Still needs to be reversed and finish off the bottom mortise when the finish dries. Red oak platter. The defect was worse than first appeared. The dutchman is a piece of walnut thick enough for exposure on both sides. Hand chiseled the dutchman opening almost thru the oak, glued in place then turned away the back side, of the platter, to expose the walnut. A bunch of layers of wipe on poly. Worse part about applying poly, while on the lathe, is you can't do anything else until it dries. Of course, I could get a second lathe but it's cold and rainy and I don't feel up to sleeping in the garden shed.

 

 

 

That bowtie is a really nice effect on that, I think it's really cool.

2 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

That bowtie is a really nice effect on that, I think it's really cool.

Thanks, Fred.

I'll second Fred's comments. Too bad too, cause it has some beautiful grain characteristics and color especially for red oak. Still a beautiful piece. Just don't use it for soup.

7 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

I'll second Fred's comments. Too bad too, cause it has some beautiful grain characteristics and color especially for red oak. Still a beautiful piece. Just don't use it for soup.

Thanks. Might work for a whistling Frisby 

Nice job on the chiseling.  Looks great.

Great job on the bowtie!  Adds to the overall look of the piece.  Worth all the work to show off that grain. 

 

.40

This may be premature given my recent success with spinning things made of wood.

The pictures here are the latest attempt to build a staved bowl. This is the lower portion only. It is maple, sapele and black veneer pieces. The plan is to build a feature ring of epoxy resin and top off with more maple and sapele.

So far so good. I have come up with a way to cut the staves that seems to be pretty fool proof for me .

In brief I simply mill up the blanks lay out pencil lines of the double taper on one blank and carefully clamp and cut  on a cross cut sled. The layout happens on one blank only and when cut stop and register blacks are double taped to the sled so each successive blank is located exactly the same. Couple pics of that process here also.

Keeping my fingers crossed 

calabrese55

That's awesome Mike. I'll definitely be watching this one to completion.

 

BTW, Happy New Year.

@calabrese55 Awesome setup on making those staves! Gonna be a beautiful piece when finished.

 

@forty_caliber  Thanks!

 

@HandyDan  Thanks!

Thanks everyone for looking in. Sometimes working in isolation the only feedback you get comes from the crickets.

Always appreciate any contributions from you guys with real sawdust cred.

Happy and safe new year to all...lets go make something.

calabrese55 

Got tired of turning bowls, although I do have some blanks ready. There were some small pieces of cherry left from milling up blanks from the stuff the tree man gave me. Decided to make a little hollow shape. The finish is still drying. Walnut finial and bottom. Wipe on poly

 

That's a beauty @lew.  What is your method for applying the poly?

Excellent @lew. Love the finial.

51 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

That's a beauty @lew.  What is your method for applying the poly?

I run the lathe at about 70-80 rpms and apply it an artist brush. I make the wipe on by mixing 50/50 poly and mineral spirits. let the lathe run until the poly tacks.

 

11 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Excellent @lew. Love the finial.

Thanks Dave!

Finished this up yesterday. Originally started out a a donut chuck but I needed a steady rest for the vase I am trying to ruin now. The wheels are from an old pair of roller blade skates. They are very smooth running and had all the necessary fittings to mount to the support arms. Suggest if you are thinking about a steady rest build pick up a pair if roller blade skates just for the wheels. Plywood, oak and ash construction virtually all repurposed materials.

4 hours ago, calabrese55 said:

Finished this up yesterday. Originally started out a a donut chuck but I needed a steady rest for the vase I am trying to ruin now. The wheels are from an old pair of roller blade skates. They are very smooth running and had all the necessary fittings to mount to the support arms. Suggest if you are thinking about a steady rest build pick up a pair if roller blade skates just for the wheels. Plywood, oak and ash construction virtually all repurposed materials.

Cool steady rest! Just a word from experience, the rubber coated wheels can have the rubber separate at higher speeds.

13 minutes ago, lew said:

Cool steady rest! Just a word from experience, the rubber coated wheels can have the rubber separate at higher speeds.

Thanks Lew.

I actually thought of that as you would normally expect the original use would be very low speed even with the higher load. The wheels are virtually unused showing the center seam where the mold closed I will watch this closely and be ready to duck. Thanks for the heads up.

calabrese55

5 hours ago, calabrese55 said:

Originally started out a a donut chuck

No good reason to ever chuck a donut. Nuke 'em for a few seconds, then dunk 'em in your coffee.

 

Seriously though, nice design and build on the steady rest Mike. Great progress on the bowl. Thanks for the share.

Re-purposed olive wood pen blanks I am no longer interested in turning into pens fell off my lathe looking loke a ring box. Plan to put it in a gallery for sale but I have to first convince my wife she has enough of my junk in the house . Never show your wife what you lathe can do 

calabrese55