Stuck inside of Tempe with the Palmer blues again

OK this is a long delay but it has been a very lack luster trip. Best that way but hey it's always nice to have something interesting to write about. So the trip has been slow, loaded with bad weather avoidance and in doing so I have missed out on some pretty scenery for less rain, no tornados and now I am in a low pressure system that has brought, wait for it, SNOW to northern AZ in May. Yep it's snowing in Flagstaff and I have to rearrange my trip again to avoid the crap on the road. So instead of going north through AZ to UT, MT and Canada I have to detour to Vegas then shoot back east and north.

So far my travels have taken me to VA where I visited with a friend from the Navy, to Knoxville TN to visit with a friend from my childhood, to Baton Rouge, LA for the night and into San Antonio TX for a short visit with other friends from the Navy. It was nice to see everyone and visit place I have never been before but it added time and miles to the trip and now at my oldest brother's house in Tempe AZ (tool retrieval stop) I have to either wait or reroute to do weather avoidance again. Weather avoidance is the option I am exercising so I can get back to it.

Don't get me wrong I love spending time with my brothers but my tools are all packed in the RV, gas prices keep rising and there's not a lot to do in Tempe. I have visited friends here, seen my oldest nephew did some project with my brother but it's still painful to see the stuff packed and not fire up a lathe for this long. So tomorrow I brave the weather, head north west and northeast then straight north if the weather holds long enough. But for tonight it's beer and a free Nova G3 w/35MM stepped jaws then road tomorrow. BTW there is still no better pie in the US than the Julian Pie Co, deep dish Apple but a Country Peddler in Buffalo makes it's way into second place.

The New Adventure Begins

For the past few weeks I have been attempting to tie up loose ends, finish jobs I started, get my affairs in order, all the stuff you do before embarking on a new adventure. Well I suck at all that stuff so I am just going anyway. My 25 lbs of crap is stuffed into a ten lb bag and it is warming up in the driveway now. What started out as a way to beat the heat of AZ last summer has turned into a year of living in a town where I grew up and seeing why it is that I cannot stop here for very long. I did some nice work on the lathe, made a few sales via the internet, gave away a lot of stuff to family and friends but found out that this is not the place for me to work, live or get too comfortable.

My family, my brother Randy was entirely too generous and patient with me filling his basement with sawdust and tools. He actually built me a shop down there out of an old coal cellar room, ran power, cleared stuff out and let me come and go as I liked. His home was always open for me to stay and come and go as I liked. Thanks Bro! you rock. My sister in law Laura and her family. What a bunch. The biggest hearts of anyone I have known here and a lot of fun to boot. Her boys Michael and Brian are awesome and will do great things in their lives. Thanks Sis and the boys. And congratulations to my niece Kelsey for earning her Masters in Education, Spanish Language. Kelsey is the hardest working woman whom I have ever met and does not take life too seriously nor responsibilities lightly. Great things are in her future as she takes on the hardest job in America now, teaching!

My other Brother Jim and his bunch. Thanks to you too for making this stay fun. My nephew Cory and I enjoyed two Marvel Movies and just a bunch of goofing off. I do recommend IRONMAN for all you Marvel nuts out there. Good flick and pretty true to the original except the villians were Arabic and not Chinese. Guess you have to make it more believable for the times. Chris and Ashley, sorry I did not spend as much time with you as you would have liked. It was winter and the tires on the Jeep sucked.

So all of you I am leaving behind but not forever. We will see each other again. Just not for so long and not in winter. Ugh. Snow. Blah.

More later. I will be reviewing more dives and diners along the way. The best pie is still in Jullian, CA but a close second goes to the Country Peddler in West Seneca NY.

A premature posting

Today marks the T-Minus 17 days and counting for the launch of Beastly 1 from the little town of Salamanca NY. I have the route planned, all interested parties along the route have been warned and I am packing up like the Grizwalds on their way to Wallyworld. OK no kids or wife or dead Grandma or dog but a load of wood, a mini lathe and a bunch of FESTOOL. The camera is going too so watch for pictures. There will be many a review of towns, small dive type restaurants, roads and bridges too so this should be fun.

In preparation for this festive jaunt, I have closed up shop, sold off some inventory and will be carrying only the bare essentials. Clothing may have to be optional. I am getting antsy, have sufficiently procrastinated in hope of a good day before panic but everything is moving towards the fated day when I pull up the bumpers, free-up all lines and take her out.

Wish me luck all.

Walnut goes BOOM!

This week I have been painting myself out the door and making my way out of work early enough to get some turning in. Janiece you will be happy to know that your bowl is finished, in the box and will be making it's way to you tomorrow. Now back to the turning part. I got a bunch of walnut from a friend and decided to give it a whirl. It's green, filled with excellent grain of sapwood and heartwood. It shines nicely when sanded and burnished but man it explodes nicely. I had a nice hollow form going, thin walls, nice shape, nice surface and then just one more cut and BOOM! five distinct flying pieces of walnut flew through the shop and made a hell of a mess. So for now no new photos for now but as the 1st of May approaches there will be more sawdust, more bottle stoppers, bowls and boxes and more photos to come.

REVISED: Bowls, boxes and other stuff from the lathe.

I posted a couple of photos earlier of some of my work but did not describe the pieces or place prices on them. This time I am at least going to describe the pieces. Jim Wright and I are partners in this woodworking gig. I learned how to turn about two years ago in Jim's barn/workshop and got hooked. So much so that I find myself tied to the lathe every chance I get. It's an expensive hobby for me as I do not have a place to harvest and store wood before I turn it so I look for deals on kiln dried exotics and turn them almost as fast as I find them... you see my lathe is in my brothers basement. It's a mini lathe with limitations on the size of the objects that I can turn so I am restricted to a 5" clearance, 10" swing and 14" spindle length. Ok this time size does matter.

My work is more stocking stuffer size with the exception of Maple and Myrtle objects because of weight and density of the wood as in the case of my friend Janiece (my pimpmomma) and her splated maple bowl.

Jim and I have different styles of turning and ornamentation is a fantastic feature he adds to his work. Where I rely on the character of the wood alone and have yet to master the green wood turning style of Jim's work. If it sounds like I am a fan of his art... Well yep I am.


So with all that said and a smattering of self pride and promotion... May I present, my stuff!





MYRTLEWOOD Hollow form. This here is the latest piece of work. A Myrtle wood bowl with a hollow form top rim. There are a number of knots running through it, holes where ants got to the blank before turning and unique grain that is typical of Myrtle wood. It is 7" across the widest part, 8" tall and finished with walnut oil and wax.
Price: $125, $10 SH (lower 48)





MYRTLEWOOD Lidded Box: Keeping with the Myrtlewood theme this is a lidded box that is very thin walled, thin walled on the lid too. It measures 2" wide at the base and rim and 6" high. finished in a tung oil and polyurethane blend.
Price: $35, $10 SH (lower 48)

MYRTLEWOOD Vase: From the same blank of Myrtle came this thin walled vase looking thingy. It is 1.5" at the base and the rim, 6.5" tall and very thin and light. Finished with the same tung oil and poly finish.
Price: $45, $10 SH (lower 48)

Now for the maple.

QM1 Hollow form small base:

Quilted Maple #2 Hollow form scored side Quilted Maple #3 Spalting along edge

Quilted Maple Bowls: Maple All three of these bowls came from the same spalted maple blank that Janiece's bowl came from. Each was cut furthest away from the spalting than was the first. Spalting is the dark stuff or a mold that grows along the grain. The darkest parts are the highest concentration of the mold but it made it throughout the blank. I chose different styles for these but they are all medium thickness walled, 7" across, 2.5 -3" high and all finished with tung oil/poly. Because of the spalting none are food safe nor can be finished for use with food.

Prices:

QM#1 $45, $10 SH Sold

QM #2 $60, $10 SH Sold and shipping tomorrow.

QM #3 $60, $10 SH

That's it for now. I got more and plenty of bottle stoppers of various styles that range in size and are of various shapes from globes to chess pieces to wine bottle shaped. drop me a line on the blog and I will contact every one who may have questions or want to see more photos.

HINTS and out right STABS

OK I GET IT! I am falling into the trap that you have all set. I appreciate the interest and am including some of my favorites here. I have a paypal account to make life easy and will pass out the email address for direct contact. here are some of the photos I have done and there are more to come this evening when I get the finish on the latest two.

Enjoy

Collecting vs. Consuming

OK I will admit I do not get the whole collecting things thing. I know many people who passionately collect things and dust them and check their value and go out of their way to get more of these things they collect so passionately. There are train buffs with whom I work. They love the railroad. Collect railroad memorabilia including lanterns, dinnerware, uniforms or items from uniforms, menues, timetables, coffee cups, badges, you name it. There are web chat rooms dedicated to their passion where they virtually gather to talk about what they have, what they want, what they saw that someone else has, criticize the collections, values placed on items in the collections, brag about their collections and in some cases trade pieces of their collections with others who have collections. It's probably the same with just about any other collector and any other collections but I have first hand experience with these folks right now.

Now technically you could probably call me a collector as well as I have a passion for tools. Specifically woodworking tools but they are useable and not just collecting house dust. Sawdust is another matter all together. I see myself as more of a consumer. I buy things I want to use. I use them until they are no longer useable and then I get another one just or just about like the last one.

There are some things that may have been viewed as collection items. I have this thing for old hand tools. Planes, spokeshaves, drawknives and other such archaic items. I buy them from garage sales, restore them and then use them. Why buy old? Well they were just made better for the most part. A Stanley (Bailey) bench plane from 1943 is an excellent tool and you can get one for a couple of bucks. A comparable modern tool would cost you an arm and a leg and is based on the design of that 1943 model I spoke of.

Now there is a minor rub to all this tool gathering... I am going on the road again in my 21 foot RV this summer. Imagine packing a whole shop load of tools in with your socks and towels. This presents a problem. As a consumer I should be able to leave a trail of tools along the way but that has presented problems too. My brother in AZ was victim of the first deposit of tools. Yep I left my shopsmith in his garage along with a load of FESTOOL I bought for him. Not a good solution. First off I miss the shopsmith. Second he is stuck parking in the driveway vice garage.

As I leave NY I will have to find a way to stuff my mini-lathe, grinder, FESTOOL, construction tools, many turning blanks, finished products, and other stuff I will probably not be able to live without into the RV. HMMMMM maybe I will disassemble the router table.