Gidgee Bowl

[Grumpy John]

This is my first attempt at turning Gidgee and I don't think I've turned a harder timber before, three or four passes and I'm back at the grinder for a touch up :~.



This piece of Georgina Gidgee was kindly given to me by Steck :2tsup:, and I made the mistake of leaving it in the car for about 7 hours while I was at Ern's midweek shed bash. The fine cracks that were barely visible opened up substantially :(( so I emptied about 4 tubes of CA into them and hopefully it will hold together.

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I drilled a 50mm hole with a forstner bit so that I could hold it in a chuck while I turned a tenon. I made sure that the blank was securely clamped while it was being drilled as I value my fingers too much to risk getting them broken by a flying piece of gidgee.

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Starting to take shape now so I'm going to stop and have a think about the order in which to finish it off and the final shape. I've stuffed up too many of my turnings by rushing into it and not thinking things through. This is a really nice piece of timber and I want to make sure I get the most out of it. I was hoping to leave the bark on but a piece came loose, luckily I was able to find it amongst the rubbish on the floor. Should I glue it back on with CA and hope it stays put, leave things as they are or pull all the remaining bark off.

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All comments and suggestions welcome :D.

[RETIRED]

Glue the bark back on with CA and give the rest of the bark a dose as well.

If it stays on you only have 2 edges to sand then. :D

[jefferson]

Grumpy John,

I'm not sure about the order of things, but you definitely do bowls a different way to me. I fix on the flat side with a screw chuck, turn a foot on the other side, then reverse to hollow, then reverse again to take the foot off.

Nice stuff, that gidgee. Make sure you don't over-heat when sanding or it will crack. DAMHIKT.

Good luck with the project.

[Pat]

John, looks like a bit of fun.

Jeff, some times I use a faceplate, sometimes a screw chuck and sometimes a chuck in expansion mode. Mainly a faceplate with the appropriate length 14g screws. It depends on the size of the piece, ufo capability and the phase of the moon:U

[Grumpy John]

Grumpy John,

I'm not sure about the order of things, but you definitely do bowls a different way to me. I fix on the flat side with a screw chuck, turn a foot on the other side, then reverse to hollow, then reverse again to take the foot off.

Nice stuff, that gidgee. Make sure you don't over-heat when sanding or it will crack. DAMHIKT.

Good luck with the project.

As far as I can tell I'm doing things in the same order as you would Jeff.

Step 1. Instead of a screw chuck I'm using pin jaws as the flat edge is/was not parallel to the bark edge. I did it this way to get a "balanced" look. Photos 1 - 4.
Step 2. Shape outside of bowl and turn a foot/spigot. Photos 5 - 7.

I haven't finished step 2 yet. As I explained I'm "pondering my options" as to shape and method of holding the bowl when it comes time to remove the spigot.

Thanks for the heads up re. overheating.

[Grumpy John]

Glue the bark back on with CA and give the rest of the bark a dose as well.
Will do.
If it stays on you only have 2 edges to sand then. :D
That was my intention :rolleyes:.

:2tsup:

[Nai84]

Hey Grumpy John

I must say good save so far:2tsup: cant wait to see the finished piece :2tsup:

Nai

[Jim Carroll]

John another good way with peices like this is to turn them between centres. Spur drive and live centre.

This way you can fiddle with the balance and shape to get the best out of the peice.

You can still turn the spigot as you are doing then turn around and hollow as to what you want, it can help get the edge level as well.

When using a faceplate, or drilling a hole or woodscrew can dictate the shape too much and lose too much

Somtimes need a bit of fudge factor to get it right.

[jefferson]

Great advice, Jim. :2tsup:

What sort of spur drive are you recommending? I probably need one. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Particularly so for burls where there's no grain to grab if you know what I mean.

[Pat]

A Vermec (http://vermec.tripod.com/PDFs/chuckdrivedog.pdf) Chuck Drive Dog . . .

Stebcentres (http://www.robert-sorby.co.uk/) . . .

[Jim Carroll]

As pat said the the vermec adjustable centres work well . steb centres are ok but you have to make sure it gets some form of purchase. Must be a proper steb centre which has a double cut edge, the asian varieties are only single cut and dont hold very well.

A normal spur drive with a short centre pin works well as you have to make sure the spurs dig in.

A 2 spur drive works really well.


The main thing is very good tailstock pressure and light cuts. You do not want to force it out of position.

[Grumpy John]

Found this piece of information on Georgina Gidgee, makes you wonder what other poisons are contained in some of the timbers we turn :o :o :o

*"Georgina Gidgee, also known as Acacia Georginae is the only tree of any size that occurs in the park’s dune system. This tree species grows throughout the Georgina Basin – hence it’s name Georgina Gidgee. The tree contains the chemicals sodium fluro-acetate which is the active constituent in the poison 1080 – a poison commonly used to control feral animals. Another similar tree although occurring to the east of the park boundary in the Eyre Creek channels is the Coolibah Eucalyptus (Coolabah)."

My new turning outfit :rolleyes:.
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*Source (http://www.exploroz.com/Places/77799/QLD/Georgina_Gidgee_Interdunes,_QAA_Line.aspx)

[RETIRED]

No face shield.:D

[rsser]

A water soluble salt of very high mammalian toxicity
which is used mainly as a rodenticide. It is rapidly absorbed from the
gastrointestinal tract but is not readily absorbed through the intact
skin.

So just keep the gob shut GJ :D

[Grumpy John]

.................................
So just keep the gob shut GJ :D


And the nose :?.

[rsser]

Just to add ...

+1 to Jeff's advice about keeping the bowl cool when you're sanding. I've had checking at the last moment with Gidgee cos it got too hot in all likelihood.

Filling the gaps: you are repeatedly squirting and filling? Should be OK.

Blank checking: yes, the one big blank of this I had from a kind forum member checked from the off. It was dry and I assumed the EMC diff between origin and my place meant it had more drying to do.

Spur drives: agree with Jim that a cheap 2 spur drive is a good option. At least it can't unwind if you reverse turn (insert red face here). But many wood species have so much bark and sapwood that the two spurs aren't enough to hold the piece without spinning.

Re CAing the bark on: yes it's good insurance but there can be a downside. The CA darkens the bark a lot and with some timbers the eye goes there first; and the bark looks kind of false. Just my 2c worth of aesthetics. With my turning I run a very thin line of CA along the bark/wood join and see how that goes. Of course, where the wood is dark, as with Gidgee, the contrast diff is not that great.

Gidgee finishes beautifully. Sand down to at least 1200g. Well before then you're polishing the wood anyway.

HTH

Added: nose? Gotton wool.

[Ed Reiss]

too late now John...ya' shoulda' got the suit earlier :gaah: