jeffthewoodwacker's Blog at LumberJocks.com

Demo for woodturning club

jeffthewoodwacker — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:25:34 GMT

I have managed to find the time to do several demonstrations for wood turning clubs this year. This is a demonstration that I did this week for the Tennessee Association of Woodturners in Nashville, TN. I demonstrated the Monster Hollowing Rig on an oriental box hollow form.

Everyone enjoyed the demo and I had a good time doing it.

Walnut hollow form start to finish #4: Monster Hollowing Rig

jeffthewoodwacker — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:58:35 GMT

A few of you asked for a picture of the monster hollowing rig with the laser attachment. I used this to hollow the walnut. This photo is the rig set up hollowing an oriental box.

Walnut hollow form start to finish #3: Finish time

jeffthewoodwacker — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:54:55 GMT

I was able to get two coats of clear gloss wipe on poly applied to the walnut hollow form yesterday. This morning I got an early start and applied the third and final coat. I will let this dry for a couple of days and then buff it out with the Beall system. I do track the time and expense that I put into each piece. For this project the wood was free and the only expense I had was in shop supplies and electricity. A total of 4 hours was spent on the entire project which included wood preparation, turning and finishing. This piece will end up in a gallery that I work with and be sold.

Walnut hollow form start to finish #2: Shaping the vessel

jeffthewoodwacker — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:29:49 GMT

I got an early start today as I want to finish this piece and get two more rough turned. Lumberjocks Steven and Roper both brought up good points about putting a plastic bag over the piece if it was going to sit overnight to prevent cracks and checks. Since this wood has been stored in the barn since early in the year I decided to not cover it and see what would happen. Inspected the piece this morning and there were no checks, cracks or splits – probably wouldn’t gamble again and would wrap the piece with a plastic bag. Before I turn a piece I draw up what I visualize the finished vessel will look like. I want this piece to be about 10” in diameter and 9” high with a lip at the opening. To give the piece a different look the sapwood will be at the bottom and the heartwood will be at the top. SAFETY – I always wear eye protection and use dust protection when I turn. A lot of time is spent making sure the piece is securely mounted either between centers or in the chuck. I start turning at slow speed and work my way up in speed as the piece gets balanced.

I have rough turned the piece between centers and am ready to reverse chuck it onto my Nova chuck

The piece has now been secured in the Nova chuck being held by the tenon that I cut. I have spent some time refining the shape and it is getting close the the final form.

The piece is now turned to the final shape and ready for hollowing. I will do some light sanding and make sure there are no defects in the wood. This piece has dried nicely in the barn – almost no moisture!

The finish process that will be used on this piece will be 4-5 coats of clear gloss poly applied with clean tee shirt material. Will get the first coat on, set it aside to dry and start another piece.

I will use a 1 1/4” forstner bit secured in the Jacobs chuck on the tail stock to start the hollowing process. The lathe speed should be set slow (600rpm maximum) for this task. I will go slowly, backing the chuck out several times to clear all the shavings. My big air compressor will get a work out today.

I use a Monster Articulated Hollowing Rig to hollow out the vessel (www.monster-lathe-tools.com). I am aiming for a uniform wall thickness of 3/16” – 1/4”. In this picture I am using the 45 degree steel cutting tip and the laser (red dot) to get to my desired thickness. When the red dot falls off of the side of the vessel it is time to stop.

I have sanded the piece down to 320 grit and used an old brown grocery bag to buff it up. I will now take the vessel off of the chuck and mount it in my vacuum chuck to clean the tenon of the bottom.

For finish I will apply 4-5 coats of gloss wipe on poly applied with clean tee shirt material. Will get the first coat on and set it aside to dry. Will post the rest of the blog when I have completed the finish process. Thanks for all the comments and critiques. If you have any questions send me a PM.

Walnut hollow form start to finish #1: Blank prep

jeffthewoodwacker — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:31:03 GMT

This will be an attempt to detail the steps I take to turn a hollow form. The wood that will be used is from some walnut that I was able to get early this year and has been stored in an old barn. This is the block of walnut after I have chain sawed it to rough shape. The piece is 14 inches across and 13 inches high.

I have circle templates in various sizes made from 1/4” hardboard that I use to size my blanks before they go to the band saw. I used a 12” template nailed to the walnut block and cut it to shape on the band saw. This hollow form will be turned side grain.

From the band saw the blank is ready to be mounted on the lathe. I use a heavy duty two flute drive that is held by my Nova super chuck. I have center punched both ends of the blank to make it easier to determine where to mount them between the drives. If necessary I will move the blank around a little to get the best grain orientation.

The next step will be to rough out the shape and prepare a tenon on the tail stock end that will allow me to mount the blank in the Nova chuck. Time to stop for today, I will start turning tomorrow.

Jeff's wood gloat #1: Fresh cut maple!

jeffthewoodwacker — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:02:16 GMT

I just scored a nice batch of fresh cut (today!) maple. The tree service left me 16 feet of the tree trunk. Diameter was 48” – 26”. Got it all cut up into pieces I could handle and coated the ends with anchorseal. Didn’t get an photos, but will get a blog going with the first piece I turn. If you are near Nashville, TN and want a piece send me a PM.

Karson's wood gloat moves to Tennessee #4: Completed and ready to travel to Delaware

jeffthewoodwacker — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:15:44 GMT

I applied 6 coats of satin wipe on poly to Karson’s maple burl wood gloat platter last week. This platter is 17 inches across at it’s widest point – if you want real excitement in your life turn something like this on a lathe at 3000 rpm – as they say at the amusement parks “keep your hands and feet in the ride at all times”. Took Karson’s platter and the other platter that I made from the same plank to a gallery show this weekend and had to turn down several purchase requests. Karson’s platter will head to Delaware this week to take up residence. I have not decided what I will do with the second platter.

This is the platter blank that Karson chose:

This is the front of the completed platter:

And the back of the completed platter:

This is the second platter blank that Karson sent me:

Front of the completed 2nd platter:

Back of the completed 2nd platter:

My goal as I turned the platters was to keep as much original shape and bark as possible. I still have one platter blank left and I am saving that for something special.

Karson's wood gloat moves to Tennessee #3: Ready for wipe on poly

jeffthewoodwacker — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:40:56 GMT

I have flooded Karsons maple burl wood gloat platter with clear Danish oil and let it sit for 4 days to completely dry. This piece soaked up a little more than 1 pint of Danish oil. Here is what the piece looked like before the Danish oil was applied:

Here is the platter after the Danish oil was applied and left to dry for 4 days. There are a lot of wild grain patterns in this piece and the Danish oil gave them some character. I will start applying satin wipe on poly today and will build up the finish over the next several days. The second platter needs another day of dry time before it will be ready for it’s first coat of poly.

Karson's wood gloat moves to Tennessee #2: Ready to finish

jeffthewoodwacker — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:11:15 GMT

I had told Karson that I probably wouldn’t be able to start on his wood gloat platter until after the 4th of July holiday, but the wood blanks he sent me have been asking to be put on the lathe ever since they arrived in Tennessee. Today I went to the shop and got an early start on turning two platters. I start all my platters the same way – decided what the shape will be, find an approximate center, drill a 3/8” diameter hole and mount to a screw chuck. What will be the inside of the platter is mounted on the screw chuck. I use a home made wooden mandrel that is mounted on a live center to put pressure on the tail stock side of the platter. The bottom of the platter is completely finished from start to finish and a recess is cut to fit the expanding jaws of my Nova chuck. I mount the platter on the Nova chuck, bring the live center with the wooden mandrel up and start to work on the inside of the platter. The wood blanks that Karson sent me were just over 1 inch thick and the maple burl was very dry and did I mention as hard as a rock. Once I get the basic shape of the inside of the platter turned I remove the tail stock and finish the platter completely. I was able to start with 220 grit sandpaper on both of these platters and work all the way up to 400 grit. The platter I am going to keep started out looking like this before I turned it:

This is what it looks like completely turned and ready to sand:

Not sure if you can see the measurement but this platter is 16 inches x 15 inches

The wood blank that Karson selected for a platter started out looking like this:

This is what it looks like completely turned and ready to sand:

Karson’s platter is 17 inches x 15 inches. As an added bonus Karson sent me a pet with his wood blank – as I was turning it I found a live wood bore larva- this little sucker had burrowed it’s way 1/2” inch deep into the blank and made the trip from Delaware to Tennessee alive and well. I bet I scared the poor little fellow to death when the blank began spinning at 3200 rpm. His platter had one side of bark and three sides that were square cut. I rounded off one side, kept the bark side and left the two sides square cut as I wanted to keep as much of the original blank size as possible.

I turn the platters at the highest speed my lathe will go – 3200 rpm. By turning the blank at high speed the tool spends less time turning “air”. I place a piece of black poster board on the lathe bed and have a piece of white poster board hanging behind the blank. This allows me to see the ghost shadow as I am turning. I make sure that the tools are sharp and take my time making long sweeping passes to prevent catches. An odd shaped piece spinning at 3200 rpm can make your heart race if you screw up. I am using Watco clear Danish oil as the first coat of finish on both pieces. I was able to put two coats of Danish oil on one piece today. The way I apply the Danish oil is to flood the piece completely until no more oil soaks in. On the first piece I used just over a pint of finish to soak both sides and had very little to wipe off after it sat for 30 minutes. I will let this piece sit for 4 days and then apply several coats of Satin wipe on poly. Tomorrow I will do the same Danish oil process on Karson’s piece. I will get photos of what the pieces look like with the Danish oil before the wipe on poly is applied.

Karson's wood gloat moves to Tennessee #1: Platters on my mind

jeffthewoodwacker — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:34:28 GMT

Recently Karson posted a blog about some highly figured maple that he had scored. You can read the blog here:
http://lumberjocks.com/karson/blog/9086. I responded to Karson’s blog and asked him to send the wood to me and I would turn it into platters. Karson agreed to send one plank from Delaware to Tennessee on the condition that I turn a platter for him. Today my friendly mail carrier delivered a rather heavy package to me.

Once the package was opened (Karson likes to use a lot of tape!) I found that there were 3 beautiful pieces of maple burl planks inside. – all cut from the same board. The largest plank is 16×16x1 and will be used to turn a platter for Karson. This piece has bark on one side that I will attempt to incorporate into the platter design.

There were also two additional maple burl blanks in the wood gloat box. One is 15×15x1 and the other is 14×15x1. Both of these will be turned into platters as well.

The platter that I will turn for Karson will be a gallery piece. As I move along with this project I will continue to post the progress in this blog series.