Late last month Tom Jones launched this thread with some questions about what stock to use for platters. It quickly degenerated into a short lived testosterone influenced and lacquer enhanced tug of war. I lost. While I cannot blame anyone but myself for agreeing to do this, I would like to point out that all fault absolutely lies with George Conklin, Don Baer, Jim Ketron and most especially Joe Tonich.
Before I start, I feel obligated to point out a few salient tidbits to qualify my credibilty factor:So, where to start? With the challenge handed to me, I suppose.
- I've never done a tutorial before,
- I've only previously turned two platters.
- The only glue-ups I've previously turned were oriented as centerwork.
- This is not a platter design session. If that's what you're after, go talk to Vaughn McMillan.
Jim Ketron posited that a platter could easily be made by gluing up some plain old 3/4" thick boards; hitch 'em to a glue block; and Bob's your uncle. Can it actually be done? Yup! Would I want to produce a platter in the future with stock this thin? Nope! Would it have been smarter to have attached another piece of wood to the underside of the platter to serve as a foot? You betcha! But that's not what Jim proposed. Dang him.
Determined that I would not spend a dime on this, I scrounged around and came up with a sufficient quanity of amply sized Yellowheart scraps and a thick stick of Dunnowood to make three - yup, count 'em, three! - platters. The colors of these two woods contrast well enough to help with the whole visualization thing. I made three because I assumed I'd wreck two of them in the process, but Saint Catchrick was smiling on me and all survived.
I've taken the best pics of all three and combined them to create this, so bear in mind that as it progresses, the piece being shown will rotate - just like it did on the lathe.
Since I don't want to make any assumptions about skill levels I'll start right at the beginning. Here's what I began with:
pt 01.jpg
I shuffled them around; ripped a bit here and there to achieve a degree of symetry; and ended up with these three configurations.
pt 02.jpg
Since Jim's jointer was dull, the challenge made in July was such that one would joint the edges neander style. Clamping one board (as shown in the pic) does not work. Clamping and planing two boards at once does produce a nice joint. Remember to orient the boards bookmatch fashion when clamping. And if at all possible, use a proper jointing plane rather than something like my miserable excuse for a bench plane.
pt 03.jpg
Glue and clamp. And before you ask, I used Titebond II glue. Why? Cause it's the only yellow glue I have. I'm sure that most others will work just fine.
pt 04.jpg
