Works in progress

 More work on the Oak Burl set today.  The core was remounted, turned true, a tenon turned, and then the blank was cored again.

I repeated the process 1 more time and I ended up with 4 bowls total.  I should end up with a 5th bowl as I have a small cutoff I cut off the side of the blank before I started turning.  It won't go with this set, but will be from the same blank.

The largest is just under 14" diameter, they step down from there, the smallest is about 4" diameter.

 I also remounted and trued up the outside of the Eucalyptus burl I cored the bottom off of the other day.

This one has a ton of voids.  I have to figure out what to do with them and I don't think I can progress much further until I figure out what I'm going to do.

Roadkill

I spotted a wood pile beside the road on Wednesday while driving between dental appointments (long story).  The pile was mostly Pine and Eucalyptus but there were a few chunks of Mesquite mixed in.  I don't want or need any Mesquite but I picked it up for fellow club members, likely to be part of the 50/50 meeting next month.  It was already cut pretty much how I would cut it, slightly longer than the diameter (9-10" diameter, 14" long).  Got to love free wood.

Big Burls

I've had this chunk of wood laying around for 4 or 5 years.  It's a Eucalyptus Burl that was cut off of a dead tree that was sitting in an empty lot.  I've debated what to do with it and finally decided on Saturday night to do a natural edge nested set.

The blank was mounted on a faceplate and put on the lathe.  I can swing 20" inboard and as you can see from the next photo I needed every bit of that.

Clearance on this corner was about 1/16".  If the gap in the bed was filled It would have scraped.

The outside was shaped and a tenon turned on the bottom.  While working on the shape I decided that I would core off the bottom of the blank to form a standard bowl and then the rest would be done natural edged.

This also ensured that more of the burl figure ends up on the natural edge set.  Some of the wood closer to the tenon isn't as figured as the rest of the burl.  Initially I was planning to fill the voids with a filler like coffee grounds and epoxy but I think I've changed my mind now.

Sunday morning I chucked up another big piece of burl, this time an Oak Burl.  I neglected to take a before photo.  This burl also has a number of large voids.

Top view, I used my new Stebcenter to drive this blank, I don't think I'll be doing that again, it should be very useful on spindles and small bowls but on something this large and hard it didn't work very well.  Perhaps the 1" version would be better (mine is 5/8").

Tuesday night I decided to start the coring process on both blanks.  The Oak Burl was up first.

I decided to leave the blank thicker than normal because of all the voids, I didn't want it to fly apart.  It's just under 14" diameter.

 I still need to sand it inside and out as well as remove the tenon.  The core removed also needs to be cleaned up, I think I can get another core out of it, leaving me 3 bowls from this blank.

Next up the bottom of the Eucalyptus was cored off.  This photo is a pretty good representation of how that was accomplished.  The curved blade cuts in from the side rather than the top.  This is made a little more difficult because the tool support gate has to be held back from the entry point.  Normally the gate would be as close to the blank as possible to minimize overhang and maximize tool control.

 I wasn't sure how well I was going to like this bowl, I was thinking it was going to be much plainer than this, I like the way the straight grain runs through the middle of the bowl, almost dividing it in half.

In this photo you can better see how much straight grain there is on the outside of the burl, especially on the right hand side.  This one is slightly larger, just under 16" diameter.  It was also left slightly thicker for the same reason, I didn't want it flying apart on the lathe.

 The core out of this bowl (the natural edge from above) will be turned and cored and will hopefully produce 5 or 6 bowls.

The 2 bowls together, the lower right on the Eucalyptus is a partial natural edge, not a chunk missing.

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.

Catch up

 A bit of catch up and picture dump tonight.  This is going to be a long entry with limited notes.

This blank is Chinese Elm from my neighbor's tree.  It died last fall and had to come down last week.  This is the top part of the trunk, it split into 4 branches at this point.

 Alternate view.

I only took it as far as shaping the outside.  It's been coated with Anchorseal and set aside for the time being.

Alternate view.  The shape will be refined as work progresses.

Ahead of my Tucson demo I decided to do a little practice turning.

A simple spindle turned on 2 parallel axis.  This gives a pinched oval shape to the piece.

Next was another parallel 2 axis piece.  All 3 sections have a circular cross section, only the center section is offset.

Saturday was my demo for the Southern Arizona Woodturners Association in Tucson.  This was my first visit to this club and I did my multi axis demo.  Over the course of 2 1/2 hours I did 6 multi axis projects.  2 parallel axis spindles to warm up, a Mark St. Leger style multi axis final jig, a 3 sided lidded box with a twist, and finally a pair of multi axis pendants.

While there we stopped into the local Woodcraft, my only purchase was a Woodriver brand Stebcenter.  I've been playing with it for the last couple of day and I really like it so far and at $20 it's a bargain.

Sunday morning started with a small Olive hollow form. Approx. 3 1/4" X 2 1/2".

Top view.

Profile view.

That got me thinking, how fast could I turn a similar piece, start to finish.  I started at exactly  2:00

 At 2:10 I heard a somewhat familiar noise and stopped the lathe to find that I had cut through the sidewall near the bottom as I was shaping the outside.  I needed about 2 more minutes to finish shaping the outside and give it a quick sanding.

 Finished off the bottom but not yet sanded, no point sanding it at this time.

I wanted to check how I did inside, a little rough but pretty consistent down to the point where the inside gets bigger than the outside.  I could have gone a little deeper in the middle but a little more meat in the bottom isn't a bad thing as it helps keep it upright.

More tomorrow.

This post is actually a couple of evenings work put together. On Saturday night I did a new handle for the gavel. It's almost exactly the same length, it's just thicker and the threads have a slightly different configuration. The length was dictated by the length of the blank, it could stand to be another inch or two longer but this was almost all I have of this species.

On Sunday I decided I wanted to turn a matching sound block. I had saved a small piece of the matching wood just for this purpose. It was Approx. 3" X 3" X 1/4" so I knew I'd want to inlay it into another blank.

My first choices were Walnut and Mesquite but I wanted more contrast. I ended up selecting some Holly I've had for a while.

I wasn't sure how I was going to shape the profile, I ended up doing the same basic profile as the gavel itself. The underside of the Holly is hollow so there is a bit of a drum effect

Threaded gavel

For this month's President's Challenge - "Attention getters" I knew I wanted to do a gavel but I wanted to do it a little bit different.  The handle is secured to the head with hand chased threads.  Step 1 was to drill and then hand chase the threads in the head.  The blank is 5" long and just under 3" square. 

The head was then mounted between centers and the profile turned.  I found a PDF online with a profile I liked and based my design on that profile.  The layout was pretty simple just a little bit of measuring to make sure things were symmetrical.

The handle was then turned and the threads hand cut on the end.  This is endgrain orientation so threading was more difficult.  I soaked the threads in superglue to reinforce the short grain fibers.

The profile of the handle was turned next.  I wish I'd left it a little thicker, I may end up turning another one leaving a little more meat but I hesitate because of the end grain threads.

Last the nubs were sanded off of both ends of the head and the butt end of the handle before a coat of oil was wiped on.  I plan to turn a sounding block out of the same wood but that's a project for another day.