Overflowing!

Still organizing all the tools I have inherited from my Dad. Lots of good things. My little tiny shop is overflowing with stuff now. I thought for the longest time I had a good size work bench. Not so anymore. I think I need to build another bench to put some of the tools I have to keep below my bench so that they may be on top of something.

I am most excited to have a bench top band saw and a bench top drill press. These are things not just for carving but for everyday use in my shop.

I also have picked out what I am going to make on the scroll saw for the  NC State Fair this year. I want to get started on it this week as I want it done early so then I can maybe work on carving something for the Fair? That would be great if I could do that this year!

I am on the hunt for my third straight Blue Ribbon in scroll saw work. This year I am going with a Charles Dearing pattern of a lion roaring. I decided this year to use a solid piece of 1/4" cherry I found at Klingspor's! The frame I will make out of Yellowheart wood.

I am nervous about the cherry wood as this will take some time to cut and I usually do these out of plywood. With plywood I don't have to worry about the board warping. So with the cherry I will have to spend many hours out there and not spread it out over too much time. This will be not as many cuts as The Bully but still looks to be over 700.

What my crowded shop kind of looks like

Thanks for looking!
Jim

Carving

Well I have started to try my hand at carving. I was thinking about carving for about 2 months and I was wondering what tools would I need. Could I just power carve with my Dremel? What knifes if any should I buy? What Dremel tips should I use if using the Dremel? Starting down a new path with new tools requiring new skills is always daunting!

Well  3 weeks ago my father passed away. He was a carver and pretty good at it. Well he had many many tools for carving. I have those carving  tools now. Just this past weekend I decided to try and create something from his tools. So while doing yard work this past Saturday I found a somewhat good branch laying in my yard and I said "Self, it is time to carve this into something with those tools you have!"

I am a scroller as you can tell if you have been following or if you look at my other projects I have done. I am decent at that as I have won two Blue Ribbons and a White Ribbon at the NC State Fair over the past three years. Carving is something I never really talked to my dad about other then to see what he had created and all the ribbons he had won over the years. So now I get to learn by doing and talking to others that carve. Guess I am going to be looking for events around me to learn as much as I can.

So to start I picked up a book from the library and and figured I would try my hand at it. So this is not finished there is still some stuff to do and it is rather crude but it is my first carving. Nothing spectacular just a plain simple spreader. It is still raw unfinished wood. There is some more sanding and fine tuning. Since this is my first piece it will never have that polished look that I do hope to have some day. But it is a start.

This is a supposed to be a spreader.

Anyway I took off the bark on the handle since the bark was coming off anyway. Once I get this as finished as I feel it will be. Hopefully I won't keep trying to make it right and then I break it. I'll dip it into some mineral oil for a good food safe finish. It might never actually get used with food but at least it will be safe to do so.

The funny thing which I now understand that as I was going through his garage I kept finding first aid kits all over. I found 3 first aid kits filled with band aids and other such things for minor cuts and scrapes. Well not being all the experienced with knives I managed to nick my thumb joint. Nothing major just a very small cut.  I think I just discovered what that bandage looking tape is for now. You wrap your thumb in it to protect your self from cuts, Since at times you are cutting towards your thumb holding the knife.

Anyway thanks for looking!
Jim

Happy New Year

Off to the races a whole new year and new projects to cut!

Christmas Presents!

Yes this is after Christmas but since people who the gifts were made for could possibly see this I have waited till they have all been delivered before posting this. Any way I made a bunch (7) of these Joy free standing plaques. The pattern is from Scroller the sister site to The Winfield Collection which I made the Huge Joy which is 10 Feet tall. Click the word Scroller to be taken to the pattern web page. Now this pattern is a downloadable one. You end up with a PDF of the pattern. So you get it as soon as you pay. They have just started having this feature recently. I much prefer PDF to paper any day of the week.

Anyway I used Curly Maple for Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. I use Poplar for JOY and I just stained the Joy portion to get three different wood colors going. The stain was Medium Walnut Danish Oil for Joy. I used Natural Danish Oil for both the Curly Maple and the base which ish Pine.

This I consider my foray into shaping wood. I do want to get started doing Intarsia and I figured if I rounded over the letters in a way that would be like doing Intarsia. Well not really but I used my Dremel to do the initial round over with a course sanding sanding drum. Then went on to hand sand with different grits till it was smooth and no scratches from sanding.

Here are the pictures. Here are 6 of them lined up

Now just one

Now just the bottom showing my branding. Speaking of this I can tell you how I made this branding. I read about this and made my own way to do this that was cheap. I created the logo in Inkscape and then I can make it what ever size I want in relation to the project it is for. I then have a special sheet of paper that I created by taping wax paper to an actual piece of paper. I then put that in my inkjet printer and print it. The ink will not dry right away on the wax paper so you have time to take the wax paper and place it on your project and the ink is absorbed right into the wood and does not smudge. You could in reality print in color and it would work just fine but choose your colors wisely in relation to the wood color. Always remember when you do create the logo you need to reverse the image because you will get the reverse of what ever it is you print. So if I did not reverse the image before printing it would come out backwards. Any way here is the logo I use.

Now all that is left is to wrap them and bring them with me to visit family and hope they like them!

Here is the Huge Joy Sign I made 3 years ago in 2014. It took 3 full sheets of plywood to do and it is 10 feet tall.

Thanks for checking out my site and following along with me.

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

Found this little gem in my shop

This is one of my wood working projects from shop class. Back when I went to school we had shop classes that would give you a feel for a trade. There were as I remember printing and ceramics for 7th grade and wood and metal working in 8th grade. This is the only thing remaining from those shop classes. It is a shame that schools no longer have these classes. My favorites were in order wood working, metal working, printing and then ceramics. Wood working we made a bunch of stuff but I only kept one thing. I do believe everything else I made was given to people. But this baby was mine! It has been in boxes and out in my shop for years now. It is a book shelf lamp combo deal.

I have carried this one around with me since 1975. That makes this around 42 years old I was 14 at the time. I can still see the grade I received for it a 92. I do not remember what tools where used but I imagine a band saw, sanders, drills, wood burning tool,  and maybe a table saw? I don't actually remember. I do know I did attempt some projects outside of school as I liked wood working so much but then I stopped for many years before finding the scroll saw. It was the lack of tools that caused me to stop. Dad only had some tools and after having had access to the tools in school I just stopped since I am sure I kept thinking I need this tool to do this thing and that tool to do this other thing.

I do remember one other project which was a pencil holder shaped like a fish jumping out of water. I have no clue what ever happened to that one. That was probably my second favorite thing done in the class.

This one though I remember all the excitement that came with this one! I was not really a Mets fan my grandfather was. I was not into watching sports as a kid. I still really don't watch unless it is European Cycling. That is now what I pay attention to. That is hard to watch here in the USA except for the TDF. So I read and follow along online.

I think I will redo the lamp fixture and get this working once again. I know my wife is going to (NOT) love this one.

Anyway to the pictures!

A little hard to see but right there is 92 my grade. Written in pencil and has faded over the years

Full (Christ)mas mode

Just a note to let you know I am still here.

I have been working hard lately on my Christmas stuff. I won't be posting pictures of anything till after they are all delivered. People may see what I am doing before hand spoiling the surprise. The disadvantage of a blog certain people actually read. Maybe not, but not taking chances. So you won't hear much from me, or rather see much, till after Christmas.