Offset bowl

After a bit of a drought on the turning front, today i had a go at an offset decorative bowl.

Starting with a blank hot glued to a piece of 26mm MDF which was in turn screwed to a face plate, i turned a small hollow, the fastest speed i got to was 365 RPM due to the amount the blank was out of center. I had toyed with the idea of screwing something to the MDF over hang to counter weight the piece but as nothing was to hand i ploughed on slowly.

I had hoped to re-use the MDF but being worried about the stability of the blank i over did it with the hot glue & ended up tearing the MDF to bits getting the blank off. On a plus side it showed how well the glue holds.

With a new piece of MDF screwed to the face plate, the blank was reversed. I`d chamfered the edge of the MDF with a hand plane as i was going to try a different approach with the hot glue.

With the blank centered on the MDF i filled the chamfer with hot glue, it was then time to mount it on the lathe.

Happy that the blank was holding, i turned the bottom of the bowl including a foot. Not only did i want the foot for holding purposes, but as this is only going to be a decorative piece, i like to see the bowl raised as it adds lightness to what is quite a big bowl.

This time the bowl was much easier to remove, just running a Stanley knife through the glue joint.

With the bowl held in a chuck via the foot, the face was trued up & sanded, once happy with the surface prep, the bowl was sprayed with a coat of acrylic sanding sealed & then acrylic lacquer.

This will be de-nibed & sprayed a couple more times before being returned to the lathe & cutting back with burnishing cream.

Brick pen

This is a guide to how i go about making a "brick pen"
First i start with a 3/4" square length of  sapele, this is cut in half length ways & the cut edges planed flat.

With a false fence fixed to the bandsaw fence a veneer strip is cut from a piece of maple, the cut edge is sanded flat.

The veneer strip is then glued between the 2 halves of sapele.

This is then repeated so a length ways cross of maple is formed, this is then fitted on the lathe between centers.

Then turned to a cylinder & a hole drilled through the center for the pen tubes.

The cylinder is then cut up into sections at the chop saw, sacrificial fence & base prevents tear out & a stop block ensures the sections are the same length.

These sections are then glued to another veneer of maple with ca glue & activator

Cut into separate sections once again the veneer is sanded flush.

The sections are were then glued to the pen tubes with ca glue staggering the sections to form the brick pattern.

back to the lathe & the blanks are turned to shape.

The finished pen.

Ebonised & gilded Ash bowl

I got round today to trying some silver gild wax on this ebonised Ash bowl, i started with an Ash blank fixed to the lathe via a face plate.

The base shape of the bowl was turned including a spigot to allow the bowl to be reversed & held on the lathe by chuck jaws in expansion mode.

With the base sanded & a coat of cellulose sanding sealer applied the bowl was reversed chucked, the top shape of the bowl turned, sanded & sealed. I then masked the small bowl ready for spraying.

The rim was then sprayed with Chestnut`s ebonising spray.

  
The masking tape was removed, a little sanding was necessary then the gild wax was applied to the grain.

Finally a few photos of it polished.

Large apple

I`ve found oversized apples quite popular, perhaps because they are bigger they hold there own better when used as a stand alone piece.
This is how i went about making the spalted Beech apple above.

I started with a 4 1/4" roughly square blank, my first job was to find the center.

Once this was done it was over to the pillar drill to make a pilot hole for the screw chuck.

Next i made a new screw chuck, whenever i have a piece of wood left over from a project that is held in the chuck, i part off the front & put it to one side ready for making into a screw chuck.
Like the piece of Oak below, all i needed to do was fit it in the jaws, true up the face & drill a hole for the screw.

That done, the Oak was removed from the chuck & a screw inserted from the back, a little super glue was applied to the screw head to help keep it secure.

I was then ready to screw this to the pre-drilled blank, mount it back in the chuck jaws & turn the blank down, shaping the top of the apple. With this done a drill chuck & bit was placed in the tail stock & a second pilot hole drilled in the opposite end of the apple.

The blank was then reverse chucked & the bottom of the apple turned to shape.

This was then sanded & put to one side ready for polishing. Next pin jaws were put on the chuck to hold a couple of off cuts of blackwood to turn the calyx & stem.

The three pieces were then polished & the calyx & stem glued into the apple.

Gilded Vase

I`ve been experimenting with colouring & decided to try wax gilding in open grain.
My choice of timber was oak, but Ash or any other open grained wood will do. As this was my first attempt, i decided to turn a simple vase shape 5 1/2" high By 2 1/2" across.

This was sanded on the lathe to 800 grit, then parted off & the dust in the grain pours removed with a stiff tooth brush.

Once happy the dust was removed, the vase was coated with 3 coats of Chestnut black spirit stain.

When this was dry the gold gild wax was rubbed sparingly over the vase, this operation needed to be done quickly. the excess being removed with a cloth before it had time to dry on the surface, I only wanted the gold to show in the grain.

The vase was then re-mounted on the lathe attached by a jam chuck, where 2 coats of Chestnut microcrystalline wax was applied.

Finally polished & buffed.

Mallet making

This mallet was made for a cabinet maker friend who very kindly gave me some large pieces of beech as it had begun to spalt. The head of the mallet is made from this beech, i chose a piece with minimal spalting, which was still sound, the handle is made from Maple.
The following photos show the process of making the mallet.

First a piece of beech was mounted between centers on the lathe.

This was then turned to the rough shape of the mallet head, a tenon was also formed to enable the head to be held in a chuck.

Next the head was mounted in a chuck, the waste from the bottom end parred off & an inch hole drilled into the bottom of the head.

As the drill wasn`t long enough to pass all the way through the head it was necessary to change the chuck jaws for pin jaws, reverse the head & drill from the top of the head.

At this point the head was sanded & put to one side. The handle was the next, a piece of Maple was fixed between centers, a tenon was cut to fit the mortice hole in the head, the handle shaped & 4 burn lines added for decoration.

The handle was then reversed, the mortise being held in pin jaws so the waste could be parred off & the handle sanded.

Over to the bandsaw & a cross was cut into the top of the tenon.

Whilst at the bandsaw 4 Blackwood wedges were cut with the aid of a piece of mdf cut at 10 degrees.

Finally the head & handle were assembled, the wedges glued & hammered in.

The mallet completed all that was left was to apply a couple of coats of oil.