This is Part Two of our little project - if you want to go back and check on something we did earlier, then click HERE.

Smitty and I met again on Saturday, March 29th. This is the fourth Saturday since we started working on this project and today we're going to work on making the tail stock and try to figure out how best to apply the grape vines and leaves to the central logo.

My original plan was to purchase a tail stock but the price tag was severe enough to convince me to build one. Well, all that and the fact that if I couldn't then someone oughta take my birthday away.

As is my custom, we began with a plan. Here's our thumbnail sketch...

After we discussed the sketch Smitty turned to look his 'puter in the face and drew the components making up the tail stock then sent them to the CNC plasma cutter.

While he was cutting the tail stock parts, I was busy creating the vines. They're made from 1/4" round stock that were sanded with random flat spots. I made the odd bends by inserting the rods into various sized holes that were drilled into the surfaces of Felco's steel work tables. Here you see the first of the vines sitting in position.

Each section making up the vines are bent differently to give the illusion of being real vines. Although each one took approximately 30 minutes to bend, cut and fit in place I did find a few moments to sneak away and imagine my surprise when I actually caught Smitty working! Here, he's fixing to grind one of the tail stock pieces.

Meanwhile, back at the vineyards the vines have reached maturity. Smitty caught me goofing off trying to figure out how to bend the leaves so they'll look natural.

Then it hit me, "Hey, Dummy! They'll look perfectly natural if you bend them naturally!" So, I toddled off to a vice and clamped each leaf between the jaws and smacked it with a single jack, then rotated the leaf and smacked it again. This process was repeated until each blank looked like a leaf.

Nature doesn't have the market cornered on making leaves - here's what one of mine looks like. The veins still need to be ground but all that business will happen after they've been applied.

Once I had them all looking like leaves each one was clamped in place then the logo was turned over so they could be welded from behind. The welds holding the vines to the perimeter are only temporary and will be ground off later.

And, here is what Smitty has been working on - it's the opening kickoff of what the tail stock will look like. The arch at the bottom allows access to the bolt that clamps the tail stock to the ways.

Believe it or not, in-between breaks we found plenty of time to complete the vine motif!

A view of the lathe with the stuff we did today - sorry for the poor picture, I'll retake when we reconvene - she's getting heavier!

Move on to Part 3 if you want to see more.