My First Pen

I've wanted to try a pen since I got my lathe.  I got a kit and made this beauty in less than an hour.  This was pretty easy to make but I think there's an art in making them comfortable to use.  This one is definately too fat at the tip and its not very nice to write with, but it looks ok.  I guess that's what matters when posting pictures.

Better Pics of the Bentwood Rings

I am hacking Chad's blog (Hi there...its Miranda!!!) to add some better photos of his rings.  Now, I am NOT a professional photographer and I will add to my defense that my camera is seriously not functioning properly....oh and I must add that taking pics indoors when it super gloomy outside does not make for fantastic lighting.  Anyhooooo, I thought I would show some of Chad's rings in a different setting.  You know, other than from his I-phone and having the rings posing on a paper towel.  LOL!!!! 
Maybe he can get a sale on one of these babies????

um yes, that is our floor...don't mind the crumbs!!!

More Bentwood Rings

I"m getting a little better at making these bentwood rings.  Here's a couple more I finished today.  I think I'm going to try and start selling them.  Any takers??

Mud Room with coat hooks

Our new mud room is now usable with the addition of coat hooks.

Well that didn't take long.

Mud Room Part 1, Almost Done

Minus my charging station and a few coat hooks, I'm calling this side of the mud room complete.  Sorry for the bad pictures.  The lighting in this room is terrible.

The steel outlet cover is temporary.

Drew's revenge

I made this for Drew to even the odds during playtime with his big sisters.  It's the first thing I made on my new lathe.

I love Harbor Freight

For a while I didn't really care about not having a lathe.  With some of the things I've been doing recently a lathe would be nice.  I started doing some digging and of course checked Harbor Freight for their options.  They happened to have this little beauty for only $160 after using my coupon.  It got almost 5 stars on all the reviews and seems like a solid little machine.  This lathe looks exactly like the one Grizzly sells for $235.


http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-x-18-Bench-Top-Wood-Lathe/H8259

As I spend more time at Harbor Freight I'm starting to realize that the crap they sell is often clearly from the same factory as other tools with a different paint job and much higher price.  Here's a ridiculous example.  This Jet lathe at Woodcraft is $900:
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2002046/23311/JET-12-Variable-Speed-Wood-Lathe-Model-JWL1236.aspx
Compare the picture of this to the $250 model at Harbor Freight:
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-x-33-3-8-eighth-inch-wood-lathe-with-reversible-head-34706.html
They are almost identical, and it's quite clear they at least came from the same blueprint.  I've also read that if you need a new part for the Harbor Freight version you can order from Jet and it fits perfect.

Anyway, here's my new toy.

Wood Rings

I'm not sure why, but I'm having a really fun time making these wooden rings.  Maybe it's because people sell them on Etsy for $80 bucks a pop, maybe it's cause the finish turned out really good, or maybe it's because Miranda seems to actually like them.  I'm still practicing but I'm happy with how these first few turned out.

They are made by bending wood around some sort of jig, not by drilling a hole in a piece of wood.  On the outside you can't even see the seam.  At this point the inside is bare wood.  I'm still trying to find a method to easily finish the inside.

Wooden Toy Trebuchet

Here's a trebuchet I built for my nephew.  Fortunately for my sister's windows, this one is fairly weak.  It can throw a cough drop about 15 feet.  This was made from an old table leaf that was given to me by a family friend.

Mud Room Part 1

We have lots of plans for our mud room, but we're starting with a simple bead board wall with a shelf and some hooks.  We are currently in the 'trust me I know what I'm doing phase.'  It's pretty ugly as I had to make a few holes to run electic.  I added a wall outlet then another outlet for a charging station.  I only got shocked once and all the outlets work so I'm calling that a win.  So far the charging station design is what you see, a hole in the wall.  I'm hoping my creativeness kicks in so I can finish that one....

That odd shaped hole in the lower half of the wall was made so I could swing a hammer to install the gang box.  I think that if you buy one of those battery powered hammers you should lose your man card, but it sure would have come in handy today.

 I'm sure this breaks a few electric codes, but it works.

I think writing on a vertical surface messes with Avery's sense of direction.  Every number was written backwards, except the zero.

I let the kids write on the wall before covering it.  I told them they could do anything they wanted BELOW the pencil line.  Notice how the bunny ears test the boundaries.