Ice, Snow and struggles.

We had a fairly significant ice and snow event here in NW Arkansas. But, nothing like other parts of the country.

The struggle doesn't refer to the weather, but to my working with the faux bone material. They say, whomever, "they" are, that the third time is the charm in getting something right, or winning. Well, I am now on the fifth charm. No idea how many I have left! Anyway, the fifth attempt is looking far better than any of the previous ones. In lieu of the recommended swivel head cutter (a tool actually meant for wax carving), I have found a triangular scraper works pretty well. One has to be careful using it, as it will dig in, and then you may have a boo-boo on your hands. So, a light touch is needed. Also, I still learning about using the special saw blade. It's getting easier to use it, but for some reason, I'm still having problems keeping the saw from wandering, even though I'm going slow and easy and certainly not trying to force the blade to follow the line. I really didn't expect taking this long to do a simple task.

Faux Bone

I must confess that I am in error when it comes to sawing. The Grobet saw frame is better to use because the frame is stiffer. It is, however, only for sawing smaller pieces, as a larger frame is needed to cut from the larger 8" x 8" stock. The No. 4 saw blade is fine for rounding off corners.

Robert's special blade clears away the crumbs better and there's less binding. So, apologies to Robert.

I continue to work with the material, and while I had hoped to have something to show, my bum hand gives out on me after about five minutes of work, so progress is slow. I think I will have a fairly decent piece to show once I get it finished. I shouldn't promise anything. I'm too slow at getting things finished.

Stump final, fully loaded

I believe this will be the last posting about the stump. To work on it, the stump is pulled out from it's little niche, then rotated to use the various pieces of equipment. The photo shows the Panavise to the left, steel bench block on sandbag pad, goldsmith's hammer, Foredom drill press, front right, and the Wolf sander in back, right. All the equipment is removable, so others can be installed. There are still minor refinements to be done, such as putting in holders for the various hex wrenches for the drill press and the sander. A vacuum will be hooked up to the sander when that is being used. I may need to include some sort of hanger arrangement for the flex-shaft motor.

In the meantime, I tried out a different saw and blade to cut Faux Bone. I find I have much more success using a Gorbet saw frame and a 4/0 Laser Gold (Rio Grande brand) blade. The difference between the German saw frame with Robert Danzig special blade installed and the other is remarkable. I have more control over the cutting. That problem solved, I'll move onto the next, getting nice clean scribe marks sort of etched into the material to receive color. The material by itself without some enhancement is pretty much blah.

The enormous Rio Grande catalog has arrived and of course, all work stops in order to peruse the contents. Then an e-mail announcing special sale, and there's page after page of that to go through.

I will try again this weekend to show something I've managed to finish using Faux Bone.

Bone Wars

Well folks, Im sorry I have nothing to show for my experiments working with Faux Bone. The material is proving to be a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. I will persevere and not allow the material to get the better of me. So there! In fact, I'm going to order some more of it, so when I do get the hang of working with it, I will have a sufficient supply on hand.

In the meantime, more work got done on the stump. Finished an app for the Foredom drill press. I still have to figure out an app for the Wolf sander. Just to clarify things, not all apps will be present on the stump. There has to be room for using the disc cutter, the dapping tools, anvils and bench blocks, so nothing is ever permanently placed on the stump. Then, there will be finding a place for a small vacuum to take care of the dust when any sanding is to be done. Faux Bone does create a lot of debris. I also need to figure out some kind of a vacuum attachment for the bench pin area on the bench.

Also did maintenance on the Pana Vise. Over the years some debris had built up on the inside of the rotating base making it hard to move. Took that apart and re-lubed it with some lithium grease. Works fine, now.

All for now, thanks for visiting!

The big search.

After moving my Mt. Everest of stuff and junk, after two days of searching, I finally found my scribers, shading plates, and heat gun. All were very carefully put away so I would know exactly where to find them when I needed them.. Ha. ha. Not so. Chalk it up to short term memory loss. The one thing that was really bothersome was the heat gun being in plain sight! I simply didn't remember putting it right there, on a shelf, where it could be found. So now, they are all found, and this time carefully put way in one of the drawers in the tool chest in my little hole in the wall studio. And there they will stay until they are needed.

Tomorrow, I will do some more experimentation with Faux Bone, and hopefully I will be able to post something at the end of the week. I have this idea in my head and I want to try to get something done with it. Wish me success, I need it.

More supplies arrived today. There's still more to order, wire and I think I'll get some more faux bone.