Thread: Silly materials to turn.

good to hear you taking the matter serioulsy.
I recon there may be a real market for turned weird things....not a big one bit a market all the same.

just about every Ice shop will sell you an ice sculpture, made to order and some chefs in the fancy hotels take great pride in their ice, vegitable and butter carvings.


I don't think a watermellon is a viable item, but I recon if you could get a pumpkin to stick to a chuck or baseplate, it would bake vable bowl material.....the hollowing would certainly be easy.

cheers

Looks like watermelon turns out quite well:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/atta...g_2047-alt.jpg

yeh nice try but no cigar.

I was talking to a bloke last night that grows pinapples.

They are a definte goer.

they have a nice firm woody core......expect to get wet though.

Apparantly in the early days of mechanised pinapple processing, turning is exacly how they used to peel them.

Mount em up between centres and straight in with a......."peeling cut".....

Of course plain ordinary apples are a no brainer....I have several devices that either impale or mount aples between centres, peel, core and or cut spirals from apples.

I wonder if a kibab cooker would be considered a lathe, or would be if the speed was increased.

cheers

When you think of the things that have been turned over the centuries - shale, coal, a variety of metals etc etc - it makes wood seem the odd one out.
Cheers,
Jim

COAL...now that is something worth having a go at...from what I understand it polishes up pretty damn fine.

cheers

Now you're onto something. Coal dust is mixed with Resin (circle completed) and cast in moulds to make souvenirs for visitors to our once great coal industry museums.

The moulds have very fine detail so I imagine turning the stuff would work as well.

Originally Posted by soundman

COAL...now that is something worth having a go at...from what I understand it polishes up pretty damn fine.

cheers

I saw a table in England in either Leeds or Sheffield that had been made for an exhibition. It looked just like a normal victorian round top, centre pedestal, three legged breakfast table apart from being a beautiful glossy black.
cheers,
Jim

I have turned a lump of timber from our local open cut mine - thought to be about 15 million years old. Once I got it dry, I found the dust to be very irritating. the item turned didnt stand up to heavy use and dinted rather easily

Originally Posted by Kev Y.

I have turned a lump of timber from our local open cut mine - thought to be about 15 million years old. Once I got it dry, I found the dust to be very irritating. the item turned didnt stand up to heavy use and dinted rather easily

Try stabilising it