The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • Whisky Smoker Box

    While we were on vacation in Michigan in 2023, we stopped by Bell Forest Products, located in Ishpeming, Michigan. I’ve placed a half dozen small orders with them over the past few years and was thrilled to finally get to visit.

    What a great place! We spent a lot of time picking through their pay-by-the-pount scap bins, picking out all sorts of smalls for lathe projects. I also grabbed a nice little cutoff of a piece of birdseye maple, thinking it would look good on a box lid at some point.

    Well a few months later I found the project for it. A small box to hold a whisky smoker set I was given. The box itself is walnut, and the lid is that maple. It looks great on the shelf!

  • 2024 Eclipse

    This is long overdue, but we went down to Washington County State Recreation Area in Nashville, IL for the 2024 total solar eclipse. Here are my two keepers of the event.

    We had incredible weather for an early April day in Illinois, and it made for a memorable experience.

  • Ham Radio Nets

    This is more for me to look back on in the future (but what isn’t on the blog, right?).

    I’ve been participating in a couple of the local “nets” put on by the Sangamon Valley Radio Club (http://www.svrc.org) since I got my Technician license last month. One problem I’m constantly having is the 2 meter simplex net.

    I have a pair of super inexpensive Baofeng UV-21R, and a few small antennas for them. They work great (in my mind at least, I have no frame of reference) for 70cm – I’ve been able to hit local repeaters and one that’s a pretty good distance away (40 miles).

    But this 2 meter problem really has me wondering if it’s just the radio. Tonight I went out on my roof with both radios to even _listen_ to the 2 meter net and could not hear a thing. Out of frustration I tossed on a Signal Stick and started walking around the neighborhood. I could hear net control loud and clear in a few spots, and one other participant only very faint.

    I went back inside and, while sitting at the kitchen table, keyed up and threw out my callsign. To my surprise, net control asked me to repeat – he actually heard me while inside my house. I went outside and replied, and was met with dead air again. Walked out front, same thing.

    I walked around the neighborhood again, hearing bursts of chatter but never enough to communicate. So I gave up and went in and waited for the 70cm net which was to happen about a half hour later.

    On that net, I was suprised to hear at least two others mention that they heard me loud and clear a couple of times, but then I’d disappear. Frustrating, but par for the course for these radios and their HT/mobile antennas?

    I have a radio or two on my Christmas list, and am looking out for any Black Friday deals on a mobile VHF/UHF radio I can use as a base station to hopefully rectify this problem. In addition, I just signed up for the ARRL Welcome Kit which includes an HT they’ve partnerered with Gigaparts on. I’m 100% certain it will be a better radio than the Baofengs. It’s supposed to arrive in a couple of days so I’m looking forward to comparing it on the next nets.

    I feel like I’m wasting everyone else’s time with the equivalent of “can you hear me now?”, and I’d like that to end.

  • Curly Walnut

    Following up on Logs to Bowls, here is a pair of bowls made from some figured walnut I received in log form earlier this year.

    This one has the best looking figure, but I did end up accidentally leaving some tool marks, much to my disappointment. The walls were already too thin for me to make one more pass to try and clean them up, so I’ve just resigned myself to being OK with it. That said, this is my favorite of the two.

    The other has a nice knot in the middle, which adds to its overall apperance. As simple as it is, I like the shape of this one better.

  • Logs to Bowls

    Earlier this year I was given several logs from which to make bowls. This includes several varieties: cherry; walnut; bradford pear; honey locust; and others.

    I don’t have a sophisticated setup, and have never processed logs on my own so it was a learning experience.

    I ended up with far too much waste, but I did also end up with a good set of bowl blanks which I then took the time to rough turn on the lathe to cut down some of the weight and help the drying process.

    After the initial roughing out, I weighed each blank and placed them into a paper bag with some of their shavings. Every 4-6 weeks I re-weighed and recorded the info on the bag. Once I see the weight loss has stabilized, I know they’re ready to be finally turned into bowls.

    Now I have a good stash to make it through the winter.

  • Ham Radio Technician License

    I was issued my amateur radio Technician license and callsign on 10/22/2024. So, hello from KE9BPH!

    A big shout-out to the remote testing offered by the Tennessee Valley Exam Team (sign up at Hamstudy.org). It operated like a well-oiled machine while being friendly and encouraging. When the time comes to get my General license, I’ll be looking to do so with them.

    Why?

    I’ve been asked a few times now about why, and after giving it some thought, I’ve realized there are four main reasons.

    1. Personal Experiences

    I have had a GMRS license (WRHV579) for several years now. I have a set of radios which my family and I use whever we are going hiking or camping, to facilitate quick contact and give the kids some freedom while still giving us peace of mind.

    These radios have worked fine for our needs. But this this summer we were hiking on some trails in Utah when we came upon a hiker needing legitimate help: they were unable to walk on their own; it was over 100 degrees; and there was no cellular service available. I tried like heck to get ahold of someone with our GMRS radios but was met with dead air. In the end this person did get the assistance they needed, but it left me with a very bad feeling about the whole ordeal – my backup communication was worthless and I didn’t like it.

    2. Travel Communications

    We do a fair bit of traveling, and have often found ourselves in fairly remote, unfamiliar areas without cellular service. We’ve never run into any problems, but the what if is always in the back of my mind.

    3. Emergency Situations

    I’ve often heard of ham radio’s utility when it comes to widespread emergencies, and this was brought to the forefont with the recent hurricane which destroyed many North Carolina communities. I know if my family were in any such situation, getting information in and out would be such an important capabilitiy – and not having that ability, again, makes me nervous.

    4. Curiousity

    In case you cannot tell by some of the other content of this blog, I’m a pretty curious person. I’ve recently come to realization that the best things come when I allow myself to investigate my curiousities and see where they lead and what I can learn. From early computer use in the 1990s, to the internet, to programming, to photography, to woodworking – I learn the most when I follow my curiousity. So here I am with radios.

    How?

    Everyone learns differently. Myself, I learn best progressing from reading books to immersing myself in related content from as many avenus as possible. For example, some heavy reading followed by diving into Youtube videos, podcasts, and blog posts.

    I must say, for the Technician license, this was a little frustring. There are many great resources for studying for the test, but I couldn’t find a definitive reference to learn from; rather, it seemed that most sites just wanted guide you through rote memorization in order to pass the exam. I ended up buying the ARRL study guide, which was sort of what I was looking for, but was still hyper focused on the test itself (for good and bad).

    Don’t get me wrong, this book, combined with the excellent Hamstudy.org, had me passing the test in almost exactly a week of studying. I just don’t feel like I gained much of any underlying understanding of how all of this stuff works, and that bugs me.

    What’s Next?

    Now that I have my license, I have a pair of cheap HTs (Baofeng UV-21R) and a few small antennas to start participating in the local community. There’s such a broad array of topics to learn in the hobby, far more than I ever imagined when I looked at it from the outside. My plan is to ultimately get my General license, but only after I’ve gotten a real fundamental grasp of the underlying principles. To that end, I’ve started reading Radio Theory Handbook – Beginner to Advanced. I’m hoping this gives me what I’m looking for (at 25% through, it is) – a foundation to learn and remember this stuff.

    Then there’s the plethora of new acronyms and terms to gradually pick up from just listening. And of course I have my eyes on a couple of other radios to help me explore in ways HTs don’t allow. Antennas will follow, but I’m not letting myself down that rabbit hole until I get a better gasp on how they actually work. An software, lots of software and tools which get cobbled together like the old days. Good stuff.

    The community I’ve encountered thus far has been welcoming and more than willing to help in any way possible. It’s reminiscient of the comraderie I encountered years ago with fellow BBSers and early computer hobbiests – everyone is just trying to figure out how things behave and what they can get out of these little machines. It’s fun to be back at ground zero, searching for answers in a field in which I have zero experience and knowledge.

  • Natural Edge Bowl

    Natural Edge Bowl

    I have now had my lathe for a year. When I first starting using it, my goal was to be able to make some simple things by the end of the first year. I was able to achieve this, and even start turning some basic bowls.

    Last week I decided to try a more ambitious bowl – one starting from a far more raw form than the “blanks” I’ve been using, and much larger.

    Enter this nice piece of cherry, which only barely fit on my lathe. This tool can handle up to 12″ round, this one clocked in at 11 1/2″. It’s also the heaviest thing I’ve tried on this machine.

    It was rough starting out. I initially had the lathe set to the lowest speed in the High range, and boy did it complain. It was slow to start, quick to slow down under pressure, and had just enough vibration to make cutting a struggle.

    Once I got smart and changed the belts to Low mode, things went much better and progress much quicker.

    It wasn’t too long until it actually started to look like a bowl – at least on the outside.

    I had every intention of making a live edge bowl – meaning the bark remains along the rim. It started out well, but eventually enough came off that I decided to strip all of it and end up with a natural edge bowl instead.

    After the main portion of the bowl was complete, I made my first jam chuck and turned the bowl around (with some quilting batting from Ana) so that I could complete the bottom. 4 months ago, the thought of having to first turn a jam chuck on the lathe before using it was daunting. Now? Not so much. Progress.

    After turning and applying some tung oil, the bowl was complete. There are still some tool marks in the bowls I make, and this one is no exception. I am, however, improving with each one I make. I’ve also made some great strides with regards to sharpening, which helps tremendously.

    Here’s the final product! I don’t know what we’ll do with it, but it feels like a bit of a milestone I’m proud of.

  • Lidded Bowl

    Lidded Bowl

    Furthering my effort to chronicle my projects and progress with a woodworking lathe, here’s my latest creation. My first bowl with a lid.

    Using Kent Weakley’s great tutorials and videos at https://turnawoodbowl.com, this was a breeze. Since I really only have small stock available, the results are quite a bit smaller than I’ve seen elsewhere but I’m still learning the basics.

    This one is made out of two pieces of spalted maple.

  • Maple Candy Dish

    Maple Candy Dish

    To get some woodturning practice in this afternoon, I turned a small piece of maple (6″x6″x2″ I believe) into what I’m calling a candy dish.

    It isn’t a regular bowl shape. Rather, there’s a small base upon which the dish sits and the sides of the dish have more character than a simple bowl shape.

    A maple “candy dish”

    Looking at it now after a few hours, I can see the base could use a little shaping itself and possibly be made a little shorter. I find it funny that I’ve seen bowls and dishes my whole life but it isn’t easy to come up with pleasing shapes when turning. This is close, I think, but could benefit from some tweaks.

    Two other new things for me in this piece are: 1) the black groove, burned in with wire, and 2) the use of friction polish to give it it’s glossy finish.

    I bought this wood as cheap practice blanks but, wow, I really like how they look.

  • Pen and Pencil Set with a Case

    Pen and Pencil Set with a Case

    I recently completed a pen and mechanical pencil set as a gift, but before sending it off thought I would take the opportunity to try making an accompanying case to hold them. I wanted something with a smaller profile than the pencil boxes I’ve made before – something more along the lines of a hard eyeglasses case.

    I grabbed a couple of pieces of small walnut off my shelf and got to work last night. Without any plan whatsoever, I was able to start and finish it in just a few short hours. I made a minor mistake or two, but I’m very happy with the results.

    I used some small hinges on the back. They’re a little tricky to install

    The lid is held closed with two pair of rare earth magnets. Opening it up revels space for two pens.

    I intend to make a few more of these so I can get the finer tails nailed down.