Jim Becker
10-27-2003, 4:29 PM
Pictured below is my "Spinny Thing 'O The Week"...a nice hollow vessel made from maple out of someplace in Iowa. (A friend of mine brought a bunch of stuff east when he visited earlier this year) It's about 5" in diameter and 6" tall for reference.
This piece just begged to be turned in a bulbous shape that took advantage of the bark on the top, some inclusions, worm holes and some punky wood. Although I prefer southwestern-style shapes, that just wouldn't work with this particular blank. After rounding the blank and playing with it between centers to get the right axis for what I "saw" in the wood, I turned a foot for the chuck to grab, mounted it up and worked out the basic exterior shape. Balance is an issue with any turning like this, so I had to play with the speed a bit to minimize vibration.
Hollowing was actually easier on this one since the nature of the wood allowed for a "window" into the interior as I worked my way in. One thing I did differently this time around is that I didn't bother drilling a depth hole...I just worked the wood, changing the angle of the cutter on the hollowing rig, from straight on for the center core to about 45º for smoothing the outer walls. I did refine the exterior shape once the piece was hollowed out and reversed...which brings me to that important process.
I most often use a vacuum chuck when reversing turnings to finish the bottom, etc. (Sometimes I turn the whole thing using just the vacuum chuck) In this case...well...not gonna work! What I had to do here was use a jam chuck technique to return the object between centers for final contouring the bottom and foot. For this one, I took a scrap of 2" square mahogany about 8" long, stuck it in the chuck and turned it round with a gentle, blunt tip. The vessel was slipped over that post and held in place with the tailstock. Since the dimple from the original between-center work was still on the bottom, it was relatively easy to true things up and finish the turning.
The finish on this piece is not...err...finished. It has a coat of MinWax Antigua Oil Finish on it, but needs to be buffed this weekend when the oil/varnish mixture is fully cured. Due to the nature of this vessel, I could not "push" the finish on the lathe without chancing destroying it in the process.
This piece just begged to be turned in a bulbous shape that took advantage of the bark on the top, some inclusions, worm holes and some punky wood. Although I prefer southwestern-style shapes, that just wouldn't work with this particular blank. After rounding the blank and playing with it between centers to get the right axis for what I "saw" in the wood, I turned a foot for the chuck to grab, mounted it up and worked out the basic exterior shape. Balance is an issue with any turning like this, so I had to play with the speed a bit to minimize vibration.
Hollowing was actually easier on this one since the nature of the wood allowed for a "window" into the interior as I worked my way in. One thing I did differently this time around is that I didn't bother drilling a depth hole...I just worked the wood, changing the angle of the cutter on the hollowing rig, from straight on for the center core to about 45º for smoothing the outer walls. I did refine the exterior shape once the piece was hollowed out and reversed...which brings me to that important process.
I most often use a vacuum chuck when reversing turnings to finish the bottom, etc. (Sometimes I turn the whole thing using just the vacuum chuck) In this case...well...not gonna work! What I had to do here was use a jam chuck technique to return the object between centers for final contouring the bottom and foot. For this one, I took a scrap of 2" square mahogany about 8" long, stuck it in the chuck and turned it round with a gentle, blunt tip. The vessel was slipped over that post and held in place with the tailstock. Since the dimple from the original between-center work was still on the bottom, it was relatively easy to true things up and finish the turning.
The finish on this piece is not...err...finished. It has a coat of MinWax Antigua Oil Finish on it, but needs to be buffed this weekend when the oil/varnish mixture is fully cured. Due to the nature of this vessel, I could not "push" the finish on the lathe without chancing destroying it in the process.