OCtoolguy

Amen to that Charlie. I look around me every day and thank God that I am in as good of shape as I am. Life is truly not fair and all we can do is the best we can do.

Me too Les. To me, the scrolling of every project is the FUN part. Once the cutting is done, the work begins. But, I love the whole hobby. Just some more than others.

Do you hear different sounds in either ear? When mine is really acting up, I hear a jingling chain in one ear, and birds chirping in the other. I have found that if I use any kind of decongestant or antihistamines it really aggravates mine. Mine is the worst in the morning when I first get up.

Paul, I checked out Lee Valley and they have brad point bits down to 5/64". I have no idea how they can do that but they do. They get a ton of money for their bits. I hope they are that much better than the cheaper ones. I'm going to order up the basic set of 7 I think.

I haven't done too much yet but I can see from the small amount that I have done, it could become addictive.

You're right about that. I only added the "quickly" to my post to get as much advice as possible on a timely basis. Not the finishing process. I'm taking my time on that. Thanks for all your help.

Take your time. No hurry. This is a hobby remember. And someone else has suggested more than once that if you have a lot of holes to drill, don't drill them all at once. Drill a few and then scroll. Sort of takes the rush out of it. Sloooooooowwwwwwwdddooooowwwwwnnnnn!

I agree with you on the Hegner Paul. In all the woodworking shows I've been to in my lifetime, I never saw anything but a Hegner and it was always the little one. I take that back, I did see the RBI Hawk at a show in Colorado Springs back in about 85. They might have been brand new back then.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Thanks for your help.

I know you folks are probably getting tired of seeing my baskets but this is where I'm at so far. I have one pic of a basket before Watco oil and one with. The second pic is with both oiled. Once they dry, I'll start the spraying of the shellac. I think the recipients will be happy.

Les, back in the days when I was seriously competing in 3 gun military shooting, I had earplugs that were molded to my ear canals and then I used a good pair of muffs designed for indoor pistol shooting. The combination of the two worked very well. I had pretty good hearing until one night when my reserve outfit was out on maneuvers at Fort Irwin, Ca. We were supporting a tank outfit and it was after dark when they started firing. I was standing behind and to the rear of two M-48A1's and they fired simultaneously. The sky turned bright yellow. I couldn't hear for two days and I have tinnitus ever since. I sold tools in and around body shops for 40 years, I wore headphones to listen to the rock and roll music up close, I hung out at the drag strips when Art Arfons ran his jet dragster and then all the pistol shooting (500 rounds of .45acp) every Sunday for practice, I have done everything in the world to ruin my hearing. But, I still hear fairly well. Except for when my wife speaks to me. For some reason, I just can't hear her. LOL!

I look forward to seeing what you think of it once it's all tuned in. Please do keep the info flowing. I for one do appreciate it.

Very nice Les. Keep the pics coming. I love seeing what everybody is making.

Dang! All of my neighbors are old retired folks like me. I might get a hand-me-down book or something but never anything like that.

Thanks for your sage advice. I agree with what you say. I am not that organized yet but I hope to be someday. Time is running out though. Ha!

Thanks Roly, I'm not sure what that would be in dollars but I'll find out. Well, I found out. I wouldn't do it for that. Way too much work to make that little. Definitely a labor of love I guess. For a hardwood basket, I'd have to have $75 minimum. Depending on wood selection, probably more like $100. Oh well, I never figured I was in it for the money.

Very interesting. Thanks.

I take it that you apply the tung oil and then the spray shellac? Just wanting to be sure.

Now you have me wondering about my Dewalt. I'll have to go out and see if I have any of those problems.

Thanks Melanie. I did find it on my pattern cd.

Thank you JT, please, I didn't take it that way. That's the problem of the written word rather than the spoken word. I appreciate all the time you take to explain to all of us who ask questions on the many subjects. The baskets that I am now finishing up are not the same as the original that I pictured. That one is sitting on our kitchen counter and my wife loves it. I couldn't recall exactly what I did on it but if my memory serves me correctly, all I did was spray it with a couple of coats of spray shellac. I didn't even do a good sanding job on it because I wasn't all that pleased with the look of the raw wood. But, once it was finished, and I got very lucky with the color of the poplar, I am quite happy with it. Back at that time, I had gone to H/D looking for some spray varnish as that was what the pattern/maker had done on his in the book. I couldn't find spray varnish but I did find the spray shellac and also the tung oil and I already had the Watco oil from another time/job. I'm just in the information gathering phase so I asked once again, how to go about finishing the new baskets. They are made of a different combination of woods. Anyway, when all is said and done, I will make my choice after applying said finishes to some scraps and see what they look like. Someone on SSV maybe in a different thread suggested spraying the wood with denatured alcohol to see how the wood would look with a clear finish and it would dry and not effect whatever finish I applied. But, for the devil of me, I can't find that post. All I have on hand is some isopropyl alcohol and I'm wondering if I can use that the same way. I'm going to give it a go and see. Thanks again for your help.

First let me say this JT, those are beautiful. I will take everything that you say very seriously. To answer your first statement, yes, we have been down this road before. Unfortunately, I'm still ignorant. Sorry but finishing to me is as mysterious as the choice of blades is to others. I have that pretty much figured out. But after putting all the work into making a project, the last thing I want to do is screw it up by not finishing it correctly. And, since I hate sanding, I don't want to apply something and then have to sand it back off. So, with that said, I am still not sure of how to finish and what to use. It might be easier if there were not so many choices of products to choose from. There are many different products that say "oil" but nobody up until now has said what the difference is between them. Like tung oil. What the heck is that and how/when/why is it used? I find now that Watco is pretty much the same as BLO/mineral spirits. Well, since we can no longer by MS here in the People's Republic of California, I guess I will be using Watco instead. Someone else mentioned spraying the project with denatured alcohol. I knew I had a big bottle of what I thought was denatured alcohol but it turns out, it is isopropol alcohol. I don't know what the difference is but I'll find out. I'm a simple kind of guy. Point me in a direction, give me a shove and I'll go there. But on a subject that I know nothing about, the first thing I do is ask questions. If I have to ask more than once, it's because I'm dense or I forgot what the answer was the last time I asked. Thanks for all the help you have offered me over the last couple of years. I truly do appreciate it.

Wow! Thanks Bill. All great info. To answer your question of what I am wanting in appearance, I don't want a high shine just a semi-shine or sheen I guess you might call it. The reason I asked about mixing is that all of them say not to use with other finishes. Not that I intended to. I just was curious as to whether they can be mixed. Thanks for your help. I'm going to order up one or both of those books too.

Great idea. I never thought of that.

I'm curious, what do you ask for them price wise? And, if you are making from the same pattern as me, do you give the pattern designer credit in some way?