Quoridor

I watched Steve Ramsey with Wood Working for Mere Mortals make a game called Quoridor. It looked like a fun game to play. I think games make good gifts, and most the time fairly easy to make.

I wanted to make a few copies of the Quoridor game.

The field of the game board is mode from plywood. Grooves are cut every 1" with a 1/4 dado stack on the table saw. I am making 3 games so I was sure to make each groove in all 3 boards before I changed the setup on the saw.

 After all the grooves were cut I trimmed the their final sizes.

 Next I used some solid maple to make a frame around the plywood fields.

Next I made the walls that are used in the game and that go into the grooves.

 Since time is running short everything is getting a few coats of spray lacquer.

I then turned some game pieces.
The games were a hit and it is a lot of fun to play.

I finished up the two that were gifts but still have to finish the one we were keeping.

Bottle Stoppers

I decided to give making bottle stoppers a try. I ordered kits and a bottle stopper chuck.

I have seen some amazing bottle stoppers online and one of my favorites looked like a wine glass.

Maple blank

 After rounding the blank it was time to hollow the goblet

 After the goblet was hollowed I shaped the outside.

Another Maple Stopper

Purple Heart Stopper

Shop tour December 2014

Last night after getting onto my son about how messy his room as I felt very convicted about how messy my shop was. I've watched Dyami's monthly shop tours and saw how his shop has evolved. I decide maybe some accountability might help me to get the shop cleaned up and organised with the hopes of being a better example for the kids.

So here is my tour video.  I didn't pick up before shooting this so it is embarrassing to post how much of a mess it is.

New Lathe

My desire to make bigger bowls and turn bigger projects got the best of me. I bought a new lathe to replace the 1942 model I was using.  I bought a Steel City 60100G. It has a granite bed and head stock. 12" swing with 27" capacity, Variable speed.

I've only messed with it a little but I am happy so far. I need to build a stand for it (all my other work surfaces are too tall for it.)

kitchen goodies

It is gift making time for the shop. Last night I made a french style rolling pen from some hard maple.

Ready to turn

Roughed out

Finished maple rolling pen and cherry spatula

I also made a cherry spatula.

Season of Pens

Pens are a very popular gift which means I've been busy making pen.  I really enjoy making pens here are some of my recent pens.

Top to Bottom: Gun metal camo bolt action, Chrome Brazilian Cherry bolt action, hickory pencil, purple heart pencil

Acacia Wood Pen

Camouflage designer pen

An order of supplies

I ordered more acrylics to try out.

Bolt action pens, Left to right:
Brass with Walnut x2, Brass with Cherry, Gun Metal with Hickory, Gold with Bird's Eye Maple, Chrome with Tiger Wood

Two Cocobolo pens and a Brass Bolt Action with Tiger Wood.

Inside out Ornament

Last year turning ornaments was good practice on the lathe. I wanted to try something different this year and I have watched several videos on how to turn an inside out ornaments. I had some figured walnut I had been saving.

I glued 4 piece together with paper in each glue joint so I can easily separate the piece after this first step.

 Next after squaring up the ends I put the blank on the lathe and turned a pleasing curve.

 After turning the inside of the ornament I used a chisel and separated the piece.

 Each piece was rotated 180 degrees and glued together.

I didn't get a picture while turning the outside, but here is the ornament ready for finish.

Here is the ornament with a coat of spray shellac. I will sand between coats and probably apply four coats.

A new level of pen

I have been making wooden pens for the last year and have finally taken the plunge and have gave acrylic pen blanks a try. Acrylic will really give me more options for colors and patterns for my pens.

I started out with a Woodland camouflage blank for a bolt action pen. It came out very good.

Ready to turn

Getting ready to sand

After wet sanding up to 12000 grit

The finished product

Yo-Yo

Here are some photos of making a cherry yo-yo

Cutting the blanks on the bandsaw

I used 5 minute epoxy to glue the tubes in the blanks

Shaped on the lathe

With a shellawax finish

Quarter sawn cherry looks great as a yo-yo

A fungi for fun

I have a hard time staying away from the lathe, I really enjoy turning. I had a little extra time one morning in the shop so wanted to turn something. During a thunderstorm recently a Bradford Pear tree at my parent's was damaged. I picked a few pieces out of the log pile to make things out of.

I had watched videos of people turning mushrooms as practice.  I grabbed a piece of the bradford pear and put it between centers on the lathe. The bradford pear turns wonderfully with the wood still being green (wet).  It was a lot of fun.

Since the wood was green the mushroom will crack and possibly warp as the wood dries out, but that will just add character. Finished size is roughly 5" tall, 3.5" across the cap, and the bigger part of the stem is around 2" in diameter.

Carl's Bowl

Back in the spring my father-in-law asked if I needed some wood and being a wood worker/turner who heats with wood also I can always use more wood. The wood was walnut from some walnut trees being removed from his childhood home.

I processed the suitable pieces into bowl blanks and the rest will be firewood.

I mounted one blank to the lathe after roughing out a circle on the bandsaw using a screw chuck.  In the process of rough turning the outside of the bow the screw I was using as a screw chuck sheered off.

I really liked the sapwood that was in the original shape. I used come old chisels and removed enough wood around the sheered off screw to be able to remove it with some vice grips. I then mounted the bowl between centers and reshaped the outside of the bowl.

I didn't get back to this project until recently when I made a new glue block to mount the bowl to. After attaching the glue block I had to true up the outside of the bowl and hollow the inside.

Glued onto the glue block

 I finished the bowl with mineral oil.

You can see most the sapwood is gone after having to fix things along the way.  I gave the bowl to my father-in-law, Carl, as a thank you for the wood.