LilSticks

Your Dad has an iPhone, so get him this

2010-06-04T23:25:00.001-07:00

Listing this tomorrow morning.
Take a peek.

- Posted from my iPhone.

Fathers Day gift ideas, follow the link.

2010-06-04T23:20:00.001-07:00

Coming up soon. Still time to click and ship for the day of Dadness.

- Posted from my iPhone.

Amazing...

2010-06-04T20:39:00.001-07:00

Blogpress for iPhone let's me add an entry to my blog, and Twitter, and Facebook and includes a link to my blog. Just as easy as typing out a text message. So simple.

- Posted from my iPhone.

When work gets in the way...

2010-05-04T19:25:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I was able to get into the workshop let alone update the blog.

I think I remember how.

I'll be listing some new items on Etsy later this week, check back soon.

Technology....

2009-04-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

Aside from changes @ work our home computer went for a crash.

In for repairs, thank goodness for extended warranties.

I will post something wood-like soon, I hope.

David.

M.I.A.

2009-03-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Quite a few days since my last post, reason being the the "real job" has had a few changes which has disrupted my workshop time.

I'll be in the workshop towards the end of the week and I hope to have my latest project ready to document with pictures galore!

Thank you for all the nice comments and emails, almost 100 followers is pretty cool too.

Thanks again and check back later in the week.

Done and done

2009-03-16T22:42:00.001-07:00

Off the lathe I've trimmed up and finished both ends and have given the rolling pin a final buffing.

I hope my pictures do it justice. I'll take a few photographs tomorrow before I list it on Etsy.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my latest project. I really appreciate the comments and emails I've been receiving, thank you very much!

-- Post From My iPhone

Finish it up

2009-03-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

So with all the turning done it's time for sanding. From 220 grit all the way up to 600.
Here I've applied 1 of the 2 coats of the high friction polish. Basically it's a sticky stinky coating that your "drip" onto the wood as it is turning, as you work it into the wood it dries and eventually it heats up and turns into a shiny finish.

-- Post From My iPhone

A turning we will go

2009-03-16T22:31:00.001-07:00

So after much turning and measuring, the use of digital caliphers to check diameter, the rolling pin is starting to take shape.

The shape is very classic and simple, next time I might jazz it up but I am a big fan of strong clean lines.

-- Post From My iPhone

The project begins

2009-03-16T22:27:00.001-07:00

So I'm going to turn a French Rolling Pin tonight. The first one I started tonight had a huge worm hole of sorts running through it, I don't think I'll be getting that time back.

Here is the wood squared up, mounted on the lathe, and turned down to a rough diameter.

-- Post From My iPhone

Dancing with the Stars, no thank you

2009-03-16T22:21:00.001-07:00

No offense but Monday nights are meant for the workshop.

My Dad dropped by today with some exotic free wood today, below is a piece of African Mahogany.

Pretty nice huh?

-- Post From My iPhone

Mini project

2009-03-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

Now that my week of holidays are over getting into the workshop is a little more difficult.
Here is a quick turning project I did, spinning tops!

-- Post From My iPhone

Finished

2009-03-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well the coat hanger is complete and I've tried to take some better photographs, grey background instead of green, "macro" setting is working I think?

I'll let you decide.

Starting to take shape

2009-03-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

I've attached all the hooks and I think it will look quite nice. I still have to drill the second set of holes for the hardware, give it a final sanding with 600 grit paper, then finish it with beeswax and buff it until it shines. So far I say it looks like how I thought it would, too bad I can't say that for all my projects.
Finished pictures after a break.

-- Post From My iPhone

Drill time

2009-03-12T18:16:00.001-07:00

After carefull measuring I have lined up the hooks and spaced them out accordingly. A small pilot hole is drilled to prevent any splitting that might occur. Here I am using a screw driver to carefully attach the hooks before I drill the second set of holes.

-- Post From My iPhone

Smooth as silk

2009-03-12T18:11:00.001-07:00

After some light sanding the wood is ready to mount the hardware.

-- Post From My iPhone

A sanding we will go

2009-03-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, it's time to sand. I used to find that sanding my work was the least rewarding part of the whole creation process.

In hindsight I know it was from poor cutting with cheap tools, now that I have upgraded many of my tools over the past few years the wood that I cut is ready to be finished. Where prior I would try and sand out any "mistakes" with little luck and plenty of frustration.

-- Post From My iPhone

Après detail

2009-03-12T17:59:00.001-07:00

Who says grade 9 French Class was a waste of time?

Here we can see just how good of a choice my daughter made for the profile.

-- Post From My iPhone

Detail

2009-03-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

My daughter was hanging out with me and was given the choice of which profile to use, this is the one that appeals to 5 year olds I guess.

-- Post From My iPhone

The wood choice

2009-03-12T17:55:00.001-07:00

I've choosen a piece of walnut with some incredible grain. It might not be too visible in the next few pictures but as soon as I apply the beeswax you will see just how much the grain will "pop".
Below shows the "keyhole" router bit used to make the 2 holes on the back for this to hang from.

-- Post From My iPhone

Thursday project

2009-03-12T17:46:00.001-07:00

I guess part of accumulating things, or as someone likes to call me a baby packrat, is I always have something on hand to make, or a project I've been planning on making.

I was hunting for something when I came across these chrome plated hooks, still in the package, too bad I can't remember buying them, a packrat I am I guess.

The plan is to make a simple coat hook with a walnut mounting board.

-- Post From My iPhone

Final product

2009-03-09T23:07:00.001-07:00

Well here we have the finished bottle stopper.

Not bad for my first try but my product development department tells me its too tall.

It's not very often my wife is wrong either.

I will try again in a couple of days, I bought 4 of the chrome plated stoppers so I might as well make 4 and try my luck with them on Etsy.

There are SO many bottle stoppers listed right now, and many of them are incredible, that adding a few of mine couldn't hurt.

-- Post From My iPhone

A little bit shape

2009-03-09T21:28:00.001-07:00

A few minutes of turning and we start to have curves.

-- Post From My iPhone

After 30 seconds of turning

2009-03-09T21:17:00.001-07:00

A sharp tool can do wonders.

-- Post From My iPhone

Sharpening first

2009-03-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

The roughing gouge I use to take the square blank down to a round needs to be sharpened to a razor sharp 40• bevel. Easy with the sharpening guide. Yea...right.

-- Post From My iPhone

Ready to to turn

2009-03-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

My blank is mounted on the threaded center, left, the live spur center is snugged up tight, right, and eveything is doubled checked for tight and safe. Ok. Triple checked. I hate getting hurt.

-- Post From My iPhone

Drill work

2009-03-09T20:58:00.001-07:00

I've found the center mark of the wood, secured in my clamp, I will drill down to my high-tech green tape stop point, chuck it onto the lathe and let the chips fall where they may.

-- Post From My iPhone

Woodturning: Take 1

2009-03-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight I would doing ANYTHING to stay out of earshot from Dancing With The Stars, so...to the workshop I go.

The tool: wood lathe.

The project: bottle stopper.

Wish me luck.
-- Post From My iPhone

Dog Leash Holders

2009-03-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like this project is done.

I completed the 3 dog leash holders today.

All three are almost identical, walnut, maple, and purple heart.

They measure 5" square and approximately 3/4" thick.

The hardware was purchased from Lee Valley and I made up the name inserts with Word on the Mac.

I'm off to list these on Etsy, not too sure what price point I'm looking for, maybe a quick poll will help me decide.

Thanks for following me on this project, I'll be asking some questions about it later today.

All shiny

2009-03-09T12:21:00.001-07:00

Buffing is complete and I have to say they look pretty nice.

I'm ready to mount the hardware and head into the office to print out some names.

-- Post From My iPhone

Drying time

2009-03-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

All 3 are drying and I'll be buffing them within the next hour.

-- Post From My iPhone

Beeswax in action

2009-03-09T11:52:00.001-07:00

Just to give you an idea of how beeswax brings out the beautiful grain and color.

-- Post From My iPhone

Next up, Purple Heart

2009-03-09T11:37:00.001-07:00

While the Maple piece dries I'm starting to drill the Purple Heart and Walnut pieces.

-- Post From My iPhone

Time to dry

2009-03-09T11:26:00.001-07:00

Best thing about using beeswax is it's easy to apply, quick to dry, and easy to buff up to a nice glossy finish. I guess the real "best" thing of beewax is it's natural, I don't use any type of nasty finishes in the workshop.

-- Post From My iPhone

Assembled and time for finishing

2009-03-09T11:17:00.001-07:00

It is all mounted up now I can take it apart and finish it with beeswax, my natural finish of choice.

-- Post From My iPhone

Time to finish up

2009-03-09T11:04:00.001-07:00

Back in the workshop with the snow coming down. Here I'm countersinking the mounting holes on the back.

-- Post From My iPhone

Now we'll..hey, is it snowing

2009-03-08T18:00:00.001-07:00

Workshop blogging will continue after somebody heads outside to check out the snow. It IS March 8th today isn't it? My daughter, 5 years old, thinks it looks like Christmas again. She is not too sure why we don't have a whack of presents ready to hand out to her, pretty funny actually.

Stay tuned for project completion later tonight.

Any guesses on what exactly it is I'm making? Anyone? :)

-- Post From My iPhone

Keyhole bit

2009-03-08T17:12:00.001-07:00

I've bought this keyhole bit to make the hole on the back for hanging. After 5 scrap pieces of wood I "think" I figured it out. Yea, it's pretty high tech, makes a hole, maybe I'm just too hungry to figure it out right side and upside down.

-- Post From My iPhone

Measure how many times

2009-03-08T16:49:00.001-07:00

I can't believe how much work it was to drill a template for 3 little holes to line up inside. Didn't help that the cast pieces were ALL different spacings.

Yikes.

Next time I might just eyeball the holes and cross my fingers.

-- Post From My iPhone

Drilling template

2009-03-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

Now that the wood is sanded I need to make a template for drilling the holes for the hardware.

-- Post From My iPhone

Hand sanding, my favorite

2009-03-08T15:54:00.001-07:00

Im not sure if you'll be able to see the difference in these photos but I think I'm in the final stretch of the sanding.

-- Post From My iPhone

On to the sanding

2009-03-08T15:44:00.001-07:00

My benchtop sanding will start the finishing work and I'll end up sanding by hand, 200 grit all the way up to 600 grit to give this project a silky smooth finish.

-- Post From My iPhone

3rd and final pass

2009-03-08T15:38:00.001-07:00

A little bit of sawdust and a lot of detail.

-- Post From My iPhone

2nd pass

2009-03-08T15:33:00.001-07:00

Now it's starting to take shape.

-- Post From My iPhone

1st pass

2009-03-08T15:29:00.001-07:00

Usually I'll make 3 or 4 passes with a bit of this type so I can remove a small amount of wood with each pass and avoid tearout.

-- Post From My iPhone

The profile of choice

2009-03-08T15:23:00.001-07:00

Setting up the router table with a bit that I hope will bring out some nice grain of the woods.

-- Post From My iPhone

The 3 amigos

2009-03-08T15:20:00.001-07:00

Rough cutting is done, now onto some detail work.

-- Post From My iPhone

Then trimming them down

2009-03-08T15:15:00.001-07:00

From table saw to chop saw.

-- Post From My iPhone

Cutting them up

2009-03-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Not an early start to my woodworking day but family first. Getting ready to cut

-- Post From My iPhone

No worky today

2009-03-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Doesn't look like the wood working fairies stopped by my workshop today.

Family day went great, but Sunday I'm locked in the workshop!

Still trying to decide which side the lock will be on, keep people out, lock me in?

Stop by and check it out through out the day, the "plan" is to blog from the iPhone with pictures and text and try and show the steps of taking an idea from start to completion.

Should be fun, just need to remember to work, snap a picture, post, work, snap a picture, post.

I'll put a sign up on the wall to remind myself, yea, like the crazy old guys do!

I dare someone to comment on that!

See you Sunday.

The juices are flowing

2009-03-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

Now that I've found my wood it's time to get down to business. Anyone hazzard a guess yet? Woof woof?

-- Post From My iPhone

Now to choose the wood

2009-03-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

Lots of choices here.
Walnut
Maple
Purple heart
Oak
Petrified birch
Mahogany

-- Post From My iPhone

Project update

2009-03-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

Well here are the parts, can you guess the project?

-- Post From My iPhone

Lee Valley was a success

2009-03-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

Well aside from the fact that I forgot to take a few photos of the hardware I was choosing from. Either way I found what I was looking for and will post a picture after errands are done.

-- Post From My iPhone

Friday is project day

2009-03-06T09:43:00.000-08:00

Today is about two things, a new project for Etsy and mobile blogging from my iPhone.

I love my iPhone and apparently I can blog text and pictures from it with my new Blogpress app.

I will be "trying" to post text and pictures as I'm out and about today purchasing supplies and later from the workshop.

Wish me luck.

Please note: Mobile blogging will not commence until after 2nd cup of coffee.

-- Post From My iPhone

Oh yea! It's up and running.

2009-03-06T00:50:00.000-08:00

Without further adieu the LilSticks blog is up and running.

I will be updating daily from the workshop and posting pictures of my new creations.

Another item will be added to the April 15th FOLLOW ME CONTEST very soon.

Check back daily to see what's going on.