Purple!

I've resisted posting this stuff until now because these wands were gifts for friends and family. I couldn't let on that I was workin' the purple wood. That would've been embarrassing. So anyway, now it's safe to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. So here's some of what I've been doing.

This is the wand I made for my brother, Anthony. It's a pretty simple design, made out of purpleheart. Right now it looks more like puceheart though, right? Time to fix that.

This is after 10 minutes in the oven at 300º.

At 20 minutes you can really see the color coming out.

After 30 minutes, it's really a rich, even purple color. Just have to let it cool down now.

Under the bench light, you can really see just how purple it gets. Crazy, right? This is no stain, just heat.

Under the lights on the gray background. Pretty, no?

Here's the other one I made for our friend Liz:

This one I actually did with a heat gun instead of the oven. Not sure which method I prefer, but the oven certainly takes less effort on my part. I kind of like the varied color along the wand that the heat gun does, though. We'll see what I do for the next one, I guess.

Okay, that's it for now. Thanks for reading!

Index Your Lathe

You don't even know what that means, right? You shouldn't. You should see the sun and have friends and all the nice stuff. That's the stuff I gave up so I can learn the depths of lathe-related knowledge. I'm like the Raistlin Majere of woodworking.

Anyway, what does it mean to index a lathe? The index is just a way for you to measure the rotation of your lathe. It would generally be measure in degrees, but it can be marked in different ways. Some lathes come pre-indexed, which is very nice. Here's what I did with my mini-lathe:

I added a pointer to the front, made of some brass scrap I had laying around.

I also took a measuring tape and measured the exact circumference of the hand wheel (261mm) and then divided that into three and 4 to get my various measurements. I did a split into quarters (0, 90, 180 and 270) and also one into thirds (0, 120, 240) since I figure that will be all I feel like dealing with for a very long time.


What I did was to wrap some masking tape onto the wheel, then marked it with a pencil. I used a protractor and the tape again to make sure I wasn't crazy. Once I was satisfied, I took my Dremel (Actually a Craftsman rotary tool fitted with Dremel brand bits) with the engraving ball on it and engraved the marks into the metal. This way, even though I'll be handling the wheel a lot, I'm not going to lose my marks. I may go back and sharpen them up at some point, or add more, but I at least have a solid baseline for it.

Here's what I did with it as a first project:

First thing was to turn a simple wand design on the big lathe.

Then I used the tool rest, the index and a pencil to mark lines along the length of the parts to be spiraled. I used a ruler and my measuring tape to mark both the circumferential circles and the diagonals. Spirals take a lot more layout time and energy to do properly than simple turned pieces, but they're awesome.

I took a microplane rasp and some various small round files to the diagonal lines, to start my grooves.

You pretty much just keep going that way until you get the depth you want.

Unfortunately, that's where it all ends, at least for me. I'm not satisfied with my sanding options, so I haven't really done much else. I'm going to keep working on it, for sure, and see if maybe a sharp chisel is my solution. I don't know, but I'll keep working and get back to you. There's no way this little wooden bastard is going to beat me, though. I'll get it.

Next Project?

I actually referenced this site a lot when I was building my own armor, but now I think I have the facilities, tools, patience, and maybe just enough budget to make something fancier happen. But anyway, here are the pictures:

Click the link to see more: kropserkel.com

These guys are amazingly skilled and detailed. Someday, I hope to be half as good at this as they are.

More Things!

I've been doing a lot in the shop lately, and wanted to keep you all informed. For one, I've got more wands up on Etsy, which is cool. Here's the link to the shop: Septimus' Emporium of Handcrafted Geekery

And here are some pics of what I've been up to:

That's a Tormek T-7 wet sharpening system. It's a beast. I suck really hard at free hand sharpening and the Tormek uses a collection of jigs to make things as easy and repeatable as possible. It has completely revolutionized my turning. Woods that frustrated me to no end before now turn easily. Shapes I couldn't accomplish are now possible. Sharp tools really do make all the difference and a few minutes on the Tormek keeps everything in the shop crazy sharp. It's a big investment, but has been absolutely worth it for me. And this is without even sharpening knives and scissors and all the rest. That will come soon enough, I'm sure.

So here are my tiny brooms. Jenna suggested I make some tiny brooms for Christmas ornaments for friends, and I was originally struggling with them, as you can see. None of them really made me happy.

However, the fourth time was the charm on these. I'm super pleased with it and I learned enough to be able to do more of them, for one, and also to be able to use the same technique on full-size brooms, which I think I'll be trying before too long.

Also, I started trying some face turning. Or hollow form turning. I'm still fuzzy on the terminology, but I'm making cup shaped things. This is how they start. Kind of a rough cylinder.

Then we get to hollowing.

Then you kinda rough shape a goblet thingy out of it, I guess.

And then you take pretty pictures. See how easy that was?


And of course, plenty more wands. But everything I've made is on the Etsy site, so you've already seen it. So there you go! That's what I've been up to recently. So much crafting, it makes your head spin.

Etsy Listings

New Etsy listings are up!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89727754/wand-poplar-9-78-with-satin-finish

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89727452/wand-alder-10-with-satin-finish

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89721639/wand-lignum-vitae-10-18-natural-finish