Adding the hinges actually worked this time. I have no idea why. I morticed them the same way I usually do, though I did take more time with the fitting to the lid and setting up for workholding with shims and such. I still think I have particularly cheap hardware to work with though – one set of Brusso hinges probably costs more than my entire little stock of hinges and hardware.… Read the rest
Slightly busy day so not as much time in the shed as you’d like (which is, obviously, all of the time). But I did get the glued-up panel for the base cleaned up, marked out with the base so I could scribe the inside and outside of the walls to let the nail pilot holes be marked. Trimmed the base to size, drilled the pilot holes, shaped the edges with a simple roundover using a #05 to hog out most of the waste and a #04 to smooth a bit (and then some sandpaper and a block plane to break edges).… Read the rest
So, four day weekend so almost six hours in the shed 😀
Got the last of the background removal done…
Mix of hand pressure on the gouges and whacking the everloving stuffing out of them with a mallet, and trying to get the background down about 4-5mm or so relatively uniformly across the background. Then to eliminate the unevenness, stippling!
Basically, lots of spikes on the end of a punch, and thwack it with a lump hammer lots and lots of times until…
And then just douse it in boiled linseed oil to show it all up.… Read the rest
So, after the whole resin-casting-a-mug thing, it’s fair to say that the shed was in need of a cleanup…
Turns out, sanding resin will actually leave a bit of residue. Also, the shavings are starting to pile up again…
And the bandsaw is getting buried…
And the shop vac wasn’t actually vac-ing much either. So I started there, and checked the drum for the vortex separator, but it wasn’t even a tenth full, so I took out the filter from the shop vac…
And sure enough, there’s the problem:
Totally clogged with fines.… Read the rest
So, one of our team at work went on holiday to Peru and left his mug behind him in Dublin. And was scheduled to return on April 1.
So what happens next is entirely his fault.
(COL-PROD was a work project thing which won’t mean a thing outside of work)
You know, it’s harder than you think to shatter a mug using a wedge from the inside out so it doesn’t look like some heathen just belted it with a hammer…
Foamcore mould, held together with packing tape and hotglue.… Read the rest
So, y’know when you have an odd idea and you can’t be sure if it’s good or terrible?
The oak carving is going okay. But depressingly regularly, while cutting away the background, a piece of the foreground chips off. Sometimes I can fix it with CA glue, sometimes I can soften out the edges so it looks like it was supposed to be rounded instead of oops-broke-a-bit, but I kept wondering about how well the box would hold up if it’s this chippy, and also while I like the way it looks, well, most of the appeal of this sort of stuff comes from the medullary rays and the lines of the grain you get when you rive oak, and the flatsawn stuff just isn’t as pretty.… Read the rest
A (rare these days) workday evening half-hour in the shed, so onto the side panels.
End vice, does’ foot, holdfast, all the hold-it-down-on-a-flat-surface tools I have and it still jumps about if I’m carving towards the edge of the bench. Now I know why Peter Follansbee nails his work down to a large pine board before carving.
The joys of having a lot of good material and elbow room 😀
Still, the new gouges did well enough, the carving was a bit easier than before.… Read the rest
…is that you have to sharpen lots of gouges.
After noticing all the chipping out I was getting, and some awkwardness with the v-tool work, I took the entire carving toolroll out and took the grinder off the wall.
Then I pushed my luck by squaring the ends of the gouges and v-tools on the side of the stone. Don’t do this, it’s not a great idea for anything stressful and figuring out what qualifies as stressful isn’t clear.… Read the rest
The title is annoyingly descriptive of the process, but on we go. Unwrapped the boards, and discovered silicone will stick to CA glue and oak…
Chopped the last line of the outline with a third gouge (this one was in-
It looks a bit confused because you have a few lines crossing but those areas are going away so that’s okay.… Read the rest
