Skew ChiDAMN!!
31st January 2013, 08:36 PM
A couple of years ago I was flicking thru pix of one of our members Art Shows when inspiration hit me. Well... a sense of "I can plagiarise this" anyway. :rolleyes: But I thought I'd try a 'concept piece' to see if what I thought would work would. (And, if all went well, perhaps it could be my next entry into the Woodturning Exhibition.)
So I promptly mounted up a piece of wood and started turning...
Then I went to Canada for a year, came back married, moved interstate, etc., etc., etc. and forgot all about the piece. For two years! Until I went to bring one of my big lathes up North and there, still hanging in the jaws...
:doh:
I've totally forgotten what wood it was; I know it's an Oz native but beyond that... well... To make matters worse it had ovalled & warped significantly, making it impossible to finish the inside properly. It looked reasonable enough; a little rough in spots but I thought I could hand-sand those out. So I to simply reverse-mounted it with Cole Jaws and finished the foot.
To finish the 'concept' I ran a blue wash thru the inside.
That was my second big mistake. I hadn't hand sanded inside anywhere near enough and the blue dye exaggerated the rough spots. :sigh: Definitely not an exhibition piece... not even sellable. I decided to finish it off as a proof of concept anyway.
So, went looking for a nice, pale timber to make the egrets from. Found a garden stake, docked a few inches off... and... the first one turned nicely. Very, very nicely! Things were looking up! :) Dock a few more inches from the stake, turn the second... oh, BUGGER! There was a split in the centre of the wood which I found when nearly finished and turning the legs. (Found by the simple expedient of watching the pieces fly over my shoulder, then the base falling in two when I removed it from the chuck. :rolleyes:)
OK, OK. Dock another piece from the stake and examine it carefully. No obvious crack. Try again and... yup. "Tick-tick-tick... Houston, we have take-off!"
Using the last piece of the stake and several tubes of CA, I finish the 2nd egret. This turned very roughly and had huge, gaping pores and capillaries. Isn't it funny how two pieces from the same stock can be sooooo diffferent? But bugger it. Nuffin' that a little grain sealer won't fix. :rolleyes:
I wanted a bit of ebony for the baby egret, to contrast with it's parents, but seeing as how the rest of the piece wasn't going so well... well, it would've been a waste, wouldn't it? So out came the redgum. I'm actually quite happy with how that 'un turned out.
So, assemble the piece and decide I'm not happy with the poses of the egrets. They're alright, but not what I wanted and I'd had enough of this thing anyway by now. Decided that now I know what changes I need next time, so gave the whole thing a coat Danish.
Even that didn't go to plan; the pale timber of the garden stake browned up quite considerably. Until 'twas almost as dark as the redgum. From one coat!
3rd (or 4th or is it the 10th by now?) mistake... I should've tested how it'd look finished before even choosing the wood, right?
All in all, I consider it a failure in all ways bar one; it does show the idea is workable, if only I'd stop effin' about and do it properly next time. :-
(Dunno why I'm posting the pix... but at least being here on the forums is keeping me away from the disaster area I call my shed! :wink:)
So I promptly mounted up a piece of wood and started turning...
Then I went to Canada for a year, came back married, moved interstate, etc., etc., etc. and forgot all about the piece. For two years! Until I went to bring one of my big lathes up North and there, still hanging in the jaws...
:doh:
I've totally forgotten what wood it was; I know it's an Oz native but beyond that... well... To make matters worse it had ovalled & warped significantly, making it impossible to finish the inside properly. It looked reasonable enough; a little rough in spots but I thought I could hand-sand those out. So I to simply reverse-mounted it with Cole Jaws and finished the foot.
To finish the 'concept' I ran a blue wash thru the inside.
That was my second big mistake. I hadn't hand sanded inside anywhere near enough and the blue dye exaggerated the rough spots. :sigh: Definitely not an exhibition piece... not even sellable. I decided to finish it off as a proof of concept anyway.
So, went looking for a nice, pale timber to make the egrets from. Found a garden stake, docked a few inches off... and... the first one turned nicely. Very, very nicely! Things were looking up! :) Dock a few more inches from the stake, turn the second... oh, BUGGER! There was a split in the centre of the wood which I found when nearly finished and turning the legs. (Found by the simple expedient of watching the pieces fly over my shoulder, then the base falling in two when I removed it from the chuck. :rolleyes:)
OK, OK. Dock another piece from the stake and examine it carefully. No obvious crack. Try again and... yup. "Tick-tick-tick... Houston, we have take-off!"
Using the last piece of the stake and several tubes of CA, I finish the 2nd egret. This turned very roughly and had huge, gaping pores and capillaries. Isn't it funny how two pieces from the same stock can be sooooo diffferent? But bugger it. Nuffin' that a little grain sealer won't fix. :rolleyes:
I wanted a bit of ebony for the baby egret, to contrast with it's parents, but seeing as how the rest of the piece wasn't going so well... well, it would've been a waste, wouldn't it? So out came the redgum. I'm actually quite happy with how that 'un turned out.
So, assemble the piece and decide I'm not happy with the poses of the egrets. They're alright, but not what I wanted and I'd had enough of this thing anyway by now. Decided that now I know what changes I need next time, so gave the whole thing a coat Danish.
Even that didn't go to plan; the pale timber of the garden stake browned up quite considerably. Until 'twas almost as dark as the redgum. From one coat!
3rd (or 4th or is it the 10th by now?) mistake... I should've tested how it'd look finished before even choosing the wood, right?
All in all, I consider it a failure in all ways bar one; it does show the idea is workable, if only I'd stop effin' about and do it properly next time. :-
(Dunno why I'm posting the pix... but at least being here on the forums is keeping me away from the disaster area I call my shed! :wink:)