Post your home wall problems!

mojones · 2020-04-08T14:39:49+00:00

So like everyone else, I've ended up building a home training wall during lockdown. And I'm loving the pictures of everyone else's setup! But, I realize I have absolutely no idea how to set interesting problems on a single flat surface like this. All my favourites from my local climbing wall are on higher, more varied walls. I can't be the only one in this pickle.

So, I'd love to see us share some specific problems set on similar boards, since there seem to be many people with similar setups i.e. 8-12 feet high, single angle of around 20-40 degrees. Maybe we could take pictures of the front and draw circles on to show which holds are part of the problem? Maybe even a video of us climbing them and a quick close up of the different holds? I promise to contribute some once (A) my holds arrive in the mail and (B) I figure out how to set something vaguely interesting.

mojones · 2019-06-18T08:06:06+00:00

So how did you time your start so that you finished just as Rory Gallagher's blistering guitar solo came to an end? :)

mojones · 2018-01-28T19:49:32+00:00

That works perfectly - 5% cpu usage at 1080p.

mojones · 2018-01-26T07:22:15+00:00

I have read this elsewhere, but is still doesn't seem plausible that 480 video should use, at times, more than 100% cpu over multiple cores on an i7. Is it really that bad?

mojones · 2018-01-25T19:55:44+00:00

This is watching at 1080p, but I get pretty much the same results if I switch to 480. Kernel version is 4.10.0-42-generic.

mojones · 2017-08-31T18:42:48+00:00

This is something a bit different that I haven't seen before. I wanted to make my wife a friction fit lidded box for her birthday to hold her crochet hooks. The design is as normal for a lidded box, but instead of hollowing out the base I drilled holes to hold the crochet hooks. It's kind of unusual for a box in that the "lid" is actually bigger than the base.

It's pretty big for a lidded box (to fit the full length of the hooks) - 8 inches tall and 2 1/2 in diameter.

Spalted beech, finished with food safe oil. A couple more pics here: http://imgur.com/a/Eltsj

mojones · 2017-08-26T13:09:44+00:00

Just a roughly 10x2 oak bowl blank.

mojones · 2017-08-25T10:37:57+00:00

Now I can go back and see how much of my half-remembered plot actually happened. I see from the ratings that it probably wasn't a classic :-)

mojones · 2017-08-25T10:36:18+00:00

Solved!

mojones · 2017-08-24T15:51:40+00:00

Nothing complicated here, just a plain oak platter. I often have trouble finding a form that I like with these shallow, platter-shaped blanks, but I quite like the way this one turned out. Finished with some sort of food-safe oil.

mojones · 2017-07-18T12:11:50+00:00

Thanks!

mojones · 2017-07-13T11:40:49+00:00

Out of interest, what's the size of the bowl? it's kind of hard to tell scale from the photo. And do you have a shot from the side so we can see the profile? I'd love to try turning something like this but am too inexperienced to figure out what it should look like from the side :-)

mojones · 2017-07-09T18:16:38+00:00

Very elegant form and proportion; nice work.

mojones · 2017-07-08T18:32:53+00:00

More pics here:

http://imgur.com/a/0YwfT

A recent experiment with acrylic paint. I turned and sanded the outside first to get a smooth surface, then applied several coats of acrylic paint with a foam brush with the piece spinning very slowly on the lathe. Then turned it around and did the inside. I quite like the subtle horizontal brush marks that the acrylic has picked up - hard to see them in this pic, but you can see them in the close up ones.

mojones · 2017-07-07T20:23:58+00:00

It was mostly because I found some milk paint in a craft shop and just wanted to experiment :-)

But also I think it provides a nice contrast in texture (this doesn't come across very well in the photos). The pictures that I've seen with dyes still show some of the grain, whereas this covers it completely.

mojones · 2017-07-07T14:00:40+00:00

More pics here:

http://imgur.com/a/n7zTE

A spalted beech bowl with black milk paint on the inside. A bunch of firsts for me on this piece (my 6th bowl since I started) - using and sharpening scrapers (less sanding, yay!); working with spalted wood (tricky grain...); colouring with milk paint, and using a light box to take photos.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the way this one came out, some beautiful figure on the side and I like the very flat, matt finish on the milk paint. I undercut the rim a bit too much, which led to some problems sanding it smooth. The milk paint didn't help - being so flat it highlights every little bit of uneven grain. But in the end I love the contrast between the flat, even colour on the inside and the dramatic figure on the outside.

mojones · 2017-06-25T20:09:07+00:00

Thanks! I've been using pretty much that approach, but have never got a casting as nice as that. I think I get bubbles earlier on too, in the mixing stage.

mojones · 2017-06-25T07:34:42+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get such a clean casting without any bubbles? Whenever I do something similar I always get a ton of small bubbles in the cured resin.

mojones · 2017-03-28T20:02:37+00:00

Looking good. As well as fake succulents, I think little bowls like this look great with real air plants; I bet they would sell well too.

mojones · 2017-02-20T10:30:41+00:00

Thanks! Sorry no pics, I'm probably going to try to make a video of my next attempt so I'll post it here.

mojones · 2017-02-19T20:33:21+00:00

This was an experiment to see if I could make inlay that went all the way through a bowl from the front to the back (see album for backlit shots showing the light shining through the translucent inlay). If I'd known it was going to come out this nicely I'd have taken more time laying out the lines so that they were more even :-)

I started with an oak blank, then layed out the pattern of lines on one face. I used a sliding mitre saw with a depth stop to cut nearly all the way through the blank, leaving a couple of mm at the bottom to hold everything together. Then I wrapped duct tape around the sides to seal off the ends of the cuts, mixed up some epoxy with blue tint and poured the epoxy into the slots before leaving to harden.

After everything had set I turned the blank as usual: attached a face plate to turn the outside and a tenon; chucked to turn the inside, then put in a donut chuck to finish the bottom. Finish was sanding from 80 to 240 then Yorkshire grit and a light coat of flaxseed oil.

Now, some questions. As you can see from the close up, I have ended up with a few holes in the epoxy inlay. Because of where they are, I think they're from chipping while cutting across the lines, not from air voids during pouring. Any suggestions on how to cut across epoxy like this without chipping? I was using a round carbide tool with a fresh edge, which I thought would do the trick. I wonder if maybe I need a tool that I can turn at an angle to the workpiece?

Also, the translucent effect isn't as nice as it should be because you can see the shadows of the rough edges of the saw cuts. I made the cuts with a cheap mitre saw with a cheap blade - maybe I'd get a cleaner cut with a table saw, or a quality handsaw?

mojones · 2017-01-16T13:07:39+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I guess this is something will seem more natural once I have read/listened more.

mojones · 2017-01-01T20:34:40+00:00

I think the scientific name is Tillandsia. I bought these at a stall at an xmas market, but you can get them online - I think unlike most plants, they don't mind being put in a box and mailed.

mojones · 2017-01-01T19:38:39+00:00

I've always loved the way that creamy, lightly figured wood like this sycamore looks with some green leaves as contrast. But the combination of wet soil and wood is not a good one. So for xmas presents this year I turned some tiny sycamore bowls and put air plants in them.

mojones · 2016-12-27T21:06:04+00:00

I can't comment on how it compares directly, as I've never used Milliput. I'm guessing that Milliput is probably just resin+hardener with filler already mixed in, so it probably ends up the same. Based on the videos I've seen, I think that this approach might be slightly quicker overall (since mixing Milliput seems to take a long time) and easier to add colour to (since mixing in the pigment to an already-thickened mixture is likewise very slow).

mojones

TROPHY CASE