It’s kind of a joke to call it summer in South Florida as it’s seemed like summer since the end of March. Summer though, really starts at the Fourth of July. Here in S. Fla. the weather cooperated nicely for me to enjoy a nice long weekend in the studio. It was dark and rainy the whole weekend.

I’m working on two new projects that should be ready to photograph this week. One is a new Wauli hook and the other is a new version of the Wauli Shelf/Rack. I didn’t expect the first one to sell so quickly but it did. It was fabricated from scraps so I probably won’t be making one just like it again.

I found time to finish a project I started last summer at Penland:

Above Bee’s steel magnet wall, behind her work tables.

Anyway, that’s it for today. As Victor Cheng says with regards to marketing through your blog. “……….. keep it up.”  So that’s my goal for the rest of the summer.

See you soon!

Cheers,

Paul

Well yesterday was the do or die day.

 

The set up was ready and I had to get the stump bored out. I spent most of yesterday finishing the drill bit. I used Ti coated carbide inserts for the bit and I should have used no coated or at least removed more of the coating before brazing. Next time! The set up was pretty simple and I was ready to go.

 

I used a Milwaukee 1/2 Drill to turn the bit. I secured the stump on the bed of my mill. The vacuum was connected to the rotary port on the bit.

The stump had a curve in it and I was really worried about drilling out of the side of the stump. 

 

The drilling took about 30 minutes. The center plug will be used for something else in the future.

Thanks for checking in.

Cheers 

 

The Bee Bar started out just being a project to make a bar sized platform for the Beehive. It, like other projects that I’ve started, is taking on a life of it’s own. I’m going to make a page for the evolution of this piece, but in the meantime. I’ll post some of the stuff here.

The top has it’s first coat of sealer. I’ve been using Minwax Sanding Sealer as the primary coat. The second coat is of Grain Filler. It’s shown here. Kinda messy stuff but fills the grain nicely with a natural colored filler so the final coats of polyurethane will be nice and slick. I’m going to be trying Penetrol in the poly this go round. We’ll see how it goes.

 

 

Getting ready to glue Zipper Spline. The tapered pins are Lignum Vitae turned to match the #2 morse tapered holes in the Zipper Spline. The spline itself, 3/8 x 4 inch aluminum flat bar, also has matching tapered holes.

 

Zipper Spline glued. Holes were out of alinement by 10 thousandth of an inch in the spline causing interference when the tapered pins were driven into position. This created a very tight sturdy joint. I didn’t even need the clamps but went ahead and tightened them up.

 

 

Plugs cut and sanded flush with top. 

 

 

Top on painted base. Ready for finishing. This thing is going to look kick ass with a flock of Wonky Stools parked around it and some Sapphire G&T’s perched on top……………..

 

 

Leg Detail

Leg and feet Detail 

 

In this pic, I’m straightening the edge of the Mahogany plank that will be the table top. I had to add a stiffener because this jig flexed a little. 

 

Built new fence extension to allow for edge dado.

 

Beginning of Zipper Spline. Still not sure if  I’m going to use this aluminum flat bar or go with a multi-directional plywood. I think I’d feel better with the plywood. 

 

 

The zipper spline is going to be held in place using Lignum Vitae plugs. Here I’m straightening a Lignum Vitae root.

 

Cheers for now.

Paul 

Carl Auböck, an Austrian designer,

 

lived before my time. I just met him today. My wife sent me a link to a guy that she thought had designed stuff that was kinda like my style. She was right, or I’m designing stuff kinda like his style?

This is a project I’m working on:

 

Now my Mahogany root section has no legs but if you’re familiar with my stuff, you know I like tripods.

Carl Auböck’s table:

Sigh! History comes to bite me in the ass. 

 

Homage to Mr. Auböck: This is a cocktail table 17″h x about 58″ x 40″

The color pattern is natural to this wood; Swietenia Mahogany.

 

 

This is the underside detail showing the original crosscut chainsaw marks made by the sawyer that sliced this from the original root section.  

 

Foot detail: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have finally turned a piece of wood in the new “Metal” lathe.  It’s one of those things that most people wouldn’t think of doing. “You turn wood in a wood lathe.”

 I took a quick picture so I could get this out of the way.

 

 Thanks for stopping by and enough of the lathe pictures already! 

I really didn’t have anything to post. My mind was  a blank. I’m getting to the end of my time for getting things finished by the 18th. I just started the last part of the last piece that I’m going to do for the show. That makes three pieces that are in progress that will need to be done in less then 3 weeks. 

One of the things that I dread when working with wood is the waste. As I was plunging this bit into this thick piece of mahogany, it bothered me that the wood I was removing was just going to go in the waste can. I was thinking how beautiful the color is when the wood is freshly cut. I was thinking how that this 2 inch slug of wood, that had been attached to the tree and had been curing for the last 40, 50, sixty years, was finally coming to it’s end by being removed to be thrown into the waste. So I decided to document it’s end for posterity.

I just wish I was a little more creative and could figure out what to do with those little curls of this incredible material.

 

I get into long conversations about composition with my friend Karl. He’s back in school and telling me how he’s learning the basics of composition. Cool. What’s that?

Threading Pedz Legs……. “Ol’ Pedz Leg!” 

So far I’ve turned stainless steel, mild steel, aluminum, delrin (a plastic), brass and today it was rubber. Rubber is interesting to turn. The main thing it requires is very sharp tooling. In this case I ground a cut off tool real narrow. I then ground and honed the top and front edges.

 

The tooling requires a certain amount of rigidity. For example and razor blade won’t work.  Because the rubber flexes a great deal, I’m using the live center to support the end of the piece.

Now that I have the milling machine and lathe, I wonder what I’ve been doing without them for so long?

Milling the footrest. 

Just some of the machined parts for the Mrs. Wonky stool:Â