Thread: WIP: deep hollowing

Thanks DJ, and Cliff for the encouragement.

Hughie's mentioned ground coffee to colour epoxy; will give it a try. Should smell better than the Cypress which is irritating the schnoz. Can also try the ubeaut water-based dyes perhaps.

But there are ants emerging from the void so maybe clear would be trick ;-}

I suspect that when I turn the shoulder there'll be more surprises and the shoulder may not survive.

There's a slight possibility of removing the branch whole during hollowing and then resetting it at an offset inwards for a trick effect; will have to see.

Anyway, sposed to be working this week - have a deadline so the fun will have to wait.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Arrrrhhhh.... a ring side seat at something I have yet to try, deep hollowing.

Good on ya for sharing Ern, all you have to do is live through it.

Come on Ern, follow DJs example/standard and get the video running, you can edit out the unexciting bits before you show us. That way we get to experience the commentary/flying bits as well.

Make it not only educational but entertaining!!!!!

There is more cypress here if others want to have a go.

so i can follow your progress Ern.

Ant nest embedded in the epoxy? Could be good. But a bit hard to repeat.

Colour the epoxy blue or red is my thought. That's if the ants vacate.

OK, back's giving me curry at the puter so went out to play.

Roughed out the external lines. Body with forged spindle gouge (nice tool) and shoulder shaped with 3/8" milled spindle gouge. Tenon by peeling cuts with 3/8" beading tool.

The foot's still wide to leave meat for refining (actually a lot of refining). Top end cap is just there to support it all. In the pics it looks uglier than it is (really) since the digicam was on wideangle.

Downsides:

There's a stripe of interlocked grain which the new forged gouge is chipping out. If it were a bowl I'd be going uphill (tho it prob wouldn't help). ? Lighter cuts? Otherwise the tool is a gem: smooth cuts and good to control.

The top branch has voids up to 3/8". May need a bucketload of epoxy.

Down the track:

There's a sh*tload of weight there and I'm not sure that even the Powergrips will cope. And it's too fat to fit my spindle steady (a bigger one is on the gunna list). I may have to leave the bottom wide, hollow and then return to the bottom. Kinda defeats the purpose of a laser rig tho (yeah, I hear you !).

I can't tighten up the shoulder any further cos it will go into the void.

As for docudrama territory, sorry folks ... bought a digvideo camera for the kid but she wisely says it's too dusty in there. Any case, her ole man's a dag ... why would you want to shoot this boring stuff? (And there's going to be a lot of it).

There's a stripe of interlocked grain which the new forged gouge is chipping out. If it were a bowl I'd be going uphill (tho it prob wouldn't help). ? Lighter cuts? Otherwise the tool is a gem: smooth cuts and good to control.

Sharpen tool. Very light cuts using the "sweet spot" just below the apex of the curve with the blade at about 30 degrees to the tool rest and the flute facing to about 10 o'clock should clean it up.

running "down hill" of course. Sometimes you can go "uphill" but needs practice.

If all else fails: use a sharp scraper but I have never had to on cypress.

Looking good from where I sit!

Ta (and Artme).

Like the forged spindle gouge v. much. And it's affordable from Craftsupplies in the US oivay. Will grind some more off of the dead first 1/8" tonight.

And for those of us who need a demo of why we cut supported fibres, take a look again at the two branchwood ends in the first post.

Will have to reverse turn to clean up the crappy end ... and go for a longer curve on the shoulder to do it ... fingers crossed.

Watching with much interest.
Have on a few occasions used wood chips and shavings glued into largish voids with super glue (loctite 401 to be exact). Put masking tape at the back first. Do shallow fills at a time and let cool. THen used dark saw dust to simulate ingrown bark to top off.
Very interesting project.
Jim

I like the form, it pleasing lines and I would do all I could to keep the knots etc.

thanks for the comments on epoxy, was wondering if it could be used. I was also wondering whether ubeauts dyes would work and what else could be used to get it almost black.

this is an interesting thread, thanks all

A dollar short and a day late, I know. (Been on the road for the past week.) But the piece in my link in this thread: http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=68346 was from a root ball with two intersecting roots. I cut away the bark inclusions and filled with epoxy and coffee before, as well as during, turning. And also re-filled when cutting the inside, until it merged with the outside fill. So epoxy is definitely suitable for turning, and the fresh coffee grounds makes a nice terrazzo effect.

Strangest response to that thread: A lady in Chattanooga TN found my telephone number via AnyWho or some such, and called to rave about how great it looked, and her intention to use the technique on some furniture she was making. I shunned total credit of course, with deference to some blokes here.

Joe

Originally Posted by rsser

Toni, the Proforme and Munro hollowers mounted in a rig.

Rodney and Gene: is epoxy only a post-turning option or can you turn it? Assuming the latter from Rodney's post (which also suggests the option of spinning the wet epoxy in the form while on the lathe; like a pipe roto-mould).

It turns well. I had one large bowl (15") that "exploded" during rough turning. When I found the pieces I glued them back together with epoxy and finished it. It was green wood that had started to crack before I started on it.

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

I like the form, it pleasing lines and I would do all I could to keep the knots etc.

thanks for the comments on epoxy, was wondering if it could be used. I was also wondering whether ubeauts dyes would work and what else could be used to get it almost black.

this is an interesting thread, thanks all

Lee Valley sells some earth pigments. I used burnt umber for a very dark brown. They run a mail order business in Canada, not sure if they would ship to Australia, but his stuff is not hazardous. The following URL will get you to the right page in the catalog

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,190,42996

Since Joe and Hughie mentioned it a few months ago, I got addicted to epoxy caffeine... A drawback I found is that, being harder than the wood, turning it even is difficult, if you are really finicky you notice that it stays a few microns proud. Any suggestions?