mixing wood types but lathed together

[rafezetter]

I've not done any lathing before, but I've got an idea to use up some thin scraps of wood of different species glued together and turned into basic file handles or similar and I was wondering what the general concensus is on mixing species is?

I'm aware people do mixed species bowls and other items, but are there any combinations that are a bad idea, and any "special" tecniques to reduce issues?

Scraps will probably be a mixture of oak, ramin, meranti, beech glued with epoxy.

 

[rafezetter]

116 views but no replies? Maybe you might think I'm trolling, but I really don't know if there are any basic "rules" to mixing wood types and any response, even if it's a "nope no rules, just go play" would be appreciated.

 

[ColeyS1]

I'd say perhaps the same moisture content might be important ? I'm guessing more than anything

Coley

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Well since the proper turners don't have anything to say ... I tend to only turn green wood on the pole lathe so avoid all this modern stuff like glue and sandpaper, but ...

The only thing that would bother me I think is the increased chance of delamination if you combine layers of wood with very different degrees of seasonal movement - or if you laminate with the grain in different directions, unless the layers are thin as in plywood. It is fairly easy to find online tables of wood species and their likely movement in each of the 3 directions.

Were you anticipating other issues ?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you use woods with widely different hardness or openness of grain you sometimes have difficulty - soft and hard sand unevenly, and some very hard dark woods have very fine dust that will fill the grain of an open grained, light wood like ash. If you feel inclined to turn matched pairs of anything, do the softer woods first - otherwise you are likely to make the softer one smaller. Damhikt.

 

[mind_the_goat]

Not a turner but as you say Segmented turning is something quite a few people are doing now.
look up Kyle Toth or Frank Howarth on You tube. Either would probably answer your question if you get in touch with them, via twitter for example.

 

[CHJ]

Try to use woods at similar moisture content. *
Aim for similar characteristics in density etc. if of significant size.
If you don't want to feel glue joins use an adhesive such as Cascamite rather than PVA.
PVA is more tolerant of wood movement, Cascamite is more likely to see wood splitting rather than joint creep.

Try and enclose, contain, reinforce weak joints (end grain for instance) with whole slice components.
Use the endgrain components to restrict the whole slice components from moving too far out of round with moisture level change for instance.

See my simple boxes and observe the differing wood grain orientations,

No hard and fast rules, try it and see what you get away with and which fail.

* Initially too dry for its intended environment is as bad as too moist. (wood swells as well as shrinks)

Having said all that you can't prevent someone placing items in full sunlight, near a radiator or on a bathroom windowsill.
Basically you can't win them all.

 

[rafezetter]

Ok - now that's more like it, thanks for the replies, just the sort of thing I was after. For the wood components I was thinking more in terms of using a hole cutter to cut slices and just glue them together with coloured epoxy, though I do have a fair bit of cascamite which may well serve the same purpose.

Grain direction of the different slices hadn't even ocurred to me, strange as I'm mindful of it with other projects; so I'll do what I can to minimise that. This also brings up, or answers that I had considered making a bunch of blanks from the scraps in the same way as those chopping boards, where they have been cut and recut a dozen times over so it's all a mosaic, would look pretty cool, but maybe not so smart for a handle if sections move so it becomes "lumpy" over time.... Do stablized pen blanks still move?

All of the scraps have been in my shed for a long time so I'd imagine the MC would be very similar, but it would probably be a good idea to thickness the thicker ones to some degree.

Now I'm not going in so blind you've saved me from a few mistakes already

 

[Inoffthered]

I have laminated scraps and turned them into walking stick handles, candle sticks etc without any problems and, tbh, I never ever considered the relative moisture content as being an issue. Similarly with grain direction I have always focussed on the look of the end product rather than any possible structural issues. Just go for it and experiment and see what works for you.

 

[LancsRick]

Speaking from theory rather than experience, but I would use wood glue rather than epoxy - likely to give a stronger join without having a layer of hard material between the two wood slices.

 

[AndyT]

I think Chas is being a bit modest here, so I'll just quietly add that if you follow the link in his signature line, or this one, to his website http://www.quest42.co.uk/woodwork/html/projects.html and select the pdf "Simple Segment Project" you get a really useful step by step guide to how he uses tiny bits of different woods to make his lovely segmented pots and bowls. He's right about Cascamite for this sort of thing too - it's what we used at school for laminated table lamps.

Also look at http://www.quest42.co.uk/woodwork/forum/segmentbox.htm.

(If you want to start with something simple, a multi-layer sandwich of light and dark woods was the first school project like this that I was allowed to do. You just need short planed boards 10-20mm thick. But you must clamp them well - put a couple of scrap boards on and then cover the whole surface with all the g-cramps you can squeeze into place. If you don't do this, you risk voids in the glue, which look horrible when exposed by the turning.)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Layers of a good quality (birch) ply can look good too. Cheap stuff will have too many voids.

 

[mind_the_goat]

I think Chas is being a bit modest here

Have to agree, I'm not a turner but I think there's enough instruction there to keep someone occupied for a long time. A resource well worth shouting about.
The portfolio is pretty impressive too.

 

[Robbo3]

Stephen Ogle - Woodturning a vase from scraps. He actually cuts laths out of flat stock. Glue up starts just after the 6 minute mark.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xdsEGxWFNQ

Presume that was the type of thing you envisaged - the glue up, rather than what was turned.

There are also a number of others on butchers blocks & lots about segmented work.

 

[GoodGreeff]

I tend to do things, in order to see how they turn out. Modern glues are amazing.
In order to reduce shrinkage I keep my wood in the house, where it will be after turning. It takes only two or three weeks for small wood to settle.

 

[BearTricks]

Well since the proper turners don't have anything to say ... I tend to only turn green wood on the pole lathe so avoid all this modern stuff like glue and sandpaper, but ...

The only thing that would bother me I think is the increased chance of delamination if you combine layers of wood with very different degrees of seasonal movement - or if you laminate with the grain in different directions, unless the layers are thin as in plywood. It is fairly easy to find online tables of wood species and their likely movement in each of the 3 directions.

Were you anticipating other issues ?

Off topic, but how/where did you build/get a pole lathe? I've been interested for a while but it's all a bit of a mystery to me. If you could PM me (To avoid hijacking this thread) that would be great.