used my lathe (yew vase)

[jurriaan]

So i noticed someone asked for pictures....

I hadn't tried the picture upload functionality here. It's a bit difficult - having to select, upload, place inline. No automatically reducing image size means you have to do that beforehand as well, and not being able to select multiple files in one go means it's hard work. Also, the more you upload, the more you have to scroll up and down, you always end up at the default tab 'Options' so 'Upload attachment' has to be selected every single time and inlined links don't always end up where the cursor is either, so it's necessary to check that as well for every picture.

I was lucky enough to save some yew from being thermally recycled - without paying, even! I traded the wood against a bowl from another part of the tree. Diameter about 17" here, height 30".

Having a crane attached to your lathe is very nice. It's becoming more clear here that there's a large circular crack in the yew, at about 1/3 of the diameter. The lathe is a Swedisch Jonsered monster, swing 32", 70 mm / M45 spindle, MK4 tailstock. The centre is a German design from Wema, 6 teeth / 39 mm diameter, M45 thread.

Looking good, but the crack is worrying - it seems to be right where I want my foot to be.

and so it ended. 10 attachment maximum?? I'll continue this in another post, but it's a bit wearying.

 

[Cordy]

Jurriaan; a gradely Lathe is that

Good luck with the Yew

 

[jurriaan]

So far, so good. Making a lot of chips, the top outer side is where I want it to be. The foot is provisional, might need to be a little smaller, but I don't want that crack spoiling things before I've hollowed it out.

The crack at the top filled with 2K Epoxy and black pigment. It's a bit cold (about 8 degrees Celsius) in my unheated shed, so drying takes some time. I used a heat gun to heat it up and let it fill the cracks a bit better.

Time to drill. One reason a MK4 tailstock is nice to have, is that bigger drills (40 mm, here) fit. Drilling first with the short drill, than making room for the quill, and then drilling using the long drill. This involves a lot of sliding the tailstock, which weighs in at 82 kg. I was having so much fun, that at the time I thought of measuring how deep I was, I was just over 25" in, at 5/8" before the chuck. Not too far, but definitely a bit further than I wanted to be.

 

[jurriaan]

Hollowing this largest vase yet for me made me rethink if I wanted to make vases this big. Not only do you need gigantic pieces of wood and spend even more time hollowing it, but the tools get progressively longer as well (70" in the picture), and I needed to remove both the tailstock and my grinding machine + stand. Since the grinding machine has two 12" wheels, this involved some sweat as well.

At the end, I turned down the foot a bit, and the circular crack showed up again. The diameter of the foot is the critical part in the design of this vase, I think. Too big, and it looks ugly. Too small, and it looks (and is!) wobbly.

The chuck is a custom made 6" / 160 mm Zentra chuck. I need two hands to lift it, but it can often hold vases without a steady rest. The crack made me not even try that here.

For finishing the foot, I have some round blanks to put into the vase. I carefully turned down the blank to exactly fit the vase opening, since I didn't trust the bottom at 1/2" thickness, not to mention the glued-up crack.
The 1/2" bottom is also the reason that I couldn't completely remove the black stains from the jaws.

 

[jurriaan]

Now for the final pictures:

Normally, I finish all my turnings with walnut oil, but I have had some bad experiences with that on yew (and other resin-containing woods). It suddenly became sticky again after a few months. So I used a commercial product, called Drechsleröl (Woodturner's Oil) from Steinert in Germany. The sapwood patches got 2 layers in white, the rest 2 layers in natural, and then 2 layers natural over the entire vase. The sapwood patches are not as white as they seem in certain pictures, the grain is very recognizable.

At the moment, the vase is drying. Some lengthwise fractures are appearing at the bottom quarter, so I'll wait until I'm sure they won't compress again when the inside of the wood is drying as well, and then see if I need to have a go again with the black epoxy or not.

The overall height came out at a hair under 26", biggest width just over 14", wall thickness about 1/2".

I think this may prove I actually use my lathe :mrgreen:

 

[Chris152]

What a fabulous vase, and great write-up. Inspiring.

 

[Cheeseburger]

=D> Thank you for taking the time to document and upload the images. =D>

 

[CHJ]

Good luck with the drying and wood behaviour, that's a lot of stress potential waiting to do its worst.

On smaller stuff I flood the hairline cracks with Thin CA Glue as I go but you would need another bank account to fund enough for a project that large.

If my memory is correct I believe Cornucopia (George Watkins ) used to soak large turnings in Lemon Oil, (White Spirit/petroleum based) to aid moisture dispersal and even out drying stresses before final finishing, don't know if this is still his practice.

 

[jurriaan]

Oh, before anybody asks:

the hollowing tools used were:

- 10mm RCGT insert in 16 mm steel rod (quite common, I buy mine from http://jmader.de/entwicklungen/ausdrehwerkzeuge/ - Jockel from Germany speaks English as well)

- a Swiss development called the Pitbull, a bit like the Woodcut ProForme after 3 seasons of steroids. The seller (Ändu) has a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8oeW3qLeWtgSMpwOaj9UMA. I don't think he has a separate internet site, but I could contact him through another forum.

As for the drying risks, I have had good experience with yew. I don't think it'll destroy itself, not like an oak vase I once tried, which looked like a peeled banana after a few weeks. I expect I have to touch up (fill, sand, re-oil) the bottom part.

 

[MusicMan]

An epic and impressive piece of turning! Well done and thanks for posting.

 

[Dalboy]

A very nice W.I.P. jurriaan and a great end result. I bet it is nice to be able to have a lathe capable of turning a big lump like that.

 

[Woodmonkey]

That's a beauty, nice work sir! A shame all that lovely purple grain is hidden under the base.
Great setup you have there, the lathe and also the steady look very substantial.

 

[Robbo3]

Wow, just wow. Brilliant. Thanks.

 

[bobajobob]

Excellent article. Very impressive.
Thanks for posting Jurriaan.