Stuff happens

Posted on 27. November 2017 by fuzzy

Here’s an illustration of what can happen even to an experienced turner:

This is from a conifer, not Leylandii, but out of the same family. It was given to me by a neighbour. The wood is very soft, so much so that a shear scrape produced a very rough surface, which looked almost like the wood had been brushed with a heavy steel brush.

Instead of trying to get a smooth finish, I decided to leave it this way, maybe scorch it later with a blowtorch, and see what would come out of it.

Drilled a hole down the centre and started hollowing. This is where the softness of the wood became a problem. When I was down to about a 1/4″ wall thickness , small cracks started to appear. And when I made a small mistake and the backside of my hollowing tool touched the opposing inside wall, the tool started to rattle around, and within less than 2 seconds it was all over.

 

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Making a centre finder

Posted on 24. November 2017 by fuzzy

It’s one of those things that we all need every now and then, but I kept on forgetting to buy one. It just wasn’t important enough. So one day I decided that I was going to make myself one and get it over and done with. So here’s how to do it.

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Not a happy camper

Posted on 21. November 2017 by fuzzy

I was planning on taking some photographs of my latest goodies last night, but it didn’t happen because Bob Mercer emailed me with the opportunity to buy some rather fantastic pieces of oak burr, which were just to good to let them pass by. So instead I took the pictures this evening.

The result is, by and large, anything but pleasing, for a variety of reasons.

Firstly they (almost) all look dull and bland. That’s probably a combination of things. For one, I am not sure I’ve found the best settings for my camera. But I suspect a more important reason is that at the moment I have to use a nicely ironed pillow case as a background, because I have not yet managed to locate the proper background cartons I bought for this purposes. And I do seem to remember that with them the pictures came out a whole lot more lively.

Secondly, some of them are not in focus. Entirely my fault, for not checking that the camera was actually focussing on the correct area.

But now we come to the really bad part, and that is my workmanship, or rather the lack thereof. It seems I have allowed my standards to slip, and that is not good. There are pictures that show sanding marks. Other pictures show imperfections in the application of colour, with small areas not being coloured, because I have allowed the sealer to cover them. THere are some small dents, almost invisible to the naked eye, but the pictures show them in all their glory. And the most disappointing of all is my art deco box. It is tricky in the extreme to get a completely even coverage of matt black on a turned item. But even trickier is it to get a nice termination of the black spray paint.

I used a low tack masking tape on the face of the lid, so that the inside including the rim would stay in natural wood. However, the spray paint decided that it wanted to crawl onto the masking tape ever so slightly, which then produced a sharp rim. Trying to smoothen that rim resulted in numerous problematic effects: in some areas the rim stayed sharp and even kept on it some parts of the nyweb I used for the smoothing. In other areas it smoothened unevenly and has now produce a slightly jagged edge, and in still other areas, some of the paint flaked off.

I tried to repair this with very carefully applied acrylic black paint. Alas, the photographs are merciless. It looks a right mess. I always knew that this box was more of a design study than an actual item that could be sold. The handle was a brilliant idea, but the  way it did not sit flush on the lid was not so good, albeit uncurable by the time I was done.

So I suppose now it’s back to square one: no shortcuts, no rushing, practice, practice, practice. And rigorous examination before the finish is done. And as far as the art deco box is concerned, I will have to do this again, with a modified design, and most definitely a different way of cutting the slot for the handle and then applying the black paint.

 

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Building a steady

Posted on 16. November 2017 by fuzzy

My engineering lathe came with two steadies, one travelling steady (two support arms, and is mounted on the apron) and a fixed steady with three arms. Initially I used these for my first wood turning projects, but they had several disadvantages: They had a maximum aperture of around 100mm, and the support arms terminated in simple bronze fingers. Neither of these are a problem for metal work, but both are a serious limitation for wood work.

I then built a steady from plywood, and made 3 new support arms from stainless steel, but this time with small ball bearings at the front. This was much better, but it was still aimed at the engineering lathe, with it’s 125mm centre height over the bed.

I tried using this with my new white goddess, but the results were somewhat mixed. Due to the design, the steady was actually not very, ahem, steady, and the ball bearings left bad marks on softer wood. And the diameter was still quite limited. Not much of a problem for that particular project, which only needed an outside diameter of 100 mm, but not great.

So I decided a while ago to build myself a new steady, this time properly designed for the 200 mm centre height, and aimed at woodturning. Here’s a link to the “How To …” page describing how to make one. Enjoy!

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Paradise

Posted on 12. November 2017 by fuzzy

I promised a post on this most wonderful of all places called Exotic Hardwoods UK, so here it is.

I found out about this place quite some time ago, when researching timbers for a variety of commissions and also some of my own work. Must have been 2 years or longer. However, I never really had a good reason to go and visit them. It just always seemed to be to far away for what really was just a nosy around king of visit.

But a few weeks ago, the stars aligned in the correct manner (and the pattern at the bottom of the coffee cup was good, too), so I decided to go and have said nosy. All with the intention to get some nice pieces of wood for a cistern lid for our new bathroom and for a wedding signature board for my niece-in-law.

It’s basically a father-and-son setup, on the grounds of farm (now defunct) in Staffordshire, about 15 miles out of Stoke-on-Trent to the east. Very idyllic countryside scenery.

Even though I had phoned ahead and agreed a time, nobody was to be seen when I arrived on site. So I wandered a little and first walked into what could previously have been a pig sty. All cleaned up now, and filled with shelf after shelf of luthier material: fretboards, some presawn, matched pieces for top and bottom of instruments, and so on. Hundreds, in all sorts of really beautiful wood, mostly exotic.

Eventually somebody appeared (the father) and we got chatting, and he says: well, I guess, this section isn’t really for you. You really want to see the main store. So of we went towards a shed (barn?) of approximately 20m deep and 40m wide (and about 6-8m high in the centre). And here it goes: the whole thing is full of wood. On one side there are shelves with the smaller pieces. Name any exotic species used in turning, instrument making, cabinet making, anywhere, he’s got it. And then some.

On the other side there are just stacks. There’s a stack of purpleheart plank, about 1m high, each plank is about 6-8″ wide, 2″ thick and 8 foot long. Another stack of similar size of birdseye maple (I got myself a piece of that for my cistern lid). Stack after stack after stack. Most of them they can’t even get to with the forklift. In some places the stacks are more than 4m high.

When I started looking around, I eventually stumbled across a piece of wood that seemed to be a little out of place. Dark, heavy, not stacked, with almost white sapwood. When dad noticed my interest, he told me it was cocobolo. This piece was about 5ft long, 4″ thick and easily 16″ wide. Value: around £1000.

I could have spent all day in that shed. As it was, I only had about 90 minutes, and I really had to remind myself that I was here primarily to find those pieces mentioned above (which I did) and leave the rest alone until I had a really good reason to spend my money. The only concession I made was about 1kg of cutoffs of snakewood, at the cost of about £25/kg. But let me tell you: there’s a reason why this stuff is so expensive: Even without any finish on it, it polishes to a marvellous shine, and the figure in the grain is just unbelievable.

So in the end I walked away with 2 large pieces of wood and a collection of cutoffs and about £140 less in my pocket. And if I ever need something really special, or just plain good, let me tell you: this is the place to go. By their own admission, they supply just about everybody else in the UK. You want something you can’t get anywhere else: chances are they have it.

 

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