Platters - something kind of new for me!

[John Keeton]

I was drafted in as president of our turning club for this past year, and we have decided to do as many clubs and have a "president's challenge" event every so often. For the upcoming meeting, the challenge is a platter. Since I issued the challenge, thought I better do a couple. This is the first one - no "photo tent" pics yet - maybe later/maybe not. But, these "dining table" pics will give you an idea. I truly believe getting a FLAT surface on a lathe is one of the most difficult tasks! I got this one what I thought was dead flat - both to a straight edge, and to the touch. But, when the light hits it - not so! I might re-sand it on the vacuum chuck - but that ain't likely either!:D

This one is 13.25" in diameter, and about 1/2" thick in the middle. Just turned from flat stock (got a bunch that may never see furniture!) - walnut and birdseye maple, with insets of BLM burl. It has BLO and shellac on it right now. Probably will just add a couple coats of shellac after the BLO dries in a few days and rub it out to a soft sheen.

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The other platter is turned, but I want to play with an airbrush experiment with that one - it may be a few days. Other than the "flat" thing - it was a fun turn! Not as much fun as a HF with a stick - but, fun.

[Hilel Salomon]

Wow John, That is so neat!! I'm trying to figure out exactly how you did that. Think I know, but I'm not sure. Can I copy-not the exact same thing-the concept?? It looks to me like a perfect holiday gift.

[John Keeton]

Thanks, Hilel - feel free to copy all you want! The process is really simple.

First, draw a simple ogee curve on a piece of paper large enough for the platter diameter. I lay out an ogee mathematically, but eyeballing a curve would work, I am sure. Cut out the curve for a template.

I had 7" wide rough cut air dried 4/4 walnut, and some 4/4 maple that was about 6". You will want to have the grain match fairly well on the walnut side by side.

You will want to assure that each cut for the ogee will remain on a full board of walnut - that consideration should be done when laying out the ogee initially by placing the maple board on top of the two pieces of walnut that are butted side by side. You need to be able to see where the edges of the walnut are, so I marked the walnut edges on the maple board. Lay out the curve on the maple board so as to maximize your stock.

Hot glue the maple on top of the walnut in the same location it was when the curves were laid out - I marked each edge of the maple on the walnut so placement would be easy. Again, you want to assure each curve is cut on one walnut board.

Then, just bandsaw the curves! Remove and discard the waste, and simply glue and clamp the assembly together.

The holes are laid out, and I used three forstner bits I happen to have - 1", 1.5" and 1 7/8". I am sure other sizes would work, but you will need to know that when laying out the curves on the maple.

Drill the holes to a proper depth depending on the thickness of your stock and your design. Get some burl or contrasting wood of choice, and turn some plugs to fit.

I used a waste block glued to the back to turn the platter.

Hope that helps!

Edit - I should have added that I did bandsaw the entire thing round after all the above was done - you probably assumed that, but I wanted to clarify.

[Tom Winship]

Neat, John. Glad to see something forced you into a little flatwork. You need to cut a dovetail every now and then also.
When I first looked at it I thought those were coins in the holes and you were going to give them to the church for collection plates. (A little seed money as they say)

[David DeCristoforo]

That's cool. I used to use that bandsaw technique a lot. It's interesting because, technically, the pieces do not exactly match due to the wood lost to the kerf. But it's a small enough diff that you can still clamp them together and get a tight joint line. It works best with mild curves. Also, the cut has to be one smooth continuous pass. No backing up to make any corrections. Otherwise there will be some ugly gaps in the joint!

[Kathy Marshall]

Beautiful platter John! Your joint lines and inlay look great! The walnut and maple look great together and I love the contrast, also love the rim detail! Look forward to seeing #2.

[John Keeton]

Thanks, gang! Kathy, the joint lines are straight off a 3-4tpi bandsaw blade. As David said, loose curves and good clamping will make this technique work very well. The trick is to cut the curve quickly - straying from the line a little will not show nearly as bad as trying to correct a cut.

[Baxter Smith]

Nice work John. I half expected to see something simple and without an ogee but I should have known better!:D Thanks for sharing your technique.

[Curt Fuller]

That's a really nice looking platter John. And thanks very much for explaining how you did it. I've wondered how you join two curved pieces so well. Now I'm going to have to try it. Nice platter!

[Michelle Rich]

rather intersting contemporary look..hey where's the wire inlay?? :-) :-) *grin*

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

I'm sure that was a fun change of pace. Meanwhile, the platter is really cool. By the way, how do you hollow a platter???:)
faust

[Marc Himes]

John I really like these. The combination of the maple and walnut work very well together. The piece could be called 'Follow the Yellow Burl Road."

[Steve Busey]

I lay out an ogee mathematically,

OK, I'm intrigued by that statement - can you give a 30 second brain dump on how you'd approach that mathematically? I don't remember that day in Geometry class...

Awesome platter, BTW!

[John Keeton]

Thanks for taking a look and commenting!


The piece could be called 'Follow the Yellow Burl Road."I like that, Marc!!


OK, I'm intrigued by that statement - can you give a 30 second brain dump on how you'd approach that mathematically? I don't remember that day in Geometry class...Steve, I will try! In this case, the length of the total curve was 16". Draw a straight line 16" long, and mark points at 4", 8" and 12". At the 4" mark measure out to the left 1" (for this curve) and mark. At the 12" mark, measure and mark 1" out to the right. Then draw an arc from the top (16") point to the 12" (1" out) mark, crossing the midpoint on the line, and swinging another arc to the left connecting to the 4" mark and back to the bottom. The result is a true ogee.

I did mine without marking a center point for the swinging of the arcs and just did it by hand, but one could set radius points for the arcs. This sketch may help.

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[Marty Eargle]

Here is an article with a little more information on how ogee curves are setup.

http://www.tpub.com/content/engineering/14069/css/14069_150.htm

[Wally Dickerman]

John, that is a wonderful platter. I like the fact that the walnut is plain straight grain with the contrasting fancy grain of the maple.

With your clear explanation on how it's done, I suspect that we'll see some similar platters in the near future.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Nice work there on the cove detail on the rim. beautiful combination of wood and curves. I am not sure I like the 180 degree rounded edge. Overall awesome for the first platter. I used to make 20"+ lazy susans and used a 5" "ROB" sander with the lathe running slowly in the opposite direction to flatten the surface. Works pretty well and could clean up the edges with a light scraping cut.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice platter John! Great job on the joinery and I really like how you have the burl buttons only on one side of the platter! Pretty cool concept and it all came together quite well!

[John Beaver]

Nice work John. I really like the design.
I too was wondering about the gaps from the compound curve. One thing I have done is to put some veneer between the pieces to take up the width of the saw blade kerf. Gives you another design element too.

[Bill Neddow]

Very beautiful and very contemporary, John. I really like it. Many years ago, I used to make cutting boards glued up using the "ogee" curve you used. I have never thought of using the technique in a platter. The Big Leaf Maple "coins" are a great addition.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful and elegant John. Really a nice platter.

[Scott Hackler]

Extra nice platter John. The contrasting woods really make for a great visual.

[Allan Ferguson]

Nice work. I would have to see the joints cut to get it down and working for me.

[John Keeton]

Thanks, all! John B., there was hardly any perceivable gap in the saw cuts, so a glue up was really easy. Bob B. - I struggled with a rim treatment, but I wanted this piece to have some mass to it, and a delicate rim just didn't seem to fit my vision. I like the idea of a ROB sander - would love to try that sometime on another one.

As a followup, the other platter (airbrush experiment) was not acceptable and was returned into a plain Jane maple platter - I need to just take a day or two and practice on the airbrush thing. It is more involved than I like to think!