AskWoodMan

142/365: I showed this large cedar elm bowl several months ago with the first coat of finish on.  But then it just sat in my shop collecting dust until one of my very best clients came over and took a shine to it, so I asked her if she would accept it as gift. That is 8 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer Finish Medium. Once the finish cures out it becomes a food grade finish and the sheen drops off quite a bit. That’s a lot of salad.

141/365: Here is another Texas pecan lathe turned bowl with natural bark edge. I have a bit of end grain blowout to to sand before the Waterlox goes on. The wood from very old pecan trees has some of the earthiest colors of any wood in my opinion.

140/365: Native Texas pecan is a really nice wood to turn. It is one of the easier woods for me to leave a natural bark edge on. I have some hand sanding to do and then get finish on this bowl.

119/365: I have finished testing the first prototype of a cylinder/taper cutting attachment for my lathe. I turned this cylinder of live oak from a rough log like the one below it, using just one setup of my new mechanism. There are a few issues to resolve but I am confident I can solve them in the next version of prototype.  Have to buy some steel.

95/365: My friend August (GuideToMetalWorking) has some short pieces of hardened round stock I can piece together with the welder to form a nice cap piece for this ultra long tool rest I am making out of this piece of angle iron.

78/365:  Got two light coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish Medium Sheen, on the large cedar elm bowl today. I my opinion, nothing makes wood grain pop like Waterlox. 

77/365: I turned this large natural edge cedar elm bowl a while ago when the wood was soaking wet and green. It is now totally dry so today I power sanded it with a foam mandrel on the inside using an electric drill. The outside I sanded with a random orbit sander and a soft contour pad. Flattening the bottoms of large pieces used to be really tough but not anymore. Today was the first time I used my 20” sanding disc mounted to the outboard threads on my lathe. My friend August Lehman whose site is GuideToWoodworking made it for me. The disc is so absolutely flat and true the bottom of the bowl just sucks on to the pad and I was done in a few minutes.

70/365: My ninety year old next door neighbor gave me this 10lb sledge hammer a few years ago. It was a rusted mess with an old rotten handle. I soaked it in navel jelly for days and then wire brushed it with thinner to clean the loose corroded particles away. I turned a shorter and thicker handle out of lyptus and shaped some locating flats on it. My neighbor is sure this sledge is over 100 years old. The only mark is a forged stamp “Klein 10 Logan”. This hammer means a lot to me. 

48/365: I have had some interesting people write me curious about the woodturning lathe I made that is in many of my Askwoodman videos. I had such a frustrating day in the shop today that  I wanted to end the day on a positive note by posting some hi res pics of the lathe to flickr.   http://www.flickr.com/photos/askwoodman/sets/72157628669698331/

08/365: Finished welding the new adjustable tool rest supports for an extra long tool rest that get bolted to the ways of my shop built wood turning lathe.