Thread: Will it survive? (WIP)

Skew, I'm holding my breath until I see the outcome of this one. I love that turners can see potential in what would otherwise be scrap/firewood.

finished yet?

Hi skew,
Will it hold up,,,, not sure i suppose it depends
what you want to do with it!!!!
Good luck anyway and take care
Cheers smiife

So how is the Stone's Mac going to be used in this project?

Yep, I can understand your apprehension, been there done that recently. Good luck.
Jim

Anybody who can turn shmick gobles like you do, it shouldnt be any problem.

Certainly a weird looking beast, almost like two trees butted together, rather than mistletoe. If so, they may just come apart when you turn it, but hope it doesn't for you.

Keep the pics coming as you go, has great potential

OK, so I managed to squeeze a few hours in the shed... and took photos of how I roughed it down to see what shapes were feasible.

But d'you think I can find the pix? I know I took them, but the earlier ones (roughing down & filling with epoxy) aren't on the camera and I know I haven't DLed 'em to the 'puta. Operator error, I think.

Anyways... I roughed out the worst of the voids, which left a lot of meat at one end with a 2"(ish) cylinder at t'other. I had originally hoped for a small hollow form similar to the shape in Hughies "hollow form with spirals" WIP, but that option was out the window unless I turned it into a mushroom shape. So I flipped it umop-ap!sdn and started shaping a vase instead.

P2060037.jpg

It took quite a bit of coffee - hot stuff for me and grinds for the epoxy - to fill the bulk of the voids. I did this in two stages, wrapping the form with duct-tape immediately afterwards to stop the epoxy from "sagging out." After remounting and turning away the excess epoxy there were a few small voids left... but I decided I like them as is and didn't bother doing with a third layer of epoxy.

The final shape is around 13cm diameter and 15cm tall, the lip of the rim is 6cm dia. To date I've hollowed it down approximately 8cm to a wall thickness of 3mm down the neck... but 'tis still around 1cm thick where it flares at the base of the neck. Unfortunately, given the tools I'm using I don't think I can hollow any further (or thinner at depth) without a significant increase in the Oops factor.

So... plan two is to reverse mount it with the lip of the neck in the jaws (I'll be fitting wooden plug inside the neck for strength & wrapping the outside in a LOT of tape) and use a steady to hold the base. Then I'll hollow out the rest through the foot, see if I can bring it down to the thickness that I want and finally re-plug the foot with a piece turned from one of the off-cut branches.

Right now all my steady's are a thou odd Km away, so until I either retrieve one or build myself another string steady (can ya guess which is likeliest? ) the project is on hold. To minimise movement I've oiled it inside and out with Tung Oil... as that's what I'll be finishing it with anyway. And perhaps several coats of Shellac.

The grain patterns & chatoyance that popped out as soon as I oiled it amazed me. It didn't look even half as nice when still on the lathe! I think that if this one survives, it'll be a keeper.

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Originally Posted by tea lady

So how is the Stone's Mac going to be used in this project?

I won't say that it was used 'during' the project. Afterwards, however... well... refer to the second sentence of this post.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Certainly a weird looking beast, almost like two trees butted together, rather than mistletoe. If so, they may just come apart when you turn it, but hope it doesn't for you.

Exactly my concerns! Fortunately, it is a parasitic growth which was fairly well established; there were some nasty, rot-filled voids that could've led to separation but epoxy is a wonderful thing.

Superb!

Did you get a signs of coming apart? The timbers certainly appear to have truely joined up.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Did you get a signs of coming apart? The timbers certainly appear to have truely joined up.

They were well'n'truly married, although there were rotten voids deep between the solid pieces which I scraped out and filled with epoxy... I doubt it would've held together without it.

[QUOTE=Skew ChiDAMN!!;1747159]It has been a while since I posted any of my 'work' and recently I participated in a swap with Torech for a few slabs & asstd. bits of timber. Included in those asstd. bits was this parasitic, 'mistletoe'-like growth. At this stage I don't know which is the parasite and which the host... the lighter timber looks to be a Blue- or Stringy Gum, but the darker timber has the medullarys of a Grevillea. (eg. Silky Oak, etc.) Maybe time will tell, but right now I can't say I really care about ID.


Hj Skew. I've not been on for a few days and just saw the thread. What you have is definately Mistle toe, which is the one with the black bark and medullarys. Its realy beautiful stuff and you got a really good piece. Love the finished product. I love the way it grows on the host and how they tolerate each other.
Tim

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

.......... At this stage I don't know which is the parasite and which the host... the lighter timber looks to be a Blue- or Stringy Gum, but the darker timber has the medullarys of a Grevillea. (eg. Silky Oak, etc.) Maybe time will tell, but right now I can't say I really care about ID.
....................
If this thing is going to survive turning, I'm going to need a lot more epoxy resin! Mind you, I'm keeping the branch offcuts too. They may be small, but trial attempts with offcuts from both 'species' suggests that what's left will make very nice, if a tad small, salt & pepper shakers!

Nice going so far Skew The killer with Mistletoes is the different shrinkage rates of the 2 timbers but as you said, epoxy can be a good friend!

Originally Posted by Tim Creeper

.............Hj Skew. I've not been on for a few days and just saw the thread. What you have is definately Mistle toe, which is the one with the black bark and medullarys. Its realy beautiful stuff and you got a really good piece. Love the finished product. I love the way it grows on the host and how they tolerate each other.
Tim

I don't think killing the host is what you'd call 'toleration' Tim Attached a pic of the inevitable result of Mistletoe

Skew

nice work

love the colour and the grain in the piece - brilliant

Bring it to the gtg so we can all have a closer look, just check our pockets on the way out!