Walnut Serving Tray, continued

Hello Again,

Well, the weather here has gotten really, really cold and windy and with my shop not being heated, it's tough going on the walnut tray. I'm going to just work on it a bit everyday until this cold spell passes.

I just came in after having worked for about 45 minutes. I've cut off two of the corners and begun smoothing the edges with a wood file and a sander. Here is where I'm at:

Here you can see the missing corner. I wanted to follow the curvature of the heartwood a bit instead of just rounding off the corner. And I've beveled the edge just a little with a hand file and sandpaper. I think it looks a little better than it did. I also began sanding it with 120 grit paper:

And this is what it will look like with the handles in place:

Tomorrow I'll finish sanding it with 120 grit paper and move up to 150 grit and I may re-cut the bottom right hand corner a little. Eventually I'll get to 400 grit and this will be on both sides. I also need to get some small rubber feet for it and I'll do that in the next day or so.

Stay tuned.
VW

Hello Everyone! Lathe update and new project:Small walnut serving tray-discussion and plans

Hello All,

Well, here we are again. I hope you all have had an enjoyable holiday season and are ready for the New Year.

Here's an update on the lathe-it's still not working but I am waiting on a switch to arrive that may solve the on-off switch problem. Keep your fingers crossed that this works.

The enforced wood shop idleness was making me a little stir crazy until a friend of mine emailed me requesting a small serving tray for her parents down in Texas. They all like black walnut and I think their kitchen cabinets are made from walnut so I accepted her challenge and went shopping this morning and came back with a short section of black walnut that has a crotch figure to it:

...and of course there is always a cat around for photo bombing purposes...

My goal is to make a small serving tray with a the natural edging in place that you see on the left had side of the photograph and to accentuate the swirled grain pattern by very gently curving the square ends of the board just a little bit - I don't want this to look like a board with handles stuck on it.

I bought some simple black handles and you can see where I'm going to place them at the conclusion of the project:

Plans
The key to this project is going to be the surface preparation and the finish. The more finely sanded it is, the more the beautiful grain will stand out so this is going to take quite a bit of sanding. Then I'm going to polish the surface with steel wool and then add a food grade finish to it. Lastly I'll install the handles and some small feet underneath the tray so it will stand up and away from the surface of any table that it will rest on.

This will take a few days to finish off. It's getting cold right now so I'm going to begin the project in earnest tomorrow.

So grab some coffee and join me in the shop once again! It's time for more adventures in the wood shop.

Stay tuned,
VW

Broken Lathe...

Hi Everyone,

Well, I have some not so good news-my lathe is broken. The on-off switch isn't working and I haven't been able to find a replacement part for it. It seems that Delta no longer makes replacement switches for my lathe-their website says it's obsolete. So for the time being, I'm unable to turn wood.

The lathe that I own is the Delta Midi Lathe, model 46-460. If you have a suggestion as to how to work around this problem or if you know of a supplier who can sell me a switch, please send me note via the comments section below.

This is really the pits and I'm relieved that I don't have any pending bowl orders right now.

I am going to be continuing the blog and I'll be working on other non-wood turning projects that I've needed to do so I'll still be here doing projects in the wood shop.

So stay tuned-as always there's another project just over the horizon and we'll all still create objects out of wood together.

Best,
VW

More sanding tips

Hi Again,

I have another sanding posting for you. This one is a video from Sam Angelo at Wyomingwoodturner. This video has more details than the previous posting. It's 13 minutes long but really worth watching:

This is a link to  Sam's YouTube channel . He's got lots of videos to watch. 

And here is a link to his website: Wyoming Wood Turner

I've got a large laminated hickory bowl to finish and I'm going to try some of Sam's suggestions and I'll post about them later next week.

Thanks for stopping by,
VW

Sanding Article by Betty Scarpino

Hi Everyone,

Woodturning Online has an article about sanding by well known wood artist Betty Scarpino. You can access the article online at this link: Betty's Lathe Sanding Secrets.


VW

Dining Room Table re-do:Pt.5-Finish photos

Hi Everyone,

Well, the table is finished and I'm using it to type this posting on. I'm quite please with the way it worked out. The table is strong and very stable-it doesn't rock. And I think this new base gives it a more contemporary look. The total price for the lumber was $42.00 so it was an economical re-do as well.

Here are the photos:

And of course it's been cat approved:

This one is done.

I'm not sure what my next project will be so I'll have to cogitate a bit on that. I could use some shelving in the shop and I need to split a walnut log and a couple of box elder trunk sections and I may just do that to get myself ready for winter turning. I also need to sharpen everything and replace my bandsaw blade, which is barely cutting anything (although I did cut open an acorn squash last night). So stay tuned. There's always another adventure ahead.

Thanks for stopping by,
VW

Dining Room Table re-do:Pt.4: Finishing up the Base

Hi Everyone,

Well, I've had a rotten head cold the past several days and so I'm just getting to the dinning room table build. Jim and Critter gave me a hand with it as I'm dripping snot everywhere and I'm running a fever. Talk about giving one's all.

Here are the photos:

This is the table base. I re-used the original frame from the old table base, and screwed on the table leg assemblies in their place. The frame needs a 2x4 placed between the 2x4s between the legs. I'm adding this for stability. And of course the cats have to add their two cents worth:

And here is the 2x4 in place. The table base construction is now finished. All the remains is to screw the whole thing down to the underside of the table top:

Here's Jim giving me a hand screwing the frame down. We even re-used the original screws:

We turned the whole thing over and set it on the floor and it rocked just a little bit so we turned upside down again and loosened the frame, added 2 shims and then screwed the frame down tightly. No rocking this time:

 And then we signed and dated the shim. A zillion years from now when the next owners decide to re-do this table, the names and date of Jim and I will be there:

Ok, I'm going to varnish the table base. I'll post the finish photographs later this week.

Stay tuned,
VW