Shop Reopens and Project Updates

Hi Everyone,
Well I'm back. My garage floor is done and I've done a lot of cleaning out and re-arranging in the shop. There was probably 10 pounds of sawdust all over everything and I've accumulated lots of scrap lumber that I'm never going to use. And my tools needed attention too. The only thing I have left to do is to make a rack for my wood clamps and go and get a new filter for the shop vac.

I haven't been idle this month on the wood working front-I think I mentioned someplace that I've begun carving again and I've been trying my hands at spoons. Here's one I finished the other day:

This one was made out of basswood, a soft wood that is easy to carve. I also made one out of hickory and it wasn't as hard to work by hand as I thought it would be. I used it to make some stew last night so I don't have a photo of it at the moment. I will be making another spoon out of hickory soon.

Project updates

Here is the bowl that I made out of camphor and have been working on since April. It came out really great and this piece of camphor has a nature shimmer in the wood. It was oiled and finished with beeswax this morning. It goes to it's new owner later today:

This is the rainbow poplar bowl that I've been working on, also since April. I've been really happy with the poplar bowls I've made this year and as it's not as hard as some woods, like hickory, it's a little easier to work on. This also has an oil and beeswax finish and has been sold:

...and I just couldn't resist this photo!

I've got a number of bowls that require their final shaping and turning to work on and so we have a lot more work to do. So grab some coffee and drop by the wood shop-we've got more adventures ahead.

Thanks,
VW

Sally Ride

RIP Sally Ride...Ride Sally Ride...all the way to the stars...

Happy Anniversary!

Hi Everyone,

Well exactly one year ago today Selkie Wood Works began with a blog that initially only had a couple of people looking at it. A year later today, almost 6000 people have looked at the blog and sent in email comments. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to drop by the work shop and see how wooden bowls and other types of wood ware are made.

Let's all have another year of adventures in the wood shop!

Best and Thanks,

VW

Project Update and it's hot...

Hi Everyone,

Well, it's really gotten hot again over the past several days and tomorrow it's supposed to be 100 degrees. And this is in Minnesota! Good heavens, could it possibly get any hotter?

Anyway, in spite of the heat, I decided to do a little wood working this morning and finish several bowls that have dried and are at the end of their dry-turning cycle.

I worked on three bowls today-one out of rainbow poplar, one out of camphor, and one out of red elm and they all came out great.  Here's some photos:

The first two photos show the bowls on the lathe with the Cole jaws. This enables me to sand and shape the underside of the bowls. The first one is the poplar bowl and the second one is the red elm bowl:

All of the bowls dried with a very minimum of distortion and all they needed at the end was some light sanding and then I oiled them. The first bowl below is the red elm bowl, then the camphor bowl, and lastly the rainbow poplar bowl:

By the time I finished these it was really hot outside so I called it a day and came in.

These bowls will need several more oilings and they should all be finished by the end of this week when I start work on the garage floor again.

See you soon - stay cool.

VW

Garage floor repair-paint and sprinkles

Hi Everyone,

I got the garage floor painted last evening. Here are some photos and discussion:

Well, here are two photos, the top comprising about 60% of the floor and the bottom one shows the area that had the large, broken up edge. It doesn't look really terrific but then again the floor surface was badly damaged and had a lot of surface pitting. But it doesn't look terribly bad either and once the entire floor is completed (I'm doing this 1/2 of the floor at a time), it shouldn't look too bad.

My main intention was to patch the floor and prevent it from deteriorating further. In a couple of years I'd like to get it replaced entirely so we'll see over time if this repair job holds up.

In 7 days it will be dry enough for a car to drive over it. At that time I'll shift all of the stuff that is sitting on the concrete side over to the painted side and complete the repair work. So more work next week.

I'll post photos of the entire floor in a couple of weeks when I've finished it all.

VW

Garage floor repair

Hi Everyone,

Well true to my word, I haven't been idle since I've close the shop. I have a garage floor that has needed repair work for the past several years but as I have been very busy, I haven't been able to get to it. And as I live in a very cold climate for part of the year, this repair work has to be done during warm weather--and it certainly has been warm here! Our project for July is to repair, paint, and seal the concrete floor.

So here we go- first of all the floor had to be cleared off of all the stuff that was sitting on and then I washed it down with water and a hose to get all of the loose dirt and crud that was sitting on the surface. Next, I had to de-grease the surface in order to rid it of oil and oil stained areas and then it had to dry out. Yesterday I etched the surface of the concrete in order to rough it up and to clean away any remaining soap or degreaser stuff.

Here is a close up shot of the floor and some concrete patch material. It comes as a grey powder:

Here I am adding a small amount of water and mixing it with a large soup spoon. This should be the consistency of a very thick malt:

Next I ladled out large blobs of patch mixture over the holes. Be generous at this point and don't be stingy with the concrete:

Then I took a trowel and smoothed the whole thing into one, big patch. I feathered out the edges onto the surface of the floor:

Here are several areas all connected together in a big amoeba shape:

I spent the rest of the afternoon, creating cement amoebas on my floor and I've covered probably 50% of the floor with patch material. Here is a finish photo of a portion of the floor thus far:

I apologize for the crummy photo.

I am going to keep the surface of the patches moist by misting it with water-the holes in the floor were deep and it's going to take a day or so for this to completely dry out.

Friday afternoon I'm planning on painting the floor the same grey color as the concrete and I also am going to sprinkle little plastic sprinkles all over the top. So drop by Friday and we'll see how this goes.

I'm sooo tired....

VW