Cyclone, sycamore, teak and "blue keiyaki"

I took a break from working on the chess set and did some other shop stuff.

When I got my tax return I purchased a cyclone dust collector which is the best thing a woodworker can do to aid in cleanup and to keep the lungs clear of fine sawdust. The machine came in 3 boxes and required some assembly. I found that there was a crack in the upper part of the cyclone and contacted the manufacturer, who will be sending a replacement. In the meantime I did some assembly and need to make some brackets to hang the unit before I can continue.
http://www.clearvuecyclones.com

A friend of mine needed help taking recyclables to the landfill and disposing of an old computer. One of the things she was throwing away was a "dry erase white board". It looked to me like the aluminum frame was falling apart. Her 11 year old daughter seemed to be a little upset that this was being thrown away...probably had lots of fun drawing on it. Without her knowing I kept the white board and discarded the aluminum frame. Then cut the white board down into two smaller pieces to remove some edge damage. Then I made a frame for one of the pieces out of some sycamore... the same sycamore that came from her yard (and was used to make the gift coffee barrel for her). The frame needs some finishing touches, sanding and staining. I think the daughter will be surprised at having the board back and with a frame that came from her own tree. If they like it I'll do the same for the other small piece of white board.

And today I turned some pens. Two out of teak and one out of "blue keiyaki". A couple of interesting stories. The teak comes from a woodworker who lives in coastal NC. He is refinishing an old boat. I believe that some deck boards had to be replaced. Whatever was salvageable was cut into "blanks" for making pens and he sent them to whoever asked for them. I asked for two and he sent me 10. FREE !

The blue keiyaki comes from downtown Tokyo. Another woodworker acquaintance lives there and owns a liquor and cigar store. In his spare time he does (excellent) woodworking. He stumbled across a house in downtown tokyo that was being cleared. Along with that were some old trees which were going to be dumped. He put in a lot of sweat equity and harvested everything he could (for free) from those trees. Then he cut pen blanks and offered them to whoever asked...all he wanted was to recover shipping costs. He sent me a few blanks each of "blue keiyaki", "red keiyaki", and "sakura".

A month ago I tried to do a microwave drying of 1 of each variety, and accidentally destroyed one of the pieces of sakura (it's a cherry tree variety). Along with what I turned today I tried a blank of the Red Keiyaki. It was looking REALLY NICE, but then a bit of rot showed up and the wood basically blew apart on the lathe. One half of the pen was almost intact, so for fun I went through the sanding and finishing stages to see what it would eventually look like. It should make gorgeous pens.

Pics later.