More questions

[Oiliver]

A few more of my questions I will just post here for now:
1) Has anyone ever turned Avocado, Casimaroa or Causerina (similar to she-oak) wood, and if so did they meet much success with it?
2) I knocked some small burl type things of a Causerina tree yesterday, about 100x70x60 bark still on. (see picture). How do I go about preparing them, and will they still be turnable despite being so small. If so, suggestions on what they can be made into.
3) What is the most important chisel to buy/have? I have a full set of cheapo chisels, but the blunt very quickly, and to be frank are pretty horendous. So I guess I am asking, which chisel should I save up for and purchase first? Any notorious brands to shy away from? (This is probably covered in the forums somewhere, but I'm still working my way through all the wonderful posts).
4) Does anyone have any tips on guessing the centre of balance on a piece which has not been cut round. For example if I was to put that piece of olive straight onto my faceplate, is there any hint on how to know where to centre it? Or do I just guess and cope with any jumping?

:)

[artme]

Ok. Some Casuarinas turn very well. (In fact most trees referred to as Casuarina are actually Alocasuarinas). No matter. The main problem is drying the green timber. I have had best results by cutting trunk sections through the middle and leaving them in water for a couple pf weeks before putting them aside to dry in a not too dry atmosphere,

The pieces I have turned were very easy to work. They had a lovely amber to dark amber colour and rhe medullary rays were a good feature.

Your "burls" may not have a substantial amount of sound timber to work with but let them dry, peel off, or knock off as much bark as possible, mount them and have a go. You have nothing to lose.

As for chisels it's a matter of getting what you pay for. I like HHenry Taylor, Hamlet and P&N (P@N) tools. If you buy them unhandled they are cheaper and you can get some turning in by turning your own handles.Th tools to stay away from are the el cheapo Chinese tools. "Medalist" brand springs to mind.

As for out of round pieces you should try to get them as round as possible by drawing a circle on the piece and cutting wood off to get close conformity to the circle. Cutting pieces off on aa table sawworks, plning works. Better still find a bandsaw and cut the circlar shape with that. As a last resort do as you suggest BUT make sure the piece is anchored securly and start at a low speed. As you get towards round you can increase the speed.

Good luck!!

[Oiliver]

Some great answers, thankyou artme!

I had been confused about the Casuarinas, because I did try and do some of my own research, but the information I found seemed quite conflicting. Now that you say that there are several different things that are refered to as Casuarina, it makes a bit more sense. The belt of trees that I am thinking of getting wood from has quite pale wood in its branches though, so when you talk about them being amber, is that after they have been finished with wax/oil, or is this colour mainly present in the trunk of the tree or something? I will have a play around with a few small green branches and see what happens. :)

Yeah, I don't have high hopes for them, but I thought I may as well not pass up the oppurtunity! I will follow that process, thanks.

Thanks for the tip about unhandled chisels :2tsup: What if I was to buy chisels individually, what should I get first? A gouge, a skew?

I will keep that in mind and do my best with the table saw; oh how I wish I had a bandsaw! And good to know about starting at low speeds, that will be helpful.

Thankyou very much for all that!

Anyone ever done anything with avocado or casimiroa wood? I have access to a lot of green trunks of both, and was wondering if I should try some out.

[nalmo]

Seeing you're just starting out, any wood you have access to should be used - it's all practice! You can rough them out and set them aside to dry for a few months while you hone your skills on other pieces.

As for the first gouges to buy, it depends on what you want to be turning. If it's bowls, I'd suggest a 12mm bowl gouge - large enough to use on your first cuts and will do your finishing cuts (until you can get a smaller gouge).

[Oiliver]

Yes, very true about the practice, I sure need it =D Although I am definitely getting better!

I went and got one of the casimiroa logs- about as tall as me and almost as heavy- this thing is pretty wet! But we will see how it goes. And also grabbed a few bits of avocado wood, but looking at the old pieces lying about the place they seem to crack pretty heavily.

Yep, at this stage the bowls and boxes interest me the most, so I will definitely get a decent bowl gouge when I can then!

Another two questions:


What do you all use to part with? I seem to be getting pretty poor results with my awful parting tool, so I have instead been trying to use a little hacksaw while the lathe turns. Should a parting tool be good enough to get right through a piece without over-heating or taking massive amounts of material off?
I am begining my first ever box :2tsup: I am aware that to get a nice tight fit with the lid, you have to not only have the sides nice and straight, but you have to be pretty easy on the sandpaper. Is it recommended to leave a small amount of extra material before sanding as you expect some to come off? Or do you just get it to fit tight and then be very sparing with the paper?

Thanks everyone for indulging my beginners questions, it is very kind of you all :)
-Oliver

[artme]

Agree with Nalmo, a bowl gouge is a great starting chisel as you can do both bowl and spindle work with it.

BBranches are not really a good source of turning wood as the stresses in the wood make them prone to splitting. However you can get lucky!

There are dozens of Casuarinas and Alocasuarina species. Identifying them is almost a full time occupation!! The timber I have turned has always been amber to begin with. A good finish simply enhances this and highlights the figure in the grain. U-Beaut Shellawax is the the ideal finish for these in my opinion.

[artme]

Agree with Nalmo, a bowl gouge is a great starting chisel as you can do both bowl and spindle work with it.

BBranches are not really a good source of turning wood as the stresses in the wood make them prone to splitting. However you can get lucky!

There are dozens of Casuarinas and Alocasuarina species. Identifying them is almost a full time occupation!! The timber I have turned has always been amber to begin with. A good finish simply enhances this and highlights the figure in the grain. U-Beaut Shellawax is the the ideal finish for these in my opinion.

[nalmo]

Another tool I found useful when starting out was a home made Oland tool (plenty of links on the net, just Google it). Cheap and easy to make, easy to sharpen, easy to use and you can get to understand how different tools cut just by varying the angle of approach to the wood.

[TTIT]

A few more of my questions I will just post here for now:
1) Has anyone ever turned Avocado, ....................Avocado is about the same to work as Jacaranda - soft but manageable - and with a nicer colour to it...

[Oiliver]

Thanks everyone :) Well the rubber on my drive belt had perished so much it snapped yesterday :( Damn second hand goods! So looks like I will be going shopping soon, so I will see if any of the shops I go to have a nice wee 12-13mm bowl gouge waitng for me :)
If not I will try grab some HSS and hollow bar and try make my own Oland. I have never done something like that before so it will probably be awful, but oh well, it's all part of the fun of learning :D

Thanks TTIT! I had not been able to find anything on turned avocado, so that is really helpful. If it is quite soft, I might wait til I have a few better chisels that will actually be sharp enough to get a decen cut. That piece is very pretty, has the black portion been ebonized? It all has a nice lustre :)

[TTIT]

.................... That piece is very pretty, has the black portion been ebonized? It all has a nice lustre :)I made that piece several years ago so it would have been before I got my pyrography tools, in which case it would have been textured with the Dremel and blackened with Feast-Watson black prooftint - nowadays I'd use the pyro tools to get that effect. I think the finish was wipe-on poly :think:

[phillywood]

Oiliver,
I looked at your profile and noticed that you are a student so I gather you would be on a limited budget to work with woodworking. I am in USA and don't know very much about Australian or NZ woods, however, I suggest that you find wood that are local to you and they grow like weed around you what ever that may be. I know God has blessed you guys with a large variety of species around you because of the location. the reason is that the wood that you'll find would not give you too much hard time because of the climate. It is already understand your weather, therefore it stays more stable. then the rule of thumb is figure out what you want to do, Bowl or spindle. I you are going for bowl then go on line on you tube and search for how to find timbers for turning bowl. when you go cutting it for now just remember to git rid of the pith first, then figure out what the diameter of your log is and cut that diameter plus 6" extra ( you need to convert that to cm) that gives you enough on both end of the log to waste if it splits or checks on you. For now try to stay away from woods that others tell you are more challenging to work with like being too hard or too punky so your experience will grow fast. Then you need to practice whenever you can with different cuts and different tools. Don't worry about making anything in particular, just make shavings, as you get better you'll let your inter instinct guide you to shapes. When you think you are comfortable with handling tools then try to copy someone else's work and learn how your hands will guide the tool. YouTube is your friend and you can watch numerous videos on line. but, stop and don't get carried away with it try few videos and then go and try to emulate what you saw.

As for the tools try to get a set of bowl roughing gouge(if you are going to do bowls) parting tool, scraper, bowl gouge it self. If you are doing the spindle then you want spindle roughing gouge and then common bevel spindle gouge and skew and parting tool.
You are going to need a Chuck for bowls otherwise it'll be harder for you to learn.
the best thing is to find a local wood turning club and find someone to mentor you so they can help you to get the feel of this.
Good luck.

[Oiliver]

TTIT; It worked very well! You say it is a prooftint- does that mean if it had not been textured you would still be able to see the grain and patterns of the wood?

Phillywood; Yes you are right, a very limited budget haha. There are a few woods that I would be able to harvest in that way but unfortunately they are all fairly small in diameter. The nice big hardwood beautiful timber trees are protected under law in just about every place, so they are not really available. I am lucky that I live on a lifestyle/orchard block, so my parents are often pruning or chopping down this or that. (currently avocado, casimiroa and causerina).
If I have time tomorrow I will go ahead and cut the pith out of my logs :)
Actually watching videos on YouTube is what got me hooked on woodturning in the first place, especially Carl Jacobsen's. They were really great, and made me buy my own lathe!
Yep, good advice- looks like I am going to get a nice bowl gouge first, then a chuck (wish I had one already)! After that I will get the others as I can afford them. And also going to give the Oland a go :)

Not really any clubs around where I live, but I may be able to drop in every now and again to further away ones to try pick up a few hints.

[TTIT]

TTIT; It worked very well! You say it is a prooftint- does that mean if it had not been textured you would still be able to see the grain and patterns of the wood?
..............................................................Depends on how thick you apply it and how you treat it afterwards. Rubbing it back with a cloth while it's still wet shows the grain well and sanding it back lightly after it dries gets some great effects in some timbers.:2tsup:

[Skewturn]

Avocado is about the same to work as Jacaranda - soft but manageable - and with a nicer colour to it...

I like your avocado piece it has a real presence:2tsup:
Cheers happy turning

[Oiliver]

... Rubbing it back with a cloth while it's still wet shows the grain well and sanding it back lightly after it dries gets some great effects in some timbers.
Fantastic, I am awfully keen to try that out! But I must be a good boy and practise my basics first before I get to start playing with everything else :D I will note it down though, for when I reach a stage that I can start trying things like this out :) Thankyou.
(And I agree with Skewturn, very nice!)

[Paul39]

Another two questions:


What do you all use to part with? I seem to be getting pretty poor results with my awful parting tool, so I have instead been trying to use a little hacksaw while the lathe turns. Should a parting tool be good enough to get right through a piece without over-heating or taking massive amounts of material off?
I am begining my first ever box :2tsup: I am aware that to get a nice tight fit with the lid, you have to not only have the sides nice and straight, but you have to be pretty easy on the sandpaper. Is it recommended to leave a small amount of extra material before sanding as you expect some to come off? Or do you just get it to fit tight and then be very sparing with the paper?

Thanks everyone for indulging my beginners questions, it is very kind of you all :)
-Oliver

A parting tool can be made from a sturdy knife. See below. I buy bread knives at at junk stores for 50 cents. I grind the front to taste and then grind off about 3 - 4 mm off the sharp edge so as not to cut myself or make grooves in the tool rest.

Get a catalog of turning tools, or look on the web to see the shape of tools and grind what you need. All except the bowl gouge. I think P & N makes a decent one at a moderate price.

First photo: L to R a "real" parting tool, screwdriver parting tool, bread knife parting tool.

Second photo: Bedan type tools, top scrap steel, bottom an old file someone had made into a wood chisel, I have made many bowls with these. They cut as well as my $139.00 carbide tipped Easy Finisher, but only for a fraction as long.

Third photo: Top view of the Bedan type tools.

I will sometimes start a groove with a parting tool, then use a hacksaw with the lathe turning until it gets down to about an 25mm in diameter, then stop the lathe and put a piece of cardboard on the bed to protect the bowl if it should fall, Then holding the bowl cut a few strokes, turn the bowl, cut, repeat until it is free.

If you are going deep with any parting tool, go down 10 mm, come out and go down beside the first, continue to 20 mm, again make the slot a bit wider, then go deeper. 25mm is about as far as I would go with a bread knife as there is not a lot steel there.

You do not want it to bind and be jerked out of your hand, or to break and fling sharp bits at you.

See photo 4 with screwdriver parting tool. I had lots of waste wood there, so I made lots of room for the fat screw driver.

Do some research about using a faceplate for making bowls. A chuck is very convenient and speeds up the process if you are making lots of bowls, but is not necessary.

One can make a flat place on the curved back side of a halved log, screw it to a faceplate, turn the outside, hollow the inside, sand and finish, part off the bowl and hand finish the bottom.

[mick61]

G`day an industrial type hack saw Blade is what you need for parting off the are about 30mmx2mm and will last a long time.. The standard ones are ok for small stuff but not that rigid so could cause you grief.
Mick