Day 150: Swirls

I took some time today to head over to a local hardwood store to get some wood I need for my demo next month.  I picked up a piece of Mesquite that's 3x3x24, Cherry 3x3x38, and Maple 2 1/2x3x29.  Total cost was right around $37.  Not too bad.

I cut some of the maple up tonight and did some playing and some demo prep.  The piece on the left will end up as a multi axis goblet, the piece on the right was a bit of experimentation.

Side view of the experimental piece.  I was going for a female form and I think I got pretty close to what I had in mind.

I also wanted to mark the milestone 150th post.  I finish turned a Shoestring Acacia bowl and decided to do some burning on it.  This piece (with my 5 year-old daughter Becca as spokesmodel) was the result.  Becca helped with the burning, she held the pen while I controlled the placement and pressure on 2 of the of the 100+ brands.  She also helped wipe on the oil finish.

Day 149: Misc

2 projects tonight, the first is prep for a demo next month.  I'm planning to do several small multi axis turnings and want to have some of the prep work done ahead of time.  This will be a 3 sided multi axis box with a twist.  I plan to have the inside of the box complete prior to the demo starting so I only have to do the multi axis turning and finish the top and bottom during my demo.  The rest of the process for doing this box is pretty standard for most woodturners so I don't want to waste much time on it.
A tenon has been formed on each end and the 2 halves of the box have been separated.  If I wasn't turning this multi axis I would have turned the body round.

The tenon for the lid has been put in a chuck and the inside of the lid has been turned.  I didn't form the recess on the lid like I normally would because the wood feels like it still has a fair amount of moisture and will likely move a bit.

Now the body has been hollowed.  I would normally form a tenon to fit the recess on the lid but because I think it may still be a little wet I don't want to do that at this time.

Both halves have been put in a paper bag where they'll sit for a couple of weeks.  Then I'll true up the inside and turn a recess on the lid and a tenon on the body. 

I also worked on another small project.  A friend emailed me a while back to see if I had any ideas for business card holders that could be done on the lathe.  I put a few thoughts together and tonight decided to give it a try.  I cut some squares out of some Walnut and then cut a 3/8" wide groove with a dado blade on my tablesaw.  2 of the cuts were centered and the other was intentionally off center.

I then mounted the blocks onto a sacrificial partical board backer plate and mounted that to my lathe.  The 2 on the outside were turned on just 1 center, the one in the middle was the one with the off center groove and was turned on a total of 4 centers.  If I were to do this again I'd angle the dado cutter, I left it at 90 degrees to the table, tilting it about 10 degrees would have been better.  I also wouldn't have done quite as much off center work on the middle one, it's a bit much in my opinion.

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.

Day 147: Lessons learned

No photos tonight.  I had another visitor, my friend Bernie came over to talk and for a lesson.  We talked shop for a while and I did a show and tell of recent work before we moved on to the lesson itself.  We did 3 quick multi axis projects, a goblet stem turned on 2 parallel axes, a small piece turned on 3 twisted axes, and a necklace pendant turned on 3 axes.  Some of the multi axis stuff looks pretty complex on the surface but is surprisingly simple once you know the secrets.

Day 146: 126 days later

I finished a pair of Sissoo bowls tonight.  This was wood from a tree blown over in a storm at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  In exchange for the wood I promised to donate a couple of finished pieces back to them.   These pieces were roughed out way back on day 20.  http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2009/09/day-20-float-like-butterfly.html  The 3rd and smallest piece developed a deep crack and broke in half.






Sissoo, also called Indian Rosewood, is now a fairly common tree in the Phoenix area.  They're planted as a landscape tree because of their fast growth and minimal water needs.

Bottom view.  I prefer the color of the heartwood in these pieces but the contrast between the heartwood and the sapwood is very dramatic.











Song of the night:
Radiohead, Karma Police

Day 145: Organization

I did some organizing today, 43 bowl roughouts and  hollow form roughouts (not pictured) were moved from the landry room inside to the shelves in the shop.  These are a mixture of Sissoo (19), Shoestring Acacia (17), Aspen (4), and Olive (3). 

I'm hoping I can get a few of these finished in time for a couple of shows I'm planning to do this spring.  Some of the smaller ones may be headed to the club to be given away in 50/50 or raffle drawings.  I don't finish turn too many small bowls but I also hate to waste the wood. 

I also finished roughing out 'The Beast' from earlier this week.  I still have to fill all of the cracks before finishing the inside and then turning and finishing the bottoms.  I've decided that I'm going to use 2 part epoxy mixed with coffee grounds to fill the cracks. 









Another view of the 3 bowls above.  The cracks in the largest bowl are almost completely hidden in this view. 

I also took the time to take better photos of some recent pieces. 

'Eddies' - Eucalyptus, 2 1/2" tall. 

'Stingray' - Eucalyptus, 3" tall. 

'Humpty and Dumpty' - Olive and East Indian Rosewood, 1 3/4" & 3" tall.














Top view.


Olive


















Mesquite, 10" diameter, 5 1/2" tall.

Day 144: Stingray skin

Another small piece today, I think it's Eucalyptus but I'm not sure.  The burning/texture was made with a small brand.  I wanted to do circles but quickly found out that a circle won't heat up because the electricity will take the shortest path, bypassing the loop.  So I made a brand that's about 3/4 of a circle and did each circle twice, overlapping each one to complete the circle.

I debated several different overall designs.  Complete coverage, small sections linking the top and the bottom, dividing the piece vertically into 4 sections and burning two opposite sections connecting them at the bottom.

I ended up leaving a section around the middle unburned and I'm glad that I did.

The name of this post comes from the texture of this piece.  It reminds me of stingray skin.  http://images.google.com/images?rlz=1C1GGLS_en___US361&sourceid=chrome&q=stingray%20skin&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi




Song of the night:
Flobots, Handlebars