Further February Updates

We spent the  weekend before last with friends from Glen Rock visiting us here in Ashfield. We spent last Sunday evening visiting with cousins, some of whom I had not seen for thirty years. Its nice to keep in touch with folks who matter to you and get back in touch with family.


As for projects the two projects mentioned in a prior post: About three weeks ago I went with Jean when she picked out fabric for thermal shades for our 90" inch wide, cold as the dickens, north facing, kitchen window. While there, I was struck by a very pretty fabric combining flowers and wading birds. I bought a yard and built a stretcher for it and mounted about half a yard's worth. Here is an incomplete picture of it.

 I have been trying to make a frame for it, but no project goes smoothly. I decided on a pattern for the frame and had to buy new wood for it since I did not have the right thickness in the right wood. Then I found I would have to double up on the wood any way. Then I found I didn't have right router bit for the shapes I was interested in so I made the molding on one edge using a manual plane. This exerted enough pressure on a tendon sheath in my finger to cause a temporary halt to further planing. Fine, I'll use my shaper. So now I find I need to replace the shaper motor (1/3 HP 1725 rpm and  has a dead capacitor and not enough horsepower any way). Fine, I have a spare that has 1/2 HP. Fine, rewire this replacement motor so it turns the right way and can reverse if needed and then discover it cannot be made to fit the mounting. That's okay, I have another 1/2 motor that will fit. Fine, rewire this motor to get it to turn the right way and just forget about putting a reversing switch on it. Mount it. Fits very well. Oops pulley from old motor won't come off and now I see it won't fit new motor any way. Oops new pulley I bought is 1" too small. Further thought and research says I really need a 3450 rpm, 1HP not 1725 rpm motor anyway.  Good news, just got one on Ebay 5 minutes ago. Now I just have to drive out and pick it up, wire it and install it.  In the mean time I used a plane and some carving tools to make a mockup of a section of my frame design and decided I didn't like it. Back to the drawing board.


The next project is a pair of night stands. This requires using my lathe, whose motor I recently got to work by fiddling with its capacitor cut out switch, but still will need some more attention soon. I have only just begun practicing turning spindles on the lathe which is unfortunate since my design will require me to make eight spindle legs. Here are two leg patterns I sketched. I have decided to use the one on the right. Wish me luck.