Drum Sander

I've just completed a quick & dirty drum sander out of some recycled Beech butchers block,Birch plywood offcuts,hinges,skateboard bearings,8mm 0-1 drill rod,M6 cross dowels & bolts,6mm diameter,green,heat weld,lathe belting & a grinder that is close to death.

I've made it to be completely collapsible so that I can adjust or replace components if need be.It may not be pretty with rough sawn edges & worn out grinder but it runs very smooth & quiet & the only further work I'm planning on doing is to add a 10mm thick plate of tool steel to the ramp as the ply has a little too much flexibility to be really accurate.

I won't take full credit for the design of my sander,I think I took most elements from a lad on Lumberjocks although using skate bearings & the redundant grinder are my ideas.It's actually my old lap lathe,used for at least 15 hours a week for 5 years until the constant switching on & off melted the switch.

What's a lap lathe I hear you say?

Well,it's a lathe that is actually a grinder mounted to a laminated block of plywood 60mm thick by 450mm long.The right hand wheel & all cowling for the both wheels is removed to reduce vibration(no such thing as good vibes in turning).The last 2 grinders I had utilised an M12 thread to secure the grindstone to the spindle so it was a simple matter to just make up a bunch of little faceplates using extra M12 nuts.I simply roughed them up with the grinder itself then superglued them into holes I had drilled into some Birch ply discs making them into perfect little gluechucks.I do practically all my small turning on this setup just sitting in my lap.

Why do you have it in your lap in the first place?

Well,I'm something of a night owl & at first it was so I could work at night.Even turning something as small as a 10mm Padauk mushroom was so noisy that I was curfewed by 10.30pm,we live on the top floor of a Victorian tenement building & I feel it's only fair to the neighbours that I stop the heavy,percussive noise at that time.Mounting the grinder on the plywood & turning on my lap is so quiet that I can work through the night even with Karen lying asleep less than 6 feet away in the next room.

I actually prefer turning this way now,you're much more involved with the work,like whittling as opposed to carving on the bench top.I also use this setup as a disc sander,leather faced wheel for honing,fibral mop(non woven nylon abrasive for matt finishing silver)& standard stitched wheel for polishing.I retain the smooth stone on the other side of the spindle.This not only gives me the ever ready ability to sharpen my gouge & chisels but also acts as a gyroscope stabilising the whole contraption.I've been meaning to put some turning demos on my blog,think I'll start tomorrow....

Carving Tools

Been meaning to make some carving tools for a while so here we are....Made using a O-1 tool steel,brass tubing ferrules & various woods.Top row,Maple,Mahogany,Beech & Yew.Bottom row,Sapele,African Blackwood,Boxwood,Walnut & Piquia Amarello.The gouges were made on the lathe by drilling a hole the appropriate width for the chosen sweep down the center then half the material was ground away to leave a U shaped cross section that is easilly sharpened into a gouge.The largest gouge is also forged a little to open the sweep so that an 8mm diameter drill rod yeilds a gouge with a 9mm sweep(I'm not that enamoured with this tool,I'll be making another 9mm sweep gouge when the 13mm drill rod arrives.)The straight chisels were 5mm drill rod that I heated in a propane/butane torch until red hot then hammer forged to rough shape then ground to final dimension on the lap grinder.The skew & fingernail chisels were simply ground.All have been successfully heat treated & take & hold an edge that is "shaving sharp".I thoroughly enjoy making these wee tools & imagine I'll have a lot more before very long!

Kokeshi Doll

Hey folks,it's been a wee while,again.Hope you've all been well,having fun doing the things that you love with the people you love...

Sorry about the quality of pics,I can only think it's the swimming pools of coffee I consume on a daily basis that are making things so blurry!

Anyway,this is one of my turned,carved,burned & painted Kokeshi Dolls.She is a solid billet of Scottish Sycamore that was first roughly hewn from a 9 inch diameter log using my Gransfor Bruks Forest axe,the ends squared on the bandsaw then mounted on my engineers lathe to be turned to a cylinder.This allows a perfect cylinder to be achieved very quickly & accurately.The dome of her head was finished with skew chisel,gouge & sanded to 600grit,the base finished with only skew.

Once I had the basic shape I started work on the features with my 0.5mm 2H pencil.There is minimal carving,basically just enough to define the jawline & the sleeves of the Kimono,just under 2mm deep.I did this using all 5 of my Pfeil palm carving tools & my trusty Swann-Morton No.3 scalpel with a No.11 blade.

Once I had the carving complete it was onto the Pyrography.This is a technique that involves burning a design into a light coloured wood with what is essentially a soldering iron.Some of them can be a little more sophisticated with adjustable temperature but mine is essentially a tiny wee poker with changeable brass tips.Although I only created thin,uniform lines in this doll,in the right hands Pyrography can be used to great effect in creating shade,depth & form.I burned in the hair,eyes & pattern in the Kimono,if there's a line it's burned.

I used model makers enamel paint,matt for the hair & trim on the Kimono,gloss for the face & checks.There are still a few wee patches that need touching up but I've been wanting to post this for some time (I took the axe to the log over a year ago & although she only took about 25 accumulated hours to get to this point it seems a whole lot longer....).

She is 402mm tall & 77mm in diameter.

Recycled/Reclaimed Boxes

Here are a few boxes I have made using wood that I found on the streets of Edinburgh.The Mahogany I used was found just outside my flat in the form of a discarded mantel 6 foot long,8 inches wide by 1 1/4 inch thick.The 22mm Baltic Birch Plywood I found in a skip outside a flat that I presume was getting underfloor heating considering the shape of the offcuts.Not sure how much I scored but it was enough to fill the boot of our Peugot 206.I’ve made loads of stuff with this from these boxes to jigs,sanding discs,new top for my beatup workbench & faceplates for my lathe/sander/grinder.The Oak came from some old kitchen doors & drawer fronts I found a couple of streets up from mine.Once the doors had been dismantled the stiles bore about 60 feet of 15mm by 50mm strips & the drawer fronts yielded 30some feet of 100mm by 20mm boards,perfect for boxmaking. They were glued together using p.v.a.,sanded to 600 grit then finished with Liberon finishing oil. There are a number of great things about using reclaimed wood. Firstly,its free meaning all the more money for tools. Secondly,you know the wood is well seasoned,especially if its the remnants of a home remodelling. Thirdly & lastly,as far as I’m aware,is you are slowing our ever increasing rubbish tips from becoming continents in their own rights. Oh,the suede that I take my pics on is also salvaged,this time from an old 3 seat sofa. The one at the front is 120mm long by 57mm high.

Absent Earrings

I mentioned in my last post that I have been making the usual cufflinks, pendants & earrings & I realise that I haven't posted any pics of earrings,so,here we go...

The first pic shows 2 pairs of drop earrings made from Turquoise, Blackwood, beef bone, African Padauk, Osage Orange, Malachite & Black Walnut.

The second,third & fourth pics show pairs from my Quadrant range.These are made from Turquoise, Blackwood, Tagua nut, Mahogany, Pink Ivory & Leadwood.

The final pair are traditional bezel set Carnelian, gold & silver studs.

I'm rubbish

Yet again it's been 3 months since my last post,I really do suck at keeping a journal!

It's been a busy 3 months,along with the usual earrings,cufflinks & pendants I've made a replacement electrical component for my father in laws old Rolls Royce using a piece of copper tubing (free),a sandwich board (all materials scavenged from skips & the roadside,well,apart from the glue & panel pins)for my artist friend Deborah Cameron,she paints the most amazing seascapes,http://deborahcameron.com/,started work on a pair of Viking shoes & made a few more custom tools.

This little smoothing plane has to be my favourite tool so far.She's 130mm longs by 51mm wide with a blade width of 34mm.She is constructed primarily from African Blackwood,a stable timber as hard as bone that glues to itself with little or no seam & is capable of taking a mirror finish,my favourite wood by some margin.The wedge is curly Sycamore with a ring of Blackwood,Sycamore,Black Walnut,Turquoise resin & finally beef bone holding in a 13mm Lapis Lazuli cabochon.

Her mouth is quite wide at the moment,1.5mm with the bevel down,4mm with the bevel up (I modeled her on Karl Holteys 11-SA & although she is a little shorter the blade & bed geometry are the same).This will close up once I get round to replacing the 2mm thick stanley block plane blade with a 3.5-4mm 0-1 carbon steel blade of my own creation.I'm not too bothered at the minute as I've only had to plane some very sedate Oak & Mahogany & these particular timbers seem to cooperate without a fuss producing some very woolly shavings.I'm sure once I have to plane some African Padauk or pippy Yew I'll be looking for that smaller mouth.

I've made a couple of planes before but none of them turned out as well as this one,it seems to me that Blackwood is the wood of choice when planemaking.

You may have noticed I am refering to this plane as she?I tend to name my favourite tools/machines & I've named this little beauty Charlize...

Mallet from a Bowl

For the past couple of years I have been slowly but surely replacing my shop bought tools with a collection of tools that I have made myself.
There is a sense of satisfaction that comes from making things using tools you have made yourself that is difficult to put into words,it's just awesome!!
My latest tool creation is this lignum vitae mallet.
For years I have been using a 2.5 lb club hammer to drive my chisels but after seeing various beautiful examples of lignum mallets on the web I convinced myself that such a thing was essential.
Now,my first port of call whenever I'm looking to buy wood or supplies these days is,of course,eBay.
The first suitably sized piece of lignum listed (5"long cylinder by 5.5" diameter)seemed,at £27.50,a little too salty to me but 3 listings below it there was a set of 4 vintage lignum vitae lawn bowls,buy it now £10.
"Drat,pick up only,knew it was too good to be true!"
Click on it anyway -item location,City of Edinburgh
WHOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!
BUYBUYBUY!!!
Send message to arrange pickup.
I have only ever worked small pieces of lignum in the past,small turned inlay & the sole of a tiny smoothing plane so to say I was unprepared for the edge destroying abilities of this ferocious timber is an understatement.I swear it felt like I was sharpening more than turning.
That said lignum vitae is a beautiful material to work taking a crisp,glossy finish.
I decided to use maple for the handle as it is a lovely creamy white which will contrast even better once the lignum oxidises to its eventual deep,leafy green.
The finished mallet is 275mm long & the head is 100mm at its widest.