Address Sign

Just a quick post to feature my latest project — a new address sign for our home. Our previous address sign came with the house and was a little tacky looking (arts and crafts painted tile).

I purchased the copper numbers from Amazon and got to work on deciding how I wanted to lay them out. I cut some simple baltic birch 1/2 plywood to the basic shape to create a backer board and primed/painted it black. I then bought some walnut boards and cut/planed them down to size and spaced them out about 1/4" apart and screwed them in from the back of the plywood. Next I added some walnut strips as a frame around the edges.

The trickiest part was measuring out where the drill holes would be to mount the copper numbers would go. Each number had two spikes on the back with plastic anchors. These drill holes had to be precise, so lots of light pencil lines and precise measuring had to take place. Once I was sure they would be centered and spaced, I drilled the holes on the drill press. Then I ran the entire block through the drum sander a few times to make sure I was flat and smooth all around.

Because there was an existing tile house number plate that was fixed to the brick — and I decided that removing it would cause too much damage to the home — I fixed an aluminum plate to the back of the new project that hooks into original plate. A few test fits and some tweaking here and there, it was time to finish.

I finished the wood with 3 coats of Danish Oil, and 2 coats of Spar urethane. Let all of the coats dry, and popped it into place. Hoping it will weather all storms for many years to come.

Quack

Left to right: Cherry, Spalted maple from family cottage in MI, dyed maple.

Here are a few recent duck call bodies I made to pair with some nice double-reed Echo call inserts. Used some nice dry wood from the scrap bin. Bored them out to 5/8" and added brass bands for stability. A few coats of Danish Oil, a few coats of Tru-oil, and a good smoothing with #0000 steel wool. They look great and sound amazing with the Echo call inserts. Really nice top end hail calls, which have always been tricky with some of the single reed calls I've made.

Honestly, I can't wait to turn some more. Next time I'll experiment with pinning the bands on and see how they turn out.

Experiment in hollow forms

Something that I have wanted to try for a year or so. Hollow forms are wooden objects turned on the lathe where a bulk of the insides are removed with specialty tools (plus some careful technique and great luck). They are tricky and dangerous and take a steady hand and patience. However the outcome can be a really interesting conversation piece of art.

I experimented with turning some finial tops to add some visual interest and to cap off the small openings. I think they "turned" out well and have found some happy homes with family members.

Large 11" diameter hollow form made from American Cherry. Finial turned from Peruvian walnut (dyed black).

Medium hollow form turned from a piece of spalted maple. The photo shows (unfinished) Peruvian walnut finial and lid. The spalted maple was a bit punky to work with because of how soft it is. Next time I think I will run it through a stabilization process before finish turning.

The working (pre-finish) body of the spalted maple hollow form. Ready for sanding and Danish Oil. Notice the bit of chip out of the end grain around the inside of the opening. Drove me a bit nuts, but sometimes minor defeats lead to learning processes.

A photo of the hollow form on the lathe after turning the general shape of the bottom profile.