mounting the wood into the lathe and I turned it on.
I work at maximum speed with my lathe at home, but this was at a third the speed and it looked fast. It started wobbling instantly because it was out of center. The wood came off and I got the lathe turned off almost fast enough. No disaster. the piece spun against the tool rest and did not fall off the lathe. A bit of the tape still stuck. The second chuck, not taped on, came off. someone picked that up for me.

Because I had prepared wood at each step, In case of some form of failure, I used them to show and explain the different stages I work, and explained what I did and why I did it that way. I felt I was a bit disjointed, as I had not practiced what I was going to say and do. I just knew the points I was after.
When I was done, I passed the examples around so they could see what it looked like at the various stages of the process.
There were several things I thought of later I should have said, but forgot at the time. Several people came by and told me I did very well and they learned something. That I never tell people that unless I mean it, I take that as something really meaningful.

I talked to a new turner, he has taken classes but has not assembled his own lathe, about the wood. He did not know that yellow pine can be used because of pressure treating. I told him that I get my wood at Lowes or Home Depot, and that if it is greenish, it is pressure treated, but they do have untreated wood too.

I have no problems talking to someone one on one, and to a few people. I am always in front of the group taking pictures. I found that my mind set changed once I started my presentation. I had taken some acting classes back in the 80s and actually was on stage once. I noticed then, like I noticed now, that even my vision changes before the crowd.
The best way to describe it was that I "stepped back," My vision was more wide angle, less focused. I sort of shifted into automatic. I was not "thinking" on my feet, but instead, reacting, more on instinct.
I can see why some people would panic before crowds. I would rather have been talking to them like I was face to face to them. It is a slight sense of not having maximum control over the situation..
I will say that if I have something to demonstrate, I will do so again. I have to say that I did have fun. One just has to prepare properly in case of mistakes and know what you are doing.

The club gives a gift card for doing the demonstrations. I had a partial gift card in my wallet, along with a gift certificate that the club members get after a certain number of purchases, the store's version of a discount for club members. The certificate was going to expire next weekend.
The store had a chuck on sale. Over the past several years, I had missed other sales on these chucks and they were something I had always wanted. I ended up buying one, at a third the normal cash I would have put out.
The chuck is designed to grab the wood and hold it in place while spinning the wood for you to do the cutting. The chucks come with different jaws, to grab different sized pieces of wood and holding them different ways. Some jaws (Coles Jaw) are designed to hold finished projects as you touch up the bottom, for example. This chuck comes with two jaws. the standard 50 mm and a 25mm jaw for small work. It also has a "Worm Screw" which is a special screw designed to fit into a drilled hole and has special threaded to hold the wood better than a normal screw.
Having a second chuck is of a great advantage. I can have different jaws on them, so I can shift the project to different ways of holding it without having to do a dozen screw operations. One can also have the same jaws on the chucks and leave a piece in the jaws while working on a different project for a moment. This improves accuracy. since nothing changes for the piece still in the jaws.
This was not money I really should have spent, but I had to take advantage of the situation. Now I have it.


Saturday:

We started out yard sailing. I got a GAME BOY COLOR with one game and a case,, four small cast iron fry pans which I am seasoning now, a coffee grinder, and a little fairy who's position I like for my next fairy carving. I also got a book on making historical navigational devices. I did not spend all that much money for all of it, either. It was more than I should, but not as much as I could have. I kept my hands off several items that I considered getting.

I started the morning by unpacking my new chuck, and checking it out, taking a couple pictures. I did not mount it on the lathe until the afternoon when I needed to work on my crochet hooks. It does not close down absolutely to zero, but it does close down enough (without the jaws), to hold all my crochet hooks, some are really tiny, just slightly bigger than the minimum.
I found my tools for tightening and loosening my old chuck are the same, so that is good.
I mounted my crochet hooks and sanded them some more. That helped as many were not in good shape. I also worked the new handles I had made for them and they are better. Some ended up off center, so I re-cut the outside to make them centered. I also changed the profile to make them better on the hands.

My first project I decided to do, after unpacking all the stuff I took with me to the demonstration at the turning club, was to make a pencil cup out of a yellow pine four by four I recently. I like the look of the wood and I have a lot of them. I have a use for about four pencil cups. They are quick and simple to make and look pretty good to me.

I got a lot done but not as much I as could have.

Tomorrow, I will make another pencil cup, possibly hand sand on my crochet hooks, maybe make a couple more hooks using the new chuck. I might also dig out some bass wood. I have several projects. One is to carve another fairy, so I can draw it up and cut out the blank, removing the worst of the spaces and get the basic shape. I also could spend some time and make some shaving flowers. That is a good project to do while just sitting in the shade and cooling off.
I have the partially done pieces I used for my demonstration that I should finish up too.
I have a lot to do, but will have to see what actually comes up.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

Year 10, Week 32, Day Two (week 554)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-22-10 Sunday

88 degrees in the morning, 95 degrees when the sun finally shown under the awning in the late afternoon. High thick pebbles blocking the sun early morning, It got lower and thicker late morning, thinned out with big patches of blue sky and sunshine in the afternoon, but a thick high mountain of thunder towers appeared on the horizon on the other side of the everglades very late. Light breeze picked up to comfortable level in the afternoon. some humidity in the morning but that was gone with the first puffs of wind. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

After petting and feeding the beast, I dragged all my stuff out and got ready to work. it seams like a lot of stuff, drill kit box, dremmel box, carving basket, lathe, tools and stuff on a cart, bits and pieces all laid out.
I selected a piece of 4x4 and measured the middle, and cut it in half. I then mounted it between centers and rounded the piece, and made a tenon on one end. finally, I stuck it into the chuck and after making the outside right, I hollowed it out. I used my bowl gouge to get near depth and give me some space to work.
This is a soft wood I am using my skew chisel to run down the inside, making it straight. I whittle down the thickness of the walls in several passes. Just a little bit of work is required to do the bottom.
I could well have done four in the time I worked for the day, but I wanted to do something different. I put my lathe stuff away and cleaned up. I do make a lot of sawdust.

I dug out a piece of basswood with the idea of making a new fairy. I went inside to my fairies, which are on display in my mother's house, along with some other larger carvings. I pulled on one carving and several fell, right on top of a couple others I spent some time to glue pieces back in place. One of them had the pieces just glued on the base and the glue gave way so I glued them in place. Another of a father holding a fishing pole, lost his shoulder and his other hand. They are now back in place. I still have to stick a butterfly, on a wire, back in place on one carving, but decided not to deal with that right now.

Since I was messing with basswood, I looked at my stock, since the board I had was a bit too narrow. I did not have anything the right size. I would have to do a glue-up and I am not good at that.
I had an idea for a project and found a 3/4 inch board. It would be good enough for the project planned.
I drew along the edge of the board a line in the middle. I then re-sawed (bandsawed) it in half, making two thin boards. I then cut one of the boards into square sticks.
A bit later, I sat down and started making shaving flowers. The way this is done is you taper one end of a stick, which is the base of the flower. You then reach as high as you can with your knife and cut thin slices, stopping above the base and try to keep them attached. I started on the corners, and then as the piece became more rounded, I kept going round and round. One keeps doing this until there is no stick sticking into the flower. That naturally breaks off and one has a dandelion.
The fewer shavings that you accidentally cut off, the better the flower is. It seamed like one side always had some shavings where the knife slipped off before it got to the base.
Once the flower is free, I drill a hole in the base and glue in a skewer to be the stem. I might later color the flowers. I have to be careful. They will straighten out and look more like a cone, if the fibers get wet. I will try spray clear and spray paint to see if I can do it without effecting the shape.

My brother finished up two clocks he was scroll sawing. He had assembled it last week and today he added a finish. One of them is going with his wife to visit her sister.
He just started his Christmas ornaments. He selected his boards, cut them, glued them together and applied the patterns he will follow. They will dry for now and he will start cutting them out over the next few months. He does not always have enough time, so he will start on the ornaments that have the date, as they will be useless after this Christmas, and then do the others as time comes available.

For next week, I have a number of projects. I will look at what it would take to do a glue-up of basswood for a fairy. I will likely make some more flowers. I have no end to the projects I can work on. I just have to pick one or two and do them. During the week, I hope to have time to sand on my crochet hooks. I need to get them to where the wood does not catch on the fibers.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 33, Day One (week 555)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-28-10 Saturday


90 degrees, light breeze, mixed different types of clouds, high and low, High humidity in the morning, which faded out as the day wore on.

The beast of the back yard acted like a cat, and really wanted attention and companionship. I spent a lot of time petting him.

Last week, I had searched for something and was reminded that I had several other pieces of equipment that was just sitting there, unused.
Today, I decided to make use of the new chuck. I dug out some jaws, called COLES JAWS. it is plates with holes in them that allow you to screw in rubber bumpers to grab pieces bigger than a normal jaw can hold, and can even hold out of center pieces if needed. These jaws are mainly for finishing up completed works that need just a little more work such as touching up the bottom of the piece to complete it. It is not intended to be used fast, and is not the most positive grip.
I mounted them in the new chuck and figure they will stay on there from now on, a least for now.
I have a bunch of pencil cups that needed a little something. I put them into the Coles chuck. I cleaned up what I needed to do, such as the bottom and inside. I sanded the outside. That really fixed them up. I can now start the varnishing process.

I also pulled out a COLLET set I got many years ago. My brother did not like them, not thinking they were very accurate for metal working. We figured out that the piece had to be held by the tail stock, but he was done with them.
The way they work is that there is a machined metal piece inside, that has a hole in the center, and slits down the sides. The collet itself screws on. The farther in you screw the collet in, the more it pinches the metal bits together. It holds your piece by the inward pressure.
this is an alternative to a chuck, but the holes are at fixed diameters so you have the change them out if one changes the work piece size.
I mounted a few of my crochet hooks in them and sanded them. It held them better than the other way I was holding them, but a couple of the crochet hooks were between sizes, too small to be pinched by the big collet, but too big for the small one. I got results anyway.

Using the Cole chuck, I dug out several pieces that were below grade. I figured they needed to be refinished, reworked to be worthy of anything. One bowl had a base so it looked like an extremely wide, squat goblet. I had a real bad chatter mark inside. I mounted the base in the chuck and turned the inside. I had forgotten, and had not noticed, that it was not very thick on one side. I broke through a little, but it is still solid. I had to use the sander to remove some marks that were not being reached as the bottom is very slightly off center.
I think I can save the piece. I will get some epoxy and built up the bottom to give it depth and strength, and that should solve the problem. I likely will cheat, but painting the bottom epoxy to same color of the wood, and then give it several coats of varnish. Then no one will know what I did.

I had a goblet made from Christmas Tree Wood. I was cleaning up some slop from when it was made and sanding it. I applied a little too much pressure and the stem broke because the pith runs through it.
I did what I normally do and mounted the base in the chuck and made it into a rose by cutting shaped grooves. I still have to sit down and do some grinding to give the actual petal shape, but I is a good start. the bowl of the goblet will become a tulip or something similar.

I had done all I felt like doing and packed up everything. As I was taking my stuff to the truck, a little liquid sunshine came down, but only lasted a minute. I was all done anyway.


I have lots of projects to do, but will have to see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 33, Day Two (week 555)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-29-10 Sunday

84 degrees, fast moving low pregnant clouds, some liquid sunshine in fast moving dots, some weeping high clouds, nice breeze. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I got to Mom's house early. The back yard beast cried out "feed me!" It sounded to me like Meow. Scar face showed up for a short meal before disappearing.
During the day, The beast had a few bouts of attitude, where he just wanted to lay at my feet and relax and my leaving him alone. Most of the day, he wanted attention. He got plenty.

I got my stuff out, watching the weather. Pregnant clouds came off the ocean real fast, most were small. I kept walking out front and looking down the road to get a good picture of what was to the east.
I made another pencil cup. This one went fast. I was finishing up when I started feeling the first drips. I put the equipment under cover, basically away, and swept the worst of the sawdust. I added varnish to all the pencil cups and will be building up a good coating over the week.

I worked in several sets on my shaving flowers. Over the day, I made a dozen flowers. they went fast and easy. I ended up in the two weekends, making about twenty eight of them. I had painted one set of them with a pink paint. I have to see about getting different colors of paint so I can color all of them. The spray paint does not cause the curled wood to straighten out, the way water based paints do.

I have loads of projects to do, but chose not to do them. I made it a lazy day and still got a lot done. I had forgotten how easy those shaving flowers were to make. I am getting these pencil cups down pat.
I had the opportunity to pick up some more wood, but forgot about it while I was on the road. I might check next week if any of it is left. I really need to learn to use what wood I have already.
I am testing out my wood crochet hooks. They are not perfect, but they do work. I am wondering as to the strength. I read where one woman broke metal hooks.

Next week, I plan to visit the antique shop and Dania Water Gardens. I have a number of projects, but will go by feel, as to what I might work on.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 34, Day One (week 556)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-04-10 Saturday

90 degrees, blue sky with a changing mixture of clouds, some of which blocked the sun for a while. Nice breeze made it comfortable. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

Friday:

I went to the Antique shop. The people I needed to see was not at the Dania Water gardens. While at the antique shop, he showed me where he got a whole bunch of wooden rose buds. These were professionally made, mass produced wrapped shavings. I was impressed.
He has a guy who designs his shop to look good. That guy was there while I was there and he said he was impressed by my work. He also liked my display. That was nice. I left a set of wood platters there. I have a bunch more in process so I don't need those.
I showed, on my camera, a picture of my shaving flowers. He said he was interested in seeing them. they might also be something that the Water Gardens might like. I am making a bunch of them.

Saturday:

I had a pretty good say today.
First off, the back yard beast attacked me. He pinned me down in my chair and forced me to pet him several times during the day. such horrible torture! He was so mean, he almost fell asleep at my feet while I was carving!!!

After I got all the equipment out, I started on another pencil cup. It started out really good, but I accidentally got so deep while flattening the bottom, that I actually started to cut through the tenon in the middle of the bottom. That is deeper than the bottom.
I decided to fix that. I had cut the piece from a longer block, so I mounted the other piece of block, made a tenon that would fit into the mouth of my pencil cup. It took some work but I got it to fit nicely. I have not been lucky like that too often.
I glued that as square as I could, and let it set on the lathe. After It dried, I cleaned up a little wobble on the outside, then cut away the old bottom and trued up the inside. After I did that, I noticed I made a little mistake. I should have lined up the rings of both pieces of wood. Because it was not lined up, I decided to remove as much of the bottom as I could, to hide my mistake.
I put the piece into he cole jaws and put a center on the end and cut down and cleaned up the bottom so it is a thin ring. It looks pretty good now.

I had picked up some paint and varnish. I painted a bunch of my shaving flowers, red, yellow and blue. I will have some of the flowers in natural wood color as a contrast. I could use white, but chose not to.
Today I took a three quarter inch board of basswood and sliced it down the middle, making two boards, then cut both boards into sticks.
I have enough sticks for about a hundred flowers. How many I get, will depend on how long I make the petals. Shorter they are, the more flowers I can get, but the longer petals look better, usually.
The grain in one of the sticks was going the wrong way and it was splitting, instead of shaving. I ended up with a few sick looking flowers.

Tomorrow, I will make more shaving flowers, do a bunch of sanding, bother the cat, I have a turned figurine in oak that needs to be finished.

I will see what all I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 34, Day Two (week 556)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-05-10 Sunday

94 degrees, blue sky, sunny, a few changing wispy puffs of clouds here and there. Some mountains of clouds over the everglades in the late afternoon, but not coming here. A tiny bit humid in the morning, but a light breeze in the afternoon took that away. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The backyard beast acted so much like a cat, I was a little worried about him. He did give me "the look" twice, but otherwise, let me do whatever I wanted to him. He even slept at my feet for a long while, until I finally got up to get back to work.
The Curly tail lizards are getting big and fat. They get a few morsels of cat food each day. When we are out there, we will toss them a piece or two.

I got the equipment out, but did not really need to use the lathe. I then decided to take a piece of Florida Mahogany and make a bowl out of it. I left the surface that was under the long gone bark, as it was, and just hollowed it out and made a good base under it.
Because of the size of the piece, I decided to turn it between centers rather than make a tenon to fit the chuck. It needs sanding, but is passable as an ugly bowl. It had been chainsawed and that left a really bad surface, which is my rim. That is really why it is ugly. I could have leveled it, but wanted something different.
Will see how that finishes up.

My brother came by and repaired a brace of our awning. it had rusted through. He needs to fix all of them. the drain holes had plugged and that was causing the damage. He will do them later. He had a problem with an electrical outlet in the garage or he would have done some scroll sawing.
We went out for dinner to a Chinese buffet. Our normal one appears to be out of business or on vacation. so we went to a different one.

I made a bunch more shaving flowers. I made two out of mahogany. It was not cutting right and I gave up on it. I left the best of the new flowers in wood color, and painted the ones that are not as good. I will be doing that from now on.

I have tomorrow off, so I will be working wood again. I have sanding and varnishing to do, and have a whole lot more of those shaving flowers to make I also need to finish up on the crochet hooks. I had started the process to change their design to something that works a bit better.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 34, Day Three (week 556)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-06-10 Monday

85 degrees, blue sky with high feathers and streaks, filtering the sun. Afternoon puff columns built up over the Everglades, their tops spreading to cover the sun in the afternoon. Light breeze just strong enough to make it comfortable, but not strong enough to really notice it. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

After the beast of the back yard decided he had guarded me enough, I was able to get out of the chair and get to work.

I had started a dress vase in oak, at least a month ago. I mounted it in the lathe and tried to drill it out some more. Oak is a hard wood when it is dried. I think I drilled it, at most, two inches deeper. I still have at least four inches to go.
One thing I have to be careful of, is that when I am changing Forsner bits, They get very hot. I have more work to do before I can really take it off the lathe for good.
My lathe stand is designed that the wheels can be tipped out of the way so the lathe will stand on wood blocks. I did this today because the lathe was rolling when I pushed against the boring bar. When done, I just rotated and locked the wheels back in place and rolled the lathe into the space under the awning. I don't do that too often. I tend to be a bit lazy.

I sanded a little bit on my crochet hooks. They will require a lot more sanding before they will be ready to test.

I made more shaving flowers. A couple looked rather sick, so they got painted, while the really good ones got a coat of varnish and called done. I have a blister on my index finger where the knife rubs on it. It will be gone when I work next week.

I remembered that the antique shop was open today. I cleaned up, packed up everything, and headed down there. I brought the flowers in and he loved them. It was then that I saw how good they really looked. I also gave him my pencil cups that I made. He is starting with five bucks piece for the flowers, and ten bucks piece for the cups. Good prices. He said he can lower the flower prices if they don't sell. I used to sell these shaving flowers for a dollar a piece so anything he sells them for is good.
I showed him that unfinished ugly bowl I made. He said,”What is so ugly about it?” I guess it looks better than I thought.

For next week, I will be making more flowers. I now have a good reason to make more. They are easy to make, look good and might be worth having for a market.
I will likely work more on the dress vase. Holding and pushing the boring bar is hard on the hands. I have no idea how much I will get done on it.
I will likely make some pencil cups as I need a couple and dropped them off at the antique shop.
One thing I planned to do this weekend and never did, was to unload the lathe completely, clean it up and replace the sheet plastic dust skirt I have around it. plastic sheeting degrades outside, even when it is not in direct sunlight. Sawdust is getting onto the shelving and into everything on the shelves.
I have some platters I had started for the turning club demonstration, and should finish them up.
I still have not started my Christmas ornaments and now is getting too late. I at least looked at some swan blanks from last year, but that was all.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 35, Day One (week 557)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-11-10 Saturday

98 degrees, sunny with showers in the area. While in Palm beach county, we drove through some weather that was heading to the botanical gardens when we left there. The weather at Mom's house was sunny, very slight wind, humid. This weather report is brought to you by the Palm Beach County, and the City Of Pompano, Departments of tourism.

This past week was my dad's birthday. We went up to visit his grave at the military cemetery. There are times where I am embarrassed to admit I was his son, as I am afraid that people would expect more of me.

The Palm Wood turning club had a display and demonstration at the MOUNTS BOTANICAL GARDENS Orchids Show and Sale. Since we were near that far north, we went to the botanical gardens and look at the orchids. While there, we had a look at the turning club stuff. I got some fun ideas for projects, not that I need more I did not take many pictures this time. I mainly just looked.

When we got back, we had lunch and then I got my stuff out back to work.

I am angry. someone replaced the beast of the back yard, WITH A CAT!!!.
At least that is how he was acting. He came up to me and laid down at my feet and let me pet him all over. He would lay over on his side to let me rub under his chin and side of his head. He would lay there for a long time. I think he only got up when I ignored him, not giving him enough attention. He came back for more many times. Next month will be the start of my fourth year of taming him in October. I started taming him October 11th, 2007. We have done well.

My main project was making shaving flowers. I have a use for a couple hundred of them. I mainly sat and shaved flowers one after another. I made about thirteen flower and then, added the stems which are bamboo skewers, then painted some of them. I picked out the very best, and gave them a clear varnish coat. I then separated out the rest and painted them either red, blue or yellow. Some of the flowers actually look a little sick for one reason or another. The color makes them look better than they really are.

I had started some duckling bowls a while back. I decided to glue the heads on them, even though the bowls need sanding and other work. I will have to make some more heads a bit later.
I decided I will finish them up tomorrow. It will be easy sitting work using the dremmel.

I also dug out some swan ornament blanks from last year. I glued a broken head back on, and will finish them up soon. It requires some dremmel work to remove waste wood where the knife has problems reaching, before I get to serious carving on them to finish them. I can get them finished on a day or so, once I get to them.

I need pencil cups. I can use three of them at home. I found out my mom can use several. I know I will need some more for a few other people. I have a turning club meeting this next week, so I might as well make them for display for that too (good for displaying the flowers too).

Tomorrow will be busy and if I put my mind to it, I can get a lot done.

Tomorrow, I will see what I actually get done.

year 10, Week 35, Day Two (week 557)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-12-10 Sunday

95 degrees, blue sky, very little breeze until the afternoon, Some distant towers to the east in the afternoon, closer ones to the south, good afternoon breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The beast of the back yard was pretty good. He was a little more like himself, gnashing at me a couple times because I was not doing what he wanted, or doing something he did not want. Nice that he was back to his old self and not totally like a cat, today.

My main project was to make some pencil cups. I worked with the first one. It had some nice knots on the outside, which, of course, made making the inside difficult. The knots resisted the tools as I hollowed it out.
I made the first one, but did not remove the tenon on the bottom yet. I then made the second one. I finished the second one, and fixed the bottom of the first, and decided I had to go inside. I was standing out in the sun, except for a half hour period where I sat with the cat while making shaving flowers, for about three hours. Dinner was about ready too so it was a good time to cool down and dry off.

A while back, I started making some duckling bowls. this morning, I glued the heads on, and then later I added more glue and I also did some sanding. I have more work to do with them but I want to try to get them ready for the Thursday turning club meeting. I at least hope to get them ready for that.

I sat and made a few flowers. I wanted to mix my turning with my carving and ended up only making four flowers. I ran out of time to do more. I ended up making 28 of them this weekend.

I have a turning club meeting Thursday. I have my flowers, my pencil cups, and my ducklings I would like to display. Whether I can get it done, is something else. I hope to sand and varnish enough to make them presentable.

Next weekend, I have to get some things done for my vacation the following week.

I will see what I actually do next week.

year 10, Week 36, Day One (week 558)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-18-10 Saturday

90 degrees, a breeze good enough to not need the fan, well separated puffs of clouds that never seamed to block the sun. Perfect working conditions. Only one cloud that looked,, like it might contain weather, but it was down wind of us and seamed to just disappear. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

THURSDAY:

I had sanded and varnished my ducklings. I also painted eyes on them. that made a big difference in how they looked.
The turning club meeting day came up. I grabbed my ducklings from the drying rack and found I made a little mistake. I varnished them all over and set them on the rack. The varnish stuck to the bars of the rack, and left resulting lines. When I went to Mom's house for dinner and to get some stuff, I hit the "feet" with a disk sander, signed the ducklings, and then hit the feet with several coats of varnish. They were presentable now.

The turning club meeting was very good. My stuff was not up to the quality of the worst stuff there. while in the club meeting, I saw that the knot pattern on one of my pencil cups was interesting when viewed upside down. It had either two big eyes and two small nostrils, or two big ears and to small eyes. I decided that cup needed to be turned upside down.
The demonstration was of making spider boxes, where grooves are cut into the lid of a box, off centered on top and centered on the inside, that makes it look like a spider web. it was shown before but there was new techniques and tools involved.

SATURDAY:

After breakfast and yard sailing, I went out back and dealt with the beast of the back yard. He had reverted a little bit, and actually half heartedly swatted at me when I was doing something he did not like. Nice to see the beast back, and not that dumb cat.....

I did bouts of making shaving flowers, a total of 18, and I made a new pencil cup.
I turned that interesting pencil cup around, and was getting set up to finish off the new bottom. it was not quite centered I adjusted it and kept hearing some creaking. then one more adjustment, turned the lathe on and it came apart in four pieces. Darn.
I will glue it back together. It is too cool looking to not fix it.

I did not get as much done as yard sailing went late and had a number of interruptions.

I hope to get more done tomorrow. I have four sticks for shaving flowers left, so I will finish them up. I can get either four or five flowers from each one, depending on how the process works out.
I want to make at least one more pencil cup tomorrow. One project is to get my things together for my vacation that starts next weekend. I will bring my carving stuff, even though I doubt I will do any carving. I need to pick out what knife, glove, strop and sharpener I want to bring.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.

year 10, Week 36, Day two (week 558)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-19-10 Sunday.

90 degrees, little breeze when I arrived, but it picked up a bit later and kept things feeling cool. There were puffs of clouds everywhere, but just a few had the audacity to block the sun.
We have had a rather strange summer. What I remember most about summers here, is that we will get an afternoon rain, and then the humidity would get so thick you could almost touch it. The temperatures would be lower, but the humidity would be oppressive. this is the kind of weather I have been preparing myself for all year.
This year, We have been getting temperatures into the 90s, very little noon time rains to make things really thick. when the rains have come, the winds blew the humidity away. the air has remained comparatively dry all year long.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I mis-read the clock this morning, really bad. I ended up leaving a whole hour earlier than I planned. I made up for it by stopping at Walmart, but the pharmacy was closed. I stopped at two permanent yard sales at warehouses. One had completely changed their space around. She apparently opened a store front some place. I did not find anything I wanted at either place and was at each of them for a few minutes.

I feed the beast of the back yard. He started out as the beast I almost remembered, and then became a cat as the day went on, falling asleep at my feet for quite a long time.

I got all my equipment out. My drill set, my dremmel set, my carving set.
I took the cup I broke yesterday and glued it back together. I used tape to clamp it together. It needs clean up but is presentable. That will be my personal pencil cup. One problem with this cup was that it was too thin. When I clamped the jaws of the chuck on it, it was not strong enough to hold under the pressure.

I made another pencil cup today. It is simple and came out of the wood quickly.

Having some extra time, I dug out two pieces I made a while back. Both were supposed to be hats for face vases, but they looked really stupid as hats. I remounted each one, and finished them into bowls, giving them a good finish. One of them has cracks in it, so I worked filler into the cracks and did some light sanding.
My new chuck with my cole jaws on it, really made the project nice. I could hold the bowls nicely in the old tenon with my normal chuck, getting everything I could reach with the work facing that way. I then turned the bowls around, and mounted them in the Cole chuck and held them safely and easy to finish up the bowls.
I showed my bowls to my brother and he said he likes the designs. They are different.

While letting the cat sleep at my feet, I made, in several sessions, 17 shaving flowers. Most were painted, only two remained in wood color. Those two were among the best I have made. Looking at the flowers I made yesterday and last week, together, there needed more color flower in the bouquet.

The day went well and I accomplished a lot.

I have some finishing on some items during the week.
I will not be doing any wood working the next two weekends. I am going on vacation to visit a couple on line friends.

If I post a woodworking diary, I will be very much surprised. I am bringing my carving knife but don't plan to use it. Just bringing it just in case.

I will see what happens over the next weeks.

year 10, Week 39, Day One (week 561)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-09-10 Saturday

85 degrees, blue sky, some puffs on the horizon over the Everglades. Light breeze that got a little stronger as the day went on. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

The past two weekends, I was up in Connecticut. I did no wood working at all. I did see some wonderful things, though. We went to their Renaissance-Festival and had fun. I drooled over all sorts of crafts items.
We went to a Salvation Army store that had a whole shelf of household and kitchen items made of wood. There was a wooden nut dish that had like ten leaves as the nut dishes themselves, chiseled out, and connected only by vines. It was all one piece. there was a matching bowl too.
Later in the week, we went to their regional fair at the Big E fair grounds. They had some craft people working, pottery, black smith, a woodworker with his display set up. Lots of crafts worth drooling over. It was fun.

I crocheted quite a bit during the time off. I learned how to do the granny square and the pieces I did came out pretty good. It really helped at the air ports and on the plane. I was too pre-occupied to get bored. It was a lot more enjoyable than reading or playing video games.
Yesterday and today, I started my very first three dimensional piece. it is simply a ball. It worked. I still have to fill it, but that will come a bit later. No rush. I have several ideas of how to use this ball. I could make it into an acorn, a Christmas ball with a ribbon on top, something like a pie. There are others I have considered. Will see what it becomes when I finish it up.
One thought for this crochet is to make wooden dolls and then make clothing for them. Carving the hands, feet and head would be all that was necessary, make the rest out of cloth.

Saturday:

After some yard sailing, I got my equipment out and decided to try an idea for a Christmas ornament. At the antique shop I have my stuff in, they have some what I call POST CATS. They are made from four inch stock, stand between two, and three and a half feet tall. I decided to try to copy them in two inch by two inch wood.
carved one, and Mom was not quite satisfied with it, so I made a second one. This is out of some really old weathered wood.
I first carved them with the knife, then used the dremmel to fix them up even better. Because of the weathering, I painted them orange to see what they looked like with out the darkness of the weathering. They are not horrible.
Something said they were not right. It dawned on me later that they were not what I was trying to copy. The post cats are mostly rounded with very little shaping to them. Mine are heavily shaped.
I will try them again, this time use the lathe to rough them out and see how that works.

I made another pencil cup. It was quick and easy. I have to make a bunch more of them. I likely will stop when I run out of wood.

My truck has had a problem starting. I have had to work the key a bunch of times to get it to decide to start. Today, it decided not to start at all. We ended up getting a new battery and it started first time. I will know tomorrow if that was the problem. If it starts perfectly first time, then I had a dying battery for several months now.


Tomorrow I plan to try another post cat, I will make another pencil cup. I do want to make more shaving flowers so I need to cut some more sticks for that. Once cut, I can fit in making them at any time. I have some swan blanks from last year that I need to finish carving. I have some half finished turning projects to do. I also want to make some baby duckling bowls.
If I worked every day for several weeks, I could make headway on all the projects planned.


I will see what actually happens tomorrow.

year 10, Week 39, Day two (week 561)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-10-10 Sunday

78 degrees in the morning, 86 degrees as a high. Mostly blue skies, some puffs here and there, but sunny all day long. There was little breeze early morning but it picked up in the afternoon enough to move some sawdust around. Almost no humidity. It was quite comfortable all day long. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

My first project was to cut a three quarter inch piece of basswood into two sheets, then cut a bunch of sticks for shaving flowers.
I then made seven flowers. While drilling the hole in the base of one, it slipped in my hand and the dremmel spun it fast. The petals went flying and what was left was useless. I tossed it. I painted the remaining six in red and blue. they look good.

I then started on a cat ornament. I turned it on the lathe first, to get the basic design. I then carved it with the knife, then with the dremmel with several bits. They are not exactly what I imagined, but they came out pretty good. I won't complain too hard. I need to get out the pictures I took of what I was basing it on to see how they were done. I know most of it is paint, but beyond that, I know I am wrong. I have too much carving in these.

I made another pencil cup. Quick and easy. I remember I fought hard with the very first one I made. I guess I am developing a system on making them. I know what tools do what and know how to get them to do the job fast.

Scarface was out there when I went out to feed the beast of the backyard. Scarface must be fed by someone else as he is not scrawny and his pelt is nice and soft now. I petted him while he ate. when he had enough, he left. The beast of the back yard acted like a cat, except for that period where he just wanted company and did not want to be touched, and I did not have a clue until about the fifth time... Later he laid down and wanted more attention than I had time to give him.

During the week, I have some sanding and varnishing to do. I have a number of projects to work on next wee, but it will much depend on what has the biggest excitement factor.

Will see what I do next weekend.