I have just uploaded part II of Gary W's demo on How To Carve A Pleasing Form.
I think it turned out ok, hopefully youtube's compression won't degrade it.
Comments welcome either here on the blog or email tom cadwalader
https://youtu.be/hazRSGYsO3I
Friday, February 17, 2017
Friday, December 23, 2016
Carving a Pleasing Form
The above link is to the Hiawatha Woodturning Club's youtube channel. Our first video of a demonstration has been added to the channel this morning. It's the first of a two part demo that was presented by Gary Weiermiller at the November meeting. The title is
"Carving a Pleasing Form".
Please take a look at the video, the first using our new video system, and let me know what you think.
Please subscribe to the channel. That way you will get notices when new content goes up.
I hope to add some of our past videos to the channel. But that might not happen until spring. I don't think I have those files with me.
Merry Christmas everyone. Tom
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Platter
Just finished this platter. It's about 11 inches in diameter from box elder. It is for the Straits Area Audubon for their raffle. I burned an abstract wolfs head in the center and a little gold run n buff detail on the rim.
Friday, November 4, 2016
DIY Visualizer
I have my DIY Visualizer up and going. I have turned 4 or 5 pieces with it and I really like it. For me this works much better than the laser.
My system is a Logitech 270 web camera attached to a small windows notebook computer.
I have a couple of pictures below. The camera is mounted to the area of the boring bar where my laser was before. The camera plugs into the USB2 port of the laptop. This laptop is running on windows xp. So I just start up the computer then select "my computer" then find the usb camera in the file tree and select it. The image comes up on the screen and I then move the camera into position the image of the toll bar cutter is near centered in the image.
Next I taped a piece of page protector plastic over the computer screen. Once that's set in place I can trace the outline of the bar and cutting tip. Then its a matter of drawing in a wall thickness and its off tot he races.
It works for me, your mileage may vary. Some are accustomed to the laser and may like that better.
The camera was around $25.00 on amazon. I grabbed the page protect form my wife's desk, the laptop I got it off a friend and it cost me a bar tab at the brewery. So maybe $50 total.
Oh I should point out that I didn't need to build a shelf for the computer. You know the guard that most lathes come with. The one we all remove, well mine is swung open and the laptop sites neatly on it. I am a happy camper.
My system is a Logitech 270 web camera attached to a small windows notebook computer.
I have a couple of pictures below. The camera is mounted to the area of the boring bar where my laser was before. The camera plugs into the USB2 port of the laptop. This laptop is running on windows xp. So I just start up the computer then select "my computer" then find the usb camera in the file tree and select it. The image comes up on the screen and I then move the camera into position the image of the toll bar cutter is near centered in the image.
Next I taped a piece of page protector plastic over the computer screen. Once that's set in place I can trace the outline of the bar and cutting tip. Then its a matter of drawing in a wall thickness and its off tot he races.
It works for me, your mileage may vary. Some are accustomed to the laser and may like that better.
The camera was around $25.00 on amazon. I grabbed the page protect form my wife's desk, the laptop I got it off a friend and it cost me a bar tab at the brewery. So maybe $50 total.
Oh I should point out that I didn't need to build a shelf for the computer. You know the guard that most lathes come with. The one we all remove, well mine is swung open and the laptop sites neatly on it. I am a happy camper.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Vase
In the pictures below is a vase I turned recently. It's from a piece of maple, stands about 8 inches tall and is about 5 inches wade at the widest point. The finish is several coats of satin lacquer.
Hopefully the pictures capture the unique character of the wood. The wall thickness is just a little thicker than I would normally do. I didn't want to have voids showing all the way through, about 5/16" was about the limit before holes started to show up.
Hopefully the pictures capture the unique character of the wood. The wall thickness is just a little thicker than I would normally do. I didn't want to have voids showing all the way through, about 5/16" was about the limit before holes started to show up.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Video System Update
Hiawatha Woodturning Club,
For members and guest who have missed the last couple of meetings. It was decided that it was time that the club put together a video system that would 1) provide a better demonstration experience for the audience at live demonstration 2) provide for recording the live demonstrations 3) allow us to take advantage of remote demonstrations if and when this movement takes off with in the AAW community.
To that effect Steve Promo and Tom Cadwalader (yours truly) set off to build a frame to support the equipment and purchase the equipment to accomplish this.
At the October meeting all of this technology came together and was tried for the first time. Steve Promo did a short demonstrations on making scoops. In my opinion this is how it went. Those in attendance my have a slightly different or vastly different opinion, so feel free to use the comment section.
Basically everything worked, but there is room for improvement. Lots of room for improvement. We went into this with a somewhat limited budget and there were a few surprises. I learned that there was a whole lot more to learn about video and broadcasting a live stream than I ever thought I needed to know.
What I see as improvement areas and what we can do.
1) The first obvious issue was the latency between what Steve was doing live and what was showing on the monitors. The picture and audio being later takes some getting used to. The audio was the bigger issue for both the audience and the demonstrator.
The fix: I have been working on the latency, Archie and I swapped out the hard drive on the computer with a faster drive I had. Plus we tried recording to a solid state camera card instead of the hard dive in the computer. This seemed to help a lot. But for the audio we need to do what I did during the demo, and that is to mute the audio on both monitors. Their will always be some delay and in our smaller room, thats not good.
2) Lighting. The light we are currently using needs to be relocated. It's too close and there needs to be a second light. There are deep shadows on the piece being turned and its very difficult for the demonstrator to see what he/she is doing. We need more even lighting across the entire lathe.
3) Cameras.
The overhead camera was prone to hunting for focus. We need to run that camera in manual focus and manual exposure.
The second camera (the one showing the demonstrator with a wider shot) The footage looked like security camera footage. As I tried to work through this issue it was a combination of dropped frames and something else. It was starting to look like it was just a bad camera. But I deleted the driver (the software that runs the camera form the computer) and used the Microsoft drive instead of the camera manufactures drivers. This seemed to help a lot.
4)The background is distracting. Having the office area behind is not the best situation. I think we would be better off going back to having the lathe by the garage doors. The lathe table and the video from are only connected by the white 110 volt cord form the power strip. So both pieces can be moved separately if need be.
So that is basically it. I have edited the footage form the last meeting and put it in the cloud for members to download. I would recommend you download it and then view it as opposed to trying to watch it like a uTube video. I put the file in a dropbox account and that doesn't typically stream video every well.As you watch the movie I think you will see what my concerns are.
The computer we have was $421. What really need is one that is $2,000. But with the changes we have made to both the settings and the hard drive we are pretty dam close. The testing I have done lately has been turning out pretty good video.
The video of the scoops demo can be found here. I welcome your feedback.
Click Here for Video
For members and guest who have missed the last couple of meetings. It was decided that it was time that the club put together a video system that would 1) provide a better demonstration experience for the audience at live demonstration 2) provide for recording the live demonstrations 3) allow us to take advantage of remote demonstrations if and when this movement takes off with in the AAW community.
To that effect Steve Promo and Tom Cadwalader (yours truly) set off to build a frame to support the equipment and purchase the equipment to accomplish this.
At the October meeting all of this technology came together and was tried for the first time. Steve Promo did a short demonstrations on making scoops. In my opinion this is how it went. Those in attendance my have a slightly different or vastly different opinion, so feel free to use the comment section.
Basically everything worked, but there is room for improvement. Lots of room for improvement. We went into this with a somewhat limited budget and there were a few surprises. I learned that there was a whole lot more to learn about video and broadcasting a live stream than I ever thought I needed to know.
What I see as improvement areas and what we can do.
1) The first obvious issue was the latency between what Steve was doing live and what was showing on the monitors. The picture and audio being later takes some getting used to. The audio was the bigger issue for both the audience and the demonstrator.
The fix: I have been working on the latency, Archie and I swapped out the hard drive on the computer with a faster drive I had. Plus we tried recording to a solid state camera card instead of the hard dive in the computer. This seemed to help a lot. But for the audio we need to do what I did during the demo, and that is to mute the audio on both monitors. Their will always be some delay and in our smaller room, thats not good.
2) Lighting. The light we are currently using needs to be relocated. It's too close and there needs to be a second light. There are deep shadows on the piece being turned and its very difficult for the demonstrator to see what he/she is doing. We need more even lighting across the entire lathe.
3) Cameras.
The overhead camera was prone to hunting for focus. We need to run that camera in manual focus and manual exposure.
The second camera (the one showing the demonstrator with a wider shot) The footage looked like security camera footage. As I tried to work through this issue it was a combination of dropped frames and something else. It was starting to look like it was just a bad camera. But I deleted the driver (the software that runs the camera form the computer) and used the Microsoft drive instead of the camera manufactures drivers. This seemed to help a lot.
4)The background is distracting. Having the office area behind is not the best situation. I think we would be better off going back to having the lathe by the garage doors. The lathe table and the video from are only connected by the white 110 volt cord form the power strip. So both pieces can be moved separately if need be.
So that is basically it. I have edited the footage form the last meeting and put it in the cloud for members to download. I would recommend you download it and then view it as opposed to trying to watch it like a uTube video. I put the file in a dropbox account and that doesn't typically stream video every well.As you watch the movie I think you will see what my concerns are.
The computer we have was $421. What really need is one that is $2,000. But with the changes we have made to both the settings and the hard drive we are pretty dam close. The testing I have done lately has been turning out pretty good video.
The video of the scoops demo can be found here. I welcome your feedback.
Click Here for Video
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Recent work by Tom Cadwalader
Below is a plate that I had turned recently, actually I think it was turned in May and I just finished it recently. It's kind of a 2 part project. I have been working at embellishing my turnings with some wood burning of late and this is the next step in my progression.
The wood is Quaking Aspen and the finish is Helmsman Spar Urethane. The Plate is about 11 Inches in diameter.
On edit I changed quacking aspen to Quaking aspen. The leaves on the trees quake, they don't quack. My bad.
The picture below is the palate in May. Notice the knots and the turquoise in one of the knots.
The wood is Quaking Aspen and the finish is Helmsman Spar Urethane. The Plate is about 11 Inches in diameter.
On edit I changed quacking aspen to Quaking aspen. The leaves on the trees quake, they don't quack. My bad.
The picture below is the palate in May. Notice the knots and the turquoise in one of the knots.
Below is the finished plate, as you can see I incorporated the knots into the image I burned in.
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