2010-02 Wood Turning

I have recently tried a couple of wood-turning projects with one of my co-workers, Todd.  He has a wood turning lathe and has invited me and another co-worker, Bryan, over to do some projects. 

The first project that I did was a couple of pens.  Small blocks of wood are placed on a mandrel and then shaved down to whatever shape is desired.  They can be thick or thin with multiple tapers, bulb noses and even bands cut around the barrel for decoration.  Each pen takes about an hour to finish, including turning, sanding, buffing assembly and finishing.  Pen kits with the various clips, barrels and ink cartridges are available from the local woodworking stores.

The second project as a little bit more ambitious as I made a bowl.  We went to the woodworkers store to look for wood to turn.  It can be very basic wood or it can be exotic.  I found an 8"x8"x3" block of purple heart wood, which although is exotic for MN, was not nearly as expensive as some of the other pieces (over $150 for an 8x8x3 block).  It does have a purple color to it, so I thought it would be unique. 

When I got to Todd's, I cut off the corners and chucked it up on the lathe.  I then roughed out the round shape before starting to work on the details.  I had a plan in mind for the bowl, but knew that I might not be able to make it exactly as I desired wither due to the wood itself or my own competence. 

First the outside of the bowl is shaped and I was able to follow my plan for the most part, except had trouble on the base and had to change the very bottom of the bowl as I was not able to add a bead around the very bottom.  After shaping, the outside was sanded and smoothed.  The bowl was much more difficult to shape and cut due to the way you are cutting both edge grain and end grain, and end grains don't cut as easily as edge grains.  The way pens are turned, it is all edge grain.

I then flipped the bowl around and began to cut out the interior of the bowl.  I was planning on leaving the interior relatively thick as I knew if I got too thin and then ended up gouging the interior wall, I would not have a finished project.  I was glad I did as I did have some gouging problems with the inside, but had enough material left in the walls to reshape and get rid of the gouges.  Once everything was smoothed out, I sanded it down and applied a sanding sealer and paste wax. 

It is a fun hobby, although it does generate a lot of dust and debris, and you get to make some useful items in a single day on a single piece of equipment.

2010-02 Visiting Mariah at DU

The weekend of February 19-21 was dads and granddads days at Denver University.  I decided to head out and visit Mariah.  I went with Steve, who is the dad of another friend of Mariah's from Eagan, Jordyn.  We headed out on the first flight on Friday morning and made it to Denver about 8:30. 

The kids had classes until 11, so we waited until we heard from them and then headed to campus to pick them up.  We headed out for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (one of Mariah's favorite restaurants when we were in Manila) and then did some shopping picking up some gear for skiing on Saturday and then some necessities and not so necessary things at Target.

We were going to the Denver Pioneers hockey game Friday night.  We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, and barely beat the hockey rush.  Steve and I had tickets down in one of the corners for the game, and the girls left the student section on the other end to come and join us for the the last period and half. 

Saturday we got up and left for Breckenridge ski area about 8:00, but due to a series of nice snowfalls, the roads were slow and packed with people heading for the mountains, and it took us about 3 hours to get there.  We rented our gear in downtown Breckenridge and took the gondola up to the base of the mountain. 

It was beautiful day for skiing, and the crowds dispersed as the afternoon went by, greatly reducing the time in the lift lines.  The long runs were something I really enjoyed compared to the hills here in MN.  We stayed in the same general area the entire time and rode up to the top of the runs on a 6 person chairlift that was about 7,000 feet in length, but covered the distance in a little over 6 minutes. 

After skiing we walked through Breckenridge going into a few of the shops along main street before heading up ot Frisco for dinner with Jordyn's mom's cousin and her 2 sons.  The traffic was much better going back to Denver as it only took about 1-1/2 hours.

Sunday morning we got up to go to breakfast with the girls, and we ended up at Panera after trying to go to a small bistro on Pearl Street and another restaurant near campus that were bothfilled up with long waiting lists. 

Although we only had a few days with the girls, it was fun to go out and see them and spend time with them in their environment.  Mariah is enjoying her first year of college and getting involved in a lot of different activities and making a lot of new friends.  She is going to be registering for spring quarter this week and already making campus housing arrangement for next year.  Time sure flies