This 6.5”x 3” spalted maple bowl is my second bowl. The first was in a class over a year ago. This bowl was started last April and finished in early December. There was a rotten area that had to be filled with epoxy. You can actually see through the worst spot in the base. Didn’t intend for the the sides to be so thin, but it really changed shape as it dried in a paper bag over the summer. I dropped the bowl as I was buffing the final coat of wax and broke out a large wedge from the side near a weak spot. The break relieved some stresses and I thought there was no way to glue the triangular piece (see 3 picture) back in. Cole jaws worked wonders to help glue the bowl together.

Wisdom from this project – For others just starting to try bowl turning I don’t recommend using spalted soft wood.

Wet bowl blank cut on band saw

Shaped wet bowl with tenon for cutting interior

Reshaping after drying

Filling voids

Tis the season….to finish presents.

This project helped me learn a lot about different woods and turning. Lacewood is relatively soft and it turned rough. The maple was a dream to turn. Tried to glue parts together and then turn – broke 2 joints. The bocote did not make a strong glue joint with the maple end grain to end grain. I took a remaining blank that had bocote glued to maple, drilled and inserted a oak dowel in middle – this held. Used 3 coats of lacquer to finish.

Also made 6 of the oven rack push/pulls. I made a pattern, then glued up maple and walnut blanks, cut close on band saw, used two different pattern bits, filed some remaining rough spots, rounded over edges, sanded, and 2 coats of tung oil and 2 of wax.

Have a joyous Christmas!
Gene

This was a real learning experience. Used a 2 5/8” hole saw to cut out blanks. Then mounted on a spindle made from a 6”x1/4” bolt with head cut off mounted in a chuck. Two blanks were held in place by a mix of metal washers, nylon and wood spacers and a nut. A deep nut locked at end of spindle allowed me to anchor the other end in the tailstock live center. While on the spindle the blanks were smoothed, thickness set and the edges were rounded. Remounted each half on cole jaws to detail each face and balance weight of matching halves (found an inexpensive gram scale on internet to weight each half to the nearest tenth of a gram). Sanded on cole jaws and spindle to 320. Applied 2 coats of tung oil and waxed. Mounted on a maple 1/4” axle with 1/8” gap.

The protoype would not return, just went down and ‘slept’ (spun). Brian Havens indicated that you needed to create some side friction to cause string to start wrapping, so I used a knife to score the wood near the axle. This did the trick.

The halves are just force fit on the axle right now to allow for width adjustment.

Woods left to right:
Back row – Cherry, Padauk, Purple Heart, Bocote
Front row – Walnut, Zebra Wood, Walnut, Walnut (prototype

Made from scrap pine by following plans in May 2011 Wood magazine. Modified the weight bucket to use a simpler attachment system. It throws peanuts still in the shell as harmless artillery. You need to diddle with weight and pin angle to get a good launch distances. Grandson and I made this after watching the Punkin Chunkin event on Science channel.

I saw this idea at the Dayton Ohio Artistry in Wood show a couple of weeks ago. My idea is to create 3 more in kit form to give as Christmas presents for grandsons. My hope is that they will be good father and son projects. Getting the curved piece under the ball flipper level enough to send the ball on the right path worried me. What I’ve discovered is that if it is close you can control the left/right flight path by where you hold down the flipper. Fourth photo shows those from the AIW show. The base of mine is 14” long but the show samples seem to have a longer base. The basket is 12.5” high, the ball has a 1” diameter with a 1.25” diameter on hoop hole, and the angle for the flipper is 11.25” long, .1” thick and 10 degrees.

Started out with loose plans to build a 30” x 48” monster as my first ts sled . After some research lots of thought and research online decided to reduce to 22”x 32” which is still pretty large.
Made from 3/4” oak plywood, Incra aluminum slides, Rockler t-track, and 3/8’ clear acrylic. Thanks to ideas from William Ng, Steve Ramsey, Mathis Wandel, and many posts on LJ.
After seeing that Mathis thinks framing squares are pretty accurate, I used this to align the rear fence: after affixing the runners and front fence, cut the first slot about 95% through, attached the rear fence with one screw on the right (short) side. All pretty standard in steps used by the sources. Wedged a thin wood scrap in the new slot with a couple pieces of paper. Then using some small clamps, attached my good framing squares short leg to the wood scrap th align it with blade. The long leg was left about an inch from the right side. Then used a digital caliper to align the rear fence. Put one screw in and used the 5 cut method to check accuracy. Turned out to be 2 thousands off over over 31”. Look at 6th picture.

I never understood the attraction for rotting wood (spalted) until this project. The 3” cube in cube was made from a scrap of soft maple. It was meant to be a quick project using my new Delta 16-900L drill press and it didn’t take long. The Delta has none of the wobble that my previous Hitachi had. My only problem with the new DP came when the pulley at the top of the spindle shaft came loose. That seemed to be easy to fix though. What really surprised me was the beauty of the wood when the 2 coats of Danish Oil were applied and even more so after the 2 coats of wax. Now I really want to finish the partially completed but warped bowl that this scrap was leftover from.
PS the pictures don’t do the look of the wood justice.

This is the first item I’ve made with mortise and tenon joints. Adapted width from Wood Mag plans to to fit the place on our front porch where the wife wanted a bench. Learned lots while making several mistakes as usual. Learned how soft cedar is. I think I could spit and make a mark! If you look carefully at the end shot you can see my patches covering the mistake when gluing up the first mortise and tenon joint on an end assembly (rotated wrong). 2 coats of Waterlox Marine Sealer and 2 of their Marine Finish.

This is the fourth ring I’ve made and the smallest. Turned with 1/2” inner diameter. It is headed for Texas for the 6 month younger cousin of the 4yer old hand model in the second picture. Has 4 coats of Wood Turners Finish and 3 of paste wax.

Built to house my shop vac and dust cyclone in one easy to move unit. The large castors really make it easy to move around. I designed cleats to hold the shop vac in place but still allow me to remove it and use if it is needed upstairs or outside my basement shop. The dust cyclone really works. Only some very fine dust is reaching the shop vac.

Built this from pressure treated lumber ask a birthday pressure for my grandson a couple years ago. It is weathering nicely. Used a section of very old brass pipe as the fulcrum.

My homage to Steve Ramsey. Made this over the weekend from 3/4” birch ply, 1/4” pine plywood, and oak 3/4”x1 1/2” banding. Decided to add the 1/4” play under top birch piece after routing the the slots for the t-tracks to strengthen the table while using clamps. The fence is just two pieces of the 3/4” ply with Steve’s slot idea. ground the sides of the heads of 2 – 1/4” carriage bolts to fit the t-track. I don’t have Steve’s sliding sacrificial center piece. I’m still thinking of a solution for that. Big box store wanted a small fortune for knobs so I epoxied nuts in a couple of cherry scraps. Last step was adding 2 coats of past wax. It looks out of place with the rest of my shop.

I have several toilet bolts to use with the t-tracks to create hold downs. Any suggestions about their design?

Here are the 3 accessories I made to help use the 56 ‘greenie’ Shopsmith as my lathe – tool holder, platform and leg extensions. Leg extensions brought the lathe up to a height I like and the castors make it much more mobile in my shop. Added a straight throw lever on the right end to stop it rolling while turning. I used some scrapwood to make the platform and tool holder.
I inherited the Shopsmith from my dad. It was in sad shape having set many years in an unheated chicken house that Dad converted to his shop.

Bandsaw box number 4
My 6 yr old grandson is into the Angry Birds. So Grandma says I should make a box for him with the bird image since his sister is getting a Hello Kitty box for Easter. Made from a walnut limb piece the sapwood to frame (nest?) the bird shaped drawer. Finished with Watco Danish Oil and paste wax. The Big Box ‘Walnut’ Wood filler used on gaps from a limb exit on the base was a poor match.

Simple elbow adapter to attach my spindle sander dust port to my shop vac. Made from scrap pine 2×4. Now the vacuum pulls items I’m sanding down to the top. May have to add an adjustable pressure relief.

These band saw rookie boxes, my second and third ever bs boxes. My first bs box was same design but full of rookie mistakes. These were made from a walnut log that lay under my work bench for two years and have a 3-1/2” wide drawer. Watco Danish Oil finish and 2 coats of wax. Easter presents for a couple of 3yr. old grand daughters.
Your suggestions for improvements are welcomed.

For Christmas 2010 I made 8 Walnut boxes with box joints. I had a friend laser etch each of my grand
kids first names in the lids prior to final assembly. Used Watco Danish Oii finish.

Made 3 for Christmas 2010 for 3 little granddaughters. Cherry frame and rockers. I forget what the plywood was. One traveled with us unassembled from Ohio to Texas. Bet that caused the guy scanned bags to take a look. :)