Pet urn, continued

Hello Again,

I took a break (actually took a nap-it's hot and I'm tired) and then went back down to the wood shop to work. I've got the block back on the lathe and I've got it roughed into shape. But there still is a problem-see the photos below:

Photos
Here's the turning block. I trimmed off the irregular wood on the ends and now they are parallel and it's ready to be placed on the Nova chuck and the exterior shaped:

Here it is between centers and ready to go:

 Here is the block in motion. The wood is hard maple and maple tends to have a pink undertone to the wood and you can see that clearly in the photo. It's fine grained and wonderful to turn:

 Here's the shape. The top of the urn is the wider end on the left and the bottom is the right end:

And unfortunately here is the problem-cracking. The crack on the bottom will be turned off shortly but the crack on the top is deep and in order to remove it I'll have to substandially re-shape the urn. I'm going to think about how to approach this over night and tomorrow I'll work on it more:

See you tomorrow,
VW

Turning a Wooden Pet Urn

Hello All,

During this latest long lay off, I had a request from a friend: a cat that she owned for a long time had died and could I make her an urn for it's ashes? Absolutely yes. Here is the discussion and plans:

This project presented me with two challenges: my lathe and it's history of not working or only working for several minutes at a time and then stopping. Those of you who have followed along for a long time will remember the issues I had with the on/off switch and not being able to find another one. I finally found a switch that would work but the plastic housing the covers this switch was too small. My husband made a wooden housing and that fits over the switch quite nicely but the electrical issues still remain. I have found that if I turn below 400 rpm, the lathe seems to work and that's what I've been doing this morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed until I can purchase a new lathe later this summer.
The other problem is wood. Owing to the shelter-in-place order here I haven't been able to purchase dry wood in person and I've run out of lumber. Fortunately I have some sections of a maple tree that fell down in a storm a few years back that I was saving for bowls and the smallest section should work well for this project. I would have prefered a different colored wood but we'll have to go with this.

Plans
Turn a pet urn, that can be re-opened in the future, out of a maple tree branch and that has approximately a volumn that equals 2 cups. Here's the photos:

Photos

Here's the block. It's hard maple and I like to remove the bark on tree branches or trunks manually rather than take it off on the lathe. Bark collects a lot of grit, silica, nails, and other stuff that can be hard on turning chisels so off it comes with a hammer and chisel:

Here's the block without the bark. You can see the top of the block is diagonal. I'll be turning that off as I true up the block:

To reduce the weight and irregularity, which I worry could affect the ability of the lathe to turn properly, I'm removing the outer sap wood layer with a mallet and a hand axe. This only takes a minute to do:

And here it is between centers on the lathe. I've marked off the bottom and top of the urn with a parting tool. There is also a deep crack on the side that extends about 1" into the block. I'll have to see if I can turn that away in the course of roughing out. If not, this is going to be a short project as the urn must be solid:

Still turning. The crack is still visible:

Here I've removed more wood and the crack is getting smaller. The heart wood (rt side of the block) is beginning to show up:

Ahh, the crack is smaller still-I'm beginning to feel hopeful:

And wood shavings! I haven't seen that in a loooonnngggg time!

I've taken a break for lunch. Afterwards I'll continue turning and shaping the urn.

Stay tuned,
VW

I'm Alive and I'm Back!! Welcome to the SWW blog

Hello Everyone,

Well, welcome back to this year's edition of the Selkie Wood Works blog.

Everyone reading this blog has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of you have businesses that have had to shut down, others are homebound, some of you might be sick with this or have lost friends or family. If this describes you, you have my deepest sympathy.

I discovered during the Recession that I did better if I stayed busy and creative and I really think that saved my sanity. As I'm out of lumber right now, I've been out foraging for tree branch trimmings, rocks, or just anything that I can use to make something out of. As I am well, I have been working in the woodshop, getting it cleaned out and re-organized and waiting for the day when you and I can get back to work building furniture, cabinets, and turning.

Fortunately I live in a wooded area and it's easy to find branches of all sizes and diameters. I've been carving white oak, maple, and several woods I'm not sure of. I'm currently making salad sets and since I've gotten several nice tree brances, I'm making walking sticks. Here's a couple of photos:

Initially I found some small branches nearby that were a little too small for anything. I had seen some photos of little houses on Pinterest and got interested in that so I got one of the branches and cut in into sections and I've been making little houses and giving them to the neighbors with a note wishing them well. These have been really popular:

We also have a lot of woody shrubbery here and I've begun making walking sticks out of some of them. The branches are just the right diameter for this. I've been been taking the bark of and letting them dry before working on them further:

And I'm back to carving spoons again:

So there it is. As soon as my lumberyard reopens I'll be working on a coffee table for my front room.

So we're off on another year together. Welcome back and stay in touch.

Best,
VW

Small Wood Shelves

Hi Everyone,

Just a brief note today: I'm beginning work on a series of small wooden shelves to both display mementos and use up some of my scrap wood supply.

Here are a couple of photos:

This first one is a frame for a piece of pottery work done by Critter. This is made out of 1x4 pine and house paint from a big box store:

And here is a photo of a shelf I made earlier this summer along with more of Critter's pottery:

This was also made out of scrap pine and house paint (that's the color of my bathroom). And that's IKEA man hanging off the edge.  :)

As I have more things to display I'll be posting about this from time to time.

Stay tuned,
VW

Deck Chair Build-completion photos and comments

Hi Everyone,

Well here's the chair:

Comments

Well, it came out better than I initially thought it would. What I wanted was a strong, heavy chair and I certainly got that. I also wanted a chair that would support anyone who drops by and I feel this chair can certainly handle that.

I felt early on that the chair would look best if it had a rustic appearance and I think I've accomplished this. Trying to make it look very refined I don't think would look the best but it's always best to remember that a rustic appearance doesn't mean poor craftsmanship. The scratches, dings, and sawing marks were intentional and I'm quite happy with it's overall appearance.

The size of the chair-having said all this, the chair is a little too big for me. I'm 5'3" and I tend to slump back when I sit on it. My husband is 5'8" and he fits perfectly and loves the chair. And if I ever make another one, I would slant the rear of the seat down an 1". So keep that in mind if you plan on making one.

Speaking of plans, I found the drawings a little confusing, and you'll remember me putting the rear legs on incorrectly. If you purchase a set, be very sure you read the plans several times before proceeding with your build.

All in all however, I feel if you follow the plans carefully, you'll wind up with a very sturdy chair that can be finished or decorated in a variety of ways and that is unique - no Adirondack chair here!
So the plans are recommended.

This one is finished!

What's next? Well, I'm doing some spoon carving and I have to get the lathe looked at and I'll probably get to that in November. And I'm going to continue making some small shelves for some pottery items I have as well.

Well, thanks for dropping by and stay tuned. There's always another project on the horizon!

Best,
VW

Deck Chair Build, continued-construction is complete

Hi Everyone,

My goodness, the effort we humans go through just to make a chair-whew!

So here is the chair with the arms, moulding, and infill boards attached and it came out the way the plans specified:

This is a close up of the infill slats. I've found several Mexican tile vendors online and I'm going to take a good look at all of them. The wood slats are 4" wide so I'll have to find some tiles that will fit that. Also I've decided to just pick tiles and colors at random so as to liven up the appearance of the chair:

I need to do some more touching up of the stain and then clean the chair surface very well in preparation for varnishing but I think it will come out looking fine.

I'll post completion photos in the next week or two.

Stay tuned,
VW

Deck Chair Build, continued: Staining and finish work and the infill section

Hi Everyone,

Well I went down to the wood shop to check on the chair and it's still a little oily feeling from yesterday's staining. So I let it continue to dry out and that will probably take several more days for it to really be bone dry and ready for varnishing.

While it's drying out, I made the slats for the infill and stained them red like the chair seat and I also cut and trimmed a small piece of moulding to cover the long joint line between the 2x4s that the front legs are built from. Those I've stained brown to match the legs. See the next two photos:

I've been looking at Mexican tile online and I'm not sure how that will come out. Most of the tile I've seen are printed with patterns and the separations between those slats in the photo above might disrupt that pattern enough that it winds up looking kind of odd. I'll keep exploring that however-I think those tiles would add some much needed color and detail to the chair.

I'm going to begin cleaning out the shop and get the chair dusted off for staining next.

Stay tuned,
VW