making a glue block

[Brad Barnhart]

Howdy! My name is Brad. I'm a beginner turner, & have the red handled hf chisel set so far, nor do I yet have a chuck for my lathe. Just the factory face plate. My Father's bday is coming up, & I'm wanting to make a flower vase to put at his headstone. It will be removable, as the last item I made for him & put out was completely destroyed. My idea is to make a glue up from some barn wood from his home place where he was raised. Then turn a simple vase out of it, similar to the high dollar pewter ones. I don't yet have any hollowing tools, so I've been kickin around ideas on how to go about this. I'm a scroll sawyer, & I considered cleaning up the barn wood a little bit w/the planer, then cutting say 5" circles, leave 2 1/2" -3", & cut out the center, & doing a glue up that way. Then do the shaping & final design on the lathe. My issue is, I'm not sure how to go about setting it up for the centers on the lathe. I may not even need a glue block for it, I don't know. But I thought it would be easier to sand the inside of it while it was attached to the face plate after I get the outside of it shaped & finished. What I'm thinking is a vase about 8" - 10" tall x 3" inside diameter. I'd like to end up w/1/4" thick walls when I'm finished. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time & help in advance.

[Aaron Craven]

Howdy! My name is Brad. I'm a beginner turner, & have the red handled hf chisel set so far, nor do I yet have a chuck for my lathe. Just the factory face plate. My Father's bday is coming up, & I'm wanting to make a flower vase to put at his headstone. It will be removable, as the last item I made for him & put out was completely destroyed. My idea is to make a glue up from some barn wood from his home place where he was raised. Then turn a simple vase out of it, similar to the high dollar pewter ones. I don't yet have any hollowing tools, so I've been kickin around ideas on how to go about this. I'm a scroll sawyer, & I considered cleaning up the barn wood a little bit w/the planer, then cutting say 5" circles, leave 2 1/2" -3", & cut out the center, & doing a glue up that way. Then do the shaping & final design on the lathe. My issue is, I'm not sure how to go about setting it up for the centers on the lathe. I may not even need a glue block for it, I don't know. But I thought it would be easier to sand the inside of it while it was attached to the face plate after I get the outside of it shaped & finished. What I'm thinking is a vase about 8" - 10" tall x 3" inside diameter. I'd like to end up w/1/4" thick walls when I'm finished. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time & help in advance.

I'm sure some more experienced folks will chime in here with better advice on how to accomplish this, but for my part, I would suggest caution here. Hollowing deep forms is a skill all to itself, complete with a range of tools that are sometime specialized for the task. I once made a small vase (about 4" wide by 6" tall or so) using mostly a round-nosed scraper and it was very much at the limits of both my tool and my rather undeveloped skills. I only sanded the top 3 inches or so on the inside because I couldn't figure out a safe way to sand deeper (and because no one would see it anyway).

I don't want to discourage you from such a beautiful gesture, but I do want to encourage you to be safe. Be prepared to step back from the project until you are sure of what you're doing even if that means waiting for next year's birthday. I'm sure your father would want you to be safe above all.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Brad: Aaron is fully correct about deep hollowing being a skill set unto itself. That being stated - IF you wish to continue on this project, I'd suggest making a base disk solid to screw to the faceplate, then glue another solid similar disk with brown paper between them. Then add donuts cut to the OD you wish one at a time, and turn the insides and outsides to the sizes you wish. Add the donuts one at a time and this will minimize the depth you have to clean out out of the interior, and reduce your tool overhang from the tool rest. I have a set of HF tools that are my main tools, but the round nose scraper has been sharpened to be a scraper also along the left edge. This allows me to go into a depth, then pull back along the the wall to remove excess. Proceed with patience and caution, and allow enough time between glue operations to have fully set rings. Good luck. Take pictures and post progress as you go. People here will help.

BTW - Find a local club, and/or mentors to help you and guide you through the learning process (which never ends). Turners are the most helpful bunch of people.

[Dennis Ford]

I mostly agree with Mark on the procedure, with a couple of changes:
* This vase is too tall to be using a paper joint IMO, a catch might tear it off at the paper joint and ruin the project in addition to being a safety issue. Just skip the paper and plan on parting / sawing the bottom portion off when finished.
* I would glue the rings up in groups 2 - 3 inches thick to make the project go faster but ONLY if using something stiffer than the round nose scraper from HF. A straight hollowing tool is not hard to make if you are interested in making tools: Get a piece of 1/2" or 5/8" steel rod from hardware store and drill a 3/16" hole in the end 3/4" deep (approximately aligned with axis of rod). Then sharpen and glue in (CA glue) a piece of HSS drill rod similar to http://www.mcmaster.com/#3023a223/=13d4b5g
I shape and sharpen one end and then cut the drill rod to about 1-1/2" long. Cut with abrasive cut-off disk or grind a groove, clamp in vise and break off.
About 12" long for the steel rod is a good length for a first hollowing tool. Put a handle on the end and you will have a very useful tool.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Dennis, all good suggestions. I stand corrected on the papered glue joint. I've never used one, but have heard and read about them for years.

[John Keeton]

I am not sure about the durability of a glued up wood turning in constant exposure to the elements, but aside from that, I think I would consider a staved glue up. I don't do segmented work, but I would think that 10-12 vertical staves could be cut to the appropriate angle and then contoured close to the final profile on the vase prior to gluing. Seems this would be simpler, less hollowing, and more stable. I would also suggest a small drain hole in the bottom.

[Tom Wilson66]

Everyone has given good advise on this, but I have one concern with stacking the rings and turning them as you build up the vase. If you turn the walls to 1/4" as theyare stacked, when you get to the last rings, there will not be enough wall thickness at the base of the vase. This could result in a lot of vibration or the base even breaking off. I would build it up and turn only the inside as it is built up. Then when it is to final size, come back from the top of the vase and turn the outside. This would leave more thickness at the base during the construction and, at least to me, would be safer.

Good luck with this, it is a good project for the memory of your father. Please post the results of this so we can all learn from it.

Tom

[Len Mullin]

Brad, for right now maybe you'd be better off if you cut a vase on the scroll saw, rather than turn one on the lathe. Steve Good has some very nice vase patterns on his site, you might find a good pattern there.
Len

[Brad Barnhart]

Thanks for all the advice. ALOT to think about. There are safety concerns, too, & I've given those careful consideration. At this point, I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do, but by the time I'm finished with it, it'll look close to what I am designing. And it will involve the lathe to get the final design. I'll keep reading & researching my ideas, & come up with a solution. I appreciate all the input. Enjoy the evening.

[Jamie Straw]

A Forstner bit makes a good hollowing tool.