Collaborative effort...

Marty Walsh

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1,396
Location
Southern Georgia
Well, I should have posted this a week or so ago, since that's when it was done....but 'better late then never'...:dunno:

Some of you might recall the old farm bell Denise found half burried on our property when we were clearing the land for the shop:

DSCN7399.JPG.........................DSCN7400.JPG

You might also recall that Denise had me toss the bell into the electrolysis bath when I was cleaning up my JLT clamps.

Well, when tod came here for IWF and R&R, we decided to go out to the shop to kill the day on Thursday. (We had enough of the drive to and from Atlanta and all the walking, and wanted a day of true R&R.)

Tod's been on me about getting into bending stuff 'in the bag' since I started veneering. As you can tell by some of the work he's posted, tod's quite talented/gifted at bending wood! ;)

Well, tod and I got to talking and we decided that the farm bell was a perfect candidate for a 'bent' project. Tod picked up a scrap of MDF from the shop floor and drew a rough sketch of what he had in mind for mounting the bell. He then took one measurement...the distance across the mounts for the bell, and put away the tape measure and pencil...and we got to work!

A few hours later...well actually Saturday, since we had to let the lacquer dry, this is what we have:

DSCN9199.jpg.............DSCN9201.jpg............DSCN9202.jpg

The 'bent' parts are the collar around the bell itself, and the inset curved support. What you can't see is the large dovetail that tod cut on my MM24 bandsaw to join the vertical and horizontal members. You also can't see that that large dovetail was pinned even in this closeup of the inset curved brace:

DSCN9200 closeup.jpg

The entire bracekt assembly was built using white oak scrap cutoffs that I brought with us from our Virginia shop. It's BEYOND stought, especially considering that large pinned dovetail would have to fail, and then the curved inset brace would have to fail. The bell's heavy, but not THAT heavy! :rolleyes:

Oh, and the 'collaborative effort' part comes from the fact that tod and I built the bracket. Then Denise turned the little bell for the end of the lanyard. And finally, a friend of ours from Virginia came down and while she was here she helped me finish braiding the lanyard.

Thanks to all involved...I really like the way it looks on the shop porch!

And thanks for looking...
- Marty -
 
COOOL...
I like old treasures like that, turned out real nice. What kind of paint did you use on it?

SO... when you ring that bell, is that the signal for Denise to get lunch ready, or warn her your heading for the house?:rolleyes::dunno:
 
Very nifty. I also note the pull at the end of the rope.
I'm sending a link with this thread to members of my wife's bell collecting club. They will get a kick out of seeing an old bell preserved and used.
 
COOOL...
I like old treasures like that, turned out real nice. What kind of paint did you use on it?

SO... when you ring that bell, is that the signal for Denise to get lunch ready, or warn her your heading for the house?:rolleyes::dunno:

Hi Ted,

The paint was (I lost count of how many) coats of Rustoleum from a rattle can. Details are in THIS thread.

As for the 'purpose' of the bell...I haven't decided yet. I sure do like the way it looks though...

Very nifty. I also note the pull at the end of the rope.
I'm sending a link with this thread to members of my wife's bell collecting club. They will get a kick out of seeing an old bell preserved and used.

Frank,

If you re-read the post, you'll note that Denise TURNED that pull on the end of the joint-effort lanyard. Collaborative...get it? :rolleyes:

- Marty -
 
Hi Ted,

The paint was (I lost count of how many) coats of Rustoleum from a rattle can. Details are in THIS thread.

As for the 'purpose' of the bell...I haven't decided yet. I sure do like the way it looks though...


- Marty -

There was a day I was in the shop, and at the time I was using my Dozuki saw and I can tune out just about anything at almost any time. My stepson thought it was funny to "surprise" me in the middle of my sawing... not cool.

Well he got scolded for that, that saw is sharp and It would have left a mark.
My wife knows not to come into the shop if she hears power tools, to eliminate distractions, she wants me to keep all my fingers at the end of my hands.

Maybe you could use that as a "door bell" to anounce visitors coming into the shop.:thumb:

Ted
 
marty`s shop is much nicer than the pictures let on......those who have a chance to visit should.....both marty and denise are fantastic hosts.
i enjoyed making a mess on the waaaay to clean floor;)....
 
Man that is way to cool. See I wasn't smart enough when Larry visited to understand what a master I had at the time and so wasn't smart enough to take advantage of the situation and watch or cocreate something for my home. :dunno:
That bell if never rung has a wonderful story and will create positive memories each time it is seen by those three people. And now any of us, thanks for sharing!
 
I thought I had commented about this one, but I guess I closed the tab before submitting. Real nice work on all your parts. I really like the use of the bent stuff. One of these days I gotta learn how to do that.
 
I dunno. :dunno: Is that the way it works? I got several responses from the bell forum telling me how much they enjoyed the post and story. Nobody complained about not being able to see the photos. :huh:
Yep, people need to be registered to see pics that are attached to a post like these were. It's set up that way so that our servers aren't loaded down hosting the pics here if people link to them on other forums. If they are hosted on another site (like Photobucket), then "Guests" can see them, too, since Photobucket is picking up the hosting bill.

I'm guessing your bell forum friends simply registered here. ;)
 
Looks like home to me.

Very nice work. It's one of those things you will always smile about.

It was good to see Tod, Marty and Denise at the show.

If you do get a chance to stop by Marty's shop, just do it.

Marty and Denise are wonderful people and the shop just fun.....

...bartee....
 
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