latest project- freehand bowls/platters w/ inlay.

[andy Needles]

I've been using local woods (often mill waste) and grinding out bowls and platters and selling them in local wineries. They are quite popular and they sell well. Here is a few of the ones that I have completed this weekend. They are all w/local claro walnut- trees that are being torn out so that yet more wine grapes can come in! I figure that they takes me about 3 hours a piece to do, and my cut from the winery is about $150 or so. Minus about $20 in materials, its an okay return. Enjoy!

[Thomas Kila]

Beautiful bowls, Andy! What technique did you use to make them? I especially like the one on the left. And what type of inlay did you use?

[andy Needles]

Here are the steps

Rough cut the bowls on the bandsaw, freehand or as appropriate, using a template or contour

Hollow out the top first
-rough it out with an arbortech, or a makita curved shoe planer
-cut down to a smooth contour, using hard resin grinding disks, and a high speed rotary sander (16 grit)
-rough finish with a notched 100 grit hard resin grinding disk
-rout out where you want the resin/ inlay to go
-clean up rout areas w/ a chisel, and carving tools
-inlay solid rock or crushed rock and epoxy resin. I use rock with a MOH hardess of 5 or less ideally. Mostly Chrysocolla and/or malachite, and our local serpentine jadite, abalone,etc. The Ammonite fossils I use are a bit harder. mix up the rushed rock resin and pack the goey mess into the channels.
-carefully grind off the excess rock w/ a concrete grinding wheel
-use good RO sanding pads to finish up the rest (Mirka pads are the best and outlast everything else I have ever tried). The rock really wears out the pads, so I do that area last. I usally sand w/ 60 in key rough spots, then 100 all over, and sometimes to 180
-I touch up divots, voids w/ CA glue too.
-one coat of thinned oil poly
-spray on water based finish. You're done!

Oh- and I also back bevel the back, using my jigsaw freehand and a 90 degree fence jig and the table slightly tilted.

[Paul Girouard]

You make it sound so simple Andy :D

Nice niche , nice work :cool:

Note to self , find nice niche market with "rich " wine O's :D