Show Your Work

Rick, I am retired also, when I first retired and started doing things around the house I wondered how I ever had time to work since the list of things that need done is a never ending one. Generally I spend about 4-5 hours a day working in the wood shop, I'll put something in the machine to carve and then while it is running it's over to the lathe to work on something, which I am discovering more somethings to make on the lathe:


It has been about 10 months since making pens began and so far I have made about 125 or so, giving away about 30 to friends and family at Christmas.

hi there. nice work @god. i have build my own homemade cnc. puufffff after so hard work finaly i finished my work. there are few problems in bearings but working well.
if anyone is interested that how i build it so please check out my blog.
thanks
myhomemadecnc.blogspot.com/

Love your stuff Bob, your 5 layers of laquer gives such a great finish. I also see you have quite a selection of different woods that you use to obtain different results. Might I ask where you get your wood from? I have been stuck mostly with big box stores, and the woods you're using are never available there. I think I remember you mentioned one time that you had a sawmill nearby to get some wood from, I'd have to go looking to find one of those around Fort Wayne. The only wood with any real width to it in the box stores tends to be red oak, which I like but it gets boring and sometimes is too dark for what I'd like to end up with.

I see you are continuing with the pens and bowls also, you are one busy guy. I've been busy replacing all the molding in my sons house, one room at a time while they're at work. Then I did a coffee table for my daughter, using the 1013 to carve some designs into the end pieces. Won't assemble that one till after the holidays, it takes up less room unassembled and she's living with us till her wedding in April.

Rick, There are about 6 local mills around here and I suppose that has something to do with southern Indiana being more heavily wooded. I can usually get Cherry,Maple and Walnut
in 10-12 foot lengths, 10 -12" wide all 4/4" or 5/4" thick rough cut. There are other woods available such as Spalted Maple, Ambrosia Maple, Kentucky Coffee tree (looks real similar to oak, but with out the open grain oak has) Beech (hard as a rock) Sassafras etc. Basically if it grows around this area, they have it. Rough sawmill cut and I usually plane it which is a mess, but I can for instance buy a Cherry board that is 12" wide, 5/4" thick and 12' long for around $ 45. I have migrated to using 1 mill in particular, simply because he has some really nice stuff, (he classifies his selections as "wood studios") plus the last time I bought some wood from him was prior to my fall show and I really did not have a lot of time to mess around with planing it. I bought 2- 12" x 12' Cherry and 2-12" x 12' Maple and he planed it for me both sides for $ 15 extra. What I like additionally is his lumber is cut with a bandsaw mill which leaves a smoother finish on the rough cut lumber than some of the others using a circular blade, which requires fewer passes in the planer. If you are on your pc sometime you might look them up just to see:

Maple Grove Mill

Ric, Yes all of his wood has been kiln dried. He only does air drying as an option for people who are having wood cut from their own timber.

Sixty Four laps around the sun