Posts Tagged ‘Alan Stratton’


Woodturning A Christmas Ornament With Finials

It’s time for the annual Christmas Ornament Challenge. Carl Jacobson and I are sponsoring this challenge. Rules: Make an Christmas ornament. Make a video of you making the ornament. Upload the video to YouTube Let me know the link to add your video to the playlist. Enjoy your ornament consistent with the season. This ornament […]

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A Stack of Special Donuts For All The Big Ballgames

Phillip from San Antonio sent me a chunk of mesquite. I’ve puzzled over what to make of it. Then I realized that it is playoff and bowl game season. I need refreshments for all the big games. How about a donut. This donut is hollow to reduce its calorie content. I don’t want my friends […]

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A Butternut Squash Recipe With A Special “Turn”

I have a very different recipe for butternut squash.  Select a favorite wood in dimensional lumber form. (I used cherry) Decide the maximum diameter for your squash. (Mine is 4 inches) Calculate a segment length as Length = Diameter x pi / segments. (4 x 3.14159 / 8 = 1.57) Saw segments to length determined […]

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Sharpening On The Road – Portability Revisited

This is a followup to my previous video concerning sharpening tools while away from home base. With that video, I was not happy with that solution due to significant runout of my home built mandrel. I ask for suggestions and received a lot. This video covers the two main categories of suggestions and my current […]

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A Cute Little Natural Edge Bowl From Wet Limb Wood

Carpe Diem. Just after watching a woodturning demo turning a small natural edge bowl from a limb, I happened to need to cut a limb from a juniper tree. Ordinarily, I would have thrown away the wood. But this time, why not turn a bowl similar to what I had just seen demoed? That is […]

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A Halloween Witch’s Broom

To complete a Halloween witch’s accessories, a witch needs a high class broom. For the discriminating witch, we have a brand new broom turned by hand from locally harvested maple, finished with fine grit sandpaper (80 grit is a witch’s favorite) and a touch of fine beeswax and eye of newt.

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An Eccentric Scary Halloween Spider

I had a big problem coming up with a Halloween project. My wife came to my rescue suggesting a spider. This spider is an eccentric turning. Offsetting the tail end by nearly a half an inch flattened my pet spider’s bottom side so he will not sit high off the ground. I left him unsanded […]

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Sharpening On The Road – Portable Tool Sharpening Station

When I use my portable mini lathe “On Location” I sharpen my lathe tools before I leave. The problem is that all these tools get dull as I use them. My grinder is nice but not portable. So what can I do? Keep using dull tools? Use my diamond hone more? Try some way to […]

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Woodturning A “Double Bowl” Bowl

Sometimes you have to break rules to discover new territory – Other times breaking rules to know the consequences and to appreciate rules. It’s the same with woodturning. There’s a lot of opinions(rules) to size the base of a bowl. But why not a double bowl – one where the base is also a bowl? […]

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Woodturning A Handy Playing Card Holder

When my grandchildren come to visit, we often play games involving cards. But their hands are not big enough to hold their “Hands”. In the past, I have cut slots in flat pieces of wood to hold cards. But still, they would like to hold the cards in their own hands. After seeing a plastic […]

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