Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Day 148: Smoke rings


I wasn't sure what I was going to work on tonight.  I ended up grabbing a Shoestring Acacia bowl about 8" diameter off the shelf hoping for inspiration to strike.  I realized while I was working on it that I don't think I've posted a photo of my vacuum chuck in action on my blog yet.

This photo shows the nearly complete bowl mounted on the vacuum chuck.  The tailstock is there just for safety, the bowl is completely secured by the suction of the vacuum.





Tailstock removed.  The bowl is reasonably secure for light finishing cuts and sanding but is hot held securely enough for heavy or roughing cuts.  It would take about 80 pounds of force to remove the bowl at this point. 











Bottom nearly finished and the lathe has been stopped but the vacuum pump is still running.  Don't make the mistake of turning off the vacuum pump before shutting off the lathe. 











I decided to do some burning on the rim of the bowl.  Here's a blurry action shot of the burning process.  Flashes of fire such as this are not uncommon.
















Finished bowl with a coat of oil wiped on.  The design on this rim is exactly the same as the Stingray piece from the other night.













Bottom shot showing my signature burned in.  My initials are JTC, Jason Thomas Clark, and so are my father's, Jeffery Thomas, and his father's, Jack Thomas.  So my signature is a stylized JTC that can also be seen as the Roman numeral 3, III.

1 comment:

  1. Burning really adds a lot to your pieces. The lip looks great.

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