Wood gloat

[Paul Engle]

Remember the walnut bowl I did couple weeks back? It was for a couple for their 50th wedding aniversay, they live in Hawaii. Turns out he's been wood working all his life, his home is ... well done. He had built a crendenza for the LOHL and when their daughter got there with the bowl the Mrs. put it on a Hawaiian lace something and refused to put anything in it. Well he called me and asked what kinda of wood I turn and of course we talked for a while , he is afraid to start turning , as TLOHL still has flat things for him to make and he may never go back ( I gonna keep workin on him :eek:) anyway this is what his daughter brought back for me . Two pieces of Milo 3x5x12 long, 1 piece of silk oak 1 1/2" sq x 14" long , and a 28lb block of Koa 11x19 with thickness of 3" at one end and 6 " at the other end. Well I turned the two little bowls/ candy dishes( to send back) 3 days ago and the finish ( brand new can) are still tacky/gummy. the Oak boxes are finished out of the same can of Tung Oil and are nice and cured . HELP , is the Milo oily? if felt very dry to me, not like the zebra wood and others. Any suggestions ? I had to wipe the Zebra wood down with paint thinner and spray it with Lacquer to get it harden up.... twice. and I am running out of time for these to go back with their daughter's Christmas package on Dec 5th ...
(All of these were turned using my 5/16" sq x 1/8 carbide insert attached with 6-32 machine screw to a 1/2"x14" mild steel shank mounted in my pipe collet handle.)

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Congrats Paul lookin Gooooooooood!!!!!!:)

[George Guadiane]

Milo is oily. Shellac as a first coat would have "cured" the problem, not sure what you can do now.:(

[Allen Neighbors]

I suggest a bath in lacquer thinner. The lacquer thinner will wash off most of the finish, and after drying, will act as a sealer combined with the finish that wouldn't wash off. Then I would apply a better sealer, such as a coat of Lacquer Wash (35% Lacquer/65%Thinner) and buff dry with a soft lintless cloth (Old Tee Shirts work). Lightly sand again with your final grit, and apply the final finish of your choice. Just what I would do... if it were me. One day, and you're through.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Those are some really good looking gifts Paul! Hope everything gets finished in time! Great looking wood! Looking forward to seeing what you turn out of that!

[John Hart]

Nicely done sir!! Wow...That's a big chunk of Koa! I would think long and hard about that one.

[robert hainstock]

Paul. what I do with oily wood, is ucmp it in acetone or brush it on. to remove the sticky stuff, I usually sand it off with a wet 320 grit. then do the acetone thing and re coa. Pain in the ---. suggest Bob Flexners book on finishing as a reference for future problems.
Did the urn plans get there?

[Paul Engle]

Thanks guys! I have some acetone and thinner and will try a wash and see.I'm leary of using oil finish so I guess I will have spray lacquer them ( its all I got ) and should hold up as I don't think that they will get handled much where they are going. I still have to make the two bases out of burled maple which will finish nice with urethane.
John,I can't decide on the Koa if 1 big bowl or two smaller ones and use left overs for the URN stave project that Robert Hainstock posted .... boy that is some urn huh? And I still have another block of Milo to deal with and may use some of the silky oak with it.

[Mike Vickery]

Paul be careful with the Silky Oak (Grevillea robusta). Most people are allergic to it. It grows here in AZ and I got some from a tree trimmer not knowing what it was. I was fine on my first couple rough outs but after the third rough out got really bad hives up and down my arms and the back of my hands. I brought a piece into the club to get an ID and it was reffered to as "that really toxic stuff". Apparently some guys at the club had gotten some about a year before and really got to them bad.

I did some research after that and it is well know for causeing skin dermatitus. Be carefull.

[Paul Engle]

Victory!!!! yeah the wash worked and I sprayed some Minwax lacquer on one for a test and it worked very well. I had thought to use some acetone but I musta sprung a leak as it was all gone.... back to town to get thinner , home in time ....to step in the dogs bussiness ......clean that up. get to shop, bang my knee on the stand for the chop saw, stub my toe on lathe stand , get thinner open and spill it , out of protective gloves... steal the LOML's gloves from the kitchen , get caught , yelled at, hang my head in shame .... go back to town get gloves. get home , go to shop, look under lathe stand for rag/s for wiping and find .... yep full box of blue non-latex gloves.....ok deeepp breath start coughing knock over thinner spill more on floor , turn on dc ( vents outside) , open windows . go to computer room to wait, sit down in chair and it falls apart..... go to bed room jump in bed and stay there till this morning.. get up at 4 am , turn off dc , close windows brrrr ( oops ) spray the lacquer at 4:30 am pst turn dc back on open one window , take shower come back and oh baby its cold in here..but the lacquer job sure looks good...thanks guys!!!!!

[Robert McGowen]

Sounds like an episode from "As the World Turns"





Sorry, just had to!

[Dave Rudy]

Paul,

You and I should do a reality tv show together. The only problem is, at least one of us wouldn't survive past episode one!!!

The wood and work is beautiful, and the ending happy -- you probably needed a couple more hours of sleep anyway.

[John Hart]

Geez....sounds like my days. 'specially the "yelled at" part.:rolleyes:

[Paul Engle]

Thanks for the sympathy Dave... My girls call me Tim, sometimes.....they all memorised the speech for the the 911 call center long ago...:o , John, "NO" reverbs around here a lot....Robert , my spouse said the same thing.Twice.

Mike, I checked out the silky oak, ooooo man, nasty stuff when fresh wet or fine dust. Looks like It will sit a while till I figure out something.

Y'all been big help and support thanks for feelin sorry for me :D, ur turns coming .....:eek::D;):rolleyes::D