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adrian
17th June 2004, 01:55 PM
Is it possible to glue offcuts together to make a piece of timber suitable for turning? I have seen it done but is it advisable and how far can you go? It's obvious that it would have to be long grain to long grain but how many pieces and how small.
What are the chances of being hit by a shower of offcuts during the turning of such a piece? ie: has anyone had such a blank come apart?
What type of glue would you use?
Is it possible to mix soft and medium hardwoods for this purpose?
It's a lot of questions but having never been within cooee of a lathe I think I should be forewarned and forearmed before being too adventurous.

redmond
17th June 2004, 09:12 PM
back in school i made two bowls by laminating 3 pieces of wood together so what your proposing is definatly possible. the wood was jarrah and radiata pine so the hardwood softwood really isnt an issue ( well for these two woods anyway) we just glued them together with regular pva and clamped them over the weekend, came back on monday cut the blanks out with a bandsaw and mounted them on a faceplate. they were both finished by rubbing beeswax into the wood with a soft cloth witht the lathe spinning. i made them both in 99 and theyve held up fine for 5 years no cracking splitting.

so yeah go for it i suppose it would be alot cheaper than buying turning blanks.

cya
tom

ps: i just saw how much tearout there is on the big one dont pay me out too hard i was only 13.

Cliff Rogers
17th June 2004, 09:24 PM
G'day.

Do a search on Laminated Turning.

Here's a web page with a sample.....

http://www.u-bild.com/projects-woodturning/

macca2
17th June 2004, 11:43 PM
Adrian..this is a plate I made some time back using short pieces of timber, planed the edges and glued with PVA.

Cheap and effective


Macca

gatiep
18th June 2004, 01:14 AM
It is not a problem turning laminated blanks. I used to use any PVA glue I could lay my hands on but lately I stick to Titbond. Leave it overnight and turn the next day.

Hard and soft wood laminations can cause a bit of strife for the inexperiencedf with the possibility of dig inns. When sanding it is possible for the soft timber to sand more than the hard, which is noticeable while sanding . Sometimes you can feel it when sanding radiata pine. However once off the lathe it is very difficult to see if at all.

Good glue, good clean timber, good joins................make for good turning

Enjoy
Regards
Joe

Barry_White
18th June 2004, 12:38 PM
As a patternmaker I used to glue up patterns both in laminations and segments and over 50 years ago we only had animal glue which went off in the glue pot after about 3 days. And if it was wet humid weather it was worse.

Now I have seen patterns fly apart glued up with animal glue but never with PVA.

I have attached a picture of a laminated segmented pattern to show.

But some time back there was a post on this bulletin board by a woodworker in the states that does laminated segmented bowls and has some downloadable software for setting them out.

Here is his website. http://www.fiddlehead.biz/index.htm

adrian
18th June 2004, 06:21 PM
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback.
I just received my MC900 this afternoon. Heavy sucker. Trying to put it together really let me know that I need some exercise. I figured that since it was about my body weight I shouldn't have a problem lifting it onto the stand but I forgot how long ago it was since I lifted that much.
Finally got it together and sharpened the set of tools I got with it. I put in a 40mm x 40mm piece of scrap pine and turned it into a toothpick. Awesome!!!
It's the first time I've been anywhere near a lathe and damn..... it felt nice.
Your advice has made me a little more comfortable about laminating some scraps but I think I'll go to the Mitre 10 sale tomorrow and buy some 90 x 90 pine to practice on.
By the way, I like the work you guys have done. My budget doesn't run to exotics and burl so laminating is a good way to make some dull wood a little more interesting.