Another 52 Weeks

clieb91 said:

Shows, Cleaning, and what is to come.

Greetings all well as promised last week here I go again. Another year of blogging about time in the shop and other wood related items. My daughter is now 8 and still spends time with me in the shop and is looking forward to being a part of this as well. In the meantime though lets get started.
I attended the Woodworking Show this weekend in Baltimore, a few good seminars, some great shopping and even better time hanging out with LumberJocks and plenty of other woodworkers. Besides some new knowledge I also came away with a fair amount of stuff.

The highlight is the Juice Proof Vacuum set up which is going to allow me to stabilize my own pen blanks. I am looking forward to putting this to use and will certainly be including my adventures with it here sometime in the next couple of months. Still need to get the vacuum pump. The kits you see will be a a lot of fun with Sophia and the 6 treasure chest kits will be for her Girl Scout group to do as a project. Also bought an intarsia kit for me to try out.

After spending two days at the show I decided today to get a fresh start in the shop. So I spent the day cleaning up the shop vacuuming out some of the tools and getting things in order.

Now it is ready for me to start in on some fun projects for the next month before turning my attention to Portable Pastimes inventory builds. I am in need of one more bookshelf/table for my office as well as a large corner wall shelf which will go above me electric fire place and provide a space to hold some of the projects I have made as well as those I have gotten from others. I have some ideas and it will be a simple build to match my Dimensional Furniture. The book case is going to be made out of reclaimed wood. I have already started pulling the screws out of it.

Going forward I think I am going to be shooting for the 2nd weekend of each month to be about projects Sophia are working on or have worked on. The 3rd weekend is going to be out the business as come May that is when we will be out at the craft market. So perhaps I will touch on some of the Etsy stuff or getting stuff together for the market including displays and such. Let me know if there are questions about any of these things or something particular you would like to see me discuss. I am looking forward to this year and any interaction is great.

Look forward to hearing from you and have a great week in and out of the Shop.

CtL

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Shows, Cleaning, and what is to come.

Greetings all well as promised last week here I go again. Another year of blogging about time in the shop and other wood related items. My daughter is now 8 and still spends time with me in the shop and is looking forward to being a part of this as well. In the meantime though lets get started.
I attended the Woodworking Show this weekend in Baltimore, a few good seminars, some great shopping and even better time hanging out with LumberJocks and plenty of other woodworkers. Besides some new knowledge I also came away with a fair amount of stuff.

The highlight is the Juice Proof Vacuum set up which is going to allow me to stabilize my own pen blanks. I am looking forward to putting this to use and will certainly be including my adventures with it here sometime in the next couple of months. Still need to get the vacuum pump. The kits you see will be a a lot of fun with Sophia and the 6 treasure chest kits will be for her Girl Scout group to do as a project. Also bought an intarsia kit for me to try out.

After spending two days at the show I decided today to get a fresh start in the shop. So I spent the day cleaning up the shop vacuuming out some of the tools and getting things in order.

Now it is ready for me to start in on some fun projects for the next month before turning my attention to Portable Pastimes inventory builds. I am in need of one more bookshelf/table for my office as well as a large corner wall shelf which will go above me electric fire place and provide a space to hold some of the projects I have made as well as those I have gotten from others. I have some ideas and it will be a simple build to match my Dimensional Furniture. The book case is going to be made out of reclaimed wood. I have already started pulling the screws out of it.

Going forward I think I am going to be shooting for the 2nd weekend of each month to be about projects Sophia are working on or have worked on. The 3rd weekend is going to be out the business as come May that is when we will be out at the craft market. So perhaps I will touch on some of the Etsy stuff or getting stuff together for the market including displays and such. Let me know if there are questions about any of these things or something particular you would like to see me discuss. I am looking forward to this year and any interaction is great.

Look forward to hearing from you and have a great week in and out of the Shop.

CtL

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Shows, Cleaning, and what is to come.

Greetings all well as promised last week here I go again. Another year of blogging about time in the shop and other wood related items. My daughter is now 8 and still spends time with me in the shop and is looking forward to being a part of this as well. In the meantime though lets get started.
I attended the Woodworking Show this weekend in Baltimore, a few good seminars, some great shopping and even better time hanging out with LumberJocks and plenty of other woodworkers. Besides some new knowledge I also came away with a fair amount of stuff.

The highlight is the Juice Proof Vacuum set up which is going to allow me to stabilize my own pen blanks. I am looking forward to putting this to use and will certainly be including my adventures with it here sometime in the next couple of months. Still need to get the vacuum pump. The kits you see will be a a lot of fun with Sophia and the 6 treasure chest kits will be for her Girl Scout group to do as a project. Also bought an intarsia kit for me to try out.

After spending two days at the show I decided today to get a fresh start in the shop. So I spent the day cleaning up the shop vacuuming out some of the tools and getting things in order.

Now it is ready for me to start in on some fun projects for the next month before turning my attention to Portable Pastimes inventory builds. I am in need of one more bookshelf/table for my office as well as a large corner wall shelf which will go above me electric fire place and provide a space to hold some of the projects I have made as well as those I have gotten from others. I have some ideas and it will be a simple build to match my Dimensional Furniture. The book case is going to be made out of reclaimed wood. I have already started pulling the screws out of it.

Going forward I think I am going to be shooting for the 2nd weekend of each month to be about projects Sophia are working on or have worked on. The 3rd weekend is going to be out the business as come May that is when we will be out at the craft market. So perhaps I will touch on some of the Etsy stuff or getting stuff together for the market including displays and such. Let me know if there are questions about any of these things or something particular you would like to see me discuss. I am looking forward to this year and any interaction is great.

Look forward to hearing from you and have a great week in and out of the Shop.

CtL

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Shows, Cleaning, and what is to come.

Greetings all well as promised last week here I go again. Another year of blogging about time in the shop and other wood related items. My daughter is now 8 and still spends time with me in the shop and is looking forward to being a part of this as well. In the meantime though lets get started.
I attended the Woodworking Show this weekend in Baltimore, a few good seminars, some great shopping and even better time hanging out with LumberJocks and plenty of other woodworkers. Besides some new knowledge I also came away with a fair amount of stuff.

The highlight is the Juice Proof Vacuum set up which is going to allow me to stabilize my own pen blanks. I am looking forward to putting this to use and will certainly be including my adventures with it here sometime in the next couple of months. Still need to get the vacuum pump. The kits you see will be a a lot of fun with Sophia and the 6 treasure chest kits will be for her Girl Scout group to do as a project. Also bought an intarsia kit for me to try out.

After spending two days at the show I decided today to get a fresh start in the shop. So I spent the day cleaning up the shop vacuuming out some of the tools and getting things in order.

Now it is ready for me to start in on some fun projects for the next month before turning my attention to Portable Pastimes inventory builds. I am in need of one more bookshelf/table for my office as well as a large corner wall shelf which will go above me electric fire place and provide a space to hold some of the projects I have made as well as those I have gotten from others. I have some ideas and it will be a simple build to match my Dimensional Furniture. The book case is going to be made out of reclaimed wood. I have already started pulling the screws out of it.

Going forward I think I am going to be shooting for the 2nd weekend of each month to be about projects Sophia are working on or have worked on. The 3rd weekend is going to be out the business as come May that is when we will be out at the craft market. So perhaps I will touch on some of the Etsy stuff or getting stuff together for the market including displays and such. Let me know if there are questions about any of these things or something particular you would like to see me discuss. I am looking forward to this year and any interaction is great.

Look forward to hearing from you and have a great week in and out of the Shop.

CtL

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Tips & Tricks- Personalize It!!

Ink Transfers- How I do it.

So a number of folks have asked me about the method I use to put images and lettering on my projects. I thought I would use today's blog as photo tutorial of sorts to answer this question. A few years back I ran across a Youtube video of a guy doing an ink transfer method using a laser printer and an iron, I have been working with this idea ever since. For this project I thought I would make a few bookmarks.

First thing you will need to do is create the image in whatever program it is that you like to use. I learned a long time ago how to do a lot of different things in PowerPoint and still use it today to manufacture pretty much all of my image, game boards and anything I use. When they are printed out remember that they need to be printed in reverse. This must be printed using a laser printer or else can be photocopied using a laser style copier, the trick is that the ink has to fused to the paper using heat. An ink jet will not work for this method.

For this project I cut a block of maple into thin strips on my bandsaw and then sanded them flat. Sanding I have found is big key to this. My game boards are sanded at my belt sander and I use at least 3 grits to get them as smooth as possible. You want the flattest surface possible to transfer to.

Cut out your patterns, be sure to leave only those lines you want on the wood.

I use standard blue painter's tape to attach the pattern to the wood. Here you can also see the iron I use. I had a much older one with a steel sole that seemed to work better but it died a few months ago. I had to buy few different ones to try out as they no longer make ones like the old one. I found the Teflon coated one did not work very well for some reason. As you can see here I use a towel to protect my bench and also to help keep things from sliding around.

Let the iron heat up to its highest setting. Then apply to the piece. You want to move over the piece for a good few minutes the time depends on how much is to be transferred, most of my games take about 2-3 minutes of ironing time. I usually use the music playing in my shop to time my ironing of those, one song and it is generally good. These guys took closer to a minute each.

Once you think you are good keep your iron just in front of where you are going to start to pull the pattern off. By doing this you can usually put the pattern back down and iron it a little more in certain spots if needed. You also need to keep the paper hot as you peel it off otherwise the ink may stick.

I will generally give things a minimum of about 10 minutes or so to cool down. If you have a lot of colors or ink on something you may want to let it sit overnight. Most of my items are then sprayed with Lacquer, 3 coats. This will put a nice seal over the ink.

As I mentioned none wanted lines, even the smallest will show up. Here you see two bookmarks that I left just a bit of the outside line on.

The great thing about doing the transfers this way is that you can do pretty much anything you want. I do customized Wine Tilts and Bottle Openers and can put anything the customer wants on the piece. Below are just a few of the projects that I have done using this method.







When I am turning the process is pretty much the same, but since this is already a pretty long blog I think I will cover that next week. I hope this helps and gives you all some great ideas. Love to hear some feedback or questions.
Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

Almost forgot I have to thank my daughter for helping with this. She took the pictures of me using the iron and did a great job.

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Tips & Tricks- Personalize It!!

Ink Transfers- How I do it.

So a number of folks have asked me about the method I use to put images and lettering on my projects. I thought I would use today's blog as photo tutorial of sorts to answer this question. A few years back I ran across a Youtube video of a guy doing an ink transfer method using a laser printer and an iron, I have been working with this idea ever since. For this project I thought I would make a few bookmarks.

First thing you will need to do is create the image in whatever program it is that you like to use. I learned a long time ago how to do a lot of different things in PowerPoint and still use it today to manufacture pretty much all of my image, game boards and anything I use. When they are printed out remember that they need to be printed in reverse. This must be printed using a laser printer or else can be photocopied using a laser style copier, the trick is that the ink has to fused to the paper using heat. An ink jet will not work for this method.

For this project I cut a block of maple into thin strips on my bandsaw and then sanded them flat. Sanding I have found is big key to this. My game boards are sanded at my belt sander and I use at least 3 grits to get them as smooth as possible. You want the flattest surface possible to transfer to.

Cut out your patterns, be sure to leave only those lines you want on the wood.

I use standard blue painter's tape to attach the pattern to the wood. Here you can also see the iron I use. I had a much older one with a steel sole that seemed to work better but it died a few months ago. I had to buy few different ones to try out as they no longer make ones like the old one. I found the Teflon coated one did not work very well for some reason. As you can see here I use a towel to protect my bench and also to help keep things from sliding around.

Let the iron heat up to its highest setting. Then apply to the piece. You want to move over the piece for a good few minutes the time depends on how much is to be transferred, most of my games take about 2-3 minutes of ironing time. I usually use the music playing in my shop to time my ironing of those, one song and it is generally good. These guys took closer to a minute each.

Once you think you are good keep your iron just in front of where you are going to start to pull the pattern off. By doing this you can usually put the pattern back down and iron it a little more in certain spots if needed. You also need to keep the paper hot as you peel it off otherwise the ink may stick.

I will generally give things a minimum of about 10 minutes or so to cool down. If you have a lot of colors or ink on something you may want to let it sit overnight. Most of my items are then sprayed with Lacquer, 3 coats. This will put a nice seal over the ink.

As I mentioned none wanted lines, even the smallest will show up. Here you see two bookmarks that I left just a bit of the outside line on.

The great thing about doing the transfers this way is that you can do pretty much anything you want. I do customized Wine Tilts and Bottle Openers and can put anything the customer wants on the piece. Below are just a few of the projects that I have done using this method.







When I am turning the process is pretty much the same, but since this is already a pretty long blog I think I will cover that next week. I hope this helps and gives you all some great ideas. Love to hear some feedback or questions.
Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

Almost forgot I have to thank my daughter for helping with this. She took the pictures of me using the iron and did a great job.

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Tips & Tricks- Personalize It!!

Ink Transfers- How I do it.

So a number of folks have asked me about the method I use to put images and lettering on my projects. I thought I would use today's blog as photo tutorial of sorts to answer this question. A few years back I ran across a Youtube video of a guy doing an ink transfer method using a laser printer and an iron, I have been working with this idea ever since. For this project I thought I would make a few bookmarks.

First thing you will need to do is create the image in whatever program it is that you like to use. I learned a long time ago how to do a lot of different things in PowerPoint and still use it today to manufacture pretty much all of my image, game boards and anything I use. When they are printed out remember that they need to be printed in reverse. This must be printed using a laser printer or else can be photocopied using a laser style copier, the trick is that the ink has to fused to the paper using heat. An ink jet will not work for this method.

For this project I cut a block of maple into thin strips on my bandsaw and then sanded them flat. Sanding I have found is big key to this. My game boards are sanded at my belt sander and I use at least 3 grits to get them as smooth as possible. You want the flattest surface possible to transfer to.

Cut out your patterns, be sure to leave only those lines you want on the wood.

I use standard blue painter's tape to attach the pattern to the wood. Here you can also see the iron I use. I had a much older one with a steel sole that seemed to work better but it died a few months ago. I had to buy few different ones to try out as they no longer make ones like the old one. I found the Teflon coated one did not work very well for some reason. As you can see here I use a towel to protect my bench and also to help keep things from sliding around.

Let the iron heat up to its highest setting. Then apply to the piece. You want to move over the piece for a good few minutes the time depends on how much is to be transferred, most of my games take about 2-3 minutes of ironing time. I usually use the music playing in my shop to time my ironing of those, one song and it is generally good. These guys took closer to a minute each.

Once you think you are good keep your iron just in front of where you are going to start to pull the pattern off. By doing this you can usually put the pattern back down and iron it a little more in certain spots if needed. You also need to keep the paper hot as you peel it off otherwise the ink may stick.

I will generally give things a minimum of about 10 minutes or so to cool down. If you have a lot of colors or ink on something you may want to let it sit overnight. Most of my items are then sprayed with Lacquer, 3 coats. This will put a nice seal over the ink.

As I mentioned none wanted lines, even the smallest will show up. Here you see two bookmarks that I left just a bit of the outside line on.

The great thing about doing the transfers this way is that you can do pretty much anything you want. I do customized Wine Tilts and Bottle Openers and can put anything the customer wants on the piece. Below are just a few of the projects that I have done using this method.







When I am turning the process is pretty much the same, but since this is already a pretty long blog I think I will cover that next week. I hope this helps and gives you all some great ideas. Love to hear some feedback or questions.
Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

Almost forgot I have to thank my daughter for helping with this. She took the pictures of me using the iron and did a great job.

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Tips & Tricks- Personalize It!!

Ink Transfers- How I do it.

So a number of folks have asked me about the method I use to put images and lettering on my projects. I thought I would use today's blog as photo tutorial of sorts to answer this question. A few years back I ran across a Youtube video of a guy doing an ink transfer method using a laser printer and an iron, I have been working with this idea ever since. For this project I thought I would make a few bookmarks.

First thing you will need to do is create the image in whatever program it is that you like to use. I learned a long time ago how to do a lot of different things in PowerPoint and still use it today to manufacture pretty much all of my image, game boards and anything I use. When they are printed out remember that they need to be printed in reverse. This must be printed using a laser printer or else can be photocopied using a laser style copier, the trick is that the ink has to fused to the paper using heat. An ink jet will not work for this method.

For this project I cut a block of maple into thin strips on my bandsaw and then sanded them flat. Sanding I have found is big key to this. My game boards are sanded at my belt sander and I use at least 3 grits to get them as smooth as possible. You want the flattest surface possible to transfer to.

Cut out your patterns, be sure to leave only those lines you want on the wood.

I use standard blue painter's tape to attach the pattern to the wood. Here you can also see the iron I use. I had a much older one with a steel sole that seemed to work better but it died a few months ago. I had to buy few different ones to try out as they no longer make ones like the old one. I found the Teflon coated one did not work very well for some reason. As you can see here I use a towel to protect my bench and also to help keep things from sliding around.

Let the iron heat up to its highest setting. Then apply to the piece. You want to move over the piece for a good few minutes the time depends on how much is to be transferred, most of my games take about 2-3 minutes of ironing time. I usually use the music playing in my shop to time my ironing of those, one song and it is generally good. These guys took closer to a minute each.

Once you think you are good keep your iron just in front of where you are going to start to pull the pattern off. By doing this you can usually put the pattern back down and iron it a little more in certain spots if needed. You also need to keep the paper hot as you peel it off otherwise the ink may stick.

I will generally give things a minimum of about 10 minutes or so to cool down. If you have a lot of colors or ink on something you may want to let it sit overnight. Most of my items are then sprayed with Lacquer, 3 coats. This will put a nice seal over the ink.

As I mentioned none wanted lines, even the smallest will show up. Here you see two bookmarks that I left just a bit of the outside line on.

The great thing about doing the transfers this way is that you can do pretty much anything you want. I do customized Wine Tilts and Bottle Openers and can put anything the customer wants on the piece. Below are just a few of the projects that I have done using this method.







When I am turning the process is pretty much the same, but since this is already a pretty long blog I think I will cover that next week. I hope this helps and gives you all some great ideas. Love to hear some feedback or questions.
Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

Almost forgot I have to thank my daughter for helping with this. She took the pictures of me using the iron and did a great job.

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Tips & Tricks- Personalize It!!

Ink Transfers- How I do it.

So a number of folks have asked me about the method I use to put images and lettering on my projects. I thought I would use today's blog as photo tutorial of sorts to answer this question. A few years back I ran across a Youtube video of a guy doing an ink transfer method using a laser printer and an iron, I have been working with this idea ever since. For this project I thought I would make a few bookmarks.

First thing you will need to do is create the image in whatever program it is that you like to use. I learned a long time ago how to do a lot of different things in PowerPoint and still use it today to manufacture pretty much all of my image, game boards and anything I use. When they are printed out remember that they need to be printed in reverse. This must be printed using a laser printer or else can be photocopied using a laser style copier, the trick is that the ink has to fused to the paper using heat. An ink jet will not work for this method.

For this project I cut a block of maple into thin strips on my bandsaw and then sanded them flat. Sanding I have found is big key to this. My game boards are sanded at my belt sander and I use at least 3 grits to get them as smooth as possible. You want the flattest surface possible to transfer to.

Cut out your patterns, be sure to leave only those lines you want on the wood.

I use standard blue painter's tape to attach the pattern to the wood. Here you can also see the iron I use. I had a much older one with a steel sole that seemed to work better but it died a few months ago. I had to buy few different ones to try out as they no longer make ones like the old one. I found the Teflon coated one did not work very well for some reason. As you can see here I use a towel to protect my bench and also to help keep things from sliding around.

Let the iron heat up to its highest setting. Then apply to the piece. You want to move over the piece for a good few minutes the time depends on how much is to be transferred, most of my games take about 2-3 minutes of ironing time. I usually use the music playing in my shop to time my ironing of those, one song and it is generally good. These guys took closer to a minute each.

Once you think you are good keep your iron just in front of where you are going to start to pull the pattern off. By doing this you can usually put the pattern back down and iron it a little more in certain spots if needed. You also need to keep the paper hot as you peel it off otherwise the ink may stick.

I will generally give things a minimum of about 10 minutes or so to cool down. If you have a lot of colors or ink on something you may want to let it sit overnight. Most of my items are then sprayed with Lacquer, 3 coats. This will put a nice seal over the ink.

As I mentioned none wanted lines, even the smallest will show up. Here you see two bookmarks that I left just a bit of the outside line on.

The great thing about doing the transfers this way is that you can do pretty much anything you want. I do customized Wine Tilts and Bottle Openers and can put anything the customer wants on the piece. Below are just a few of the projects that I have done using this method.







When I am turning the process is pretty much the same, but since this is already a pretty long blog I think I will cover that next week. I hope this helps and gives you all some great ideas. Love to hear some feedback or questions.
Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

Almost forgot I have to thank my daughter for helping with this. She took the pictures of me using the iron and did a great job.

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Preparing...

Sanding
Oh Sanding how I loathe it
Grit after grit
With the grain. Against the grain
My shop fills with dust, where will it set
With the papers I sit
But the project must be finished, or all my work is for vane.

Sanding is not one of the funnest things we have to do in the shop. No matter how you sand. Though since I have taken up turning I have learned even more so how important it is. I go there today because I spent about 45 minutes in the shop this afternoon working on this pile…

I spent that time running all of this over my belt sander at 100 grit. I still have 2 more grits to go before I will start doing transfers to these pieces. Now I now using the bench top belt sander is not he most tedious way to do sanding. but after the first 10 or 20 pieces it can become a bit monotonous. Have to keep an eye on what you are doing though otherwise who knows where the piece could zip off to. Thankfully I did not lose any pieces today but it has happened. When I first started doing transfers I made the mistake of a bad sanding job.



So now I do this in batches. and make sure everything gets a nice smooth finish before getting a transfer applied. This nice thing about making my games is I can batch process a lot of the steps. I did not take a any pictures of the cutting down of these pieces. But I cut almost all of them at the same time. The pine is what I use primarily for my games and games are one of two widths and a couple of lengths. so out of a few 1×8s I can make a number of boards.

I will spending the next few nights doing some additional sanding of these pieces as well as working on some pens that I can not post until next month as they are for the IAP Birthday Bash. In fact got to work with Sophia yesterday and finished her entry into the Youth Category.

In the meantime though thanks to a new Facebook Group, Component Pen Challenge I was challenged this week to make my first closed end pen.

Well that is all I have for this week, I know not much.. but I'll see what I can come up with for next week. In the meantime take a look at my last two entries and make something special for that valentine of yours.

Have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Preparing...

Sanding
Oh Sanding how I loathe it
Grit after grit
With the grain. Against the grain
My shop fills with dust, where will it set
With the papers I sit
But the project must be finished, or all my work is for vane.

Sanding is not one of the funnest things we have to do in the shop. No matter how you sand. Though since I have taken up turning I have learned even more so how important it is. I go there today because I spent about 45 minutes in the shop this afternoon working on this pile…

I spent that time running all of this over my belt sander at 100 grit. I still have 2 more grits to go before I will start doing transfers to these pieces. Now I now using the bench top belt sander is not he most tedious way to do sanding. but after the first 10 or 20 pieces it can become a bit monotonous. Have to keep an eye on what you are doing though otherwise who knows where the piece could zip off to. Thankfully I did not lose any pieces today but it has happened. When I first started doing transfers I made the mistake of a bad sanding job.



So now I do this in batches. and make sure everything gets a nice smooth finish before getting a transfer applied. This nice thing about making my games is I can batch process a lot of the steps. I did not take a any pictures of the cutting down of these pieces. But I cut almost all of them at the same time. The pine is what I use primarily for my games and games are one of two widths and a couple of lengths. so out of a few 1×8s I can make a number of boards.

I will spending the next few nights doing some additional sanding of these pieces as well as working on some pens that I can not post until next month as they are for the IAP Birthday Bash. In fact got to work with Sophia yesterday and finished her entry into the Youth Category.

In the meantime though thanks to a new Facebook Group, Component Pen Challenge I was challenged this week to make my first closed end pen.

Well that is all I have for this week, I know not much.. but I'll see what I can come up with for next week. In the meantime take a look at my last two entries and make something special for that valentine of yours.

Have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

Click to expand...

clieb91 said:

Preparing...

Sanding
Oh Sanding how I loathe it
Grit after grit
With the grain. Against the grain
My shop fills with dust, where will it set
With the papers I sit
But the project must be finished, or all my work is for vane.

Sanding is not one of the funnest things we have to do in the shop. No matter how you sand. Though since I have taken up turning I have learned even more so how important it is. I go there today because I spent about 45 minutes in the shop this afternoon working on this pile…

I spent that time running all of this over my belt sander at 100 grit. I still have 2 more grits to go before I will start doing transfers to these pieces. Now I now using the bench top belt sander is not he most tedious way to do sanding. but after the first 10 or 20 pieces it can become a bit monotonous. Have to keep an eye on what you are doing though otherwise who knows where the piece could zip off to. Thankfully I did not lose any pieces today but it has happened. When I first started doing transfers I made the mistake of a bad sanding job.



So now I do this in batches. and make sure everything gets a nice smooth finish before getting a transfer applied. This nice thing about making my games is I can batch process a lot of the steps. I did not take a any pictures of the cutting down of these pieces. But I cut almost all of them at the same time. The pine is what I use primarily for my games and games are one of two widths and a couple of lengths. so out of a few 1×8s I can make a number of boards.

I will spending the next few nights doing some additional sanding of these pieces as well as working on some pens that I can not post until next month as they are for the IAP Birthday Bash. In fact got to work with Sophia yesterday and finished her entry into the Youth Category.

In the meantime though thanks to a new Facebook Group, Component Pen Challenge I was challenged this week to make my first closed end pen.

Well that is all I have for this week, I know not much.. but I'll see what I can come up with for next week. In the meantime take a look at my last two entries and make something special for that valentine of yours.

Have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL

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