Wood Turning – Page 2 – The Peasant's Manor Farm

It’s Going To Rain, And Other Musings

We live sort of center of this map above, and that big blob of rain is headed right for us. It is 43 out right now, so there is no threat of snow at the moment. Looks to me like it wants to make up for all that did not fall over the summer.

All week the forecast has shown us that starting today we would get five days of rain. That has been steady in the computer modeling that makes up the forecast, so I think it is something we can rely on. I best head up to the shop today to get some tarps for the firewood pile, lest it turn cold and we need to get a fire going to keep warm. It’s no good having wet wood!

The girls are both up, our grandson is over, and the kids are having a calm morning just about to put a show on. Grandma is going for a nap, and grandpa is too tired to do much because of all that got done yesterday.

When we were out getting wood, I noticed a piece that was put up high on the pile that was about 3/4 the size of the truck we drove, a jacked up Dodge Ram, and that it was precarious. I told the kids to stay away from it, and one I had to tell twice. Then Jordan, our oldest, and I took some wood from near it to the truck, and a noise caught our attention. That massive trunk took a tumble. We’d never seen one tumble before! They are usually stacked better, but someone irresponsible has been running the loader they use to pile the wood up. There were a few that have been placed in odd positions unlike the normal piling that they do down at the dump. It sort of negated one of the reasons I like getting wood there, normally. Not having to fell trees makes it a lot safer than going to the forest to get wood. But that was not one of those safer trips for sure, and I am thrilled to pieces that I noticed it and got the kids away before it took its tumble.

While we were out yesterday, my chuck arrived at the house. I can now drill with the lathe! That’s it! It’s whistles for everyone! I’ll probably help a lot when making narrow containers, too. There are definitely a few ideas rolling around in my mind that I look forward to trying. I have a piece of elm on the lathe right now that is too wet to keep working, so I am letting it have some time to sort itself out. I had been thinking of making a ball out of it, but maybe that is a good shape, and I can put a glass container down the middle and use it for Missus’s flowers. It is light on the outside, but walnut colored down the middle. Those two tones would look great with a burst of color sticking out the middle of them!

With the pigs gone, that opens up a space at the back of the llama pen that I can do one of a couple of things with. One is to open it up for the llamas, obviously. The other is to put a fence at the back of the llama pens and divide out a driveway to give another entrance to the property. That would be good for hay deliveries, and bringing in firewood and the like. Maybe. It just requires a little fencing and some gates. Especially as it might be good to put gates at the back of the pen for access to loading and cleaning at a bigger scale than we are able to do now.

We still are looking at moving house. I want to keep going on a few things in case that falls through. I don’t want to put life on pause for something that doesn’t materialize. There is a guy who owns a piece of land near us who is thinking on buying ours. He has to try to work something out with someone adjacent to us, though, because he wants both pieces of land to have clear access from our place all the way down to the corner. If that goes, or someone else buys, then that will set the wheels into motion.

But today? A duvet day…

Today’s Turn

Today I hardly saw the lathe till evening. I spent the morning with out oldest loading firewood at the dump, then we came home, unloaded it, and split it all up. He was very eager to have dry wood because he has been having troubles burning some wet wood he has at his place. There just wasn’t very much workable dry wood there, though, so I suggested he take some wet wood, then when we got back to the farm, he trade the wet wood for some of my dry wood. I have plenty laying about, and a lot sorted out for this winter. So he did that. I have more for next year, and lots for this at the moment. He left with just over half a cord of wood all split up and ready to burn.

After he left, a guy showed up and took the last two of our pigs, leaving us free of them, and their cost on our feed bill. He went to pay me via Venmo, but my account is still suspended from the first time I tried to use it, so I told him not to worry about it. I wasn’t going to make him unload them after all the work he did to load them, and I was happy to get them off our feed bill, and was planning giving them away anyhow if we didn’t sell them to anyone. I was thrilled to see them go.

So it was a great day, seeing both of the boys, and getting firewood sorted out, and getting two pigs sorted out. I did work on the lathe a little tonight, but the wood is wet, and prone to catching. I was happy to leave it, before it ruined my new hobby.

Today In The Shop

I turned today. I tried a bobbin lace bobbin, but I don’t have quite fine enough tools to do something as small as those need to be. Afterwards I tried doing anything I could out of a small piece of scrap left over from my main turn today. That worked out to be a handle of sorts, and if I can get some yarn on the end of it in the form of a pom-pom, I would like it to be a little duster for things like the computer keyboard.

My main turn today was a tool handle for my chisel set. I have got a couple of Lie Nielsen chisels, and they have easily removeable handles which can be changed out for long handles for finer control. The hardest part was getting the conical shape that fits into the chisel right so that it did not wobble on the handle. The new handle will work with any of the chisels, and gives another inch and a quarter in length. I want to do one more, longer, but that will have to come another day.

Then came the exhaustion. Part of it is from being so happy to be turning that I have not been taking time to eat, and part of it is how much time I have spent in front of the lathe. I took a nap this afternoon, and woke up an hour later still feeling it. We had porridge oats for super and it helped, but did not clear the feeling entirely. For safety’s sake, I decided not to try to go out, even though I have more ideas wanting to come to being.

I decided to get the overpriced light for the lathe in the end. It won’t be here for a bit, but I did order it because I keep hitting my helmet on the light hanging over the lathe now, trying to bring it low enough to be useful. I figured that if I am going to see the surfaces well enough to give them a good finish, and if I am going to see up inside bowls and the like, I’ll need a light that is bright, can be brought close, and can easily be repositioned as needed. I guess it shops from the factory warehouse, so it’ll get here when it gets here.

Finally, I have bad news for my family. I have been researching how to make whistles. They look pretty easy.

Today I Turned Two Shop Mallets

Yesterday’s turn from the maple went great, but hollowing it out was terrible. It was such a hard piece of wood! So I decided that if I was going to keep working from that wood, I needed to do something solid today. I did two somethings! I have been envying the carver’s mallets I see people using on YouTube. Drooling, really! I have wanted one for a long time, and the other night I watched a fellow shape one to fit the hand of whomever ordered it from him. Reviews where he sold them said the buyers were shocked at how easy to hold they were, and how effortless it was to use them. Well, I could not get everything from his video, but I did stop often and check the fit to my hand, rather than blindly turning a standard handle. I am happy I did, too!

I did the smaller mallet first. I will use it for light tapping or leatherwork. I have a mallet I bought for leatherwork, so maybe that one can come out of the hand tool drawer in the woodshop and go back in with the leather tools.

After the little one, I figured I was done for the night, but then I realized how I could get a larger piece of wood out of the tree, and probably leave scraps that could be made to something like bobbins for Missus’s loom shuttles. So I went back out and got to work on the larger mallet.

I have not weighted them at this point, but they are both very comfortable. Especially the second one. I really put in the extra effort to see to it that one fit to my hand. Either way, there is two new shop tools with no real cost to get them! Now we are cooking on gas!

I doubt it would have been nearly as satisfying to buy one of these as it was to make two! I can bugger them up, and it is no worry. I know just where I can get more maple. And next year, if we are still hanging out here, I am sure I will go and get a lot!

Today’s Turn

We did some cleaning chores in the house this morning, and I did not get started in the shop till after lunch. Turn a bit of maple, I thought. It will be easy and fun, I thought. It was. It was the work I did after that that hurt. But first, the choice of wood. After a look through the firewood pile, I finally settled on turning a piece from that old tree that had split in half in grandma’s front yard several years ago.

What I decided to make today comes from my memories, as an antique I saw when I was maybe ten or eleven, if that. It was a coffee scoop. I tried to find one online, but nothing came up nearly what I remember, so I turned what I remembered, rather than what I found.

The turn was quite easy!, and it came out just how I thought I wanted it! I only worked from a design in my head; a combination of my desires for it, and what I remember seeing many years ago. The one from years gone by was much darker. I kept this light so it would develop a natural patina.

I thought it would be fairly easy to hollow out with a Forstner bit on the drill press or something. Well, that turned out to be a laugh. My press has not got near enough power to get into it. I ended up drilling with smaller bits over and over, then chiseling and finally carving with a carving knife. Not as neat on the inside as I would have liked, but then, it is a brand new antique. So it’ll do. I finished it with a coat of olive oil, and tried it out! Small, but works well!

Next Turnings

I did some more turnings today. I wanted to try tops out, and a finial, and that’s what I did. The tops are not great. I can get the short fat one to spin sometimes. The other always spins on its head. It’s a start! I will work on it. At the moment I am trying cuts and letting the bad workmanship lead me. I need to get deliberate with my work, and make cuts without making mistakes. Then I can lead the results. That is where the finial comes in, a bit. It is about making deliberate cuts so that the piece does not fail while working on it. And it did not.

Two tops. Both work fair, but they need improvement.

I know we are throwing the tops right. I looked it up in the University of YouTube. I had a good demonstration complete with slow-mo, by a nine year old kid. We are doing what he showed in his video!

You know, I don’t know why the pictures uploaded the way they did. I took photos of the complete objects. I guess this is a new fault in the web-works to work my head around. Never mind the campaign propaganda on the table under the finial. I will probably vote for the other guy, whoever he is.

I think there are definitely a couple of things to get still. Sharpening wheels for the grinder, a good light for the turning station, especially if I am going to carry on with any fine work, and finally, a set of proper stones for all the rest of the workshop, with one for the turning station thrown in for good measure. I am pretty sure at that point I am pretty well covered on the turning station tools. At least for now. I can worry about finer tools to turn with later. I have a good enough set to get started on, and to learn to take care of, and to learn to adjust my grind if need be. Though, I don’t know if it need be, as everyone talks about 40 degree grinds down at YouTube University.

I’ll probably give myself some time on the lathe tomorrow. Monday is a day for some chores. I have to go get some corn from a neighbor who offered it on the stalks. It is a hand loading job. It may rain on Monday, according to the forecast, though that is seldom correct. But tomorrow is meant to be nice.

And So It begins…

Here is the first actual project I turned on the lathe. It is a yarn bowl. I will do another and put the squiggly gap in it when I have turned a couple of more items.

I will not be turning again till I can solve a couple of things I discovered while doing this. I need to get the sharpening wheels for the grinder, and I need to learn to properly plunge cut a bowl. Well, maybe I will work on a top next, or an Amish Henry. I do want to get some welding wire to blacken the little gaps at the top and bottom with. I also would like to sort out a bit more safety, and I would finally like to use dry wood for the next project, and see how it differs from this wet project that will likely crack and warp.

Still, it was quite fun!