(total time working on actual bowls today: 0 hours)
Worked all morning on learning enough about spot drills, short drill bits called "screw machine drills," and countersinks, to order what I think I need to drill the holes for this piece. I might be able to drill the holes accurately with what I have. It's the "might be able to" that gives me pause. "I can make another one if I ruin this one," I tell myself. It's not very comforting, though. I'd rather improve my drilling accuracy overall. I learned enough to get a sense of what skill practice and experiments I need to do. I'm actually looking forward to them.
This was my first order from MSC, after having heard about them in the metalworking news group for years. Actually, (blush) I made two orders today - the first after a lot of catalog and internet searches, news group messages, and thought. The second was to order the things I learned later in the day that I really needed. Boy, when I become a customer, I really get going!
In addition to the piece I'm finishing, I'm going to use the new drills to start some ring bases. For quite a while now, I've wanted to start shaping some iron, paint it with primer and a white base coat, then mold the paper around it. So I've picked out four rings to drill for this. I'll lay out two rings for five staves (bars, either flat or round) and two others for six staves each - evenly spaced, I think. This is going to be fun.
While I'm at it - setting up pieces to beadblast and paint - I'll make some small round test pieces too. I just need some short pieces of 1/4" round bar, flattened on one end and drilled to hang. That way, when I want to see how some paint idea will look on a round bar, I'll have some test pieces to play with. I did some flat pieces last year - helpful and very exciting. Some of the color blends look fabulous - to me anyway. Little things like this help keep me going.
11:06:50 PM 
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