My first segmented disaster

[Brian Brown]

My first attempt at a segmented piece was less than satisfying. I slipped while I was under cutting the rim, and punched the tool right through the side. I think my wife was more upset than I was. This was walnut and alder, and I didn't finish it for obvious reasons. I think I bit off more than I could chew for a first project. It was 204 pieces, and took forever to glue up. It is ugly, and there was a tear or two shed (by my wife). My next post shows my first sucess. Ugly as it is, here it is.

[Jonathon Spafford]

Sorry about the mess up... a really beautiful vase otherwise! Just cut off the top and make a overlarge candy dish.

[Mark Pruitt]

Any chance you could cut the rest of the way through, true the edge, reverse-mount the severed piece, true its edge, glue in a new ring, carefully re-attach the severed piece as close to center as possible, and give the repaired vessel a final truing up?

(I dunno; I'm not a segmenter. But that sequence does seem to make sense to me.)

[Brian Brown]

Interesting thought, but I got a little carried away cutting the inside in spots. In order to make a smooth consistent wall on the inside, I had to cut the whole wall thicknes to about 1/16 inch. I am not sure I have a solid enough surface to reglue and save it. It would be nice to save it, but I haven't been able to figure out how.

Brian

[Bill Wyko]

Actually you can salvage this piece. Part the rings out of it and glue new ones in. I've done this on 2 or 3 of my pieces and it will be just fine. The reason it happened was my rings were slightly egg shaped. Round rings do make a difference. I think if you replace the rings and re-turn it, it will be a fine piece.;)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Hey Brian - stuff happens! At least you didn't get hurt in the process. Haven't tried any segmented pieces yet but they do look like they would be fun. Hope you are able to save the piece as it is a real nice looking vase. Let us know what you decide.

Lots of luck!

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Brian, one of the big advantages of segmented turning is we can turn vessel like this in two pieces, building it from both ends at the same time. In this case, you could have essentially turned two "open" forms and then joined them somewhere in the middle. Then, you would only have had to clean up the inside final glue joint - no serious hollowing or cutting under the rim. Just something to think about.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian......Your piece doesn't looked finished to me. From the previous comments it sounds like there are two ways to finish this beautiful project. We'd sure like to see the finish to this gorgeous project and maybe you can make you wife smile and have tears of joy along the way!

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Brian......Your piece doesn't looked finished to me. From the previous comments it sounds like there are two ways to finish this beautiful project. We'd sure like to see the finish to this gorgeous project and maybe you can make you wife smile and have tears of joy along the way!Brian Ken puts it very well. I'm looking forward to what you can do with it as well I really like it.:)

[Brian Brown]

Thanks everyone for the Ideas on fixing this piece. I'll never try to turn a segmented hollow form in one piece again. Now that I have a chuck, it will be easy to turn in two pieces and join the pieces later. Before, I just couldn't figure out how to fix the second piece on the lathe. Now that I am getting a little experience, I can see several ways to do it. Oh well, live and learn. I'll try to fix this one. Not sure exactly how, but I have some good Ideas now. If I am successful, I'll post new pictures.

Brian