Wed. noon and now I starting to smooth the wood with a small diamond bit in the Dremel. This replaces sand paper which I am allergic to......

I thought your first two attempts were just fine. But, this one is much nicer. 

This is the second attempt and then I spent all yesterday after noon smoothing the wood and straightening the lines with the little diamond bit. Its not much bigger than a match head so a very lightly touch is what it takes or else it will make more gouges that have to be taken out..Using sand paper in these tight places don't work.

  So now I'm ready to start on fashioning the lids and figure out how they will be connected to the pole and swivel and stay straight or do the carving of the two containers?? I think the one container has course salt but never seen any one having rock salt at the kitchen table, maybe for making ice cream  but we always  took that to the porch or out side under a tree. Besides it took more salt than what would fit in that container...If I can find a salt and pepper shake small enough to fit this might be the way to go and then also thinking about a tooth pick holder for the third container on the pole...

  I think this project is to see if my mind can stay with me to complete something I've never been around and come up with good solutions?? Besides that, it will keep me from playing in the streets.

 I'm still carving with just two lids to go before I start with making it all work like it should?

Okay I drew up something for the lid and scroll sawed the first one out...Since this is all one piece sometimes things like this don't come apart even after one saws it completely in two. It depends on the sawer and if they kept the blade straight up and down and didn't push the blade sideways try to make the blade stay on the line...This is where one needs to slow down and keep the blade under control. I use a # 5 flying dutchman blade which is way thinner than some but here I want no gap between the pieces of wood. I will use the outside of this lid and will start by reducing the height of the outside piece more than 50% then taper it down to nothing around the edge. I want it to end up looking like I done all this during the carving process...hopefully. I still have one more lid to repeat this process and maybe it will come apart like this one did...And this is what I'm fixin to do next before I start carving either lid....

' Got both lids scrolled and starting to carving flowers??? I reduced the amount of wood around the flowers then tapered what is left  to almost nothing but the backer board.???

  Using some 1/4" graph paper I drew up something now will try to turn it in to a flower!! Yep 1/2" screws up through the backer board turned out to be too long. 
This is why I use a string of holes on most of my carving stuff.. Too lazy to fill and sand so I just use the holes...

Looks good.  

Starting to be the little things that does take a while to kinda get in the sizing range.

@Smallpatch That looks great and the idea to cut the flower out really pops. Now a question. I did not see a hole in flower or surround to get the blade started, is it so small I am just missing it or did you saw thru the side?

I never know where the holes go. I usually use a bit number 56 from a set of number 1 to 60 in the yellow box, 1/16" to 1/2"on the left then 60 to 80 in the small box on the right. The smallest bit I have is a # 80  which is next to the yellow box and the one I used is two from the smallest laying on the table which is size .056 and on the right side of it is a 1/16" then a double ended 1/8" which is the most common bit the body shops uses... makes holes to screw the slide hammer puller screw in to fenders and things the body men uses a bunch.

  The little box on the right is 20 bits from a # 60 to the smallest which is a # 80 and its laying next to the yellow box..The bits in the black box is for pin vises only. I do have a drill press which will handle down to 0 but any one of those bits will break real quick. 

 

Starting to glue things on to the pole. I put 4 dowels holding the cup to the pole and let me say that was a chore to end up with a cup level both directions for the lid will have to be almost exactly glued in to look right and not sloppy work. Also starting to think about what is in the picture and how will I go about making those things???

 

   I also have to make myself not click away from what I typed here yesterday then before I posted it it was luck time so I clicked off, ate then came back to type more before I posted it and hey, it was gone, pissed at myself then went and cleaned out the pond for the water falls and forgot about Patriot Woodworker.

This is going to be one beautiful and ornate piece.  

I am getting anxious to see the final result.

Those lids are really super there Jess.  Looking for more pics!

I doubt if any one ever uses these steps in getting something like a lid in good alignment with the cup it will swing over later. The 2 dowels are glued in to the lid and the pole with a piece of balsa wood 1/16" thick inserted between the lid and the cup hopefully to have that much gap between the lid and the bowl after all is said and done. Next the dowels will be covered with some maple wood I sliced in to so I could grind gruves that will match the 2 dowels  in to both pieces of  maple to match the angles of the dowels and I will glue both pieces of maple on each side of the dowels hopefully to make this more rigid later and will look more like the piece holding the cup to the pole.

 The first thing I did when starting to glue things to the pole was to glue the pole to the base first and try to make it as straight up and down as possible. This way I can use my levels all the way up the pole. 
The metal rod was inserted in the hole all the way up to be used as a swivel for the lids only as the cups will be stationary.

 Tomorrow hopefully I can pull the 1/16" piece of balsa wood out from between the lid and the cup and it will still have the 1/16" gap for the rest of its life!!!!!!

I'm moving along better and staying in the shop more hours.

This is the gap I'm leaving between lid and bowl.

 This is how I end up with the gap I'm after.

  Most all is epoxy and it is very hard to get the exact portions but all will set over night as long as I don't start touching anything to see if the epoxy is set up... All my mixing is in the bottom of a coke can and I use the can to check and see when I can proceed to the next steps. This way I don't start grabbing things before the epoxy is set up good. I call it the coke can check. This next picture you can see the lids are swung around a little to give access to the cups..

And now I'm just playing with the top to see what might turn me on for I can't tell by the picture.

  Cutting pieces to more or less clamp around the two slooping dowels is a chore but I figure they need to be as strong as I can get them .

 When finished only the two lids will be moveable hopefully.....and nothing is a go for a top thingy !!!!!!yet

That's really starting to look good!

After making a 500 plus miles today I did get so time in the shop and am only working on the top of this flag pole. The picture shows a regular heart shaped thingy and not real happy with that so I'm gonna try a 4 way heart if there is such a thing?

Beautiful work!!  Really coming along nicely.  

10 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

The picture shows a regular heart shaped thingy and not real happy with that so I'm gonna try a 4 way heart if there is such a thing?

 

Coming along great Jess.  With all of those chips in the top, I thought maybe you were going for a pineapple, or maybe a pine cone look