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Thread: 20" Fiddled Soft Maple Platter

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Chicago Heights, Il.
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    2,136

    20" Fiddled Soft Maple Platter

    Some years ago a friend and arborist was paid $1500 to remove this fallen maple from a front yard. He used a chainsaw mill to saw 2"x23" slabs from it. He gave a couple to me. I finally turned this platter from a piece. It turned and sanded well. Rim is about 11/2" wide with two small beads. I used 75% alcohol and 25% Behlan's medium walnut dye to give it a wash coat of color and pop the grain. I then sanded it back with 400 and 600 sandpaper. Two coats of Formby's gloss ting oil, steel wooded back. And two coats of Mohawk gloss lacquer. I think I may have to see if the rest of that board is hiding some more surprises like this one.

    image.jpgimage.jpg
    Member Illiana Woodturners

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Goodland, Kansas
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    22,605
    Beautiful piece Bob. Lots going on in that piece.
    Bernie

    Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

    To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone.



  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    E TN, near Knoxville
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    12,298
    What a great piece of wood! And I like the look of the raised bead inside the rim - I've done that on some of my platters, but just one bead.

    I suspect you didn't turn that on your mini lathe.

    JKJ

  4. #4
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    Jan 2009
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    Williamsburg,Va.
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    12,402
    What is "Ting oil",and how do you "Steel wooded" something back?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Fort Pierce, Florida
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    3,498
    As the son of a violin maker (I only ever made one) I would have to agree that that piece would have made a fine fiddle. It did make a fine platter.
    Retired - when every day is Saturday (unless it's Sunday).

  6. #6
    Pretty piece of wood, great job!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Islesboro, Maine
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    1,268
    Great job...The wood is amazing...

  8. #8
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    Feb 2007
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    Beautiful Lexington, SC
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    776
    Outstanding job, beautiful wood.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Great Falls, VA
    Posts
    813
    Bob, this is spectacular! 23" is a very large blank to work with, especially when it's that thin. How did you go about mounting it to turn the recess for the chuck? Also curious about the method you used to finish-turn the bottom. Vacuum chuck?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Chicago Heights, Il.
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    2,136
    Quote Originally Posted by David C. Roseman View Post
    Bob, this is spectacular! 23" is a very large blank to be work with, especially when it's that thin. How did you go about mounting it to turn the recess for the chuck? Also curious about the method you used to finish-turn the bottom. Vacuum chuck?
    David,
    It was very stable wood considering the width. Very little movement. Held on a 1/4" tenon and bottom and turned off using a 4" pvc pipe. Didn't need much of a tenon because it was soft maple and tool resistance was fairly low. My vacuum pump is a Gast with a JD adapter plugged into my Robust.
    Member Illiana Woodturners

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Colorado Springs
    Posts
    982
    That's a very nice platter, Bob. I like the wood, too.
    "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." Robert Heinlein

    "[H]e had at home a lathe, and amused himself by turning napkin rings, with which he filled up his house, with the jealousy of an artist and the egotism of a bourgeois."
    Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

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