Ok, this is actually post 105, but I missed my opportunity and I wanted to celebrate it anyway. A lot has happened over the last 100 posts. The first post was back on November 17, 2005. If you have the time, feel free to look through the archives. This blog has grown incredibly in readership over the past few months and is by far my most successful blog. Thank you all for coming here to see what I’m doing. I especially thank those of you who keep coming back!
Finally, Mel and I are taking a much needed break from work and getting away for the weekend. This time together!
We are borrowing a cabin in the mountain from some friends and getting out of here. It’s very near our favorite hot springs where we will be spending much of our time soaking and enjoying each other. We will be living exclusively on the organic vegetarian cuisine that is served by the hot springs in their lodge. Exclusively that is except for the cheetos and beer that we are bringing along. On Sunday we both have 90 minute massages scheduled. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to that!
We are actually getting ready to leave right now, so I must get going. We will be back on Monday afternoon. See you then!
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March 1st is the date in sight for the launch of Blogmad, a new blog referral service. If you have not already signed up for this exciting new site, you can do so here. If you are already a member, go to the blogmad forums tomorrow at 10:00 am GMT to participate in blogmad bugday and maybe get a chance to get into the site early. I will be out of town, but let me know if it has been worth the wait!
I have been working on a new look for my wordpress blog for some time now and believe me it has been no easy task. I want to have 3 columns because I have so much going on in the sidebars on this site and many things get lost in the long list. This is still a work in progress, but I think I am getting pretty close to what I want here. Feel free to offer me some feedback.
The hardest part in all this has been to find or create a layout that will work in all browsers. A three column theme that functions well in Internet Explorer seems to be a very difficult thing to accomplish. I have finally come to the conclusion that Internet Explorer is broken. This is hardly breaking news, others on the web are saying the same thing. I won’t attempt to explain how it is broken since I am not an expert, but the problem is basically that IE is unable to display some CSS code in the way that it is designed to be displayed. ***Update*** With some monkey business and a little luck I have been able to fix the 3 column display in IE. There are still some problems but they seem more reasonable now.
Fortunately for me Firefox by Mozilla is a much smarter browser. Fortunately for you, you can download it for free.
At the risk of offending or alienating some of my readers I have given up trying to please the Internet Explorer gods for now. This site will work in IE, but it will work much better in Firefox. Give it a try. If you simply must use Internet Explorer you will have to scroll down the page to see the 3rd column. All of the navigation links are in the column on the left.
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I’ve added a new semi-regular feature to my site. I got a few comments and questions about Dad’s work and I have invited him to contribute an article or two when he has time. If you find his words interesting, leave him a comment here … or better yet, visit his site to support his habit at www.heirloompens.com. Here’s his first contribution:
"When I was about 8 or 10 years old my dad would take me with him to his shop in the evening when Mom wasn’t home to watch me. I don’t think dad much liked the experience but it kept me from stealing cars at night. I would watch over his shoulder as he turned wood on his lathe. Sometimes it was things he made for fun and other times it was something he needed for his finish carpentry business.
He often made pool cues on his lathe. Hand turned cues are a rare commodity anymore if you can find them at all. He had such skills that he could turn a cue straight and true every time. In those days, as now, cues had two colors of wood. The tip end was made of Maple and the butt end was made of a darker wood like Walnut. He was able to join the wood and turn it so close to perfect that all of the points in the joinery were even. He would show me and brag. He liked approval. So do I.
I have started to focus on bowl making over the past few months. Recently I have started working on segmented bowls and pots. These are a great challenge but, if done well, they result in great satisfaction. Over the next few weeks I will try to describe the process of making a segmented bowl or vessel. Such vessels rarely have any practical use except perhaps for sealing pre-adolescent boys in until they turn 24. That’s a whole different story, forget I said it.
Every vessel begins with a drawing. You must know before you begin what you want to finish with. One of the benefits of segmented turning is economy of wood. One of the disadvantages is the amount of time consumed cutting each segment.
A segmented bowl is built in layers or rows. A row can be made up of any number of segments. The vessels I have made have had anywhere from 4 segments to 28 segments per row. The size of the segment is determined by the diameter of the vessel at that particular point and must take into account the size of the rows above and below. This is why a detailed drawing is so important. Jeff was kind enough to let me write an occasional article about wood turning and over the next few weeks I will try to provide explanation and pictures of the process.
Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate your attention and interest. If you have questions feel free to email me at rbenham@heirloompens.com If you haven’t read this far I guess this paragraph is wasted. If you didn’t read this far, tell me where you quit reading if you will. Richard"