Robert Edington
03-29-2015, 10:25 PM
I had a large Pecan tree fall over in my yard a few months ago. It was not hollow. I chopped it up for bowls. I Easy-Cored one of the 19" blanks in the normal fashion. I sharpened my cutter before starting.
Coring was slow, even though water was flying everywhere. I got three nice bowls out of the first blank.
I cored them about 1 to 1.25" wall thickness. I core the largest first so I will have a foot on all the blanks.
I finished turned the smallest first and it came out great.
The middle one had the problem.
After turning with a sharp Glazer and sanding to 320, I found bruises in the wood. It looked like tool marks but I'm not sure it was. The surface of the bruise was just as smooth as the surrounding wood. It was not tear out. It almost looked like worm tailings. Sanding was tough as the paper would clog in a matter of seconds.
As the surface dried it sanded better.
I started to think it was burnishing from clogged sandpaper.
I thought it might be from coring.
I thought it could be just from my gouge or possibly from a scraper.
I don't know.
I sanded with the grain with the lathe off. I sanded slow. I sanded fast. I started all over again at 50 grit, 60, 80, 100, 120, 180, 220, 320, 400. It took me about 90minutes of sanding to get them out.
Any ideas of what might have caused the bruising? It was on the outside and inside of the bowl. It was only in one location. Not across the circle from each other like tear out normally is.
Thanks for reading and your replies.
RP
Coring was slow, even though water was flying everywhere. I got three nice bowls out of the first blank.
I cored them about 1 to 1.25" wall thickness. I core the largest first so I will have a foot on all the blanks.
I finished turned the smallest first and it came out great.
The middle one had the problem.
After turning with a sharp Glazer and sanding to 320, I found bruises in the wood. It looked like tool marks but I'm not sure it was. The surface of the bruise was just as smooth as the surrounding wood. It was not tear out. It almost looked like worm tailings. Sanding was tough as the paper would clog in a matter of seconds.
As the surface dried it sanded better.
I started to think it was burnishing from clogged sandpaper.
I thought it might be from coring.
I thought it could be just from my gouge or possibly from a scraper.
I don't know.
I sanded with the grain with the lathe off. I sanded slow. I sanded fast. I started all over again at 50 grit, 60, 80, 100, 120, 180, 220, 320, 400. It took me about 90minutes of sanding to get them out.
Any ideas of what might have caused the bruising? It was on the outside and inside of the bowl. It was only in one location. Not across the circle from each other like tear out normally is.
Thanks for reading and your replies.
RP