Two steps forward, one step back

Yesterday saw great progress, but also some frustration. I bought a chainsaw for cutting blanks out of logs that I find (including the cedar that I cut by hand already) and an air compressor for getting shavings out of hollowed vessels. If you're craving some unboxing action, check out the flickr sets here and here.

The chainsaw is great. I cut that piece of cedar into two bowl blanks yesterday without any trouble at all. Once the pieces got too small to stabilize for cutting with the chainsaw, I used a mitre saw to shape them, hence the 45 degree cuts on the corners. One has a good gouge out of the side that happened during the last bit of hand cutting when I pulled the two pieces apart, but I think it's low enough that I can turn away the wood around it without affecting the overall shape.

Here's where the step backward enters the story... After I got the blank mounted between centers, I go to turn on the lathe and the switch literally comes off in my hand. Apparently a small piece of plastic in the shipping box that I thought was packaging material was actually half of the trim around the switch housing. Well, that meant that one moderate lifting of the switch would just tear it out. Fortunately it wasn't stuck "on", but unfortunately I'm not doing any tuning until Jet reopens on Jan. 2 to send me a new part. Until then, I guess I'll have to actually clean up the garage and make my "shop" ready for work. I can also work on sharpening my tools with my new Tormek Supergrind that I haven't used yet. More on that later.