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Category Archives: Wood Turning
Corn Cob Pens
Yes, corn cob pens! I’ve made a dozen or so of these over the years, they are very popular around here. We recently brought a bunch of pens in to Legacy Outfitters, a store in Logansport that sells items made by local artists and craftsmen, and several of them sold. One of these was a corn cob pen. The customer who bought it asked if I could make three more. So here they are being made.
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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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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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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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14 Inch Cherry Pepper Mill
I’ve wanted to turn a pepper mill for some time. I also wanted to make a large one, like the kind you see in fancy restaurants where the waiter comes to your table and grinds the pepper on your plate for you.
With our middle son in college, we are trying hard to not spend a lot of money. Marisa’s birthday was approaching, so I decided I’d turn her a pepper mill.
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Acrylics
It seems that every time we go into the Rockler store, Sam is drawn to the acrylic pen blanks. So every now and then, I let him get one, along with a pen kit to go with it. I had never turned acrylic, but the pens made with them look absolutely beautiful. Well, this went on for over a year before I finally worked up the courage to try turning one.
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