Cheap/Homemade tools

Lathe chisels. Although not cheap (range from $70 to $90 each) I thought I would add them here. At the top is a Sorby chisel with two tips. The offset design lets me cut the inside of a curved-top bowl.

Second down is a bowl scraper. The blade is heavy and has just a slightly beveled edge. It's heavier weight helps to dampen vibration while it cleans up tool marks from the other chisels.

Third down is a bowl gouge with a 1/2" fingernail shaped tip. This is used for initial cutting and shaping. It will remove wood quickly, but will leave tool marks that will need to be cleaned up.

On the bottom is a 3/4" parting tool. This is used for cutting the bowl away from the waste wood that mounts the bowl to the lathe's chuck. I usually only cut part way through and then take the bowl off the lathe and finish the cut with a flush saw. I had one bowl that came off before I was ready and it bounced happily across the shop floor.
When I priced Thickness Sanders ($400 - $500) I decided I had better build my own. I made a simple box to fit over my Mini lathe and put an adjustable platen in it that I can raise up or down. Simple hinges on the back side and a turnbuckle in front allow the adjustment. Another board is used to carry the wood through the sander. The sanding drum was made from Peg's rolling pin. I cut the handles off and ran it across the table saw to put a 1/8th" groove in it.

The sandpaper is cut to fit, wrapped around the rolling pin and folded into the groove. A small rubber tube (used to put screening in windows) is pressed into the groove to hold the paper.
This is the rear view of my disk sander, showing the mounting block and lathe chuck. The disk is (this one anyway) is made from MDF. I have two, one with 80 grit paper and one with 120 grit. I use the 120 grit for sharpening my lathe chisels.

Front view of the disk sander. The work table is simply a piece of MDF glued/screwed to a 2x6. There are a couple of strips down the sides to keep it stable. For sanding bowl rings, the table is removed to give full access to the disk.

Visit to the Pima Air & Space Museum

C-130 landing at Chu Lai, South Viet Nam
I put this picture here because I've posted one of a C-130 that rests at the Museum. It's a shame that a great old warbird was allowed to deteriorate like the one on display has. See below.
My old Marine Corps buddy came for a visit and we went to the museum again to revisit some of the displays that we had missed last year when he visited. Here are some of my favorites.

F-102

I worked on the F-102 while I worked for the Wisconsin Air National Guard. It was nearly obsolete back then (early 70's) but was still used for training. It wasn't all that good in a dog fight, because if the pilot tried to make a sudden steep climb, he would cut the airflow off to the intake and the engine would stall. A jet without the jet engine becomes a rock and this one flew like a rock.

C-119

This is the aircraft that I was first appointed a Crew Chief on. I was a young 19 year old, but apparently I had the mechanical know-how that they were looking for. It was primarily used to train Reserve pilots in flying slow transports. I have a lot of stories about the adventures I had while flying in these things. The troops transported on them, called them "Shuddering Shithouse".

Rear view of C-119 also known as the R4Q
DC-3
The DC-3 is probably recognized as the most reliable aircraft ever built. At least until the C-130 came along. I was a Crew Chief on this one also. It too, was used primarily to keep pilots current in their transport flying skills.
Another view of the DC-3
C-130 Hercules
This picture makes me sad to see such a wonderful old bird, in this state of disrepair. I flew many missions into and out of Viet Nam and the aircraft was shot full of holes, but never let us down. I posted another picture I have of one of my squadron's C-130 making a landing in Chu Lai. Unfortunately, the system always puts the new pictures at the top, so all I can do is say look up there for it.

C-45
This was a trusty old soul! It couldn't carry a whole lot, but it was a workhorse. I worked on these while employed by Midwest Aviation in Wisconsin. They were pretty spartan and the method of primeing the fuel pressure was done with a hand pump. Same method was used for a Model T.
SR-71 Blackbird supersonic
It flew coast to coast in the U.S. in one hour. It was a supersonic observation plane that could
take a picture of your license plate from 81,000 feet, while flying at 2,000 mph. There is a
short slide show by a pilot at www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm

Making a segmented bowl

The process has to start with a drawn plan. I draw what I want the shape to look like and then draw in the blocks that represent the cross section of the wood rings. Always allow at least 3/8" on either side of the desired bowl wall. Anything less than that may mean that you will not have enough material to get the shape you want. It's easier to remove wood than to add it.


Even if you have deep pockets and can afford to buy the $2000 table saw, you'll still have trouble trying to cut consistently accurate pieces. My saw is a $99 portable contractors model and accuracy isn't one of it's strong points. Saws in this price range have the blade mounted directly to the motor shaft and you'll get a lot of side to side wobble when it starts up. Also, as the motor heats up from continuous use, the blade will move up to 1/16th". If you want to rip very thin strips, let the motor cool between passes.

My solution is a cut-off sled. It's made from 3/4 MDF, wide enough to support an adjustable angle guide and deep enough to keep your fingers away from the blade. It runs in the mitre guage slots that are in the saw's tabletop. I made runners out of 3/8 aluminum channel.

In practice, I loosen the bolt holding the adjustable angle guide and place the protractor against the side of the saw blade and against the front of the adjustable guide. I move the guide to match the protractor angle until the angle is correct and then tighten the lock bolt back down on the adjustable angle guide. In the picture, it's the bolt with the washer on the right side of the sled. You are looking at the sled from the back of the saw. In use, you would be on the other side, behind the handle.

The clamp on the right side holds a stop block (precut to the angle you are using). This stop block is set to the width of the widest part of the segment. Material is fed up to the stop block and then clamped in place with the clamp on the other side. The whole sled is pushed into the blade path and the segment is cut. Each segment cut in this manner will be within .002 - .010" of each other.

Note the cotter pin extractor lying on the sled. Cut segments will often stay on the sled, so I use that tool to pick them away from the spinning saw blade.


Here the pieces for the feature ring have been cut. All 340 of them. They will be glued up, layer by layer, until a complete segment has been made.
Here, the first three layers have been glued up and are now ready to have any rough edges lightly sanded. When working with glue (Titebond II is the best) I tape wax paper to the work surface. This keeps the segments from sticking to the bench and also keeps the bench surface clean.
After gluing up 3 layers, there is bound to be variances in width. It's essential that mating surfaces be perfectly flat. I sand the faces using my homemade disk sander and then use a digital caliper to measure and note the thickness of each one. In this case, I have arranged the segments by size, with the thickest on the left and thinnest on the right. Then I pair them up, taking one from the thick end and matching it with it's thinner friend from the other end.
Because these segments are complicated, each is built as an individual. So it is necessary to cut them individually as well. I made this sled to slide along the saw's fence. Each segment had to have the one end cut carefully in an attempt to establish a consistent margin. Then they could all have the other side cut using the same fence set up.

After completing the feature ring glue-up (it's in the upper right of the picture) I start making the rest of rings. Segments for the various rings are cut to their respective widths, calculated by using a formula. The width is determined by dividing the circumference by the number of segments you want. The angle of the segment's sides is determined by dividing 360 by the number of segments and then dividing that number by 2.

After cutting the segments, I use a sanding block with 220 grit sandpaper to lightly remove any burrs left by the saw blade. I use an 80 tooth blade, so the cuts are pretty smooth, but softer wood will still have burrs. Then I place them in position and put a ring clamp on them to check the fit. If there is a gap, I'll remove a couple of opposing pieces and sand the adjustment on my disk sander. I'll continue dry fitting with the ring clamp until they all fit together with no gaps.

Then I'll apply the glue to the segments and clamp them into their final postion.
After the rings have been glued up, I pass them through my homemade drum sander to make their surfaces nice and flat. Then they are stacked and glued up. When dry, they are glued to the bowl base and the whole assembly is then glued to a waste block that is mounted in the lathe chuck.
After turning the first few ring to their rough shape, I glue the feature ring into place. This is left to set overnight.
Another view of the inside. Normally, I would have glued up all the rings, but this bowl will have a top that is pretty closed and the depth of this bowl won't allow me to reach down to the bottom.
With the bottom half turned, the rest of the rings are glued up and turned.


Here's the completed bowl.

Our kids: Leah & family

Leah, Morton and Max live in Denmark. Most of these pictures were taken when they visited us a couple of years ago.

Max is now nearly 3 years old and waiting for his new baby brother to arrive.

See Leah's blog listed at the top of our home page.

Our kids: Scott & family

Jake's 1st birthday.

I took these videos on my last trip to Las Vegas in May. The video of Taylor shows her jumping with "Moon Shoes", which are like mini trampolines strapped to her feet. The video of Hunter was taken when he was playing Super Sheriff. He had on a little plastic helmet that wouldn't stay on his head, so he has to hold it on while he runs after the ball.

It's amazing how fast kids grow, especially when you only see them infrequently. Taylor is becoming a young lady, Hunter is 90 miles an hour the minute he wakes up and Jake is developing his own impish personality.

Scott and his wife, Lindsay live in Las Vegas, where Scott is currently the General Manager of a Honda car dealership.

Arizona sunsets

OK, I'm a sucker for stunning sunsets in Tucson. I never get tired of the endless designs offered by the cloud formations and the sun's angle.