"Today, I Win"
Apprenticeship Day 19
Once again, I started the day with a morale building cup rough out. These are short blanks that will become little goblets. If the wood doesn't split again...
When I was roughing that out, Jarrod came into the workshop, hunting around for a suitable sloyd knife. Suitable for what, you say? Whittling the end of a snow shovel of course. I wonder what specially ground knife Barn would use for that?
The Industrial Snow Shovel Complex: 0, Jarrod: 1
Spotting my quizzical look Jarrod explained that the shovel, minus the plastic handle on the end, is $25. Buy one with a plastic handle fitted, $35 please. A little plastic handle on it's own: $3. He concluded "Today, I win".
I started spinning another bowl. Partway through I noticed that the mandrel had developed a split at the end. This led to it rattling around on the metal centre, forming an oval, which made the bowl spin in an oval. Jarrod explained that I had two choices; replace the mandrel or cut the split off and try to remount it on centre. That second one sounded a little tricky, so I bashed the bowl off the mandrel and stuck another in.
The second mandrel went in at an ever-so-slightly different angle. So I had to re-turn the whole bowl down to the new level. I was using the template again today. I thought I had it pretty close. Once Jarrod did the finishing on it, he pointed out that it wasn't as close as the others were. It was close enough for him to work with, but I'm missing out on practicing my turning accuracy by not holding myself to higher standards.
We had a chat about next week's plans. Now that we're getting into a groove, Jarrod wants us to keep this momentum through next week. After next week, I'm home for Christmas for a couple of weeks. So we're going to really focus on bowls. We've got a pile of lovely birch and a design to work to. We do however, need more mandrels.
I got busy with mandrels. Again. Rather than proclaim the joys of spinning bone-dry maple octagons, scraping them against tools not built for the job, I'm going to give you an insight into some of my deepest inner-thoughts. This might not be wise, sharing with you things usually left unspoken. But I'm in a daring mood. Off we go.
Adult Me: 'Huh, this is starting to look a bit like a penis'
*Adolescent Me bolts upright*
Adolescent Me: 'Make it into a penis'
Adult Me: 'No, that's a stupid idea'
Adolescent Me: 'Go on. It'll be hilarious'
Adult Me: 'I don't want Jarrod to come in and find me making a maple dildo'
Adolescent Me: 'Hahahaha. A wooden dildo. Do it'
Adult Me: 'No, I'm not going to make...'
Adult Me: 'Oh, bollocks'
Adolescent Me: ''BWAHAHAHAHAHA YOU MADE A DICK!'
*Turning intensified*
I then spent the last part of the day sweeping and tidying. Couldn't be trusted on the lathe anymore.
Tangental Semi-Political Rant
I know you come here mainly for craft, woodworking and the occasional Taylor Swift Dance video. The following hasn't much to do with that, so here's fair warning. It's also rather US-centric. But Jarrod and I chatted about it, so it falls within the remit of this blog.
Today, the FCC got rid of rules stopping Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or slowing particular websites or apps. The vast majority of the American people did not want this to happen. As far as the public are concerned this isn't a Republican/Democrat thing. The way I see it, this only benefits ISPs.
As a small business owner, this change has the potential to really hurt me. If my ISP decides it doesn't want it's customers to access Paypal - the service I use to process card payments at craft fairs- I won't be able to access Paypal. Or I might have to pay more to access it. This blog is a Squarespace site. Potentially Wix (a competitor to Squarespace) could strike a deal with an ISP so their websites load quicker. Heck, Squarespace could strike the deal, but the cost of that deal will probably come out of my pocket.
With Net Neutrality rules, my website is treated the same as internet giants such as Amazon, Facebook and cats. Without the rules, the American public's access to content is left to whims of multi-billion dollar corporations. And they always have our best interests in mind.
Part of what annoys me the most about this is the insistence by those supporting the removal of these consumer protections that the ISPs won't restrict traffic. Despite them paying millions lobbying to change the rules so they can. But they won't. Just get rid of the rules, we promise to behave.
So the FCC is letting ISPs be the gatekeepers of America's internet. The decision is going to be challenged in the courts. If you feel strongly enough, contact your representative in Washington and let them know you think this was the wrong decision.
Rant over.
Here are the two bowls I roughed out yesterday in their finished form. The bowl in the background is what the template was based off.
Here's a small nested bowl Jarrod made. I'm leaving bigger cores on the bowls, so more of these little guys will be happening.
Cute!
That's it for this week. Back again Monday.
If the ISPs allow it...
