Category Archives: June 2016

Three projects to kill time

blog, June 2016

June 18 – Killing time…  For my job, every once in awhile we have work to complete that starts late Saturday night and if all goes well, ends Sunday morning.  If things don’t go well, which is usually the case, we may not finish until Sunday afternoon.  The hours are long, but for my part, I’m not required to be physically onsite, just available via phone and able to log into the hourly status meetings.  With all that time to “hurry up and wait”, I’ve started the habit of working on some project in the shop while the hours tick away.  Although this is Father’s Day weekend, we’re doing another major release tonight.  There are several projects on tap for the waiting.

The first is the construction of a the wood stabilizing vacuum chamber.  I was able to find a big metal pot like what is used for canning for cheap, then got the air fittings and a piece of plexiglass for the top.  When I drilled the hole for the air hose, I cracked the plexiglass really bad, so I had to cut another piece and silicone it over the hole.  That’s drying now, so if it finishes soon, I should be able to start hooking up the air fittings.  When it’s done, I’ll post a picture.

The second project is for next month’s wood turning club meeting.  The challenge for the meeting is to turn a platter.  Since I haven’t done that before, I figured I’d better make some smaller practice pieces.  The first one is made from cherry, but I think it’s pretty plain and just a tad ugly.  So ugly, I may not even put finish on it, opting for the burn pile instead.  Here’s a picture:

really nothing to this piece that would make anyone want to look at it. the color is weak, the grain pattern is boring, and the shape is as basic as it gets. Overall grade = D+. All that saves it from an F are the bug holes, and I didn't even do that, nature did!
really nothing to this piece that would make anyone want to look at it. the color is weak, the grain pattern is boring, and the shape is as basic as it gets. Overall grade = D+. All that saves it from an “F” are the bug holes, and I didn’t even do that, nature did!

The second one I really like!  It’s about 8″ wide, made from hard maple, and it’s just less that an inch tall.  More of a plate than a platter, but still really well done.  I will definitely put the finish on this one tonight and let it start to cure so I can have it buffed out by the time the next meeting comes around.  I’ve also started on a HUGE (14″ wide) walnut platter at Bob’s house, which will likely be the entry for the club challenge.  Here’s a picture of the maple plate:

Top view of the maple plate. Love the way the grain runs in pretty good symmetry. If you could feel this, it has just the right weigh to it.
Top view of the maple plate. Love the way the grain runs in pretty good symmetry. If you could feel this, it has just the right weigh to it.
Side view of the plate will show that it's not tall, and the width of the rim is very much in proportion to the width and depth of the center.
Side view of the plate will show that it’s not tall, and the width of the rim is very much in proportion to the width and depth of the center.

June 19th – EPIC fail x 2.  So I spent some time in the wee hours of the morning working on making a vacuum chamber to stabilize wood.  Since I like making bowls, I needed something big enough to hold something at least 12″ wide and 12-15″ tall.  Yesterday, my first attempt ended in failure as the vacuum created was too strong for the plexiglass and caused it to crack.  I found an old piece of 3/8″ Lexan that had been cast off in the garage that was big enough to fit on top of the canning pot, so I drilled a hole in it, transferred all the hardware to it, remade the silicone seal on the top, and waited for everything to dry.  This morning, I got tired of waiting and fired it up to see if it worked.  The good news is that once I got the lid to form a seal, it started pulling a vacuum and you could watch the bubbles come out of the wood I had submerged in a bowl of water.  EXCELLENT!  This is exactly what was supposed to happen.  About 15 seconds into my jubilant smiling, right about the time I was going to declare victory and start the dance, there was a loud, metallic bang.  Turns out, the Lexan is more than strong enough to hold the vacuum, but the canning pot itself certainly isn’t.  The sides crumpled, the water flew, and I’m not back to square 1.  I think I’m at the point where I’ll have to actually buy something on the internet that’s specifically made for this kind of operation.  Worst part is that I can just hear Mr. Oyer, my high school science teacher, laughing at me right now for not paying closer attention in class…

This is what happens when a strong vacuum meet relatively weakly formed metal.
This is what happens when a strong vacuum meet relatively weakly formed metal.

Chris’ bowls, part 1

June 2016

June 4th – Wood hoarding is real!  A friend of mine lost a tree earlier this year when the late season ice storm split it in half.  It was some kind of ornamental fruit tree (wild guess there) that had become weak because of obvious bug damage followed by relentless woodpecker attacks.  The first chunk fell all the way to the ground, while the second chunk was just kinda sticking out at an odd angle.  Recent rain storms were enough to coax the second chunk to split from the main trunk, but it was stubbornly still hanging on by a little bit of bark.

His ex-wife (notice how I didn’t add any extra adjectives?  That’s called restraint!) decided to call the city building inspector and report a “public safety hazard”, no doubt hoping that he’d have to hire a tree service to remove it.  The joke ended up being on her, because in about an hour, the tree was dismantled and stacked on the curb so the city could take it away.  Total cost to him?  a 12 pack of Summer Shandy’s, which he helped me empty.  While we were at it, we also took down a small ash tree the beetles had started to kill.

I kept some of the wood from the mystery tree and decided to make bowls for him and his children since this was the tree that was next to their play fort.  All four are roughed out, ready to dry.  The good news is the grain pattern in the wood is spectacular!  Here’s a picture:

Chris' bowl
some kind of ornamental tree that gave up some really pretty grain patterns. “punky” doesn’t come close to describing the end grain, though, and the whole piece is riddled with holes from the bugs and the woodpeckers.

The bad news is the wood in the center of the tree is pretty much rotten.  After it dries, I’m going to have to figure out some way to stabilize the wood, or else it will just either break apart or be so brittle that it can’t be turned or sanded.  There were live grubs of some kind in the wood that the woodpeckers hadn’t removed (yet), but they were no match for high-speed steel gouges.  Stay tuned!  I’m building a wood stabilization vacuum chamber, so if all goes well, I should be able to stabilize the blanks and have all the bowls turned in a couple of weeks.