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Jul 1, 2012

Spalted beech playing card case


Jul 1, 2012

Over the last couple of weekends I have made myself a wooden case for a deck of playing cards


Jul 1, 2012


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Jan 14, 2012

CraftSuppliesUSA artist’s sketch pencil


Jan 14, 2012

Previously I wrote about having made an oak book stand for my wife’s Christmas present. In addition to that I also decided to make her an artists sketch pencil. 


Jan 14, 2012


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Aug 29, 2011

Custom Headphones – Part 3: Headband and finish


Aug 29, 2011

I mentioned in the first part on design that I had guessed that the metal in metal coat hangers might be just flexible enough to form to a shape I want, and just stiff enough to provide some springy tension. It was this that formed the basis for my headband design.


Aug 29, 2011


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Aug 28, 2011

Custom headphones – Part 2: Speaker housing


Aug 28, 2011

Following on from my first post on the design of my custom headphones, in this part I walk through the construction of the speaker housing. The most obvious place to start construction is in the piece that will hold the speakers.


Aug 28, 2011


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Aug 21, 2011

Custom headphones – Part 1: Design


Aug 21, 2011

I spend a fair amount of time at work using video conferencing software. However, I have pretty big ears, and I find they get pressed against my head by the headset. After an hour or so it can be a little uncomfortable.

I hit upon the idea of making a custom pair of headphones.


Aug 21, 2011


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Jul 31, 2011

Mobile phone stand


Jul 31, 2011

I spend a lot of time on trains at the moment. My commute is insanely long, and the way I cope with this is listening to podcasts, and more recently, watching video podcasts. I particularly like This Week in Tech, and the generally very amusing NSFW show.


Jul 31, 2011


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Jul 24, 2011

Headphone stand


Jul 24, 2011

I always look for any excuse to get some nice wooden objects into my daily life, something about the natural material, in particular when it’s something I’ve made, that I love to have around.


Jul 24, 2011


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Jul 17, 2011

Paper plant pot maker


Jul 17, 2011

I’d never come across the idea of newspaper seedling pots before, but Mum had seen them and the wooden formers used to make them and asked if I could make one for her.


Jul 17, 2011


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Jun 26, 2011

Quick Project – Light-pull


Jun 26, 2011

Last Sunday, I spent a while staring at my sketch book, flicking through old ideas, desperately racking my brains for something that would ‘click’ with my mood and inspire me to action.


Jun 26, 2011


Apr 3, 2011

Goodbye to the Hampshire woodturners association


Apr 3, 2011

After about two and a half years of being a member of the Hampshire woodturners association, it is time to say goodbye. Tomorrow’s meeting is the AGM marking the end of the subscription year, and since I am planning to move away from the area in the next few months, I will not be renewing my membership.


Apr 3, 2011


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Mar 6, 2011

Oak Beam to Garden sculpture


Mar 6, 2011

First things first, this is not me being creative. I just copied the idea from a project in last months woodturning magazine. But I liked the project and wanted to have a go. It was also an opportunity to turn something BIG. 


Mar 6, 2011


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Nov 20, 2010

2 axis tool platform


Nov 20, 2010

I’m sure there is a proper name for this but I can’t think what it is.

So to describe it… basically it’s a platform on which I have mounted a rotary tool. By turning the big wheel at the end I can make the platform move left and right.


Nov 20, 2010


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Oct 9, 2010

Locking box project – competition entry


Oct 9, 2010

Last Monday was the first woodturning competition of the Hampshire woodturners association. 


Oct 9, 2010


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Jul 31, 2010

wood carving a FSH!


Jul 31, 2010

What do you call a fish with no eyes?…a FSH! After last months HWA meeting where we had a demonstration of wood carving, I was inspired to try my hand. I decided that a fish is a relatively simple shape, and should be easily possible with just a basic stanley knife, no need for fancy (expensive) carving tools.


Jul 31, 2010


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Jul 19, 2010

green wood wine glass


Jul 19, 2010

Last weekend a friend turned up at my house with a log from a conifer tree. He had been helping another friend remove some trees from her garden and thought I’d like to have a sample to see if it was worth turning. 


Jul 19, 2010


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May 7, 2010

Little vase with lid


May 7, 2010

Some time ago I bought a block of spalted beech, mainly because it seemed fairly cheap and I was on a spending spree in a wood turning suppliers.


May 7, 2010


May 2, 2010

Fixing old mistakes


May 2, 2010

I was making a little lidded box in spalted beech. All was going well enough but as I came to hollow the lid I managed a nasty catch which sent it flying and damaged the finished exterior. I gave up in frustration at having gotten so far and then irrecoverably screwed up.

Or so I thought at the time, it was certainly true of my skill level and experience at the time that I could see no way to fix what I had done. However I came back to it with fresh eyes and new experience and realised that I could at least try to recover the piece.


May 2, 2010


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Mar 28, 2010

Spinner box – never give up, never surrender


Mar 28, 2010

This week I spent a lot of time updating witter, so yesterday I redressed the balance and spent some quality time in the workshop.


Mar 28, 2010


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Mar 14, 2010

Holy exploding woodturnings batman!


Mar 14, 2010

At the HWA meeting in February Mark Baker demonstrated an interesting arched stand with finialed box.


Mar 14, 2010


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Feb 20, 2010

Proposal ring


Feb 20, 2010

It seems that if you are looking for an engagement ring that isn’t a diamond, then options are a little limited. I was apprently left with the option of picking something I wasn’t sure about, or letting on and getting Kat to help pick.

So I hit upon the idea of just turning a wooden ring, with which to propose. 


Feb 20, 2010


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Feb 13, 2010

My second commission


Feb 13, 2010

A couple of months ago I wrote about turning a doorbell surround as my first paid commission for a colleague at work. Turns out there is some small market for doorbell surrounds, as I recently got a comment on that post asking if I’d be prepared to do another.I guess the metal parts of these doorbells has survived, but the wooden surrounds have rotted away. And apparently there is nowhere still selling anything like it.


Feb 13, 2010


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Nov 21, 2009

My first woodturning commission


Nov 21, 2009

This week a colleague approached me to ask if I could make something for him.His house, which he’s been renovating, still had an original doorbell from whenever it was built. The door bell was a round metal plate with a button in the middle, inset into a wood ring which was screwed to the wall. Time had not been kind to the wooden ring and it was a rotted mess. So the job was simple, could I make him a replacement wooden ring.


Nov 21, 2009


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Nov 15, 2009

Turning a burr


Nov 15, 2009

Burrs are very interesting bits of wood. They are odd growths that occur on the surface of tree trunks. I’m fascinated by what causes them to occur, since they are basically a mass of knots. Wikipedia on burrs Burrs typically have all sort of faults within the wood. But the wood is so dense both physically and visually in terms of grain patterns, that you can turn something quite beautiful, faults and all.


Nov 15, 2009


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Oct 18, 2009

Pen turning


Oct 18, 2009

Well it had to happen eventually. Given a lathe for enough time eventually you’ll give in to the allure of pen turning. I had started talking about giving it a go, and not long after Kat found herself in Turners Retreat with her dad. Being awesome, she bought me some supplies for turning pens.


Oct 18, 2009


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Sep 26, 2009

The Mallet of many mistakes


Sep 26, 2009

In last months woodturning magazine there was a project-in-a-day feature for making a mallet. I caught my eye because the head of the mallet was made from lignum vitae, a very dense hard wood which is normally found in the balls used for lawn bowls. As it happens I was recently given a couple of these by my Grandfather for the specific purpose of using the wood in a turning project.


Sep 26, 2009


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Aug 23, 2009

Making a chess set part 2 – The Bishop


Aug 23, 2009

Feeling good about how the king had gone, I set to work on the bishops.I decided that the thing to do would be to turn 2 head-to-head in a single length of wood. This would mean I only pay the ‘cost’ of work holding once for two pieces. 


Aug 23, 2009


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Aug 22, 2009

Making a chess set. Part 1- The King


Aug 22, 2009

As a geek and a wood turner. One of the most obvious things to attempt to make on the lathe is a chess set.In fact it was probably one of the first things I thought of to work towards. I did a lot of research at the time, and found that chess designs are not particularly readily available on line. At least not for free. 


Aug 22, 2009


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Jul 26, 2009

Streptohedrons


Jul 26, 2009

A couple of months ago David Springett came to the Hampshire woodturners monthly meeting and gave a demonstration. Amongst the things he demonstrated were what he called ‘streptohedrons’


Jul 26, 2009


Jul 11, 2009

HWA July meeting


Jul 11, 2009

This month Mark Hancock came to demonstrate what he termed a ‘rocking vessel’ What this actually means is a hollow form, with no flat base. So rather than standing up in a conventional way, they roll around, or ‘rock’ to a natural resting point.


Jul 11, 2009


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Jun 28, 2009

DIY lathe dust extractor hood


Jun 28, 2009

Last year I bought myself a serious dust extractor for use in the workshop. It has a huge dust collection bag and a 100mm hose.I have it sat between my bandsaw and my lathe. The bandsaw has a specific dust port for connecting this type of extractor to which makes life easy. The lathe on the other hand is not so easy.


Jun 28, 2009

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