New Toy

Hi All,
In my last post I mentioned my new toy which I will reveal to you today. Recently, I became interested in making bandsaw boxes with my scroll saw and here is the first one I made.

I have mentioned bandsaws and scroll saws, but because these boxes are enhanced by their sculptured lines perhaps they should be called sanded boxes. Much more time is spent sanding the wood to shape than is spent cutting with either saw.

Anyway, I managed to do quite a bit of sanding on the above box using my belt and disc sander. This is a great sander for sanding surfaces that need to be flat but for graceful curves it is not so good. I spent more than a few hours hand sanding this box to the desired shape and it played havoc with my carpal tunnel, so I decided to invest in an oscillating spindle sander. It comes with various sized drums and moves up and down while it sands. It now sits next to my disc and belt sander; its the big orange one in the photo below.

I haven't used it in anger yet, but should be able to give you a full report in my next post because I have just finished designing a new bandsaw box with two draws. I will show you that in my next post too.

Regarding pyrography, my intention is to decorate the boxes I make with pyrography patterns and that is something I'm looking forward to. In fact I have made a start on a small trinket pot that I purchased a while ago. I have divided the pot into quadrants and will fill each one with a different abstract pattern.

 Dividing the pot into quadrants with a curved line may look like a difficult thing to do, but it can be made easier if you break the task down into small chunks. The away I do it is to place four pencil spots on the top rim of the box as if they were compass points, north, south, east and west. Then do the same on the bottom. Then, looking from the top, all you have to do is join top south to bottom west and carry on like that around the pot.
To aid getting the curved line symmetrical, I put a pencil dot half way between the top point and the bottom point and then just drew a simple curve between the two.Here is a picture with red spots to illustrate where I put the pencil dots before drawing the line.

 Lots of drawing tasks involved in pyrography can be made a lot easier if they are broken down. Anyway, in my next post I will show you the finished pot after I've attacked it with my pyrography iron.