Ash Rounds-flattened

  Back in March I showed a router jig that enabled me to flatten both sides of one of these rounds and to get the sides very close to parallel. If parallel isn't important I figured out another way to get a smooth finish with a bit less effort.

bark off

 

 First I put the round on a non-slip mat on my bench top. Then I begin to rough the face down with an electric hand plane that I picked up at a wood show a few years ago. 

  My planner has a very short bed and throws chips everywhere but it was cheap and I don't mind using it brutally. By the time this set of ash rounds is done, I expect the planer to be done too.  Since rounds were cut from the tree trunk with a chain saw and even though my Brother in Law was careful there is still lots of wood to be removed before the slices are even flattish.

The next stage in the process is either a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder  or my belt sander with a very aggressive disk or belt. I have a 40 grit disk and a 60 grit belt. Both of these tools are older and throw a serious amount of dust.  The next time I do the grinding stage on a round will be done outside.

  After the machines have removed the bulk of the rough stuff I have found that scrapers work better that sand paper to arrive at the final finish. I scrape from the centre outward to get the best results.

 Once the face is scraped I apply salad bowl polish and work it in with my polissoir. These rounds are for serving cheese so I wanted a food safe finish.

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  I have about ten more pieces of ash with which to play. It will be sad when the emerald ash borer has killed off all our ash trees.  

bark on

cheers, ianw

Evenings in the Wood Shop

  You may be a "woodworker" if you are more likely to make or something than watch 'Downton Abbey' in the evening. Eve has been out and about with music things the last couple of evenings and I have been knocking around the place, humouring my sore back and drinking too much coffee.

  Two evenings ago I was sharpening some of my shop tools and decided to kill time whittling the penguin on the left. As I was cleaning up my shop I found many little pieces of bass wood laying around, and I didn't have the heart to throw them all away. Eventually the penguin will get finished and painted, eventually. I enjoy wood carving (whittling) it can be done with simple tools at low cost.  Since I have limited time and expense invested in a whittling project if it does get finished, I don't care.

  On the right is a turned cylinder that I made last evening. The wood is 'firewood'. I think it is soft maple, last spring I brought home some branches I picked up on the side of the road. It is about 2 inches in diameter and was very nice to work on the lathe. I'm going to make a lid for the cylinder, someday. This was a project to kill time and to practice finishing pieces on the lathe. On this piece I sanded to 600 grit and then used steel wool for the final stage. 

 After I got the cylinder very smooth I put paste wax on it for a final finish. I put the wax on using my polissoir, it does a good job and really works the wax into the wood.

  Usually I build with a purpose, but it is freeing and fun just to make saw dust just for the 'heck' of it.

  

Aladdin's Woodworking Cave of Wonders

                                    

  Eventually my Grandchildren will come to fully appreciate my woodworking shop.  They will learn that when you want to do a little something, or make a small modification the tools and pieces are down in the shop.  My shop has bits of wire and many kinds of glue and all sorts of tape, wood of all sizes and shapes and a heap of Arts and Crafts stuff.

  The shop jobs in  this blog are all of the 'oh, I'll just nip down stairs and take care of it" type.

 Yesterday I went into the shop and make a flower/bud display vase. In my shop there was : a piece of wood, bark on,  that I collected in the spring, also four one inch diameter test tubes, and a piece of 2 x 6. 

  I made the vase(?) hold four buds because that was how many we were getting from the hibiscus plants under the grow lights in our basement, currently.  Now that the vase is done, the flowers seems to be running out.

 Aside from have the test tubes, and wood available just down the stairs I also had a one inch Forstner bit, and drill. I used my jointer to flatten the bottom of the fire wood so that it would sit on the 2 x 6 and cut things to length with my mitre saw. I could have used a hand plane, but I am still trying to take it easy on my back.

 As for finishing I had Minwax stain and shellac both on the shelf. Making this little project and the other two where  non-events since everything was on hand.

  The other two little jobs needed, waxed thread, lather lacing, and drilling.  I have a couple of walking sticks and pretty much one of them accompanies me when I am out and about, especially when it might be slippery.

 

   This stick has a cord that wraps around my wrist, to reduce the number of times I drop it while shopping. ( I have no hope that I will not drop it again.). The elastic that holds the loop on was getting tired. The solution was to go down stairs an cut a couple of feet of heavy waxed thread and wrap it around the elastic and the wrist strap.  The waxed thread is used to make my Polissoirs but is perfect for this little job.

  The other stick just needed a hole drilled and a length of leather lacing attached. 

  None of these jobs was  big deal as long as you have some tools and a couple of shoe boxes of stuff laying around.  It is a never ending battle in my shop between "too much jink" and " I'm glad I kept that thing, it's handy". Today I am happy about having stuff handy, tomorrow, who knows.

Turned Segmented Bowls Part 2

 Today we cut our segmented glue ups on the band saw and attached one to the lathe face plate using a paper glue joint as explained in the video;

paper glue joints 

  Strictly  speaking you don't need a band saw to be a wood turner, we could have knocked the corners off the blanks with a hand saw,

ignore the date stamp on the photo,
 I changed the batteries in my camera and forgot to reset the date.

  We decided to use a paper glue joint because our little bowls are not very deep and screwing the face plate into the bowl would reduce its depth further. 

  Since I only have one face plate I decided to initially turn my bowl between centres. I will mount it on a face plate later and hollow it out,or maybe just drill it out with a huge Forstner bit. My bowl  will hold my caked shaving soap. Once I hollow it out I think I may make a lid for it too.  

 The finish on my bowl is bees wax applied with my home made polissoir.

 As David and I were talking the morning after making some saw dust in the shop it became obvious that a person with and a mini lathe, few chisels and wood can have a pretty good time and make a significant mess.