Friday, March 30, 2007

Bonsai from Big Sagebrush

 
 
 
Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), 18" (46cm) tall
 
 This is a bonsai made from Big Sagebrush, indigenous to the entire American Southwest. I collected this plant from BLM (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) land at least eight years ago. I put it into a pot then, but after about three years, it was doing poorly. I put it in the ground where it recovered and flourished. I dug it up two days ago, but found I didn't have a pot for it. I scouted around Albuquerque yesterday morning for a bonsai pot and potted it in the afternoon. The bark on the sagebrush sheds in long thin strips. I pulled off the shedding bark to reveal the sinuous trunk. I cut off several branches to give a "windswept" or "literati" style. I haven't figured out a better way to deal with foliage, which is droopy and not leaf-like. I make my own soil mix screened to 1/8" to 1/4" (.3cm to .6cm), half decomposed granite, half pine bark.
 
 
 
Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), 16" (41cm) tall
 
 
I separated this trunk from the plant above. It had its own root system. I wired it to raise the top half and then lower second branch to give a "literati" style.
Posted by Chuck at 22:31:38 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Blade Hub Construction

 

The following photos show the steps for constructing a whirligig hub with wood blades attached directly to the wood hub.

 

 

For this whirligig two hubs are needed. First cut square shapes from 3/4" (1.9cm) stock. I'm using African mahogany here, because it's ideal for exterior use and works easily. The dimension of the square is the same as the diameter the finished hub, in this case 2 7/8" (7.3cm.) I mark the center of the hub.

 

 

I have drilled a pilot hole and marked the location of the 1/2" (1.3cm) deep by 1/4" (.64cm.) wide groove to receive the blade. I only need to mark up one side of the square, because I'll use this for setting up my jig to cut all the sides the same. If the direction of the blade pitch is important, do it here. This set of blades will rotate in a clockwise direction.

 

 

The jig is a simple L-shaped assembly, which I clamp to the table crosscut slide at 45 degrees. I clamp the hub block into the corner of the jig and cut the groove with a dado blade.

 

 

The hubs with their grooves are ready to be cut into circles.

 

 

With the hub firmly clamped in place on an auxillary drill press table, I cut the hub into a disk using a General Tool circle cutter.

 

 

This is the hub from the circle cutter. The circle cutter has a 1/4" (.64cm) drill bit, so the center hole is ready to receive the 1/4" brass shaft. The triangular cross sectioned shape at the edge is from the shape of the circle cutter blade.

 

 

I cut most of the waste from edge of the hub on a band saw. With a simple jig clamped to the drill press auxillary table and a 2" (5.1cm) diameter sanding drum, I sand off the remaining waste.


 

Here is the hub with the blades ready to be assembled.

Posted by Chuck at 22:24:46 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, March 19, 2007

Plan for Whirligig #35

 
 
 
Plan for Whirligig #35, 24" x 18" (61cm x 26cm), pencil on paper
 
This whirligig will incorporate the mechanism I showed a few weeks back. The mechanism will be in front of the mast. The propeller blades will be set in the propeller hub, which is different from that shown in the details for Whirligig #34. I'll show details of how this is done. The two sets of four blades will be joined together so that there will be eight blades totalling about 55 sq. in. (355 sq. cm) of surface area, which I hope is enough to drive the mechanism at low wind speeds.
Posted by Chuck at 21:15:09 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |
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