This is the fun part for me. Where the hubby likes using his big powerful "man tools", I like the design part. We get to include the grandbabies in this process and make lots of memories while having fun. Our oldest granddaughter loves helping in the shop. She has even started making new things with our help.
After all the stain dries, then comes my big job, the carving of the unions. Wow, I didn't realize how hard this was gonna be. I practiced on scrap wood before trying it on our stained unions. I also learned really quickly to stain the unions first. It is extremely hard to stain the unions with stars cut on them unless you want blue stars.
When I first started, I used a dremel tool with a flex shaft attachment but I kept melting the shafts. After watching a few more videos I realized i had the shaft at an angle that was to acute and was burning it up. I now use a Foredom system with a flex shaft tool. It was my hubbys idea, you know, more power and all. I swear I hear him grunt when he looks at new tools. Anyways, I love the precision it has while cutting. It's smoother, more comfortable to use and it is also reversible. The Dremel couldn't do that at all. The lines seem straighter and the handgrip is easier to hold. Plus you can get different hand grips for different applications. All this adds up to making the unions easier, faster to complete and much better looking.