Interesting turning

[Michael Weber]

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[Dick Strauss]

Colored pencils and black epoxy...I wouldn't even mind turning a small leftover cutoff from those turnings.

[Chris Padilla]

Boy, you turners will cut into anything!! LOL

That is pretty darn cool.

[Marty Tippin]

As long as the glue holds up, that would be a fun project to turn...

[Brian Kent]

All I want to know is how to dye the epoxy black. I would love to mess around this and even do a progressive change of color instead of random.

[Len Mullin]

Michael, did you turn this? If you did, how about a few pointers?
Len

[Roger Chandler]

Not sure the history of this project, but these same pics were emailed to members of one of the clubs I belong to last week. I would have to go back and see if I saved the email or not to see if somebody else just sent it around as an "interesting project". Or if there was some claim to having turned it. :confused:

Edit: Found that email......yep exact same pics. It was sent by a member of our club who submitted it as an "interesting project" the club might want to take on in the skills training sessions. So it looks like this has made its way around the Internet forums.........

There is a turner who shows up at the Virginia Symposium every two years with some of these in the instant gallery section, and they always seem to draw a good bit of interest, so maybe he lives here in Virginia.

[William Bachtel]

My guess is the material is costly, but no the less, very nice. Sent it to my Art Teacher daughter.

[Chris Padilla]

All I want to know is how to dye the epoxy black. I would love to mess around this and even do a progressive change of color instead of random.You can use sawdust or tanstint dyes or even something as simple as india ink. Be sure to mix up a test batch to ensure everything is okay. You won't need much at all. I mix sawdust into epoxy to fill in loose inclusions or other problem areas. It will then sand and take stain pretty readily. For example, mixing maple flour with glue/epoxy results in a deep chocolate brown color. Using pine flour produces a tannish/yellowish color.

[Justin Stephen]

My guess is the material is costly, but no the less, very nice. Sent it to my Art Teacher daughter.

Yup, looks like at least $12 for a 50-pack. Personally, I'd rather buy lots of 12-packs or 20-packs so that it was easier to configure/mix the colors in a consistent way. There may be a cheaper option, perhaps some cheap set sold at Dollar Tree or Big Lots or something.

Edit: Yup, Dollar Tree sells a 10-pack for $1, at least online.

[Brice Rogers]

I saw a demo at the San Diego Wood Turners meeting where someone was "turning" a bunch of plastic straws. The purpose of the demo was to show the importance of the direction you're cutting with respect to end grain. I imagine that when the pencils were turned that it worked better cutting in the direction of the supported wood.

[Stew Hagerty]

OK... I'm not a turner and I don't claim to know very much about it. However... How do you turn this without the colors streaking all around it? I suppose I could see with a nice sharp tool, but what about when you're sanding?

[Mike Tilley]

I tried this once the problem I had was the color coming out when turning the sides. Wasn't a problem turning the top and bottom just the sides. Tried using ca to solid it up but was still a problem.
May have to try it again looks good.

[Bob Bergstrom]

You can use sawdust or tanstint dyes or even something as simple as india ink. Be sure to mix up a test batch to ensure everything is okay. You won't need much at all. I mix sawdust into epoxy to fill in loose inclusions or other problem areas. It will then sand and take stain pretty readily. For example, mixing maple flour with glue/epoxy results in a deep chocolate brown color. Using pine flour produces a tannish/yellowish color.


I'm not sure sawdust mixed into the epoxy would best the best in this case. The pencils are painted and the sawdust mixture would be like making a weak glue joint of particle board. Wouldn't make a bowl blank from particle board and try to turn it. I would rough up the paint on the pencile jammed into a plastic cylinder and fill that with straight tinted epoxy. I would use powdered aniline dye.

[Bruce Lewane]

Could very well be epoxy resin.
Fit the pencils into a container and pour it over.
Phillip Moulthorp uses it with some spectacular results.
http://www.moulthropstudios.com/philip_works.html

[Wes Ramsey]

Is it necessary to thin the epoxy before pouring into the mold? This would be a cool project to do for my sons' teachers' end-of-year thank you gifts.

[Bruce Lewane]

This guy has the process down.
I've wanted to try this after I finished the few hundred other projects
that are floating around in my head.
http://youtu.be/7PHwjtgyX3I

[Maria Alvarado]

My sister has already put in a request for one. I can confirm dollar store 10-packs, and they are circular as the pencils in the photo. Personally like the effect of hexagonal wooden color pencils, but those are the real art stuff, so way too costly for this use. Regarding black epoxy, System three sells small jars of epoxy tint. A very little goes a long way, so if you do a lot of void filling, it may be worth your while. It is a nice deep black. I found it at Highland, but have seen it listed at Woodcraft.

[Bob Bergstrom]

OK... I'm not a turner and I don't claim to know very much about it. However... How do you turn this without the colors streaking all around it? I suppose I could see with a nice sharp tool, but what about when you're sanding?
I'm guessing there is a lot of power sanding with some good 60 grit paper. Notice that there is no bead work and long flowing curves. I can't imagine cutting the soft colored pencil lead without prices coming out. I don't think the lead is really glued to the wood, but compressed by the channels in the wood.

[Michael Weber]

All I want to know is how to dye the epoxy black. I would love to mess around this and even do a progressive change of color instead of random.sorry no. In fact my wife just found it on Facebook and I copied the pictures for posting here. Originally posted in general because I thought it was a neat idea others might enjoy other than turners. Don't have a lathe, don't need another slippery slope.;)

[Dick Strauss]

You can use colored paint pigments available at your local store for dying epoxy. It is best to try a small batch for compatability first though.

Folks have been doing these colored pencil turnings for at least the last ten years.

Seal the endgrain and sand....seal the endgrain and sand=no color transfer!

[Eric Gourieux]

I did a demo with colored pencils like this for our turning club last year to demonstrate using the grain of the wood and how it correlates with the direction of cutting. It is a good tool for this. I still use that visual in my head when turning.