Avoiding things I should be doing -- sphere

[Dave Mount]

I have a long list of things I should be doing, but find myself wanting to do something just because it's entertaining. Started straightening up in the shop late last evening and picked up a cutoff of silver maple that seemed like a shame to throw out and had ended up on the floor. So, screw the priority list. About 2.75" in diameter. Shellawax finish.

Best,

Dave

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[Patrick Morris IV]

Been a lot of the "screw the priority list" going around here lately. Carry on:D

Pat

[Robert Hayward]

Very nice work! I am a charter member of the Screw the Priority List club. ;)

[Brian Tymchak]

Curl and spalt, all in the same piece. Nice!! And nicely turned.

Sorry...I couldn't come up with anything witty to add about screwing the priorities. Too close to my bedtime.

[John K Jordan]

...the Priority List club. ;)

I too would procrastinate every day if not for not for 72 animals that want food and water every day and a bunch of equipment that maintenance on the priority. Maybe I'm getting too old for this - I had a whole lot more energy back when I was 69.

The best I've managed to do with turning lately is take down some trees and process a bunch of green wood into turning blanks to dry: cherry, cherry burl, apple burl, box elder, purple heart, mahogany, dogwood, cedar, holly, osage orage, magnolia, and can't remember what else. I need to just make some time for turning...

Nice job on the spheres, Dave.

JKJ

[Dave Mount]

Thanks, especially for the permission to continue ignoring the priority list.

I should have mentioned in the original post that the whitish spots in the first picture look like a hack job of filling holes, but those were actually a "feature" in the wood, not something I did. Oddly, they did not seem soft (punky), nor did they tear out as some of the end grain in the spalted areas wanted to. Used thin CA glue to stop that.

I have another cutoff that is a sugar maple branch crotch piece -- it has great figure for a sphere, but the branch wood is rotten (like marshmallow) and I can't really work around it. I'm thinking about digging that rotten stuff out and doing my first fill with mica powder. Spent a while cruising the net for pressure pots. . .

[Robert Hayward]

I have another cutoff that is a sugar maple branch crotch piece -- it has great figure for a sphere, but the branch wood is rotten (like marshmallow) and I can't really work around it. I'm thinking about digging that rotten stuff out and doing my first fill with mica powder. Spent a while cruising the net for pressure pots. . .

You could leave the punky wood in place and use a stabilizer instead of a casting resin. You would need a vacuum chamber for stabilizing soft wood though. Either way you should thoroughly dry the wood before starting. Dry like baking it in an oven until it stops losing weight.

[Dave Mount]

Since I had permission from you all, I continued to ignore priorities. A piece of firewood from my sister-in-law's place. I was walking by their firewood pile and saw these super curly split faces. Such a shame I couldn't get it before it was split. About 2-5/8" diameter, silver maple.

I don't do a lot of small work, so I pass on a lot of pieces of wood that are interesting but not very large. These spheres are a great way to use those little pieces -- quick to turn, great conversation pieces, and actually kind of good gifts as they work really well as "worry stones". Very nice to just roll around in your hand. And few can understand how you could turn something like that on a lathe. . ."how do you hold it?"

Best,

Dave

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[John K Jordan]

...I was walking by their firewood pile and saw these super curly split faces. Such a shame I couldn't get it before it was split. About 2-5/8" diameter, silver maple.

I don't do a lot of small work, so I pass on a lot of pieces of wood that are interesting but not very large. ...

Those are beautiful!. Nice job!

As someone who loves to turn small things, I'm always on the lookout for interesting wood when I'm spltting firewood. It often takes splitting before I realize the extent of the figure. I was splitting white oak firewood once and one particularly tough piece turned out to be beautifully figured inside:

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Hey, if you would like a nice sphere challenge, try something Mark StLeger often does in a demo: turn four precisely sized spheres. Then base from corian with a carefully spaced circular groove. Stack the spheres into a pyramid and give the top one a spin. If they are all perfect the entire pyramid will rotate smoothly for a time, the the upper sphere driving the lower spheres and the lower spheres running around the groove in the base. He gave me this one he did in a symposium demo in Virginia:

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If one is not perfectly spherical it won't work! He makes these with no jigs, holding by compression and refining the shape on three axis. To get them all the same size he turns cylinders of the precise diameter, draws a line around the circumference, then is careful to never touch that line except with a bit of sandpaper after the turning. He does use a small ring of PVC pipe squared off on one end, holding it at various spots against the surface during his finish cuts to judge the sphericity. He turns these and many other things with a Thompson 1/2" spindle detail gouge.

Another fun thing Mark does with a sphere is make two halves, hollow each, then make the two halves into a threaded box with hand-chased threads. Incredible.

BTW, anyone who hasn't watched Mark turn is missing out - besides being an expert turner without a hint of arrogance he's a genuinely nice guy: soft-spoken, extremely clever, and with good sense of humor. When he and his other adult kids visited one daughter in Knoxville he even brought the family out to my place for a shop and farm visit!

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Good clean fun!

JKJ