Some of the pen blanks that you can get for turning on a lathe are not made of wood. There are some very cool-looking blanks that are made of other materials, like corian or acrylics. With these materials, you can get kind of a space-age look and a very shiny pen. As part of my attempt to try different things, I decided to try working with acrylics.
I chose a shiny purple acrylic pen blank with black lines running through it. Knowing that my family likes purple (the discussion of purpleheart woodturning will be addressed later), I figured that the finished product would probably make a good gift.
The cutting of the acrylic pen blank was very similar to the experience of cutting wood. Before getting started with the process, I called Woodcraft to see if I should be using any different materials or different tools when dealing with acrylics. They said that the only difference would be that acrylics are harder on the tools than wood, and that I should leave more room for sanding the blank down. Oh, and I should not sand too much in the same place, as there can be a heat buildup which can create bubbles and holes in the finished product.
Drilling the acrylics was a bit of a strange experience. The hole went straight through the blank - better than wood because there is no grain to throw off the drill bit - but instead of wood shavings flying off, these long curly pieces of plastic worked their way up the drill bit and had to be removed by hand. These plastic pieces were harsh to the touch, and were a harbinger of the struggle to come.
Gluing the tubes into the blanks was not a hardship. I just needed to make sure that there was enough glue on the tube.
Trimming the blanks with the barrel trimmer was a lot like drilling the holes in the first place. Again, instead of wood shavings flying off, the ropes of plastic climbed up the barrel trimmer and had to be removed. All the while, there was kind of a nasty plastic smell. I had to make sure to keep the garage door open while I worked with this material.
Turning the blanks on the lathe was not very enjoyable. The tools had to be VERY sharp, and the nasty smell was everywhere, and the little pieces of plastic flew off around the woodshop. I kept telling myself that I was just doing this to try something new, and that the finished product might make it all worthwhile.
As was recommended, I left a bit more than usual on the blank when I started sanding it down. I thought that I needed to do this because it would sand faster or something, but the opposite was actually the case. It took a LOT of sandpaper to sand the blank down to the bushings, and it took a LONG time. Unfortunately, I must have sanded too much in one area, because there was a "rip" in one part of the pen when I was through. It is true that, aside from the rip, the finished pen was pretty cool (my mom wanted the pen even with the rip, as it was purple and, well, she IS my mom), but I did not have a good time making it at all.
I even have another set of acrylic pen blanks drilled and glued (I had bought two originally, and prepared them both), but I have resisted actually making a pen out of them. Maybe someday I will - it would be a bit of a waste not to - but not until I have tried several other experiments and have forgotten (at least a little bit) what the acrylic turning was like.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Another small tip, and more interesting woodwork
Another tip that I picked up from my woodturning book is to cut the pen blanks as close to the length of the tubes before drilling and gluing. Not only does it keep the woodshop from filling up with useless shavings, it allows me to keep small squares of wood for use in more intricate pens. This does not necessarily increase the quality of the pens, just the possibilities. :-)
I have made attempts at creating a couple of other types of pens. One is the "broker pen", which my father and sister liked so much that I do not have one handy to take a picture of. An example of the broker pen can be found here.
Another type of pen, that I have tried once and am about to try again soon, is a combination pen/pencil. If you twist it to the right, it is a pen, and if you twist to the left it is a pencil. This one was made out of ash:
Another kit that you can get is for a magnifying glass or a letter opener. There are several styles for these, but the one that I have tried (and it came out pretty well) is the Classic American style. This one is a gift for my father-in-law for his birthday. My wife gave him the pen that she made in the pen turning class that we took, and it is of the same wood (Cocobolo):
I have not tried any letter openers yet, but I recently got a kit for one, so it will not be long before I try it.
I have made attempts at creating a couple of other types of pens. One is the "broker pen", which my father and sister liked so much that I do not have one handy to take a picture of. An example of the broker pen can be found here.
Another type of pen, that I have tried once and am about to try again soon, is a combination pen/pencil. If you twist it to the right, it is a pen, and if you twist to the left it is a pencil. This one was made out of ash:
Another kit that you can get is for a magnifying glass or a letter opener. There are several styles for these, but the one that I have tried (and it came out pretty well) is the Classic American style. This one is a gift for my father-in-law for his birthday. My wife gave him the pen that she made in the pen turning class that we took, and it is of the same wood (Cocobolo):
I have not tried any letter openers yet, but I recently got a kit for one, so it will not be long before I try it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Figuring out the drill press, and other tips
While I have been getting better at the entire process, my unfamiliarity with power tools (and tools in general) rears its ugly head sometimes. For the longest time, I could not figure out why the drill press seemed to drill straight holes (as advertised) that went diagonally through the pen blank instead of straight down the center (a feature not shown in any ads that *I* had ever seen). I even called the manufacturer of the drill press and spoke to their technical support. They had me make sure that the chuck (the part holding the drill bit) was on straight, and that it came down straight onto the table. I thought this would help, and it did help a bit, but I was still experiencing the frustration of not knowing when the holes would drill straight.
With large pen blanks (large in diameter), this is not as much of a problem, but if I ever wanted to do work with smaller blanks, I could drill through the side of the blank instead of out the bottom, and that would be bad.
I was pretty much at my wit's end, since I still did not have success after calling the drill press technical support line, so I went back to the gurus at Woodcraft and one of them said, in kind of an offhand manner, "I assume you have already squared the bit with the press table". I just looked at him, trying to figure out what he meant.
"You mean leveled the table against the chuck?", I said, figuring that had to be what he meant, since that is what the drill press tech said to do.
It turns out that the best way to drill holes straight down is to make sure that the drill bit is at a 90 degree angle to the drill press table. It sounded obvious as soon as he explained it, and I bought a small square to help me make sure of the right angle. Once I "squared up" the table and the bit...voila! Suddenly my holes were pretty straight. The bit will always follow the grain of the wood a bit, but the error was a lot smaller and could be dealt with.
Even with straighter holes, though, there was still an issue with not being able to get the pen tubes into the holes once they were drilled. One tip that seems to work most of the time (we'll see an exception later where it does not help as much, though it never hurts): After the hole is drilled, take the pen blank out of the vise and manually move it up and down the drill bit to clear out any bits that prevented the hole from being straight. It is a bit suggestive, but it works. :-)
Another tip which helped with the final product, that (again) I had not thought about, is the application of a second coat of finish. I had thought that one coat of finish was all that was needed, and indeed the pens came out okay, but a second coat of finish made a big difference!
This, I think, is my best work to date. It is the first pencil in the Classic American style that I put together, and all of the tips mentioned above were used. It is not the only good pen I have made, but it is (hopefully) the first of many great ones.
With large pen blanks (large in diameter), this is not as much of a problem, but if I ever wanted to do work with smaller blanks, I could drill through the side of the blank instead of out the bottom, and that would be bad.
I was pretty much at my wit's end, since I still did not have success after calling the drill press technical support line, so I went back to the gurus at Woodcraft and one of them said, in kind of an offhand manner, "I assume you have already squared the bit with the press table". I just looked at him, trying to figure out what he meant.
"You mean leveled the table against the chuck?", I said, figuring that had to be what he meant, since that is what the drill press tech said to do.
It turns out that the best way to drill holes straight down is to make sure that the drill bit is at a 90 degree angle to the drill press table. It sounded obvious as soon as he explained it, and I bought a small square to help me make sure of the right angle. Once I "squared up" the table and the bit...voila! Suddenly my holes were pretty straight. The bit will always follow the grain of the wood a bit, but the error was a lot smaller and could be dealt with.
Even with straighter holes, though, there was still an issue with not being able to get the pen tubes into the holes once they were drilled. One tip that seems to work most of the time (we'll see an exception later where it does not help as much, though it never hurts): After the hole is drilled, take the pen blank out of the vise and manually move it up and down the drill bit to clear out any bits that prevented the hole from being straight. It is a bit suggestive, but it works. :-)
Another tip which helped with the final product, that (again) I had not thought about, is the application of a second coat of finish. I had thought that one coat of finish was all that was needed, and indeed the pens came out okay, but a second coat of finish made a big difference!
This, I think, is my best work to date. It is the first pencil in the Classic American style that I put together, and all of the tips mentioned above were used. It is not the only good pen I have made, but it is (hopefully) the first of many great ones.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Some success along the way
During this entire process, it would seem from my posts that nothing I did came out right. That is not quite true. In fact, one of my first attempts came out fairly well. It was a slimline style pen, made with Padauk (pronounced pah-duke) and not really polished, but for a first try, pretty encouraging:
I still had (and, indeed, STILL have) a lot to learn, and I wanted to start making Classic American style pens (like the one I made in class). Many of them, as I stated earlier, came out too short due to the brass tubes being cut down by the barrel trimmer. Eventually, though, with the help of my guru at WoodCraft, I figured that part out. This is a Classic American style pen that I made out of Bird's Eye Maple and Aromatic Red Cedar:
I still had (and, indeed, STILL have) a lot to learn, and I wanted to start making Classic American style pens (like the one I made in class). Many of them, as I stated earlier, came out too short due to the brass tubes being cut down by the barrel trimmer. Eventually, though, with the help of my guru at WoodCraft, I figured that part out. This is a Classic American style pen that I made out of Bird's Eye Maple and Aromatic Red Cedar:
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The many ways to go wrong...
Well, just because I could drill straight holes (or were they? More on that later) does not mean that all of my pen blanks were making it to the lathe. There is still the evil step of gluing the tubes into the blanks, and then there is the part where the ends of the blanks need to be squared up so that they will fit on the lathe with the bushings correctly. Both of these steps are rife with pitfalls.
Gluing the blanks
When the holes have been drilled into the blanks, the next step is to glue the tubes from the pen kit into the holes, and then let them dry. The generally accepted way to do this is to put the glue onto one half of the tube, slide the tube in and out of one end of the blank (coating the inside of the blank with glue), and then take the tube out, put more glue on it, and slide the tube into the other end of the blank until the tube is all the way inside the hole.
How many ways are there to go wrong here? Well...here are a few that I have personally experienced:
1. The tube gets stuck halfway into the blank. The glue hardens so quickly, and/or the hole is so tight, that the tube is stuck fast when it is not yet all the way inside the blank. When this happens, if you think really quickly, you can take a hammer and try to hammer the tube into the blank while the glue is not completely set. This has worked for me exactly once. All other times, the blank has had to be sacrificed (sometimes along with the tube, if the hammer "trick" does not work - there is a good reason why they sell extra tubes by themselves as well as with the kits).
2. The "pen insertion tool" gets stuck to the tube, which is in turn stuck inside the blank. The "pen insertion tool" is a tool that is sold to help people avoid getting the glue on their hands. The glue instead gets on the tool, which is used to push the tube into the end of the blank. If the glue then hardens, well...this one will only happen once, because once it happens, the pen insertion tool is pretty much toast.
3. The glue gets on your hands. This has happened countless times, and so far, I have been able to just live with it. Not happily, mind you, but it is not fatal to either the project or the turner.
Trimming the blanks
Trimming the blanks involves using a pen mill, or "barrel trimmer", attached to a screwdriver. Basically, when cutting the blanks, you leave a tiny bit (1/8") on either side of the tube so that the ends can be "squared up" and will sit correctly with the bushings on the lathe.
Do NOT cut into the brass tube with the barrel trimmer during this step.
Let me repeat that:
Do NOT cut into the brass tube with the barrel trimmer during this step.
This is unbelievably important, and took me forever to catch on to. Unfortunately, unless you have an idea that something went wrong, and you re-measure the length of the blank after trimming, you will not catch this error until you put together a pen that will not close up all the way. The instructor at WoodCraft calls these "desk pens", because they cannot be put into a pocket.
I never realized (well, not until it was told to me) that the barrel trimmer will chew through the brass tube without stopping. I had thought that I could feel it when the trimmer got to the tube, so I would stop at that point. As I found out later, I was stopping way too late, and the tube was now too short.
Gluing the blanks
When the holes have been drilled into the blanks, the next step is to glue the tubes from the pen kit into the holes, and then let them dry. The generally accepted way to do this is to put the glue onto one half of the tube, slide the tube in and out of one end of the blank (coating the inside of the blank with glue), and then take the tube out, put more glue on it, and slide the tube into the other end of the blank until the tube is all the way inside the hole.
How many ways are there to go wrong here? Well...here are a few that I have personally experienced:
1. The tube gets stuck halfway into the blank. The glue hardens so quickly, and/or the hole is so tight, that the tube is stuck fast when it is not yet all the way inside the blank. When this happens, if you think really quickly, you can take a hammer and try to hammer the tube into the blank while the glue is not completely set. This has worked for me exactly once. All other times, the blank has had to be sacrificed (sometimes along with the tube, if the hammer "trick" does not work - there is a good reason why they sell extra tubes by themselves as well as with the kits).
2. The "pen insertion tool" gets stuck to the tube, which is in turn stuck inside the blank. The "pen insertion tool" is a tool that is sold to help people avoid getting the glue on their hands. The glue instead gets on the tool, which is used to push the tube into the end of the blank. If the glue then hardens, well...this one will only happen once, because once it happens, the pen insertion tool is pretty much toast.
3. The glue gets on your hands. This has happened countless times, and so far, I have been able to just live with it. Not happily, mind you, but it is not fatal to either the project or the turner.
Trimming the blanks
Trimming the blanks involves using a pen mill, or "barrel trimmer", attached to a screwdriver. Basically, when cutting the blanks, you leave a tiny bit (1/8") on either side of the tube so that the ends can be "squared up" and will sit correctly with the bushings on the lathe.
Do NOT cut into the brass tube with the barrel trimmer during this step.
Let me repeat that:
Do NOT cut into the brass tube with the barrel trimmer during this step.
This is unbelievably important, and took me forever to catch on to. Unfortunately, unless you have an idea that something went wrong, and you re-measure the length of the blank after trimming, you will not catch this error until you put together a pen that will not close up all the way. The instructor at WoodCraft calls these "desk pens", because they cannot be put into a pocket.
I never realized (well, not until it was told to me) that the barrel trimmer will chew through the brass tube without stopping. I had thought that I could feel it when the trimmer got to the tube, so I would stop at that point. As I found out later, I was stopping way too late, and the tube was now too short.
Friday, May 18, 2007
I have a lathe! Now what?
The previous owner of our house (we moved into our first house just about a year ago) used to work on cars and motorcycles in the garage. So, the garage is very well set up for the use of power tools and related accessories. This made the setup of my woodshop (for such it was going to be) much easier. There is plenty of light in the garage, and it is heated, and it has many electrical outlets.
When I first set up my lathe, I thought I was on the verge of being creative. I thought that, once I set it up, I could put a block of wood on there and I would just be able to start making stuff out of it. My wife had also, in addition to the tools, gotten me a pen mandrel for the lathe, which is needed for pens, ornaments, and such. I was so clueless that I was not even sure how to put the mandrel on the lathe.
Once the mandrel was on the lathe, I had a bit of a dilemma (not my last, by any means, but close to my first where this whole project was concerned): What is the best way to get the holes drilled into the wood so that I could put the wood on the mandrel and start turning?
A hand drill was my first thought. But, I had to try to rig something up to hold the wood in place, or else the hole would not drill straight. Remember, I started this process not being very good with tools. I managed to drill a hole in a block of wood, after a few attempts, and I put the wood on the mandrel, and I started the lathe...and I was turning! Sort of. The lathe was much too high for me on the work area that it was on, and I had no real idea of what I was doing.
The first thing I needed was a work area. The garage did not have much of that, since it had been customized for work on cars and such. We went to Home Depot (We can do it - they can help!) and bought two put-em-together-yourself workbenches. Once we put them together, I had a place to put my lathe. Which was great, but it was gradually becoming more apparent that I needed more power tools. The hand drill was just not going to work...I needed a drill press. I did not want to buy a drill press yet, until we learned how to make pens, so we took a pen class from the same guy who taught the ornament class that I had taken last December.
The pen class
The pen class was a lot of fun, which reinforced the idea that this was going to be a hobby that I would really enjoy. The process started at the point that we put the blanks onto the lathe, though. The holes were already drilled and the tubes were glued into the blanks and dry. Once again, I had no idea what to do in order to successfully bring a pen blank to the lathe, but once it was on the lathe, I was pretty sure I would enjoy the woodturning and assembling the finished pen.
The drill press
We have all heard the phrase "You get what you pay for". Sometimes it really is true! We were advised by the folks at WoodCraft to get the Rikon drill press that they sold there, because it would drill a deep enough hole to go through a pen blank without having to move it. It also had other features that seemed cool but did not seem too useful to me, and a pricetag that was a bit more than I was wanting to pay when I had not even made anything on the lathe yet.
So, we bought a cheaper drill press, and quickly found that, well, you know the drill (so to speak). It did not do what I needed, despite the fact that one of the reviewers of the press online stated that he was using it for pen blanks. So, we returned it and decided to get the drill press from WoodCraft.
After getting the right drill press, I got a pen vise (for holding the blanks on the press table) and a pen press (for assembling pens once the wood was finished). It was now time for...
Next: Trial and error (and error, and error)...
When I first set up my lathe, I thought I was on the verge of being creative. I thought that, once I set it up, I could put a block of wood on there and I would just be able to start making stuff out of it. My wife had also, in addition to the tools, gotten me a pen mandrel for the lathe, which is needed for pens, ornaments, and such. I was so clueless that I was not even sure how to put the mandrel on the lathe.
Once the mandrel was on the lathe, I had a bit of a dilemma (not my last, by any means, but close to my first where this whole project was concerned): What is the best way to get the holes drilled into the wood so that I could put the wood on the mandrel and start turning?
A hand drill was my first thought. But, I had to try to rig something up to hold the wood in place, or else the hole would not drill straight. Remember, I started this process not being very good with tools. I managed to drill a hole in a block of wood, after a few attempts, and I put the wood on the mandrel, and I started the lathe...and I was turning! Sort of. The lathe was much too high for me on the work area that it was on, and I had no real idea of what I was doing.
The first thing I needed was a work area. The garage did not have much of that, since it had been customized for work on cars and such. We went to Home Depot (We can do it - they can help!) and bought two put-em-together-yourself workbenches. Once we put them together, I had a place to put my lathe. Which was great, but it was gradually becoming more apparent that I needed more power tools. The hand drill was just not going to work...I needed a drill press. I did not want to buy a drill press yet, until we learned how to make pens, so we took a pen class from the same guy who taught the ornament class that I had taken last December.
The pen class
The pen class was a lot of fun, which reinforced the idea that this was going to be a hobby that I would really enjoy. The process started at the point that we put the blanks onto the lathe, though. The holes were already drilled and the tubes were glued into the blanks and dry. Once again, I had no idea what to do in order to successfully bring a pen blank to the lathe, but once it was on the lathe, I was pretty sure I would enjoy the woodturning and assembling the finished pen.
The drill press
We have all heard the phrase "You get what you pay for". Sometimes it really is true! We were advised by the folks at WoodCraft to get the Rikon drill press that they sold there, because it would drill a deep enough hole to go through a pen blank without having to move it. It also had other features that seemed cool but did not seem too useful to me, and a pricetag that was a bit more than I was wanting to pay when I had not even made anything on the lathe yet.
So, we bought a cheaper drill press, and quickly found that, well, you know the drill (so to speak). It did not do what I needed, despite the fact that one of the reviewers of the press online stated that he was using it for pen blanks. So, we returned it and decided to get the drill press from WoodCraft.
After getting the right drill press, I got a pen vise (for holding the blanks on the press table) and a pen press (for assembling pens once the wood was finished). It was now time for...
Next: Trial and error (and error, and error)...
Suddenly I am easier to shop for...
My wife has always said that it is impossible (or at least improbable) to shop for me. I am pretty happy with my lot in life, and there are not many things that I look at and say "Hey, I would like someone to buy that for me". If I can afford it, I would rather get it for myself than burden someone else with the cost, and if I cannot afford it, well, I am not about to ask someone else to try to pay for it!
I married someone who is imbued with the true holiday spirit, however, so every time a gift-giving occasion comes along, she asks if there is anything that I want. Last winter, the answer was suddenly easy: I wanted a mini-lathe, like the one that I worked on in the ornament class. Any gift (or even no gift) would be fine, but if she was asking...
Then came the day (an annual tradition, as I am sure it is with many couples) when we went our own ways in an effort to find things to buy for each other. My wife went off to do this while I was still at work (I work in a home office in our basement). We had agreed that she would have the use of a downstairs closet in which to store things that I was not allowed to see, so I kept my office door closed when she came home so that I would not see what she was bringing in.
Whatever it was, it was pretty big. I heard her fighting with something that she was sliding across the floor of the basement, and I called out to her to see if I could help. She told me to keep my office door closed and not to pay attention to the noises. After a while, I heard the closet door close, and it was safe for me to come out of my office. I had my suspicions, but I had been fooled before, so I was not sure what awaited me as a holiday gift.
It turned out to be the lathe I wanted, and a set of woodturning tools! I was (I thought) ready to set up shop and start turning ornaments! I still basically had no idea what was still needed to get to the point where I could put something meaningful onto the lathe. For one thing, I still did not have a spot to put the lathe...which leads us to:
Next: Setting up the woodshop
I married someone who is imbued with the true holiday spirit, however, so every time a gift-giving occasion comes along, she asks if there is anything that I want. Last winter, the answer was suddenly easy: I wanted a mini-lathe, like the one that I worked on in the ornament class. Any gift (or even no gift) would be fine, but if she was asking...
Then came the day (an annual tradition, as I am sure it is with many couples) when we went our own ways in an effort to find things to buy for each other. My wife went off to do this while I was still at work (I work in a home office in our basement). We had agreed that she would have the use of a downstairs closet in which to store things that I was not allowed to see, so I kept my office door closed when she came home so that I would not see what she was bringing in.
Whatever it was, it was pretty big. I heard her fighting with something that she was sliding across the floor of the basement, and I called out to her to see if I could help. She told me to keep my office door closed and not to pay attention to the noises. After a while, I heard the closet door close, and it was safe for me to come out of my office. I had my suspicions, but I had been fooled before, so I was not sure what awaited me as a holiday gift.
It turned out to be the lathe I wanted, and a set of woodturning tools! I was (I thought) ready to set up shop and start turning ornaments! I still basically had no idea what was still needed to get to the point where I could put something meaningful onto the lathe. For one thing, I still did not have a spot to put the lathe...which leads us to:
Next: Setting up the woodshop
Woodturning for the Holidays
While I have always been partial to woodcraft - I was into woodburning for a while, and still like it, but the business of having to trace the drawings onto the wood first can be kind of boring - I never really knew what woodturning was. Fortunately (perhaps, in terms of my wallet, unfortunately) we have a WoodCraft store nearby. WoodCraft stores are wonderful places. The one near us has very friendly people working in it, and they offer all sorts of classes in different types of woodwork - carving, turning, guitar-making, table-making, etc. It was during the holiday season of 2006, and my wife and I saw a listing for a class where you get to turn a holiday ornament. I thought this would be a pretty cool introduction to the whole woodturning process, and at the end of it I would get (if I did things well) a nice ornament to show off...something of which I could say "Hey, I made this".
Well, the class was a lot of fun. The ornament started as a cube-like block of wood with a hole drilled through it and a brass tube glued into the hole. At the time, I did not even think about the process of getting the hole drilled and the tube glued and such - I was happy that it was done, and we were able to start right in on the lathe.
The process of turning wood on a lathe, especially on a mandrel, is very relaxing. You are creating something that is aesthetically pleasing, as it always comes out symmetrically. You could make something that is very different from what you intended, but it will still come out symmetrical unless you deliberately did not want it to.
In addition to turning the wood on the lathe, I learned about the uses of CA glue, and about the ways to add colour to woodworking. We drilled small holes in the ornament, and filled them with coloured wood shavings and glue. It made for a nice effect.
I was hooked. I could imagine making ornaments for friends and wowing them with my craft. Somehow I forgot about what might be needed to get the wood to even the point that I started at in the class...and it is a good thing that I was naive, because if I thought about it too much I might never have gotten started!
Introduction - Why Woodpusher?
Until recently, I never had a hobby that I felt was worth discussing in a forum where others could see. In the last several months, however, I have taken up woodturning, and when I realized how much I had learned, and how far I still have to go, I decided to document my experiences on the off chance that someone might want to come along for the ride. I am sure that many of my mistakes would not be made by those who are familiar with power tools (don't worry - all of my limbs and extremities are still attached and in good shape), but maybe there are some people out there who, like me, enjoy working with wood and want to create with it, but (at the start) have no clue what they are doing.
When I think back on the hobbies that I have liked the most through the years, I realize that wood plays a rather large part. The term "woodpusher" is generally a chess term, and I have been playing chess for about 25 years, give or take. I have been fairly successful, in the sense that I generally win more than I lose, and I enjoy teaching chess to others, but to create a blog about chess would have several drawbacks. For example - chess is the second most popular use of the Internet, so there are MANY sites and blogs and discussions and such that can help you get better at the game or find resources about it. A second problem is that, in order to truly relate my chess experiences, I would have a lot to say about the past and not much to say about the present. My last tournament was over 4 years ago, and while I played tournaments for about 20 years, I am pretty much done with that now. I mainly play online for fun, but there is not much to blog about that. I wanted to pick something where I have a little bit of a history, but am mostly posting about things I am doing at the time. That being said, any current chess news of mine may find its way in here from time to time.
My other wood-related hobby is pool. There was a period of about 2 1/2 years in the mid-1990s when I gave up chess - just woke up one day and decided I did not want to play any more. I started to shoot pool instead. I got hooked when I realized that there was strategy and planning in pool - it is not just the ability to make the shots, but the ability to set yourself up for the next shot (or set your opponent up to miss). Again, though, my days of shooting pool regularly are in the past. I will occasionally pick up a cue and play in a tournament - even won a handicapped 9-ball tournament a few months ago - but the cigarette smoking and the price of an hour of pool in most places has discouraged me.
So, we come to woodturning. Moneywise, it dwarfs chess and pool in terms of startup costs, so perhaps the cigarette smoke was more to blame than the cost when I decided not to shoot pool any more. If they vote to ban smoking in bars and restaurants in New Hampshire, then I might get back to the pool table.
Next: Getting hooked
When I think back on the hobbies that I have liked the most through the years, I realize that wood plays a rather large part. The term "woodpusher" is generally a chess term, and I have been playing chess for about 25 years, give or take. I have been fairly successful, in the sense that I generally win more than I lose, and I enjoy teaching chess to others, but to create a blog about chess would have several drawbacks. For example - chess is the second most popular use of the Internet, so there are MANY sites and blogs and discussions and such that can help you get better at the game or find resources about it. A second problem is that, in order to truly relate my chess experiences, I would have a lot to say about the past and not much to say about the present. My last tournament was over 4 years ago, and while I played tournaments for about 20 years, I am pretty much done with that now. I mainly play online for fun, but there is not much to blog about that. I wanted to pick something where I have a little bit of a history, but am mostly posting about things I am doing at the time. That being said, any current chess news of mine may find its way in here from time to time.
My other wood-related hobby is pool. There was a period of about 2 1/2 years in the mid-1990s when I gave up chess - just woke up one day and decided I did not want to play any more. I started to shoot pool instead. I got hooked when I realized that there was strategy and planning in pool - it is not just the ability to make the shots, but the ability to set yourself up for the next shot (or set your opponent up to miss). Again, though, my days of shooting pool regularly are in the past. I will occasionally pick up a cue and play in a tournament - even won a handicapped 9-ball tournament a few months ago - but the cigarette smoking and the price of an hour of pool in most places has discouraged me.
So, we come to woodturning. Moneywise, it dwarfs chess and pool in terms of startup costs, so perhaps the cigarette smoke was more to blame than the cost when I decided not to shoot pool any more. If they vote to ban smoking in bars and restaurants in New Hampshire, then I might get back to the pool table.
Next: Getting hooked
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