Hollowing pine boxes

[Tiger]

I needed to make some small boxes for my kids' school and needing to make a number of them, I started to use some radiata pine as I had a bit of it around. I have found it difficult to get anything but a torn and rough surface after using a spindle gouge, even with sharpened scrapers the surface still requires much sanding to get a decent surface so that a finish can be applied. Pine is not the best wood to use for boxes but I am wondering what other woodturners do when they use softwoods to make boxes and what techniques/tools they use to minimise sanding.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I shear scrape to hollow Radiata boxes... and usually need to sand to get a good finish.

Old-growth Radiata can come up quite nicely, but plantation pine (ie. the commercial stuff) tends to be terrible to work. Still, it's a good wood to give a beginner once they start getting cocky with hardwoods... to teach 'em better tool control. :U

If you need to turn a lot of boxes out quickly, cheaply and to reasonable standards, then IMHO you're better off trying to source some KDHW offcuts from a building site, or old Redgum stumps, fence posts, etc. rather than persevere with Radiata.

[Tiger]

Thanks, Skew. Good point about the grades of pine. The stuff I'm using is leftover from building sites and has proved difficult so far.

I tried to shear scrape with a scraper by angling a normal scraper but found that didn't help much either. Are you using a dedicated shear scraper?

[brendan stemp]

If you are turning into end grain you need to work with the grain rather than against it. So, start in the middle and cut or scrape to the outer diameter. This should help get a cleaner cut. Working the other way, from the outer diam to the inside is working against the grain.

[Tiger]

Hi Brendan, I did exactly as you suggested and tried different angles ie flute facing 10 o'clock and then 11 o'clock but didn't get any real improvement.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I tried to shear scrape with a scraper by angling a normal scraper but found that didn't help much either. Are you using a dedicated shear scraper?

No... I use a 5mm square parting tool that I've reground for use as a bedan/scraper. This is nothing special, just my "all purpose" scraper for small(ish) jobs. I find that because it only has a narrow point of contact it leaves a cleaner cut. For me, anyway.

But there's still usually quite a bit of sanding involved, especially in places like the bottom corner inside the box, where you're restricted on how you can use the tool. :C

[robutacion]

I shear scrape to hollow Radiata boxes... and usually need to sand to get a good finish.

Old-growth Radiata can come up quite nicely, but plantation pine (ie. the commercial stuff) tends to be terrible to work. Still, it's a good wood to give a beginner once they start getting cocky with hardwoods... to teach 'em better tool control. :U

If you need to turn a lot of boxes out quickly, cheaply and to reasonable standards, then IMHO you're better off trying to source some KDHW offcuts from a building site, or old Redgum stumps, fence posts, etc. rather than persevere with Radiata.

I couldn't agree more, there is Radiata and Radiata...! Old growth Radiata as Skew has mention, can be a very pleasurable timber to work with, in many aspects, including the finish off the tool. I've got Radiata here that you could nearly finish it without touching the sand paper. Tools like a bedan and others can really cut clean this pine, as one of the reasons is the resin veins found in this type pines, they just shine after the toll runs over it in the "proper way". I've seen this done many times also by turners that never use sanding on they pieces, some of those videos are available on the web, and one particular guy, made the point of only using pines on his demonstrations!

Try Golden Cypress, it cuts like butter and finish smooth as a baby's bottom with very little sanding.:D

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[Tiger]

G'day Robotucian, do you have any links to the videos of pine turners? Anyone who can turn pine and get a good finish off the tool has my respect and admiration!