Peter Brown's ShopTime

Okay here is a super simple spindle project! It literally took me 15 minutes from roughing to finishing with taking pictures. The wife is a fan and was actually fun. First. Picked a block of walnut. 2x2x7. Marked the ends for center Mounted on my Rikon Next roughed it to round Shaping. Here I tried to minic the simple curves I'd seen on one of these in a catalog. Very easy flowing curves. Refined and sanded. Wasn't sure about sanding after grooving. I might skip this next time. Started the grooves on one side with a 1/4 spindle gouge. This is my one regret. I should have gone deeper and made the peaks sharper. The next one will totally be a more aggressive valley mountain look. Still it came out pretty good. Having sharper peaks might also help with consistency. As would practice! Friction polish. Seems almost silly seeing as it will soon stink of dirty feet... Parting cuts and a horrible glare. Sorry! finished piece. This was in use about 5 minutes after coming inside. Again. ...

Ramping up inventory for the 2011 graduation rush! Left to right: Acrylic, Redwood burl, Rosewood, Brazilian Cherry, Kingwood, Mesquite, Mesquite & Maple. All with a CA finish

I last month I roughed out a couple of green bowl blanks from a Pepperwood log. I was wondering why it was called that... Not anymore. The shop has had a hint of fresh ground pepper for three weeks now. I really hope it stays with the bowls. Its quite unique!

From Left to right: Zebrawood, Redheart, Redwood burl,Lignum Vitae, Zebrawood, Redwood burl. All with a CA finish

Completed! So I spent about 2 hours with my new addition last Friday: I took a LONG time to reestablish the bevel on the three 220 plane irons. Since I'm a glutton for punishment I also sharpen my 4 bench chisels and the iron on my Jack plane. All of these bevels were off severely. Now I can cut paper and the tip of my thumb (oops! and ouch!!) Right when I finished that the mailman brought a package with height adjustment screw and frog (the parts I was missing) So I put together a plane and test out my labor. Thin enough? This is fun... It made short work of the wild grain on the walnut and after a bit of adjustment got it pulling nice thin shavings. I would call the feel equivalent to 320 grit paper. Which I have to say BLOWS MY MIND. Anyway. I call this a success. I will totally be looking for frogs for the other two, seems a shame not to complete them after the first works so well.

I picked up three Stanley 220 block planes on craigslist. Turns out they were missing some parts, so my stellar deal isn't so stellar but I think I still did okay. Before they are usable I have some clean up to do. So I spent 4 hours in the garage last night cleaning up the planes and lapping the soles by hand. Really made me appreciate the bargain box of Kingspor sandpaper I got. The amount of sandpaper I consumed was staggering. Even with stopping every 10 minutes to blow out the filings with compressed air. Okay.. pictures. This was the best looking of the three and a good place to start. 100 grit & 150 grit on either side of an old glass shelf When I realized how long this was going to take 2 - 3 hours later( I also too the opportunity to flatten the backs of my chisels too. Something that I'd never done) I started at 100, then polished to 240 but didn't get a shot of that. Plane iron time... These things are awkward to hold... My kludge: double stick turners tape c...

I sell bottle stoppers in a shop in Healdsburg Ca. The shop is called Noble Designs . Selling bottle stoppers in the wine country is a very competitive enterprise. Every shop here has at least one type of stoppers, if not two to three. So I was quite thankful to have the opportunity. Regardless some months are good and others are silent. I call once a month and ask, "So... need any more stoppers?" "Sorry no sales" That's how it's been since November and I was beginning to get discouraged. Then all of the sudden I get a call last week: "We sold almost half of your stoppers! Come restock us!" I suppose that's tourist season for you. Now I need to re-order all my supplies and start cranking these out again. I hope this run last for a while!