Boxes and Nostepinnes

Still having fun on the lathe - mostly lidded boxes and more nostepinnes lately.

Cherry (on left) and Red Gum

Same cherry box on left with lid; Honduran mahogany on right

Camphor Burl nostepinne - the lathe room smelled great!

Catching up on January exercise...

Wed., Jan. 2: 5.1 dreadmiles
Fri., Jan. 4: 5.1 dreadmiles
Sat, Jan. 5: Garmin says 5.55 mi
Sun, Jan. 6: Rowed 5K; did 5 elliptimiles

Tue., Jan. 8: 5.25 dreadmiles
Wed., Jan. 9: Garmin says 5.5 mi
Fri., Jan. 11: Garmin says 10K (6.2 mi)
Sat., Jan. 12: 11 miles of hills at Queeny Park

Tue., Jan.15: 5.25 dreadmiles
Wed., Jan. 16: 5.5 dreadmiles
Fri., Jan. 18: 4.25 dreadmile walk

Recent Work

I've been busy with master spinner program homework lately, but have been sneaking in some turning time. Recently off the lathe...

Walnut natural-edged bowl

Cherry natural-edged bowl

Ambrosia Maple bowl

Bloodwood (also called Satine) nostepinne... in my Etsy shop

Rock Maple lidded box. That stuff is aptly named.

As the Lathe Turns: Bowl Edition

I signed up for another woodturning class at the Craft Alliance, with instructor Matt Keim. It's been a lot of fun - I hadn't turned bowls since the first class, and was quite out of practice. But I'm remembering how much I love it.

Class 1: Thin-walled bowls

L to R: Tulip Poplar; Sycamore (finished); Sycamore (unfinished)

I turned the bowl in the center in class, then practiced on the piece I brought home (on the right). The one on the left is Tulip Poplar, and a particularly dark piece at that. The two on the left have been finished with butcher-block oil.

Class 2: Natural-edge bowls

Cherry bowl, finished

In the second class, we tackled natural-edge bowls. I got a lovely piece of cherry to work on (above). It is also finished with butcher-block oil.

For practice: I tackled a piece I'd hacked at a few times over the summer - also cherry - but was destroying, rather than creating. I finally worked up the nerve to mount that, and finish it up. Far from perfect, but better than it was - and not a pile of wood chips.

Cherry bowl, finished

And - I had a neat piece of mimosa that had a lovely grain when turned. Yada yada, BB-oil.

Mimosa bowl, finished

Class 3 was a walnut bowl... I need to turn the foot off that this weekend, and get it sanded and finished.

Acrylic - Not My Favorite

Working with acrylic makes just about everything else seem like butter. It is hard on my tools and I'm not a fan of the smell. But when it's all nice and shiny... it's amazing.

Off the lathe recently...

Pacific Yew on left, blue acrylic (for Paul) on right

Bottom two - various laminated woods, top is acrylic

Shiny needle cases in acrylic (available on my Etsy site)

Quick rehash of recent run/walking... still trying to figure out why I can't run well recently:

Sat., Aug 25: 3.5mi walk during Clean Stream event
Sun., Aug: 26: 5.5 mi walk

Week of Aug. 27: 5.25 mi Tuesday, 5 mi Wednesday, 5.55 mi Friday, 5.25 mi Sunday
Week of Sept. 3: 4.3 mi Tuesday, 5.25 mi Wednesday, 5 mi Friday, 6.2 mi Sunday
Week of Sept. 10: 5.3 mi Tuesday, 5 mi Wednesday, 5.05 mi Saturday, 5.2 mi Sunday
Week of Sept. 17: 5.35 mi Tuesday, 5.25 mi Wednesday, 5 mi Friday.

I Guess it Had to Happen...

If you own a lathe, you have to make a pen. I think that's written down somewhere. But, after making a bunch of spinning tools, I finally made pens. And a stylus with a pen inside.

Acrylic stylus/pen at top, then Canarywood, and Bois de Rose.

I also made some new needle holders, and additional stylus-pens - they're all up on my Etsy site, RiverPoet Fiber and Yarn.

Quilted Maple needle holder

Figured Pyinma stylus with telescoping pen

Nostepinnes... get your nostepinnes...

The nostepinne test cases continue - and I think I've hit on a design I like. Up to now, I've completed four of various sizes:

Nostepinnes!

From the top, that's honey locust, osage orange, purpleheart and flame birch. At first I thought the top two might be too large, but then I compared the winding end to my NKK ball winder, and... these are definitely still smaller.

Circumference of narrowest end and widest end of several winding tools.

And, yes, smaller than a Northern toilet paper roll tube, too. (Hey - those are useful for storing samples and small lots of yarn.) So today, I embarked on a quest to try and hit the perfect size. Work in progress...

Making a lot of wood shavings, definitely.

Nostepinne in progress

The final result - good proportions between a comfortable handle and good-sized winding end, along with the requisite yarn-notch for starting the ball, and a built-in half-inch WPI (wraps per inch) gauge just above the handle. And, I just love birdseye maple anyway.

Look at all of those eyes!

Birdseye Maple Nostepinne

I finally finished plying some yarn, too - this is Bugga! Fiber from Cephalopod Yarns in the Panoply of Heaven colorway. Ended up with 558 yds/115gm of 2-ply light fingering weight.

Latest handspun yarn - a superwash merino/cashmere/nylon blend.

 Running... I met Adrienne and Kevin at Queeny Park on Sunday, for a nice romp through the park in the heat. It was about 77F when we started, and when I finished my 8 miles, 90F. It was great to see them both again.

Sunday: 8 mi @ Queeny Park (with Kevin and A) - walk/run

Pretty AND Functional

The grinder is working great - sharp tools are sharp. And, I still feel like a badass every time I use it.

The sparks really don't hurt.

I roughed out a piece of osage orange, and made a nostepinne. Nostepinnes are an old-school way of winding yarn into center-pull balls for use. These days most people use ball winders where you just turn a handle, but nostepinnes are more portable. And it's fun to use one and confuse the muggles.

Osage Orange nostepinne

I'm using this one to refine the design and measurements. I like the handle and the winder-end length seems good. But I'll wind some yarn and see if I need to tweak the size at all.

Running... had a HORRIBLE run last week. Felt like my right hamstring had totally seized up. Got in to see Dr. Debbie, and she performed some ART magic on my right hip. I'm also using a foam roller and doing some new stretches. So far, not getting worse, so we'll see how it goes.

Friday, April 27: 5.5 mi in 1:03: 13
Saturday, April 28: 5.5 mi walk in 1:11:25
Sunday, April 29: 5.75 mi in 1:05:04 (5 mi = 56:42)

Tuesday, May 1: 5.25 mi dreadmiles in 1:07  (rain!!)
Wednesday, May 2: 5.25 mi in 1:06:05... the run from hamstring hell
Friday: 5.25 mi in 1:03:10 (5 mi = 57:20)
Saturday: took a kayak (Anna) up to Creve Coeur Lake for an hour + paddle
Sunday: 7.2 mi in 1:31:43 (hot and humid - walked about 2 mi total of that)

Tuesday: 5.75 mi in 1:05:15 (5 mi = 56:55)
Wednesday: 5.5 mi in 1:03:04

I feel like such a bad-ass...

... now that I can sharpen my own tools. Sharp tools are way the hell better than dull ones, and now I can just run downstairs and play on the lathe any time I want to, rather than try to figure out how much I can do before I need to run off to Woodcraft.

Case in point: before dinner tonight, I ran downstairs and turned another padauk bottle stopper top. The color in this wood is quite interesting - it's a bright orange fresh off the lathe, but after some time and two coats of butcher block oil, it's a deep rust-red color.

Padauk - oiled on the left, fresh off the lathe on the right.

And - I've been spinning! This came off the Lendrum this past weekend, and is now fluffy and dry. That's 300 yds of 2-ply in 103gm of Tunis. (It's from Gnomespun Yarn, if'n you've got a desire to obtain your own fiber.) I don't have as much experience with down-type fiber, but this was a lot of fun to spin and I love how it turned out.

Handspun Tunis yarn - 300 yds, 2-ply, 103gm

My two get-yer-ass-up-at-4:45am days this week are over - awesome.

Tuesday: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:03:08 (5 mi = 57:19)
Wednesdays-always-suck-days: Garmin says 6 mi in 1:09:18 (5 mi = 57:22).

Ol' Sparky is Ready to Go

And ... the last part of the lathe triad is in place... my grinder is here! You need sharp tools to do woodturning. Dull tools are both inefficient and dangerous. And with some hard woods, you need to sharpen after each small project, or several times during a  larger one. The grinder had a back-order date of the 27th, but I got a shipping notice last weekend, and it arrived mid-week. Today I finally had time to set it up, and get the grinding jig base in place.

Woodcraft 8" Slow-Speed Grinder and Wolverine Grinding system

I ordered the Wolverine Grinding System (including the Vari-Grind tool) because I'm sure I'll suck at grinding free-hand and wanted all the help I could get. The black bases under the wheels... yep, that. It holds the tool at the right angle to grind the edge correctly. I already sharpened my spindle gouge before I used it on another bottle-stopper top, and it made a huge difference already. I'd really dulled it on the last one I did - Zebrawood - so having it sharp for the Carob was awesome. Dull tools suck.

More bottle stoppers

I still need to work at making sure the base is level so the stopper part sits right up next to the wood - EVENLY - all the way around.  And - see those rain drops in the stopper pic? The weather has been craptastic all day. I put off my morning run because I did the Elliptical Machine of Death yesterday, and just could not make eye contact with the dreadmill. And once I got started doing things, I needed to do ALL THE THINGS and just kept working through my mental to-do list.

So, last week's abbreviated run/EL list:

Tuesday: Garmin said 6.0 miles in 1:06:55
Wednesday: Garmin said 5.25 mi in 1:01:21 (5 mi = 58:20 - yeesh)
Friday: Garmin said 5.5 mi in 1:00:44  (5 mi = 55:00 - better)
Saturday: 5 mi on the Elliptical Machine of Death in 66:48 - way faster than last time
Sunday: pffft - blew off the run to Do Things since I'd already run in the rain on Friday

As The Lathe Turns, continued

One more piece of the puzzle is in place... a 'starter' drill press. Just big enough to do what I need it to do, which is drill a hole in the CENTER of something. Apparently I can't do that with a hand-held drill to save my life.

Does one thing - drills holes - and does it well.

In the last week, I did find time to keep practicing on my between-centers turning. The bottle-stoppers are quick little projects, and let me practice cuts with various tools - mostly the roughing gouge, spindle gouge, and - when I'm feeling brave - the skew chisel.

Far from perfect, but fun practice.

I picked up a bit of a head cold late in the week, and ended up blowing off Saturday's run. But that morning I did head out to the Waterloo (IL) sheep and craft festival. It's a fun little event at the Waterloo fairgrounds. Lots of fibery things to buy, from raw fleece to spun yarn; sheep and goat judging for the kids; sheep-pellet bingo for everyone; herding dog and sheep-shearing demos; and a nice selection of lamb chops, roasts, sausage and brats. Yeah, I know... petting the live ones and then buying some for dinner. Ironic or just sad... you decide.

Anyway, it had poured rain all morning, and was still raining by the time I got home. When it finally quit mid-afternoon and the sun came out, the humidity was high enough to choke a fish, so I retreated to the basement to set up the drill press. So... all I had last week was:

Tuesday: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:02:06 (5 mi = 56:28)
Wednesday: 5.25 dreadmiles in 1:01:xx (5 mi = 57:49)
Friday: Garmin says 5.55 mi in 1:01:35 (5 mi = 55:29)
Sunday: Garmin says a slow 6.25 mi in 1:13:44. But, it counts.

Little Workshop of Wood Shavings

Woot! Electric is in, all the correct accessories obtained (including face shield and fire extinguisher), and the home lathe shop is ready to go. After finishing assembling all.the.things, I finally got a chance to turn something at home. First up... a big pile of wood shavings.

Go big, or go home

LOL - there's actually a small project in that mess... I did an easy piece to get the feel of my own tools. It's a top for a bottle/wine stopper, out of padauk. Nothing like starting off with a colorful bang.

Bottle stopper top out of padauk

We'll see how long the current shop vac survives with all the woodturning clean-up.

Still keeping up with The Schedule... at least it's been nice enough outside that I haven't been on the dreadmill in quite a while.

Tuesday: 6 mi. in 1:07:21 (5 mi = 55:55)
Wednesday: 5.5 mi in 1:01:43 (5 mi = 56:13)
Friday: 5.5 mi in 1:01:32 (5 mi =56:03)
Saturday afternoon: 5.5 mi in 1:00:57 (5 mi = 55:22)
Today: 6 mi in 1:08:32 (5 mi = 57:04)

Not much progress in the speed department... time to work on that, probably.

Warped - but not just me this time

The last few woodturning classes - we're now learning bowls. On 24 March, we turned green (fresh) maple blanks. After class, we were told to put the green bowls in a paper bag covered with their own shavings, to help them dry more slowly. Mine sat for a week. When I opened the bag again, the bowl had dried nicely, but had warped into a slight oblong shape... it was 1/4" wider along the grain line axis! That meant it could definitely not go back on the lathe. I ended up sanding the outside of it with the ROS, and leaving the bottom tenon as a "foot" for the bowl.

Green maple bowl - still a bit rough outside, but looks like a bowl, right?

The bottom - you can definitely see the warping (longer right to left).

But - after sanding and some butcher block oil, it looks fine for a first attempt.

In the 31 March class, our sub instructor, Matt, gave us some walnut to work on. Here I did a bit better... and finished the bowl in class, so I wouldn't have to worry about warping later. This is the little walnut bowl, also with a coat of butcher block oil.

Small walnut bowl (5-5/8" x 1-3/4")

Small walnut bowl

Last week's running was pretty good - nice mornings. Saturday and Sunday were a bit of a challenge... Saturday because I didn't go out until mid-afternoon, after turning class, and Sunday because it's just not right to have 80F + days already. I'll have to work on the heat-acclimation stuff. (And hope that it's not in the 90s all summer long!) Plus, I admitted that two pairs of shoes were past their use-by date, and were causing left achilles problems. On to new shoes.

Tuesday: 5.5 mi in 1:01:22 (5 mi = 55:44)
Wednesday: 6 mi in 1:07:18 (5 mi = 56:15)
Friday: 5.5 mi in 1:00:49
Saturday: 5.5 mi in 1:02:40 (5 = 57:02)
Sunday: 5.5 mi in 1:04:15 - at CCL. Car said 85F when I left the park.

More Fun With Power Tools

Woodturning class #4... bowls. One bowl, lots of shavings.

We turned green maple wood, so right now that little bowl is in a paper bag, surrounded by fresh wood shavings. I'll take it back to class next week, and clean up the outside. And... start another bowl.

In the meantime, I'm sticking to The Schedule:

Friday, 3/16: Garmin says 5.25mi in 59:14 (5 mi = 56:18)
Saturday, 3/17: 5 miles on the EMD in 67:36... better!
Sunday, 3/18: Garmin says 6 mi in 1:10:38. Ouch.

Tuesday: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:01:28 (5 mi = 55:44)
Wednesday: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:02:12 (5 mi = 56:38)
Friday: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:01:05 (5 mi = 55:20)
Saturday: Garmin says 6.2 mi in 1:07:31 (5=54:30, 5.5=59:59)
Today: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:01:44 (5 mi = ? ... forgot to look)

As The Lathe Turns

Second woodturning class - learning beads and coves. We got to practice on a few pieces, and I now have a nice beginner's candlestick!

Results of my second time using a lathe

This is fun!

Catching up on that running stuff... despite the time change this week and losing an hour of sleep, I've actually looked forward to getting up to run. It's been unseasonably warm here, with morning temps in the 50s (and daytime in the 80s!). I'm sure we'll pay big-time for this, but in the meantime... I'm quite enjoying the quiet morning running.

Tuesday 3/6: 5.25 dreadmiles in 1:01:xx (5 mi = 58:53)
Wednesday 3/7: Garmin says 5.5mi in 1:02:15 (5 mi = 56:35)
Friday: 5.5 dreadmiles in 1:05:05 (5 mi = 59:16)
Saturday: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 59:47 (!!!!) - 5 mi = 54:14 (!!!!) - after lathe class, no less
Sunday: Garmin says 6 mi in 1:10:40 (5 = 58:50)... totally paid for Saturday's great run

Tuesday: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:02:36 (5 mi = 56:36)
Today: Garmin says 5.5 mi in 1:03:32 (5 mi = ? ... too dark to see)