Roger Chandler
05-28-2013, 10:45 PM
Santa has his Elves to help around the shop.....so did the little old cobbler in the fairy tale...........sometimes I think there are woodturning gremlins that go around and every so often visit your shop while you are unaware! Today was one such day at my shop!
Because of the Memorial Day holiday, my usual administrative work that I do on Mondays had to be done today.......yesterday was taken up with family for an afternoon cookout.......it was nice to have our sons with us for a visit.
While I only had some time in the afternoon that I could go to the shop and do something, I decided time was a factor and not to get into anything too big or too involved timewise..........well, that did not work out so well!
If anything could go wrong, [just about] it did! The wood turning gremlins were there to wreak some havoc! I picked up a piece of maple that had been cut into a rectangle......about six inches square and perhaps 8.5" long.........had a moment of inspiration to try a new form for me........a bowl hollowed out of a solid cube with a domed lid.......thought to myself.......this won't take long and it should end up as a unique and novel piece. Considered how to hold it in the chuck........recess? Nah, I decided to go for a tenon which I could end up using as a small base for lift to get the cube off the table a bit.
I don't just show my successes, but also a good number of my less than stellar pieces, because it might just help some newer turner coming along........and besides......the adventure is part of the enjoyment in turning! ;)
Now, to the gremlins........first, the wood, {Norway maple} has been cut for about two years........kept inside my shop, and I thought it would likely be okay as far as stability.......wrong......this thing moved on me a good bit while turning. That threw off the fit of the domed lid, and the thing just looked ......well .........lets just say "weird!" ...... Punt.......decided to go ahead and take the lid and form and put them together and then begin to shape the whole thing over into a round lidded form..........did that.
Still the wood moved some more.......throwing the fit of the lid off .....Now the form and the lid are both face grain oriented from the same piece of wood! I had to find a way to remount on the lathe, and when I finally got the thing looking decent, I decided to embellish with some burn lines........first one went okay........the one to hide the joint ....not so good!
Unbeknown to me, the tailstock pressure had loosened up :eek: and that allowed the lid to move [spin] at a different rate than the whole piece was spinning.....and it was not enough that you could tell, but it left areas that were widened out by the wire and areas too thin! The only thing I know to do to correct this is to remount it on the lathe and cut the burn lines off with a gouge, resand and refinish..........I have not even sanded the inside as of yet, so that should not be too big an issue........just a little reshaping.
This is 5" tall and 3-7/8" wide..........and of course a work in progress!
263282263283263284263285
I hope your day went better than mine.......hopefully the gremlins left you alone.......they were having too much fun at my expense on this day! :mad::D
Because of the Memorial Day holiday, my usual administrative work that I do on Mondays had to be done today.......yesterday was taken up with family for an afternoon cookout.......it was nice to have our sons with us for a visit.
While I only had some time in the afternoon that I could go to the shop and do something, I decided time was a factor and not to get into anything too big or too involved timewise..........well, that did not work out so well!
If anything could go wrong, [just about] it did! The wood turning gremlins were there to wreak some havoc! I picked up a piece of maple that had been cut into a rectangle......about six inches square and perhaps 8.5" long.........had a moment of inspiration to try a new form for me........a bowl hollowed out of a solid cube with a domed lid.......thought to myself.......this won't take long and it should end up as a unique and novel piece. Considered how to hold it in the chuck........recess? Nah, I decided to go for a tenon which I could end up using as a small base for lift to get the cube off the table a bit.
I don't just show my successes, but also a good number of my less than stellar pieces, because it might just help some newer turner coming along........and besides......the adventure is part of the enjoyment in turning! ;)
Now, to the gremlins........first, the wood, {Norway maple} has been cut for about two years........kept inside my shop, and I thought it would likely be okay as far as stability.......wrong......this thing moved on me a good bit while turning. That threw off the fit of the domed lid, and the thing just looked ......well .........lets just say "weird!" ...... Punt.......decided to go ahead and take the lid and form and put them together and then begin to shape the whole thing over into a round lidded form..........did that.
Still the wood moved some more.......throwing the fit of the lid off .....Now the form and the lid are both face grain oriented from the same piece of wood! I had to find a way to remount on the lathe, and when I finally got the thing looking decent, I decided to embellish with some burn lines........first one went okay........the one to hide the joint ....not so good!
Unbeknown to me, the tailstock pressure had loosened up :eek: and that allowed the lid to move [spin] at a different rate than the whole piece was spinning.....and it was not enough that you could tell, but it left areas that were widened out by the wire and areas too thin! The only thing I know to do to correct this is to remount it on the lathe and cut the burn lines off with a gouge, resand and refinish..........I have not even sanded the inside as of yet, so that should not be too big an issue........just a little reshaping.
This is 5" tall and 3-7/8" wide..........and of course a work in progress!
263282263283263284263285
I hope your day went better than mine.......hopefully the gremlins left you alone.......they were having too much fun at my expense on this day! :mad::D