I’m back at it!

Did you miss me? My guess is probably not. That’s ok. The past few years have been kind of crazy. I was out of work for a while, then finally got on with a company I used to work for some time ago. Work has kept me out of town sometimes, which means out of the workshop. Yeeesh. It’s annoying, but gotta pay the bills.

Do you remember my last post? I had mentioned a special made box for a “friend of mine”. Well, that friend is now my fiancée. The box was for her daycare provider for her kids, at that time. The daycare provider has two kids of her own, who both have a form of autism. This is what I came up with.

I used Rosewood for the base and a nice piece of English Oak for the lid. I used my woodburner to engrave the puzzle pieces and colored them with markers. I’m sorry the pictures didn’t come out as clear as I had hoped. I will work on my photography skills.

I hope you like it. I really enjoyed making this one. It’s my way of supporting Autism Awareness.

Round Boxes

This past fall, I finally got myself a wood lathe.  I have been spending some time learning how to use it, mostly by trial and error.  Ok, mostly error.  I guess I’m just kind of stubborn that way.  I prefer to look at it as hands-on learning, my way.  Most people would say that it is wasting precious time and material.  Not me, I look at it as a mad scientist experimenting in his laboratory.  Muaaahaaahaaa!  Sorry about that.  Couldn’t help myself.  Ok, I started with square blocks of wood, and I tried to round off the sides to make a cylinder. 

My first attempt at making a cylinder didn’t turn out so well.  By the time I got the sides pretty much level, it was too skinny to do anything with.  So, my first tip would be to use scrap wood to start with.  You don’t want to waste a good piece of Osage….like me.  Next, I would be sure to find a good way to secure the workpiece.  I prefer to glue a small block of scrap wood to what will be the bottom of the cylinder.  Then, I screw the small face-plate to the scrap piece of wood.  Be sure the small block of scrap wood is centered on the workpiece, and that the face-plate is centered on the scrap wood.  Another way to secure the workpiece is to buy a chuck for your lathe.  I personally haven’t used one yet, but I’m sure I will eventually.  A chuck works just like the mouth of a drill that holds the bit.  Or at least that is my perception, again, I haven’t used one.  I would recommend you go ahead and buy a chuck for your lathe.  Gluing the workpiece to a scrap piece of wood doesn’t always work.  Yes, I have experienced this failure.  I can happily report that everytime the workpiece flies across the room, it has missed my head by at least a couple of inches. 

This Osage box is 2 1/4" in diameter and 4" tall.

Ah yes, be sure to wear your protective gear: safety glasses, ear plugs and dust mask.  And for you guys, a cup might not be a bad suggestion.  No, you don’t need a kevlar vest.

Once you have your piece secure, you are ready to turn some wood.  That is after your tools have been sharpened.  Always make sure your tools are sharp before you turn.  How you sharpen them is up to you.  Most of the time, it takes a while for the sharp edges to dull, unless you are using hard woods.  I prefer to sharpen my tools by hand using a couple of different sharpening stones.  That’s just my preference.  There are places you can go to get your tools sharpened, or sharpening machines you can buy.

After all of this, you should be ready to start turning.  My only advice is this: take it slow and don’t rush it.  If you start to get frustrated, stop and walk away for a little while.  You might want to see about finding some books on wood turning or take a class on it or do both.  Here are a couple of pictures of my experiments.

This spalted Sycamore box with Walnut knob and band is 2 3/4" in diameter and 5 1/2" overall height.