A new purpose for a hand-me-down

My parents were both office workers during their work life and both created offices in their home even after they retired. As we moved them from their house into an independent living apartment, we had to dispose of several desks, office chairs, vertical and horizontal filing cabinets, and numerous office machines.

Many of the pieces went to various family members and I got a 27 drawer cabinet which has been waiting for some time to find a purpose in my wood shop. One of the thing that I am learning about my shop as I move it from one location to another is that I have more supplies than I realized. To the point that it was easy to loose sight of what I had or didn't have in stock. So, I thought I could use the 27 drawers to organize something that had been difficult to keep organized before.

So, the cabinet now stores all my various sanding supplies. From my spindle sander rolls, through 2 inch, and 8 inch disks, to sandpaper sheets, scotch brite pads, and steel wool. All organized and labeled. It should hopefully prevent me from buying something I already have. I look forward to using it and remembering my parents as I spend time in my shop.

Wood for the New Year

 

We had three maple trees cut down at our cabin at Lake Buckhorn. By culling just a few trees from the landscape, we opened up the view of the lake from the cabin.  As a byproduct of the tree removal, I gained a lot of fresh cut maple for turning.

So, I spent the last day of 2011 sealing the maple rounds from those three trees. As the pictures show, I gained 28 sections, most 13-16 inches in diameter and 16 to 24 inches in length. I have nine that I sealed on just one end to see if I can start the spalting process. The others are all sealed on both ends to await cutting into bowl blanks of one kind or another.

I would like to cut a number of them for natural edge bowl blanks. My North Coast and Buckeye Woodturning groups may end up with a few of the blanks as raffle items.

I think I will need to do some learning to better determine how to cut these rounds into bowl blanks. I have done some of this in the past but I am not at all confident that I got the best blanks out of the wood. One of the nice things about being a member of woodturning group is the availability of help and advice when you need it. So, I think I will be asking for some guidance in how to best cut these blanks.

I think I have created a lot of fun for myself for the beginning of a new year!

Shop move temporarily interrupted by playtime

I have a layout now for my basement shop so that I know where the major equipment will be and where I will need electric and dust pickup. I have been making one or two trips a week to the lake house to bring back box loads of smaller items to the new basement shop. It amazes me how much I have accumulated and now have to move from one shop to another.
I bought two new plastic storage shelves and have them now loaded with turning blanks. I incorporated the shelving units I had at the lake along with the two new ones and now have them pretty well full of wood, project materials and hand tools.
I still have to disassemble a work bench and the table saw before the machinery can be moved. I also need to take down an air cleaner and ceiling fixtures to bring back. After all of that I can build the dividing wall to separate the shop from the other half of the basement. The final step will be adding the electricity and dust collection to areas of the shop. That is probably going to take most of the month of January to accomplish.

So I was feeling a little tired of all work and no play in the shop. I had started working on a Christmas ornament project and decided to bring just enough tools up to the new shop to complete the project. I will end up making Christmas ornaments after Christmas. Being able to work on a project, even a late one, trumps packing and toting anytime. The project uses basswood and brass tubing to make older style Christmas lights. I used red, blue, green, orange, and yellow dyes to color the bulbs and spray gloss lacquer to finish them.

Cutting the tubing into 1/2 inch segments was a little more challenging than I thought but the major challenge was trying to reproduce a consistent shape for the bulb body. Even with a template the variations in the shapes was considerable. I will post a picture of the range of colors later. It was fun to take a break.

Why in the world was I saving all this?

The project of relocating my shop has made me realize I am a wood hoarder! Just like those poor folks on TLC "Hoarders" I have been collecting "important and potentially useful" pieces of wood.

While I was deciding what to move and what to dispose of, I realized that I had so many little left overs that I would be better off disposing of all these scraps. Now it seems quite foolish to have saved them.

So, with this realization, I filled up several totes with small scraps and created our first fire of the winter.

This move is proving beneficial on many levels: being able to access my shop more often, cleaning and reorganizing both the old shop area into a useful garage and the basement into a nicer area, and now, enjoying a fire from the hoarded wood.

Quilted maple bowl

A teacher/friend of mine from West Virginia, Joe Smith, gave me a couple pieces of wood when I took a class from him this fall: two pieces of quilted maple. I have been to Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley, WV a number of times to take classes with Joe. He is an excellent turner and teacher.

The first blank turned into a shallow bowl with rim with some of the most vibrant quilting I have ever seen.

It is 12 inches round by 2 3/4 inches high. the rim is 1 inch wide. In the picture the grain in running horizontally while the quilting runs vertically. The photo does not do the bowl justice since the quilting is acutally more evident than the grain.

I put on four coats of urethane oil and then buffed and waxed with the Beall Polishing system.

A lot has happened since last post

Butternut and walnut hollowed vessel

It's obvious that I haven't been blogging for well over a year but I have been in the wood shop. Two years ago I wrote about my new Jet lathe. Woodturning has become my primary activity to the exclusion of almost all my other projects. As my wife says, "you like woodworking, but woodturning is your passion." And I think she is right. So now I want to resume blogging as one of several changes I am making to improve the quality and quantity of my time in wood working.

The big move

I decided over two years ago that it would be a good idea to locate all my wood shop at our lake house, twenty miles away from my residence. It was appealing because we have a four car garage there and I could have most of a very large, flat area for my work. When I bought new tools, table saw and lathes, I had them delivered to the lake house garage.

Then, I started realizing the problems I had created. First and foremost, I was a 45 minute drive away from my wood shop which meant that I had to have a chunk of several hours to make the round trip worthwhile. Secondly, I soon realized that a little air conditioner did not cool the garage in the summer and the two baseboard heaters did not heat the space in the winter. I didn't go at all on certain days because it would be too uncomfortable. Finally, I noticed that some of my equipment was rusting or getting mold, both due to the excess humidity from the lake.

So, the first big change I am making is to bring everything back to my home. A short sentence is describing a long, heavy, dusty undertaking. I am now realizing that I have a very large stash of wood blanks for turning and a much larger array of tools, jigs, accessories, and what-nots. So I am making two or three trips a week loading my Explorer with smaller items and all my hand tools.

Preparation work

The basement workshop needs some work in order to be useful. We are building a wall to separate the  workshop from the rest of the unfinished basement and adding electrical outlets where needed.

When that is finished, I will hire some movers for help since everything (table saw, lathe, band saw, drill press, jointer, planer, work benches and cabinets, etc) will need to go down the basement.

Mid January is goal

I would like to have everything working in my new workshop around mid January.  In the meantime I need to prepare some blanks for a January class at John Campbell and to organize a gazillion items in their new home.

Wooster Woodturning Show 2010