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Kenneth George
11-27-2004, 8:49 PM
I have been married to my wife for 25 years now and I swear the older we get the more I tend to amuse her it seems. Today I was making some Christmas ornaments at her request and everything was going just fine until I found a very small crack in a piece of Bubinga that I had already glued onto the 70% finished ornament. Well it was in a place that I knew I had to fix or it would completely break out when I tried to install the eye hook. I normally am a fan of the thick CA glue as it is more controllable and gives a few more seconds on the curing but I needed to use the thin on this so it would flow down into the crack. So I put some CA in the crack and squeezed it together as hard as I could. You have to understand that this piece had finish on it so it was pretty shiny at this point. Well as you probably guessed by now I glued myself to the finial. If that was not bad enough it had also run down between my fingers which were now rather securely glued together. I felt this was not a big problem and I am sure other people have done this also in the past so I would just go in the house and I bet the wife has some finger nail polish remover and the issue will be solved.

No mater how you try to sneak around or act as nothing is wrong while trying to make it to the bathroom cabinet your wife will immediately sense a disturbance in the force. As I walked in the house I had no choice but to pass her watching TV and while normally she would ignore me in this case she asked “were you going?” I said to the bathroom she said “what’s in your hand?” I said an ornament I was working on and she asked “why are you taking it to the bathroom?” well I had no response to this and I think my slight pause while trying to think of some reason as to why I needed the ornament in the bathroom sent up a red flag in her mind. So the next response out of her was “let me see it” I said that I was not finished with it but she demanded so I walked over to her and showed her. She said “oh how pretty, let me hold it” and I said I can’t so of course she wanted to know why. Well without being able to think of something snappy to say I said that it is glued to my hand, she said “What!” and that was it! She was gone, she was laughing so hard she could not breathe and I was standing there wishing I had a bottle of fingernail polish in the shop.

In any case I thought I would show you what I have come up with. Just keep in mind when I joined this forum you guys were the ones that told me I had to post pictures and I lathe a lot! On the plus side I normally only lathe on the weekends.

This one was made last month and was my first ornament but since it is part of the set I thought I would post it also. It is made from Canary wood with a mystery wood for the finials that I got in a grab box of exotics. These are all hollowed out to relive weight.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF2653.jpg

This is Silver Maple with Bubinga finials.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF2662.jpg

This is my favorite so far it is made from Chicarella (name that was taped to it when I bought it) and Red Heart. I made a captive ring on this one that is my smallest yet at about the size of a nickel. I had to hand carve the back of the ring and spent quite some time with it to get it right.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF2660.jpg

Opinions, comments and suggestion always welcome.

Thanks for looking and listening to me whine.

Robert Grady
11-27-2004, 9:24 PM
BAHAHAHAHAH

Where is the pic of the ornament glued to your hand.:D
George, I wasnt laughing at you but was laughing with you. I glued myself to a bowl a couple of months back and the wife hasnt let me live it down yet. Your story took me right back there......still laughing this morning. :D
The ornaments look fantastic. Do you drill a hole through the ball before tuning to accept the finials? Are they turned on a pen mandrell? :confused:

Don Henthorn Smithville, TX
11-27-2004, 9:29 PM
I feel you embarrassment, Kenneth. Some things can really strike them as funny. Nice looking ornaments.

Mark Stutz
11-27-2004, 9:35 PM
This sounds like a good reason to keep some nail polish remover in the shop, only where no one else can see it!

Christopher Pine
11-27-2004, 11:37 PM
Great job on the ornamaents! Are they hollowed out inside the bulb?
Chris
Oh And sorry for the glue incident..
I allmost glued a toothpick to my lips once. ( I use toothpicks a lot when working with glues...) you can see it coming.. I put the toothpick into my mouth as my mind is saying "its ok the glue is on the other end"..
I feel your pain

John Miliunas
11-27-2004, 11:50 PM
Thanks Ken...I needed a good chuckle this evening and you were kind enough to provide it! :D BTW, just so you don't look like a pansy to your other WW buddies, next time you're at the hardware store or the Borg, just pick up a pint or so of Acetone. Same thing really, and looks much more manly on a shelf in the shop, rather than...ahem....nail polish remover! :rolleyes:

Now, as for the ornaments themselves, they look fabulous! Very nice job and one, which I don't think I could equal. I've got a real hard time with the fine stuff and those finials look delicate! Well done, Ken! :) :cool:

Michael Stafford
11-28-2004, 7:48 AM
Ken,

Sometimes it is not funny what our wives think is funny particularly when it is our mishaps. However those mishaps sometimes endear us to them as they trigger the "mothering" instinct. At least it might when they're through laughing... :p :o :D

The ornaments are great!!! :)

Kenneth George
11-28-2004, 8:34 AM
Well Robert, the wife is still laughing this morning also! Yeah I thought it was pretty funny also that is why I posted the story of my mishap yesterday. The wife’s question is what am I going to do to entertain her today?

To answer a couple of questions on these, what I do is to turn the ball leaving about 1” on the chuck side and then run a ¾” forstner bit through the piece. I then move to the hollowing tools and hollow out to about 1/8” thickness or thinner if I am feeling brave and it is cutting well. I then part it off the lathe and glue a ¾” piece in that will become the top finial. I chuck it all up using the collet chuck and complete the ball. I then use the tailstock for support and turn the top finial. When that’s almost done I part it off the lathe. The bottom finial is made separately and glued on. Perhaps not the best way to do this but it is what I have figured out at this time.