Peter Brown's ShopTime

For the last couple of months, I've been crazed for turning! It's one of those things you just get hooked on. I find the process quite fulfilling. The major benefit is speed. You can finish a project in a day or less. Many of my projects have been small. Pens are a staple for me, but I'm also turning other items. I've turned a goblet, pot handles, door pull, wine bottle stoppers, and even a paper towel holder. Recently though, I've been thinking flat. I have a ton of non-lathe projects to complete as requested by the wife. In fact the longer I go the more there are. So in upcoming months I expect a sudden upturn in flat woodworking. First on the list is a frame for our office map. 32"X50". The woodworking is already complete. I used a half-lap joint with poplar, since it will be painted to match the office. It's construction was quite simple and will give me an easy ramp to get back into flat woodworking again. The pens will always be with me, as I...

Left to right. African Blackwood & Maple (friction polish) Yellowheart & English Walnut CA finish) English Walnut endgrain pen (CA finish) Maple & English walnut (friction polish) Dymondwood (friction polish) Maple & Purpleheart (friction polish) Left to right. Mopani (friction polish) Zebrawood (CA finish) Africian Blackwood & Paduk & Yellowheart (CA finish) Construction grade plywood (CA finish...that sounds weird.)

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...

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, ...