#Hotoffthelathe tonight is another cedar pen. Looks much like the one from yesterday but that's because they are intended to be a matched pair.
The yellow box in the 2nd pic shows the blank before I "liberated" it from the parent wood. The jagged edge at right is because the wood developed deep cracks as it dried and became brittle. Much of the wood around the edges, like this piece, is too cracked and unstable for anything large.
@Myana Maybe I shouldn't give up trade secrets but one of the reasons I like woodturning is the lack of measurement & straight lines. When a piece doesn't come out as planned I do my best housecat imitation and say "uuuh, I *meant* to do that."
Case in point, the barrel *could* be slightly convex as seen here, all the way down to a little concave. I make 'em a bit convex so I have material to cut away if I mess it up. I have a few that came out concave after messing up a lot. 🙄
@Myana Thanks! Took a while but I think I'm finally getting the hang of the buffing wheels. The finish on this one is quite possibly the best I've ever done. Will be proud to present this gift.
Took forever, but I finally made something new AND what I'm calling "Possibly The World's Most Overengineered Pen Blank Squaring Jig" worked perfectly.
So today #hotoffthelathe is a Stratus pen with stylus tip made with a cedar wood barrel. This is the same cedar as the bowls I posted a while back and I'm giving the bowls and pen to the guy who gave me the wood.
So, this just happened...
Me: Options A and B are mutually exclusive. We can't actually do both.
Developer: That decision has to be deferred because we've been told to get something out there ASAP.
Me: Let me get this straight - we can't let solution design decisions delay implementation?
Dev: Exactly.
Me: {facepalm} Is it insider trading if I sell all my stock now?
I'm not making this up and have the link to prove it: McDonalds defines "for life" as a period of not more than 50 years if you eat their food twice a week.
Maybe Republicans should give up on getting rid of Social Security and just buy McGold Cards for everyone. Same long-term result, but massively more popular.
@elbutterfield She refused chocolate, but the wine dampened the rage to a somewhat safe level. That and I made pecan-crusted salmon with brown sugar glaze, served with asparagus, all over a bed of wild/white rice mix to go with that wine. That seemed to help.
@rpardee I had the good sense to keep quiet. It became dangerous when she made me take a pic and show it to her. It's pretty shaggy in back.
@elbutterfield I'm guessing more wine than chocolate?
@Brisse I'm looking hard at the Redwood Burl blank for only $937! I'll post the GoFundMe link shortly. 😃
@Brisse No worries. These field trips are mini-adventures. It's about the quest so marking a place off the list is a success.
@Brisse Thanks for the tip! I have their web site bookmarked but have yet to make the trip. I'll bump them up in the queue. :-)
A team of archeologists has staked off a dig site inside my shop and I can't do any #woodworking until they leave.
@redenigma Wow...I didn't wake up today thinking "I need to Google 'Unicorn Spit', but there you have it.
@Brisse It's actually Rockler that just opened here. Neither they nor Woodcraft have the large blanks I see people on YouTube getting. I made the field trip to Hickory but Klingspor didn't have any either. I can get small-to-medium blanks there but not the big 16" rounds. So far only source for those are random found/gifted logs.
I make stuff with code and with wood. Just, you know, not at the same time.
#actuallyautistic #cybersecurity #woodturner