Steve Promo turning wood dog food scoop

 Steve, sent the following picture that illustrates the stages of turning a large scoop for dog food.  Red pine and western cedar.

Here are pictures of the different stages of the scoop turning.  Back in 2016 Steve did a demo for making scoops.  Also if you search Youtube.com you can find many demos on making scoops as well.    You can also make a bowl and attach a handle to it to make a scoop. 

Thanks for sharing Steve. - ajp2

Update from Steve.  He made two more scoops and put the dog's names on the scoops.

Two more dog food scoops by Steve Promo.  With names!

Archie:  Inspired by Steve I tried my had at making a scoop.  This one holds 1/3 cup of rice.  Not sure what kind of wood it is made from but the finish is food safe. Wife immediately put in her kitchen drawer. -ajp2

Archie's Boxes

 I made three boxes.  Two from Wild Tambran wood with black wood tops.  The black wood used for the tops washed up on the shore of Lake Huron.  The Wild Tambran was purchased at Woodcraft.  

 

Three Boxes.  Paperclip Box left and two Wild Tambran Boxes.

 

Bottom of the Wild Tambran boxes with label, decoration and my signature AJP logo. 

Wax Free Shellac darkens the cuts in the bottom.

 

The two Wild Tambran boxes with black wood lids off.  Wild Tambran has both light and dark wood.

I turned the boxes to retain as much of the lighter wood as I could for contrast.  

The lids were the last of my black wood and makes a nice contrast.

 

The paperclip box with lid off and paperclip on magnet.  

Put paperclips in the box, shake and remove lid and you have a bunch of paperclips ready to use.

Not sure what kind of wood I used for the paperclip box.  It was on my shelf in the garage.  The base and top were made from the same section of wood so the grain comes close to aligning up.   After cutting it, there was some end grain tears.  Cutting with a sharp tool and sanding removed them.  Wood was light brown before finishing.  - ajp2

Steve Promo Notes aand Projects

 Base on the notes and pictures sent in by Steve Promo. 

Notes:  Tomorrow will be session #12 with three woodshop classes at LaSalle High School woodshop.  (Four days with three back to back sessions at 8am, 9am, 10 am) The first session covered lathe basics and I demo turned a French style rolling pin.  Sessions 4,5,6 were a demo of turning pegs for wall mounted key and coat racks (10 min at most) and a work session.  The rest of the sessions have been spent assisting the students.  So far five nice rolling pins have been made, most of them glued up from flat lumber.  Cherry walnut and maple mostly.  Will send a picture soon.  If any Hiawatha Club Turners member is interested in working with the students give me a call or email.  These kids are eager to learn and the new jet 14/40 VS lathe is a very nice machine to learn on.  They are also using the club lathe and the JET mini our club donated to the school.  They have been very respectful and a pleasure to work with.  

Project 1:  This fall I had some large spruce and cedar logs milled.  Some of the butt log slabs were very thick.  I cut out 6” x 6” cylinders on the bandsaw and immediately roughed out ten small bowls to about 1/2” thick.  They were all rain wet slab wood.  Within a couple days of exposure to dry wood stove heat in my shop they were dry enough to re-turn and sand.  They are 1/4” thick with a small flat base.  The bowls are VERY light weight and fit the hand perfectly for chips and popcorn snacks.  One coat of grape-seed oil and they are ready to give away for Christmas!  They were fun and everyone loves the feel of them in their hand.

 

Unfinished Bowls

 

Finished Bowls - Top View

 

Finished Bowls  - Side View

Project 2:  Two other recent turning projects are a walnut hollow form and a sycamore box.  Both pieces of wood have been laying under my shop bench for a very long time.  The exterior of the walnut piece was turned from an 8” log between centers, adding a chuck tenon to the bottom.  Once in the chuck, I bored out the center with a large forester bit.  A student of mine was scheduled for a hollow form session at that time and he was able to bore out the first few inches using my boring bar and laser attachment.  He learned how to sharpen and aim the pivoting round nose 3/16” scraper bit,  and got firsthand experience resetting the laser for wall thickness after each sharpening.  He also used a teardrop scraper to even out the interior surface.  I completed the bottom half of the hollowing and turned the foot after he departed.  A steady rest was used on this piece as the boring bar was about 12” past the too rest.  I decided the 2.5” round hole at the top was BORING to look at, so I cut a V downward with a jigsaw, with the growth rings running parallel to my V cut.  The edge of the V was rounded with a Dremel drum sander bit, small files, and sandpaper by hand.  After that I decided to paint the interior for better contrast and then inspired to add crushed turquoise inlay to suggest a overflow of droplets. 

I am still considering airbrushing a deep orange to yellow fade inside with the piece rotating and the exterior masked off.  Walnut piece is 7” by 13” and the sycamore box is 3.5” by 7”.  The sycamore was very soft and difficult to cut cleanly but the lid is airtight. 

 

 

Walnut vessel with painted insides and side accents.

 

Sycamore Box

Nicely done projects Steve.  Thanks for helping the kids at the high school.  I know they appreciate it. ajp2

Finished Bird Feeder Picture

 The bird feeder made during the demo has been sealed and painted the the picture below shows the finished creation:

Ready for to go out doors in the spring.  Great job Steve.

Next meeting 9 Aprl 2022

 The last meeting was on 13 November 2021 and it was decide because may of our members go south for the winter that the next meeting will be 9 April 2022 at 9:00 am at the Saint Ignace High School.  

The videos created for this post were done on the Club's new but used 15" HP laptop.   The club's ASUS laptop froze over the winter and stopped working.  

Should you have any questions please send an e-mail to: hiawathaturners@gmail.com.

Yours,

Archie

Steve Promo demonstrates making a bird feeder from a cedar log

 Here are the steps to making a cedar bird feeder from a section of a cedar log.

This will produce the following:

 

Watch his demo at the following link:   https://youtu.be/vjwwRFU3eHc

How to make a cedar bird feeder. 

The painted finished product.  Well done Steve.

Steve Promo's Burl Dish

Steve says:  "They are spruce burl, same as I won yesterday [at the meeting] in the bring back.  Results in a platter with raised handles where the trunk of the tree is located."  

Steve took a burl that grew around the tree and cut it in half down the middle of the tree producing the following:

 

First, Steve fastened a face plate to the exposed side using circles drawn on the wood to help him center the face plate.   This face plate does not have a center screw.  Steve says: "Pencil rings help to center the faceplate after bottom (outside of platter) is turned.  Second shot is turned top (inside of platter) and third shot is turning foot using friction drive and tailstock."

Mounted  on the lathe the bottom mounting area is turned.  The circles will help  in locating the mounting plate. 

The face place is mounted  on the bottom so the top can be turned.

The top is turned to form shape of the platter.  the ends of the tree will become handles.

 

Using a pressure plate to secure the top the bottom can be turned and the screw holes will be removed.

The bottom has been turned down and finished with linseed oil. 

The top is also finished with linseed oil.

Thanks to Steve Promo for submitting the innovative use of a burl.

Club Meeting on 11 September 2021

 We had our first meeting of the club, on 11 September 2021, since COVID stopped the meetings.  

Next meeting is 9 October.  All members and visitors are invited.  Demo planed.

Below are some of the items that were brought for Show-and-Tell.    Keep busy.  Keep turning. -ajp2

 

Cheese board with knif

 

Small easy to sell boxes.

 

Three Bowls

 

Bowl carved from tree trunk

 

Close up view of died inside.

 

Small bowl with fancy bottom.

 

Vase that blew up and sat for a year then was 

glued back together and made pretty.  

 

Nicely repaired.

 

 

You can see where the only missing piece came from.   

Club Meeting 11 September 2021 at 9:00 am.

 It is Coming!   11 September 2021.  9:00 am at the St Ignace High School Wood Shop. 

The long awaited, but not forgotten, monthly meeting of the Hiawatha Woodturner's Club.

Bring some samples of what you have been doing during the lock down.   

Posted by Archie

 

Four Inch Pizza Cutter

Fellow Turners,

I used a four inch pizza cutter kit from Woodcraft store.  This kit allows the head to be removed and run thru the dish washer thus protecting the wooden handle.  The head has a pewter finish with a sturdy cutting wheel.    I turned the block of wood round and then used a four jaw chuck to hold the end with a center on the head end making sure there was no side pressure on the center.  Once secure and turned true, I drilled a pilot hole and then a hole for the threaded insert.  I then screwed in the insert and put tail center back on and use it to stabilize the end while doing the final turning, sanding and finishing.  The wood is dark brown and turned a dark brown dust.  No shavings.  I used a wire to burn the black in each groove. 

The four inch cutter head is heavy and well made.  There is a threaded insert screwed into the end.  I checked the handle size with my wife and daughters to make sure it was not too big to grip.  The weight of the head needs a reasonably sized handle for proper control.  

Pizza head removed and is dishwasher safe.  Screw in insert in handle for easy removal.

Made by Archie Jay Patterson II                                                  13 August 2021

 (Another great project from Steve Promo. - ajp2)

HWC Members, 

A friend recently commissioned me to make a mirror for behind his bar.   The walls are all rough sawed vertical cedar Tung & Grove narrows so I felt the mirror frame would need to be of a blonde, dark wood, or have color added to make it unique, and a focal point…..hopefully one with obvious value and appeal. The mirror is located just above the bottle caps of the liquor bottles on the top shelf so none of the mirror would hidden behind bottles..  

I thought a leaf shape might be interesting and unique so I looked around nature.  I first tried a broad leaf maple but it was about the same length as it was wide and I need to fill a space of 3 by 5 feet, more of a rectangular space.  Beech and birch and apple leaves were too elongated (more like 2 x 5 ratio), so I looked at other leaves.  I found an oak leaf to be closer to the desired 3 x 5 ratio and I liked the reddish veins in the green summer leaves. I thought of connected short cedar blocks and red cedar boards that I had on hand, all of which was very well dried.    

It began as a sketch of an imaginary oak leaf on white paper about 3” by 5”.  I used the grid method to enlarge it to a 3 foot by 5 foot (full sized) cardboard pattern.  This allowed us to position the cardboard mock-up mirror on the actual wall to see how well it would fit the space and then decide whether to proceed or not .  The cardboard became a pattern for 1/4” plywood to which all the cedar was glued and screwed from the backside.  The veins of the leaf are 1/4” thick by 2.5” tall strips of Eastern Red Cedar (aromatic) placed on edge.  The rest is local Michigan Yellow cedar, about 2.5” thick, spliced as needed with dowels or biscuits to reinforce the glue joints.    

This the frame after the initial glue up.

After the glue cured I jigsawed out the 1/4” plywood in the mirror area.  After moving outdoors on sawhorses, I sculpted the leaf with a Lancelot disc…basically a circular 4” chainsaw blade on a mini grinder. 

Wood is removed very quickly with this tool.  Next came  24, 40 and 80 grit abrasive flap wheel refinement, then 120 grit foam backed sanding discs of various diameters powered by a slow speed close quarter angle drill.  After all this there still remained considerable hand sanding and rasp work in the corners.  After it was fully sanded, I placed it face down and routed a 1/2” wide by 3/16” deep rabbit in the backside to hold 1/8” thick mirrored glass.

 

 

 This is the frame after it has been carved and sanded using the flap wheel sander.  Note the flat areas left after sanding with the flap wheel.   Now the fun part - hand sanding.

The entire project was then airbrush sprayed with 4 coats of highly diluted green aniline dye.  This is alcohol based and dries very quickly.  I wanted the grain, sapwood, and heartwood to show through the dye, hence the airbrush for good control over how much stain was applied.   It was then sealed with 6 coats of satin water based varnish applied with a brush with 220 and 320 grit sanding between coats 2 and 3 and coats 5 and 6 respectively.  

The local glass company enjoyed the challenge of fitting the glass to the rabbeted glass ledge and billed me accordingly. OUCH$$$.  Last step was applying a second layer of 1/4” plywood over the entire backside with screws to hold the glass in place, further stiffen the piece, and to attach hangers onto

While this project did not involve any woodturning, I though it might inspire a fellow club member to do some sculpting or use dyes on their turning projects.  If you do make a bar mirror be sure to invite me for the christening as well!  Cheers. : ) : ) 

Steve Promo

Finished product.  (Another great project by Steve Promo.  Thanks for sharing Steve. - ajp2)

(Received this from Steve Promo on 3 July while I was traveling to a wedding.  Another great project made to look easy. - ajp2)

I was recently asked to turn four legs for a large, thick,  antique maple butcher block.  The client wanted to repurpose it as an island in her kitchen and desired it to match her countertop height of 36.”  This required adding 4” to the height of the old legs which were ash painted black.  I drew two options to scale,  labeled A and B,  with the old leg in the middle.  

 

The client chose leg design “'A" and provided me with S2S hard maple boards from Bell Forest Products in Ishpeming (UP).  I joined, surfaced and stack laminated them.  After the glue dried, I re-joined two adjacent surfaces, and thickness planed them into very straight and very square 4 x 4 x 25” blanks.  

 

Customer supplied hard maple boards.

 

 

Glued up Boards

After center punching ends, I started the lathe and ran it up to about 1200 rpm as seemed about right given their 30 pound weight and length.  

 

First leg mounted with markings.

 

After turning the first one, I placed it into a holder a few inches behind the lathe spindle.  This really helped with visual checks comparing the curves, beads, tapers, etc of the leg being turned to the finished leg behind it.

  

 

first leg mounted on back of lathe.

 

View from long tool rest of first leg behind the one on the lathe.

Another great help was making a 36” toolrest with dual bases.  The rest was made from a salvaged wear plate from the leading edge of a highway snowplow.  The bases were metal tubing salvaged from a treadmill frame and some 1” rod and set screw collars made on my metal lathe.  The wear plate steel is very stiff, hard, and wear resistant, plus it is thick, and fairly wide.  Super nice to run your fingers along and it yielded a great place to indicate the location of spindle features  IE/beads, etc with a SHARPIE.   

 

One of two toolrest mounts

 (Steve does not say how long it took him to make the toolrest and mounts. - ajp2)

Each one took me about an hour to turn and was sanded once with 120 grit.  I worked slowly and carefully as I only had four blanks, no extras!  ;) : )   A large roughing gouge and 3 skews of various sizes were very helpful on this project.  I also used a parting tool and five different calipers to establish diameters at various places.  A piece of baling wire was used to burn lines above and below each bead. They weigh about 20 pounds each after turning.

 

Finished legs for Butcher Block.

 

I will suggest a Danish Oil finish as (I feel) it would be a real shame to paint such beautiful clear hard maple.  

Steve Promo

Steve Promo made a cigar holder/case

 Steve made a cigar holder for a neighbor.  It holds one cigar and is made of Spanish cedar.  It holds a cigar that is smaller than 1" x 6.25".  The inside was bored out with a Forster bit.