My Recent Bamboo Turnings.

[Sturdee]

Every year my club, Koonung Woodturning Guild in Blackburn, hold an all day demo where they invite well known turners to demonstrate with other club's invited if there are places left. Since I became a member I've seen Ken Wraight, Brendan Stemp, Andrew Potocnik demonstrate and this year the demonstrator was Stephen Hughes.

From each of these demo days I learn a lot and this year was no exception. Stephen demonstrated how to turn a winged box out of bamboo, going through the steps of cutting the bamboo, laminating them and then to turn the box. This inspired me to obtain some bamboo sheets and try turning it.

I used two types of bamboo, which comes in large sheets of 5 mm thick, one light and the other darker, to give a nice pattern and laminated a blank and turned a winged bowl. It has a sweet smell and is nice to turn.

Here are some photos showing the side on, top and bottom views.

295409 and 295410 and 295411

I enjoyed doing it and to make sure it wasn't a fluke I made a second one as well. :U


Enjoy,

Peter.

[Sturdee]

In preparing the blanks I partly shaped the wings on the band saw and I used the cut outs to make a shallow dish


295412 and 295413



and glued two together to make a small trinkets holder.


295414 and 295415


Peter.

[Sturdee]

Seeing that I've got a fair bit of the bamboo I laminated squares together and turned a square dish. The photos show the side, top and bottom views. To give strengths to the dish I reversed direction of the grain as I glued them together which gives a nice cross grain pattern.


295416 and 295417 and 295418


Peter.

[Sturdee]

Finally I made a square bowl using a similar method.

295419 and 295420 and 295421


I have quite a few blanks already made up for different shapes as I find time. I really enjoy using some of the more different materials.


Enjoy,

Peter.

[Ad de Crom]

Peter, you're a man after my heart, seek new challenges.
It is surprising to see what you can do with bamboo I find it very beautiful.
Hats off to you!
Het ga je goed.
Groeten, Ad :2tsup::2tsup:

[dai sensei]

Cool :cool:

[Nanigai]

Nice work Peter, thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Ian

[Big Shed]

Peter, some nice designs there, well turned and well finished.:2tsup:

Couple of questions if I may.

Where are the bamboo sheets available from and how much are they?

What glue do you use?

[Sturdee]

Fred,


I got the sheets from the Importer Leto Bamboo (http://www.letobamboo.com/index.html) in Mulgrave. The sheets are 1200 * 2400 mm and for contrast you need two. Not sure what the actual cost is for them as I managed to buy the equivalent of the two sheets in a number of pieces for about half price which was $ 70. Not bad seeing the number of items that can be made from it.

For glue I prefer to use Titebond 2 pva glue. It is a good glue and it's incredibly cheap to buy at Masters. They sell an american gallon container (approx 3.8 litres) for about $ 20. I bought one when Masters first opened and am only about half way through even with the cutting boards I made.

Peter.

[turnerted]

They look great.After seeing Steven's demo at Turnfest I wanted to try this too but could not find a source in Sydney. The only little sample bit I managed to get had milled groves on one side which would make it a pain to glue up.
Ted

[Christos]

Quite an interest array of items you have produced.

[Big Shed]

Fred,


I got the sheets from the Importer Leto Bamboo (http://www.letobamboo.com/index.html) in Mulgrave. The sheets are 1200 * 2400 mm and for contrast you need two. Not sure what the actual cost is for them as I managed to buy the equivalent of the two sheets in a number of pieces for about half price which was $ 70. Not bad seeing the number of items that can be made from it.

For glue I prefer to use Titebond 2 pva glue. It is a good glue and it's incredibly cheap to buy at Masters. They sell an american gallon container (approx 3.8 litres) for about $ 20. I bought one when Masters first opened and am only about half way through even with the cutting boards I made.

Peter.

Thanks for that information Peter, I can see a trip to Melbourne coming up:2tsup:

[artme]

Nice work all round Peter!! I particularly like the winged bowl!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

Tell me, does the material tend to shred or splinter as you turn it??

[Sturdee]

Nice work all round Peter!! I particularly like the winged bowl!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

Tell me, does the material tend to shred or splinter as you turn it??

Thanks for your comments.


It doesn't shred or splinter when turning or sanding but it does leave a rough edge when cutting across the grain, even with a 80 teeth 10" blade on the TS. Maybe because the bamboo is harvested and then made into a ply type sheet finish and all the fibers are aligned one way.

Peter.

[Sturdee]

Didn't have anything planned for yesterday, so as you do, I went to the workshop and did some more turning.

The first item is another variation of the 4 sided bowl with the four sides in the middle. Similar finish to the other bamboo turnings, being 2 coats of Livos oil followed with waxing. Again the lamination's are done cross ways to give it more strength.

Here are the photos showing the top, side and bottom views.



296317 and 296318

296319

Enjoy,

Peter.

[Sturdee]

This V shaped bowl started out to be something different but I tried to make the wings too thin and alas a design change was needed so it morphed into a V shaped bowl. :U

The thickness of the walls is about the best this kind of material will allow me to do. At least I'm learning the limitations this kind of turning imposes.

Nevertheless I'm happy with the final shape. Lamination and finish as the others.

Here are the photos showing the top, side and bottom views.

296320 and 296321


296322


Enjoy,


Peter.