Curt Fuller
01-04-2009, 1:20 AM
A while back I got this message, kind of right out of the clear blue, from fellow Creeker Mark Rios...."Sometime around Tuesday set your table saw fence at 9 1/8" and the blade height to 5/16". In the off chance that 5/16" doesn't do it, reset the blade to about 15/16" and recut. That should do it."
Then, sure enough, on the next tuesday, just like he said, the Fedex guy brings me this box....Not your normal cardboard box but I mean a box.....
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb319/clfuller1_2007/thebox.jpg
My wife, daughter, son-in-law, and 3 grandkids were all there when I got home from work and wanted to know what it was. So I was going to pry it open but it was built so darned good that I couldn't begin to get it apart. Then I realized that's what the message he sent was, the way to get it open. But I still had no idea what was in the box. It was pretty heavy, didn't rattle or anything, no ticking. So me, my daughter, and SIL headed into the garage to get out the saw but my wife told my daughter she couldn't go out there with us. She said if it was a bomb she wasn't gonna raise those grandkids by herself. I told her it was from a guy I know and he wouldn't send a bomb but then I got thinking, I don't know, Rios is pretty goofy, maybe he would. Not really. Anyway we cut the box open and it was a shame to have to cut into it because it was a heck of a box. When Rios makes a box, he don't mess around. Inside was a bunch of newspaper and this piece of wood........
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb319/clfuller1_2007/thecherrylog.jpg
So anyway, I roughed it out, soaked in the DNA bucket for a couple days, bagged it and finally finished turning it just before Christmas. I made a couple finials that I didn't like much and then got busy with the holiday stuff and when I got it out to make another finial today, the lid had cracked. Like they say, there's two kinds of wood, wood that's cracked and wood that's gonna crack, especially when it's endgrain with the pith in the center. So I filled in the crack with some black dyed epoxy, made a new finial, and this is "The Rios Box". It's 11" to the top of the finial, 4.5" wide, fruit cherry with some awesome color, some nice knots, and the finial is rosewood.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb319/clfuller1_2007/Thefinishedbox.jpg
Thanks Mark!
Then, sure enough, on the next tuesday, just like he said, the Fedex guy brings me this box....Not your normal cardboard box but I mean a box.....
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb319/clfuller1_2007/thebox.jpg
My wife, daughter, son-in-law, and 3 grandkids were all there when I got home from work and wanted to know what it was. So I was going to pry it open but it was built so darned good that I couldn't begin to get it apart. Then I realized that's what the message he sent was, the way to get it open. But I still had no idea what was in the box. It was pretty heavy, didn't rattle or anything, no ticking. So me, my daughter, and SIL headed into the garage to get out the saw but my wife told my daughter she couldn't go out there with us. She said if it was a bomb she wasn't gonna raise those grandkids by herself. I told her it was from a guy I know and he wouldn't send a bomb but then I got thinking, I don't know, Rios is pretty goofy, maybe he would. Not really. Anyway we cut the box open and it was a shame to have to cut into it because it was a heck of a box. When Rios makes a box, he don't mess around. Inside was a bunch of newspaper and this piece of wood........
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb319/clfuller1_2007/thecherrylog.jpg
So anyway, I roughed it out, soaked in the DNA bucket for a couple days, bagged it and finally finished turning it just before Christmas. I made a couple finials that I didn't like much and then got busy with the holiday stuff and when I got it out to make another finial today, the lid had cracked. Like they say, there's two kinds of wood, wood that's cracked and wood that's gonna crack, especially when it's endgrain with the pith in the center. So I filled in the crack with some black dyed epoxy, made a new finial, and this is "The Rios Box". It's 11" to the top of the finial, 4.5" wide, fruit cherry with some awesome color, some nice knots, and the finial is rosewood.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb319/clfuller1_2007/Thefinishedbox.jpg
Thanks Mark!