Norfolk Island Pine WIP

[Swino]

A couple of months ago I got a phone call from Neil (Dai Sensai) to tell me that he had procured some nice big pieces of NIP. I promptly met Neil at our local woodturning club and gave him a hand to offload - they were so heavy we just rolled them off the trailer and down the hill. The actual tree must have been at least 100 years old being approximately 700mm diameter at the branches. Neil (Dai Sensai) got three large slices where the branches met. The largest piece has been sitting at our local club and every time I see it I think to myself that would be a good project. The actual piece of timber has 5 branches of various sizes coming out.

I decided that this weekend would be it so organised during the week to get the piece home. I then proceeded over the next 3 nights to pour in approximately 3 bottles of thin superglue into voids that had opened up over the past 2 months.

So far we have spent two days working on the piece and am yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This piece is by far the heaviest piece I have had on the lathe thus far - estimated at 70-80kg at the beginning.

[Swino]

Day 1

The piece of timber - what have we got ourselves in for!!.

Started by planing off a fairly smooth face and screwing on the largest face plate. At this time there were two of us and we scratched our heads for a while before struggling and lifting it on the lathe.

[Christos]

Would be interesting to see how this pans out.

[Swino]

Day 1

Now sitting on the lathe we decided that we should probably remove the bark. Later we decided that this step probably should have been done prior to lifting it onto the lathe - would had made it easier to lift and saved about 5kg.

[Swino]

Day 1 (Cont'd)

Finally on the lathe - woohoo

You can see in these photos the voids that sucked up all of my superglue :~

Now the fun begins!!

[Sawdust Maker]

I note you got the little lathe out to try this NIP WIP on

I see safety glasses are a must - especially worn on the forehead :doh:

are you going to lop the branches off with a little husky (or some other brand of chainsaw)

PS
just saw the mounted version - reminded me of a Sarich engine
and 3 bottles of superglue - that's probably our weekly grocery bill!

[Swino]

Day 1 (Cont'd)

Roughing gouge #1

Now resembling some close to roundish!! :D

[KevM]

Any particular reason why you didn't take the branches off before mounting on the lathe?

[Swino]

Day 1 (Cont'd)

Roughing Gouge # 2

and still the lathe hasn't been turned on.

[Sawdust Maker]

Ah Ha
put on lathe then use Husky (or McCulloch) :2tsup:

[Swino]

Day 1 (Cont'd)

Reinforcements arrive just in time to jump on the lathe. So we get started roughing in earnest and work out very quickly that it was not as soft as it was a few months ago. Particularly the area where the branches are the going is quite tough. We ended up one person sharpening, one person turning and one person 'directing/resting'.

- Luckily I buy my superglue in bulk - I normally use a lot filling voids on burls I turn.
- We did think about taking the branches off prior to mounting on the lathe but felt that it would be easier to manoeuvre with the branches on initially.

- The idea of this project was to do something that was out of our normal comfort zone and bring some members of our club together for an enjoyable weekend - we too our time and enjoyed debating the rights and wrongs of various techniques.

[Swino]

Day 1 (Cont'd)

Who said two people can't work at the same time :D

The day was coming to the end and we were getting pretty thirsty. By end of day one the outside was pretty much finished and ready for remounting in the morning!!

By this time we were starting to get pretty excited bout the colours that were becoming evident on the outside of the bowl!!

[Swino]

Day 2

Wake up to give the outside a final sand and tidy up the foot then its time to remount.

[Swino]

Day 2 (Cont'd)

The only thing better than one NIP is 3 so out comes the bowl corer and into it with earnest. The coring was pretty slow going with regular stops to clear the shavings.

[Swino]

Day 2 (Cont'd)

First bowl out and into the second.

By this time it was about 1:30 in the afternoon and the project that I initially thought could be completed in one day, then two days, was looking more like a three day affair.

We hit a roadblock when I run out of coring blade with about 20mm to go. The NIP was still too wet for it to snap out. Someone came up with the idea of using an old bandsaw blade to finish the cut - it worked like a dream :2tsup:

[wheelinround]

Now this WiP is going to be fun to follow. I wonder :rolleyes:

[Swino]

Day 2 (Cont'd)

We started ripping out the inside of the bowl and found the going just as difficult as the outside. I think the combination of end grain and turning through knots is a pretty bad combination.

Neil (Dai Sensai) made an appearance at about this time so we put him to work. We had quickly tried 4 bowl gouges and as many scrapers.

We ended up settling on Vermec's Deep Hollower as that seemed to do the best cut deeper down in the bowl.

[Swino]

Day 2 (Cont'd)

Beer O'Clock!!

Quick cleanup - so far 4 garbage bags full of bark / shavings and wrap the piece to stop it drying out too quickly.

I will probably have a look at it during the week but plan on completing it next weekend.

[wheelinround]

Swino what did you do with the cored bowls??

[Swino]

the other bowls are wrapped awaiting more shed time - they will certainly be a lot quicker to finish.

[wheelinround]

Swino thanks will watch with great interest...........have a NIP which is much smaller but can/could possibly do similar.

Just need to find the right team of blokes I suppose :;

[dai sensei]

They guys spent a lot of time debating the best shape, not just for the looks shape wise, but to take advantage of the grain/spalting pattern as well. Didn't help when I arrived day 2 and wanted to open the debate again :U

All the guys need reminding of safety shields, at least I was of some use. All of us had a good time, and there is light at the end of the tunnel, with what looks like a blank with potential to be a real beaut bowl. Can't wait till the Danish Oil is applied to see it in its glory.

[Sawdust Maker]

Looking good

Post 13 - No 1 son came in and had a look and said it looks like ET :p

anyway a more serious question - what chuck are you using?


Wheelin'

Not sure you'd find any blokes in Sydney interested. When are you going away, again?
Bring it around to NZ'ds come the GTG (whenever that is)

[RETIRED]

Just a small point gentlemen.

It is end grain hollowing and an easier and better cut can be achieved by coming from the centre out.:wink:

[wheelinround]

Swino how thin are you going?? Are you after that translucent look ??




Nick not going away for while yet as have a few projects/jobs to sort out.

NZ is having another GtG ?? Point me to the post.

[Swino]

Chuck - VM150

Thanks - will try that.

Wall thickness about 10-12mm but might try for thinner depending on the movement of the timber. Will turn the smaller bowls paper thin.

[Ed Reiss]

Good WIP, Swino :2tsup: ...especially like the pics with the sun shining and green lawn - here in the states winter has been officially here for less than a month and am already sick and tired of snow :roll::D

[artme]

Great WIP Swino and so far the result looks worth the effort!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

[Sawdust Maker]

Re Post 15

Note to self - keep old bandsaw blades, good idea that :2tsup:

also a question re photo 5
is that a stack of pen blanks in the background?

How many? What are you trying to do - corner the market? :wink:

[Swino]

Gettin ready for the Aus Day pen swap :p

[Sawdust Maker]

:rotfl:

I've just checked out the Vicmarc 150 chuck. That is one serious piece of hardware
do you use the tommy bars or the hex key - which is your preference?

[Swino]

They are a beautiful chuck. I have 100's and when looking at getting a larger one there was no comparison when compared to the 120. I use the hex key the majority of the time. I've had it for a few months now and am very impressed.

[artme]

Swino, just wondering if a ring tool would help with the hollowing, or would it be too light??

[Swino]

If I had one I would give it a go but unfortunately I don't. The main problem as I get deeper down into the bowl is the overhang - at it's most about 300mm.

[RETIRED]

Use a longer rest to do what you are doing in post 17 Photo 1. and work from the bottom up in small increments.

[Mrs Woodpecker]

Now this is what I call pure dedication. I did a small NIP bowl years ago, and loved the red pieces through it. Well done boys, and am looking forward to seeing the finished pieces. :2tsup::2tsup:
Cheers,
Shirley

[dai sensei]

Use a longer rest to do what you are doing in post 17 Photo 1. and work from the bottom up in small increments.

Yeh that rest was useless once you got past about 6" in.

Not sure about your bottom up? We did work our way in from the top to get the thickness we wanted, but in small areas cutting from inside to the outside, which I assume is what you mean. We found the outward cut the best, especially once we hit the branch heads. But we didn't have a decent rest, so the overhang became a problem for the bowl gauges, even though they were doing a decent job.

When we swapped to the borrer I started off being pretty agressive with it, holding the borer head almost horizontal, but Todd was worried about the vibration splitting the top edge and the tennon breaking off, so then went more for the diagonal cutter cut.

[RETIRED]

We did work our way in from the top to get the thickness we wanted, but in small areas cutting from inside to the outside, which I assume is what you mean. We found the outward cut the best, especially once we hit the branch heads. But we didn't have a decent rest, so the overhang became a problem for the bowl gauges, Perzactly.

At a pinch I have clamped a piece of steel to the rest to get length.

[Sawdust Maker]

one could probably use a piece of bar and a couple of utilux clips

not sure I'd trust clamps (and probably the utilux clips in such use either) :doh:

PS nip down to Enzo's and get a bigger rest

[simonmags]

That's amazing stuff, so what is the current outside diameter of what will be the largest 'bowl'. I imagine it'll be more like an umbrella stand :)

Keep up the great work.

[tea lady]

Perzactly.

At a pinch I have clamped a piece of steel to the rest to get length.We did that on the one we turned a few years ago at the end of a Turn Around. Might go and surch out the pic. :think:

Found it. :cool: Not clamped even! Just Mul-grips. One's a bit smaller that yours! :C Must get back to finishing it. And the other 2 logs. :doh:
http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachments/f8/119980d1256194565t-nip-green-turned-bowl-wip-nip7.jpg

[dai sensei]

Not clamped even! Just Mul-grips

:o:o

I don't think I would try that :no: The best way to have a piece of steel through your bowl. On this one, the first branch head would brake it loose, the impact between the soft trunk and hard branch head is amazing.

[tea lady]

:o:o

I don't think I would try that :no: The best way to have a piece of steel through your bowl. On this one, the first branch head would brake it loose, the impact between the soft trunk and hard branch head is amazing.Prolly why you need to get the tool closer to the work and not be scraping but using a proper cutting action!. The Mul-grips were so tight I couldn't get them off! (I am only a girl though! :C ) And was looking over my shoullder! Contrary to popular belief he doesn't take risks. Or let other people take them. :)

[artme]

That is plain terrifying!!!:oo::oo::oo::oo:

[RETIRED]

What is terrifying?

[Sawdust Maker]

What is terrifying?

You looking over people's shoulders :q

[tea lady]

That is plain terrifying!!!:oo::oo::oo::oo:Tisn't It was quite solid. :cool: (Having watching on the other hand........:rolleyes::D)

[RETIRED]

You looking over people's shoulders :qSo I have been told.