Poo-Yie! The past couple weeks have flown by. The shop, and the business, has kept me so busy that I have neglected to post new updates here. So busy with long hours that I'm tired when I get to the computer and can hardly think straight to post. It's been yet another adventure in the development processes. There were milestones made and some challenges to be met. I made a batch of 5A and a large batch of 7A. I realize as I turn sticks that I must turn out large batches to limit the setup time on the lathe. Its looking like I'll turn large batches between tool sharpening. It makes sense to do it this way since the setup does take me a little time. I'm getting faster at the setup and sharpening process.

I started working on some axles for the sharpening wheels I bought. I thought I could use some standard 7/8" bolts, cut the heads off, make some bushings and mount them in the variable speed hand lathe. Seemed simple enough except the bolts are not straight and true. After  several hours of fabrication, I will have to have the bolt spindles "trued" by a machinist and remake my bushings and get some new bolts and washers. Chalk it up to research and development.

There was a milestone made with dust collection. Even if it is just on a primitive level, I got the table saw setup with a hood for collection to minimize the air born particles in the shop. It helps tremendously to reduce the cloud of dust that is created when ripping hundreds of pieces of stock. The next step will be the router and the chop saw. Eventually I would like to run a trunk line with branches to tooling overhead in the shop. This will allow all the tool dust to be collected by one central dust/chip collector. I'm also working out design and fabrication of a traveling back knife hood.

There is starting to be a mass of chippings and saw dust in the shop. At the moment I have 2 large canvas leaf bags full. Hopefully my landscaper friend will pick them up soon to free up the space in an already cramped shop.

We, Deborah and I, designed some stamps with sizes and my name and web address. They are a start and that too will develop. It looks good and is simple enough to apply. My next step is to apply the finish to the stick. I've got the name of the finish product and now I have to order it. I was hoping to possibly find some local but that is proving to be a challenge.

I did have an epiphany on the way over to the shop wednesday morn. When I first got the lathe, I was told I would need to rewire the drive motor. I did that and seemed all was well. In that same time period there was a lot of family activity with my mother, I got distracted, and failed to realize that I needed to rewire the pump motor as well. After struggling through the winter, buying a hydraulic pad heater, and the system running slow... I remembered I hadn't rewired the pump motor. I rewired the motor only to start tripping the motor safety relay in the machine main panel. I pulled it out, gave it a good cleaning and reinstalled only to have it keep doing the same. I did some math and looked at the motor label and saw that I needed to up the heater coils to a higher amperage rating. I went to visit my guy at the electric supply. He told me they didn't handle Allen Bradley but did point me in the right direction. I went and bought some. For being such a small part, they sure are expensive. The hydraulic pump spins right up and the machine cycles much faster now, especially on carriage return.

I had an interesting conversation Monday with a gentleman from New Jersey. He is Thino Cacciolo at MO Drumsticks.  We share a lot of commonalities and he was a joy to talk to. His company does stick weight modifications to drumsticks. Drumsticks can be tailored for each individual drummer. The process can balance the fulcrum nearly anywhere on the stick. If you would like to learn more, please visit his site at www.modrumsticks.com

I gotta go get stock to get ready to make more drumsticks for everyone. Planning to get some orders out on Monday.

Y'all have a great day!!

This past week has flown by and I can hardly recall what all I did. It seems like such a blur. I know I had several major accomplishments including straightening and sharpening the short straight back knife section along with the tip/taper section, sharpening the roughing knife and gouge, readjusting all tooling and logging the measurements, increasing the spindle speed for much smoother turnings, and making a sanding attachment to smooth the transition from shoulder to shaft. The sanding attachment is still under development but works really good as it is.

I am realizing the importance of keeping notes in a log for the lathe and also for the shop. I had done a lot of previous adjustments when I was cutting clean turnings prior to sharpening the tooling only to have to relearn what I'd done before. There are certain parameters that just have to be learned. I am making notes on adjustments now. I now have a log book on the lathe just for logging such measurements and adjustments.

I worked late Friday to get the lathe back online after sharpening. I turned out about 50 pieces of 5B (.595 dia) and then went back saturday, made some adjustments, and turned out about 60 pieces of 5A (.570 vater dia.) All these sticks still need to be chucked and end shaped for tip and butt. That will be some work for the early part of the coming week. My plan monday... go in, chop and rip more stock, then turn some 5A (.565 dia) and go down to 7A size.

Another "to do" for Monday is to get a stamp made with my name, and stick size markings, for application to the stick. It has been a bit longer than I anticipated but it is all starting to come together. I'm working on building some stock so I can start shipping out some product for beta testing and I would like to have the name on the stick when they go out.

Thanks again to everyone that is waiting patiently for product. It's coming :)
I'm off to wash sawdust laden work clothes...
Have a beautiful day!!
Frank

Well, the past few days I've spent working on figuring out why the shaft straight knife needed to be shimmed on the knife bar. Saturday I decided to try the long straight knife after I had to sharpen the gouge and roughing knife. I got the gouge and roughing knife nice a sharp and the gouge was making a nice "peel" in the shaving. I did notice that the template was cutting odd so I had to sand down a few high spots. I got the lathe cutting a nice rough stick just a tad larger than the finished diameter. I mounted the tip/taper piece and made a partial cut to check alignment. Then I added the long straight back knife section that will allow the cutting of up to a 17" stick.

The first pass left me in awe. The first three to four inches of the shaft had small rings around the stick and the diameter across the shaft varied all over the place. I scratched my head and figured the "rings" were from some burrs that were on the knife. I made a second turning and it was about the same. I took a glove and cleaned the sawdust of the knife and began inspecting that area very closely. I noticed what looked to be some small bits missing out of the knife edge, almost like a serrated knife.

I pulled the knife off the bar and brought it into better light. I was astounded to see that this brand new knife had flaws in the edge. It looked like when it was sharpened there was trash on the sharpening wheel and it gouged out bits of the edge. I decided to do some honing in that area of knife to clean it up. I was also getting a bulge in the stick at that point too. I worked on it for quite some time both Saturday and Monday. It has gotten better but I feel I need to wait for the large medium "india" stone on back order to arrive.

Today I spent some time overhauling a small kick drum for a client and I also decided to "mic" out the back knife with calipers. The variations in the knife corelated to the variations in the finished stick diameter issues. I found that the "straight" section is indeed not straight and I will have to fix it if I want to cut a "straight" stick. I decided to check the shorter piece and found the similar issues. I am a little bummed that these new knives have these problems. I am happy that I am able to fix them ... It will just take a bit of time and patience.

This is my update for the beginning of the week.
Stick turning is on hold for the moment.

This week was a week of tool breakdowns. The 40 year old router I was using in the table gave up the ghost and had to be swapped out. Then, on Thursday the table saw motor failed to start up. It just hummed. The roughing knife and the gouge needed to be sharpened to cut clean again. The latter part of the week was dedicated to fixing these issues in the shop.

Friday also had the delivery of the much needed stones for sharpening the roughing knife and gouge. With the motor work, I didn't get a chance to do that. Saturday I went to the shop rather late since I'd played yet another gig Friday night and had another Saturday night and needed to sleep in a bit to get some much needed rest to think clearly. I had to make a vacuum hose holder for he grinder since I would be shaping the wheel for finishing the roughing gouge I'd started earlier in the week. It will make a lot of nasty dust in the room and it's not good for the respiratory system. Got that together and started shaping the wheel with the dressing stick I'd received Friday. YeeHaw, that was really kinda cool. I formed out an old "fine" wheel and the proceeded to finish sharpening the gouge. I got the gouge ground out and then put the finishing touches on it with the "India" stone and stick. I did a little touch up sharpen on the roughing knife and got them both back in the machine and made some adjustment trial runs. It was nice to see the gouge and knife I'd retooled from scratch were now cutting clean and I was getting a nice ribbon of woodcut from the gouge. It was very pretty to see.

I had pulled the back knives from the lathe to adjust the knife and gouge. I decided to sharpen/hone the tip/taper piece I'd been turning with. It was fairly easy as I used care not to cut myself in the process. I've been getting lots of requests for longer sticks and decided to try the longer straight back knife I had. I installed and made some adjustments. I made a trial cut and was very concerned when I saw lines cut into the turning and also many issues with diameter. What was going on? I pulled the knife and brought it to the workbench with good light. Upon closer inspection, I saw that there were imperfections in the blade edge from when it was sharpened at the machine shop. There were small areas missing out of the edge. Almost as if there were artifacts on the wheel that was used to sharpen it. I also discovered the diameter issues. It was not a totally straight edge. It looked straight to the naked eye, but as soon as I started honing the edge I could see what was going on when it cut. After cleaning up the bulk of the issues, I installed the knife and made some cuts. It was cutting much better and much cleaner. There is still some areas to "fix" but it will have to wait until the medium stone arrives next week. I'll have to hone out some more of the imperfections in the straight knife sections to get a truly straight drumstick. I had a good discovery lesson Saturday with the back knives.

Overall, it was a very productive week despite the challenging setbacks. I'm happy all of them were relatively easy to fix. I'm taking the day to do some house work and some much needed administration work. Thanks to everyone that has been showing tremendous support and interest in the drumstick endeavor. With the setbacks experienced this week, I hope to have some product ready to ship by the end of the week coming.

Hope y'all are well!
'til later....