Thread: Siamese Vase

G'day
Since I showed one of these at Turnfest ,I thought had better explain how it's made.
Years ago I saw a picture of a double headed vase in a book , but it was obvious that a hole had been bored in the body of the vase and another neck glued in and I wondered if there might be a better way to make it .
About 12 months ago I was out dog walking , where I seem to do most of my heavy thinking , when it came to me .
You need a bit of timber with reasonably straight and prominent grain , in this case camphor laurel, about 180mm long and 70mm square . With the edgegrain uppermost , I made a cut on the bandsaw down almost to where the necks meet the body . I then drove a chisel into the sawcut and split the block in two . I reasoned that the split joint would be less obvious than a saw cut when rejoined .I then mounted each half between centres and turned the the neck parts . I then cut a tennon on the bottom end so's I could mount in a chuck , then bored out the necks.I then glued the two halves back together . When the glue had set , I cut off the tennons on the table saw, then hotmelt glued a new tennon in the centre
and turned the body , then a bit of hand sanding to blend the necks into the body.
I then thought I could push this further . This time I mounted each half by their diagonaly opposite corners in an attempt to get the necks to splay out but it made very little difference.
Next attempt , after splitting into the two halves,I glued a bit of timber about 30mm thick , 70mm wide and about 80mm long on to the base end of each half wih the excess projecting beyond the split edge . I was then able to mount each piece diagonaly with the base mounting point well out in space . I was then able to turn the necks and cut a tennon on the scrap so's I could bore the necks out . I then cut off the tempory mountings and glued the two halves back together and finish as above .
One problem I experienced , was that the glue joint crept after a few days and I had to resand the body .
Some say I have too much time on my hands.
Ted