Peppermill

My first time back in the shop after a 3 week absence. Our President's challenge for October is peppermills. I wanted to do something different so I figured out a way to use a standard peppermill mechanism in a different way. Normally the drive shaft extends from the bottom to the top, passing through the knob on the top where it is secured with a threaded cap. I figured out a way to use the normal mechanism but conceal all of the hardware, including the threaded cap.

The wood is red streaked Box Elder I got from another club member earlier the year. All the turning is complete. I now need to finish sanding, apply the finish, and secure the hardware.

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Collaborations

Both of these pieces are at least a couple years old, both are also collaborations with my Mom.  First is a Mesquite hollow form I turned 2 or 3 years ago.  My mother asked for several pieces that she could do some carving on.  She's done some relief carving on a couple other pieces I've given her so I thought she'd do more of the same so this piece was left between 1/4-3/8" thick.  Little did I know she intended to pierce it.  Thickness is the enemy of piercing so this took 10X longer than it would have taken if the piece was turned to 1/8" thick.


She surprised me by giving it back to me as my Christmas gift in 2009.  I know how much work went into this which makes me appreciate it even more. 




This piece is some Honey Locust I got from Boyce Thompson Arboretum several years ago.  I turned a smal hollow form while it was still green but the rim cracked.  I sent it to my Mom and she cut, carved, and painted it in a Southwest motif before sending it back.




She and I were talking about this piece recently and she thought it was a gourd, not wood.

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Demonstrations

I'm certain I'll be demonstrating for at least 2 clubs next year, possibly more. I've already started to run possible demo topics through my head. The 3 I have in my head are:

1) Lidded boxes - 2 or 3 styles of lidded boxes. Likely a small round bottom box with a contrasting inlay around the lid and a 3 sided box with a twist (normally part of my multi axis demo).

2) Spheres - turning a perfect freehand sphere and variations of offset spheres.

3) Coring with the McNaughton Center Saver.

4) Something else?

Opinions?

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Apologies

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been under the weather for a couple weeks now. I finally went to the doctor (anyone that knows me knows if I'm volunteering to visit the doctor it's got to be serious) and got put on antibiotics and given an inhaler. They also took x-rays to rule out pneumonia.

While this continues to run its course updates will be few and far between. Hopefully things will be back to normal in a week or so. *fingers crossed*


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Before & After

The President's Challenge for Saturday is Before & After. The piece on the right was my starting piece.










This is the other half of the log I'll be taking as my 'before' sample. I chose to strip off the bark To better show the actual shape of the wood underneath. There's more bug damage on this half but that only serves to makes things more interesting.










Above is the finished piece. Eventually I'll probably add a few more coats of oil to bring it up to more of a semi gloss finish but for now I'm out of time.










Alternative view with natural void on the side. This void was actually a huge help as it allowed me to better see and feel the wall thickness on the hardest to get to part.











Profile view. I also oiled the inside of the piece and the oil is leaching from the inside to the outside through some of the cracks, making them slightly darker.



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Pop quiz

I spent the morning volunteering at BTA. While there I gathered up a few interesting seed pods and thought we might have a small contest.


First person to correctly identify all 3 seed pods wins (prize TBD). Common or scientific names are both acceptable but the common name must be specific (for example Mesquite and Elm are not specific enough, Honey Mesquite and Slippery Elm would be acceptable answers for common names).












Close up of pod #1. Approx 3" long.














Close up of pod #2. Approx 2 1/2" long.
















Pod #3. Approx 14" long.

A couple of hints to get things started.
1) At least 1 of the trees is poisonous.
2) 1 of the trees is not native to the U.S.
3). 1 of the trees has a U.S. state in it's name.

Good luck.

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New toys

My new hollowing set was delivered this afternoon after a bit of a delay (just over 3 week from order to delivery). I don't want to disparage the vendor publicly for the poor service but I also won't be recommending them in the future.









I had to try it out this afternoon and had mixed results. This piece is about 4" diameter and was hollowed through a 5/8" hole. It got a little thin near the top because I wasn't sure where the cutting tip was.










I didn't bother hollowing the rest or finishing the outside before I cut it in half to see how I had done. I was surprised how good it looked, one or 2 more passes on the inside would have removed all of the areas I marked in black and a little work on the outside and bottom would have resulted in a pretty pleasing little piece in a very short period of time.

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