Balancing Natural Edge Bowls Questions and Answere The Pen ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Continued from Previous Page.tendency would become all the more obvious once thepiece was mounted on the lathe.The softer woods would naturally cut faster andoccasionally there would be an obstinate harder piecesandwiched between softer pieces. The natural tendencywould be for the gouge, scraper, and even sandpaperto act more aggressively when encountering thesesofter woods, so to avoid craters, it was necessary to becognizant of this tendency and to struggle to maintainall tools steadily on the plane surface to be worked.Figure 1. Side View of finished bowl.In the end, I was pleased with the overall shapeachieved, which amazingly was pretty much what Ihad intended. This isn’t always the case with free-formitems like dishes and spindles where sometimes thewood itself seems to want to do something different thanwhat I have pre-conceived. Usually I assume the woodknows better than I do what it wants to become and I letit guide me. Perhaps because this was a conglomerationof small pieces there was no longer a guiding principleand my desire was adequate.Most of the shaping of the bowl was achieved withsome basic tools, namely a roughing gouge and a heavy1” round nosed scraper. To put a small lip on the inside,a hollowing tool with moveable and replaceable carbidebit was helpful, but I suppose people strongly adeptwith the bowl gouge could achieve the same result. Iwas most pleased with the flat bottom and 90 degreeangle sides achieved with the flat nosed scraper. I justhad to be careful since it cuts much more aggressivelythan I had anticipated.There were to be gaps and voids but surprisinglynot as many as I had feared. I quickly learned to discountthe initial voids that appeared in the early stages ofturning since most, if not all, of those would disappearin the general turning process anyway. Instead, I onlychose to fill those voids that remained as I was performingthe sanding stage. Sanding powder mixed on eitherwax paper or on the mounted dish itself with mediumconsistency cyanoacrylate (CA) worked perfectly andblended remarkably well with the epoxy sections, theonly places void fill would prove necessary. I havefound through trial and effort that blending the requireddust with a medium or thick CA on wax paper and thenapplying with applicator sticks available at the craftstore gives me greater control over the placement ofvoid fill than attempting the maneuver on the roundedand mounted piece. Using a thicker consistency, andtherefore longer set time, gives one the time neededto blend and fill prior to CA set up. Some patience isthen required to allow time for the CA to set. Usingaccelerator will only result in hideous opaque whiteresidue while turning the lathe on too soon results in CAsprayed at high velocity on to your lathe and anythingwithin the centrifugal throw range as well. Typicallythis will include you, yet another reason to have old,but well fitted, clothes along with safety glasses and arespirator mask as well.Figure 2. View of bottom of bowl.I decided to try a new finish idea on this piece soI used, for the first time, some Minwax wipe on polyurethanein a satin finish with the piece off the lathe. Ifound that the wood soaked up more of the finish thanI had anticipated, although this wasn’t a problem, andthat at least a good 15 ml could be poured into the 4-5”diameter bowl of 2-3” height and easily absorbed asit was rubbed into the wood. I assume that the epoxyPage 22 More Woodturning June 2010
sections did not absorb the finish, but I could be wrongabout this. The wood was thoroughly dry and I believethat the bulk of the absorbed finish went into the wood.The instructions call for an overnight drying time andthen a rubbing with 000 steel wool and a reapplicationof the finish, a process which can be repeated presumablyindefinitely, but which I felt was adequate for mypurposes with three applications. I wanted the dish tobe useable, although not for food, as opposed to strictlydecorative and I felt that the strength of the polyurethanewould provide the protection I wanted with a look Icould live with.Grip-All Jaws System Updateby Fred HolderIn the November 2009 issue of More Woodturning,I reported on the Grip-All Jaws System that we hadobtained at the September 2009 meeting of the NorthwestWashington Woodturners. While this issue wasunder preparation, we attended the Quilceda CarversAnnual Show and met Stuart Dittbrenner, who is not apartner in the company making these jaws. Stuart wasselling a Tilt-Top Work Station for the Grip-All JawsSystem. I had built a work station for our set, but hadnot thought of making it tiltable. Anyway, I decidedto purchase one of the units including the vise for oursystem. When we get it and have a chance to check itout I’ll report more extensively on this new addition.Basically, the Grip-All Jaws System Tilt-TopWork Station can be clamped to most flat, solid andstable work surfaces. The Grip-All Jaws System wasinvented to fit most woodworker’s vises, but even[Continued on Page 38]Figure 3. View of top of bowl.Overall I was actually pleased with the end resultif a bit surprised at the effect the differing densities andhardness of the various woods. It was a good learningand reinforcing experience about the individual natureof the woods and that what works with one species maywell not work at all with another. I was also pleasedwith the outcome and refinements of the dust/CA fillingprocess and ultimately was also pleased with theresults of the polyurethane finish. I don’t know that theresults necessarily justify the expense of purchasingthese blanks given how many beautiful and workablepieces of single species wood are available, but theymight be just the thing for someone who really enjoysthe variability of multiple species in one piece. WhatI would like to try someday is to mock up and glue myown multi-piece blank using the seemingly limitless offcutsassociated with pen making! I haven’t done that yetbut once I do I will be sure to report on the results.More Woodturning June 2010 Page 23
Page 3: ContentsBalancing Natural Edge Bowl
Page 6: Questions andAnswers from theIntern
Page 11 and 12: The Penturner’s Cornerby Don Ward
Page 13: Figure 5. The new vail kit.be anoth
Page 16 and 17: Proper Chain Saw File Handles Conti
Page 19: Axes lengths of the ellipse: 250mm
Page 25 and 26: Mike MahoneyNew Video“THE ELIMINA
Page 27 and 28: Tormek BGM-100 Bench Grinder Mountb
Page 29 and 30: More on Colt Pen DrillsGeoff Brown
Page 31 and 32: Figure 4. Tool to make a tapered ho
Page 33 and 34: Making a Sphere in a Cubeby Fred Ho
Page 35 and 36: Figure 10. I’m not ready to make
Page 37 and 38: Figure 17. At this point, I mounted
Page 39 and 40: New Water Trough for Tormekby Jeff

Balancing Natural Edge Bowls Questions and Answere The Pen ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?