When my son came over with his children to make their pinewood derby cars, he also challenged me to turn one on the lathe. I did not have a clue how to turn one — until the light dawned. So, I did not one but two. How do you turn a car on a lathe, […]
Read More...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 […]
Read More...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.
Read More...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 […]
Read More...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 […]
Read More...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? […]
Read More...After seeing a large sanding disc at Dale Larson’s shop here in the Portland area, I decided to get one for myself. They’re not available commercially except as a very expensive stationary tool. So, I decided to make my own. I ordered a piece of 1/4″ thick aluminum 20.25″ square allowing a little bit for […]
Read More...An Australian viewer asked me to make a wood egg shaped box. The main difference is the shape and no base for it to stand on. I decided to not make a typical end grain box but instead take a segmented approach. I glued up twelve rings of eight segments each into two stacks. The […]
Read More...Last weekend, I was inspired during a visit to the Tacoma Museum of Glass. While I saw all sorts of glass objects, few were functional items. Why do I think a woodturned object must be functional. NOT! As a first step into this brave new world, I decided to make an object similar to one I […]
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