Oh Yes the Handyman Can!

As I stated in a previous post, my lathe has been out of commission since July. After many phone calls and some serious internet surfing I finally got the parts that I needed to fix my lathe! So I took last Saturday morning to repair my lathe and at the same time nuture my handyman skills. After an hour of greasing, tapping, loosening and tightening all the parts that were broken were fixed! Now normally I would be satisfied with a feat of this magnitude, but I have been without my lathe for two and a half months...Something needed to be made! As I showed in a previous post, my children asked me at the beginning of the summer to make them wands to feed their Harry Potter crazed imaginations. Unfortunately, upon returning from our vacation to grandma and grandpa's house, my youngest daughter discovered that she had lost her wand. She was distraught to say the least. So, my first assignment was to make for her a new wand. It had to be better than the original. So I chose a piece of cherry wood. It had to be different and it had to scream totally awesome! And then I alighted on a brilliant idea. Over the summer my daughters had taken to carrying purses around with them everywhere they went. So I created something any young lady on the go should have. A purse sized wand. Something she could slip in her purse and take out when she needed it.  And so I prepared the wood, rough turned the blank and then stopped. stared. and waited. I started the rpm's turning. Marked the wood with my pencil and placed the skew chisel gently on the tool rest. Below is what I created.

Sanded, finished, polished and presented to my smiling daughter. She was thrilled to have a new wand. Then the moment I hadn't thought of...will it fit in her purse?Fortunately it did and she carries it with her all over the place (except school).

On another plane of thought, I wanted to share an interesting tip I stumbled upon and finally got brave enough to try. Whenever I cut the blanks for my pens and spindles I always have a small leftover piece that I cannot use. This summer I decided to try something I had read in a magazine. I took my small left overs and recycled them. Using a marine epoxy I glued them together to create a mish-mashed pen blank. This allowed me to use the left over blanks that were piling up and create something unique. Below are a couple of the blanks I created. I will be finishing them soon (when I am not so busy).

 I also thought I would post a picture of a couple of handles I created for tools I had in the shop. The smaller one if for my metal file. The longer one is waiting for inspiration. Both are made of Alaskan Yellow Cedar.



I hope you enjoy this post. I know I enjoyed making these things.