Little Festo
17th January 2009, 08:41 AM
I had a "roughing challenge" with my mate Jeff the other day. I had three medium sized small leafed Fig logs at the front drive way for about six months that need to be worked on. We decided to prep some blanks and rough them before they became too stained with mold etc. They were painted with Borax so there weren't too many borer holes, just a few on one end.
We got sixteen medium to small blanks. Young Jeff had a mishap with one, managed to "damage' the tenon but a bit of glue will fix that. You know what Kiwis are like with big chisels and a few horsepower :U!!
There was quite a bit of spault and some blue also but the pieces will look interesting. The blue/grey approaches a black oe dark grey and can look quite good. Some of the blanks look very promising with interesting colour.
They were painted with a endgrain sealer. The sealer I got this time is quite different from my last lot, it's really quite "pastey" almost like whipped cream in consistency. They were painted inside and out. The fig can be a bit splitty.
Also in the photo are a couple of Red Cedar and a largish She Oak (approx 450mm diameter) roughs. The She Oak was from a neighbour, managed to get almost all of the tree. Most of it was slabbed and the slabs look pretty good. Some splitting but not bad at all, some complete slabs with no splitting at all. (Also slabbed some larger Figs as well and it looks very good too.)
I had a few pieces of the She Oak (Eastern) ready to turn but some cracks were forming so I used the piece, I made the rough from, for some fill on the boundary fence fire break. A lot of my off cuts go there as the slope is quite bad. Any way a 4-5 months back I had to move the block of wood and noticed it wasn't too bad so I took it back to the shed where it got buried in a sawdust pile. I saw it last week and decided I should rough it before it got too damaged. It has displayed quite a lot of spault too and should be a nice piece when finished.
Oh almost forgot, Jeff's roughs are the small stack at the top left but to be fair his finish is better, the Vicmac has a horspower less than the Stubby, I have a bigger gouge AND he's only been turning for about six months.:D
Also included a few photos of a Bunya pine pot I've been working on. It's finally dry enough for finishing. It developed a few cracks that i filled with Ebony shavings and CA glue. I ran out of Ebony so I used some coffee grounds, couldnt tell the difference when finished. It's quite a big piece, about 700mm high and 460mm in diameter. As you can see from the end photo there are some Knots at the bottom, made for a bit of difficulty due to the hardness of the konts. I used the Rolly Munroe to hollow out the deeper section of the pot, worked ok but was a bit of hard work. It was impossible to use a gouge. It's had a few coats of Ubeaut blonde dewaxed shellac and several coats of oil, more oiling then a final buffing with Ubeaut Wax. The inside needs quite a bit of work, still a bit rough.
Hope you all have a great turning week end - Peter
We got sixteen medium to small blanks. Young Jeff had a mishap with one, managed to "damage' the tenon but a bit of glue will fix that. You know what Kiwis are like with big chisels and a few horsepower :U!!
There was quite a bit of spault and some blue also but the pieces will look interesting. The blue/grey approaches a black oe dark grey and can look quite good. Some of the blanks look very promising with interesting colour.
They were painted with a endgrain sealer. The sealer I got this time is quite different from my last lot, it's really quite "pastey" almost like whipped cream in consistency. They were painted inside and out. The fig can be a bit splitty.
Also in the photo are a couple of Red Cedar and a largish She Oak (approx 450mm diameter) roughs. The She Oak was from a neighbour, managed to get almost all of the tree. Most of it was slabbed and the slabs look pretty good. Some splitting but not bad at all, some complete slabs with no splitting at all. (Also slabbed some larger Figs as well and it looks very good too.)
I had a few pieces of the She Oak (Eastern) ready to turn but some cracks were forming so I used the piece, I made the rough from, for some fill on the boundary fence fire break. A lot of my off cuts go there as the slope is quite bad. Any way a 4-5 months back I had to move the block of wood and noticed it wasn't too bad so I took it back to the shed where it got buried in a sawdust pile. I saw it last week and decided I should rough it before it got too damaged. It has displayed quite a lot of spault too and should be a nice piece when finished.
Oh almost forgot, Jeff's roughs are the small stack at the top left but to be fair his finish is better, the Vicmac has a horspower less than the Stubby, I have a bigger gouge AND he's only been turning for about six months.:D
Also included a few photos of a Bunya pine pot I've been working on. It's finally dry enough for finishing. It developed a few cracks that i filled with Ebony shavings and CA glue. I ran out of Ebony so I used some coffee grounds, couldnt tell the difference when finished. It's quite a big piece, about 700mm high and 460mm in diameter. As you can see from the end photo there are some Knots at the bottom, made for a bit of difficulty due to the hardness of the konts. I used the Rolly Munroe to hollow out the deeper section of the pot, worked ok but was a bit of hard work. It was impossible to use a gouge. It's had a few coats of Ubeaut blonde dewaxed shellac and several coats of oil, more oiling then a final buffing with Ubeaut Wax. The inside needs quite a bit of work, still a bit rough.
Hope you all have a great turning week end - Peter