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tea lady
27th June 2008, 12:40 AM
Poking round on the web (as you do.:rolleyes:) and found these interesting pieces. His other work (As in, ordinary round stuff)looks very nice as well.
http://www.alstirt.com/Pages/SquareGallery.htm
The photo of the guy on his little page makes me wonder if he grew his beard to keep the dust out of his face shield. (Is this why you have grown a beard ? :D)

How do you think he has done the texturing? Some hand carved? Chattered?

Chipman
27th June 2008, 01:12 AM
Hi Tea Lady,

I don't know how he did the texturing, but I am wondering if you have tried turning anything square?

I have only tried it once (recently) with a square of huon pine...quite a scary experience but I got it down to about 3mm thick... when i work out how to put the finish on, I can post a pic. I tried polyurethane on some huon pine once but it took for ever to dry due to the oils in the wood. I think I will try washing it off with acetone or something first.

Thanks for the link,

Chipman:)

tea lady
27th June 2008, 01:39 AM
I have tried a few square pieces. Can't work out how to sand the corners properly. (But I am only new to this wood stuff) I thought the texturing might be a way to hide the unsanded corners.:rolleyes: Prolly not. Prolly just as tricky as everything else.:p:doh:

I did end up finishing a piece with polly because I was wondering how I would sand and burnish any wax finish. But I am hatching a plan to attach windcheater material to my mouse sander. The fluffy side should stick to the Velcro plate. Will try to do the U'beauts EEE thing over tung oil. Worked real well on round stuff. 'Twill be tomorrows 'speriment.

Cliff Rogers
27th June 2008, 09:25 AM
G'day.

One way to do square stuff safely is to glue sacrificial pieces on the outside, turn it round, sand & finish it & the cut the sacrificial pieces off & sand & finish the cut edges.

The texturing looks like it has been done with a small arbotec with the lathe running.

robyn2839
27th June 2008, 09:49 AM
why doesn,t the guy buy a bandsaw? then he wouldn,t have to make square items,.........bob

tea lady
27th June 2008, 10:00 AM
G'day.

One way to do square stuff safely is to glue sacrificial pieces on the outside, turn it round, sand & finish it & the cut the sacrificial pieces off & sand & finish the cut edges. Yes. But somehow it seems like cheating. And the teacher at my turning club was showing me one he did that he bu&&%# up doing the last cut on the bandsaw.:rolleyes: Always some way to be found to bu*^$#r something up I guess.

The texturing looks like it has been done with a small arbotec with the lathe running. But what about the sides of the thicker square ones?


why doesn,t the guy buy a bandsaw? then he wouldn,t have to make square items,.........bobHe does round things too silly:p

wheelinround
27th June 2008, 12:19 PM
inspirational Tea Lady

next you'll be growing a beard too

tea lady
27th June 2008, 04:09 PM
inspirational Tea Lady

next you'll be growing a beard too

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuum! Best i can do is a Santa costume!:santa:

Chipman
27th June 2008, 08:34 PM
OK Tea Lady, you inspired me to finish my square turning Today....It has been ready to do since Easter!

(Other reason is I am going to Benalla tomorrow and it is a gift for my sister in law)

I washed the Huon pine down with acetone and then sprayed it with Stylwood 35% gloss lacquer then polished it with wax. It was turned from a 140 x 140 x 30 piece of birdseye huon pine.

This is my very first attempt at square turning!

Regards,

Chipman:)

robyn2839
27th June 2008, 08:43 PM
and here are my two, sassy bowl and leopard wood plate, the plate is 6ml at its thickest and less than a mill at its thinnest( sort of like a spinning razorblade when turning it , and very hard to sand...........................................bob

weisyboy
27th June 2008, 09:43 PM
i tried this a coupla times but was having trouble stoping the corners from breaking out.

this has inspred me to try again.

Chipman
27th June 2008, 09:55 PM
i tried this a coupla times but was having trouble stoping the corners from breaking out.

this has inspred me to try again.


Hi Carl, the safest way is to follow what Cliff says, gluing sacrificial strips on the edge. Then you are actually turning round and you can trim it back to square once finished.

I suspect that turning square is only ever successful with close grained timber such as huon pine, sassafras etc.

I know it was a scary project for me and certainly developed a a very gentle approach to the whole thing, especially the sanding... never mind knocking the corners off just don't lose a bunch of fingers in the sanding!

Cheers,
Chipman

and yes I still have 8 fingers and 2 thumbs although both of them are on the left hand sometimes!!!!!:D

Cliff Rogers
27th June 2008, 11:24 PM
Chipman, I like yours a lot but for one thing.... personal taste only., I'd have made the foot a bit smaller.
Rule of thumb, foot should be 1/3 diameter. :wink:

Chipman
28th June 2008, 12:13 AM
Chipman, I like yours a lot but for one thing.... personal taste only., I'd have made the foot a bit smaller.
Rule of thumb, foot should be 1/3 diameter. :wink:


Thanks cliff... all advice gratefully received...

I think I would have to agree with you and it did end up a little wider than I planned. One of the reasons was to have the foot in the "corner" where the wood was a little thicker as I was trying to extract maximum depth from the thin piece of wood.

One thing for sure it is nice and stable!

Cheers,

Chipman:)

tea lady
28th June 2008, 12:17 AM
Righto then.. I'll have to photograph my effort now. But you will all have to wait till tomorrow.:rolleyes:

Chipman
28th June 2008, 12:24 AM
Righto then.. I'll have to photograph my effort now. But you will all have to wait till tomorrow.:rolleyes:


We'll be waiting.....

so Tea lady woodturning is about things going round but you have got us all going square!!!!:D

What shape next? who is doing pentagon, hexagon, heptagon.....

Chipman:)

wheelinround
28th June 2008, 10:08 AM
Bob & Chipman they both look great :2tsup:

As for rule of thumb who's thumb :doh:

I have hexagonal piece to do but it has major cracks I have to fill first :roll: resin will go in it today hopefully

Manuka Jock
28th June 2008, 01:46 PM
This is my first sucessfull square turnning .
Oak , about 7 inches across .

Stryker223
28th June 2008, 04:18 PM
This is amazing!!!
The turnings you folks have shown here are gorgeous!!!
Till I read this thread, I'd never heard of square turning!
Now that I've seen the beautiful work you have done, I'm going have to try it myself!!!
I do have a question though.
Once you've turned the face/top of the piece, how do you mount it on the lathe?

Manuka Jock
28th June 2008, 05:01 PM
This is amazing!!!
I do have a question though.
Once you've turned the face/top of the piece, how do you mount it on the lathe?
Stryker .
the square pieces are turned in the same manner as any bowl or platter .
Turn the back , and then the front :)

tea lady
28th June 2008, 06:19 PM
This is amazing!!!
The turnings you folks have shown here are gorgeous!!!
Till I read this thread, I'd never heard of square turning!
Now that I've seen the beautiful work you have done, I'm going have to try it myself!!!
I do have a question though.
Once you've turned the face/top of the piece, how do you mount it on the lathe?

There is a series of turning a square bowl on You tube. Here 'tis
YouTube - Square Edge Bowl Turning 1

After looking at that I thought I'd give it a go with a bit of the ol' Crapiata. Didn't turn out too badly. Tried a few others. But you'll still have to wait for pics. No time today.:rolleyes:

rsser
28th June 2008, 06:33 PM
Robyn, very nicely done I reckon.

TL, rummage around on The Woodworking Channel ( 'Misc' IIRC ) for Vic Wood's vid. Will show you what Cliff is talking about and more besides.

This is a mini eg of his winged lidded bowls. Seen vids of these done in much larger mode with scrapers in cutting mode rubbing the bevel, from the 80s. Fantastic work.

Chipman
28th June 2008, 08:41 PM
Thnks for the videos Tea lady

I reckon you must have a super light touch if you can do that with radiata pine, especially if it is thin.
If you want to see Vic Woods work, visit his home page at http://www.ubeaut.com.au/vw.htm

Looking forward to the pics,

Chipman:)

Chipman
28th June 2008, 08:45 PM
This is my first sucessfull square turnning .
Oak , about 7 inches across .


Looking really nice Manuka Jock.

Did you use a square piece or a little more rectangular? The "wings" across one diagonal appear higher than the other (could be just the way it is photographed) Non-the-less I think it looks quite nice that way. I must experiment a bit with it myself.


Cheers,

Chipman:)

Chipman
28th June 2008, 08:49 PM
Chipman, I like yours a lot but for one thing.... personal taste only., I'd have made the foot a bit smaller.
Rule of thumb, foot should be 1/3 diameter. :wink:

I actually measured it today and guess what? It is one third diameter across the diagonal so I guess it depends what you take as your reference. I suspect mine atleast would be quite unstable if 1/3 acroos the parallel sides.

Mind you I never measured it when I was turning it... I just did it where it looked OK


Cheers,

Chimpman:)

joe greiner
28th June 2008, 10:16 PM
Once you've turned the face/top of the piece, how do you mount it on the lathe?

Same as a NE bowl, Michael: http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=74837

Where in "florida panhandle" are you? If you're close enough on Tuesday evening, c'mon over: http://n-fl-woodturners.org/

Joe

Manuka Jock
28th June 2008, 10:22 PM
Looking really nice Manuka Jock.

Did you use a square piece or a little more rectangular? The "wings" across one diagonal appear higher than the other (could be just the way it is photographed) Non-the-less I think it looks quite nice that way. I must experiment a bit with it myself.


Cheers,

Chipman:)

It will be the low camera position , that gives it that look , the blank was square .
It was finished like this to start with , but looked too chunky , so I re-chucked it to the winged look

Stryker223
29th June 2008, 11:28 AM
Thank you so much for the videos Tea Lady!!!!!!
They got me so fired up I went out in the shop/garage, around 3am and gave square turning a try! :)
Needless to say it isn't in the same ball park as the work you folks are doing but I sure learned a lot doing it! It's only about 3" square, lol. I thought that was a good size to learn on. I don't remember what the wood is but it's hard as a rock! It aint nothing special but I'm happy with it! :D Heres a couple pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/L6steel/misc/squarebasevessel.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/L6steel/misc/squarebasevessel2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/L6steel/misc/squarebasevessel3.jpg

Manuka Jock
29th June 2008, 04:09 PM
Way to go Stryker :2tsup:
I like it upside down too ,
a square , winged platter on a pedestal :D

Anne Munro
29th June 2008, 08:13 PM
Hi Tea Lady
What did you think of Wantirna trash and treasure today or didn't you go?
Anne

tea lady
29th June 2008, 10:22 PM
Hi Tea Lady
What did you think of Wantirna trash and treasure today or didn't you go?
Anne
No!!! Didn't go. Went swimming with a small boy a share my house with.:rolleyes: was fun.:2tsup: Stay posted for pics. (f wood turning, not swimming.:rolleyes:) Just need to do battle with 'puter::crash:

tea lady
29th June 2008, 11:50 PM
I have returned from battle. Will get a handle on this computer stuff yet. Trouble is I thought I was doing Woodwork!!!:rolleyes:

So here are my square efforts. Be gentle with me as I have only just reached double figures with the number of things I have turned.:rolleyes:

First three pics are the Radiatta pine pieces. I just had a go with that so I did not mind making a complete mess of them. Small one was made out of a bit of wood so old it smelt like a shed when it was turned rather than pine resin like the next one.:rolleyes: (As you can see, a bit "wormy " too.:cool:) Close up of the corner just so you can see how bad they really are.:D and underneith, just so you can really be sure. Small one finished in spray polly satin varnish jusy to see what it looked like. Bigger one has no finish on yet, but I do like its knots.

Last two I'm a bit more proud of. A bit of Pacific Kauri from Rowie. (Thanks.:2tsup:) Very nice to turn. (Can I have all the rest of it Rowie?:rolleyes:) And with one of my cups. Finish is still not that great. Hand sanding needed I guess.:C (Finished with Organoil Har burnishing oil.)

So what do ya reckon?:B

Cliff Rogers
30th June 2008, 12:03 AM
....So what do ya reckon?:B
:2tsup:

Chipman
30th June 2008, 12:05 AM
Tea Lady,

I like the fourth one.:2tsup: It looks really nice. As for the radiata pine/other pine I am amazed that you could even do that much!:oo: Pine is too soft and splits easily. You are much better off using a very tight/close grained timber.

Just out of interest, is that your pottery on the link below your name? It is really quite stunning.

Have fun with the turning... square or round!

Chipman:)

Stryker223
30th June 2008, 07:40 AM
Beautiful turnings Tea Lady!!!!
They flow so nicely, they look like they were molded in the hand.
Not hard and edgy.

Chipman
30th June 2008, 09:06 AM
I have sometimes seen square turnings where three corners rise up but one corner goes down?

Does anyone know how they turn them?


Regards,

Chipman:)

joe greiner
30th June 2008, 08:47 PM
I have sometimes seen square turnings where three corners rise up but one corner goes down?

Does anyone know how they turn them?


Regards,

Chipman:)

Generally, turn flat and thin. Then soak the corners in boiling water for a few minutes. Press the corners to the desired shape, preferably in a jig. The same technique is used to distort hat turnings to fit the user. For an extreme example of possibilities, Google ["impossible puzzle"] within WWF, around post #79 & 80, IIRC.

Joe

tea lady
30th June 2008, 08:58 PM
Tea Lady,

I like the fourth one.:2tsup: It looks really nice. As for the radiata pine/other pine I am amazed that you could even do that much!:oo: Pine is too soft and splits easily. You are much better off using a very tight/close grained timber. I was only mucking round and used pine so I didn't mind having a complete wreck. The Pacific Kauri was much better to turn.:rolleyes:

Just out of interest, is that your pottery on the link below your name? It is really quite stunning. Yes:B

Have fun with the turning... square or round!

Chipman:)On wards and upwards.:2tsup: