Hello everyone, I thought it might be nice to share a little preview of my current project with you. When I got my first lathe in the early 80’s I had visions of incorporating turned pieces into the things that I made. Never got very good at it so in the early 90’s I bought a bigger lathe. Again I found the results of my efforts less than satisfactory. A bit over two years ago I went at turning head on and did nothing with wood that was not turned. I studied and learned. I read everything I could and tried about everything I read. In any case enough with the boring history stuff my point is that I feel confident enough at this time to bring turning into my furniture projects.
So with that I have designed a piece that I am now in the building stages of. It will be my most complex piece yet. About 80% of the individual pieces will be turned and with that this particular piece is without a doubt the largest I have turned yet at 24”. The first piece I am working on is a segmented ring made of Walnut. There are 20 segments and they are glued and then joined with Walnut splines. Here it is on the lathe and I am using a Baltic Birch to support it for the turning process.
I learned quickly that I needed to take very light controlled cuts to keep the plywood from flexing but even so the very dry Walnut is cutting very well. I am running the lathe in reverse and having to do a lot of the cuts left handed.
I have turned my rabbit and have shaped the outside profile of the piece. Here I had wiped it down with mineral sprites to see how it looked. This will be the underside of one of the pieces of what I am making.
I may end up inundating you guys with information about this particular project as it seems as though that is all that is on my mind lately. Anyhow if I get boring or what not just let me know and thanks for having a look at my most recent weirdness!
(I also posted this at SMC so sorry if you already seen it there.)
Ken
So with that I have designed a piece that I am now in the building stages of. It will be my most complex piece yet. About 80% of the individual pieces will be turned and with that this particular piece is without a doubt the largest I have turned yet at 24”. The first piece I am working on is a segmented ring made of Walnut. There are 20 segments and they are glued and then joined with Walnut splines. Here it is on the lathe and I am using a Baltic Birch to support it for the turning process.
I learned quickly that I needed to take very light controlled cuts to keep the plywood from flexing but even so the very dry Walnut is cutting very well. I am running the lathe in reverse and having to do a lot of the cuts left handed.
I have turned my rabbit and have shaped the outside profile of the piece. Here I had wiped it down with mineral sprites to see how it looked. This will be the underside of one of the pieces of what I am making.
I may end up inundating you guys with information about this particular project as it seems as though that is all that is on my mind lately. Anyhow if I get boring or what not just let me know and thanks for having a look at my most recent weirdness!
(I also posted this at SMC so sorry if you already seen it there.)
Ken
Comment