Woodworking Expo wrapup

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Woodworking Expo in the parking lot of the local Woodcraft.  Our club had a booth that we used to demonstrate woodturning, promote the club, recruit new members, and socialize.

Over the course of the day I turned 5 bowls: 2 Sissoo, 2 walnut (both square), 1 Birdseye maple, a small lidded box out of Olive, a 3 sided spindle with a  120 degree twist, and a set of 3 mini hollow forms in Maple burl.  A very productive day.

Desert Ironwood Hollow form

There were probably about 20 booths total, including the Arizona Fine Woodworkers, ArizonaWoodcarvers, Festool, Sawstop, Freud, Easy Wood Tools, and a wood vendor.  They also had a woodworking contest with entries divided into 4 categories: woodturning, wood carving, furniture, and other.  I opted to enter 4 pieces into the woodturning category.  3 prizes were awarded in each category.  The pictures on this page are of my 4 entries.

Oak burl nested set

After seeing all of the entries I thought I had a really good chance to place, if not take first place.  There was some nice work, including several very nice segmented pieces.  I took 3rd place in the woodturning category 2 years ago and took 2nd place last year.  This year I had my heart and sites set on 1st.

Sissoo (Indian Rosewood) hollow form with Macassar Ebony pedestal and finial.

This year the judges were noted turner and featured demonstrator Ernie Conover and Easy Wood Tools owner Craig Jackson.  Last year the judges were David Marks and Marc Spagnuolo of The Wood Whisperer.

The prizes in the Woodturning category were announced first and my name was the first one they called.  The judges has selected this Spalted/Quilted Maple hollow form with Ebony collar (this photo shows a Desert Ironwood collar, I replace it with Ebony after this photo was taken) as the best piece in the category.  My prize was a variable speed Rikon mini lathe, worth about $350.  Last year I won a Supernova2 chuck with insert (~$175) and the year before a close quarters angle drill (~$60).  I still have and still use both of my previous prizes.  Is it too early to start thinking about next year?

A foot in the door.

I had an idea a couple of nights ago and had to try it out. This was the first opportunity to give it a shot. I started by cutting a piece of Birdseye maple from the veneer log core I got a couple weeks ago. It's only 6" diameter so I was very limited in size but the quality of the wood made up for the lack of size. The piece was ripped in half to give me 2 blanks 6" diameter, 6 1/2" long, and 3" deep.












I marked the center on both sides and mounted it between centers. The drive center is a 1" diameter Woodriver multi tooth drive center (stebcenter). The live center the Jet live center that came with my lathe.  It's nearly identical to the Oneway live center.













The outside shaped and a tenon turned so the inside can be hollowed. I have not sanded yet, the finish is straight off the gouge. I love the look of the Birdseye, unfortunately it doesn't show up very well on what will become the rim or on the end grain.












The bowl was flipped around and mounted in the chuck.  The rim was shaped, and the center is now ready to be hollowed out. The blank wasn't quite big enough to core, and even if it was a little bigger the Birdseye is much less pronounced as the diameter gets smaller.











After hollowing the inside of the bowl was sanded before flipped around again and mounted on my vacuum chuck. The tenon was removed, a small recess turned, and the outside sanded smooth. The vacuum drum I'm using here is a 3" PVC pipe coupler.












The inside of the finished bowl. The rim is under cut significantly so it's not as heavy as it appears. The under cut rim made sanding difficult so the interior isn't as smooth as I would like. Such is life.

Bottom view, this is where my idea came to fruition. Turning the collar for my recent hollow form gave me the idea that I could do the same thing for a foot. I followed the same process as I did for the collar, except instead of fitting it for the opening in the hollow form I fit it for the recess I turned in the bottom. The wood for the ring is Desert Ironwood.

Profile view. The foot gives it lift, the color gives it contrast, and it's a nice surprise for the buyer when they flip it over to see the extra effort put into making the piece special.

Here's my sketch from this evening, before I headed out to the shop.  The shape is different on the outside than what I had drawn but the overall effect is exactly what I had envisioned when I thought of using the collar as a foot. 

Yea or Nay?

 I talked to a few club members on Saturday about my latest hollow form.  Consensus was that an Ebony or African Blackwood collar would probably highlight the black line spalting better than the Desert Ironwood collar I originally had in place.  With that in mind I headed out to the shop last night to give it a go.  Here a blank approximately 2" square and 3/8" thick is secured between the live center and the front face of the spindle.  This is a trick I picked up from Mark St. Leger back in 2009.  There's plenty of friction to drive the blank and the flat face of the spindle ensures that the blank is square to the lathe.

 The blank is turned round and a tenon is formed that matches the diameter of the opening that it is to fit.  Using this method the blank can usually be removed from the lathe for test fittings and be placed back with a high degree of accuracy.  I also faced off the bottom of the tenon and under cut the shoulder on the tenon so the area near the tenon doesn't bottom out before the outer rim does.  I use a 1/2" bowl gouge to turn it round, and a 3/8" diamond shaped parting tool and 3/8" spindle gouge to shape the tenon.

 I also took the time to shape part of the upper profile and to start to contour the under side of the tenon.  I won't have access to it any other time and when people try to feel the inside of the vessel (and they will, other turners in particular) I don't want them to feel a sharp corner.  I also prefer the depth of the tenon to match the thickness of the vessel at the opening.

A quick sketch illustrating the cross section of the finished collar.  The tenon matches the thickness of the wall and the under side of the tenon is contoured so the transition is as seamless as possible.  I like to get the cross section as close to round as possible and there should not be a gap between the vessel and the collar at any point.  The collar should look like it belongs on the piece and was not an after thought.

To turn the top and inside of the collar I use a shop made jig based on a jig used by Mark St. Leger.  It's scrap end grain maple.  A groove is cut on one side to allow the wood to expand and contract as the jaws of the chuck are opened and closed.  The face of the jig is turned flat and a recess is turned in the face so that the tenon of the collar fits inside snugly.  The recess should be deeper than the length of the tenon so to outside lip of the collar rests on the face of the jig.  The jaws of the chuck are then snugged tight and the collar is held securely by the jig, not the jaws of the chuck.

The collar is placed in the jig so the top and inside of the collar can be turned.  You can see ring where the end of the spindle compressed the wax sealant on the outside of the blank.  If you look carefully and compare with the photo above you can see how the gap in the is narrower in this photo, the wood is flexible enough to move and compress as the jaws are tightened.

And now the face and inside of the collar have been turned and sanded.  The back side of the ring is relieved and the contour matched to give me the cross section I want.  The collar can be removed, test fit, and then placed back in the chuck for any additional turning with very good accuracy.  All of this shaping work is done with a 3/8" spindle gouge with a fingernail grind.

The finished rings side by side.  Desert Ironwood on the left and Ebony on the right.  The light ring on the Ebony is light reflecting off the highly polished surface.  The color of the collar is almost pure jet black, unless you look closely for the grain some might assume it's plastic, not wood.  One strike against the Ebony.

The Ebony collar set in place.  I think the black color brings out the black line spalting in the piece.

The original Desert Ironwood collar.  I think the Desert Ironwood looks more natural (less like plastic) but it doesn't work as well with the spalt lines.  I do prefer the shape of this collar better, the one above is a little flat so if I decide to go with the Ebony I will probably turn a new one anyway.

Should I go with the Ebony or with the Desert Ironwood?

Playing favorites

I know I'm usually pretty happy after finishing a piece, in this case I'm ecstatic. This is quite possibly the best piece I've ever done. Not only is the wood gorgeous but the quality of the turning is very nearly as perfect as I can do. Having a gorgeous piece of wood like this certainly helps but the best piece of wood in the world doesn't do you any good if you butcher it in the process.






The collar is a small piece of Desert Ironwood burl. I wanted to dress up the edge and use a contrasting color. The collar isn't permanently attached yet so I may make one out of Ebony and a few other woods to see which I like best.








If I'm being really picky I can pick out a few small flaws and things I would change (mostly on the inside) but overall I am thrilled with how this ended up. I think I have a pretty good idea what is inside a piece before I start turning. In this case I am truly shocked at what I found in this blank.







Bottom view opposite the void. I suspect that the guy who sold me this blank will end up regretting it. He's also a turner and based on what I ended up with he let it go for way less than it's worth.










One more reminder of what I started with. This is upside down to what ended up being the final orientation.

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Local woods only

1 quick photo of something I've been playing with the last couple of nights. I don't want to give too many details yet, I am willing to say that these are for our club's August President's Challenge - Local woods only.

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Spheres

Some spheres from Thursday and Friday night.  The smallest one at the top was made when I made the kendama and is made out of Cedar.  The 2 below that on the left hand side are both Eucalyptus.  The lightest colored one is Olive, the dark one in the bottom middle is Desert Ironwood.  The large one on the right is Mesquite.  The bowl is one I did a couple of years ago, I think it's Cottonwood.

Mega catch up

 It's been a busy week, time for another catch up post.

First up is some prep for an upcoming demonstration.  I'm headed to Idaho for vacation in about 3 weeks and will be doing a demonstration at the Woodcraft Guild in Idaho Falls on 7/7/11.

 I'll be doing my multi axis demo, the main feature being my multi axis lidded box with a twist.  As always I prepare the blank ahead of time by turning the inside.  This is primarily to save time but is also because the accuracy needed for the tenon would be hard to do with an audience.

 Next up are a few birdhouses.  The last couple of posts have been their construction.  Here are the finished products.

Some may notice that the 3rd one (Ornamental Yew) is missing.  It had an unfortunate accident while doing the final sanding.  I forgot how thin it was near the bottom and when I tapped on it to seat it on a jam chuck I broke the bottom out of it.  I made this body as a replacement on Friday night and gave the woman that ordered it her choice of the 3.  She picked this one and it's now living happily in her living room.

 This piece was boxed so it can be delivered to the 25th annual American Association of Woodturners symposium in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

 The President's Challenge for June is "Toys".  I'm working on a couple of things, first is a multi axis magic wand.  Next is a Tippy top.  This top is supposed to flip over and spin on the stem.  This one doesn't quite work right but I'm not sure what's wrong.  I'll probably do a couple more to see if I can figure out what went wrong.  I suspect it's too top heavy.

 This afternoon I turned a Kendama.  Kendamas are like the old ball and cup toy but a bit more extreme.  There are at least 4 surfaces to catch the ball one, each of the 3 cups and the point.

xAll pieces were turned out of Red Cedar.  I didn't have any plans and I couldn't find any dimensions on the internet so I had to base my design on a couple of photos.  I'm sure that the dimensions are incorrect. I can now see from additional photos that the cups on the side should be different sizes.  I also had some extra wood so I turned another sphere (above).

Last I had a custom job to turn a spindle and a drop finial for a music stand.  The customer supplied the wood and a poor quality photo to use as the template.  The photo was similar to the photo at left.  I didn't have to copy it exactly but it was used as inspiration for the piece.  The drop final was inspired by the bottom 2" of the spindle only in reverse and slightly different because it needed to taper down to a very small diameter in a relatively short distance.

Catch up II

Our club is submitting 1 piece to this summer's "Turning 25 - A Celebration" exhibit in Minneapolis-St. Paul.  This was one of my entries to our club's selection competition.  I'm happy to report that it was the selection and will be included in the exhibit and in the exhibition catalog.  It's titled "Relic I" and is made from a Desert Ironwood root salvaged from a lot being cleared for a new retail development.

After ruining the first hollow form I decided to give it another shot, slowing down just a bit so I don't ruin it.  I started off at exactly 4:05 PM

The finished piece (including a very quick sanding to 320) at 4:20 PM.

It was also cut in half to check the wall thickness.  It's  the one on the right and is quite a bit thicker in the bottom than I'd like and the opening is larger than I'd like but overall it's not bad.  The one on the left was my 10 minute attempt from earlier.

 Last night was a prototype for a new multi axis box.

 The inside is turned prior to the outside.  The outside is done on 2 parallel axis.  One Axis is turned as a large bead, the other is turned as a large cove.  The top and bottom are then turned using a jam chuck.

 There was a significant defect in the wood, making it perfect for a prototype.

Open view, showing the pinched oval cross section.

Ironwood blanks

A couple more Desert Ironwood handle blanks today.  I don't have an intended purpose for these yet, eventually I'll probably get a couple new tools and depending on the manufacturer they may need handles.

These are a little shorter than the one I turned yesterday due to a defect in the log, these are about 13" long, yesterday's was 15".  The stock handle that I broke on Thursday night was 12 1/2".  The additional length and the additional weight should provide better tool control.  The original handle was Ash and had a specific gravity of .66 Mesquite has a specific gravity of .80, Desert Ironwood is 1.15.  I suspect that with the additional length and the much denser wood the tool is about 50% heavier now.

Getting a handle on things

The handle on my spindle gouge had and "accident" last night and needed to be replaced.  I say "accident" but really I mean that I got mad at it, hit a log with it, and the handle broke right where the ferrule meets the handle.  I salvaged the ferrule to use on the new handle and set to work. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to make the handle out of.  I have a couple nice curly maple blanks but didn't really feel like using one of them.  Other blanks I considered were Walnut, Mesquite, Eucalyptus, Olive, Lignum Vitae, and Afzilia.  I finally settled on a nice piece of Desert Ironwood.  It's very hard and very heavy and should hold up to lots of use and abuse.  It's also one of the best looking woods around.  This piece has a small section of sapwood on the end, giving it even more character.