Palo Verde burl I picked up about 6 weeks ago. I pulled this out of a local firewood pile. I don't normally use Palo Verde but I can't pass up a burl.
I roughed it out Sunday morning. It's still about 3/4" thick and quite heavy, both because of the thickness and the water content.
There's some significant spalting and a few bug holes. I came across several live grubs while turning. They were likely Palo Verde beetle larvae and those that didn't get decapitated during the turning process probably died when I ran it through the microwave.
This piece is actually fairly large, roughly 10" diameter and 8" tall. Now it will sit on a shelf for 6 months or more. I'll check on it in a couple of weeks. If its drying fast I may try to get it done in time for my next show, almost exactly a month away.
Tonight I put another chunk of California Pepper on the lathe. I had already rounded it to a cylinder a couple weeks ago.
It only took five minutes to get the outside shaped and the tenon formed. After putting it in a chick I drilled a pilot hole to the finished depth and started hollowing.
After hollowing I reversed it and jam chucked it to finish the bottom. Total Tim elapsed was just a hair over 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure with a bit more practice and if I pushed myself I could get it down to 30 minutes.
It's now gone through a couple of microwave cycles and will dry overnight. I expect significant warping.
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