Very nice Marc.
What did you do in your shop today?
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Very nice Marc.
woodtickgreg
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Looks very nice Marc, even if it is for a task that no one wants to do. Loosing our pets sucks.
Lost my mind! Project thread will be started!!
Intermission on the insanity project for more antique restoration...
Unfortunately forgot to take a picture of this before I started. MIL brought bowl out to me, grain had worn thin and a spot in the bottom of the bowl was starting to separate. She wanted to know if I could sand it smooth again. I decided it should probably be cleaned up and sealed again. According to the mother-in-law, this bowl belonged to the father-in-law's grandmother, and was passed down to his mother, and down to the mother-in-law. Mother-in-law is 85 years old now. So how far back this bowl goes, is beyond me, but it was store bought. And, hopefully our resident mid-west antiquities experts can help me out here with a name on the bowl cause it's about gone.
@woodtickgreg
@Schroedc
Oh yes... grain that was lifting in bottom of the bowl, wasn't wanting to sand back, cleaned it up good around the damaged area, CAed it, then started sanding seriously. First coat of General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish, says I need at least 3, humidity has been through the roof down here the last week, raining every day, so it wasn't dry enough to buff out with steel wool as per directions on can. More on this project when finished! Appears to be lightly spalted maple.
Intermission on the insanity project for more antique restoration...
Unfortunately forgot to take a picture of this before I started. MIL brought bowl out to me, grain had worn thin and a spot in the bottom of the bowl was starting to separate. She wanted to know if I could sand it smooth again. I decided it should probably be cleaned up and sealed again. According to the mother-in-law, this bowl belonged to the father-in-law's grandmother, and was passed down to his mother, and down to the mother-in-law. Mother-in-law is 85 years old now. So how far back this bowl goes, is beyond me, but it was store bought. And, hopefully our resident mid-west antiquities experts can help me out here with a name on the bowl cause it's about gone.
@woodtickgreg
@Schroedc
Oh yes... grain that was lifting in bottom of the bowl, wasn't wanting to sand back, cleaned it up good around the damaged area, CAed it, then started sanding seriously. First coat of General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish, says I need at least 3, humidity has been through the roof down here the last week, raining every day, so it wasn't dry enough to buff out with steel wool as per directions on can. More on this project when finished! Appears to be lightly spalted maple.
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That was easier than I thought, sorta... Googled "Wood Bowl Second Quality Chicago" and boom!
Parrish Bowl Company - These bowls are a mystery marked Chicago... Lots of different speculation on them. Plant was located in Hulbert, Michigan - 1900- 1930s. Company went bankrupt during the great depression. Parrish bowls had the Parrish name in a Triangle. That much is documented and sound information.
Beyond that, nothing is definitive on these that say Second Quality. Some say they wouldn't put the company logo on second quality bowls.
One guy says he has one that is double stamped, "Finest Quality" and "Second Quality", with no Triangle logo. It has a small crack on the side, and suspects it cracked after finished, reducing it to Second Quality.
Some say it is rumored there was a large lot of these bowls found stored in a warehouse, speculated to have been the original Parrish Bowl Plant, sometime during the 70s.
Another antique dealer says there's a company working out of Chicago selling "Treen", commonly used name for wood bowls and utensils. And, the bowl is worth about $10. Some suspect they put the Parrish name on it, to sucker the unknowing into paying more for them.
Had it been an original pre-depression era Parrish bowl, worth more like... $150.
Nothing comes up for Parrish Bowls in Chicago.
So it could be in excess of a hundred years old, could just be fifty years old. Either way, I found several identical bowls on line.
Parrish Bowl Company - These bowls are a mystery marked Chicago... Lots of different speculation on them. Plant was located in Hulbert, Michigan - 1900- 1930s. Company went bankrupt during the great depression. Parrish bowls had the Parrish name in a Triangle. That much is documented and sound information.
Beyond that, nothing is definitive on these that say Second Quality. Some say they wouldn't put the company logo on second quality bowls.
One guy says he has one that is double stamped, "Finest Quality" and "Second Quality", with no Triangle logo. It has a small crack on the side, and suspects it cracked after finished, reducing it to Second Quality.
Some say it is rumored there was a large lot of these bowls found stored in a warehouse, speculated to have been the original Parrish Bowl Plant, sometime during the 70s.
Another antique dealer says there's a company working out of Chicago selling "Treen", commonly used name for wood bowls and utensils. And, the bowl is worth about $10. Some suspect they put the Parrish name on it, to sucker the unknowing into paying more for them.
Had it been an original pre-depression era Parrish bowl, worth more like... $150.
Nothing comes up for Parrish Bowls in Chicago.
So it could be in excess of a hundred years old, could just be fifty years old. Either way, I found several identical bowls on line.
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Youngest daughter’s wedding is in a week and a half. She asked for some wood rounds to help with decorations on the tables.
OK, how many do you need?
3 per table.
Crap, how many tables?
13.
Holy crap.
She asked for these earlier in the summer, but the only wood I had not already split for the woodstove was cut green in March. I had cut and bagged them earlier but it’s still wet at about 17% and I’m outa time.
3 days with the belt sander, drum sander and ROS and here are 40 (only putting 1 on her table). Guess I coulda left them with the chainsaw marks but I’m too anal for that. Wish I had a 5 gallon bucket of walnut oil to drop them in.
Cherry from her Grandfather’s yard.
OK, how many do you need?
3 per table.
Crap, how many tables?
13.
Holy crap.
She asked for these earlier in the summer, but the only wood I had not already split for the woodstove was cut green in March. I had cut and bagged them earlier but it’s still wet at about 17% and I’m outa time.
3 days with the belt sander, drum sander and ROS and here are 40 (only putting 1 on her table). Guess I coulda left them with the chainsaw marks but I’m too anal for that. Wish I had a 5 gallon bucket of walnut oil to drop them in.
Cherry from her Grandfather’s yard.
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Tom, go to CVS or Walgreens and get a gallon or two 9f mineral oil, it's pretty cheap.
Tony, thanks I do have a gallon I use on my cutting boards. I’m gonna stick with the walnut oil because it will polymerize and mineral oil will never dry.
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So, as you may have seen in another thread, I've been working on getting the Dust Collection working again. Found out the hard way that you don't want to back out the screws in a new switch. They have a loose nut on the inside and you'll never get the screw threaded back in. *sigh*
So I added one new switch in and I find that I'm a bit short of 3 wire to put in the last switch. I ended up using 5 wire thermostat wire because I couldn't find 3 wire. I just cut off the extra 2 on each end. I ended up using a piece of that for the run to the first 3-way switch so I'm now going to pull that back out and replace it with the two wire (which is all I need for that leg) so I can use the 5(3) wire for the last switch. Picked up the replacement switch last night and will get that project finished up this weekend.
Then it'll be back to the fire truck project and I'll get some trivets started for a show this fall.
So I added one new switch in and I find that I'm a bit short of 3 wire to put in the last switch. I ended up using 5 wire thermostat wire because I couldn't find 3 wire. I just cut off the extra 2 on each end. I ended up using a piece of that for the run to the first 3-way switch so I'm now going to pull that back out and replace it with the two wire (which is all I need for that leg) so I can use the 5(3) wire for the last switch. Picked up the replacement switch last night and will get that project finished up this weekend.
Then it'll be back to the fire truck project and I'll get some trivets started for a show this fall.
Sanded until my finger tips about fell off! And, they may yet!!
Last time @FLQuacker was up he left me a chunk of Spalted Sycamore that was checking pretty good to play with. Managed to whittle it down bit by bit to something I could work with, finishing off my $9 Harbor Freight bandsaw blade. And, wound up with a 5x5x8 blank. I don't know if all sycamore is as hard as this is, but this stuff is ungodly ugly hard. It dulled everything I threw at, must have gone through at least a half mile of sand paper! But it's looking good!!
Before the half mile of sand-paper... 4 3/4" OD at top x 6 1/2" Tall.
Most of the half mile went in here! It is now perfectly smooth in there!!
Bowl gouge proved a PITA, couldn't keep it sharp long enough to get anywhere with it. It went back in the rack after the second catch. Taking a page from the @Spinartist "It ain't what tool you use, it's how you use the tool!" book, most of it was turned with my parting tool. Didn't take a big bite, standing on edge it was sufficiently thick for the job, but... It ran out of length a little shy of finishing the job.
Had to improvise and create a long distance turning tool! Don't know what kind of tool steel it was, just know it didn't work for what the buddy wanted it for on the mud truck project I got talked into welding up. It did however work really good in the bottom of this vase/urn/whatever. And, will be used for the hollowing device when it's fabricated.
Last time @FLQuacker was up he left me a chunk of Spalted Sycamore that was checking pretty good to play with. Managed to whittle it down bit by bit to something I could work with, finishing off my $9 Harbor Freight bandsaw blade. And, wound up with a 5x5x8 blank. I don't know if all sycamore is as hard as this is, but this stuff is ungodly ugly hard. It dulled everything I threw at, must have gone through at least a half mile of sand paper! But it's looking good!!
Before the half mile of sand-paper... 4 3/4" OD at top x 6 1/2" Tall.
Most of the half mile went in here! It is now perfectly smooth in there!!
Bowl gouge proved a PITA, couldn't keep it sharp long enough to get anywhere with it. It went back in the rack after the second catch. Taking a page from the @Spinartist "It ain't what tool you use, it's how you use the tool!" book, most of it was turned with my parting tool. Didn't take a big bite, standing on edge it was sufficiently thick for the job, but... It ran out of length a little shy of finishing the job.
Had to improvise and create a long distance turning tool! Don't know what kind of tool steel it was, just know it didn't work for what the buddy wanted it for on the mud truck project I got talked into welding up. It did however work really good in the bottom of this vase/urn/whatever. And, will be used for the hollowing device when it's fabricated.
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Working on trivets for the upcoming sale. Oak, cherry, maple, walnut, 7 inches square.
The spacing is 3/8, 3/8, 1/2, 1/2, 5/8, 5/8, and 1 left in the center.
If you decide to do this I have some thoughts for you.
1. Make your blank just a little bit larger in width/height. It'll come in handy to make a skim cut to clean up the edges from the splintering. Much easier than sanding. Just remember to account for that in your spacing when you set the fence. And if you're using oak maybe allow a little more than just a 1/8" skim cut. I forgot how easily oak splinters.
2. Change your dado blade size. When I did the prototype I just incrementally adjusted the fence to get the wider grooves. When you make one that's not a problem. When you make 20 that's 160 extra cuts. Your body and your mind will both thank you for the respite from continual cutting. And overall it will take less time and give better results.
3. This one I learned from the prototype - always make sure that the grooves you can see (on the top) are perpendicular to the fence. This means that you'll be cutting parallel grooves on the bottom. When I used the Griperrrr to push the blank it covered up a lot of the grooves and it wasn't nearly as apparent that the bottom grooves were oriented correctly.
I do have a question for the collective - what would you finish these with? I'm thinking that something like mineral oil would be sufficient. Don't want to get too fancy if we're going to be putting hot stuff on them.
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Nice job Ken! I would finish them with mineral oil, just get enough to set them in for a few minutes then let them drip dry. Easy peasy!
Thanks. These still need sanding. Mineral oil was what I had in mind, glad to see I was headed in the right direction.
That came out dam cool John! Tony
That’s a beauty! Looking forward to seeing that contrast pop with the finish!
Great results! What did you use for the bleaching agent?
Klean-Strip wood bleach
Hey Ken, I've made a number of wood trivets over the years and always us either mineral oil or walnut oil. Mineral is a lot cheaper and I think it works just fine. Easy to re-coat by owner later.
Did you nail these from underneath or glue them? I always do both, using a flexible glue like liquid nails. I've never made them with the crossing strips on the bottom because I worry (maybe too much) about how they will be cleaned. Stuff will be spilled on them, no matter what, so they will need to be cleaned many times.
Here is a photo of one I made just last week using some left over American chestnut. It is 8 x 10 and is capable of holding very heavy pots or pans. As you can see, an apple pie bubbled over and left some sticky goo on this one just yesterday. I also beveled all the ends to reduce the risks of potholders or towels catching on the wood. Very important when something very hot is sitting on it.
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This wasn't in my shop, but rather in the shop at Woodcraft. Today I got to take a class that was taught by Tom Caspar in which we made a small box. The class wasn't on box making, per se, but more on some aspects of hand tool use - more on use, not so much on sharpening and adjusting. Since hand tool use is something I don't have hardly any experience in, with was a class I was looking forward to. I am very glad I took it. It was well worth the time and money to attend - this class was my birthday gift this year from my wife.
This isn't the greatest pic, but here's what I came home with. No finish on it, so I'll try to get better pictures once I've finished it.
This isn't the greatest pic, but here's what I came home with. No finish on it, so I'll try to get better pictures once I've finished it.
Looks like maple. Classes like this are always fun.