Chris's Woodturnings: 2011

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Spalted Beech Bowl

This beautiful Fruit Bowl is finished to a high shine finish by the use of a Friction Polish. Its 250mm Diameter and its 75mm high.

Spalted beech Fruit/ Salad bowl. The Bowl is finished with vegetable oil which make it suitable for use with Salads. The oil finish provides the bowl with a natural wood finish. The Bowl is 250mm Diameter and 75mm high.

New Material

As I was buying tyres for my car recently, Mark the guy that I was dealing with noticed some pieces of yew wood in the booth. Now to cut a long story short he too has a love for woodcraft products and had the above wood cut down at his house. Instead of seeing it wasted being cut as firewood, he very generously provided me with the pieces so as i could use them in my woodturnings. This wood will be cut into sections and then each piece with be dipped in a liquid wax. They will then be place in a shed in order to dry out for a period of time. The pieces are from left. Ash, Yew, Yew, Ash, Oak, Oak and finally Yew. The oak has been lying in the grass for a period of time so this might produce a spalted effect which will be evident as black lines in the wood when it is turned. I hope to start using this wood in 6 to 12 month time.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Elm Lamp

Elm lamp with a Friction Polish finish. This lamp is 300mm

tall and 140mm at its widest. The colour varies from a a light

cream to a light to dark brown in places.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Ash Lamp 300mm Tall x 120 mm at its widest.
The piece was felled 2 years ago and i dried it out in a boiler room to speepd up the drying. The piece is finished with a sanding sealer and then 5 coats of a friction polish which brings up the gorgeous shine

Sunday, January 16, 2011

From Log to Lamp!

355mm x 250mm Blank on Right

Giving you an idea of the size

Blank mounted on Lathe ready for action.

After turning on the Lathe the odd bag of Cement had to be added for weight. This was due to the fact the Lathe was not bolted to the floor as it should be and as the piece rotated it exerted a rocking force on the lathe. Oh and the box of spanners, screws, bolts you name it, it's in the metal container as the bags did not weigh enough!

First job is to start turning the blank into a cyclindrical shape by removing
the bark and then some of the Sapwood.

Nearly there!

Once turned cylindrical, the sections for the different curves are stepped off.

I now go about taking cuts to remove waste in the shaping of the top curves.

The top competed bar the sanding, I now move to the lower sections so I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Final curves have been created. The sanding stages involve starting at 120 grit Sandpaper and working down through 180, 240, 320 grit while the Lathe is rotating. The final stage of finishing the piece is to apply a Cellulose Sanding Sealer followed by a friction polish. This give the piece it's beautiful smooth and shiny appearance.

Here it is, the finished Artefact. 6 hours of work, 3 cuts and a friction burn on the hand later. Now all that left is drilling the central hole, wiring and attaching the plug and bulb fitting.