Peter Brown's ShopTime

As I mentioned my current Lathe was free. As in, I didn't pay anything for it. As such anything that I get for its sale will be a profit. I'm hopefully selling it tonight. I have been saving. (Truth be told I got some side work and most of my 'savings' came from 4 hours of computer work) Regardless I'm still about $70 short of buying a new lathe. This is the one I've got my eye on.. For the price the is one of the most feature packed Mini Lathes. Lots of reviews have come out for this unit. Many claimed that when they were first released (2006) they are prone to trouble. Now you scarcely hear that. Considering that this will be my first new stationary tool purchase, I'm not too worried. All my power tools are prone to troubles. What's one more? For me, since I don't need the 30" between centers that my current lathe offers, smaller is better. In addition it boasts a 12" swing (9 1/2 over the tool rest) . My current is 9", or like 7...

Woodworking is, without a doubt, my favorite hobby now. I started out getting hooked on this hobby, from making a small, “bookshelf toy shelf living room space saver thing”. When I first completed it, I was like a new dad. “COME SEE MY BOOKCASE! See, how it’s square? See the shelf and how level it is!? Did you notice those nice clean butt joints?” About a week later someone said to me, “Welcome to the craft. Enjoy it. And after a while, you’ll look back at your first project with disgust.” “Oh, Okay. Thanks for the advice. I’m sure that applies to you, but I’m perfect. Sorry you didn’t get the memo.” “That’s absurd,” I thought. How could I ever see anything but perfection in this? Well… he’s was right. I’ve only been woodworking for about 9 months, and I find that that this ‘perfect’ bookshelf is an unrelenting thumb in my eye whenever I come home. Every time I l...

How many lathe jokes are there on the planet? Not many. As such my humor on the subject falls a bit off center. I try to turn it round to something amusing, but I'm left spinning out more mediocre fair. Forgive me. I needed to get that out of my system. I suppose, it turned out...okay. When it comes to woodworking, I've been diverted. An interesting turn of events. The lathe. With the lathe I have stopped working will all my other tools. They don't even exist except to serve the lathe. I bought a drill press, just so I could make pens. There is something so fun about it, one part bliss, three parts bane. My lathe was free. With my free lathe I had to purchase $250 dollars worth of 'essentials' which blew my mad money to kingdom come. If you know anything about turning, the spending never levels off. So in order to keep from spending another $200 I didn't have, I decided to spend $60 I didn't have instead on pen making stuff. I also bought $60 worth of pen ki...

Woodworking is, without a doubt, my favorite hobby now. I started out getting hooked on this hobby, from making a small, "bookshelf toy shelf living room space saver thing". When I first completed it, I was like a new dad. "COME SEE MY BOOKCASE! See, how it's square? See the shelf and how level it is!? Did you notice those nice clean butt joints?" About a week later someone said to me, "Welcome to the craft. Enjoy it. And after a while, you'll look back at your first project with disgust." "Oh, Okay. Thanks for the advice. I'm sure that applies to you, but I'm perfect. Sorry you didn't get the memo." "That's absurd," I thought. How could I ever see anything but perfection in this? Well... he's was right. I've only been woodworking for about 9 months, and I find that that this 'perfect' bookshelf is an unrelenting thumb in my eye whenever I come home. Every time I look at it, I get ill. Its funny, ...

March 2008 Dear Diary, Today my wife asked me to build her something. A toy shelf out of wood. I haven't done anything like that since I was a kid, and back then it was impolite to say, "Wow? Did you make that? Kid...that looks like garbage." I'm not even sure where to start. I have a workbench, but I hadn't actually thought of using it for anything. I hope my tools don't get freaked out by actually having to cut things. "Work? What's up with that? I though we were just for show!" Dear Diary, The toy shelf turned out okay. The children don't know what it's for and keep sleeping on the shelf like a set of junior bunk beds. What if it falls apart? That would be embarrassing trip to the hospital. "So, Mr. Brown...not only did you maim your daughters with your poor woodworking skills, but as I can see from this chunk of wood protruding from your eldest child's arm...you also need to work on more uniform staining application." Ap...

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. Somehow I have unknowingly allowed myself to be ensnared in the firm grip of this relativity low profile god. What many folks would dismiss as coincidence, I see as evidence to the ethereal hand of Oops. Oops is a very demanding god Oops demands regular sacrifices of nearly all of my projects. Sometimes, he only wants a small thing, like a striped screw head, or stray paint drip on an otherwise clean job. Other times my reverence is tested with something of a slightly larger scale. As I noted in an earlier post, Oops was apparently drowning in wistful mela...

There is something appealing about free. Free. Something for nothing. “You want it? It’s yours.” “What’s the cost?” “No cost. Nothing. It’s free. Just take it.” I should have known better. There is nothing quite as expensive as free. Two weekends ago I got a deal. A real honest to goodness bargain. As I was browsing through Craigslist looking for inexpensive power tools to feed my new addiction, I found this post: “Free Vintage Sears Lathe” Needless to say I mashed out a frantic email to aforementioned giver of free tools letting them know how much I wanted it. “I will come and pick it up TODAY. no questions asked.” Within three minutes of the ad appearing online, I had a phone call from the owner letting me know where to pick it up. For those not in “the know” a lathe has one purpose. To take a block of material, wood in this case, and spin it at near dangerous speeds. My lathe spins at four speed...