People have asked me about the picture on my sidebar.

This is a home made device for creating wood carvings, especially signs. It is a beefed up Pantograph.

I used it to make these two signs for my daughter and son in law. As teachers, they display them in their classrooms.

I create templates for each letter on scrap particle board. The letters are printed out with grid marks and affixed to the wood blocks, and cut out with a scroll saw.

The letter blocks are double size, and the pantograph shrinks them by 50% and this makes any slight defects in the letters imperceptible.

The pantograph is also 3D, so depth is also variable, and a conical follower can be used with a conical router bit to create sharp corners. Almost impossible to do with a round router bit.

It is memorial day.

I am starting a project for an acquaintance of mine for whom this is a special day, with mixed emotions of pride and sorrow.
I am dedicating this post and project to Army 1st Lt. David T. Wright II, and his parents Tim and Michele.

The project is a custom turned Pepper Mill. I have a design in my head, but it will likely change as the wood speaks to me.   I am putting up a preliminary post and will update it as the project progresses. The temperature here is over 100 degrees today in the shop, so work has been intermittent!

A wishing well to dress up an ugly swimming pool pump motor.  We have a little stone waterfall which runs by a re-circulation pump. I wanted to make something to match the mood of the pond like area.  I started using some rough cut redwood fencing panels. I planed them smooth.

I love fresh ground pepper. Especially from a home made pepper mill. We decided to make a pepper mill from cherry and walnut woods. The design is achieved by layering alternating planks of light and dark wood, then cutting them on a slant.

A student I know was very interested in making a Jouhikko. Mind you, I had no idea what a Jouhikko is, or was?  So I looked it up on Wikipedia.

It is apparently a musical instrument of antiquity, a sort of stringed lyre. It makes the type of sounds associated with Fjord music.  If you like, you can hear what it sounds like now and in past centuries!  We studied plans and history. It was VERY cold in the shop, so we got the Scandinavian spirit! She only had a couple weeks to make the item, so I did a trial run with a similar instrument. The Anglo Saxon Lyre is a strummed or plucked lyre, not a bowed instrument.

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Some of my Lathe projects.

I am so excited about this project.
I made a whole page for it.

Check it out on featured projects.

This Jerry Upcraft's hobby and crafting corner.

Join me!
We will explore projects that idle hands crave, and creative minds love. Also click my Facebook link to see what else is going on.
I have many wood working, sewing, Silhouette machine, and even brewing projects to discuss. Send me your ideas, and I will share mine.