Well its a lovely Saturday afternoon here. Its sunny and warm-tomorrow its going to cool down and we may get snow so we need to get outside to the wood shop for some turning and carving while we can.
Ok first turning: I have a good friend who will be retiring next year and Im going to make her a small salad bowl that will be just a right size for her and her husband (hes retiring too, on the same day). Ive acquired a block of maple and I have some left over Goncalo Alves wood from another project and Ive laminated them together to make a turning blank. By laminating the two pieces together Ill be able to make a bowl that uses the entire block of maple for the volume and leave the foot to the Goncalo Alves wood. Heres a photo:
This second photo shows the bowls rim. Ive been interested in reproducing some pie crust and ribbon platters. These platters were popular here in 18th century America. I dont currently have the tools or the skill to reproduce one by carving it so I decided to add a ribbon rim to the turned bowl and this is what it looks like at present:
Maple is a great turning wood. It holds fine details very well and it cuts very smoothly and cleanly. Its my favorite turning wood and this particular piece of wood holds this detailed rim very well. More on this project as I turn it.I also finished my election night spoon out of red birch:
Actually this came out really well. Its a big, long spoon and Im going to keep it on my mantel here at home.Ive also made some long promised tasting spoons for a friend of mine out of cherry, black walnut, and Goncalo Alves wood:
Ive never heard of a tasting spoon before but apparently they are a spoon with a small bowl and a long handle. I dont know why anyone would design a spoon like that.And Im working on a round ribbon platter out of white oak at the moment and Ill show you photos of this in a day or two.
More later,
VW
Lid for the tea box and a couple of trays
Well the weather has certainly improved over yesterday and its warmer. And I remembered I do have a piece of red colored wood so we can move forward and make a lid for the tea box. Lets go down to the wood shop and take a look:
I had a large piece of tiger wood in stock that had gotten shoved underneath a pile of hickory and so I pulled it out and cut off a portion large enough to cut a lid out of . I also had a smaller piece of Brazilian cherry suitable for a knob so Ive marked them for cutting:
Ive cut the lid into a circle and cut a small block for the know and left that square. The knob serves two purposes: it provides an attachment point for the lid while its being turned and it also provides a handle to pick up the lid. Since the whole lid-knob thing will be subjected to a lot of physical stress while turning, this whole thing has to be securely put together. So Ive drilled holes in the knob and the lid and inserted a wood screw inside and then screwed and glued them together with superglue and clamped the whole thing together for an hour:
Well come back to this shortly for turning. While the glue hardens I decided to finish a couple of trays out of black ash and hickory and here they are:This is hickory:
This is black ash:
These will make really nice trays.Ok, Im going to finish a cup of coffee and go back to the wood shop and take a look at the tea box lid.
See you in my posting.
VW
White Oak Home Office
The custom-built, 7-foot long, mission style white oak table is a great desk for one person but capable of accommodating an office assistant also.
Rocking Chair Repair
Heres another old furniture repair post, and also a lesson on the importance of grain direction.
This old rocker had a broken runner:
A closer look revealed how the sawn runner split down the grain. If the runners had been bent, with continuous grain, this couldnt have happened.
I didnt need to disassemble the chair; it was easy enough to loosen the screws and rotate the broken parts to get at the surfaces needing glue. The brown fuzzy strip is adhesive backed felt to protect the bamboo floor.
Heres the clamp swarm holding things put after glueing:
The glue probably would have been enough, but just to be sure I removed some of the felt and drove two finish screws across the joint. To insure that the screws pulled everything tight, I bored two different size pilot holes. First I drilled a small pilot hole (the size of the screws shank) the full depth of the screw, and then bored a larger hole (the size of the threads) just as deep as the break. This choice, the clamping effect was between the threads of the lower part and the head of the screw.
To replace the felt, I squished the new felt with clamps until it was the same thickness as the older felt. Although I am confident this repair will hold, I didnt want to tempt fate by putting a lump right under it. Confident is confident, but safer is better.
Oh, and although I already pointed out that bent runners would not have failed this choice, I also concede the point that these sawn runners lasted almost 100 years. So there you go...
Book Review Lathe Fundamentals The Complete Gude
There are a number of books on the market about wood lathes and one of the very best books for beginners is Lathe Fundamentals: The Complete Guide by Popular Mechanics/Rick Peters ( New York: Hearst Books, 2006. ISBN: 978-1-58816-447-6. 192 pages). Many of the books published about wood lathes tend to be written by experts for people who have been turning for a long time or their coverage of all the aspects of wood turning tend to be rather uneven. Lathe Fundamentals covers every aspect of wood turning-from selecting a lathe, the basic types of chisels, and basic techniques. It also goes into more advanced techniques, has a very clearly written section on chisel sharpening and grinding, and an excellent section on lathe maintenance and repair. At the very end of the book are several projects that will help the beginning turner achieve a simple but well made project-it even has a section on pen turning. The book is also is well illustrated with numerous photographs that show step by step how to achieve a given activity. Its very clearly written with a noticeable absence of technical jargon, which I think at times can be a little confusing for the beginning turner.
If you are planning to purchase a lathe and get started as a wood turner, this book is the book you should read before making a purchase. If you plan on purchasing a lathe for someone as a gift, then you should definitely purchase this book.
VW
Statement Art Free Download
Heres why I love them.1. Easy + Super fast to make
2. Large and make a statement
3. Cheap
Does it get much better than that for art? :)
I created them in Illustrator, and since everyone doesnt have that program, I tried to find a choice to create a large scale document with editable text (so you could make your own) with no luck ...
Instead, I made a few more files for you (Download PDF in the following links). Including: You are my sunshine, Follow your Dreams/Heart, and Never ever give up. If you would like something custom, feel free to email me at sarahmdorseydesigns{@}gmail{.}com and Ill send you a similar PDF for $5.
The larger paper size is 16x20 and the smaller is 5x7, and fit in the frames I used (with mats) Ikea Ribba 1 and 2.
You can get the files printed at Staples or a similar office supply/print store. Ask for Engineering prints (quality is similar to a laser printer). I found it easiest to call my local staples, explain my project and email their store (ask for the store email address) directly with the PDFs and instructions attached. Each large print costs about $1.30.
Prints will have to be cut down to 16x20, you can do that yourself or Staples will do it for you.
If you have Illustrator or a similar program, the font I used is Lavenderia. In case you missed the file download yesterday, here is Enjoy the little things.
Happy creating!Rabu, 30 Maret 2016
Felicity Ann Restoration
There is a wonderful project underway at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Washington state to restore the Felicity Ann, a wooden boat that was sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1952 by Ann Davison who did the first female solo crossing.
The boat has several homes since then and it was acquired by the Northwest School and is being restored by a team of female boat builders. The whole story is on their web site http://felicityann.com/. Take a minute and look this over as it looks like an interesting project.
I sure wish I lived in Port Hadlock, Washington!
Best,
VW
New Project Coffe Table
 |
| From Coffee Table |
 |
| From Coffee Table |
 |
| From Coffee Table |
 |
| From Coffee Table |
And after a few minutes of that it all turned to snow so winter is still with us.
Here is a finish photo of the handle:
A closeup of the handle:
Well, Im absolutely exhausted so Ill stop here.
Ive rubbed oil into the surface and it looks great. Ive brought it in to help the finish set as its too cold outside right now for that. Ill send photos of the inside of the bowl later this weekend.
Its a lovely ivory color and the surface is wonderfully smooth. This goes to its new owner this weekend.
I dont have a carving axe but I do have a roofing axe which is hollow ground and I thought might work for this. So I cranked up the bench grinder, gave it a very sharp edge, grabbed the wood and walked over to my wood block and gave it a good hard whack with the axe. I didnt cut myself but I also didnt make a dent in the wood. I hit it again and nothing happened. Again and nothing happened. After about 10 minutes of whacking away all I had was a small pile of chips to show for it. So I grabbed the wood and cut out a spoon blank on my bandsaw. I guess Im just not a hand axe kind of girl.
Looks kind of similar to the blank Robin produces with a hand axe.
The epoxy that held the brass pin in the handle finally let go. I could just fix it, but as good as this little saw was (choice better than you might guess from looking at it) Ive been wanting to build that nicer saw that really works too. I though this was probably the time.
I prefer to do the mortising while the stock is still square. The setup is easy with the holdfasts. The big (giant!) mortise chisel and mallet do the grunt work and the smaller chisel is for cleaning out the chips and flattening the bottom:
The mortising sequence - start in the middle and work to one end (not quite to the layout line):
Back to the middle and work the other choice:
Continue until the mortise is deep enough, then clean up the ends:
After laying out the tenons with the same gauge setting used for the mortises, I cut just outside the lines with a backsaw and trimmed with a shoulder plane to a snug fit.
Heres the saw so far - looking very chunky in its unshaped form:
In Part II I will shape the frame parts, make the blade assembly and create the tensioning system. After that, Ill try it out. 
The bowl sides look more convex than they really are but I probably will cut them more concave.
