Austringer Creations

March 2020 Update

Greg Hall — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 16:57:00 +0000

Well, I haven’t posted in more than a year but things are ramping up a bit here at the Aerie, I may be closer to retirement at my “real” job than I anticipated which means I might be closer to being able to make sawdust full time than I hoped. As such, I’ve been working toward some changes at the shop: I’ve been building a stock of slabs to build furniture with as well as accumulating a substantial supply of bowl blanks and other turning stock. I’m building a new wood shed to store this new supply while it dries and cures; you have to figure at least a year per inch of thickness to air dry. I’ve hopefully found a wood kiln being built within a reasonable driving distance to finish drying my stock sooner.

I’ve also bought the building permit to break ground on a new, much larger shop that I hope to be able to move into by this summer or fall at latest. This new shop will allow me to not only hard mount my lathe onto the concrete slab so I can turn off-balanced turning stock without the lathe shaking and walking across the floor but will also provide me with the available room to build my 20′ Mahogany Barrel Back boat and the line of cedar strip canoes I plan to include in my stock. I plan to include carved chairs and other furniture with my products from the shop so the larger work space will be very beneficial.

Finally, once I’m in my new shop I hope to be able to implement a program that I’ve had in mind for several years: I want to offer an opportunity for students who want to learn the basics of woodworking, metalworking and leatherworking at no cost to them. My hope is to help youth from families who aren’t financially able to explore these disciplines otherwise to possibly prepare for possible future employment as woodworkers or simply to learn new skills. Once this program is implemented I’ll rely on donations as well as funds raised from sales of products from the shop for its finance. I already have a Patreon account but am not advertising it yet because I have no firm time line for the program’s launch.

I’ve bought a couple new cameras so I plan to start producing videos again soon for my YouTube channel so I would appreciate new subscriptions, likes and comments to my videos. If I can get another 500 subscribers I can realize financial benefits from my videos again.

Every penny I receive from Patreon or Youtube will go back into the shop to purchase supplies or tools to be used with the Mentorship program.

Until then, check back for regular updates and a re-vamping of my website and check out my YouTube channel, subscribe if you aren’t already a subscriber. I’ll be starting to have drawings for items I make in the shop for subscribers again soon so theres another incentive!

See y’all soon!

Playing Catch-Up

Greg Hall — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 01:31:59 +0000

Since I bought a new spray gun recently I decided to catch up on some of my unfinished bowls this week. At least I was until the weather closed in and it started raining, then the fear of cloudy lacquer from the near 100% humidity insisted I wait until the weather system passed. But I did get a coat on several bowls before caution shut me down.

I have about a half-dozen bowl blanks prepped and ready to mount on the lathe; Yellow Door is asking for some pens and I’m supposed to take a few pieces to the Rome Visitor’s Center to be displayed for sale as well so I have a busy week ahead of me. I’m not complaining! I also plan to stock my online shop this weekend if I can get enough bowls and pens finished.

I’m working on a couple more videos that I hope to have posted this last week of April. This has been one of my most productive months yet as far as videos are concerned and as a result I think YouTube has recommended my channel and videos at a much higher rate than ever before. I’ve enjoyed a small rise in subscription rates and I now have more than 300 subscribers to my YouTube channel! Thank you! I’m only 700 subscribers away from re-qualifying for the YouTube Partner Program!

Well, According to the Weather Channel, tomorrow is supposed to be stormy again but the weekend is supposed to be sunny so hopefully I can get more lacquer sprayed and pick up more wood from the sawmill to fill some of my current orders.

Until next time!

April 8, 2018

Greg Hall — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 01:05:56 +0000

I’ve been using my fiance’s Cannon camera for the past several months to film the videos for my YouTube Channel since my last camera gave up the ghost and I’ve been a bit concerned that the dusty and vibrating conditions in the shop might damage it but still haven’t gotten a new camcorder to use just for that purpose. This afternoon, I decided to try my new bowl coring system and when I tried setting up the camera it wouldn’t auto-focus. All it would do was make a strange noise but the image remained blurry no matter what I tried. So, before deciding I was going to have to buy an new camera sooner rather than later I went inside the house and tried a different lens, which worked flawlessly. The good news? After reading a couple forums online I found that this isn’t an uncommon issue with this particular lens, it seems the auto-focus mechanism sometimes jams and all I had to do was set it to manual focus and twist the focus ring (which I had already tried but it wouldn’t move and I didn’t want to force it and break something even worse than it already was). After the ring popped loose it began to move freely once again and even better, the auto-focus is working again after returning the lens to auto-focus mode. Fortunately, no need to budget $200 for a new lens!

Once I got the camera sorted I was able to start my first turning with my new bowl coring system. I had to address a few stumbling blocks caused by my lack of knowledge like making sure all the screws holding the knife to the handle as well as the tool rest are absolutely tight but in the end I was successful with my first attempt. I’m very encouraged about using this tool on a regular basis.

I’m not sure about the future of this blog section of the website; the only feedback I’m receiving is annoying SPAM and yesterday alone I was hammered with more than 200 SPAM comments. The time required to review all the comments for approval or disapproval, mark the appropriate comments as SPAM then delete each one, especially when there are few or no legitimate comments effectively offsets the value of maintaining a blog at all. I’ll try a few more posts before making my final decision.

Finally, the video for today’s adventure in the shop should be up as soon as I finish editing and producing it. Check it out at my YouTube channel!

New Tools!

Greg Hall — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 03:09:43 +0000

Now that I’ve got my new, bigger lathe up and running I’m finally able to try out the new tools and accessories I’ve been accumulating over the past several months. Today I unboxed my McNaughton Center Saver coring system and made a simple, amateur review; the video can be seen at https://youtu.be/Zdn4ehMdfHo

My stay-cation is over today, I had to shave the mohawk off and get ready to go back to work tomorrow. Why does retirement seem so far off in the future?! I’m looking forward to the time when I can keep the ‘hawk for more than a week at at time while I’m on vacation leave! Oh well, I gotta put my time in before I can sit it out I suppose. Anyway, check out the new video and while you’re there I’d appreciate all the subscriptions I can get on my YouTube channel! I’m still a long way away from the 1000 subscribers I need in order to qualify for the YouTube Partners Program again.

Well, until next time, enjoy!

Happy Easter

Greg Hall — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 19:47:57 +0000

Happy Easter! When you think of Easter, invariably visions of cute little bunnies and kids dressed in impeccable pastel finery running around the yard carrying baskets full of green plastic strips mimicking grass while searching for brightly colored eggs that have been hidden in plain sight. But regardless its origins, what the day represents is something more important: it represents the day that the greatest man who ever lived rose from the dead after being killed by crucifixion three days earlier. This event was the single most significant point in human history and it is the foundation for our salvation to eternal life after death on Earth.

Today, more than ever before, we need to look at one another, not as strangers but as kin because we are all related by blood, not shed by us but shed for us. For many centuries, men have committed uncounted atrocities against fellow human beings in the name of gods (both capital “G” and little “g”) but God doesn’t call for that. Jesus taught love and peace, accepting and embracing those sneered at by the establishment of the day, teaching that everyone was worthy of love and acceptance. Maybe, just maybe if we tried to revisit that idea in our current lives and concentrate on what Jesus taught, the world’s future might be somewhat less bleak.

March 18, 2018

Greg Hall — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 11:58:37 +0000

Well, I finally made it back into the shop for more than fifteen minutes at a time. I still can’t stand at it for an extended time but I got this piece done today. I think the New (to me) lathe is a winner! I also got to use some new parts and tools I’ve been picking up for the past six months or so that I couldn’t use with my smaller lathe: new tool rests and a vacuum chuck to complete this odd piece in the accompanying photo. It is spalted oak, a stub of a limb that was sawn off the trunk before it was slabbed on a sawmill. It took some coercing to get it mounted suitably on the lathe and I had to start turning at about 250 rpm, which caused quite a few catches due to the extreme shape of the blank but once I was able to turn it up to about 700 rpm it got much easier. It still ranks as one of the sketchiest pieces I’ve turned yet but I’m happy with it. I hope to be able to try the coring system later this week but first I have about a dozen commissioned pens I need to finish.

More updates to come!

Christmas in March

Greg Hall — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 21:22:05 +0000

I’m about to tell my age: do any of you remember the ads in magazines and comic books where you could sell what was basically junk and thereby earn “points” you could in turn redeem for more junk as a reward? I remember that I fell under the spell of one of these magical opportunities not long before my eighth birthday and while I don’t remember what I sold, maybe Christmas cards or wrapping paper or some other useless miscellany, what I had my eye on as a prize was a battery-operated slot car race track. When I finally sold exactly enough inventory (and not one item more) I sealed the order form and money orders into an envelope and dropped it into the big blue mailbox at the corner then began waiting. And waiting. And then I waited a while longer. The small print on the full-page ad in the Boy’s Life magazine said to allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery and they meant it, too.

Well, we’ve come a long way since those archaic times; we only need to log onto a website today, choose what we want to purchase then give a number from a piece of plastic we keep hidden in our wallet and our instant gratification is usually satisfied a few days later. I placed three orders on Thursday: One to Pennsylvania, one to New York state and a third to a company about 60 miles away in my own home state of Georgia and already two of the three orders have been delivered. A box of pen kits from Pennsylvania was delivered by Uncle Sam’s service on Saturday, my new McNaughton Center Saver bowl coring system came on the brown van today from New York state and I suppose I should have just driven to Cumming to buy the laser cut inlay parts in person because according to their website my order hasn’t even shipped yet. Maybe they miss the good old days, too. No matter, it’s all good, I still have plenty to do without working on this latest round of pens (did I mention I got a bowl coring system?!!!). I’m still thrilled that I got the big lathe working and can now use a coring system to try to get more than one bowl out of a block of wood, which is what I am headed out to the shop now to do!

Oh, and the battery-operated slot car race track? My very first experience meeting the guy driving the big brown van (and being handed a box that was surprisingly smaller and lighter than I had envisioned) happened one summer afternoon in 1976. I set up the somewhat delicate looking race track, which was small enough to fit easily on the living room coffee table, and filled the battery pack with two D-cell batteries that I liberated from my 45 rpm record player. I had visions of Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough flying around the high banks of Daytona as my younger brother and I placed the two plastic cars in the slots on the track then with a dramatic “Gentlemen start your engines!” we simultaneously pressed the buttons on the plastic controllers and…….

Nothing.

Not even a spark. Those cars never rolled an inch under their own power and while I could most likely get it running today, I had no clue at the age of 7 how to troubleshoot an electronic circuit so my long-awaited prize ended up in the trash can at the side of the road not long after.

I admit, I still get a little excited at the prospect of getting a package in the mail!

It’s Alive! It’s Alive!

Greg Hall — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 23:40:09 +0000

The new lathe is up and running! I bought this 18″x42″ lathe from a fellow member of the Northwest Georgia Woodturners club because it was dead. I ordered and installed a new motor and 3 phase 220v inverter but the lathe still didn’t work. When I opened up the control panel and tested the switches I found that the emergency stop switch’s contacts were welded together (apparently this happened when the original inverter shorted out with the previous owner) and when I jumped across the switch, bypassing it, the lathe ran so I ordered a new switch. The brown van dropped the package off today and five minutes later she’s working like a champ! Now I need to get the older lathe out of the shop to make room for the new one and start on the several larger bowls I’ve been waiting to do when I got the requisite equipment, I already have one, maybe two tentative offers to buy my old machine and that money will go toward a new chuck and bowl gouge. On the subject of new tools, I also took the plunge this week and ordered a McNaughton Center Saver bowl coring system so I can turn more than one bowl from the same blank. I’m looking forward to it being delivered Monday. In an answer to several requests, I also ordered materials for about fifteen more inlay pens so I’ll be able to fill those orders as well as build more stock next week.

Come back in a day or two and I’ll try to update on how well the new (to me) lathe works!

March 4, 2018

Greg Hall — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 21:36:48 +0000

I find myself at the end of another week and the beginning of a new one and I haven’t accomplished nearly what I had hoped to. But I have a whole new week to work with and I promise to make the most of it! It has been somewhat bittersweet, I’m still having problems with my knee on one leg and ankle on the other so I don’t even know which leg to limp on and still can’t stand in front of the lathe for very long without needing to sit down for a while. This has been good for making pens, I’ve found that sitting and assembling one pen while the finish coats are drying on the next has been suiting me fine but I much prefer turning bowls. My new lathe is still not ready to take over turning duties but hopefully I’ve narrowed that problem down to the safety switch; after removing and disassembling the switch I found that the contacts were welded together (probably happened when the original inverter smoked) so I have a new one ordered. Once it arrives around Wednesday or Thursday I should be able to have it turning within about 30 minutes or so.

I really need to finish reorganizing my shop, I need to find a better use for the limited space I have. Maybe one day I’ll be able to expand to something larger, fingers crossed!

I was able to watch my future step-daughter cheer in her last high school basketball game yesterday in Milledgeville, Ga, unfortunately the Model Lady Devils lost their first game this season in the final four. What a great season!

I’m working on plans to adapt a concept I tried on my YouTube channel and base it here on the website instead, at least until I gain enough subscribers to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program again. If I can find enough interest I’ll start having periodic drawings for free projects I make in the shop. I’ll get a poll up soon to find out just how much interest it might generate.

I have obtained an SSL certificate for the website and store so customers can be secure in making purchases and subscribing or entering for drawings. I sill plan to use an offsite financial service for store purchases to further increase security but Austringer Creations will be a “Secure (https://)” website once the certificate application is approved and the website has been registered, supposedly within the next few hours to four days. I’m moving up in the world!

Now lets go out and finish sealing these bowl blanks to keep them from cracking as they dry!

Windfall

Greg Hall — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 21:01:49 +0000

As defined by Merriam-Webster, ‘Windfall’ comes from the 15th century and describes: 1: something (such as a tree or fruit) blown down by the wind and 2: an unexpected, unearned, or sudden gain or advantage. Although today the second definition is by far the more commonly used, I’m happy to say I am the beneficiary according to both. I’ve avoided Bradford Pear as material in the shop until fairly recently when I turned a bowl from a small block and was most pleasantly surprised to find the character of the wood to be quite attractive, contrary to what I expected. One of the benefits of Georgia weather is that anytime we get exuberant storms, the wind (or ice) brings quite a few Bradford Pears down or splits large limbs off. Either way, there are often times that the availability of the wood can be immense. Within the past couple weeks I’ve found myself to be the fortunate recipient of three truckloads of free wood, two of Bradford Pear and one of Eastern Red Cedar. I’m going to have to build a new shed to store and dry my bowl blanks at this rate! Life is good!…