Boomerang Dave's Boomerang Journal

It was a dark and stormy night....... no, that's not it........
 

I just couldn't take being cooped up inside and not making boomerangs. Sunday I tried to do something about that. I headed to the shop despite the temperatures hovering just above freezing. I really wanted to check out the bandsaw blades I recently purchased on ebay. If you have been reading my journal, then you know of my troubles with bandsaw blades. Well, I had found some Olsen blades on ebay at around $10 per blade. That is much less than the $20 Woodcraft charges. I was pretty sure these blades would fit, but wanted to make sure.
 

I took one of the 1/8 inch 14 TPI blade on the saw and grabbed a piece of 3/16 inch polycarbonate that I traced out some shapes on. I cut out 8 before I got too cold to work. Recently some kids in the neighborhood broke some windows in the garage. It's been too cold to do anything about them, and they are at a tough place to get too. Yesterdays winds (up to 40mph) were blowing through the windows and out the door, which I cannot close from the inside. I must say that I was quite cold and very quickly. I gave up and headed inside to thaw.

After sufficiently warming up, I decided to give it another try. I looked out the windows and see it is now snowing and blowing like crazy. I held off a bit and it stopped snowing so I donned my coat and headed to the garage. This time I was going to sand some booms. I knew I had to change the belt on the sander but thought maybe I could get a few more booms out of the old one. I flipped the switch on the sanded and the motor hummed, but nothing happened. Hmm, maybe old belt is too tight? I loosen the belt and same thing happens. Next I take the belt off and also start to take apart the sander. I notice some stuff building up inside the disk sander cover so clean that all out. I still can't get it to run. The motor hums but doesn't turn. If I leave it on too long, then it trips the breaker. I don't know what is wrong, but now I am too cold to play with it anymore so give up. This is a pretty hard blow to take because my belt sander is the workhorse and without it I am dead in the water.
 
I went back in the house to warm up. I had a few boomerangs ready to paint so started working on two. I put the base color on a reversible boomerang and two colors on another boomerang I plan to do sponge and dot artwork on. That I about all I can do with the sander broke, and the temperatures below freezing. Today the temperature is at 9F and the wind chill is -10F. If I don't have to go outside, I won't.
 

Dave
 
Photo: A Snake, shape by Alberto Sabal, painted in sponge and dot art by me. Boomerang is 22 inches across.

  Well, Ian's boomerang presentation was today and Ian emailed me as soon as he could with the results. Here is his email to me. 

  Dave,They said I did outstanding, so I guess that means they gave me an O, the highest grade!  It went very well.  There were three women and one man, all younger and nice.  They made me feel comfortable right away.  I first went in and gave them my journals, essays, and proposal binder and set up, but had to get out right away for them to look at my stuff.  Right away compliments came in.  After waiting in the hall for about two minutes, they called me back in to present.  I had my index cards in my hands at first, but just threw them to the side and never used them.  I was really, really comfortable in front of them and made no mistakes, really.  They felt free to put in comments and stuff when I was talking, which made it easier.  I only couldn't answer one question, and that was what specific force drives boomerangs, but they didn't care.  It was supposed to be a question to get my nervous, but the guy was kidding around so much the whole time I knew it wasn't  I may have been talking for ten or more minutes.  They then asked me to leave the room to grade my stuff again.  I was outside for a minute, then they called me in to say I did outstanding, that not one thing was wrong.  They were impressed with how we met and everything.  I got to keep all of the boomerangs, but they had me keep the story board there.  I can get it back at the end of the year, as well as the binder with the journals and stuff.  Anyway, thanks a lot for all the help...you got me an O!!!!!  Tell David Hirsch; I told him you'd tell him.Ian 

Kill Devil Hills NC is the site of the Wright brothers first successful flight of the Wright Flyer (Not Kitty Hawk but very close by). The National Park Service has a wonderful park here. The launch point and landings for the four flights of December 17 ^th 1903 are marked off. Replicas of the gliders and Wright Flyers are viewable. Much history of the original flights is available. Then there is that hill and the monument to the Wright Brothers and the first flight, it seems like a place to toss a boomerang to me.

Tuesday September 4 ^th, 10AM, Barb and I park the truck and grab a boomerang and camera and head up the hill. I chose a copy of a Herb Smith Classic Hook, knowing that it made a large circle which I was sure would make it all the way around the monument. We arrive at the top of the hill and notice the breeze is stronger up here and definitely coming from the north. For my first throw I go to the southeast corner of the monument and throw too much into the wind. The boom flies around the monument and down the back side of the hill. While the front side of the hill is a nice slope, the back drops off rapidly at about a 70 degree angle. Fortunately there were some spectators watching my attempt and pointed out where the boomerang landed. There was a path leading down almost to the spot the boomerang landed so retrieval was pretty easy. Barb got a great photo of me, the monument and the boomerang flying.


I went to the south side of the monument and readied another throw. This one was good, much better than the first but Barb did not get a photo due to technical difficulties.

I set up for a third attempt. This time I angled too far off the wind and the boomerang came screaming in front of the monument and just over my head. It sailed past me, then Barb (who got off a photo) and over the worst possible part of the drop off behind us. Barb was close to the edge and saw just about where it went. It was not good. There is a fairly large area covered with a thorny bush, much like a wild rosebush. The boomerang was in the thick of it and no matter how we tried to get to it, we just could not without suffering lots of scratches and cuts. Since I made the boomerang, I felt it was expendable and decided to leave it there as my own memorial to the Wright Brothers. I had done what I came to do, and could take the time to make a new boomerang for myself. I have photos of the event to remember it by and had fun doing it.


If you are ever in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and have a decent boomerang (at least 30 meter range) I suggest you give this a go. Just be very careful of the hard slope on the south side! While in the area, remember to take some time to fly kites at Jockey Ridge State Park in Nags Head. The winds are usually quite favorable. While we were there we thought we might get taken away by our kites!