All Activity

Didn't quite make it to 80° today. 76 at 7:30pm and temps dropping. Rain expected with the incoming cool front tomorrow morning hours up to noon. High in the 60s tomorrow. 4D

The old Dogwood tree, outside my window, should be in full bloom tomorrow. Hard to believe when I transplanted it, from my parents mountain property, it was a single, spindly stick. That was 56 years ago! Our Patriot Turners- @RustyFN showed us a beautiful new turned lidded box he made. He said this one is made from Maple. He certainly has perfected the flocking technique, too! Our turners gave him lots of compliments in his post- @Gerald has been creating amazing designs with his JaHo jig. His most recent refrigerator magnet is a beauty! Check out this addition to his post- More activity on our two continuing posts of "What's On/Off the Lathe" From ON: @Gerald provide a closeup look at his JaHo jig in action- You can see how this jig can create some fantastic designs. Check out Gerald's post for additional images. From OFF: @kreisdorph turned a gnarly piece of mulberry into a beautiful bowl- Kent also finished these beauties. This spalted piece caught my eye because of the shape. Years ago, an artist friend sent me a picture from a magazine. He fell in love with the shape. I think it was a hint for me to turn one. Alas, I have not done it. New projects start here- @lew was looking for some input on design and proportions for turnings. He used miniature hollow turnings to get an idea of what had pleasing shapes and asked our turners their opinions. As always, our members provided some excellent advice and suggestions. What’s Coming Up- Click on the images for links to more information and registration- This is a replay of the most resent Tool Talk from Cindy Drozda For The Newbies- Thinking of design and proportions, Lyly Jamieson's turning tip discusses the design for bowls, Pen turning is a great way to get into turning. Kits can be inexpensive and provide amazing results. Tim Yoder shows us how it's done!! Now for a little more of a challenge, Jim Rodgers turns a segmented pen- Expand Your Horizons- Last week we posted a shop tour hosted by Mike Peace. The craftspeople were making Beads Of Courage boxes. Mike takes a segmented glue up and turns his own version of a Beads of Courage box- Sometimes the most beautiful turning is not the most perfect piece. Alan Stratton explains- https://youtu.be/hx1qGGVvU-g?si=mSuL1RJNLd0YDMOu EDIT: Cannot get this video to show in published post. Link seems to work. A short video from Richard Raffan demonstrating how he utilizes as much of a turning blank as possible. Check out the unique parting tool! New Turning Items- Been really difficult to find anything new on the market. Maybe by the time the income tax return is ready there will be some new toys to spend it on. Everything Else- An excerpt from Ron Brown's newsletter on advice for the new turner My advice for a new turner or a student would include the following: Find a turning club in your area and attend some meetings. These people are a tremendous resource and are always eager to help. Start with pens. Start by watching some YouTube videos for instructions. Get setup for basic pen turning, a 7mm mandrel, some slimline pen kits, proper sanding grits, CA glue, friction finish, etc. Pens are quick to make, easy to turn, and provide an immediate sense of accomplishment. If someone wanted to sell a few pens to pay for more turning stuff, many folks earn turning money this way. Then make some spinning tops for fun and give them away. Turn a few bottle stoppers and give them as gifts to friends and relatives. As soon as you can afford it, buy an inexpensive 4 jaw scroll chuck. Add more jaws down the road or buy a chuck with a few jaws included. Quality chucks with multiple jaw sets can be very expensive. Save that for later. For now, just get a serviceable chuck for around $100. Turn small plates from a 3/4" thick piece of wood using a recessed tenon in expansion mode for practice. A family member might even wish to add decorations or paint your masterpiece. Now that you have a scroll chuck, practice making turned lidded boxes, goblets, and soup ladles for the kitchen. Try turning a few small bowls from green wood. Turn the walls to 1/4" and watch them go oval. Turn a few 1/2" thick to let them dry in a paper bag for a few months, then re-turn them to 1/4" wall thickness once they’ve dried if they didn’t crack or explode. Once you've done all that, evaluate your interest in turning and if you love it, like most of us do, prepare to spend some money (easily $500) on High-Speed Steel lathe tools, a specialty grinder, and a sharpening jig. Next, set about learning to cut with traditional turning tools and learn to keep them sharp. Note: You only need a few HSS tools. In the beginning, don't buy more than 10 total, and never buy turning tools in a set. Always purchase the tool you need for the job at hand. After that, plan to take some full-day turning classes and plan to attend some turning symposiums in your area. From there, the sky is the limit. Turning can be as much or as little as you want. You can learn to make shavings in a couple of hours. It takes a lifetime to become a “Turner”. Did play a little at the lathe this week. The largest usable piece of that wind shake cherry was dry so I put it on the lathe. The more I turned, the more defects were uncovered. Filled the cracks with CA and sanding dust. The colors are nice but I don't like the tiny splits throughout the piece. Sanded to 600 and beeswax/mineral oil finish. Safe turning

The only one I see online is white and I need walnut and cherry I've sent an inquiry to Elmer's to see what is up with it.

They used to, but I could not see that they do any more. Maybe went away when they added Walmart+

They sure are nice looking!

+1 for what @Gerald said. Walmart ships free to the closest store and you pick it.

My ex had students with the names Abeesee named for ABC and Oranjallow named for Orange Jell-O. I have no idea how these were/are really spelled but you get the idea. A student in another class had the name Nosmo King, named for the No Smoking sign in the wing of the hospital.

Ace Hardware says they stock it.

Great looking batch of boxes.

matching sawdust and some glue work well. almost free too, never goes bad (make it up as you need it). if it cannot be seen, then Bondo sands wonderfully.

Dosen't WM ship to local store free?

I just had some PT with a nice person whose name was Abaigael. Today I got a friend suggestion for a Wuanitta. I am going to stop fretting about people who spell my name Kieth. I know these people have had their name misspelled their whole life. And parents, look it up before you name your child. The wife of a co-worker was a teacher at inner-city schools. She once had a student named Female (Fe-malley) because the mother saw her in the hospital and her cradle had a tag, "Female <last name>". Another student was named Meconium, because the mother heard in labor and delivery and liked the name. Meconium is the medical term for feces in the amniotic fluid, i.e., fetus poop. Those mothers had bred.

about 25 years ago, I got using Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler in about 3.5 oz tubes. I like it really well, despite not coming out of the tubes very easily. I'm finally at the point where I need to restock. I am having trouble finding them. Prices range from about $2 (plus shipping) to about $16 for the same thing (sometimes even at the same place for different colors !?). Walmart carries them, but the nearest inventory is 55 miles away. Before I opt in for shipping or Walmart+, does anyone have a good product that takes stain reasonably well, sands easily, dries quickly (i.e., apply and sand).?

Got some salvaged wood a few weeks ago and made a few more boxes for the woodworking club's project for Children's Hospital patients. Sizes adjusted relative to dimensions of the wood I got from the coordinator. Experimented with a batch doing box joints. Way too much sanding and with boxes this size was hard to check for square after all the clamps were on. Good experiment, but I think I'm going back to miters. Box joints have worked OK for one-off projects. I have made them on a router table with an incra jig, table saw with a dado blade (this one), and flush cut router bit with shop-made jigs. I think I prefer the latter.

That would explain why they're getting harder to find in the bush!

Finished gluing up 2 halves of the new table top. Took them both out to my planer to see how it would do with hard maple. It did the hard work of levelling off the glued up halves, but also wanted to chip out and snipe, so I quite with still 1/32" or so of thickness left. Put 100 grit roll of sandpaper on my drum sander and slowly worked on both sides of both halves. One half ended up perfect at 7/8" thick. The other is also 7/8" thick but with a tiny bit of snipe still evident on one side and a low strip on one side/corner that never got touched. I have a little width and length I can trim off, and might be able to hide the step where the raised ledge gets put on the slanted side. Still with a little grief thanks to maple, but in far better shape than my first try at a top. There is some hope for a Maple TV Tray Table but it'll have a few war wounds when done. 4D

May have been a wee bit too much, yesterday..besides working on that drawer.. This was one of 3 loads hauled upstairs... And this one...because.. Things were getting ankle deep. and a LOT of scraps were building up.. These were covered up...need to be placed back inside the Saw til... Loaded this up 4 times...even stood "Fire Watch" With a cold Guinness in hand... Lot of the scraps were unused for a couple years... Starting to look a little better... so, today the legs are telling me to take the day off...even though I have about 1/3 of a can to burn, yet....with 25mph winds today? Windier than a Senator seeking re-election out there... Paying the bills, today, anyway...legs are too sore to go Rust Hunting... Stay tuned, Spring Cleaning comes to the Dungeon Woodshop

You just never now what kind of wonderful things you'll find on Facebook......complete with satellite dish!

Happy birthday Cal,

Sunny 🌞 and 91°, today. Almost time to haul the fans and swamp cooler into the shop. Likely wait till it hits 100°..

Have a good one, Cal.

Wishing you all the best, Cal!

Moving right along with the barn Intarsia. Up to 132 pieces. Total for the project up to this point-168 pieces from 9 woods. Fun stuff!!