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Recent Posts
Week 2 of Garden Expansion
Tomorrow will either be week 2 or week 3 I’ve …Read More »
Progress On The Garden Expansion
The landscape fabric came on Friday! Bill had already chopped, …Read More »
Growing Corn in the Basement
My mom used to say, “Your ears are so dirty …Read More »
Drip Irrigation Startup
One of the first things that needs to be done …Read More »An Almost Battery Tragedy
Why do bad things happen to good people? Have you …Read More »
Author Archives: Bill
Island Legs
One of the things about little local craft shows is that you might not sell much. You might spend a lot of money on a booth. You sit there all day peopling. You have to pack and unpack and sometimes drive down many a long and winding road. And it all seems like you do it for nothing. I won’t try to tell you that you will always make back what you spent on the booth, drive, and all the food you ate at the venue. It takes some tweaking to find your market and what types of events work best for you. That being said even though you don’t sell at the event you need to get busy handing out your cards, talking to people, make sure that you have interesting things for them to look at and talk to you about. Continue reading
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A Couple of Acrylic Bolt Action Pens
As I mentioned in this article, Sam likes the acrylic pen blanks. He’s wanted to turn these for a while, so we did a little reorganizing in the shop, and made our turning area a little bigger.
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Size Matters
When we were first planning out the new shop a major consideration was size. The idea of a shop started in a rental townhouse which had a barely functional one car garage. It was big enough to hold the small pool table that I and my two brothers-in-law were rebuilding. That table was not salvageable but it built a relationship between us that has stood the test of time.
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Spheres
One thing I’ve wanted to try turning for a long time is a sphere. I love the simple elegance of them. It seems to me that if you are turning things round on a lathe, the ultimate round is a sphere. Sounded like a good project to try in the Small Shop.
My first sphere is the cherry sphere above. I did not photograph the creation of this one, as it was a learning experience. But all in all, it was very successful. I learned a lot and was very pleased with the results.
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Cherry Rolling Pin
I like turning rolling pins. Maybe it’s because of the unique challenges they present, like making a perfectly uniform cylinder. Maybe it’s because Marisa makes many fabulous baked creations with them, like pizzas, pies, and potica.
I made this one because we didn’t have one in Michigan. This became the first project I made in the Small Shop.
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Small Shop
So you’ve seen the big shop. After taking a job in Lansing, MI, I rented a townhouse. It didn’t have much room for a shop, so I made due.
The mechanical/laundry room in the basement is 21 feet by 8 1/2 feet. This room houses the furnace, water heater, washer and dryer, and a deep sink. The ceiling may be 8 feet, but the pipes and ducting hang down to 6 feet 10 inches. There won’t be any breaking down of any sheet goods in here. And my 52″ SawStop will NOT be going in here.
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We’re Back
Rather than ignore the elephant in the room lets just clear the air, three years between posts is too long. I’ll briefly explain the why and then update you on what is going on in the now.
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Finishing the Bowl
Part one of this series showed me cutting some large oak crotches to eventually be used for bowl blanks.
Part two showed the roughing out of the first bowl from these flitches.
In this part, I finally finish the bowl.
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Roughing a Bowl
In part one of this series, I used the Wood-Mizer to cut an oak crotch log down to two flitches measuring 3 1/2″ and 4 1/2″ thick. Now it was time to start turning.
I took the 3 1/2″ flitch and laid out a 12 inch circle. The main trunk had split down about 6 inches, so I had to move the layout circle down that far. The crotch section has some very beautiful grain swirls; when I cut the other piece, I am going to be sure to get as much of the grain as possible. I will have to make a smaller bowl, but it will be worth it, I am sure.
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Cleaning Cast Iron Surfaces
It seems like in the winter, no matter how often I clean and lubricate my cast iron tables on the various tools, I still manage to get some rust spots. Maybe it’s condensation. Maybe I left a piece of damp wood on it. Who knows? I do know that those spots can be hard to get rid of.
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