Spline box how-to

Mount a blank on the lathe between centers in face grain (side grain) orientation.  Turn a tenon on each end.  I leave the blank square so the next operation is both safer and easier.

The blank is taken to the band saw and a cut is made that follows the contour of the grain. Blank selection is important as you want the grain has some contour that runs side to side, not diagonally. The end grain should also run as perpendicular as possible to the side grain.

The blank can then be mounted between centers again and turned to a cylinder.  Alternatively each half can be mounted in a chuck and turned to a cylinder independently.  When demonstrating this project I opt for the chuck method as it is safer than turning a blank between centers that has been cut in half.  Can you see the joint in this photo?

There it is.

The 2 halves turned to a cylinder and set aside.  The contour is what makes this box interesting and necessitates the spline technique as it's not possible to turn a tenon on the irregular surface and still have a good grain match.

 

The first half is then mounted in the chuck and the inside is turned.  The body is partially hollowed and a recess is turned around the inside, this will be used to accept the spline that will act as the faux tenon.







The blank for the spline is mounted between centers and turned round.  I usually opt to use the same wood and turned in the same orientation as the body of the box.  In this case the only matching wood I had was in end grain orientation but I used it anyway.  A spline in a contrasting wood is another good look.

The spline is turned to the correct diameter.  It can normally be remounted and carefully turned to get a good fit with minimal runout.  I actually don't mount this between centers.  I jam the blank against the flat face of the spindle and drive it with friction and pressure from the tailstock.  I use the face of the spindle as it will ensure that the blank is perpendicular to the ways.

Once a good fit is attained the spline is glued in place.  The round mark visible here is from the end of the spindle.

The chuck is then returned to the lathe and the center of the spline removed to that only the solid wooden ring is left.  The rest of the body is then hollowed and the spline is blended into the rest of the body.  I opted to reduce the length and soften the edge of the tenon slightly.

The other half is then mounted in the chuck and a recess is turned to match the diameter of the spline tenon.  From here on out the process is mostly the same as a standard box.  We now have 1 half with a tenon (spline) and 1 half with a recess.

The first half is mounted onto the 2nd half and the live center is brought up to support it as the outside is turned.  I round it off and take it down to a little nub.  The top half can be removed to check the wall thickness as work progresses.  The blank centers very well as the contoured joint can only fit in one position.  The dimple from the live center also helps keep it centered.

If the fit is tight enough the nub can be removed without the need for tape.  I rushed through this box so the fit was looser that it should have been so I needed some painter's tape to hold it together while I cleaned up the nub.

The rest of the end half is hollowed and then reversed for for final turning.  I opted to use my vacuum chuck but a jam chuck should also work.  The outside is turned to match the first half,

The 2nd half secured on my vacuum chuck.  My primary vacuum pump pulls 24" of mercury which translates to 12 PSI.  The PVC is 2" diameter which is roughly 3 square inches so there is roughly 36 pounds of air pressure holding this in place.

Turning complete, next up is the texturing that is used to help disguise the joint.

The outside is textured with a round brass bristle brush.  It's held in a jacobs chuck and the lathe rotates it while I hold the box against it.  The softer wood is worn away while the harder wood is left behind.

The finished box.  Another reason I like doing this style of box is that I don't have to sand the outside at all.  The entire surface is textured, more grain is worn away where it's softer but even the harder grain gets some texture.  Any time spent sanding on the outside is completely wasted.

Another view.

Open view.  You can clearly see the end grain orientation of the spline, the grain runs vertical rather than side to side.  If it ran side to side it would blend better with the body and be much less visible.

Ash spline box

Tonight was my first night back in the shop for quite a while. I've spent some time out there recently but mostly cleaning and organizing (not that you can tell).
















This is a small semi spherical box I turned tonight out of some Ash. It's turned side grain rather than end grain so I can use the grain lines to help hide the joint. The joint also isn't straight as it was cut to match the contour of the grain.











This requires a completely different joint as it's not possible to turn the usual tenon and recess on the curved surfaces. Instead I have to turn 2 recesses and join them with a spline. I chose to use another piece of the same wood, a contrasting wood could also be used.










The outside was then textured with a wire brush to further hide the joint line in the grain lines. If I had a sandblaster I'd use it to do the texturing as I believe it would be more uniform and I think I could go deeper into the softer grain.

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QS Ash HF

I didn't know what I wanted to work on tonight and I'm not sure why I chose to work on this piece but I did. This is a chunk of quartersawn curly Ash I got from Mike Mahoney back in July. It sat in my shop for about a month and a half before I roughed it out. It was the bagged for another month and a half leading up to tonight (http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2011/09/sleepy-hollow.html)





Because it had been roughed to about 1/2" thick there wasn't much material left to remove to get it down to final thickness. The piece had warped slightly so it was trued up on the outside before I setup my hollowing rig. Hollowing was done without a laser and because the piece doesn't have any voids determining wall thickness is based mainly on experience and sound. The pitch goes up as the piece gets thinner. Learning to judge the wall thickness by the increasing pitch is something that can only be learned through experience.



Top view. The hole could be slightly smaller and the final weight could be slightly lighter if the bottom was a little thinner but overall I'm pretty happy. It's a relatively plain piece of wood and the simple but elegant form really accentuates the grain and the curl. I don't do much with quartersawn wood and I don't do much with Ash so this was all new to me.

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Sleepy hollow

It's a long weekend and I've decided to use it on hollow forms. To that end I started out by cutting one of my Sissoo logs into 6 pieces of various lengths. Each piece was then mounted between centers and the outside shape was turned. I also roughed out a piece of quarter sawn curly Ash I got from Mike Mahoney.








I then hollowed the ash to 1/2-3/4" thickness and bagged it to dry. The piece on the left is Chinese Elm from back in April (http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2011/04/catch-up.html). I put off finishing the bottom for a long time, my new 6" vacuum drum came in handy again. The short piece on the right is Eucalyptus (see below).








This pair was started about 4 months ago. I didn't intend to wait this long to get back to them, they just didn't take a high priority as they're already dry and Eucalyptus isn't one of me favorites to turn when dry. I normally don't use Eucalyptus but I will make an exception when I find a piece like this.








The bottoms still need some work and both pieces still need sanding and finishing. You can see the initial shaping and hollowing here: http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2011/04/artists-arboretum.html


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Nothing fancy

Nothing fancy tonight, just a trio of rough out Quatersawn Ash shallow bowls. All 3 are roughly 12" diameter and 2 1/2" thick.











This was some of the wood I got from Mike Mahoney last month. It was still fairly green so they were roughed out to about 3/4" thick and have been bagged and set aside to dry. It doesn't show up very well here but these all have a fair amount of curl.

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Necessary evil

 More work with the Mountain Mahogany.  This set is from the butt end of the largest log and ended up at just over 12" diameter.

 I'm not sure if it's visable here but there is a fair amount of curl in this wood.  It's subtle but its there.

 I was afraid I was going to lose the smallest piece in the set, a portion of the rim broke off while I was coring it out of the 2nd largest piece.  I was able to move the piece slightly off center to compensate and to save the piece.

 Here's most of the rest of my haul, cut, split, and sealed.  Not a fun thing to do in Phoenix this time of year but a necessary evil.

I've also been working on roughing out some hollow forms.  Most of this wood is from Mike.  The 2 big forms are Silver Maple burl from Mike (darker color on the left) and Box Elder Burl I received in a trade (lighter color on the right).  There's also a smaller Box Elder Burl hollow form immediately to the right of the larger one.  These blanks were not from Mike, they were received in a trade while I was in Idaho.

Mike's generosity

These 3 pieces were all from the stuff I got from Mike Mahoney.  Left to right they are, curly Black Ash, red burly Box Elder, and curly Mormon Poplar.  These will probably end up as hollow forms of various sizes.  Eventually.

Vacation haul

I'm back after a 3 week vacation to Idaho to visit family and to go on a 5 day white water rafting trip.  Along the way I picked up wood whenever possible.  This stack was sourced from Mike Mahoney and includes curly Ash, curly Maple, Maple burl, red Box Elder, and quilted Mormon Poplar.  All of this came from Mike's personal stash.  I also got a tour of Mike's operation - from his shop, to his drying room, on to his shipping room, and a small tour of his home and a quick look at his turning collection.  I don't think I've ever met a nicer person than Mike and he's a fantastic turning to boot.

While in Idaho I visited a couple of turners, Brian Brown in Idaho Falls and Dick Anderson in Pocatello.  I met Dick briefly at the 2011 Desert Woodturning Roundup and I met Brian a couple of years ago when he was in town on business.  With Dick I swapped some Mesquite for some Madrone Burl, Russian Olive, and a piece of Mountain Mahogany.  Brian and I traded some Mesquite, African Sumac, Desert Ironwood, and Olive for Russian Olive, Osage Orange, and Box Elder Burl.

My biggest haul on the vacation though was some Mountain Mahogany I managed to get near the end.  I thought I could get some in the 6" diameter range and hoped to find some between 8-10" diameter.  The biggest piece is approx 12" x 14" on the butt end.  It's also extremely heavy, similar to Desert Ironwood.  When dry it will not float in water, one of only a handful of woods with this property.