1st Plate: Valleys Run Through it.

[leehljp]

Well, I decided to try turning something outside of pens. I had a Japanese Elm (Keyaki) board that had some beautiful grain in the crotch (mostly sapwood). I cut the basic circle and turned it. Beautiful grain showed up.

This is my first plate and it is 6 inches in diameter. First picture was taken from an angle and to the un-initiated it looks oval. I don't have an oval lathe yet, so it was the camera.

(CLICK on each pict for a larger view.)



Overhead to show that it is "round". I must say that carving those grooves in the wood to make the valleys was difficult, but I managed.

[Uncle Cracker]

It's a striking piece, Hank. Absolutely nothing there at all to be ashamed of. Keep 'em coming...

[jking]

Wow. You decided to "try" something different. It looks like you did more than that. Great job. What finish did you use?

My first thought when I saw the first picture wasn't "oval", it was that it looked more like a bowl than a plate.

[Whaler]

A beautiful piece Hank.

[leehljp]

Wow. You decided to "try" something different. It looks like you did more than that. Great job. What finish did you use?

The wood was very dry and somewhat brittle. I turned it to rough size but it splintered easily. I put it in a pressure pot, set it in a bowl of Acetone melted acrylic and pulled a vacuum for 30 minutes. After it set for a couple of days, I turned it down to size and it turned much better. Then sanded.

Finish was several coats of tung oil over the period of 10 days. Hand rubbed and waxed.

[BobSch]

WOW. Isn't it amazing what can hide inside a piece of wood. Beautiful, Hank

[SARGE..g-47]

Looks absolutely terrific in my view. I suppose another WW has been lost to the turning crowd and this is the "coming out" party presentation. Oh well.. that's the way it is somedays.

Again.. excellent job and beautiful results...

[Tom Miller]

Wow, that's a nice looking piece! And the simple elegance of the turning is just the thing for that wild grain.

Regards,
Tom

[leehljp]

Looks absolutely terrific in my view. I suppose another WW has been lost to the turning crowd and this is the "coming out" party presentation. Oh well.. that's the way it is somedays.

Again.. excellent job and beautiful results...

"Lost" to turning? Not for now. I have the Rikon midi lathe and changed the motor and switch last year to a PSI VS (Variable Speed) and it works well for pens and "small" bowls and plates. However I am working on a 11 inch diameter 2 1/2 thick bowl blank and that is about all this lathe can handle. It can hold 12", but thicker than 1 in thick at that diameter is more than the VS can handle well. The 11 inch blank tripped the re-set button 3 times in an hour and that was just the amount of time needed to get it round, squared and the outside shaped.

I really need a larger lathe for other turnings AND I REALLY need a large DC system. I didn't realize how much shavings come off of these things. My little DC system is great for pens but it doesn't begin to handle larger turnings of medium size.

This has been a very good learning experience for me - so that I know both what I want in another lathe (after I retire) and a DC system. I was thinking about the Nova but now I am wondering if it will handle what I want (up to 15 in diameter and 10 to 15 in thick). This experience also tells me what to expect from a larger DC system. I am sure that I will buy "more" of a DC than I need when I get my little shop set up in the US in a couple of years. Settling for "just good enough" according to my perceptions without this experience would probably be "to little".

The amount of shavings from the plate and from this bowl are enough to really dissuade me from doing much. It takes a couple of hours to clean up my little shed after turning each. I am looking forward to some flat work.

[Uncle Cracker]

I am looking forward to some flat work.

So is my neighbor... (He's a plastic surgeon, does boob jobs all day long for $10K a pop... )

[jking]

So is my neighbor... (He's a plastic surgeon, does boob jobs all day long for $10K a pop... )

Poor guy (not!), I feel sorry for him.

[atgcpaul]

"Lost" to turning? Not for now.

That is a beautiful piece, Hank. Acetone melted acrylic? Pressure pot?
Vacuum? Talk about your slippery slopes!

As for my turning quest, I'm putting it on summer hiatus and will see if the
desire is still there in the fall.

[leehljp]

That is a beautiful piece, Hank. Acetone melted acrylic? Pressure pot?
Vacuum? Talk about your slippery slopes!

Acrylic plastic sheets can be dissolved in acetone and when it is the consistency of paint - that makes a great wood stabilizer. It is used often for home stabilizing of pen blanks that are porous or soft. It is put in a paint pressure pot and most people draw a vacuum. Before pressure pots, people used glass jars, filled the jar just over several pen blanks standing one end. The top in put on and through a hose and fitting, the vacuum is pulled. The stabilizer liquid begins to boil. But most of the boiling is the air bubbles coming out of the wood blanks. After it quits bubbling, the blanks are saturated and they sink to the bottom. When air is allowed back in, the outside pressure drives the stabilizer liquid deeper into the blank.

This is what I did with the plate. And I do this on some blanks. Makes them more dense, less brittle, smoother to turn.

I use a HF pressure pot and mine is set up for both pressure and vacuum. In pens, vacs are use for stabilizing; pressure is used for helping to shrink bubbles in resin casting. However - Often in stabilizing, both vac and pressure are used.

[jking]

I use a HF pressure pot and mine is set up for both pressure and vacuum. In pens, vacs are use for stabilizing; pressure is used for helping to shrink bubbles in resin casting. However - Often in stabilizing, both vac and pressure are used.

What do you use for pulling the vacuum & applying pressure? A vacuum pump of some kind & an air compressor to the pressure?

[leehljp]

What do you use for pulling the vacuum & applying pressure? A vacuum pump of some kind & an air compressor to the pressure?

I could not find a vac pump over here so I have a small compressor and hooked into the air intake side. Works well. Might not be recommended, but it works well. When I return home in 18 months, HF has a few good looking vac pumps.