This page contains posts about my woodworking, turning and the associated tools.
Capitals at last
These capitals have been a long time arriving at their final destination. They represent a collective effort. I designed and turned the capitals. The design and painting was undertaken by the family. I finally got the job of installing them on the fence. The original turnings were described in post which dates back July 2014. I suppose …
Another blog
I have decided that I need a separate site for my woodworking adventures. I have created another site called sentimentalaboutwood.com.au .I hope in time to transfer the wood working post from this blog to the new domain. That will be fun. This blog will then have a reduced focus on books travel and my rants …
The Unplugged Woodshop: Hand-Crafted Projects for the Home & Workshop
The Unplugged Woodshop: Hand-Crafted Projects for the Home & Workshop by Tom Fidgen My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first came across Tom Fidget via his excellent website the unplugged woodshop. Working from his small workshop he produces some amazing projects. He is a devotee of hand tools and does demonstrate what can be …
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The Wooden Bowl by Robin Wood
The Wooden Bowl by Robin Wood My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book offers a great look back at woodturning. Examining the history of wooden bowls and the means of making them. Robin is someone who has a great passion of the art of wooden bowls. The volume is a great mix of techniques …
Skew Chisel part 2
I really enjoyed part 1 of Brendan Stemps foray into the dark world of the skew chisel. I have posted a link to that session in another post on this site. In part 2 he really does show what can go wrong in a spectacular fashion.This session is very informative and he has promised an …
Using the Skew chisel
I have discovered an Australian woodturner, Brendan Stemp who is an accomplished woodturner. He has made a few videos which are both interesting and informative. The videos are at his site brendanstemp.com.au or on YouTube The skew chisel is often thought to be a bit tricky or even dangerous. The video is very helpful even if you …
Over complicated lathe steady
I was reading a woodworking blog recently, sadly I cannot remember which one, the essence of the post was that we spend too much time planning and thinking about tasks. I am certainly guilty of this. A case in point are the attached images. I was going to make a lathe steady so that I could make some pepper …
Pens pens
well I have finally manged to get back on my lathe. It has been over 2 months since I managed to make something and what I day it was 37 degrees. You should never look a public holiday in the mouth so I pressed on. Back in January this year I collected some dead wood …
Not Much Woodworking Here I’ll have Pfeill it
One of my objectives for this blog is to write about my woodworking exploits. I really haven’t done much since December last year. Its now February 2013 and I cant get to the shed. We had really hot weather in January when I was on leave and now one thing and another is getting in the way. My last substantial project was the trivet saga documented in previous post. I managed …
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Some wood turning pics
Some random woodturning photos e random woodturning pictures
A Gavel of an idea
Turned a gavel the other for no other reason that I thought it might be a good idea. I saw a mallet in a recent woodworking magazine so this became my inspiration. I had started the session by turning a handle for an old hammer. This was done off centre and got me thinking about the gavel. No plans …
Trivet
My current challenge in wood turning is to make some trivets out of wood. The feature of the design is concentric circles on each face of the trivet. The overall size is 150 mm in diameter and 15 mm thick. One face has concentric circles that are radiating out from the centre. The opposing side has a group of three concentric circles. The cuts are made with a parting …
Triton still going strong
The old Triton 2000 is still going strong! Although I wish I had a nice new table saw the old triton still works well. I inherited an old pantry cupboard courtesy of a friend. I have converted the cupboard to a laundry storage cupboard. The original was 1400 mm wide and 600 mm deep. The …
Three cornered turning
This is my first attempt at a three sided bowl. It’s an interesting experience turning off centre even with a blank that was little more than six inches square. The layout was done simply with a compass. Turning off centre is a little disconcerting and gets worse with each new setting until the shape is finalised. The bowl …
Another Spalted Turn
Turned another bowl from the mystery spalted firewood. Consulted a local expert on the subject, it’s not eucalyptus that’s for sure. It doesn’t have any distinctive odour. So a pale quite light timber that turns reasonable well. I was quite pleased with the shape of this piece. As always the shape was determined to some …
Spalted Firewood
Another week and another small bowl. The bowl was created on a cool and wet afternoon. The dog kept me company for the afternoon and kept listening for the rain, see photo. This was when it wasn’t chewing plants or digging holes, ahh the joys of puppies. I bought some firewood at the local garden centre …
A Silky Turning
Well a large lump of Queensland Silky Oak has been turned into a large bowl. The final shape was dictated by the shape of the blank. I was trying to maximise the size.This whole thing of the wood taking charge of the shape seems to be a recurring theme in the bowls that I have made . The bowl …
Upgrading the bandsaw
Being new to this whole bandsaw thing it came as surprise when I managed to melt the blade guides on my bandsaw. I bought the bandsaw as ex floor stock from Carbatec. This saved me some dollars and the machine was fully assembled or so I thought. I have been using the saw for about …
A Tale of a Chair
We bought a chair some time ago at a church jumble sale. My wife has an affection for chairs and we have a small collection chairs that are all a little different. In my eyes the chair is rather unusual. Unlike most wooden chairs the back legs are in two pieces. They are split at …
Woodturning there’s a hole in my bowl
Well the red gum bowl is coming along except for the big hole in the bottom. The bowl was mounted on a chuck after having a recess turned on the base. I got so involved in making the sides thin I scraped out the centre of the chuck mount. As a newbie woodturner this may have been a total disaster and …
A First Bowl – Almost
This started out as a bowl but the recess that i turned on the base for my scroll chuck cracked when I started to hollow it out. Undeterred I pressed on and repurposed the blank. I need to make a base for a trophy at work. We are having a soup competition with a soup …
Scheppach Wet Stone Grinder
I have just had a modification for the wet stone grinder that I own a Scheppach TiGer 2000. It is cheaper than a Tormek grinder and since I am a casual user I couldn’t justify the additional expense. However a feature on the Tormek is an adjuster on the tool rest which gives fine control. …
Turning a stool
Well week 5 has come and gone , luckily for me I was the only one in the class this week. I have finished the milking stool a nice little three-legged stool with legs that are way fancier than they need to be . The new things that I learnt about this was drilling the holes in the seat …
Hammer in the Morning
The great thing about having trees is that you can cut them down for woodworking projects. That’s perhaps an exaggeration. The log in the attached picture was salvaged from a Pencil Pine that died. The log has been kicking around for few months and I thought that I might turn some of it in to something. …
Woodturning Continued……
Now at week four of the course, I missed an entry for week three. So far I have turned beads and coves and made a random chair leg. I have surprised myself with the speed that I have taken this on. I am now in the middle of making a three-legged stool, turning the legs …
More Woodturning Lessons
Second lesson and all goes well. Am now mastering the spindle gouge making coves and beads. Whilst the results are pleasing they are really only “designer firewood”. The really good thing is that I can replicate the work at home. Next week I start work on a chair leg!
Wood-turning Lessons
I have just completed my first formal wood-turning lesson. Having bought a lathe last year I thought that it would be appropriate to take some lessons. I can’t believe the setup include four lathes and one instructor, nearly personalized tuition. So I spent three blissful hours make square pieces of timber round with a roughing gouge and a skew chisel. …
Finally Got The Lathe up and Running
Well after years of of procrastination I have finally bought a lathe and managed to get it set up. A mini late a Woodfast M305 Mini Lath Snapped a couple of pics with the ole iPhone. The stand is great it is solid and puts the lathe at a comfortable working height. The lathe was almost completely assembled it only requiring a small …
First Woodworking Post
The first post on this page will at the Scheppach Tiger 2000 Wet stone sharpener. This was purchased locally.
A tale from a parallell universe
This sad tale of the triton users groups reminds me of another simialr experince that I had. Remeber the old computer user groups in the days when there were several compting operating sytems in the market place. Windows was only a dream. I belonged to an Atari user group , they had a GUI long …