Turn, Turn, Turn

 Mornin' Folks (and those of you who aren't morning folks).  Been a busy, but fun, week at Rancho Juvat.  Mrs J has been keeping my handyman skills (such as they are) honed.

What skills are those, juvat?

It's a rain gutter garden, Mrs. J is planting onions and arugula in the top and bottom respectively.

Well, a little metallurgy.  There's got to be a better way to cut rain gutter than with a hack saw.  Straight cut? Not a chance.  Suggestions?

This side got some flowers as our dining room looks out over it.

A little carpentry.  I've got a tad more skill in that field.  I can turn lumber into sawdust with the best of 'em.

Yes Beans, this picture was taken while on a back break (double entendre there) before we straightened out the long wall.

A little stone masonry.  Finally found a use for the large pile of limestone leftover from our house.  Only got the plot tilled, weed barrier in and first layer (of probably two, but who knows we've got a lot of limestone left) of the wall built before we ran out of steam.  But we got a lot done in a day.

Also this week, a bit of progress on a different front.

My new woodshop now has 3" of blown foam insulation on the walls and door and 6" on the ceiling.  I can now start putting in the interior walls and moving in.  Finally.

Yes, I'm excited.

As you may have expected after last week's post in which I talked about this, "playing" with my new toy was high on my list of activities.

I spent a lot of time in my old, too small, shop practicing with the lathe.  I've been advised by several folks (you know who you are) to try turning pens.  Which I attempted to do, unsuccessfully.  After some help from "John in Philly" (Thank you!), I finally figured out my problem.  The instruction manual that I downloaded from the seller's (not Rockler) website had the speed gearing backwards.  So...When I thought I was going full blast, I was actually at its lowest speed setting.  The settings didn't make sense to me mechanically  but, hey, they're the manufacturer.  John pointed me to a Rockler (they also sell the machine) manual that had the proper schematic.  

Once that was settled, I tried my hand again  And re-learned an important lesson.

Checklists should always be used.

Experienced Pen Turners should recognize the error right away.

I grabbed a pen blank and drilled out the center, mounted it on the mandrel and wailed away at it.  This is fun, I thought, and easy.  I'll have a pen in an hour or so.  Turned the Sapele down to where I wanted it,  Pulled it off the mandrel and realized I had skipped a step. A copper core is supposed to be glued in to the center hole,  Then the pen blank should be trimmed to that length.

Back to the drawing board.

Round two (the next day after I spent an hour typing out the checklist as penance to the tree gods for wasting wood) I used a blank of Padauk (a reddish/purple wood).  Drilled the center, glued in the core,  mounted the blank and went at it again.  Much better result.

Two minor mistakes (aka lessons learned).  One, I was too timid on getting the edges all the way to the guide bushings, hence there are noticeable ridges at the point and in the middle where the pen parts and the wood don't match up.  Additionally, I should have checked the twist mechanism before I put the back half of the pen on.  Had I, I would have realized I needed to push the twist mechanism  in about 1/16" further in.  But...I love how the finish looks.  For those of you who know.  10 coats of CA glue, polished to 12000 grit.  One coat of wood polish and Voila'.  

So,  am I excited about turning wood?  You betcha', on to the next project! or as they say "Turn, Turn, Turn"

You had to know that was coming dincha? 

😎

And, there I was, copying the code for the Byrds video, while YouTube was running in the background.  This came up next.  I thought it was pretty cool. You get a twofer.

Have a great week and a prayerful Easter.