Building a Mini Firewood Storage from Recycled Materials
Recently, I built a small firewood storage rack using recycled and reclaimed materials
Exploring Five Distinctive Bowls from Different Woods
The five bowls Lemon Scented Gum Lemon Scented Gum New Guinea Rosewood New Guinea Rosewood Unknown New Guinea Timber Fruit Wood (Pear) Fruit Wood (Pear) Woodturning Adventures: Crafting Five Unique Bowls Wood turning is a captivating craft that transforms raw timber into stunning functional art. Recently, I embarked on a journey to create five distinctive bowls, each showcasing the beauty and character of different woods. Here’s a glimpse into my process and the stories behind my favourite pieces. The Craft of Woodturning Woodturning involves shaping wood into round objects using a lathe. It’s a blend of artistry and technique, requiring precision and creativity. Each piece I create tells a story, both of the wood itself and the journey of crafting it. Bowl 1: The Fruit Wood Bowl Dimensions: Approximately 80mm in diameter Wood Type: Fruit wood (possibly pear) This charming bowl is crafted from fruit wood, known for its rich colors and beautiful grain patterns. The small size makes it perfect for serving snacks or as a decorative piece. As I turned this bowl, I appreciated the subtle variations in color and texture that fruit wood offers, making each piece unique. The soft, warm hues of the wood added a touch of elegance to the final product. Bowl 2: The Papua New Guinea Timber Bowl Dimensions: Similar in size to the fruit wood bowl Wood Type: Unspecified timber from Papua New Guinea The second bowl is a special piece made from a lesser-known timber that hails from Papua New Guinea. Working with this wood was a thrilling experience, as it brought a sense of adventure into my workshop. The grain patterns were striking, with a unique mix of colors that reflected the rich biodiversity of [...]
Mastering Bowl Turning Techniques with a Jam Chuck
I'm still coming to grips with my new lathe. Its quite an upgrade from my 15 year old midi lathe. It's a Laguna Revo 12/16. The two biggest differences are variable speed and a significantly more powerful motor. In practice this means that I can speed up to turn and slow down to sand. On the old lathe I would have to stop and manually change the belt on to different pulleys to alter the speed. Now all I have to do turn a dial to speed up or slow down, very civilised and far more productive. In practice on the old lathe I wouldn't change the speed that much. I digress because I started this post thinking about the bowl I just turned. I used couple of new to me techniques a screw to attach the blank and jam chuck to turn off the base. The wood screw worked quite well on the tiny blank of red gum. Drilling an 8 mm hole in the centre and screwing it on to the chuck. I used some disks made from MDF to effectively shorten the length of the screw. I managed to turn a tiny bowl with a pleasing shape. I finished it with the Ubeaut products shellawax and triple e cream. Then to the next new thing for me using a jam chuck. I have seen this demonstrated and watched many YouTube videos. I found a scrap of pine and quickly turned a jam chuck to fit inside the rim of the tiny bowl. As the name suggests the bowl is jammed on to the wooden chuck. I would add here that the thickness of the bowl was marginal for this operation. As I [...]
Mastering Tool Sharpening Techniques
Sharpening sharpening sharpening. I'm in the middle of working on a flat panel carving and in doing so I'm having to master not only using carving chisels but also sharpening them. I have now undertaken two carving workshops run by Silvio Apponyi. There are about 10 participants in each of these workshops all working on a variety of individual projects. I am attempting to recreate a 17th century Norwegian flat pane panel. This comes from a design that was created in a book called Norwegian carving by Odd Fauske. This is an interesting book based on a training manual by Odd Fauske and published by Ian Whittington and translated by his wife Elaine. The book contains the original Norwegian text and the English translation on the facing page. In order to do this I copied the design out of the book which was spread over several pages. I converted it to an svg file in a program called Inkscape. This program has a n auto trace function which allows a jpg or other image to be made into an svg file. The advantage is that the image is scalable without losing resolution. It is similar to Adobe's Illustrator but is an open source project and it seems to be regularly updated. The project has resulted in me buying some additional carving chisels both new and second hand. .At the workshops there is the opportunity to borrow tools from other carvers to see how they suit my needs. I only buy after attending thee workshops to see what I actually need. This brings me to the subject of this article which is sharpening. It's almost like some sort of dark art. No matter how much equipment you [...]
Gouge Thoughts: Sharpening, Sweep, Size
In thirty years of teaching, I’ve learned (and sometimes failed to remember) the value of preparation beforehand and flexibility once things get started. I’ve been doing a lot of preparation for my upcoming class. Materials, logistics, and many other things. Much of it involves thinking through processes in detail with the student point-of-view in mind. […]Gouge Thoughts: Sharpening, Sweep, Size
How is Shellac Made
Have you ever wondered how shellac is made. Watch the video and see how shellac is made in India. https://youtu.be/iEkKwOWZS_E?si=UwwhKSRLv4QXIaVH
The Shed Saga
The ongoing saga of getting the shed set up. I'm just a month short of 2 years since we moved into our new house. During this time I put in a concrete floor in the shed and built a new rear wall. I've been slowly adding benches and storage. I think now the end is in sight. I'm gradually unpacking all my tools and I can now find things. I managed to get a steel frame to put my drill press on. It is an open frame and I've been able to make a set of drawers to fit underneath. I have used melamine covered chipboard as It's a relatively cheap material and strong and easy to cut up on the table saw. I have connected it all with confirmat screws which hold the drawer and cupboard together much more strongly than chipboard screws. I had also built a 600 mm wide cupboard to fill a space in the shed but much to my horror the drawers would never run properly. I just assembled the drawers and discovered that I'd cut the base out of square. I have a Bosch GTS contractor saw which for the most part works well. But when you go beyond 33 cm width in cutting you have to rely on a secondary fence. I seem to be in the habit of forgetting to lock that secondary fence which means that the fence drifts while I'm cutting. This explained why I hadn't cut the basis of the two drawers very accurately. I was able to reuse the material from these two drawers in making the above mentioned cover to fit under the drill press stand. Along with remaking the out of [...]
Never Ending Saga of 3D Printing
The never ending saga of my 3D printer. I have a Creality 3D v2 printer. I have modified it several times including changing the extruder, upgrading the z axis with an additional lead screw and stepper motor. I've also replaced the printing bed with a removable magnetic type. Additionally, I have added a probe which sets the level of the bed before each print. This creates a mesh which accounts for variations in the bed. You'd think this would have been enough to get me out of trouble and have smooth and easy printing time after time. However, recently I could hear a strange noise as I was printing. To my horror the wires to the secondary z axis stepper motor were rubbing against the bed levelling screws. This resulted in the bed screws unwinding. The result left the bed swinging side to side as it was printing. Started printing again and several times the filament got jammed. I then had a print that was running very smoothly. However, it stopped or seemed to stop about halfway through the print and the printer just kept running. The problem seemed to be the extruder I upgraded. It was actually grinding through the filament or it was catching. I left it overnight and then came back to it the next day. Sleep helps with problems. I then noticed that nearly all the screws on the extruder were loose. e. In fact, the two halves of the guide driver bushes were not lined up. This meant that the filament was being effectively ground as it was going through and then it would catch and just keep spinning until the filament was nearly broken. Preventing the filament from going into [...]
Flat Pane Carving
I have taken small steps into the world of flat pane carving. This is essentially relief carving on a flat surface and according to some this has been around since the times of the ancient Egyptians. I have been reading a book called A Norwegian Woodcarving Textbook by Odd Fauske. This is a translation of 1973 textbook from a course teaching traditional woodcarving in Norway. The book has been translated into English by Iain and Evaline Whittington. The layout of the book encompasses the original Norwegian text with English on the adjoining page. There are lots of plans that have been copied from the original which would require photocopying and the joining together. When looking for a link to the book I found that Iain Whittington has publishes another book on carving so I bought that as well. The other volume is called Amateur Woodcarving: A Guide. I decided to tackle a flat pane scene which dates back to teh 18th century. Unfortunately there is no photo of the original so some interpretation will be required. I have done this as part of a carving workshop I attended so I had some expert advice from a sculptor on how to proceed. I may do a post on the carving workshop at a later date. The plans in the book are for the most part spread over several pages. The design in the pictures below were spread over many pages and would have made a very large carving. Rather than trying to patch the various pages together I scanned the overview page and then imported it into photoshop elements and cleaned the image up. Following this the cleaned up image was imported into Inkscape a vector [...]
Welcome to my Short Journey Pickling Olives
Welcome to my short journey on pickling or curing olives. I watched a YouTube video from a guy in Australia that was very helpful in setting me up to pickle olives. The ingredients are relatively simple, water, salt, and of course olives. The other key ingredient is time. This isn't an overnight job. You need a few weeks to produce your olives. I sourced the olives from a friend's place that has quite a few olive trees. However, she is not inclined to use them. So I went over with some buckets and a ladder and picked a couple of half buckets of olives. The aforementioned YouTube video made me an expert because some of the olives would appear from his description to be Kalamata olives. The other olives were round. Ladder and Bucket Olives that were pitted Olives in Brine Pitted olives in Brine Sterilised Flavouring , Salt, Mixed Herbs & White Wine Vinegar Packed Jars Sealed and Ready I decided for better or worse to stone the round olives. I did this manually and it took me about an hour or so to do about half a9 l bucket. They were then rinsed and then put in a bucket with about half a cup of salt. The other olives, the so-called Kalamata olives I just washed and then put them in another bucket with about the same amount of salt and waited. Judging when the olives have been soaking in the brine for long enough is a matter of taste. The YouTube guy recommended simply tasting them and when they are no longer bitter, they're ready to be put in jars. In the case of the pitted olives this took about 3 weeks. [...]