Wooden Clocks

So after making a couple of bowls and a lot of pens i noticed i had some nice large blanks of Zebra Wood (Zebrano) and Bubinga that i had bought a while back, they were a bit shallow to make bowls out of so i thought I'd try some clocks.

I went to Paragon Tools in Wexford and got a couple of clock faces, they were about €12 or €13 euro each.

I started with the Zebra wood first and mounted it on my lathe as usual, i turned recess in the

Wooden Woodturned Pens

Well after attending a monthly meet at the Craobh Cuig Deag Chapter on turning pens i decided to give it a shot.

I did have to buy a pen turning mandrel and i would highly recommend the Rotur Pen Mandrel Kit, comes with all you need including a 7mm drill bit, barrel trimmer and adjustable mandrel for doing all lengths of pens.

Anyway that's just my opinion on pen mandrels...

I didn't exactly know what sort of pens i wanted to make but nearly all the wood turning shops sold the classic 2 piece twist pen kits so i went with them and bought about 10 kits at €2.50 each, they were gold coloured pieces and looked nice enough in the packets anyway :D

Purple Heart Bowl

Ever since i got an interest in woodworking I've had an interest in the exotic woods, don't know why probably cause they can be damn expensive and i cant afford many of them :D

What started out as my favourite and the most interesting wood to me was Purple Heart, an 8" x 3" bowl blank will set you back somewhere between €30 to €40 in Ireland anyway. I bought one piece around the same time i bought my lathe and was afraid to use in for fear of destroying it and turning it into firewood, although i would of felt quite rich being able to use purple heart to warm my living room :D

Woodturning Baby Rattle with 3 Captive Rings

Well after my first attempts at woodturning i went to a demonstration at Joe Lairds Woodturnings (www.joelairdwoodturning.com) where he was demonstrating making baby rattles.

So when i got a chance to make one and having 2 children both under 2 years of age i jumped at it. I started by getting some 6 x 2 x 2 beech which is a safe wood for baby rattles as well as most fruit woods, stay away from exotic woods if you plan on making children's toys.

My New Lathe Axminster AWVSL1000

Well after ordering my new lathe early January it finally arrived last week. the package i got comprised of the Axminster AWVSL 1000 as well as an Axminster Clubman K10 Woodturning Chuck & Accessories

Irish Woodturners Guild Craobh Cuig Deag

Well last night i attended my first monthly meeting of the Irish Woodturners Guild (http://www.irishwoodturnersguild.com)

at the Blanchardstown Chapter (http://craobhcuigdeag.org/)

To be honest i didn't have a clue what to expect, sure i haven't even got a lathe yet to do any wood turning! But i have one ordered and hopefully it will be arriving shortly. :D I'll do another post on that when i get it.

Anyway, i arrived for half 7 to a room already packed with beginners and experienced wood turners

My Hand Planes

Since i started out woodworking not too long ago i always wondered why every workshop you see has a load of hand planes in it. Well the answer to me is.... It's addictive buying them!!! Not new... but 2nd hand!! the first pieces of hardwood i bought were Rough cut Walnut 4ft boards, one was 7inches by 2 inches and the other was 6 inches by 1 inch. there was a horrible bow in the 7 inch board so i said that no about of sanding would get that down so i purchased my first plane. I bought this one new... A Stanley 102 block plane.