Friday, November 25, 2016

Christmas Project Day #4

Well I was able to get out for a short time today and finished off Santa. I've been hanging lights and setting up the outside Christmas decorations for he past two days. So not much time to cut. Of course, my shoulder does not help me. I spend the day getting sore digging out the decorations from the attic and then reaching and pulling this all bothers the shoulder quite a bit. I guess I still have a way to go before I will be 100%. It has been 5 1/2 months and still struggle to be back to where I was before the crash.


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Christmas Project Cutting Day #3

OK, So another day down. I was able to complete all the reindeers and some of Santa. Using the small blade with semi-hard wood dulls the small blade pretty quickly. Well here is day #3's picture


I'll finish Santa up the next time.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Christmas Project Cutting Day #2

OK so it was cold today so I was only able to get out for a short while before I had to leave and do some things so all I managed was one Reindeer done today.


Let me tell you these lines are small so it is not as easy as you would think. There is no rushing on these cuts as a simple mistake could mean firewood! This is rated Intermediate and it has to be because those lines are so close together.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Starting new Christmas cutting

OK, so I have started a new cutting. This is from a Sheila Landry Designs pattern So far I have cut out the edges and all the Reindeer Antlers. I'll cut some more tomorrow. It is a little cold out in my unheated shop(shed). Need to get this done soon for my wife to add to her Christmas collection of things to hang up!


I cut the outer edge with a Scroll Reverse #5. I did the Antlers with a Scroll Reverse #3. I use Flying Dutchman Blades exclusively. The center of this will be cut at an angle then it will be pushed in and glued in place for a self-framing effect. I'll post pictures a the end of each day. Don't know how much time I will get working on this. I really dislike the cold. But since I was out for the nice enjoyable heat and could not cut I guess I get to suffer now trying to make stuff. I much prefer to sweat while working rather the shiver. But we deal with what we have when we have it!

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Word Art Finished

The word art I created is finished. I cut it from 3/4 Poplar with a painted 1/8 Baltic Birch backer. The Poplar has had Natural Danish Oil Finish applied.


Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Made a new Wordart

Well, I finally made it out to the shop and cut something . I made up this pattern and cut it out. I will do another post once I have finished and glued it up meanwhile here is the pattern. Feel free to use it. If this does not work please leave me a comment and I will try to figure out a way to get the pattern here and usable for others.



Thursday, October 13, 2016

Well The Mermaid Pulled First

Well, I guess I underestimated my work. The mermaid has won a First Place Blue Ribbon in the NC State Fair! I am speechless as far as taking first place.




If you make things you will understand my next statement. You never quite think you work is good. As you can see the flaws in the creation. 

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Dropped off an entry to the NC State Fair

I dropped off my entry to NC State Fair today. Not the one I was going to do since I have been unable to cut for the past 4 months so that will be next years entry once I finish it. I was excited to do the elephant  but alas it was not meant to be. So I am going with my Mermaid cutting. I enter for the fun of it.




So if you go to the NC State Fair look for it in Handicrafts and Hobbies. This year they have moved it from the old building by the grandstand to the Commercial Education building. It is the one where you usually find the indoor Flea Market during the year. The old location was overcrowded and it was always hard to see everything. Glad to see Handicrafts and Hobbies has grown enough to warrant a larger location. Though the new location has always been packed also with lots of other things.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Well it is getting there.....

Well, I am finally off disability and can go back to work. With some nice restrictions of 20 lbs of lifting and no ladder use. Those restrictions may seem harsh but I can't even lift 20 lbs with my left arm so in my mind they are not restrictive enough. I can not lift my arm to even 90 degrees yet. During PT when they push it as far as I can stand. In other words just before I begin to scream they can get it further but nothing I can do on my own or even force myself to do even with the pulley exerciser I have for therapy. 


I have the very nice lump on my collar bone at this point which I will have the rest of my life. Which is visible when my shirt is off I am a thin person.


The shoulder blade is healed now. Once I get some strength back and some more range of motion I might be able to get back out in the shop. But I am not able to lift anything with my left arm yet. So plenty of PT yet. That equates to a lot of pain yet I have to go through. I like doing PT because it will hopefully give me back my range of motion but I also hate it because it hurts so damn much. I have been told at least a year and they doubt I will get back 100% range of motion. All this over someone driving and using their cell phone and not looking at where they were going. Someday I will post the video but I can't right now. Let me just say GoPro's were the best investment I ever made for my bicycle and you need two of them because you ned to have a camera facing backwards too because things happen behind you that can take you out like it did to me. Since I run with forward and back facing cameras it is all recorded. So there is no what I remember and what they remember it is just reality. My only memory is "Why am I suddenly going faster? Why am I going into the air?" I know from the video why I suddenly went faster and was tossed over the handlebars.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Still recovering

I am still recovering from my bicycle crash 2 months ago. It is just insane how much damage was done to me. I am still at a loss for words. I never would have figured it would really take this long to heal. I start PT but after not using my shoulder for almost 2 months it is basically frozen now and let's just say PT is Physical Pain as they trey to move my shoulder through and free it up. I am very discouraged with how little the damn thing moves. This will take a while. The person at PT told me on average it takes at least a year if you shoulder freezes up to break it free and get back 100% movement. I sure don't hope it takes that long. I will be extremely depressed not being able to ride my bicycle for that long....

Any way here is a still from my front GoPro. My rear gopro was covered by one of my panniers that came free but not totally free. So what happened was the bike came to rest facing the opposite direction from where I was going and I did the same but I travelled further than the bicycle. Not sure how much further I went since I was never able to get up I was hurt that bad.




Saturday, July 2, 2016

Out for a long time

OK so for the past 18 years I have been riding a bicycle to work every day. Well on Tuesday, June 14th I had a car follow me through a left turn then accelerate right into me as if they could not see me. Can you say  distracted driver? On my GoPro Video, it certainly looked as if they were using their cell phone. They did not try to avoid of even slow down before slamming into me at speed. I suffered a broken shoulder blade,  collar bone, and two broken ribs. It has been 3 weeks and absolutely no healing has taken place with the collar bone. They tell me even though it is displaced they will not do anything for it. It will grow a bunch of calcium and eventually come back together on its own. Of course, it will be abnormal looking the rest of my life. So  I am expecting to be useless for 3 months while it heals. At least it is my left shoulder and I am right handed but I am in too much pain to even try to do this one handed.



Sunday, April 24, 2016

BULLY (I've not done much)

OK back to the Bully! I have not cut much. I did lighten the pattern since I was having issues seeing the black blade within the black pattern. So I decided to abandon the first one. I took the pattern and made it grey in parts so that I could see the blade. Getting old is a pain!

Anyway here is a corner I have cut. This is slow going since some of these spots are only slightly larger then the blade so it is insert the blade cut for 2 seconds and then remove the blade. It takes longer to get the blade in the hole tightened up and then ready to cut.


Saturday, April 16, 2016

What the logo looks like on wood

OK, so now I have used the woodburning tool method to basically melt the toner from the paper to the wood. It is very much like an iron on transfer. The only thing you need to watch out for is the fact that the woodburning tool gets hot enough to burn wood so you need to make sure you drop the temperature of the iron on a scrap piece of wood before applying the iron to the paper. You do not want to burn the paper or the wood you just want to melt the toner and transfer it to the wood.

The first image is of the piece at a distance and the second is a more close up picture of the finished logo. It is a little light and I may bold up the font more to get more toner there to transfer.



A nice closer view of the transfer



Thanks for looking. If you are interested I can try to put a video together of this if there is interest in how to do this technique.

Jim

Friday, April 15, 2016

Logo Version 1.1

OK, I have changed my logo. The last one was actually the second version because I thought I needed something from woodworking. But my nephew thought it was too much. When I shrunk it down to the size that I would use to put on my projects it was obvious I had too much going on and it was hard to see everything. SO I pulled out the saw blade and here is version 1.1 with some minor changes to account for the much smaller size.



So what does everything of this one? Go ahead and give your opinions!


Logo!

I have been working on a logo/stamp for my woodworking. I have been told in the past that I need to sign my work. I have looked at branding irons but way too expensive and you are stuck with whatever you have it is static. While if I do one a laser toner printer and print it in reverse I can then use my woodburning tool to transfer the toner to the wood much like an iron on transfer.

Anyway what do people think of this? Comments are always welcome!



Jim

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Started on the Bully

I have begun the Bully pattern for the NC State Fair. I really don't want to put a picture of the pattern glued to the wood since I understand some people will take and make their own pattern from the picture. Since it is a pattern that must be paid for  I don't want anyone taking this pattern. So I will show you a picture of the 1,000 holes or so that I drilled tonight in preparation to start cutting it.Each one of those small dark spots is a hole I drilled.


Think about this if there are over a 1,000 holes drilled I will have to insert the blade that many times before I complete it! I have not done a pattern as complex as this ever. So this should be fun. Plus this will be done with a spiral blade. I am not as comfortable using spiral blades but those are the only ones you can possibly use on a pattern such as this one.

Here is a top view of me when I was drilling the holes with my Dremel.


Sunday, February 14, 2016

Well What To Do About The State Fair

Well I picked what I want to cut for the NC State Fair this year. It is called The Bully and it is designed by Mike Williams of Mike's Scroll Saw Patterns. One of his patterns was the first place winner last year so here is hoping I'll do a decent job on it. I need to decide what wood I'll be using whether it be ply or solid wood. It is 11x14 so I could get some thin wood to do this on.

Now it is an picture of an Elephant so what wood to choose. It is as important a decision as the pattern. Everything comes into play not just the color but the grain also.

The link to The Bully

Mike has many a good patterns there and some look amazing.

Maybe this is the one where I will finally do a video of a project.

Anyway it is WAY TOO COLD to even think about going to my shop which is just a large shed in my backyard. There is no heat so I'm not going there. I do have a small heater but it can't do much when it is in the low 50's so never mind when it is in the low 30's. Yes I live in the south and low 50's is cold. So imagine when it is in the high 20's to low 30's.  I like to the high 90's to Low 100's.

~Jim

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Winter and it is cold

Well it is winter and my shop is just a shed out back. So with Christmas over I find it hard to head out there in the cold air. Granted this is NC so cold is relative but for a guy that will sit out there when it is 98 45 is damn cold. So nothing from me. I just have lots of things I want to cut. I did get a DeWalt orbital sander and itching to use it but not when it is this cold.

Here is my new sander it even came with a bag. The wife loves anything that comes with a bag. And to tell the truth I like them also but not as much. But since this will be used so much I doubt it will spend much time in the bag unlike other tools that are only used every now and then. This will be used for every project at least at the start and depending on how fragile the work is at the end to finish it..