It's not always about ukes

[tonyturley]

Not all of my woodcraft is about ukuleles. I spent a fair bit of time this afternoon flattening the back of a Black Walnut bowl blank that had been drying in my garage for 12 years or so. The process involved scribbling cross-hatched pencil marks all over the side that needed flattened, then scrubbing it vigorously across a large flat sanding board until my arms felt like they were going to fall off, rotating the piece frequently to ensure even sanding and stopping often to check the progress. The leveling happens slowly, and the back is flat when all the pencil marks are gone. The Black Cherry blank gets the same treatment tomorrow. The plastic container contains Walnut sanding dust that I'm keeping for inlay work on other projects, including ukes.

 

[tonyturley]

A bit more diversion from uke building. It was so nice outside today, I threw open both garage doors and went to town making a huge mess with some lathe tools and the chunk of Black Walnut shown above. Just a basic bowl, but it was a lot of fun. The second pic shows only part of the mess that had to be cleaned. I can catch shavings if a machine has a dust port, like my planer and drum sander. All bets are off with lathe operations.

 

[plunker]

The third picture down, I though bigfoot was building the uke.

 

[tonyturley]

The third picture down, I though bigfoot was building the uke.

My wife said the same thing.

 

[tonyturley]

The little portable table I wrote about in a previous post is complete. Over the past few days I put a couple more coats of varnish on it both top and bottom. It will come in handy in my uke building. My wife likes it, and I'm considering making a similar one from some Black Walnut scraps I have.

 

[clear]

Black Walnut scraps.

Nice looking table. If you play chess; I wonder if the black walnut can be used for the dark squares... It should make a beautiful chess board.

 

[Wiggy]

Ah-Hah!

It is about Ukes... I see Formby

 

[tonyturley]

Ah-Hah!

It is about Ukes... I see Formby

LOL . . . yep.

 

[plunker]

Nice looking table. If you play chess; I wonder if the black walnut can be used for the dark squares... It should make a beautiful chess board.

Reminds me of backgammon.

 

[tonyturley]

A few of my recent wood turnings. Spalted Silver Maple and a Black Cherry live edge bowl I started yesterday. They are currently packed in paper bags surrounded by shavings to keep them from drying too fast. The Maple turnings are almost dry enough to put back on the lathe for final sanding.

 

[tonyturley]

Another turning project, a Sassafras crotch winged bowl from a fallen tree I found while out on a bike ride in the boonies. Like all of my wet-turned projects, it has been sanded to 220 grit and packed in a large paper bag full of today’s fresh shavings. I will pull it out weekly to weigh it. Once it has stopped losing water – likely in about 3 months – I’ll pull it out for finish sanding and whatever finish I decide to use on it.

 

[Patty]

Another turning project, a Sassafras crotch winged bowl from a fallen tree I found while out on a bike ride in the boonies. Like all of my wet-turned projects, it has been sanded to 220 grit and packed in a large paper bag full of today’s fresh shavings. I will pull it out weekly to weigh it. Once it has stopped losing water – likely in about 3 months – I’ll pull it out for finish sanding and whatever finish I decide to use on it.

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How did you get that tree section home on your bike? Yikes!

 

[tonyturley]

How did you get that tree section home on your bike? Yikes!

I strapped it to the bike rack with the bungee cords I always carry with me. I did notice the extra weight as I pedaled, but it didn't affect the balance.

 

[plunker]

Nice work

 

[tonyturley]

Some more wood turning squeezed in between working on uke projects. A laser-engraved pen shown with a segment of the Hawthorn branch from which it was turned, and a lidded pot from spalted Black Cherry, Sweet Cherry, and Black Walnut.

 

[tonyturley]

I've mostly taken a hiatus from instrument building for the last few months and spent my shop time on woodturning projects, especially pens from spalted wood. Not all has been rosy, as I had a couple of pen blanks disintegrate on the lathe as the wood was too punky, even with stabilization. First image shows my largest wood turning ever, from a Mimosa crotch that weighed 21 pounds when I first mounted it on the lathe. The second shows my recent spalted wood turnings.

 

[TBB]

Some more wood turning squeezed in between working on uke projects. A laser-engraved pen shown with a segment of the Hawthorn branch from which it was turned, and a lidded pot from spalted Black Cherry, Sweet Cherry, and Black Walnut.

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That lidded pot is wonderful!

 

[ploverwing]

Not all has been rosy, as I had a couple of pen blanks disintegrate on the lathe as the wood was too punky, even with stabilization.

Ugh. Exploding anything on the lathe is less than rosy. Nice stuff! Especially love that sycamore crotch winged bowl from a few posts back, and your most recent piece from mimosa crotch is stunning.

 

[Patty]

Beautiful stuff, Tony.

 

[Yukio]

Ugh. Exploding anything on the lathe is less than rosy. Nice stuff! Especially love that sycamore crotch winged bowl from a few posts back, and your most recent piece from mimosa crotch is stunning.

When it suddenly goes BANG! and some, if not all, of the piece goes flying in random directions around the shop, certain four-letter words seem to leap from my mouth.