Pizza Cutter with Ebony Handle

 Hi Everyone,

While I've been getting ready for the maple bowl project, I completed a much needed project for my daughter-in-law: a small pizza cutter.

Her son, my grandson, has difficulty managing large slices of pizza, which is also his favorite food in the whole world. To deal with this, my daughter-in-law is tasked with having to cut pizza slices down to small pieces, which restaurants never seem willing to do. It can be difficult to cut up food with a knife and fork.

So I offered to make her a pizza cutter she could take with her when they all go out for dinner.

Woodcraft sells pizza cutter inserts in two sizes. I got her the 2 1/2" diameter cutter so it would fit into her bag. I also wanted to maker her something special so I used a piece of ebony from my wood pile for a handle and finished it with flax seed oil.

Here are a couple of photos:

In this photo you can see the entire handle. I turned a depression into the top of the handle to give her thumb a places to rest while she's cutting the pizza:

I also rounded off the bottom so it doesn't dig into her hand:

And the kit comes with a brass insert so the pizza wheel can be removed if it's ever damaged or for cleaning:

And here is the whole thing assembled and with an oil finish on the handle:

And now my grandson can eat his favorite snack anywhere!

 Ok, as it's really cold and rainy outside I'm going to go out and get the maple turning blank ready to be mounted on the lathe.

See you all soon,
VW

Small Turned Boxes-One finished, the other is on the lathe

Good Morning All,

I've got some photos for you - the small turned boxes! One is finished and another one is just getting started on the lathe.

Enjoy the photos:

This is the hickory box from several days ago. I sanded it to 400 grit and finished it with polyurethane. It is going to be a gift box for Mother's Day.

Here is the next box. This is part of a tree branch from a pile of tree trimmings I came across. I like the look of the end grain so I took several of them back to the shop, cut one of them to size, and started turning in.
It's going to have a goblet-shaped box with a nearly invisible base. In the photo you can see the cream colored white sap wood and the darker heart wood together, along with a couple of knots. The wood is damp so I'm going to be turning it slowly to let the water inside evaporate slowly so the wood doesn't crack. When I'm done hollowing it out, I'll make a lid for it so stay tuned:

The surface looks like it's torn and it is as wet wood doesn't always turn cleanly.

So stay tuned, there's more to come.

VW

ALERT-Delta Midi Lathe on-off switch question

 Hello All,

I got an email message this afternoon re the on-off switch on Delta Midi lathes. Years ago when I still had a Delta lathe the switch on mine wore out and I replaced it. What I don't remember, and what today's email is about, is how to remove the switch. 

The manual for this lathe is not at all helpful so I'm appealing to you guys-if you own one of these lathes and have replaced the switch, how did you accomplish this?

Please send me your reply and I'll post the answer here.

Thanks, 

VW

The Hard Maple Salad Bowl Project-Discussion and Plans

 Hi Everyone,

Well, we have several days of warm weather ahead so I'm down in the wood shop gearing up for another project. This time I'll be making a salad bowl out of hard maple.

Discussion

About a month ago I was out and about shopping for wood at Forest Wood Products and they had a lovely piece of hard maple that I couldn't resist. It's about 14" wide and 20" long and 4" thick. It has a lovely even color to it and it's perfect for turning.

My husband also has a wonderful friend who was a professional educator and who also retired last summer. She and her husband, who is also retired, deserve a present after many years of hard work so they're getting a bowl that I hope they find useful.

 Plans

First of all, I've trimmed the maple block down to a square 13 1/2" x 13 1/2". Then I took a scrap piece of maple that is about 6" x 6" square and 1" thick and centered it on one of the faces of the block and glued it down:

By doing this I won't have to create a foot for the bowl out of the block of wide, which would involve sacrificing some of the volume of the bowl.

Then I weighted it down. I don't have any clamps what would work for this so I took the whole thing upstairs and weighted it down with some cast iron cookware. It's presently sitting on my dining room table:

 

I always knew this would come in handy.

Next, when this is dry, I'll take it downstairs, cut off the corners, mount it on the lathe and get going on it. I'm still not sure of the ultimate shape it will take but I have a few days to think about this.

And when it's done, I'll give it a couple of coats of General Finishes salad bowl finish and then it will be done.

 So, we're off on another adventure in the wood shop!

Stay tuned,

VW

Small turned boxes

 Hi Everyone,

 Like most wood turners I have a lot of small scrap pieces of wood and one of the uses for these are wooden boxes.

There are zillions of photos on line of small turned boxes and I've made a few over the years but I seem to have both a lot of blocks and a number of birthdays coming up. The boxes are great for gifts, storing small things like rings, or just a place to keep your fav earrings and never lose them again.

Here's a small box that I was working on yesterday. The lid and the box are both hickory and come from the hickory platter I made last year. The finial on top is ebony:

This needs to be sanded and a finish applied and I bet it will look great.

This would be a great project for any dried tree branches too.

 Anyway, back to work.

VW

Bandsaw tuneup

 Hey Everyone,
Here's an article about bandsaw tune ups:

 https://www.woodcraft.com/blogs/shop-knowledge-guides/bandsaw-tune-up-1?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Mar25&utm_id=SocialOrganic&utm_content=Article

 

Red Oak Tray Project-Completion photos

 I'm back-here are the completion photos for the red oak tray:

I couldn't find any handles that were curved and that would have worked on the tray. All of the handles I've found would only work on a flat surface so since the turning is finished and I've applied a finish to it, it's done too: 

Ok, this is finished.

_____________________________

 
Next project-I am planning on making a large salad bowl for a friend of ours and I had planned to add handles to it but the handle part will have to be deleted from the project. I'm probably going to build a laminated bowl plank and for that I'll have to visit my friends at Forest Wood Products to get some wood.

So I'll see you beginning probably on Friday to begin the bowl blank build. S

 See you then,
VW

White Oak End Table Project-Completion Photos

 Hi Everyone,

 Well, I was out running errands this morning and while I was gone the table legs for the end table were delivered. So after a brief nap, I gathered up some tools and some #10 pan head screws and attached the legs.
Here are the completion photos:

These first two photos show the legs and their placement underneath the table top. These legs are smooth black powder coated iron, 16" long and they come from Hairpinlegs. 

 

Here is one leg screwed down in place:

And here it is. Since it's a 3-legged table it will never wobble.

So we can stick a fork in it and call it done.

___________________

 The red oak serving tray is also finished and I'll get a few photos of it and display them in the next blog.

VW

Red Oak Tray, with handles? Oh dear...

 Hi Everyone,

Well I got up late today and after breakfast with the cats I went down to the wood shop to finish hollowing out the tray, which I did. But a problems arose-let's take a look at the photos and I'll explain:

I got the tray hollowed out and took it off the lathe to check the thickness of the bottom and to figure out the placement of the handles:

Then I placed the handles next to the side of the bowl and you can see there is a gap between the side of the tray and the handle:

There's no way to screw this on so it's secure and looks good. So what to do? I could modify two opposite sides of the tray and straighten out the surface so the handles would sit flat and securely but I decided not to do that. I think the tray looks nice in it's present form.

But it needed more detail to make it visually more interesting:

So I hollowed it out more, turned the sides inward and then created a turned rim for it:

I also removed the sharp inside edge so it wouldn't be uncomfortable to pick up. I finished the turn with a good sanding and here it is at the moment:

The wood retained it's pink color and it's wide enough for a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Now I'm going to take it back downstairs and polish it with oak shavings then clean out the shop and let the air settle for a couple of days. Tomorrow we're supposed to have blizzard conditions here so on Thursday I'll give it a coat of polyurethane.

I'm going to look online later today to see if I can find some handles that will accommodate the round surface and if I do, I'll add some handles to it. If not then the project will be done.

Ok, see you all soon and if you're in the Midwest, stay warm!

VW

Small Red Oak Tray with Handles, continued

 Hello Everyone,

Today I turned the sides and partially hallowed out the serving tray. Here are today's photos:

I thought about the handles and the straight sides last night and I really didn't like how that would look so I removed the straight sides and rounded off the turning blank:

I also thought about how I would like the sides to look and I decided on a rounded bottom and sides that slanted inwards a few degrees.

And after I did this, I sanded the sides and the bottom and polished the surface with some red oak shavings.

Next I flattened the top of the bowl and marked off the inner rim of the bowl with a bedan tool:

 And lastly I began hollowing out the tray. In the photo you can see this is about 1/2" deep.

Now, as I have friends coming over for dinner I need to stop so tomorrow I'll continue on with the hollowing out and begin sanding and figuring out where the handles go.

 Stay tuned, VW

Small Red Oak Tray with Handles Project

 Hi Everyone,

Well, I've been itching to get back to wood turning and here's a small project to begin the year with: a small wooden tray out of red oak to use to carry a cup of tea and a treat outside to relax. My wonderful daughter-in-law has asked for several wooden trays and this will be the first and the smallest.

Discussion and Plans

I have a 101/2" x 101/2"x2" thick piece of red oak. It's very pretty and has a strong pink color to it and I think it will be the right size for a small tray. And I'm doing something new here: I'm going to attach some metal handles to it at the end of the turn.

I've incorporated wooden handles into bowl and tray designs in the past but this is the first time I've added metal handles. Here's a photo:

If you look carefully you can see that the ends of the handles are bent slightly towards the table surface. This allows the handle to stand away from the side of the tray. And the screw that was supplied with it are about 1" long so both of these things will have to be taken into consideration in the final design.

Ok, let's start working!

Next step was to drill out a 2 1/4: hole into the center of the turning block. This acts like a mortise for the jaws of the turning chuck to hold into:

Then I mounted it onto the lathe and began to turn. As beat up as this blank looked at the beginning, it didn't take long to true up the surface. And I cut out a very thin foot underneath the blank too. All that remains is to sand it smooth.

 As you can see the blank has 7 sides. I had originally planned to make the tray round in shape but I might just explore leaving it with 7 sides. 

It's getting colder so I'm going to stop. Tomorrow I'm going to take a look at the sides and saw them smooth and then take a serious look at them so decide if it will have straight sides or be made round.

Then I'll sand it smooth and flip it over and begin hollowing it out and figuring out the handles.

 
Ok, that's it for today. Be sure and grab some coffee and drop by the wood shop tomorrow!
Stay tuned,

VW

 Hello All,

I'm back and I do have to apologize for being away so long. The first part is that the laptop I was using last summer fell and the screen hinges broke. It must have done some internal damage to the machine because I couldn't get into a lot of my accounts including my Gmail and Selkie Wood Works Blog. And as a result I got locked out of those and many other accounts.

The other reason is that my family and I endured a lot of illness. I especially have been quite ill and unable to work. And of course it's been very cold here and my shop isn't heated so there you are.

I have recovered and I've got a new laptop and I was finally able to get back into my old accounts so I'm able to continue blogging here at last so let's get started.

When last we met I was starting an end table project with a piece of cut off oak slab as the top as a gift to my son and daughter in law. I intended to build a simple framework for it and then attach the frame to the underside of the top and be done with it.

Sometimes these things don't work out. Here is a review of the photos and a discussion:

Here's the top. It's long and narrow, white oak, and I got it for a song. Here it is with a coat of poly on it and it looks lovely:

 
Here's what part of the frame looked like. It was to be glued and screwed down to the top and to give it strength that long piece in the left side of the photo was to be glued and screwed to that center stretcher on both ends:

And here it is. It looked good until I dropped it and broke it. The joinery was freshly glued and screwed together and now, well, it's not.

There was another issue-in the photo you can see how the legs are splayed out. I originally did this as the table would be been very narrow and tippy with just an ordinary frame. I worked on this design and never could get the joinery right or strong enough for the table to last a long time. If you look at the photo just about you can see that I changed it so the legs would have perpendicular to the floor. To adjust the the narrowness I made the framework wider. The made the corners of the frame visible along side the top.

So the frame and the project are at a standstill. I debated going to the local big box store and getting some narrow diameter black plumbing pipe to make a different frame for it, but they don't carry that anymore. After several minutes of aggravation I decided to ditch the frame and order some hairpin rebar legs for it and that's just what I finished doing.

The legs should be here in a week so I'll set this aside until they arrive.

 Well I'm sorry we got off to such a crummy start but I will be doing some other projects. 

Stay tuned,
VW