Change of Plan

We had made plans to jump in the car and head off out this weekend, hoping to do some walking. Sadly, this was not to be thanks to the weather. Rain, and damp cold doesn’t do much for our enthusiasm. What’s the point when the scenery is invisible behind the clouds and mist?

Undeterred, I took myself off out to the shed for the day. I have a load of ideas to try out thanks to folks on the Woodchuckers Facebook group. Unfortunately my supplies of suitable timber are rather sparse, so most will have to sit on the back burner for the time being.
I do have quite a lot of timber, but it’s not in sizes I can use for the plans I have. I spent the day, therefore, preparing different blanks for future use. Now the prep work has been done, the timber just needs mounted in the chuck or between centres and can be started to shape straight away.
In an effort to test the £5 band saw, I cut a small circle from a log and mounted it up. This became a bowl, roughly 3½” in diameter and 2½” deep. The shape was based on bowls we had when I worked in the pub, for serving up warm coated peanuts.

The thickness is a fairly uniform 3mm.

Inside there is a lip before plunging down to the base.

I managed to flatten the bottom of this one without too much trouble.
The finish is Chestnuts cellulose sanding sealer, cut back between coats with 00 wire wool.

As well as the wood-work, I managed a small piece of metal-work. The AWVSL comes with a single tool rest, which can make it difficult to reach some smaller pieces. I already made a very small tool rest from 25mm mild steel bar. That one has proven invaluable for some work, but was a bit small for others.
I decided I needed a rest around 6″ long.

I bolted through the 2 pieces before cutting the head of the bolt off and grinding smooth. The rest was then sanded smooth and painted with Rustoleum satin black enamel.

Hopefully Summer will be restored next week.