dai sensei
23rd July 2010, 08:27 PM
I scored some Norfolk Island Pine the other day. I gave most of it away to the local wood turning club, mainly big slices, but a couple included big branch stems. Rather than turning them whole, they sliced them up into wedges :doh:. Still worked well though, as everyone their got the chance to try a thin walled (<3mm) bowl showing off some of the beautiful spalting.
John (Gawdelpus) came around today to shop for some resins, cast some sand :rolleyes: and join me in playing with some coffee beans :;, so decided to get him to help me preparing the single small branch stem I kept for myself. It only had 3 branches, around 450mm dia x 500mm long, but it had penty of potential. We started by using the chainsaw to get it roughly 380mm dia, the max my lathe can take between centres and it was ~30-40kgs, then I roughed it down.
Photo1: mounted initially on the lathe
Photo2: plaining the outside to make it fit, then get it close to round to help with balance
Photo3: plaining the ends square to minimise vibration - my min speed is 400 :o
Photo4: starting to rough it round with the Ci1
Photo5: some interesting features appeared just under the sapwood, unfortunately it didn't last
Photos6,7,8: after roughing, the three branch centres and some of the spalting
I need a large fruit bowl for work, but the blank is far too deep for that, so I am now debating on cutting it down. I have a choice of trimming the ends off, leaving 2 splalted platter blanks, the centre with three stems the main bowl blank. Alternatively, I might cut in half, leaving 2 bowl blanks, one with 2 stems and the other just 1. The other thing to consider is that I need a rim suitable for burning the company name and picture of what we are making.
I have to help my son move tomorrow, so the whole thing will sit under some glad wrap till I decide and have the opportunity to play with it again :rolleyes:. It was great to turn something again bigger than pens :U
Cheers
John (Gawdelpus) came around today to shop for some resins, cast some sand :rolleyes: and join me in playing with some coffee beans :;, so decided to get him to help me preparing the single small branch stem I kept for myself. It only had 3 branches, around 450mm dia x 500mm long, but it had penty of potential. We started by using the chainsaw to get it roughly 380mm dia, the max my lathe can take between centres and it was ~30-40kgs, then I roughed it down.
Photo1: mounted initially on the lathe
Photo2: plaining the outside to make it fit, then get it close to round to help with balance
Photo3: plaining the ends square to minimise vibration - my min speed is 400 :o
Photo4: starting to rough it round with the Ci1
Photo5: some interesting features appeared just under the sapwood, unfortunately it didn't last
Photos6,7,8: after roughing, the three branch centres and some of the spalting
I need a large fruit bowl for work, but the blank is far too deep for that, so I am now debating on cutting it down. I have a choice of trimming the ends off, leaving 2 splalted platter blanks, the centre with three stems the main bowl blank. Alternatively, I might cut in half, leaving 2 bowl blanks, one with 2 stems and the other just 1. The other thing to consider is that I need a rim suitable for burning the company name and picture of what we are making.
I have to help my son move tomorrow, so the whole thing will sit under some glad wrap till I decide and have the opportunity to play with it again :rolleyes:. It was great to turn something again bigger than pens :U
Cheers