Some Web Site Changes

Charles is busy in the shop doing a one on one woodworking class, they’re building a beautiful walnut drop-leaf table, when done, we’ll post some photos.

But, since he’s gonna be quiet for a few days, thought I’d hi-jack the blog to let you in on a few changes that will be happening over at the web site.

First, we are going to be remodeling the DVD store to make shopping easier as well as some additional options. I’m also working on ipod downloads but that may be a little while yet, we’ll keep you informed.

Secondly, I find that I very seldom do a click through or notice banner ads on web sites that I visit, in the back of my mind, I worry about where they will really take me. Well, just want to let everyone know that the banner ads on our site are controlled by me and are only there to let you know who is supporting our on-line videos.

Yesterday I spent the day going through stats that are kept on how many times a banner is shown and how many click through-s and I must say it was disappointing. Charles and I are so grateful to these sponsors that they enable us to bring you the on-line projects and tips/techniques and we want more of you to check out what they have going on at their web sites as well. I had one of those V-8 moments and thought, “Sherri, you stupid idiot….use the banners to let your woodworking friends know when there is something worth clicking over to.” So, I’m working on the changes now and when those banners come up on our home page, check them out, we’re going to point you to the direction of great information on the sponsor’s site or perhaps a promotion or sale you don’t know about, and in some cases….well, another Charles video that maybe you haven’t seen. So, get those mouses clicking and let us know. Here’s a sample of some of the new banners.

Let us know what you think. One last thought, these are not affiliate banners, we are just trying to give you good information.

New Project, and lots of finishing to do

I got the volume II on turning done….all filmed…so we are putting the shop back to a shop, moving the lathes back to their respective places, and getting the benches back in place…got the seed press finishing, and starting on a couple new projects….working on some shaker candle stands , which you will like i think, as well am doing a coffee table with drop leaves and cabriolet legs out of walnut , and a sofa table out of cherry which will be a 4 leg gate leg, with the wooden hinges and all that …it also will have cabriolet legs, and i have a 2 big case pieces going, and will probably get into a tiger maple chest on chest…and another “Jefferson “piece……all of these cases and bases will certainly be filmed as the basis of the next DVD , titled cases and bases….lots of good stuff , and lots of work….but  I am  glad the turning ones are completed filming…now Sherri and Crystal will work their magic , and they have DVDs to do..they like that, its their thing…they really get into them….Im just the dancin chicken….( he he he )…..

  well got to go move those heavy lathes and benches….this isnt fun…..but i will have my shop back….i got stuff all over the place….tools and parts of every sort….turned alot of stuff….hope ya check it out when its ready to go….later ya”ll

Charles

Keep on Turning

Hope all had a good Holiday, I actually decided to film more on Saturday, so I did got a lot more of volume II done on the turning….today I will wrap it up and then Sherri can make it into  the DVDs, covered a lot of ground. Today I will do the bird cage (tilt top mechanism) and turning a top (out feed turning) as well will turn a pedestal, a rosette and a few other things…and its done….I cant think of anything we have not covered in turning…Vol II will be much bigger than Vol I, but its a ton of material covered….can not foresee a Vol III, we have it covered….

   While filming the DVD, I kept thinking how much fun turning can be, it can also be frustrating, taking time to learn sharpening and chisel use changes the entire complexion of it, also learning how to section out large items helps a ton…one of the things I wanted to bring to the DVD was being able to take someone who had never turned or who had tried and not been successful into a enjoyable and successful knowledge of turning, I think we did just that….its always the little things..how you hold a chisel, which chisel you use….and how to “sneak up on it” , and the biggie, get numerous turnings to be the same….so I can’t say for sure when it will be released , but it will be filmed today…then back to my projects, and cases and bases…both of these DVDs (cases and turning) are results of having projects that require the techniques we employ, so I think we have the perfect arena to film them, so it will be a busy summer….a lot of filming and projects to get completed…but we are rockin thru….Tomorrow  I have to put my shop back together, move the lathes back to their respective places, get the work benches back in place and get back to projects…we have  several good ones we will be finishing up and beginning this week…so stay tuned.

Out to the shop and turn the camera on….Later ya’ll

Happy 4TH of July

If you live in the United States that is…..other wise have a good weekend…..
I was thinking , that usually is a sign of trouble, but never the less…as we Americans celebrate the 4Th , as its a celebrationof our independence and freedoms and liberties , this 4th , i think we need to pause a little and take a long hard look around…they sure seem to be less and less……and its not over…..we got some pretty big issues facing us and In my personal opinion….they not going too well….I will give you a hint….if you are a senior or approaching , better take a good look at the NEW healthcare plan if you are 59 or over….or ever plan to be….ya know the entire world has but one safe haven for medical care should their own system fail them…its the US, and with that gone …well you get the point..Americans as well as alotof the world have a problem with complacency, and it will be all of our undoing, find out the facts, speak out , contact your Representatives , and raise hell….and vote them out if they do not do as you think ….better put keep your ear to the ground…think for yourself and be informed…and dont be afraid to stand your ground and do so loudly…., I guess it all depends on your definition of freedom and understand you can do something…protect what so many have given their lives for…our government does not respect, listen to or have any fear of the people…they figure we will just sit back , complain a litte , and figure we cant do nothing…their betting on it…….PROVE THEM WRONG

have a safe holiday….

 

Charles

Sectional Turning

I got the bed post turned yesterday, looks great in my opinion…it’s 5 sections, 6 counting the finial. You can see from the auto-body filler that I did some adjusting to get the pattern just how I wanted it. The point to this is that someone can make a post on a smaller lathe, additionally, learning to sectional turn can sure help in cases where mistakes occur, you don’t lose the whole piece, or you can cut out a section and make a replacement. The other thing I did was to spend some time going over designing the post, for flow….graceful lines, to make it work for headboard placement and to make it work with some of the thicker modern day mattresses. I changed sizes and shapes along the way to reach this point. That’s what it takes, get the design down first, it also will show you where you will have issues in turning and while this may sound strange, it gets you in the groove to turn it, it gives you “practice”, so when you get to your actual piece you have all the errors both in design and turning worked out. You will know which chisels work the best in different areas and give you the feel for it..your turnings will be much improved….

A big misconception in turning between centers is that “the wood should just fly off” not the case…roughing out ..you can move some wood, but then it slows down. When you watch bowl turners and vessel turners, who usually work in the green or close to it, ….you see them with the ribbons and shavings just rolling off,  there is a big difference in turning green wood and kiln dried figured woods…that’s why I wanted to do this video…no one to my knowledge has done anything on the between center, multiple duplications of furniture turning,   and it’s what I have had to do all my life…so here it is…the bedpost you see is but one….we are doing a vase and acorn one as well which is a short post. The Sheridan post you see came in at about 6′ using the midi lathe. I could have gotten it to 7′ but not on the midi and still be able to reed it. There in lies a lot of effort to design a post that will work within all the confines of style and functionality, but here it is….the vase and acorn, the headboard post are about 42 ” tall and the foot about 36.

We are also doing the pedestal for the carved pie crust table as well as showing the bird cage (the tilt mechanism), and whats called “out feed turning” where we turn a table top that’s hanging off the end or side of the lathe…so I’ve got a little more turning to do…not sure where all of this will be and exactly which volumes..but again our purpose is not only teach you to turn but to help you with some patterns and designs…so its out to the lathe…later ya’ll

a cool turning

Behind the Scenes

well as most know by now we released vol 1 of our turning series..but im working on vol 2..and I got this wild idea, that I could turn and reed or flute a full 7 ” tall sheridan post by sectioning it on a midi lathe….so im out in the shop giving it a whirl…check back to morrow and we will see if it works….but i think i can i think i can, maybe my typing will improve as well..i trashed my computer mouse, so i got to use this stupid finger thing on my laptop…hate it, told Sherri i needed a new one of them “rodents” if i was to type any more…but just thought i would drop a line about the bed…I just think it would be really cool to be able to turn that bed on a small lathe…stay tuned

edited by Crystal to add:  The photo above shows Charles as he works to film Volume II of the turning series.  We’re all excited about him being able to create the fluted 7′ posts on the small lathe, as it means no matter the size equipment you have in your shop, you’ll be able to do the same.

Turning

Been going hard, ya’ll. Finished up the Volume I Turning DVD, working on Volume II, all about furniture. No pens, no bowls, no baby rattles or pepper mills, just legs, posts, knobs, fluting and stuff. But it’s been fun – alot of work, but enjoyable.

Getting the seed press wrapped up and working on some unique Shaker Pedestal tables. We will get you more on that as we move along, but for a bit I am going to get all of the turning stuff filmed. Got everything out, so might as well get it done.

Garden is doing very well, just got my first cucumbers. Already got sauerkraut fermenting, and tomatoes are ripening fast. Been eating alot of squash & zucchini in alot of different recipes, good stuff.

So I’ve got cameras and projects everywhere, best get to the gettin’, looks like some long days ahead. Hope you like the results. The girls are burning Volume I as we speak and Sherri is editing and wrapping up some other stuff we filmed.

As I mentioned before, I hope to complete Turning in a couple weeks or so, then do Bases & Cases. Actually, it’s kinda started as we have alot of case work in process. So it always makes for better filming when you can use actual projects. I like that.

Later ya’ll,
Charles

Bombe

Well…. Big Bob is headed out to Wisconsin, Jim is wrapping up the pillasters and crown on his bombe, and a couple drawer fronts on the top, we’ve got to carve the fan for the center upper drawer yet, and carve a few flame finials, and veneer the bonnet.   I will be quite honest, most of the original bonnets were, well,  lets just say,”lacking”.  Usually, they were all nailed down the sides  and often pretty rough.  They are sort of tough to do so what I do is install a structure of cross pieces and then steam and bend some 1/8 thick veneer of my own making to go over the structure.   I usually do two layers  gluing them together and then nail and screw it to the structure.  It’s not super pretty when done.   Then I cheat….I skim coat it with some auto body filler and sand it nice and smooth.  Then I apply a finish layer of veneer.  I prefer the cloth or paper backed for this and using a really good contact adhesive or yellow glue to both surfaces,  I let dry then  using a clothes iron I iron it on, the heat from the iron will rejuvenate the glue and they will bond well.  I have been chastised about using auto body filler for wood….” oh my goodness, how dare I?”, if you feel that way don’t try it or you may have to re-think your thinking…. its not a wood fille, it’s hard to color,  but to use it to repair deeper gouges or as in this case to smooth a difficult surface for veneering or to mold/shape a pattern as we did in the fluted post its great.  I have used it to fill a nasty knot and then chisel it back a little and put some regular wood filler, works well….

So today we will get the bombe standing tall and all the mouldings on….as well as the goose necks…we will take some MDF and make mock ups of the goose necks and cut and miter them  to be sure we have it all worked out before cutting the actual ones.

Here are some shots of what I’m telling you about…as well as what the built unit will look like,

then we will finish both units…remember we will be doing the bombe in the cases and bases DVD,

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Fine Woodworking has our scoopin a seat on their Glue Tube, could use some votes though and any comments you would like to make…  here is the link here is the link.

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Ok, out to the shop…have a good weekend…just a note….I have a tilt top done to re-make the Pdf’s that we can’t seem to find that has the patterns for them also…

Later ya’ll

Bed Posts & Groceries!

I got some emails asking some questions on the bed posts. The tall fluted post was done in three sections, actually four if you count the finial. My Jet 1642 lathe will give me about 42″ center to center if I stretch the headstock and tailstock as far as I can. The SCMI will give me about 46″ as long as I use low profile drive center and tail center. Additionally, breaking the fluted section at the intersections allows much easier cutting and carving of the transition points. Sounds complicated but it’s not. We have decided this post as well as the ‘vase and acorn’ should be included in the turning video. Turning multiple sections can be a bit touchy and then have it all go together to form a nice straight post, but it’s not as hard as it looks.

The fluted post is about 2 3/4″ square, the ‘vase and acorn’ is 3 3/4″ square. The critical part of the fluted post is to determine the size of the smallest part that will be fully ’rounded’ in the flute. The bottom section is carved at the bottom, it’s too small to rout all the way down so we stop about 3/4″ from the bottom. The top of the fluted portion is our determining factor. It’s 1 3/4″ across. Using a 1/8″ radius fluting bit – you will note it took some tweaking to get it right. So a test post was turned using some auto body filler to build out or re-make a section until I got it right. 1 3/4″ – 1/8″ radius….remember that! We will walk you through it in the DVD.


On the ‘vase and acorn” the lambs tongues are carved, not turned but they are pretty quick as well. We did 32 of them, 8 per post, but it makes a nice transition. The originals do not have the lamb’s tongue but I like them. Additionally, usually the “foot” looked like a peg leg, just turned round with a slight taper, not very attractive at all so the shaped foot is my own. I think they did the peg leg because the beds set high and a fabric apron or curtain went around the bottom, thus the leg was not seen.

Today we will finish sanding the vase and acorn posts, Bob is going to finish the bed out back home as it is for his personal use. We just turned the posts here. Bob liked the style and I have my patterns and have done a few.

As to the baskets full of ‘groceries’ We’ve got beets, zucchini, yellow squash, yellow crook necks, turnips and cabbage. You may find this hard to believe but we’re getting about this amount every day. The broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomatoes and cucumbers as well as egg plant, green beans and watermelon and corn are not quite ready yet. The churches and food bank will be glad to see us show up.

Well, out to the shop and rock and roll. Need to get the headboard made for the fluted post bed.

Later!

Bed Posts, Bombes and Rockers

We’re wrapping up some bed posts with Big Bob. Another friend of mine who started a Bombe some time back is in the shop working on it some more and next week we are going to be doing the rockers so it s been kind of busy. I’ve got to wrap up the seed press and get several more projects going. Got to ‘turn and burn’ a lot of miles before we rest but then that’s how it goes. Thought you might want to look at some of the pictures of the happenings.

The Sheraton post we had to custom size and that takes a bit of ‘figuring’ to get bits, post diameters correct to get the flutes to work well as well as some chisel work. The color on the top of the post is a sanding trace coat and today I’m wrapping up some ‘vase & acorn’ posts. The corners will all have lamb’s tongue transitions.

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The Bombe base and the bonnet top will be one of the focus points in the Cases and Bases DVD I am working on now. The upper case is pretty straight forward. We will give you the particulars and dimensions but after you do the bottom, the top is a cake walk. There are actually straight places on it!

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Well, told Big Bob he could write a blog today as well so he did and it follows this one so check both of them out!

Later!