is anybody turning

Re: is anybody turning

Jerry Maske

First, be thankful you're in a garage where you can turn year around. Wish I had that luxury. Catching shavings isn't that big a deal. As experienced as you are you should know where they are likely to go. I surprised myself by taking a few cuts, stopping and looking around. I put a plastic bucket where most of the shavings were going and saved myself a HUGE amount of clean up. For sure, they go other places. My shop is twenty four feet long with the lathe at one end and the table saw at the other. Not often, but sometimes I will find shavings all the way down at the other end.

I like to "Rough Turn" and come back to do the final stuff. Rough turning is where the mess is. Dry residue usually is more dust than shavings, and what shavings there are don't go far, so my trick to catch them works even better.

My guess is the most masterful wood turner will need to sweep up the mess from time to time. And not to put too fine a point on it; "It's a Dirty Job, but SOMEBODY has to do it."

Jerry

Re: is anybody turning

Dick Strauss

John,

Hang an old clear shower curtain from the ceiling to contain your shavings. You can take it down when not in use (you need to open the garage door). Solid large gauge copper wire or coat hangers work well for the wire bent ceiling mounts and hanging hooks. YMMV

ice cube shops

John K Jordan

>be thankful you're in a garage where you can turn year around

Jerry, You've got that right! After many years of firing up a kerosene heater an hour before turning on a frozen lathe I finally built a well-insulated building and installed heat and air. Wow, it makes turning or carving or welding or anything a spontaneous thing - 7 am or midnight?, just have 15 minutes?, no problem! Life is so good. :-)

John, As for turning, not much time lately but I've been working on some designs for lidded boxes/bowls for the Beads of Courage project. I have one almost ready to photograph so maybe I'll post something in a day or two.

I also have some magic wand turning coming up. When someone asks for a turning I usually invite them to the shop and let them pick out the wood, maybe try their hand at making a shaving. This makes the whole thing much more personal and appreciated.

JKJ

Here ye go! 

Doc Green

[posted on FaceBook by Glen Lucas]

Re: ice cube shops

Jerry Maske

John,

I live along the coast of Maine, close enough to the ocean that I can hit it with a Three Wood and a Seven Iron! The water temperature helps moderate the extremes at both ends. Then, there's today. We're in the middle of an ice storm and it's really coming down. Power losses are just about assured.

Having said all that, when I built my garage/wood shop, I said certain, Ancient incantations over the garage such that if ANYONE put enough junk in there that I couldn't get the car in overnight, and away from this ice storm, they'd be VERY unhappy. And the other half is my wood shop.

The basic problem is that I had to have it built UNATTACHED. Electricity wasn't a problem, but water and heat were. I've added a propane heater that will do what your kerosene heater would do. Still don't have any water out there and that's a problem. If I ever succeed in burning this one to the ground, I'll remedy things. But, for now, I run the propane unit, and am while the ice pellets bang on the roof.

I'm in the middle of a large Stacked Laminated bowl project just now and need to spend the day doing resaw work. Wish me luck.

ice storms!

John K Jordan

>Then, there's today. We're in the middle of an ice storm and

>it's really coming down. Power losses are just about assured.

Yikes, best of luck with your turning AND with keeping the power on!

You know ice storms are rare in TN and the real estate is quite reasonable! :-)

I built my shop down the hill from the house. It's a bit of a walk but it's near the barn so I can keep an eye on the llamas and things. I ran underground power (250 ft) but envy anyone who has water in the shop. I do have water at the barn and close access to a water line - hope to put in a bath and small kitchen someday (when I save up some more money!)

After I cleared the space I had plenty of room to build and put in a 24'x62' building. I thought that would be more room than I could ever use. Ha.

JKJ

No turning till March ...

George Taylor

... when we move our living quarters out of what will be my shop. It's been a long road, but we are on the home stretch. Pix and/or shop tour to follow.

Re: Here ye go!

Jerry Maske

So, not only are you outside in a T shirt in November but you've got the ideal container for your shavings. And if you don't sweep up, who cares? Some people are revolting! Glad you got it figured out.

Today's storm started off as light rain, which froze as the temperature fell, and made my parking lot pretty dangerous to walk on. Then it turned to a lot of ice. Just now it's all snow and a lot of it.

I got the shop warm and resawed my way through five 1/4" pieces. Needed six for the design I drew and may still get that last one. Vertical alignment went crazy at the end. I'll see what I can do after lunch. And if I have to work with five, I can alter my pattern to be a little shorter.

Maybe a bolt of lightening will hit my shop and I'll get to rebuild, with a bath, and proper heat, and AC, and a Jacuzzi. Then the wife wouldn't have to worry about where I was all day.

Now, if I could figure out how to post pictures here I could show you what I'm up to. Hints?

posting photos

John K Jordan

>Now, if I could figure out how to post pictures here

>I could show you what I'm up to. Hints?

In the FAQs link in the banner menu above are some instructions for preparing and posting photos. Two ways: link to a photo hosted elsewhere or upload directly. I use the upload method.

Basically you have to limit the file size to no more than 100k. This seems pretty small but is actually fine for forum use and kind to those with slow or metered connections!

There are plenty of ways to do this and some are listed in the FAQ. I personally use Photoshop since I used it for decades for my work. I crop the photo, edit the brightness/color as needed, resize to something reasonable (maybe 400-700 pixels across), then save as a jpg. I use a feature in Photoshop that makes it trivial to save an image to a target file size but Photoshop is expensive. (Photoshop Elements is cheap and will do the same thing.)

Then use the "Upload embedded file" browse button above to grab the picture.

BTW, I love pictures! Making bowl blanks:

JKJ

Re: posting photos

Jerry Maske

Okay, I'll give it a try. Except I can't find an "Insertion" button. I'm using a Mac; does that make a difference? And is that even possible?

Jerry

Re: posting photos

Jerry Maske

Just found it in "My Profile," but it tells me the file is too big. And my photo editor does NOT have a way to cut down the size. Guess I'm stuck.

Re: posting photos

Jerry Maske

Not sure what I just did but I managed to put a picture into my profile that's showing up as my icon? Too old for this stuff.

Now we'll see if it works like it's supposed to.

Whatever you did,...

Ellis Walentine

...it worked, and what a beautiful bowl. Thanks for hanging in there and getting it done.

Ellis Walentine, host

Not turning but...

Ellis Walentine

... we're visiting our daughter and I just noticed this piece that I made for her some time ago; thought it was nice enough to show here.

Curly Norway maple, 6"H x 9"dia.

Ellis

Re: is anybody turning

Mike Brazeau

My garage shop has about a ten foot ceiling so I strung some vinyl coated clothesline in a couple of place with turn buckles to make them taught and hang shower curtains from them. When not needed I fold the curtains up out of the way.

embedding photos - the Browse button

John K Jordan

>Okay, I'll give it a try. Except I can't find an "Insertion" button. I'm using

>a Mac; does that make a difference? And is that even possible?

It's a "Browse" button and on my screen it's here when preparing a message for posting:

This is with Win8. I have no idea what you would see with a Mac but I thought it was supposed to be the same.

To get the file small enough is a trick sometimes. One of the topics in the FAQs is "Q: How do I reduce the size of pictures so that I can post them on WoodCentral?"

This topic describes some methods. In the end, to reduce the file size you have to reduce the JPG image quality by increasing the "image compression". Most image processing programs give you an image quality option when saving the file. (You really need some kind of image/photo processing program to do this effectively. Many are free. I think some are on-line.)

I can understand how this can be confusing if it is new! I spent many years in the graphics field so it is second nature to me. I don't have experience with all of the image processing programs out there (as mentioned, I use Photoshop) but I would be glad to help anyway I can. We can communicate by email if you prefer.

JKJ

Online resizing utilities *LINK*

Ellis Walentine

If you'd prefer not to buy and learn an imaging program, there are lots of resizing utilities available online. One that I have used is called PixResizer. There are plenty of others as well, and they are all simple and free.

Ellis


PixResizer

Not much here

Don Orr

Did a few things before holidays-nothing photo worthy though.

Re: posting photos

John Jordan

Jerry,

No need for new re-sizing software, you can use "PREVIEW" app on your mac. Even easier is to email the pictures to yourself, and choose the size you want when it asks. It goes from full-size to large, medium, small, thumbnail, and it shows you the size in KB or MEG. Save them on a folder on your desktop.

John

Post oak spherical hollow forms

Dick Coers

Getting close to finishing on these. I have some rusty steel wool in some vinegar to dye at least one black. Thinking natural on the other. 8" dia x 7" tall. It's curious how much these moved when drying, but since some of the growth rings are over 1/2" wide, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.

With wind chills well below 0 tomorrow, glad the shop is in the basement!

Re: Not turning but...

John Stegall

Ellis, you are right, that piece is nice enough to share!

Re: Not turning but...

John K Jordan

>Curly Norway maple, 6"H x 9"dia.

There is a lot to like about that piece! The shape, the rim treatment, the finish, and the figure. I suspect the chatoyancy is spectacular in the hand.

Do you remember the finish? oil? From this picture it looks like it has just the right amount of gloss.

JKJ

Can't recall exactly...

Ellis Walentine

...but odds are it was a couple thin coats of Waterlox, possibly rubbed out with Behlen's Salad Bowl Finish.

Ellis

Sweet!