Box Making Progress

I finally got my toggle clamps and digital angle gauge in the mail. The Wixey gauge eliminated all the fiddling and guess work. What a great tool!

Soo... cut another 16" chunk of maple and started again down the box making road.

Planning to 3/8

I then rebuilt my crosscut sled and tried to eliminate all the slop in it. I added my new Chinese toggle bolts and clamped a stop block at 3". Clamping before had been downright scary with a 3" side and 45 degree bevel. Not anymore.

I wrapped a couple pieces of mdf in packing tape as my cauls for the 3/8 box sides.

Result? Really nice and tight miters! (a bit of tear out, but I can fix that)

Next weekend, on to the spline cutting jig!

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Rikon Mini Lathe

I got busy this weekend and completed a couple of projects. I took a number of pictures of my new lathe in action. Most of them during the turning of a recent euro stlye pen made from padauk and ebony with a CA finish. It was a SF Giants theme, and the lathe was covered with padauk streamers and ebony dust. Very cool first project. I had a little trouble with the finish owning to the extreme cold in the garage, but overall a pretty good result. As I normally do, I forgot something. I forgot to bring in the camera and upload the pictures to photobucket so I could post them. As such, there is once again no proof. sigh... Everything is simpler. No more wrench to move the tool rest or tail stock. No more indexing pin to take off the faceplate. No more hassle removing the centers or mandrels. Man what a difference! In addition I tried turning a few things between centers. Basically just mangled some spindle blanks. Good fun, lots of walnut shavings. So, the new lathe has officially been br...

Book Tablet Holder

Tablet stand made from a 400 page book and some epoxy resin. Paper micarta is the proper term for it, but it doesn't really capture the essence of the idea. Those 400 pages hold but a single story, and now they can upright a device capable of holding thousands of stories. And with only a book and 30 some odd ounces of epoxy, you can make your own! Just don't use a book that is one of your favorites. Which honestly is why I picked this one, and the fact that the name was well suited! Really it's the ultimate upcycling!

The Burl Bowl Beat

Cool Chunk of claro walnut burl Soaked in CA Rocks and burl More burl and a void emerge Rough hollowing Shearing scrape Sanding started Started on the bottom The blank went for a short flight... I'd like to claim it was an unstable bowl but that was not the case. It was a stupid mistake on my part. I was turning down the nib at the very end of the processed when I rubbed the tool edge and got a catch. the bowl came out the cole jaws hit the tool rest and flew straight up. I was then showered in burl bowl pieces. It was spectacular! I was so upset I could barely think straight. I only found two pieces and have no idea where the other 60% of them are. Now... I understand these things happen and I just need to chuck up another block

Peter Brown's ShopTime

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