Bee Gone 

Bee Gone 

So, I’m using a wire brush chucked in a drill to clean the rust off of some old metal brackets that I’m planning to use in my new lumber rack. I’ve got a bracket in one hand and the drill in the other when a bee lands on my chest. That little voice tells me to put down the bracket and drill, but I decide to whisk the little guy off with the spinning wire brush instead. Bad idea. In a heartbeat, the brush is twisting my tee shirt into a tourniquet, and instead of whisking off the bee, it’s whisking off the hair and skin from my chest. Talk about getting stung! I guess I’d better improve my bee control methods. –Gordon Zaagsma

Watch the Birdie

One of my first scroll saw projects was a candy dish with a small clock insert and a scrollwork hummingbird feeding from a trumpet vine flower.  After completing all of the decorative cuts, I used a 1-3/8″ Forstner bit to drill the hole for the clock insert. Unfortunately, the scroll-sawn dish was too delicate, and the bit shattered all of my hard work.

After getting over the shock, I noticed that the hummingbird itself was still intact, so I decided to turn it into a hanging ornament. I put the bird on my bench-mounted belt sander for a bit of touch-up sanding. But when I flipped the switch, the belt grabbed the bird from my fingers and shot it across the room, where it stuck, beak first, in the wall. –Chuck McCracken