A huge ‘shroom

This evening whilst the family were watching Rocky 5 I escaped to the workshop again and had a go with a large lump of wood. Actually today is my day for large lumps as earlier I made a bowl on the outboard side, and this evening I loaded up the following monster…

It’s about 2’6” long and 8” or so in diameter. It was so large the banjo couldn’t traverse beneath it until I’d turned the outside off, so I progressed from right to left as can be seen in the above in order to turn it.

The wood had only been felled about a month ago, and I couldn’t believe the amount of water coming off it – I was getting soaked. As I’m sure this will crack badly I made the only thing I could with it…

That’s one for up at the allotment I think!

Turning on the large faceplate

I had a fair bit of spare time today so decided it was off to the workshop for me and one of the things I wanted to do was give the large faceplate a go.

I loaded up a large lump of Oak and off I went…

I haven’t yet finished painting the outboard part of the lathe (nor the lathe body itself, I’m having too much fun using it!). And I only have one tool rest which whilst easy to use isn’t cranked to getting close to the wood is a bit tricky (I can sense a purchase coming on soon!).

Anyhow I gingerly turned on the lathe at its slowest speed and started turning. A while later I was at the following stage – with some beautiful figuring in the wood…

I then went on to the inside of the bowl and the semi-finished article is below.

I’ll now leave it to season on the shelf and see what it’s like in a few months. There’s a bit of a hole internally but that all adds to the character. I just hope it doesn’t split whilst drying out.

A salad bowl

I’ve made a small salad bowl this week for a friend at work – but can’t give it to her yet as I haven’t sealed it. I went to Axminster tools recently (the one near High Wycombe) and bought some sealant in a starter pack. Or at least I think I did. Try as I might I can’t find it anywhere, either at home or in the workshop.

So the bowl will just have to languish here a little longer…

It’s made of an 8” disk of Elm which I found quite hard to turn. I did a piece of Hornbeam a few days ago (sorry, forgot the pictures) and that was gorgeous to turn – I’ll be ordering some more from Stiles & Bates soon.

I’m off down to Reading for a couple of days this coming week so will hopefully have time to pop into Axminster and buy something to finish this with then.

Finally - an outboard faceplate

Since I bought the lathe I’ve been after an outboard faceplate, and after hunting around for a while online (and being sent one that was wrong) I finally have my mitts on one. I popped over to the workshop today to check it was right…

Yes!

I did at first think it was bent, as when I spun the lathe the outer edge of the faceplate was wobbling. However this was my fault in two places – the threads on the outboard end were partially full of muck (old grease, sawdust, you know the sort of stuff), and hence I’d not managed to screw the faceplate fully home.

After a quick clean with a wire brush and some meths I could screw the faceplate all the way on and sure enough the wobbles were gone. I’m a happy bunny!

A place for everything…

Today I made something that I’ve been wanting for years. I can’t tell you how many years but it’s got to be a long old time.

I’ve wanted a place for all my tools for many years and finally in June 2010 I managed to buy a workshop just around the corner from my house in auction (which was a very scary thing for me, I was shaking after bidding so much I had to wait 1/2 hour before going home!).

Anyhow, today I affixed 4 pieces of wood together and drilled a few holes and voila, I have the following…

Now I’ll agree that it’s not very special, but the significance is that I have somewhere permanent to put my tools now, no longer do they need to languish tucked away in my cellar. Now they can be out on show, ready for action.

I’m loving my workshop.

Some ‘shrooms

Today I did some tidying up of the workshop in order to make space for the mountain of wood I’ve just got. I recently bought some from a chap at work, then wondered across some whilst out walking (don’t worry, I didn’t steal it, the ranger was there cutting & burning logs and let me have some), and more recently they were clearing some land near my house and a chap near my workshop told me about it. Off I went to check it out, and after a small sum had changed hands I was able to take carloads of the stuff – mind you a carload in an MX-5 isn’t that big.

So, with all the wood scattered around the place I figured it was time for a move-around, so got rid of some stuff on FreeCycle and then went to work stacking up the wood…

There’s also some more to the left under the bench (and yet more in the next bay of the bench on the left too). I’ve no doubt this little lot will take some time to season, but I’ll turn some of it whilst green and see how I get on. Talking of which, I’ve not done any mushrooms in a while, so…

Little and large!

More firewood

After doing my jobs at home today I popped over to the barn as I’d given a bed away online and the person was coming to pick it up. Whilst awaiting his arrival I started making a bowl from Oak. I turned the outside and left a key for the chuck to grip onto as shown below…

I then turned it round and chucked it, and progressed to hollow out the interior. I was just about to put the tools down and start sanding when ‘oops’ and this happened…

Bah. I guess I’ll have to make this into a plate now. I made up for it by turning another mushroom from a piece of Silver Birch (which soaked me to start off with as the outer layers were rather damp).

That’s another for the garden I think.