New Glue-up

New project, aspen and mahogany, currently in the clamps.

Was glued with TiteBond red, tomorrow I'll pull the clamps off.

Until then it'll sit there on my DeWalt DW744 table saw, they don't make that model any more.

That's too bad, it's a very good saw and the fence rules.

Why is it sitting on my table saw, you ask?

Because my workshop is a nightmare and even more so now with the remodeling projects going on.

Hopefully it'll all get squared away in the next couple of weeks after the work is completed.

My underlying problem is that I hate to get rid of stuff cause when I do the very next day I need it.

But the real problem is I just need a bigger workshop, maybe like 60' x 60', 2 story, with 12' ceilings on both floors, with a separate 60'x60' warehouse for storing stuff.

Yes, I'm a dreamer....

0008

This is the 2nd bowl in the spalted maple series. Almost everything mentioned in the 0007 post pertains to this bowl.

The first picture, above, shows the side of the bowl where a limb had been growing and this is normally thought of as a knot.

It too has spalting and worm holes, But this has a different shape. The profile is more angular but with a slight curve and an indention at the bottom emulating a sort of pedestal effect. Alluring.

This bowl is available for purchase at my Etsy store or the Brown County Shops store.

It is 5-3/4" in diameter x 4-3/4' tall and has 4 wire burns.

In this last picture you can see the knot I mentioned above, on the right.

This bowl too has a very glass like finish consisting of 20 coats of a satin-gloss combination polyurethane and of course a coat of Old English.

This bowl is priced at $24.95.

0007

The next 2 posts are about 2 bowls I just completed this morning. The turning and finishing has been done for a few days and this morning I gave them both a good rub down with Old English polish.

These bowls are available for purchase at my Etsy store or the Brown County Shops store.

The wood for these bowls started out in life as a tree on my neighbors property some 80 years ago.

As time went by the tree became a nuisance due to it's growing size and location in relationship to the house.

Last year the owner decided it had to go and of course I volunteered to take some of the wood off of his hands.

I stacked and stored the logs outside next to the workshop and over this past winter and spring they spalted.

I cut some of the wood to lengths then mounted them in the chuck of my lathe on the first step to their final destination - your home!

As you can see in the pictures the wood is not only spalted, as indicated by the discolorations - graying and the black lines, but also has numerous worm holes. Very striking appearance.

This particular bowl is 5-1/4" in diameter x 3-1/2" tall and has 3 wire burns on the sides.

It has a very glass like finish consisting of 20 coats of a satin-gloss combination polyurethane and of course a coat of Old English.

This bowl is priced at $24.95.

2 New Bowls

OK, started 2 new bowls, both of Aspen and Mahogany.
They're glued and clamped right now.
Will pull the clamps tonight.

The one on the left is about 7" in diameter x about 3-1/2" tall.

The one on the right is about 7" in diameter x about5-1/4" tall.

Not sure of the profiles at this point but want to come up with something a little different.
The taller one may have a short pedestal on it - or maybe not.

One thing's for certain, I need to pick up some more gloss poly soon.

Have plenty of satin poly but I like the gloss better.

These 2 bowls will have steel 3" faceplates installed for mounting on the lathe.

Then I will need to reverse them in the chuck with large jaws for finishing out the bottoms.

I'll be working on these off and on for the next 2 weeks or so depending on what else is going on around here. The tall one may end up looking similar to the "Tahitian Sunrise" that sold last weekend.

Band Saw Box - Entry Level

See the purple plant in this picture?
Anyone know what it is?
It's about 7' tall with 12" long leaves.

There are a few of them growing along the south side of the workshop and upon investigation I saw it had bunches of blueberry sized berries on it, so I picked some, here's 2 bunches.

Hope they're not toxic as I had the deep magenta juice all over my hands.

Took them into the workshop and picked all the berries off and put them in a jar. Then I used a rounded stick to smoosh them into a pulp. I further smooshed them through a piece of window screen and the result was about 6 ounces of bold magenta *dye*, completely organic and I guess home made.

Couple days prior I decided to experiment with the idea of a band saw box so I grabbed a piece of 4"x4"x4" pine and milled it to 3"x3"x4" and put it on the band saw and carefully started cutting. Band saw boxes are sort of like puzzles and you have to reverse engineer the steps in your head to figure out what it is going to look like. Now keep in mind this is my first attempt at this so it's not going to be perfect but I'm going to do the best I can even though I am prepared for disaster. LOL

After it was all cut and the pieces glued together and sanded I got the idea of trying this new organic stain on it. I used a 1" foam brush and started at it and then let it dry for a few hours and I sanded it and applied a 2nd coat. I ended up applying 3 coats total and letting it sit. This is what it looked like after a few days of drying.  

I was pleased with the result of the dye, even though it appears more red than magenta in the picture, and was going to go ahead and start applying gloss polyurethane to it but got stuck on some other projects and forgot about it.

Well I went back to this little band saw box today and was stunned to see that some of the magenta dye had disappeared. Not all of it, just in some areas. In those areas the wood was sort of yellowish. What the....???

So I guess I will apply some more of this *dye* and let it dry for a few days and see what happens.

If this ends up working the way I want it to I will post pix of the completed Band Saw Box Experiment.

If it fails, well, it''ll land in the wood stove.  ;-)

Something Different

Well we got some rain last night, finally, and that cooled it down to the early 70's today - great weather to be out in the workshop. I'm applying finish to a few bowls and thought I'd do something different on the lathe today, something I haven't done in awhile.

I'm making Mushrooms!

Started with some spalted maple I had lying around. This was a curvy branch about 6' long and I cut it into appropriate sections on the CMS (compound miter saw), then I mounted one of the sections on the lathe.

This piece is about 5-3/4" long x about 3" in diameter.

This is the most dangerous part - stripping off the bark. The bark is very fibrous and tends to come off in chunks and flies around the shop like shrapnel. Sometimes I use the faceshield if I believe it will be too dangerous. Usually the worst that happens is the spinning fibers thrash my left thumb for a few seconds before the chisel removes them.

This picture shows the spalting in the end grain.

Nice, no?

Here's a close up.

Again, the spalted areas are much softer than the non-spalted area so it can be challenging and great care must be excercised. I've turned about a hundred mushrooms over the past few years so I sort of have it down pat.

About 15 minutes later look what emerged from that rustic timber - a mushroom!

That square is about 4" tall and it will give a sense of scale. The shroom is about 5" tall.

Didn't lose much from the height but did lose some diameter due to the bark removal.

This is a close up of the spalting at the base. 

I'll apply a couple coats of poly to the shrooms I turn today and soon they will be available for purchase over at the Brown County Shops website. 

The large chunk of wood on the lathe is also spalted maple, given to me by my neighbor across the road from a tree he cut down a few years ago. It had been sitting around drying in the workshop all this time and I decided to do something with it. Maybe you'll get to see what it turns into soon!

Aspen with Color!

Ya know, I get out there in that workshop and the time just melts, almost like it doesn't exist. I'll be doing stuff and the next thing you know 1/2 a day has gone past.

That's what happened with the Aspen Bowl. I forgot to take pictures between the last time I posted it and now. As you can see it looks different.

Some Wood Spirits got into the workshop overnight and went hog wild with the color spectrum. I was going to make this bowl very similar to the Twilight Dream bowl that was purchased earlier this month on the Brown County Shops website. But then my wife suggested that I try to achieve a SeaFoam color instead. 

I wasn't sure what seafoam looked like so I looked it up and it seems to be variations of light green, depending. 

Here in Ruralville you can't just jump in your ride and zip down to the corner paint store and pick up what you need because the corner paint store is a couple hour round trip so I had to improvise.

I started with some dark blue water soluble wood dye from Klingspor's and I diluted it greatly with water.

Then I added some yellow latex paint with turned it green. 

Then I added some silver glaze and some soldier blue paint and shook it well. Violin! This is what it ended up as.

I liberally applied the home made concoction with a brush after I covered the lathe bed ways with a newspaper and let it dry for a few hours. 

The dye raised the grain so I lightly sanded the whole thing with 120-400 grit Abranet. Wiped it down with a dry cloth and applied another coat of the dye. I let that dry and lightly sanded again and wiped it down. 

Then I applied 2 coats of spray polyurethane with light scuffing with 0000 steel wool after each coat. Then I applied 4 coats of regular gloss poly with a Purdy brush. 

I'll give it a couple more coats of poly with light sanding in between and then the real fun begins.....

Spalted Hickory

This is another piece of the Spalted Hickory that I have mentioned before. It is from a tree that blew down in our yard during a storm several years ago. Stacking it outside the workshop has exposed it to the elements over the years and the spalting fungus has set in creating all kinds of neat colorations and patterns. It is my favorite type of wood though it is difficult to deal with at times.

I have turned it to it's rough shape and applied a stout coat of MinWax Wood Hardener.
A wood hardener must be used because the spalting process weakens the wood so that it is structurally unsound and can fly apart at any second. This is why I apply the hardener BEFORE I cut the inside out of the bowl which would necessarily cause the bowl walls to become unstable.

The Minwax adds a certain amount of yellowing to the color of the wood so I am going to search for another material to use that may not do that. I like the coloration of the natural spalting process and would like to try to maintain that look.

In the above picture you can see that the heartwood, the center of the log, has not been affected by the spalting process and it is very hard, where as the outer spalted layer is very soft.

After the interior has been carved away I will apply another coat of the Minwax Hardener to the inside to further stabilize the whole thing. Now, because spalted wood is very unstable it is possible the whole thing will explode unexpectedly at some point and you will never see it again. But supposing that doesn't happen (think positive) I will post some more info and pictures on this bowl in the next day or two. It too will be available for purchase at the Brown County Shops website.

Aspen Bowl II

It is now far enough along to consider it a bowl, at least in general shape.
I cut the blank into a cylinder on the band saw last night and mounted it on the lathe and started turning it.
As you can see the rough turning generates lots of shavings.

First I turned the outside to the general shape I want with the tailstock firmly in place. The tailstock helps stabilze the blank at this stage until some of the bulk and weight is removed.

I also started turning the interior, trying to remove as much of the bulk as possible before I remove the tailstock.

I've went as far as I safely can with the tailstock in place and removed it this morning. Today I will remove the interior and try to make the walls of the bowl about 1/4" thick. But first I have to clean this place up a little so that I can see what I am doing. With this drought still going on the wood shavings and scraps are growing at an alarming rate and I cannot burn it because of how dry everything is. We NEED some rain, about 5 days of continuous downpour will do nicely, to start.

OK, I cleaned up a little and will start turning more of the inside in a little bit and may post more pictures later today. 

Of course when this bowl is completed it will be available for purchase over at the Brown County Shops website.

Stay tuned. Same Bat time, same bat channel.  

Aspen Un-Bowl Part Deux

I pulled the clamps off of the Aspen glue-up this morning, drew corner to corner lines to find the center on each end, then using a compass I made the biggest circle that would fit, about 7-5/6" diameter.

Next, I used a drafting circle template to draw a 3" circle in the middle of one end, this is where I will glue the sacrificial wood face plate which will be 3" in dia x 1-1/2" wide. I use TiteBond Original (Red) wood glue.

The sacrificial pine wood face plate is what I will screw the steel face plate to for mounting to the lathe.

I do this so there will be no screw holes in the bottom of the bowl. When the bowl has been carved, sanded and finished I will then reverse it on the lathe using the larger jaws on the chuck and carve the sacrificial face plate off and sand and finish the bottom. I'll post a picture or 3 of this process.

To the left of the glue up above you can see the 4 jaw chuck for my lathe. The black metal object just to the left of the green paint jar. It's a Penn State model, nothing fancy, that uses 2 Tommy bars for tightening and loosening. As it sits currently it has the 3" interchangeable jaws installed on it. I have various other jaws and holding nubs for it and use it extensively. Because I do use it so much I really need to get a 2nd one.

Aspen Un-Bowl

This is the glue up of one of the Aspen wood blanks mentioned in the Un-Bowls post, below.
6 pieces of wood about 7-1/4" square x 3/4" thick.
Each piece was sanded on all 6 sides with 120 grit and grain oriented, stacked and glued and then clamped with 4 side cauls on wax paper covered clamping boards.

The whole thing weighs about 35 lbs as you see it.
This will sit until tomorrow afternoon then I'll pull the clamps off and go to the next step.

Spalted Hickory Pedestal

I like the look of spalted wood and in this case it is Hickory from a tree in our front yard that blew down in a storm about 4 or 5 years ago.

I cut the trunk and limbs into manageable pieces and stacked them on the south side of the workshop and every now and then I'll grab a piece of it to experiment with.

This was a small piece of the Hickory, about 8" long x about 5" in diameter.
After the bark was removed and it was turned to a consistent cylinder on the lathe it measured about 7" long x 4" in diameter.

I drew the profile up for this pedestal in AutoCAD and then measured and marked the cylinder for turning.

Because the Hickory is heavily spalted, after I turned the wood to a cylinder I then coated it with Minwax Wood Hardener and let it dry for 24 hours.

When I finished turning the pedestal I again coated it with the hardener.

Spalted wood is especially challenging to work with but well worth it in my opinion.

This picture shows an Aspen bowl sitting on top of the Hickory pedestal.

Un-Bowls

Or should I say, "not yet bowls - but soon to be"?

A = Aspen 3/4"x7 1/4"
B = Mahogany 3/4"x7-1/4"
C = Poplar 3/4"x5-5/8"

These started out as 48" long sticks purchased from Menards and I cut them to proper lengths on the table saw. Next, I will sand all of the pieces and then glue and clamp them together. If I can remember, I will post a picture of them at that stage, and additional stages as the process continues.

Eventually these bowls will be available for purchase at the Brown County Shops website.

Few More

Here are some more bowls I made. The first is all Hickory and a very hard wood to work with, which is good, I prefer hard woods. It was laminated (glued) from 3/4"x8" stock, clamped, cut into a cylinder and then turned on the lathe. Has an interesting grain pattern on the side and visible on the inside as well. It is available for purchase at Brown County Shops.

Next up is the bowl I named "Flash". It is made from Pine and has the metalic celestial finish on the inside. On the outside it has a dark stain on the edge and a clear finish on the remainder and 7 wire burns. It too is available at Brown County Shops.

Last up is "Zebra", glued up from Aspen and Mahogany with a slightly unusual shape.

It too has my legenday 20 coat high gloss polyurethane finish and is available at Brown County Shops.