Life Inside The Pen

I mentioned, a little while back, that I had been given some of my uncles tools and stuff. One of the tools was a Jet mini lathe. They're a neat little tool for a hobbyist. Not big enough to turn anything large, like table legs, but perfect for small artsy fartsy projects. I have not run a wood turning lathe since junior high school, but simple turning is fairly intuitive, so I thought I'd give it a shot. He had been making pens and mechanical pencils and there was a box of wood blanks that he had cut for future projects. So I grabbed a pair and drilled them through the center, glued in the brass tubes that are supplied in the kits, of which there were about 10 or 15 in the box, and put them on the mandril. I don't know what species of wood I chose, but it has a nice reddish hue and it smelled real nice as I was cutting it down. Once I got it close to finished size, I sanded it and then steel wooled it in the running lathe. I dabbed on some shellac and rubbed it in, again with the machine turned on. The remaining pieces of the pen were pressed in and, Voila!!, one functioning ball point pen, ready for the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. I think it came out pretty nice for my first try. Heck, that was so much fun that I went down to the shop and whipped out another one. I got fancy this time and made the two parts barrel shaped. The concentric rings on each end were done with a piece of wire, held against the spinning parts in the lathe. It burned in the rings in a few seconds. Cool, huh?

Today, I knocked out this cabinet for the space above the refrigerator. To call it a cabinet is a bit much. It is just a shelf with a face frame. It took about an hour to build. It is a little short, but it is wide and deep so we can stash a lot of stuff in it, that will never see the light of day again. It, too, will get doors later on.

Building Boxes

I finished the first of the cabinets today. This one has pull out shelves. I will put them in all of the lower units. I hate getting down on my knees to search for a particular pot or pan, so this will make life easier. My knees, especially the right, are a bit worn out. All of the shelves and drawer interiors are covered with Formica. It makes a nice finished surface. I will wait until all of the cabinets are built and installed before I build the doors and drawer faces. That way I can set up the machines, cut all the pieces and assemble them all at once, rather than making them willy nilly, one or two at a time. The lower doors will be raised panel style. The uppers will have glass panels, much like the pantry door.

The Chairman

The little wall desk, that I built a last month, needed a place to sit, so I knocked out this little chair/stepladder the other day. It was, supposedly, invented by Benjamin Franklin. I found a set of plans online. Since Wifey is, somewhat, vertically challenged, it will come in handy and we can get rid of the aluminum stepladder, that takes up valuable room in the pantry.

Not All Gifts Are Free

It just seems that the reality of life and aging keeps poking its ugly head up. My uncle Parker has been in a nursing home for about a year now and will not be coming home. He had become a woodworker in his retirement. I mentioned to his son, my cousin, that when the time came to have a garage sale, to be sure to notify me as I would like to have first shot at some of his tools. He told me, that after some thought, that I could come and take as much or as little as I wanted, So, last weekend I hitched up the trailer, which I acquired as a result of my brother's passing, and headed south to San Diego. I picked up a small lathe, a bandsaw, a table saw, a 12 inch disc sander, a router (that makes 6 or 7 of them), a palm sander, some miscellaneous hand tools and supplies and a bunch of nice burl and pieces of various exotic woods. I will try to think of him every time I use one of them. He is a member of the Greatest Generation. He served aboard the USS Intrepid, a carrier, and was involved in a number of battles in the Pacific. They were hit by a kamikaze plane and he still has several pieces of the plane. He married my Aunt, raised two kids, lost his wife and daughter too soon and, from all evidence, lived a typical, hard working life that was the hallmark of his generation. There is so much more that I could write, but I don't want to make this an obituary. He is still with us, though his memory is very foggy. It seems such a shame that a person so often lives, loves, does the best that he can and looses it all in the end. I guess the blessing is, that he doesn't miss what he cannot remember. Still seems like a big gyp.

Havin' A Blast

I sandblasted the glass today. Not without some drama. First, my compressor conked out a few weeks ago. I got real lucky and found a new pump on Craigslist for 55 bucks. Its a 3 cylinder 2 stage unit, brand new Speedair. It probably retailed for 300 dollars. I installed it and it worked great. Then, the other day, the pressure switch went south. So, I treked down to Grainger yesterday and picked up a new one. All went well, so it's finally time to blast. The entire thing took about 15 minutes. After I peeled off the foil tape and wiped it down, I stuck it in the door for a look see. Not too bad.

I just about finished this pantry door today. The upper part will get a frosted glass window. I will try to frost it myself with my sandblaster and some tape to mask off the word, "PANTRY". After some research, it seems HVAC foil tape works well as a sandblast resist. Stay tuned for a follow up tutorial on glass frosting or on how to ruin a 40 dollar pane of glass. You can see the old cabinets to the left and where I have removed some of the tile. They are getting pretty shabby and it will be a relief to finally haul the last of it to the landfill. The next phase will probably be the removal of this cabinet and building the new one up to the stove. Once the old one is out, I can install the drywall on the outside of the pantry and get it all buttoned up. We will then be faced with buying a new range. That will be the most expensive part of the remodel, unless I screw up and burn the house down.