It was a good weekend.
Okay, folx... It's picture time!
Yes, I got my Ringmaster, but before I show you pictures of what it does, here's a few steps leading up to playing with it.
The ringmaster starts with flat boards, up to 3/4" thick. So I needed to glue up a cool pattern.
The first step is to cut pieces to be glued up. In this case, Paduak and Maple, which are brick-red and light tan respectively:
I was doing a lot of glue-ups on Saturday morning, including some rings I cut from solid boards:
I had to make a custom clamp for gluing up rings, using a threaded rod to sandwich two melamine-laminated MDF boards.
Ask any woodworker if he has enough clamps, and the answer is most assuredly, "No."
By Saturday night, I had my first completed project: a little toy drum. I cut some laces and a drumskin out of goatskin, soaked it for a few minutes in hot water, and then stretched it over the top of the drum while watching TV.
By Sunday morning, the skin had dried tight, and it sounded pretty good for as small as it is.
Also on sunday morning, the two halves of the complex glue-up were ready to join together. I went out to the shed bright and early, ran both halves through the jointer, and glued them into a whole circle.
About two hours later (I did other stuff in the meantime, but didn't take pictures) I ran the finished board through my surface planer and then drilled a 1/2" hole in the center so I could mount it on the Ringmaster's mandrel.
(I took that last pic with the camera timer, so I could be in the picture.)
After it was mounted on the Ringmaster, I started cutting rings. This goes really fast.
I cut a lot of rings Sunday morning...
I cut so many rings from various stocks of wood, that I decided I need to make more ring-stacking clamps... so I went shopping for more parts that afternoon. I made more rings in one weekend than I could have made in 4 months of weekends.
While I was out, I also headed up to Solana Beach to check out Cut&Dried Hardwood... but they either closed or moved again (they just moved into that shop last year), so that was a wasted trip. I'll look them up later.
I did stop by Rockler and see if they had any choice pieces of 3/4" stock. I picked up some Zebrawood, more Paduak, and a nice wide piece of Walnut.
Anyhow, Sunday evening was spent building more clamps, specifically for gluing up ringmaster rings. More pictures later as I get more things done. ;)
Yes, I got my Ringmaster, but before I show you pictures of what it does, here's a few steps leading up to playing with it.
The ringmaster starts with flat boards, up to 3/4" thick. So I needed to glue up a cool pattern.
The first step is to cut pieces to be glued up. In this case, Paduak and Maple, which are brick-red and light tan respectively:
I was doing a lot of glue-ups on Saturday morning, including some rings I cut from solid boards:
I had to make a custom clamp for gluing up rings, using a threaded rod to sandwich two melamine-laminated MDF boards.
Ask any woodworker if he has enough clamps, and the answer is most assuredly, "No."
By Saturday night, I had my first completed project: a little toy drum. I cut some laces and a drumskin out of goatskin, soaked it for a few minutes in hot water, and then stretched it over the top of the drum while watching TV.
By Sunday morning, the skin had dried tight, and it sounded pretty good for as small as it is.
Also on sunday morning, the two halves of the complex glue-up were ready to join together. I went out to the shed bright and early, ran both halves through the jointer, and glued them into a whole circle.
About two hours later (I did other stuff in the meantime, but didn't take pictures) I ran the finished board through my surface planer and then drilled a 1/2" hole in the center so I could mount it on the Ringmaster's mandrel.
(I took that last pic with the camera timer, so I could be in the picture.)
After it was mounted on the Ringmaster, I started cutting rings. This goes really fast.
I cut a lot of rings Sunday morning...
I cut so many rings from various stocks of wood, that I decided I need to make more ring-stacking clamps... so I went shopping for more parts that afternoon. I made more rings in one weekend than I could have made in 4 months of weekends.
While I was out, I also headed up to Solana Beach to check out Cut&Dried Hardwood... but they either closed or moved again (they just moved into that shop last year), so that was a wasted trip. I'll look them up later.
I did stop by Rockler and see if they had any choice pieces of 3/4" stock. I picked up some Zebrawood, more Paduak, and a nice wide piece of Walnut.
Anyhow, Sunday evening was spent building more clamps, specifically for gluing up ringmaster rings. More pictures later as I get more things done. ;)