pith to pith hollow form

[Chris A Lawrence]

So i got ambitious and attempted my first pith to pith hollow form. Go big or go home its 13 inches in diameter and 11 inches tall inches tall. I am following a process i found on Kieth Larrets blog. Crossing my fingers it dosnt crack i invested 6 hours over 3 days to make it this far.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looks good so far! As long as you don't have any existing cracks/checks and the wall thicknesses are even, you shouldn't have a problem. Looking forward to seeing it finished! Good luck!

[Chris A Lawrence]

Wall thickness is as close to even as i could get it. I left the chunk that was attached to my faceplate and used a parting tool make a groove down to the pith between it and the hollow form. If it works any cracks should not transfer from the chunk to the form.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Very nice accomplishment. Nice form, too. What type of wood is that?

[Chris A Lawrence]

Thank you. Pretty sure its sweet gum i got it from a tree service dumping spot that they stick all the large trunks they cant run through the chipper. hopping this will be a good source to get constant flow of free wood. I grabbed a couple of sycamore logs from there a couple weeks earlier.

[robert baccus]

Be cool yeah--SG is very movey and cracky as wood goes. Why take a chance--slap some endseal on the outside and give it some time--I,ve done hundreds like this.

[JohnC Lucas]

Looks good. Put it in an area with no moving air. I usually use a paper sack or box. That prevents a lot of cracking. If the walls are 3/8" or less you should be OK but slower drying by putting it out of any wind or sun will help a great deal.

[Chris A Lawrence]

Its all dried and i put it on a diet today. Reshaped it down to 1/4 inch wall thickness.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looks pretty good to me! Nice work!

[Chris A Lawrence]

All finished and shined up.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice work Chris! Well worth the effort!

[Don McClure]

I enjoyed the progressive posts on this turning....I believe I would have brown baggfed it to start with, but I am just overly cautious about cracking.