"Swift"-ly progressing...

After picking Erin up from school today, we made a trip to the hardware store. This trip yielded:

One packet of rubber washers for assembling spindles - $1.37
A 1" x 6" x 6' solid oak board, which is enough to make three swifts (not counting the stand or clamp on the bottom) - $17.82
A 3/4" oak dowel 36" long - $3.49
One medium-sized can of water-based sealer - $14.98

I only bought one dowel to begin with, because I may decide later on that I want a thicker or thinner one. I'm thinking this one will be perfect, but I'll only have enough time this weekend to make one swift anyway. I already have the necessary sandpapers for smoothing out all the pieces. Tomorrow, I will go to the skate shop and pick up the ball bearings for the spinning mechanism, get screws and nuts for the cross pieces, and do all the cutting.

I was thinking I might ask Jess to do the cutting, since I have been hurting quite a lot recently and being in the cold garage would make me miserable. If my hands get too cold, they become useless claws. It's like when I first started knitting. My mom taught me how to knit on some old Boye aluminum knitting needles (at least, I think they were Boye?). I was very young, but had already started experiencing problems with my hands. Over the years, I would pick knitting up sporadically, but never really do anything with it. Later on it was just too painful. Then I discovered bamboo needles and for some reason, while using them it didn't hurt my hands to knit! I'm thinking it's because of the flexibility of the bamboo.

Anyway, everything is coming together for the construction of my Swifts. After the pieces are cut, I'm going to take my time sanding, sealing, and then sanding again so that they are nice and smooth. The oak is beautiful and a nice warm color. I love the grain as well. I'm thinking I will also sand some designs into the surface with my dremel, then maybe burn the grooves before sealing.

I had an idea that I would put a stately acorn finial on the top of the swift, and maybe another one on the bottom disc that moves up and down. Kind of like this antique one. Isn't that thing marvelous?? Too bad a lot of the parts are made from whale bone. :(
The key for adjusting height could be very utilitarian (dowel with another dowel stuck through one end to keep it from sliding straight through the different height holes) or a clamp of some sort. Maybe a little finial type knob would be cute. I guess we'll see!