Homemade Photo Light-Box

After having spent a lot of time trying to find good places to shoot photos of my woodturnings, and after having watched Dennis Clayton of our club (a professional photographer) show us how to use a light box to photograph our work, I decided I ought to give it a try.  I found some useful suggestions in a blog at http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html, and employed pretty much that approach in constructing my box, which is much larger than his.  As you'll see in the photos below, my box consists of (1) a large cardboard carton (mine is 25" x 25" x 25"); (2) tracing paper to make the "windows"; and (3) artists/poster board for the shooting background.  All else is pretty much self-evident.  Here's what it looks like - and the next three posts (and probably many more) show the results. You can decide for yourselves if you like this better than the photos with "background."

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Cherry baby rattles - in use!

My February 7 and 9, 2012 posts covered two cherry baby rattles I had turned for our granddaughter Francie, one with captive rings and one with the traditional rattle.  I'm delighted to say that they apparently met with great approval:

 

Badger Woodturners has a new web site!

My woodturning club has a new web site, at http://bwt.clubexpress.com/. Take a look! The club usually meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month, most often at the Monona Grove HS woodworking shop. Visitors are very welcome! On the web site you can look at our past newsletter, which will give you some idea of what we do as a club. You can also look at photos of the work of a number of our turners, with more to come as the site gets up to speed. Check it out!

My Review of 3-1/8-in Velcro-Faced Intermediate Disc

Originally submitted at CPO Metabo

3-1/8" Velco-Faced Intermediate Disc - 624061000

3-1/8-in Velco-Faced Intermediate Disc

Works very well; but how durable??

By Doug F from Middleton, WI on 3/6/2012

 

4out of 5

Pros: Just the right softness, Easy To Use, Good Grip

Best Uses: In The Workshop, Power sanding on lathe

Describe Yourself: Avid Do-It-Yourselfer

I principally use this disc as an intermediate pad between the Metabo sander and the sandpaper when power sanding on my lathe. It provides just the desired degree of softness/support when sanding curved surfaces, as on a larger bowl. I have only praise for its performance. My only hesitation in recommending this disc is that on my first disc the sponge rubber middle deteriorated and came apart in what seemed like a very short time. It may be I overheated it, but to be useful it should be able to withstand a lot of sanding-type heat without self-destructing. I'm on my second one now, and we'll see how it lasts.

(legalese)

Quina Wine Glasses

The bases of these wine glasses are turned from Quina, a South American wood.  The black band on the one glass is Burmese Blackwood.  They are finished with Waterlox.  The glasses stand about 7 ½" tall and are 2 ¾" across at the base.

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Another cherry baby rattle

Here is a second cherry baby rattle (Sp = sonajero) that I turned for Francie.  This is the more traditional style rattle, with a hollow drum on one end in which the rattly items are enclosed.  Dimensions are roughly 5 ¾" long by 1 ¾" diameter.

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Cherry baby rattle with captive rings

We just returned from visiting our daughter Erica, her husband Brian, and our newest grandchild, Frances (two months old), in Quito, Ecuador, which inspired me to turn the pictured baby rattle for Francie.  The rattle is about 6" long; the ends and rings are about 1 ⅔" in diameter.  Kiln-dried cherry blank; finished with food-safe (and baby-safe) Butcher Block Oil.  (CPSC regulations require that rattles have ends this large to avoid the risk of choking.)

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Cherry Burl Shawl Pin in Use!

We just got home from a trip to visit our daughter, her husband, and our new grandbaby (a real sweetie!). We gave the cherry burl shawl pin (see previous entry) to our daughter as a birthday present, to use with a shawl my wife had knit for her. I think the results are great!

Cherry Burl Shawl Pin

I turned the circular part of this cherry burl shawl pin from a small cutoff from a cherry burl vase project (not quite finished as of the moment).  The stick pin part was turned from a piece of regular cherry.  The round piece measures just over 2" across; the stick pin is 4 ½" long.

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Cherry Burl Bowl

I'd had a piece of cherry burl sitting around the shop for at least a couple of years and hadn't been able to figure out what to do with it.  I think it was the product of one of our club raffles.  Part of the problem was its odd appearance:  it looked like it had been hacked out of a tree with a hatchet - had no discernible shape, and many hatchet-chop facets all around - and it was impossible to tell what it had originally looked like.  Inspired, I guess, or maybe just made a little braver by the success of the cherry burl hollow form I'd just turned (see previous entry), I cut flats on the ends, put the chunk between centers and started turning for exterior shape.  Ultimately I turned a 100mm tenon on one end to mount in a chuck for hollowing, and just kept at it.  The completed piece (finished with Watco Danish Oil - Natural) is pictured here.  There are a number of bark inclusions and some gaps that run all the way through from outside to inside, which is one reason I didn't try to make the piece any thinner.  As a result it's a little heavy in the hand, but not too bad, and I think the overall appearance came out pretty well.  It measures about 6 ½" across and is 4 ¼" high.

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Cherry Burl Hollow Form (Vase)

In the gift exchange at our club's Christmas party I received a couple cherry branch sections with large burls.  I turned this hollow form from the smaller of the two.  (I put the branch ends between centers, rough turned the outside and put a tenon on one end; then reversed the piece, gripped the tenon in a chuck, finished turning the outside, and hollowed it out; finally I reversed the piece again, used the chuck in expansion mode to grip the opening by the inside edges, and turned the base.)  Since the wood was still green there was a lot of movement in the surface when it dried, as you can see in the pictures, which lends a very organic - even ancient - look to the piece, I think.  It measures about 7 ½" tall, and 4" across at its widest.

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Silver Maple Vessel

Our friends Bob and Pat had a Silver Maple taken down in their back yard recently and asked me to turn something for them from a piece that they had saved.  Since it had a flare out at the base I decided to try to keep that more or less intact, and turned this vase-like end grain vessel, instead of cutting the piece in two and turning a couple bowls.  What with the extensive bark interstices it ended up pretty interesting.  Bob and Pat liked it. 

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