Republic of Mesa

I was contacted a couple weeks back by a reporter for the Arizona Republic. They had heard about the inclusion of one of my pieces in the Tohono Chul Park "Mesquite" exhibit and wanted to do a story on me and the wood. The piece they're most interested in was made out of wood sourced from Boyce Thompson Arboretum. I was expecting the reporter this Thursday so I've been working on cleaning and organizing the shop off and on for the past 10 or so days. To my surprise the reporter showed up last Thursday, right in the middle of the cleaning process. In fact the shop looked worse than normal as I had to tear it apart and make it worse before I could make it better. Thankfully he didn't have a photographer with him, that happens tomorrow. We did the interview anyway with me apologizing profusely multiple times for the state of my shop.

Now the shop is in a half decent state, there's even room to walk completely around the lathe without needing to step on or over half logs or roughed out bowls. I also took some time to prep some bowl blanks for the photo session. The reporter indicated that they prefer action shots so I'm planning to send some shavings flying tomorrow evening.

It looks like the article is currently scheduled to be published on May 16th.

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Location:Mesa,United States

Pop quiz

What is it?













Another view.













The answer. Yes, I have dust collection plumbed to my bandsaw. There are (2) 4" ports, one in the upper right just below the table; the other in the lower right behind all the blockage. But - I hardly ever (ok, never) have it running while I'm cutting. Based on what I found tonight I probably need to start using it.












I also opted to empty the bag on my dust collector. It was much fuller than I expected it to be. I normally only empty it about once a year and it's usually only about half full. I can usually get away with emptying it infrequently because I use a trash can lid that separates the heavier material out meaning that only a very small portion of the dust ends up in the bag. The vast majority ends up in a 35 gallon metal trash can which is much easier to empty.

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Day 336: Cutting and cleaning

It's Tuesday so that means I cleaned the shop tonight, including pulling out the tablesaw and air compressor and vacuuming the shavings from behind them.  Close to 35 gallons in shavings off the floor and around the lathe.  I then had a shop visitor. 

A fellow turner and club member pulled me aside on Saturday at the club meeting and said he was having issues sharpening and making a clean cut down through the bottom of a bowl and wanted some help.  He came over tonight and we reground one of his gouges to a more suitable profile and started working on a bowl.  I roughed out the outside and then Steve and I took turns roughing the inside, practicing the arcing motion from the rim down into the middle of the bowl.  It's a fairly complex motion,  swinging the gouge across the lathe bed while simultaneously twisting the gouge and pushing it towards the center of rotation.  It's not something that comes naturally but it can be learned and practiced through repitition.

Of course with roughing that bowl we made a mess on the floor and around my lathe so I spent another few minutes after he left sweeping up and vacuuming again.  A small price to pay for helping a friend and fellow turner.