Peter Brown's ShopTime

Even with the shear number of folks selling woodworking items on Ebay, I still have managed to sell more pens via Ebay in the past 2 months then I ever did from a year of being in a shop. Plus I get more for each item while it cost the end user less! All this because I don't have to split my sales with a shop, or deal with the possible product loss or poor product placement. Just when I thought Ebay was becoming irreverent, it goes and surprises me.

I love the colors on both of these, for different reasons. Yellowheart SOLD is just so happy. It's odd to see such a bright yellow in nature and I have trouble not being awed by it. CA finish. The second is a Redwood Burl. SOLD A beautiful pen, with loads of figure and a grain. CA finish.

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!

The guy I sold my shells and hardware to, recently sent me pictures of his completed kit. He did an amazing job!! There was a small pang of regret when I saw them all decked out in their new black sparkle glory but the truth is, I would never have played them. Plus he did an outstanding job, and I wasn't fairing anywhere near as well as that! He should get a ton of use out of them now, and loads of pride to boot! Before: And after: close up on the snare: Here's a link to the Photostream with more shots. Well done Gabriel!

I've just started following Mike Mahoney's Blog . I found this picture. I'm no longer concerned with the mess around my lathe...

I finally decided to pull the trigger. I've had my dust collector for almost two years but haven't hooked it up to anything. It was just a glorified vacuum. So it was a clumsy build, but I hope to refine it as I go... Where I started I purchased 40 feet of 4" PVC. I did the rough cuts with a Japanese pull saw, but cleaned up the end with my band saw. I was short some fittings, but I wanted to complete a run with what I had on hand. Took me quite a while to get a layout I liked. All the way down to the lathe. Again, this was an "Add, Remove, Reconfigure" process. Total time for one run and my RAS was about 4 hours. Now I know what additional fixtures I need and how to complete the second and third runs. I've still have quite a bit PVC left...

Buckeye Burl SOLD on Elegant Sierra with Mesa theme. That stuff is a PAIN to turn. Very soft and unstable. I lost 3 blanks (even with my skew honed on the WS to 4000 grit) Finally nailed the fourth one. 12 or so coats of CA Spalted Maple SOLD (has some cool green streaks) Elegant Sierra with Mesa theme. CA finish. Stuff was super soft and I ended up just soaking it in with CA Evey few days. Came out beautifully!