Peeling the bark off a tree is not complicated. Simply locate the bark, hold the knife with both hands, and push it forward to remove most of the bark.
As long as you get the rhythm right with the knife, peeling off the bark isn't too difficult.
The disc I plan to make will be about 40 centimeters in diameter, so the length of the wood I cut cannot be less than that.
I took a thin hemp rope as a length marker to ensure that the length of my wood was consistent.
Next, use the simple ink line from before to mark out the largest possible square at both ends of the log's cross-section.
Next, draw four vertical lines along the adjacent apex corners of the two squares. The area outside the squares is excess wood, which I will remove using the small hand axe and machete.
My plan is to process the logs into square timber first, which will make it easier to divide and mark the lines on the wood.
Forty centimeters isn't a long distance, so I used the hand axe to chop the logs into square pieces along the marked lines.
The next step was to evenly mark out one-centimeter-wide lines on the timber, and then use a saw to cut the wood along these lines, thus obtaining several rectangular planks of the same size and length.
Other timber is also processed in this way. This method of processing planks has some disadvantages: it is slow and it is quite tiring to handle.
It seems we'll have to wait a while to build a dam by the stream and make a waterwheel-powered reciprocating saw.
After sawing all the wood, I could no longer feel my hands. The soreness and numbness in my right arm probably won't go away easily for at least two or three days.
Fortunately, the quality of the finished wooden boards was quite good, and the thickness difference was not significant. After that, I only needed to use a plane to smooth the surface.
Normally, these wooden boards are inlaid using a slotted structure, but I don't have a matching slotted pusher on hand, so I can only use the mortise and tenon joint method to splice these wooden boards.
I made a bow drill back in my hometown, and I brought that bow drill with me here.
First, lay the wooden planks neatly on the ground, then use an ink line to mark the planks that need to be drilled along the same line. The wood of this type of tree is relatively dense, so it is also harder than other trees.
The drilling process is also very laborious. If it weren't for the bow drill, and I had to rely entirely on manual output, I probably would have had sparks flying from my hands before I could keep up with the work.
Fortunately, I managed to drill all the holes. Next, I cut off some pigskin and boiled it into leather glue. To increase its strength, I also added some resin and mixed it evenly.
Wrap the ends of the rounded wooden stick with a layer of leather glue and insert it into the side of the 1-centimeter-thick wooden board with the hole drilled in it.
Then, by inserting the two wooden boards together, the splicing process is completed. The remaining wooden boards are inserted into the holes of the other boards in the same way, so that they can be connected into a whole.
A whole piece of wood measuring 40*40 cm was pieced together. I measured it with hemp rope and found that the lengths of the four sides were exactly the same, making it the square I wanted.
Next, we take a circle. According to the properties of a square, the intersection of two adjacent diagonals is the center of the quadrilateral.
I took two wooden sticks, each about the thickness of a chopstick. I sharpened the bottom of one stick with a knife and charred the other stick over a fire.
Using the center point of the quadrilateral as the center, first fix the sharpened end at the center.
The other carbonized stick was held in my hand along with the first one, spread out at a large angle. At this moment, the two sticks in my hand were a simple compass.
The pointed end is the needle of a compass, while the carbonized end is the charcoal pencil used to draw circles, just like a compass.
Place the carbonized end at the edge of one side of the square wooden board and fix the included angle. Slowly rotate the bottom of the board by hand, and a regular circle will be left on the board.
The next step is to use a saw to cut off the excess scraps, and a round clay turntable base is complete.
We still need to make a pivot. I've considered using wood to straighten it, but that would be troublesome. Also, wood would wear out very quickly, and the resistance to rotation would be quite high.
So I changed my mind and decided to use the white clay to make the axle. But before making the axle, I had to first carve a suitable groove for fixing the axle at the center of the round wooden board.
My plan is simple: draw a small circle with a diameter of 16 millimeters along the center. Then, draw four extended lines along the edge of the circle; the small square formed by the intersection of these four lines will be the position to fix the pivot.
Use a chisel to cut through this square to make room for the pivot.
The pivot needs to be highly vertical; otherwise, the circular base on top will sway wildly from side to side once it starts spinning.
This is why I chose to draw a 16mm circle to determine the base for fixing the pivot.
Because my blowgun also has a 16mm caliber, and its barrel was vertically aligned when it was made, it was the perfect material to make a kaolin mold.
Sometimes weapons are not just weapons; with flexible use, they can also become excellent production tools.
The shaft doesn't need to be too long; fifteen centimeters is enough.
I smeared some lard inside the blowgun as a lubricant, and then started pressing sticky kaolin into it.
After pressing it down to the ground, I blocked that end with a stick, and then used a stick to push the kaolin inside through the blowgun tube to compact it. Finally, I simply removed the blocked end and gently pushed the kaolin out, and the kaolin was demolded.
The kaolin clay that comes out of the mold is round and full, forming a cylinder with good verticality.
This is not the end yet. At this point, the cylinder can only be used as the axis of rotation, and the square bayonet on the base has not yet been connected to the axis.
At this point, one end of the cylinder needs to be stood upright and placed into the square hole extended from the 16mm circle.
The square hole is just big enough to fit a 16mm cylinder. There are still many gaps around the edge that need to be filled and compacted with kaolin to make it a single unit with the cylinder.
In order for the molded part of the slot to fit tightly with the cylinder, a conical support structure needs to be built at the base position at the center of the cylinder and the round wooden board.
After they have air-dried naturally, you can use a stick to slowly push out the kaolin clay from the small square.
This is a cylindrical shaft with a single square piece of kaolin clay at the top, which is the key to holding the circular turntable in place.
The cone-shaped structure below effectively supports the round wooden board, preventing it from falling.
I ground the remaining cylindrical end into a short, thick cone shape, and then I could fire it to make ceramic bearings.
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