Nathan Conner
03-10-2008, 9:37 AM
I know, I know. Please don't laugh TOO much at me.
Here's the situation. Any advice is appreciated. I'm still a beginning turner. Have done very little in the way of segmented turning. I've been doing some 8/4 platters and vaguely round things recently out of fairly "junk" wood - Poplar, Alder, stuff that was thick and cheap. And pretty easy to turn.
So I made some end-grain cutting boards with my mother-in-law recently - she wanted to learn how to do it herself, and we spent some time in the shop and made several. One of them (we don't need piles of these laying around) struck me as an interesting platter/shallow bowl if I turned it on that big spinny thing in the corner of the shop. Unfortunately, IT went to the neighbor as thanks for watching me move the monster planer into the shop. (He had the morgue on speed dial in case I crushed myself)
I decided to take some of the leftover material and made a new one this weekend, but not end-grain. It's a combination of 8/4 soft maple and Padauk, laid out in 2" checkerboard pattern, and I was nervous about turning all that end-grain. So instead of flipping the pieces on end as I glued them and put them in the clamps, so I had long-grain glue joints, I just left them short. But then, last night as I was scraping glue, it occurred to me...duh. Now I have a short-grain-glued butcher block that is useful as a door stop or maybe a chock for the truck, and that's about it. Did I waste $25 worth of decent wood?
My thinking is, as soon as this thing gets touched with a gouge, it's going to shatter, separate, and otherwise send pieces flying because it's made up of nothing but a bunch of end-grain glue joints. Am I crazy, and will this thing hold up fine? Or did I make a silly mistake? I can always re-rip along all the glue lines and lay it out sensibly. But I was curious. Is this thing safe to turn as is? I hate to end up typing my latest stupid story from the hospital bed. Their wireless reception is horrible.
Here's the situation. Any advice is appreciated. I'm still a beginning turner. Have done very little in the way of segmented turning. I've been doing some 8/4 platters and vaguely round things recently out of fairly "junk" wood - Poplar, Alder, stuff that was thick and cheap. And pretty easy to turn.
So I made some end-grain cutting boards with my mother-in-law recently - she wanted to learn how to do it herself, and we spent some time in the shop and made several. One of them (we don't need piles of these laying around) struck me as an interesting platter/shallow bowl if I turned it on that big spinny thing in the corner of the shop. Unfortunately, IT went to the neighbor as thanks for watching me move the monster planer into the shop. (He had the morgue on speed dial in case I crushed myself)
I decided to take some of the leftover material and made a new one this weekend, but not end-grain. It's a combination of 8/4 soft maple and Padauk, laid out in 2" checkerboard pattern, and I was nervous about turning all that end-grain. So instead of flipping the pieces on end as I glued them and put them in the clamps, so I had long-grain glue joints, I just left them short. But then, last night as I was scraping glue, it occurred to me...duh. Now I have a short-grain-glued butcher block that is useful as a door stop or maybe a chock for the truck, and that's about it. Did I waste $25 worth of decent wood?
My thinking is, as soon as this thing gets touched with a gouge, it's going to shatter, separate, and otherwise send pieces flying because it's made up of nothing but a bunch of end-grain glue joints. Am I crazy, and will this thing hold up fine? Or did I make a silly mistake? I can always re-rip along all the glue lines and lay it out sensibly. But I was curious. Is this thing safe to turn as is? I hate to end up typing my latest stupid story from the hospital bed. Their wireless reception is horrible.