Project: Box Elder NE Vase

[Jim Becker]

I managed to scoot out to the shop late this afternoon for a couple hours and get some spinny time in. It's been since the second week of November since I had the opportunity to do so.

I grabbed a natural box elder edge blank off the shelf that I received from another turner some time ago and decided that it would make a very interesting vase. There isn't a lot of outstanding figure (that shows on the outside...burlish on the inside at the bottom), so I may do something "different" once this is turned with some dye or whatever. The piece is about 7" tall and I still have to reverse it to finish off the bottom. Otherwise it's sanded and ready to finish. This was a bit dry and not as much fun to turn as a "wet one" would be, but not too bad since I have three gouges to increase the time between sharpenings!

Here are some pictures...more will come when I get back to it sometime this week or next weekend:

1) The obligatory "before" picture with the blank mounted between centers and ready to true-up and get a tenon on it. I have a OneWay drive center mounted in the Talon chuck at this point
2) The outside shaped, refined and sanded
3) Hollowing the inside of the piece. I started hollowing with the Ellsworth gouges, but due to the narrowness of the piece, I switched to my captive system. This is a Jamison outfit with Trent Bosch's straight tool mounted. I kept it honed and it cut relatively well considering the cross-grain of the blank. (Most of these hollowing tools are better suited for end-grain orientation...something you don't get with a NE turning)
4) The end result after hollowing. Thickness is about 1/4"...I would have liked to go thinner, but don't yet have a steady setup configured
5) What the piece currently looks like in it's "usage" orientation

[Ernie Nyvall]

Wow Jim, I can't wait to see that finished. Looks great already.

Ernie

[John Miliunas]

Nice vase, Jim and I like the step-by-step walkthrough. You gonna' do the same when you flip it over??? :) Regardless, gonna' be a pretty piece! :) :cool:

[Greg Heppeard]

Lookin GOOOOOD

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

Good Pics, Jim. I like turning that box elder, but it doesn't gro around here.

[Brad Schmid]

Looks great so far Jim! Can't wait to see what you do with the finish. I have some relatively plain box elder that I was planning on experimenting with dyes. I hope you do it that way so I can get some good ideas;)
Cheers,
Brad

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looks good Jim. Can't wait to see it finished.

[Mike Ramsey]

Thanks for the walk through Jim, nice job , looking forward to the finished
piece.

[Jim Dunn]

Jim, I too, can't wait to see that piece finished. Did the oldest girl watch dad do his thing with the lathe. Or are they shopping?:)

[Bill Stevener]

Jim, looks like you have a good thing going there. After turning all of the minis, I don't believe I could see the bottom in the vase, running that long poker.

Hope to see it when your finished.

Bill.>>>>>>>>>>:)

[Andy Hoyt]

Nice Jim. That Jamieson rig looks appealing. Got to try one of them someday. If you get a chance, I'd love to see some pics of the business end of that thing.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

That one is going to be wonderful.

Bruce

[Gary Max]

Looks great Jim---I really like the captive system you have set up.

[John Hart]

Very cool Jim! Tell me sir...Where do you stand when you are turning that? I like to have my face right down where the action is. Do you stand way back or do you reach back?

Great Pictures!!!:)

[Keith Burns]

Jim, you are off to a great start with this one. Like the others I am anxious to see it completed.:)

[Jim Becker]

Very cool Jim! Tell me sir...Where do you stand when you are turning that? I like to have my face right down where the action is. Do you stand way back or do you reach back?
One of the major reasons I bought the Stubby rather than "another popular large lathe" is because I can stand exactly where I want to when turning a vessel like this...at the end of the machine looking inside, but close to the work piece. You just can't do that with a big honkin' piece of steel or iron in the way! And I can do it without being a contortionist. When you combine that with the captive hollowing system, turning becomes physically effortless and you can concentrate on the art. That's wonderful when working hollowforms and you need to take very light cuts on thin walls in nasty material. I'll try to remember to take a picture of my positioning for this work before taking the next steps with this project which requires a different machine setup. (Please note that folks with the PM 3520 and similar can slide the headstock down to accomplish this, too...just leave enough bed for you to be able to use your tailstock for safety)


Did the oldest girl watch dad do his thing with the lathe. Or are they shopping?
No, the girls were getting their faces "conditioned" with that green stuff that Dr. SWMBO uses...three green-faced zombies did visit for a minute, but I would be very uncomfortable with having anyone young in the shop while turning something like this. They cannot sit/stand still or keep hands off things. Concentration is imporant and distractions can lead to disaster. I wouldn't hesitate to teach her to turn, but it would be a focused activity. It will likely be awhile before that happens.


That Jamieson rig looks appealing. Got to try one of them someday. If you get a chance, I'd love to see some pics of the business end of that thing.
I'll also try and remember to do some pictures about that, too.

[George Conklin]

Nice vase, Jim and I like the step-by-step walkthrough. You gonna' do the same when you flip it over??? :) Regardless, gonna' be a pretty piece! :) :cool:

Ditto...Please!

George

[Jim Becker]

I finally got back into the shop today after a week's hiatus and did some more work on this vessel. I had originally intended to do a little more refinement on the inside with some shear cutting, but over the week, there was a little more, umm...movement than I would have preferred, so I ended up doing about an hour's worth of hand-sanding on the interior, after which I sealed the inside with a few wiped on coats of blond shellac. (more on this later) The sanding was done with the piece on the lathe so I could rotate the spindle by hand as I worked out the, umm...kinks where I made a little boo-boo.

At that point, it was time to reverse the piece and deal with the bottom/base. There are a number of choices about how to do this. Since this is a relatively slender piece, I felt that vacuum wouldn't be the best choice and I didn't want to make up a small enough drum to work with, anyway. So I settled on an Ellsworth style cushioned jam-chuck as illustrated in the pictures below. This was something I had on the shelf from a previous project and I just trued it up slightly after mounting it in the chuck. The workpiece still had the markings from the drive center, since it was first refined between centers, so locating the tail stock was a piece of cake.

A piece of rubber-like material (drawer liner) was placed over the jam chuck, the piece squeezed over it and then the tail stock was brought up snug with the live center on the marks mentioned above. This piece turned true the first time; sometimes you need to play with it a little when you have a wider item that is less self-centering.

Once mounted and verified to be running in a proper circle, I worked on the form just above the foot and on the foot, itself. I also undercut the base until there was just a stub tenon remaining engaged with the live center. A bit of sanding to make everything even and it was time to part it off...a careful operation with a very sharp and pointy modified 1/4" spindle gouge (another Ellsworth idea) and a slow spindle speed. A tiny bit of power sanding on the bottom with some 180 grit took away any evidence of that little stub.

Finally, it was time to add the color I intended to experiment with on this piece. You will recall that I mentioned putting a few coats of blond shellac on the interior. I did this because I am only going to put color on the outside for effect and the sealer would provide a little insurance in case I accidentally got sloppy when working with the dye. Speaking of which, a bright, crimson red was chosen from my finishing cabinet and I mixed up a small quantity using hot water. To hold the piece during this work, I unscrewed the Talon chuck with the jam chuck still installed and set it on my bench...quite handy and the rubber stuff made it very stable. It was just a matter of wiping on the dye, making a few passes to insure I had an even job. With any luck, I'll get a clear finish on this during the week or next weekend and be able to post the final results.

Pics:

The jam chuck mounted in the Talon and trued up
The workpiece on the jam chuck and ready to work the bottom
Starting to apply the dye
Fully colored and waiting for the next steps when I have a few copious free moments...

[Andy Hoyt]

Looking good, Jim. And I enjoyed reading your detailed dissertation.

But, with that dye on there it sure is beginning to look less vase-like and more vahhse-like.:)

[Brad Schmid]

Lookin' good Jim. Do you plan on using a gloss lacquer for the topcoat? It seems the red dye is highlighting some figure there, I bet it would look great with a gloss finish that will show some depth. Can't wait to see it when it's done.

[Corey Hallagan]

That is going to be cool, I really like the NE type turnings. Nice work Jim.

Corey