Other ways of pushing wood

Two years have flown by since my last post...and, sad to say, the workshop has still not been set up for use. I have an old full-size lathe now, and some great other tools, and someday I am going to set up everything the way that I want it and start turning stuff again - at least pens, maybe larger stuff.

While this blog was set up to document the trials and tribulations of a beginning woodturner, I actually have two other hobbies to which the word "woodpusher" could apply.

CHESS

I have been a chess player for 30 years. With the exception of a two-year break while living in Chicago (more on that in a minute), chess has been a part of my life since I learned the moves at the (relatively late) age of nine.

There are several blogs out there about chess, and many people are documenting the learning process and even the teaching process. I do not have a lot to add to what exists already. I have reached a plateau in the chess world that I am happy with, and though there is a lot of online play and the very occasional OTB (over the board) game with friends, I am no longer actively attempting to learn how to improve my chess game. Continuing to play at the level I have achieved is fine with me.

POOL (BILLIARDS)

One day in 1994, I awoke in my one-room apartment in downtown Chicago and, for the first time since learning the moves, I did not feel like playing or studying chess. It felt very strange, but my brain must have felt like it had found a surrogate source to feed its strategy and planning needs - I had recently begun to take up pool. Several bars in the area of my apartment had pool tables, and I would become the strange regular patron who did not drink or smoke but would go into all of the bars regularly to shoot pool. I am sure that the wait staff did not appreciate the lack of alcohol in my drinking habits, but I was not going to learn much about how to improve at pool while drunk.

I played pool in bar leagues for a couple of years, and later when I moved out to the outskirts of the city I became a regular at a couple of pool halls there. The main difference that I had to get used to was that the pool halls had 9-foot tables (regulation size) while the bars that I was used to playing in had 7-foot bar tables. Learning to play well on the larger tables took a bit of doing, but I gradually got used to it.

I love playing pool, and even when I started up with chess again (one day, about two years later, I woke up and felt like playing again) I decided to keep playing pool. I played for about four years pretty regularly, and even did well in several tournaments. I also got to play pool in the pool hall used in the Color of Money (place called Chris's in Chicago - one of the few pool halls I played in that opened at 9 am).

What finally put a (temporary) end to my pool career was cigarette smoke. For some reason, people used to feel that they could not shoot pool without smoking cigarettes, and the air in the pool halls got really smoky at times. I tried for a while to patronize the only non-smoking pool hall that I could find, but it was 45 minutes' drive away and I was not able to go that often. Soon it closed, as smokers had too many alternatives. The only way that non-smoking pool halls would prosper, it seemed, was if they all went non-smoking at the same time. At the time that I left Chicago, that seemed far-fetched.

In 1999 I moved to New Hampshire, and played occasionally on the pool tables in the rec hall of my apartment complex. There was a guy that I met who loved to play straight pool (one of my favorite games now) and we would play matches once a week or so. The tables were not great, though, which took away from the experience a bit.

Seven years passed, during which time I got married, bought a house, and moved to the seacoast area of New Hampshire. During that time, I did not play more than the occasional game of pool. I still had my two pool cues that I bought when I was in Chicago, and kept them safe in a nice sturdy case, but they very rarely came out of hiding.

I plan to make the next few posts a retrospective of some of my stories from my Chicago years and my first tournament in New Hampshire. After that, I will get into my attempts to actively improve my pool game. I am now taking lessons again, for the first time in about 15 years, and the process has made me build my game once again from the ground up.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Turning Lessons!

Well, once again, much time has passed since I last posted here. The main event that happened was my birthday present from my wife. She found someone in Maine who does one-on-one woodturning lessons. So, the first weekend in June (about a month after my birthday, but I had to wait until both the teacher and I had availability) we headed for Stonington, Maine - a picturesque (at least in summer) fishing village that is home to a lot of artists.

The teacher's name is Joaz Hill of ShapeShifter Woodturning (http://woodturning.maine-web.com/shapeshifter/index.html), and I had a great time learning from him. He has been teaching turning for about three years, and I am the first student who wanted to just learn boxes and pepper mills. Most of his other students have wanted to learn how to turn bowls and such.

I wanted to get an in-depth understanding of what tools to use to make boxes and pepper mills. I had watched a DVD on making boxes, but the turner on the DVD did not spend much time on the basics (what tools he was using, what speeds he was turning at, that sort of thing). And, of course, I had taken a class in pepper mill making, but that was a while ago and I never really got a sense of what I would need in order to start making them at home.

With Joaz, we used the tools that I already had, to the extent that they could be used in the project at hand. He showed me how to sharpen each tool, and I was able to practice that until I had a bit of confidence with it. Until now, the only tool I felt comfortable sharpening was the roughing gouge (well, and any tool that could just be honed). What I mainly found out was that, while I had a good set of tools, they are (mostly) not hefty enough to handle the end-grain work and hollowing that boxes need. I now have a list of tools to get, which is not really a bad thing :-)

We made a small box on the first day (Friday) and then started on a larger one. That one we finished on Saturday morning, and we spent the rest of Saturday making a pepper mill.

One aspect of turning the boxes and such caught me by surprise. The lathe we were using was a nice full-size Powermatic lathe that had variable speed. That means that you could run it at any speed from 0 to about (guessing here - we always stayed on the low end) 4000 RPM just by adjusting a knob. We spent just about all of our time in the 150-350 RPM range, and that seemed to be the right speed for what we were doing.

Here is the problem (issue?): My Rikon mini-lathe, while it is big enough to handle the size of the boxes and pepper mills that I would be making, has 5 speeds - the lowest of which is 430 RPM. So, I would have to do all of the box-making and such at a speed that is higher than what I was comfortable working with. I am willing to try to do this, but I have also been looking into getting a mini lathe that does variable speed and starts at a low enough speed to be useful.

I posted a question on www.woodcentral.com (recommended by Joaz - it seems like the people there are very friendly and very helpful) about variable-speed mini lathes, and got two recommendations. The first (and slightly more recommended, though not by much) is a Delta 46-460, which from all accounts seems like a pretty cool machine. The problem is that it is so new that it is not available in a lot of areas. I do not really want to buy something like that without at least getting a firsthand look at it. The second lathe is a Jet 1220VS, which gets high marks from those who use it.

Of course, just as I was figuring out how best to get one of these and sell my existing lathe, someone posted that they have no problem drilling holes and turning at the speeds that my Rikon uses. So, I guess the best thing to do would be to try the Rikon out first, and see if it is feasible now that I (sort of) know what I am doing.

If I am going to turn boxes, I need certain tools though. The next decision to make is where to get those tools from. Joaz recommends Packard Woodworks, and also has used Craft Supplies USA (which I have also used for pen-related stuff). I would have to know exactly what to get, but you can often get free shipping if you buy several tools at once, or at least a discount. I could also go to Woodcraft, especially if I have a discount there. I would have to make sure that they are not marking things up, though.

Next Up: Thursday Night's All Right For Turning

Where to even begin?

It has been an absolutely crazy few months. The woodturning class was cool for a while, but when health issues and then work interfered with two classes in a row, I gave it up. I did produce a cool-looking egg cup and the beginnings of a bowl, and I learned a lot, but I was getting the feeling that the stuff I would want to do would take much more time and expense than I am willing (now, anyway) to throw at it.

I made a pen and pencil set for my high school's auction, and it came out really well. the high bid at the auction was $130, and the person who got it said that it was the only thing he wanted out of all of the items there. That was a great thing to hear, and it made me feel proud to have made it.

What I really want to work on next is how to do a pepper mill correctly without being in a class at the time, and how to do lidded boxes. Unfortunately, I have not been on the best of terms with the folks at the local Woodcraft (their pen kits and advice, on two occasions, left me wanting), and a search for similar stores in the area has turned up nothing. I am really looking for books that show in detail how to do the boxes and the pepper mills, and then I want to start making some.

Second class, and other thoughts

So we had the second class last week, and practiced more spherical, or at least rounded, spindle work. Same tools, just a different technique. We also learned a lot about sharpening, though I do not know if I will be very confident until I have sharpened all of my tools with the instructor watching. I hope to do that next class, which is a week from tonight.

I have set up some of the beautiful burl pen blanks that my brother sent to me to be made into pens. They have been cut and drilled and glued...only the barrel trimming and the lathe-work is left. Then, of course, putting the pen together, which is always a bit nerve-wracking.

I have signed up for the Woodturning Symposium in NH on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. It is looking like it should be a great time - lots of woodturners demonstrating, and lots of vendors. No hands-on work, but there will be a lot to see. It was recommended by the teacher of the class I am taking. The last one was three years ago - coincidentally, the weekend that we moved into our house. I knew nothing about woodturning then.

I have been debating about what to make for my high school's auction. I think I will do a pen and pencil set. Maybe even two of them. I will leave out the letter openers for now.

I have been looking into making lidded boxes. I have a blank (from when I attempted a pepper mill at home) that would be perfect, but I need to get more tools. I do not have the tools that I think I need to hollow out the box.

Catching up...

Well, due to many events involving felines and family members, I have not been able to do much turning over the last couple of months. However, recently I have made a couple of Wall Street II style pens. This style is efficient because you can make two of them from a single 5 1/2 inch pen blank. I made two out of Tamboti, and gave one to the vet who took care of our cat Carmen during her last couple of months. Now we have introduced our new cats, Herbie and Domino, to her, and she will be their vet too.

I have started another class! There is a woodturning class at the Homestead School in Newmarket, taught by the same guy that taught the pepper mill class. This class covers all of the aspects of basic turning, and meets every other Thursday for eight sessions. I have only had one session so far, but it is a lot of fun and I think I will learn a lot too. I got the class tuition as a holiday present this year.

Surprising bonus at the end of the year - four of my pens at Nuance sold! Apparently people thought that my pens would make a good holiday gift. I had no idea that they had sold until I got a check from the owner of the store. What a great surprise that was!

My old high school is having an auction in April - I went to the last one a couple of years ago and it was a lot of fun. This year I might donate a pen/pencil set or something similar to be auctioned off.

My in-laws got me a dust collection system for the holidays that can be hooked up to my Shop-Vac. I have not set it up yet, but I plan to do so this weekend so I can see if it fits the tools that I have in my shop.

That is all for now - next class is on the 5th of February. The first class we practiced doing coves and beads on spindle work. We turned pieces of wood that were still wet - they came from local trees, and they had not dried out completely yet. It was an interesting experience - the shavings that come off of a wet or "green" piece of wood are much different from those that come off of a kiln-dried piece like a pen blank or exotic wood blank.

Varied pen-related stories

Recently, my mom bought a couple of my pens to give to friends and relatives as birthday presents. One of the recipients liked his so much that he commissioned three more! An unexpected bonus this holiday season.

Last night, I went to the monthly Seacoast Woodturners Club meeting. The topic of the evening was "Segmented Pen Turning". There is a guy there who does wonderful work with segmented bowls and such, and he had put together some pen blanks based on the pieces that he used for one of his bowls. I mentioned that I had been turning some pens this week (see paragraph above), and when no one else volunteered I was asked to turn the pen for the demo, in front of the club!

Now, I have taken part in the turning at the club before, but usually we are turning a bowl, and I am learning much more than I am teaching. Last night, though, I was able to show some of the tips that I had picked up over the last couple of years. I even decided to be daring and start using the skew chisel, which many experienced turners shy away from because of the tearout that can result. The other members seemed impressed that I was able to use the skew without any mistakes. For the first time, I really felt like I was contributing to the meetings of the group. It was a great feeling.

Of course, I have had my setbacks recently too. While making a pen last week, I put the first two parts of the kit together backwards. This made the entire kit unusable, and was something I had never done before. I just wasn't thinking. I have put together dozens of pens, and had never made that mistake. I also put together a beautiful cocobolo Classic American pen, only to find that when it was assembled, the top would not turn. I had a nice-looking non-functional pen-like sculpture. Luckily, THAT one got rescued by Don at Woodcraft and is usable now.

The pen I made at the meeting of the club is a slimline style pen that is tapered at the top, bottom, and middle, and fat otherwise. I have never made a pen with that style - all of the slimline pens I have done have been thin all the way across - and it was very interesting to make. I do not like the finished style as much, but I was given the pen when I finished turning it, and I use it in my home office as a nice reminder of the evening at the club.

Due to other issues around the house this fall, I have not progressed with the ornaments or pepper mills (I had wanted to do another one right after the class) at all, but starting in January I have signed up for another woodturning class, which meets every other week on Thursday nights from January to April. I am really looking forward to it. We will be doing spindle and bowl turning. The class is my holiday present.

At long last, a pepper mill!

Well, it finally happened. I took my class at the Homestead Woodworking School in Newmarket, and I learned a lot that can be applied to the making of more than just pepper mills. I worked on a full lathe, too - not the mini lathe that I have at home - and that led me to think that someday I may want one. Not yet, though - there is nothing that I would be working on for a while that would require something that large.

I also learned that my knowledge of my own woodturning tools has been a bit deficient. Even after two years, I apparently had been using a bowl gouge as a spindle gouge, and had never really used the spindle gouge at all. I never even realized I HAD a bowl gouge! I felt really ignorant when I found this out, but at least I know.

During the all day course, I also learned how to make a "jam chuck", turning a piece of scrap wood so that one end of it can be held by a chuck in the headstock while the piece (in this case, the main part of the pepper mill, with the holes already drilled) could be "jammed" onto the other end. In essence, it allows a piece that would not fit onto the regular chuck to be turned on the lathe with support.

The skills learned in the class can, I think, be easily applied to turning boxes and ornaments and such. I used the spindle gouge (now that I know what it is - I still cannot believe my ignorance on that one) to do most of the shaping of the mill. I also learned a bit about how to sharpen my roughing gouge (some of which I knew, but sharpening tips are always good) and my parting tool (which I had never really sharpened on the grinder - I have been using a diamond stone). My bowl gouge will need to be re-sharpened professionally before I use it on any bowls.

I have not sold any more pens through consignment, which is no real surprise given the economy, but I did sell a couple to my mom, who gave them to friends as presents, and they were well received. Supposedly, I will be getting other commissions for pens this holiday season, but I have not gotten them yet, and time is getting short.

So...the pepper mill. I really enjoyed making it. My wife tells me that it has the look of a chess pawn, which was not at all intentional. I was trying to emulate a photograph that they had in the classroom of a particular style, but I deviated from that style and made it my own. If I had somehow been working vertically instead of horizontally on the pepper mill, I could see how I would have intentionally made it into a chess piece, but I had no idea of the resemblance until I brought it home.



I have been told that I should put a layer of beeswax on it, but I am not sure exactly how to do that. I may do it, and I may not.

Woodturner's Club meeting

Last night I went to the local Woodturner's Club meeting, and once again marveled at the various ways that people use their woodturning skills. I met someone who decided to START woodturning by making billiard cues. I love to shoot pool, but I cannot even fathom starting at that point. Of course, he has a full-size lathe, but still...

For the first time, I helped to turn a piece of "found wood" (complete with bark, at least at the start) into something that could, with luck, become a bowl or at least a hollow form. I realized how far behind I am (at least in relation to those who were there last night) when I was given the creation to finish, and I had to ask what I should do with it. At this point, I do not even have bowl tools - no bowl gouge, no scrapers...the good thing is that the holidays are coming up kind of soon. I don't even have any wax to seal the piece with until I decide to do something with it. At the advice of some of the folks at Woodcraft, I am sealing it inside of a ziplock bag. That is supposed to work until I can seal it with something like wax.

Tonight I went back to the cylinder - the one that could possibly become a pepper mill - but things did not go so well. I did find two pens to give to my mom for the commission she gave me, though.

More on the pepper mill stuff later - time for bed for now.

On the road to a pepper mill, hopefully

I have been travelling quite a bit over the last few weeks, so I have not been doing much with the woodturning. The main project has been an attempt at a pepper mill, which (as stated in my last post) was not really going all that well. Since that post, I have watched a really good video on how to turn boxes, and some of the techniques in that DVD can probably be used in the pepper mill project.

I have also enlisted the help of my friend Kurt at Woodcraft. He is a great guy who attacks projects fearlessly and is always happy to help me and answer questions. When I explained to him my issues with the pepper mill project, Kurt first showed me the different qualities of different types of Forstner bits. The ones that I had bought were fairly cheap ($5-10 each), and unfortunately it seems that with these (as with most things) you get what you pay for. Kurt showed me some carbide-tipped Forstner bits that drilled like a dream. Of course, they are each over $25, and I have to see if I will be making enough pepper mills to justify purchasing them.

Being the adventurous type, Kurt decided to see if he could make a pepper mill using the instruction sheet from Woodcraft. He soon found that there were issues with the sheet! So, he has been working on a modified set of instructions for me. I hope to pick them up soon.

In the meantime, when at the Portsmouth Farmer's Market on Saturday, I got to talk with a guy who had his own booth there. He had all sorts of woodcraft on display - carving, turning, chainsaw-carving...all of it was beautiful. While we were talking, he told me about a place nearby that does woodworking courses. They have a Pepper Mill course on November 15th. I really want to do it...I think that once I do one, I should be okay with doing more. Unlike a lot of classes, which start about halfway through the project, this one seems to be a "beginning to end" course. Should be perfect.

He also told me about a place to get some wood - I found where the place is, but I have not been able to visit it yet. It might be a way to get some local wood for less money than I have been paying for the exotics from Woodcraft. The exotics are beautiful, but the local stuff can be gorgeous too, and finding less expensive materials is a good thing.

I have been commissioned to make a couple of pens, so I may go back to that for a week or two, and concentrate on making the pepper mill and maybe a box after the middle of November, assuming I take the course.

I have received some wonderful feedback from someone who just happened to find this blog online. I am very glad that I can have a positive effect on people whom I have never met. Although I was never sure it would happen, it was (and still is) one of the intended goals of this blog.

Tales of pepper mills and such

I realize that it has been a while since I have posted (Amazingly, there is someone out there reading this who cared enough to email me and tell me to post more! :-)), but the truth is that I have not done much turning in the last couple of months. I have made a couple of pens that came out okay but not great, and learned how NOT to remove glue from the black parts of a pen kit, and I have also attempted a pepper mill for the first time.

First, the pen related issue: When assembling a pen that I made recently, I got some glue on the outside of the black cap that was part of the pen kit. The cap seemed to be made of some sort of plastic, and I was not sure how to remove the glue from it. I thought of using a glue solvent, but I was not sure what that would do to the wood, or to the glue that I MEANT to use on the cap of the pen.

So, I hit on the idea of sanding the glue off. Using a bit of 150 grit sandpaper, I rubbed lightly on the spot...thereby rubbing off the black and revealing the copper-coloured piece underneath! The black on the cap was only on the surface, and now the pen looked horrible. (black cap with a streak of copper scratched into it) I decided to sand the entire cap, to see if maybe the look could be improved by having a pen with a copper cap, but the result was not anything I could sell. I will have to use the solvent after all in order to remove the cap and put on another one if I want to try and sell it. A true bummer, as the wood came out amazingly well.

So, on to the pepper mills. I bought a Nova chuck to hold larger items (winestoppers, pepper mills, bowls when/if I get to them). At first, I was a bit perplexed, because the chuck can only hold items with a diameter of 2 inches or so, and the piece of wood that I was starting with (a standard piece available at Woodcraft) was 3" by 3". The chuck could not even hold it. I knew I was missing a piece of the puzzle, but I was not sure what it was.

it turns out that, in order to use the chuck on large pieces, you need to turn a tenon at one end of the piece that is smaller than the chuck jaws. Then the jaws grab on to the tenon, and you can work the rest of the piece. So, I needed to turn the whole piece between centers to get it rounded, and then turn a tenon at one end. I did this, and it seemed to go okay, at least to start. I got a rounded piece that fit in the tenon and was being held by the chuck.

Next up....drilling into endgrain, using Forstner bits.