I’ve been busy…

I have been working alot lately and I have not had the time to work on my wood crafts very much.  I am somehow finding the time to slowly build a custom dog house.  I will be trying to sell this dog house at an upcoming pet expo that I will be going to.

A break from pen making.

Well I have been away for a few weeks, and I haven’t made to much on the lathe.  Besides working on the lathe I also collect antique cash registers.  Someone bought one of my cash registers early this month and they wanted me to restore it for them.  It is almost completed by now but there are still a few things I’m working out.  I will be posting pictures of it once everything is back to working order.  Then I’ll be getting back into woodworking, my project list already adding up.  In February my wife and I will have a booth at a local pet show where my wife will be selling her “Shurepets” products and I’ll be selling my pens and other items.  Hopefully everyone will check back for more updates, I’m going to be trying some new items and they’ll be posted here first!

Todays project

Wonderful Tulipwood ring

 Todays project was  made out of a tulipwood blank.  This ring took me about 2 hours from start it finish.  This was a very fun project and it turned out looking great,  I used some guiter string to burn some accents into the edges.  It is sanded to a very fine grit that showed no visual scratches and provided a light gloss.  I didn’t want to put a finish on the ring because I don’t know of a finish that will hold up to everyday use.  Please comment of with what you think of my new ring.  Hopefully I will make some in a few different types of wood and ya’ll will be the frist to know!

Still trying to get set-up

Hello all,  Thank you for checking back or stop in for the first time!  I’m still trying to get everything set-up just right.  Hopefully I’ll get it all sorted out pretty soon this whole wordpress thing is new to me.

I am going to start posted details about my projects here on the main page.  Everything from type of wood to the type of finish will be covered and if I run into any problems I’ll be talking about that as well.  If the item is going to be for sale I will put the selling price in the post and with the picture.  The pictures will be posted in my other pages, I plan on adding more pages as I get more items made.  Most of my items are currenttly pens because they are easy and fun to make, plus I can make them quickly.  There will also be some other items thrown in and hopefully you will find those item enjoyable also.

Since I already have your attention I will go ahead and talk about two projects that I finished today.  The first project was a euro style pen  kit,  the wood is unknown (looks like Tulipwood).  This wood was fairly easy to turn and presented no major problems.  To finish the pen I sanded it to 1200 grit at about 2000 rpm, then I used a lint free towel to buff the wood free of any light scratches (I did this at a high 3000 rpm).  I was very carefull not to over heat the wood.  Finishing the wood this way seems to have provided a very good shine that doesn’t seem to be dulling.  I will post if  an update if I have any issues in the future.  This pen will be for sell, I’m asking $30.00.  The second project is a letter opener in the euro style as well.  The wood used for this was Pecan from the tree in my yard.  One problem I’ve seen with the Pecan is soft spots inside the wood, they seem kinda of like pockets of sawdust and will leave a void in the finished piece.  To fix these areas I sometimes use a thin superglue on the spot to harden it and keep it from comeing out.  I’ve even left one pen with the voids in it and it didn’t look all that bad!  This project came out with no voids or soft spots and I finished it the same way as I did with the pen.  This letter opener was given to my mother-n-law. 

Thank you again for taking the time to read, I’ll have a few new project to post after the new year.  Enjoy yourselfs and Happy New Year, may this coming year be better than the ones before.

The shop!

I live in San Antonio, TX.  This is my work shop.  I bought the Jet mini lathe on cragslist and mounted it to the work bench.  The bench has space for my wood and all my lathe accessories.  The lathe was brand new when I got it, the previous owner never even unwrapped the cord.  I get most of my tools from my local Woodcraft store, sometimes I’ll buy some wood from there but I prefer to use wood I can get really cheap or for free.  Alot of my projects use pecan or oak from the trees in my yard, I also use cedar from the hill country.  So far pecan is my favorite to turn it has such a great grain patteren  that looks wonderful on the pens.

Welcome to Custom Turned Designs

Thank you for visiting my site. I will be posting details about my projects here, most things are made on my Jet mini lathe but I also make custom grips for my pistols. Hopefully you will find this site enjoyable and you will vist often!