Applying features with router and indexer.

[bobajobob]

Thanks WP

That site's a proper sweet shop.

Bob

 

[Inspector]

Great looking vase. One of the reasons ornamental turners use African Blackwood almost exclusively is that it cuts clean and needs no finish beyond a little paste wax. The cutting frames used take off shavings as thin as baby hair and leave behind a polished surface. A porous wood like oak, elm, mahogany and walnut will virtually always need some sanding which removes the crispness of the tops of the flutes etc. Wood like hard maple and perhaps beech leave a better surface providing the cutters are very sharp. Getting a surface finish to work will require some experimentation. Wood stabilized with something like Cactus Juice should harden it enough that you might be able to leave it unfinished like Blackwood.

Pete

 

[bobajobob]

Thanks Pete.

I'm a bit light on decent timber and this project was a bit chancy anyway. The ash log was the only piece I had of a suitable size. I've not done a lot with the router
but I can totally appreciate what your saying. I love blackwood but I've precious little and only finial size. Incidentally, I recently visited a wood supplier (Timberline)
with the intention of stocking up. What a shocker. Nice exotics were priced out of my reach (I had the wife with me). I'm going to investigate Cactus juice as I have a good supply of softer woods. I thought it needed a vacuum tank though.
Thanks for the advice.

Bob

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Here's a bit of blackwood that's just waxed -

just to show anyone who's not used it how well it finishes.

 

[bobajobob]

Phil, you had me going there.
I thought they were massive beside a cartridge of silicone sealant!
AAA battery makes them look even more impressive.
That metal intrigues me. Tell us more.
Bob

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The slightly larger one is made in four pieces, the bowl, the stem and two pieces in the base laminated. The metal is sterling silver, the ring being planted on a rebate at the top of the stem, the base being laminated with the silver between. It was then carefully scalloped - with a 4.8mm chainsaw chain file. After finishing the base with 1000 wet and dry it was all glued up.
The other was a little more difficult. I made a silver (wire) ring, then made a shallow groove the same size in the end of the cylindrical blank. I then filed the ring into a horizontal D section and epoxied it into the groove. The bowl was turned with the silver already in place to guarantee concentricity. I then made the silver base ring, which filed out to a D section (as a wedding ring). I then turned the bottom of the blank into a very shallow taper, and coated it with epoxy, sliding the ring up it until it sat tightly. When this was dry, I turned in through it for the base. When finished I parted it off, leaving very little waste as the blank was glued to a 2" long 1" diameter waste piece in the chuck.
Sorry, a little off tack for this thread - I just put it in as an example of small bits of blackwood, and to show how it can just be waxed.

 

[bobajobob]

Great stuff Phil.
Lovely way to use precious material

Bob

 

[Inspector]

Yes Bob for Cactus Juice you do need a vacuum pump and a vacuum chamber along with an oven (200F) of some kind to cure it for an hour or so. A toaster oven is good enough for small items.

As a possible alternative you could make the flutes a half or quarter millimeter shy of full depth and then flood the entire turning with thin CA glue. When it cures recut the flutes again to final depth. It will harden the surface so it doesn't tear out.

 

[bobajobob]

Thanks Pete
Vacuum kit would be very nice given the great applications I've seen for them. I'm only an occasional wood turner so I can't justify the investment. (although this forum is keeping me at it at the moment! See my next post) I have considered CA but found that after cutting it can leave an irregular witness that is visible when finished. Re-flooding presents a sanding nightmare for heavily detailed pieces.
Hope that doesn't sound ungrateful. I really appreciate your thought and time. It's good advice that others may benefit from.

Bob

 

[woodpig]

We had a demo at my club using Pewter inserted into wood turning Bob.

http://www.woodcraftguild.org.au/wp-con ... urning.pdf

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I shall have a look at that later. I've been trying bronze powder in epoxy, but I can't quite get the mix right. Might be better with CA? I was thinking to put fine lines in with a router, then fill them with metal powder.

 

[Robbo3]

I shall have a look at that later. I've been trying bronze powder in epoxy, but I can't quite get the mix right. Might be better with CA? I was thinking to put fine lines in with a router, then fill them with metal powder.

Not tried it myself, but everything I've watched on Youtube says that you mix at least as much powder as resin by volume.

Jim Overton - Recess & mixing starts at 9m 20s.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u74BMZ38vOI

You might find his other videos interesting as well.
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6h82L ... 9Fg/videos

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Bob - I assume you saw this on another thread - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RVptF- ... e=youtu.be

 

[sploo]

Bob - I assume you saw this on another thread - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RVptF- ... e=youtu.be

Link is broken I'm afraid.

 

[bobajobob]

This thread seems to be meandering a bit lately so I think its run its course. I started the thread in the hope it would generate some interest in this fascinating facet of lathe work. It has certainly motivated me to produce a few pieces that would have laid dormant in dusty old blanks (probably forever). I hope it has inspired others to explore its possibilites in their own work. I have really enjoyed introducing this new element into my turning and I know their is enormous potential for further development. However turning is a a small part of my woodworking interest and I need to focus on other tasks. I have produced another piece but it will be the last for a while.

As we have discussed the wood character has a major impact on the quality of finish when routing detail. Olive is a good candidate and I have used it in this small box. After routing the decoration I was confident that it would accomodate a thread. I made a router threading jig last year that I had only used once. It was a good opportunity to try it again. I made the lid thread insert as a seperate piece. This allowed me to orientate the the grain when screwed home and minimised the waste gap when the blank was parted (no thread allowance needed). The dark wood is African blackwood, which was discussed previously (Pete) and was beautiful to thread. The design may not be that appealing but it was almost self-determining as a result of flaws in the blank.

Highlights of this interesting project were:
1. The incredible convergence of the lid decoration. It looks like precision machining. I would never have thought it possible
when I designed the jig.
2. The fit of the threads was perfect with no misalignment of the two parts.
3. The consistent registration of the grain when the lid was seated.

I look forward to returning to the lathe and will submit work occasionally but meantime please keep this thread alive.

Bob

(I have posted a few images of my early wood turning exploits on photobucket for anyone interested. http://s77.photobucket.com/user/Leew_Fr ... t=9&page=1 )

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Bob - I assume you saw this on another thread - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RVptF- ... e=youtu.be

Sorry, I've lost it. It was just an American in a typical American workshop using typically American machinery to make a very clever but quite ugly bowl.

 

[woodpig]

Was it this one?

https://youtu.be/Okwhl-yNKCU

 

[duncanh]

This one I guess

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Thank you - that's it.

 

[bobajobob]

What's all this crap about?