Day 20: Float like a butterfly

I decided to turn the other half of the 2nd log today.  I wanted to do the other half of the large crotch but didn't think I'd have enough time and I knew I wouldn't have enough space in my recycling bin for all of the shavings.

I tried to document the process a bit better, here the half log has been partially rounded on my bandsaw and a 3" faceplate attached.

The faceplate has been threaded onto the lathe and the bowl is ready for turning what will be the outside of the largest bowl.  The bark has been stripped off in order to keep my tools sharper longer as the bark quite often has dirt and sand imbedded in it.

Safely spinning at 450 RPMs.  Once the piece is balanced the speed can be increased.

The outside shape has been formed and a tenon formed on the bottom.  The tenon will be gripped in a 4 jaw chuck so the center of the bowl can be removed.

The bowl has been flipped and secured in a 4 jaw chuck.  The face showing here will flattened and will end up as the rim on the bowl.

Using special tools I am able to remove the center of the bowl in 1 piece which can then be made into a smaller bowl.

Here you can see how the tool is arced into the bowl to remove the center as 1 piece.  Without this tool the center of the bowl would be turned into shavings and wasted.

Note the core with the faceplate still attached can be seen at the bottom.







The inside of the bowl has been cleaned up with a bowl gouge.  It will be placed in a paper bag and will dry for several months.

The core removed above (with the faceplate still in place) has been mounted on the lathe and the outside shape has been formed in addition to another tenon.

  Flipped once again and mounted in a chuck the core is removed to form a third smaller bowl.

An action shot of the inside of the bowl being cleaned up with a bowl gouge.

Note this shot was very difficult to take as I was only controlling the tool with one hand while taking the photo with the other.  Normally my left hand would be on the tool right at the bottom of the photo.

All 3 pieces roughed out and ready to be bagged.  They will be ready to finish in about 6 months.

All of the shavings on the floor are from this set of 3 bowls, it's not the cleanest hobby.

I had to do some repairs to the Mesquite Pie from Day 17.  There were 2 cracks in the rim that I've already glued twice but the force of the strips caused one of the side to open up again.  I decided the best action was to repair it using a pair of butterfly joints.

I cut the ebony butterflies and then hand carved the recess for them to fit into.  This was my first attempt at a butterfly joint and the carving wasn't the best so the epoxy was tinted black to fill any gaps.

While I was at it I applied a coat of oil to the entire piece inside and out.

Day 19: Roughing out

I decided to spend my Sunday roughing out some of the wood I got yesterday.

This is the biggest piece, about 17" tall and 17" across.

It was rolled into my shop and stood on its side.  Most people would stand it on and and cut down through the middle.  It's easier to rip it in half with the log on its side.

Cut right down the middle.  This one log should yield about 8 bowls of various sizes.

Rough cut to an octagon shape to fit on the lathe.  A 3" aluminum faceplate has been attached with 4 1 1/2" #12 wood screws.

Outside shape has been turned and the bowl flipped around to start the coring process.

The largest core has been removed and the bowl has been left just over 1" thick.  It will be placed in a paper bag for about 8 weeks and will air dry for about 6 months before being turned a second time to final thickness.

The largest core has been put back on the lathe and the outside has been trued up and a tenon formed.  This core will be flipped mounted in a chuck, and cored to produce another nested bowl.

Repeat this process 2 more times and the result is 4 bowls from  1/2 of the original log.

14 1/2", 11 1/2" 8" and 5"

Expanded view.  All of the shavings on the floor were from this set, it was clean before I started.

Today's work.  7 Sissoo bowls (4 from the set above, 3 from half of a different log) and 2 Mesquite bowls.  The Mesquite bowls were cored from the inside of the Mesquite Pie from Friday.  They are dry and only need sanded and finished.

Day18: chainsaws and color

Woke up early (for me) this morning to make the drive out to Boyce Thompson Arboretum with my friend Kevin.  They had let me know a couple of weeks ago that they lost a couple of Arizona Ash trees in a storm and wanted to know if I wanted some of the wood.  I talked to their business manager on Thursday to make sure the wood was still there and that I was still welcome to it.  He checked with a couple other employees and informed me that the wood was still there and some of it had already been cut into manageable pieces and moved behind the workshop with the remainder of the wood still in the bottom of Queen Creek Wash.

Kevin and I arrived around 8:30 in separate vehicles and headed straight to the workshop.  There we found about 15 pieces of what we initially believed to be Ash but we were amazed by the color.  It was raining lightly and I only needed to fire up the chainsaw long enough to trim branches off of a few pieces.  We then decided to talk to my contact at the Arboretum before heading down to the wash to take a look at the rest of the wood.  Luckily they let us use one of their golf carts to drive most of the way, what we found were several large sections of Ash but they clearly were not from the same tree that we found behind the workshop.  The wood in the wash had no color at all and the bark was completely different.  We quickly determined that getting the wood cut, out of the wash, and into a vehicle was far more work than we wanted to put in today and we both had more than enough wood already loaded.

Back in the parking lot we simultaneously came to the same conclusion, the wood from he workshop was not Arizona Ash, it was Sissoo (Dalbergia Sissoo) also called Indian Rosewood or Shisham.  It's a true Rosewood from the same family as African Blackwood, Kingwood, and Cocobolo.  We'd both turned Sissoo before and recognized the bark as it's used frequently in landscapes around the valley, including in both of our neighborhoods.

Most of the pieces are 10-12" diameter and 14-16" long with the exception of the piece on the far right, it's a huge crotch piece about 18" across and 17" tall. I plan to tackle on half of it tomorrow.  Several of these pieces will be headed to the Arizona Woodturners Association to be distributed among members willing to donate a finished piece back to the Arboretum, I plan to do the same from some of this wood as well as some Honey Locust previously salvaged from BTA.

I also decided to play a bit more with color this evening.  The finished piece is shown to the left.  This is a piece of Quaking Aspen that was turned, sanded, textured with a needle scaler, airbrushed with cobalt blue, lightly sanded again, and then airbrushed with lemon yellow.  The rim was the sanded smooth to eliminate stray color before the bottom was finished.

The outside of the piece was left natural.  I left it a bit thicker than I normally would just in case I really hated the color and wanted to start over.  8" diameter, 2.5" tall.

Day 17: Mesquite pie

I finally finished the rest of the seam rippers today (no photo) before moving on to the main event.  I picked out a nice piece of Mesquite and set about turning a full sized "pie".

Here the outside shape has been formed and I've started to cut off the top for what will eventually be the ring for the lid.

I skipped about 11 steps, 2 headaches, and 90 minutes to get to this point.  The bowl has been turned but not yet sanded and the ring has been turned to the correct size and thickness.

 About a dozen more steps and 90 more minutes to get to this point.  It's done except for the finish.  The strips that form the lattice top are  1/32" thick and about 3/4" wide.  They are not secured in any way, they stay in place just by friction.








Another view with the top partially opened.

Inside of the bowl, approx. 10.5" X 3.5"

Day 16: 30 minutes part deux

I had limited turning time again tonight, we had a storm roll through and I went chasing again.  I did have enough time before and after the storm to get the bottoms of all 20 cut and sanded and I buffed and assembled half.

Tomorrow I plan to finish the assemble the last 10 and get started on a larger version of my "pie".  I may also be getting some large chunks of Arizona Ash.

Day 15: Prototype 1a

I intended to finish and do final assembly on my latest batch of 20 seam rippers but instead ended up turning a small prototype of the pie I sketched 3 days ago.  I'm thrilled with the way it turned out.  Walnut bowl and rim with Basswood strips forming the "crust".

It's small, just over 4" diameter but it's a proof of concept that I think can be scaled up pretty easily. 

No finish at this point, the strips are still a bit damp from the water I used to make them pliable enough to weave fairly easily.

Day 14: Seam rippers continued

Swept up and organized a bit before working on another batch of 10 more seam rippers tonight.  Like last night's batch they still have a bit of work to be done.

3 X Monterillo, 1 Oak, 2 Bocote, 1 Afzelia, and 3 curly Maple.