Bird Feeder

[John Hart]

Sorry about the rotten picture. This is just a walnut bird feeder. The "glass" is actually quartz. I got a pile of quartz cylinders from an industrial quartz outfit and just turned two 6 inch pieces to fit it. This quartz didn't cut well on my diamond saw. Gonna have to come up with a better cylinder.

Anyway...The birds probably won't care what the quartz looks like.

Found a long bolt and bent a hook into it....ran it all the way through so filling with bird seed is just undoing the bolt and filling up the cylinder.

Oh...and it's sitting on a wormy pear platter that I turned about 15 years ago when I first started turning.:)
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[John K Jordan]

Sorry about the rotten picture. This is just a walnut bird feeder. The "glass" is actually quartz. I got a pile of quartz cylinders from an industrial quartz outfit and just turned two 6 inch pieces to fit it. This quartz didn't cut well on my diamond saw. Gonna have to come up with a better cylinder.


"Just" a bird feeder? Man, I love functional turnings! (Well I like the art too, but form + function has a special appeal.)

An idea - instead of cutting the semicircle in the quartz how about turning a raised cylinder with a groove to fit the quartz rim and make the seed cutouts in the wood instead?

And quartz cylinders? Zounds, what a find! I don't know where Middlefield is but I'm tempted load a bunch of turning wood and stuff in the car, find it and twist your, er, talk you into, er, negotiate a trade. :-) How about some nice titanium tubing? Big chunk of HDPE? Red or purple cast acrylic? A pretty block of Cocobolo?

I don't know if this could be adapted to cutting tubing, but years ago in the Lab we needed some thin flat quartz pieces cut into circles to make windows into a high-temperature experimental gizmo. I used an old glass-cutting trick that none of my collegues had heard of - I submerged the quartz sheet in a sink full of water and cut it with a heavy duty pair of scissors. Worked like a charm. The way I understand it, the water fills micro stress cracks as they form and the molecular "glue" inhibits the cracks from propagating. Cut with scissors in the air, a glass sheet will shatter - under water you can cut straight lines, curves, etc. I wonder if some sort of saw could cut the quartz more cleanly under water. I'll have to ask my buddy Joe; he knows everything.

JKJ

[John Hart]

Zounds? I haven't heard that since Scooby Doo!! :) Or was that Zoinks?:)

Hey...I'd be happy to send you some quartz stuff. No need for a trade....although the acrylic did sound pretty enticing. Just PM me with your address John, and I'll throw some stuff in a box. :)

And by the way....the water idea does sound plausible. Gonna give that a try. I was sawing dry and my diamond saw has a water reservoir that I probably should have used. Dopey me.:rolleyes:

[William C Rogers]

John like the feeder idea. However that platter has some nice character. If I turned a bird feeder my wife would want 5-6, one for every tree. I enjoy seeing all of your work.

JKJ, someday I'll come across something that I could trade you. I would drive to Tennessee just to see your shop. Right now I am turning "firewood", but I am happy to be turning. You sometimes get some interesting pieces from firewood.

[John Hart]

John like the feeder idea. However that platter has some nice character.......You sometimes get some interesting pieces from firewood.
Thanks William - Here's the original thread from 11 years ago and my worm guts platter :)

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?20384-Worm-Guts-in-a-Pear-Tree&highlight=worm+pear

I love turning firewood. Somehow seems like you accomplished more for some reason. Warm weather coming...looks like I'll have to turn this whole pile instead of burn it
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[William C Rogers]

[QUOTE=John Hart;2666876]

I love turning firewood. Somehow seems like you accomplished more for some reason. Warm weather coming...looks like I'll have to turn this whole pile instead of burn it
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Your firewood pileblooks better than mine!

[John K Jordan]

...the acrylic did sound pretty enticing.

I find the acrylic fun to turn. What I have is 1.5" in diameter in various colors. I use short pieces to make things like this:

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I understand it has to be CAST acrylic or it will melt rather than cut cleanly. I use standard tools, Thompson spindle gouges, the small Hunter Hercules.

I don't remember exactly what I have left but I'll check. I wish I had more of the green. (The piece I used for the bell was so dark it looked black before I turned it thin.)

JKJ