Some good, some bad...the usual.

Last night I started turning again, for the first time in a while. First, the "not so good":

I am still getting tubes stuck in the blanks when I prepare pens. Not often, but occasionally. This time it happened with a Tigre Caspi pen that I am trying to make. Getting the tube stuck in one blank of the two is okay, since some of the wood needs to be parted off anyway. However, I got it stuck in both ends...which means that I either have to use solvent to dissolve the glue and start over, or glue a piece of tube in the other end of the blank and try to salvage it. Not sure which way I will go with it.

Also, cleaning the headstock and the morse taper, while helpful, did not solve the issue. The chuck still comes off of the morse taper when I try to turn, and it is getting very annoying. I may bring the taper and the chuck to the Woodturner's Club meeting tonight. Maybe it is defective...if I do not solve it tonight, I will bring it Thursday or Saturday to Woodcraft and ask Kurt to take a look.

Now, the good:

The new Spindlemaster tool that I bought last week is fantastic. It basically acts like a skew chisel, in terms of getting close, smooth cuts, but it does not have the same risk of tearout! I am not entirely sure of the best way to sharpen it. I used my diamondstone, since it is a flat tool, but I am not sure if it should be done on the grinder instead.

I also made a good bloodwood Classic American pen, as part of pen/magnifier and pen/letter opener sets I am making. This offsets the cocobolo pen that I tried to make, where a chunk of the wood sheared off when I was using the parting tool. I had to basically lose the wood on that one, and I kept the tubes for future use.

Wow...no posts for March?!?

You'd think that I did no woodturning for the entire month...while it was not a HEAVY month for woodturning, I did verify that the drill press was now working much better, and I set up my sharpening system and jigs the way that I wanted them (finally). The sharpening system had not really been set up correctly before. The grinder was not bolted down, so it sometimes would move while I was sharpening the tools, which is bad. Also, the spacing between the grinder and the jigs on either side was not optimal either, so I really could only use one side of the grinder at a time.

New wood: I picked up some great cocobolo (not that I needed more, but they got a new shipment at Woodcraft and it was too good to pass up). I also picked up some cheap bird's-eye maple and some burl that looked cool. Yesterday Woodcraft had a 15% off sale, and I took advantage of it. I got some new kits (magnifying glass, letter opener, key ring) and even got a new Spindlemaster tool and a couple of neat books.

A couple of weeks ago I stopped in to Nuance to talk to the owner there. I mentioned possibly doing letter openers and magnifying glasses and such, and she seemed very interested. So, I may do a couple of Classic American sets - either pen and magnifier or pen and letter opener. One set in bloodwood or maple, and one set in cocobolo.

I also got some dyed blanks yesterday. They seem to come out pretty well. I think I am set for wood for a good long while now (yeah, right).

Something I also learned yesterday, that gave me hope for doing wine stoppers and such: The reason why the chuck may be slipping out of the headstock is that the headstock may be dirty. If I clean out the headstock, and clean the taper on the chuck, then it may fit together correctly. It is worth a shot, and gives me hope, as I said. Maybe I can start doing eggs and winestoppers soon.