January 5th 2014: Learning Woodturning in Hampden

Today, I had an appointment to learn how to do woodturning, a type of woodworking that I have not done before, with Tom's Hand Crafted Designs, located in the town of Hampden. As a result, I started out my day heading southwest, starting with the town of Webster.

Club Pond, 65 Gore Road

Nipmuck Pond, 179 Sutton Road

Perryville Pond Dam, 82 Perryville Road

View from Blueberry Hill, Upper Gore Road

Next, it was Dudley.

Baker Pond, End of Kruger Island Road

Sylvestri Pond, 28 Sylvestri Road

After finishing Charlton,

South Charlton Reservoir,

193 Partridge Hill Road 

Lower Sibley Pond,

Capen Road and Sturbridge Road

it was on to the town of Brimfield.

Sherman Pond, 92 Brookfield Road

Wheeler Pond, 20 Mill Lane Road

Dearth Hill Pond, 75 Dearth Hill Road

It's been a while since I last visited Monson, and the churches here have been repaired since then.

Calkin's Pond, 9 Stagecoach Lake Drive

Paradise Lake Beach, 75 Lakeside Drive

Chicopee Brook Reservoir, 58 Palmer Road

Baldwin Pond, 272 Reimers Road

Silver Street Chapel,

224 Silver Street

The views coming down on Ely Road were pretty nice too.

In Wilbraham, I visited the Red Bridge Dam area at 16 Red Bridge Road

before finally heading to the city of Springfield for lunch at Casa de Nana, a Mexican bar restaurant in town.

With my deal, I had to order a lot of food, getting the Black Bean Soup (Vegetable Sopa with black beans, rich beef broth and sour cream),

the Buffalo Chicken Wings (served with blue cheese and celery) for appetizers,

the Seafood Diablo Dinner (shrimp, pacific whitefish and Alaskan Pollock covered with ranchero sauce and jack cheese) with cream spinach and refried beans for my main dish,

and the Fruit Empanadas (flour tortilla stuffed with fruit and lightly fried, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon) for dessert.

The soup was pretty good actually, and I did not expect sour cream to go well with it, which it did. The wings were dripping with buffalo sauce, but so good that I used up all my napkins wiping my hands down after every wing. Unfortunately, the main course was simply awful, the meat not being very fresh, while the dessert was just a Mexican apple pie with not as much flavor. Overall, not a place I will come back to. From here, I decided to visit the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame museum in town. 

From here, one has a decent view of the downtown Springfield skyline.

The museum is pretty nice, situated within a dome. It was also cool to note that Springfield was actually where the game of basketball originated, being created by Jame Naismith in 1891. Pictures I took here follow.

Overall, a definite recommend for basketball fans out there.

From here, I headed into downtown Springfield to do a little sightseeing there

City Hall, 36 Court Street

Downtown Springfield with Monarch Place

Old South End Community Center

Old First Spiritualist Church, 

33 Bliss Street

United Bank, 115 State Street

First Church of Christ, Congregational

Housing Court

Court Square Building

One Financial Plaza Artwork

Northwestern Mutual Life

Court Square

Hampden Superior Court

Symphony Hall

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church

At this point, I decided it was time to head to Hampden for my woodturning lesson. The lesson was conducted in the basement of the instructor's home, and the instructor's daughter also came down to learn a little with me.

The instructor first showed us a few of his completed pens,

then talked a lot about what to look for when buying a lathe, the key piece of equipment used in woodturning, like the importance of having no non-metal parts which won't wear out easily, the prevention of wobbling of the equipment by holding it down with heavy bases, the height of the T-rest, the height of the center from the base which determine how large a piece can be made on the machine, the type of tail stock, head stock and bed and so on.

Before getting to work, he showed us how to sharpen the tools we were to use,

which are much larger than woodcarving tools, which I have used before.

Using a typical looking sharpener, with an add-on to keep the tool in place while being sharpened,

he sharpened a tool for us to see.

With that, it was time to start work. I chose to make a golden pen set, and the different parts were laid out on a table in front of me.

We were then told to choose a piece of wood that would eventually cover the pen we were each going to make, of which I decided to go with a purple piece of wood called purpleheart which comes from Central and South America.

Picking up one of the brass cylinders, I first measured and marked out how much wood I would need for the top and the bottom sections of the pen, leaving a little headspace and tailspace as well.

Once done,

it was time to cut out the unwanted pieces of wood using a mechanical saw,

leaving behind the 2 pieces of wood we needed.

Next, we had to find the rough center of the wood through which to drill a hole to put in the brass cylinders from earlier. This is done using a straight edge to draw diagonals from each corner

 to find the center at the intersection of the lines.

To drill the hole, we used a drill machine,

using a drill bit of the appropriate size with a small pointed end. 

After clamping the piece of wood down,

it was time to start drilling

until a complete hole is made in the wood.

Next, before inserting the brass cylinder, its exterior needs to be roughed up with sandpaper to allow for easier adherence to the walls of the wood

when it is lined with super glue.

The cylinder is then pushed into the wood quickly,

with the help of the rod such that either side sticks out of the wood.

An accelerating spray is then used to quicken the hardening of the glue

 to finish the adhering process.

The next step involves using the drill again, this time with another drill head in order to level out the wood flush with the top of the cylinder,

giving this final product.

A small knife is then used to burr the inside of the cylinder to ease the woodworking process.

The blocks on then slid onto a stock rod, with bushings of the target pen thickness inserted in between

before it is assembled onto the lathe, first attaching it to the head stock,

then fixing it tightly with the tail stock,

and finally placing the tool rest appropriately under the work pieces.

After showing us how to properly hold the tool against the wood, above the center of the piece to prevent the tool from being flipped into the machine,

the machine was started,

and the woodworking began.

This is done

Almost there

until the wood is completely cylindrical

before finally moving on to the fine tuning step using another tool,

whittling the wood down to the target thickness.

Next, it was time to smoothen the piece, with pieces of sandpaper with increasingly finer grain size.

This is done by turning on the machine and moving the sandpaper over the wood.

Between each switch of sandpaper, the machine is stopped and the excess wood shaving is scrubbed off the piece using the same sandpaper. Finally, it is time to put on the first coating of polishing wax.

After dabbing a little onto a cloth,

it is rubbed onto the wood,

giving the piece a definite shine after rubbing a second time with a clean section of the cloth.

From here, it was time to apply the final coats using different brushes,

first applying more of the polishing wax after coating the brush,

then using other brushes for the buffing and finally the carnauba wax coating.

With that, it was time to assemble the pen,

using another apparatus to push in the head and the turning mechanism to the right level,

doing the same for the tail pieces,

and finally assembling the final product, which looked really good.

Finally, a pen to call my own for real.

With that, I decided to head to the town of Wilbraham for dinner at an Italian restaurant, Abudanza. I initially thought it was an upscale place, but it turned out to be more of a bar restaurant kind of atmosphere, though still decent.

For food, I decided to get the Snakebite Pasta (linguine with sauteed chicken, baby spinach, jalapenos, cheddar and parmesan cheeses all topped with spicy alfredo sauce),

which came with a side Turkey Noodle Soup.

Both dishes were really good, especially the pasta with its tangy spiciness. Unfortunately, I was still full from lunch so I had to take most of the pasta home, which will be a good thing to have for lunch tomorrow. 

With that, I brought my pen home with me, satisfied with having learnt something new today.