What did you do in your shop today?

Mom needed a little vase/hollow form to hold some seasonal flower picks. Wanted it to be short to hide behind some glass pumpkins so came up with this. About 3" tall, left walls and base thick to help it balance the flowers.

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Worked on these today.

Sized and referenced.

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Turned and sanded to 600.

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First coat of oil on right, second coat on left, ash will be dyed next time.

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Variations In density so sealed with sanding sealer, will let dry overnight before smoothing.

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Difference second coat of oil makes on the right.

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Worked on these today.

Sized and referenced.

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Turned and sanded to 600.

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First coat of oil on right, second coat on left, ash will be dyed next time.

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Variations In density so sealed with sanding sealer, will let dry overnight before smoothing.

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Difference second coat of oil makes on the right.

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I assume you make these to sell, how much are you getting for them? They are very nice
 
Been wanting to figure out why my "flowers" (@Jonkou ) or "podlets" (@TheGrainMill ) weren't warping and the stems weren't bending. Played around with a couple and at least figured out how to get the tops to warp. Time will tell if the stems will bend.

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This picture is about 30 minutes after taking it off the lathe.

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My conclusions so far: cut thin! Made a couple yesterday a little thicker than these and have very little warping. Also, cut the flowers to make sure bark is included on rim. Watch the vid John posted to see how the bark is included.


Additionally, use CA on the rim right away.

Will have to wait and see if the stems bend.....
 
They look good. Can only add use partially dry wood with the free moisture gone.
Thanks. These are too wet, knew that before starting, but had some branches that blew down earlier this year and just wanted to give them another try. I'll be surprised if bases don't split on these.

I've got other branches of cherry that have been seasoning for a year that I'll start playing with soon.
 
Been wanting to figure out why my "flowers" (@Jonkou ) or "podlets" (@TheGrainMill ) weren't warping and the stems weren't bending. Played around with a couple and at least figured out how to get the tops to warp. Time will tell if the stems will bend.

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This picture is about 30 minutes after taking it off the lathe.

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My conclusions so far: cut thin! Made a couple yesterday a little thicker than these and have very little warping. Also, cut the flowers to make sure bark is included on rim. Watch the vid John posted to see how the bark is included.


Additionally, use CA on the rim right away.

Will have to wait and see if the stems bend.....
I think you have to want them to stay straight and true and then they'll warp and bend like crazy. That's how wood works for me.
 
Looking good! The way I dried mine is in the microwave on their side. And I actually put a weight on the stem to encourage it to bend. But I honestly think that they would bend ok without the weight as long as you let it dry on its side.

Totally agree other, you have to make these super thin and you've gotta keep the bark. Otherwise they look a little manufactured rather than natural. Keep us posted on the final result!
 
One of my goals in the shop this year was to get another machine restored, one that's been sitting in pieces for four years now - it even made the move from MN to WI in pieces - a Sprunger Brothers 10" bandsaw. Wednesday night I pulled all the pieces off the shelf and the small parts from the bin they were in. Today I got most of the pieces media blasted that I needed to. Ran out of media, so need to pick up some more tomorrow. I picked up this from Harbor Freight yesterday. It works about as well as could be expected for the price, but it does work. My thoughts are that for the once or twice a year I'll use it, it'll be just fine for my needs, but if I was to need to use it often, this would not be the tool for that job. I certainly would say that this is a big step up from wire wheels and chemical strippers/rust converters in preparing parts for painting.

After doing that, I finished masking off some of the small pieces for painting and started painting a few pieces. But I need to get some new paint tomorrow. I bought Krylon Fusion, because that's what I could find at Menards that offered the color I wanted. It's been a while since I've used Krylon Fusion, but they must've changed it, because I don't remember it being so awful. This is seriously the absolute worst spray paint I've ever used. So it's going back, or at least the unused cans are, and I'll figure something else out. Will pick out something from Rustoleum - their paints have never let me down.
 
I agree with you on the rustoleum paint, pretty much all I will use.
But where's the pics of this restore.
:nopics:
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah... I'll get y'all some pics at some point, lol. I was too busy actually enjoying some shop time to get any pics!

But, here are a couple pics from the seller, from 2018, when I bought it. So at least there's some before pics.

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BTW, I am going VERY non-traditional for the color on this. I'm using a color that I've long wanted to paint a machine with, but have thought it would be better used on a smaller machine. Returned the Krylon and got some Rustoleum today, so I'm hoping to do some painting tomorrow. Have a couple pieces that still need media blasting, and hope to do that tomorrow as well.
 
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