Peter Brown's ShopTime

What's absorbent, blue and covered in epoxy? Yep! A Shop Towel Bottle Stopper. I think I might have a problem...

 These wires are from a 25 pair telephone cable that was discarded at the office. It just didn't seem right to toss them!

  This is just too weird not to share. The lathe is running at 800RPM, but it seems to stand still in the light of the strobe.  Lathe spinning at 800RPM's  It is a strange sensation to force your brain into believing that the wood is in motion. Only the sickening feeling in your stomach from the flashing and the sound of the lathe betrays the illusion.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and while I don't claim to have invented the idea of a pint lock, this is the first one I've ever seen out of the wood. In addition I love how outrageous it looks with that giant old school padlock on it!

Wizards are out vampires are in!

A wooden chakram made from maple and mercilessly hurled in the oncoming enemy hordes... and watermelons!  

Confetti + Resin = Confetti Blank It broke, but after I glued all the bits together.... I sorta salvaged it. Still it was a good idea, and I offer it up to the community.

Okay, I've got a lot of things going on in this box. First I wanted to give my copper pipe to sheet another go. I think I'm getting the hang of it! This is easier than the first time! I like the finished project. My only do-over would be the green paint.

I originally wrote this post in 2008. It seems oddly applicable today! Is your shop time plagued by a similar scourge? ~~~   There seems to be no shortages of people places or objects to bestow your esteem, regard, respect, approval or reverence. So how is it that I ended up here? Recently I find myself making sacrifices to a god that I didn't even know existed until a few moths back. This god is now the ruling force in my workshop, second to none with the power to change the outcome of even the smallest of event. That's right, the god of Oops.

I'm very pleased with this project! It's just so interesting! The epoxy and jean turned very nicely with my bowl gouge and I was actually getting nice shavings off it! Turns great on the lathe!

So I posted what I thought would be a fun video on You-Tube last week: A ring made from colored pencils: What I didn't anticipate was how well received it would be! As of this point it has 190k views and about 125 shares. Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!  Also thank you to all of you who subscribed! I have a ton of new ideas. They are one part woodworking and one part crazy. I think many of them will prove to be interesting. At the very least I hope to stimulate some other ideas, or get people motivated to risk failing at something themselves! So stay tuned, and thank you again for the support! I hope I live up to it! -Peter Brown

OK, so it’s one part wood turning and one part crafting and not to everyone’s taste but I really dig the outcome. Light on my desk. I need to make some space for it... I bought some cool Edison style light bulbs a while back and just thought I needed to try this industrial thing. My office is very modern and it works for me. I wanted it to look like someone was locked in a basement with a bunch of junk and needed light, so they cobbled together whatever they could and came up with this. In all truth it’s kind of what happened! I raided my shed and found a bunch of electrical and plumbing parts that I mashed into useless gears and buttons. I already want to build another one, maybe a bit more refined this time…

This table is made from a re-purposed oak base and a hunk of aluminum that was polished up and given a new life. The table measures 26" in diameter and 22" high. There are 6 polished bolt heads attached around the perimeter. The base is painted in satin black and the top has three coats of a clear enamel for protection.

Roughing out some pear blanks Where is my bowl gouge?!   I'm going to need a bigger bench...  

 Pear Bowl #1      Pear Bowl #2   Pear Bowl #3    

This is my first plate. It is from a chunk of walnut firewood that I re-sawed and then glued together to make a 7" blank. I accidentally flipped the ends while gluing so I botched the bookmark. Still, came out okay. 7 7/8" in  diameter 5/8" high. Finished with wipe on poly.  Added a ridge around the edge Very nice curl on the walnut Finished with the donut chuck.

A co-worker downed a pear tree after it was damaged in a storm. I happened to overhear the conversation and quipped, "If you want to part with some, I'll make you a bowl from some of the wood." He was generous enough to part with all of the wood. My shop is full of pear! I've already rough turned about 3 bowls. I Have acres to go! Thank heavens for Achorseal...

A couple of recent boxes. The first is turned from walnut firewood. I love saving pieces from the fireplace. It's quite fulfilling to give them new life.   SOLD Shallow Walnut. 4"in diameter 1 3/4 high. Wipe on poly. The second is sycamore. I had a mistake on the top of the Sycamore, so I added an inset of Walnut. I think it worked out rather well.  SOLD Sycamore & Walnut. 2" in diameter 4" high. Wipe on poly   Sycamore & Walnut. With lid closed

This is my first NE bowl. It was a bear, and put my little Rikon mini through its paces. I will be hard pressed to want to turn another one any time soon... Still after 4 major catches and one pitch across the floor I ended up with a rather thick walled 9 1/2" bowl.  If you look closely you can see the glue line where the wing was re-attached. Finished with Danish oil, blood, sweat and some manly tears.:)   9 1/2 inches wing to wing. I lost some bark during it's various flights off my lathe. Some cool checking that I really like. I rough sanded the areas where I lost the bark. Felt like it added to it's character.

This is the second half of the board I acquired from the old wine cast . A very simple turning, and hopefully a cherished piece of the wine country for some lucky tourist. SOLD Some cool nail holes and char marks from the cask. Approx 7 1/2" in diameter. Still with a strong scent of wine Bottom with date and signature. Finished with light oil and shellac.