Wood Turning News

I am intrigued with what happens in wood turning around the world. It is one of the things that keeps me coming back to the web. It has become one of the most important turning tools of the 20th and 21st centuries with its ready exchange of news and views on wood, wood turning, and just about every thing else. So I added a news page on wood turning over on my site at Around the Woods. It is surprising what turners are doing and at the acceptance of wood turning in the art world as well as crafts. I hope you find it interesting.

the green apple wood

So I have gotten this far in the shaping. When I took the bag off the form it was soaked this wood is so green. If you look at the bottom of the piece, I have made a small groove to mark the screws. At the top is a flat just above the line of the pith centers. These should help my eyes as I design around the piece. At the moment the intention is to round over the top to the line of pith and to round down the sides with a gentle curve to the bottom leaving about a 1" bottom and hollowing through a 3/4" hole. I need to get a web page up with more information and thought but this is good so far.

wet apple hollow form

Is this not cool? I will get back to posting about the other piece soon but I got a chance to start this one from a wet log of apple I have in the shop. Soon I will have a series up about playing with this log but this is just fun. It is like turning in the rain the wood is so green. I am going to lose about an inch off the bottom of this and I think I will have to pull the top back some to fit the new curve and to adjust so the majority of the piths will be on or close to center. It should move dramatically as it dries. I still have to mount it to a face plate, final turn and hollow it.

Hollowing out

With the outside designed and pretty well turned it was time to hollow the piece. Dry wood now meant brittle. Keeping the sides intact turned out to be a challenge, but I guess that is what keeps me coming back. It certainly is absorbing. Now I find myself asking if I like wet or dry wood more? Especially when I consider the dried burls I have sitting around. The work is up at hollowing underway Take care and keep turning.

Darrell

more design questions

As I was thinking of design, not having had time to update more web pages for the apple hollow form, this piece and such like it came to mind. Being a hollow form of green ash it required first of all to consider the orientation of the pith. The wood will oval in the line of the pith so for a uniform piece the pith had to be parallel to the ground when standing. You can see here where it has ovalled. However, as it dried during turning (it was one of those that should have been turned at one sitting and could not be) a crack developed. This is always a possibility with pieces containing the pith but hard to anticipate.

While the first thought was something along the lines of having lots of ash and this would be good kindling, I decided to work around the crack. Design time. I stopped it from spreading with some thin CA and finished the piece as far as I could on the lathe. Then I took a wood burner and burned along the crack. This looked good so I added some leaves and more stems and leaves, this time on either end. I think it was a reasonable solution. The piece is extremely stable and the crack is not noticeable unless you know it is there.

A new piece seems to mean more questions regarding design including "Is it kindling?"

Design questions

As I turned for the design I had chosen, this incredible section of curl appeared. Now I hit a dilemma. If I kept with my original plan, a lot of this grain would be turned away. On the other hand, the design fit the piece well. John Hunnex claimed that the wood should not determine the final figure. On the other hand John Jordan, I believe, said that life was too short to turn poor wood. I think that implies that the figure and character of the wood should determine the final form to some degree. The concept of the wood speaking to me has never been a strong one for me although it certainly happens.
Anyway, I decided to remove some more of this wood and pause frequently to determine the shape of the piece from here on in. I think there are lots of forms that look good and quite a few would do justice to this wood. I think it was Stockdale who claimed that potters had been stealing his designs for thousands of years. Good design will either remain or come back in cycles.
Till next time, keep turning.

There are a couple of new pages up about the apple form at Ongoing Project.

Let us know how you design. Do you plan and stay on plan or are you a seat of the pants kind of designer?

Continuing to "peel" the apple

So now the yard is a mess and the garden by the door is not, but I did get the plants moved and heeled in to move back as the time comes. We can flush and brush in safety and the rat's nest of pipe has been replaced. The plumber and backhoe guy are both happy with me.

I have placed a couple more pages of the apple hollow form on the web site. Most of this is old hat except it never is. Sometimes I do repetitive turning and it can be boring although it has its own rewards. This stuff with odd wood is never the same even if I do the same kind of form again and again. I can see where just keeping it in one piece is a challenge, let alone seeking a good form and curve to show off its beauty. I also like the design challenges at this stage such as

• should I turn until the cracks are gone?


• Is that possible or do the cracks go all the way through?


• How far up do the screws go in the piece? I want to miss them when I later turn the bottom.


• Should there be holes (negative space) where there are incurves or should I turn them away?

Granted that these are physical questions as much as artistic design, but one does influence the other. This is fun to reflect on as well as to do physically.

The new stuff is over at the apple form page 3.

The Start of the Dried Apple Hollow Form

The saga of turning the hollow form in dried apple begins. This wood was dry and split and had a great character to it. It has been grown for fruit so there are all kinds of stresses in the wood because of pruning and so on. There are also a lot of grain and color variations, so it is a lot of fun and has a lot of character. Even to get as far as mounting it on the lathe took a bit of work and design to consider everything that went on. I have started putting the work on the web, likely a couple of pages at a time since good old time has run away with me again, starting at Apple Hollow Form over on Around the Woods

Back to Wood Turning

Ok guys and gals, enough about plumbing, besides, it is time to call in the pros. The royal flush is not so royal except for a royal pain. Anyway, here is the log that started all the fun with the apple.

It has cracks and checks and all that neat stuff that makes great firewood, but I just did not want to burn it, soo... The idea was to make a natural edged vase with neck, but I thought I would try a fair curve first and see if it stayed together. I will gradually get the whole thing on the web site (note the word gradually) but is there not a lot of dreams in a log like this?

I got to turn!

When I had the toilet off and snaked the lines, I of course wanted to return the toilet to use. Remember the broken flange? I got a new one only to find that it needed to be about 3/4" shorter than stock length. The old one had obviously been cut to fit the fitting in the concrete floor. Ever try to tell a store you need a fitting shorter than the other ten thousand they sold? We call this laughter, so I needed to cut down the flange. I had had to get an adjustable because of the drain size and availability so there was hardly anyway to hold it to cut it. I made a scrap wood jam chuck and turned it to fit the opening. Turning, turning!! Not much and some of it was not wood but it was all fun. I'll stick some info on the web site because some one else might need to do it some day.
Take care and turn safely.

Aaaah! Plumbing!

Is not plumbing fun? Especially when it makes no sense?
I have a problem with water flow and gurgling in the down stairs toilet, sink, and shower. It sounded like a vent problem. So I snaked the vent. No go. I snaked the line thinking it was a partial clog. No go. To snake the line I had to remove the toilet (don't ask). The toilet flange broke (don't ask). I got the old piece of flange separated from the fitting, now I have to get a new one and reinstall the toilet. Then I need to install a new pump and tank. This is called a day off. Turning sounds like fun.
Tonight I visit a family where the husband/father just died. Bad plumbing is not that bad.
Take care and turn safely.

Still Plumbing

Ok, I still have to go and get the oak. Maybe Wednesday. The plumbing is a disaster. I still have no idea what is causing the gurgling, but the vent seems open. The pump and tank both need replacing but that is no big deal. Monday afternoon looks open for now. I have not had any time on the lathe but a while ago I turned a piece of apple about 10" high and 7" diameter. Dry as dust but hard as nails. I plan to gradually get it on the web as I took lots of pictures. Sort of a work in progress even though I have it finished. It will simply take a lot time to write up. Here is a picture of the finished work.
Tomorrow is Sunday and I am preaching on the conversion of Paul on the Road to Damascus. Hopefully I will get in some turning as I prepare the sermon tonight.

(Not) Running Interference

Life can interfere with turning. There are only so many hours in the day and they do get taken up. Work is one thing but lately the plumbing has taken the rest. We have a well here but town sewer. The bladder has gone on my water tank and the pump is old so I think I will replace both. Meantime I have bubbling problems in one of the toilets and am trying to fix it. I think the vent is clogged but I can not seem to break it. Once I get off the roof I have to turn something. Unfortunately or fortunately Saturday will disappear for me this week. A friend a couple of hours from me had to take down a big oak so me and the chain saw have to clean up some of the wood for him by getting it to pile in the yard. Ain't life tough :-) He says the oak was about 18" across. Sounds good to me. I will post a couple of pictures of some apple I have been playing with soon.

Easier Navigation

Sorry to have been long posting to here. It has been a while and a lot has happened. I will try to be more active on the blog in the near future. Over on the main site I have worked at making it easier to get around. Really I had no idea how vast the site had gotten but there are over 200 pages now and lots more to add and to alter. So I made a table of contents page which I think is a lot easier than a site map. As I made it I realized that some things need to be in two categories and some new categories made up. I was not aware of how many video clips I have posted but I realize that they need a menu of their own. One of these days... Any way check out the new contents page at Around the Woods - Navigation and while there you may want to see the pages on making a Quick Oland tool.

Back at the lathe

It has been a bit of a dry spell lately with work and study pressures. The church is busy with the annual meeting around the corner and I have had a couple of funerals lately. They take all my energy for a day or two. One of the things that I really notice is my energy gets a boost from the creative nature of turning but it is still hard to get to the lathe and key into that energy. Crativity takes a beating from life some times. Any way, I have been turning a few angel wings with some nice spalted birch that is too nice to burn but too small to do much else with. I have also begun a Work in Progress from a small stump of the same wood. It should be interesting as I anticipate a lot of air in the finished piece.
By the way, I am increasing my links pages. If you have a wood turning related page you would like to exchange, please contact me.

Woodturning Education

One of my concerns as a former teacher is the lack of industrial arts
teaching in our present school system. Perhaps you are fortunate to still
live in an area where the trades are respected enough to be part of the
formal secondary school system. Not in most of our schools in Canada. Budget
cuts have cost us our table saws, our drill presses and our wood lathes.
While this has meant some bargains for purchasers of used equipment, it has
been a real loss for our children and a trial for our teachers.
Not all children are destined for greatness in computer science or further
academia; not all are future doctors, lawyers, or other white collar
workers. Some like to get their hands dirty with some auto grease or
sawdust; some flour or fabric; some paint and plumbing adhesive. If you take
a child with little interest in history and math and remove their outlet in
learning wood turning or auto repair, you remove the opportunity to teach
some of that history and math and create a frustrated child at the same
time. Frustrated children create frustrated teachers, trust me on this one!
In a saner day we taught industrial arts and home economics. One of the
courses taught in some schools was wood turning. One text book use was
Milton and Wohlers "A Course in Woodturning", 1919. The text is available
online from Project Gutenberg and I have now reformatted it and placed it on
my web site as well. I hope you enjoy it for the historic context and also
because there is a lot to learn here. Over the next year of so I need to
update a lot of it for today's hobby turners but there is some great stuff
here. I hope you enjoy it.
A Course in Woodturning
--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com

Work in Progress: It's Done!!!

It is DONE!!!The work is finished on the Work in Progress,
Manitoba Maple Winged platter. I have been really pleased with the red in the wood. I know it will turn brown over time but that is all right too. Now I am wondering if the foot should be larger for more stability but this is nice.

Sanding question

Here is a question I was recently asked, and always a good one, "at what grit should I stop sanding?" As in many a good question, the answer is, "it depends."
Assuming we are turning an art piece, a lot of the sanding need depends on wood and finish. Not all woods respond well to the same finish. Some woods like oak are very open pored and respond differently than say a maple with tighter pores.
As a rule of thumb, I like to sand higher for oil finishes than for coating finishes such as varnish or lacquer. For oil, on an open pored wood like oak or ash I would likely stop at 400 to 600 whereas on maple I would likely go to 2000. For varnishes or lacquers, I would tend to stop at around 240 or 320. In the case of finishers like this, you are adding a coat that needs a bondable surface. Too fine a surface does not help and may hinder a finish. That said, a varnished surface can itself be sanded to 2000 grit and takes on a real luster. The clear coat on a car body will likely be sanded to 2000 and makes the underlying paint come alive.
Any comments on other people's sanding preferences?

How Much Wood Could A Wood Chuck Chuck?

I have a great chuck, a One Way, and use it for a fair amount of turning. But as I was reading on one of the forums about concerns over a new comer buying one (brand, price, jaw sets, etc) I began to wonder if we are missing something. Four jaw scroll chucks are relatively new to the wood turning scene. Do newcomers really need them? Do pros? They carry a fairly hefty price tag because of the quality and can cost more than some first time lathes. For instance, I do not use a chuck for turning bowls and platters. Lately I have been using large jaws to finish bottoms, but it is not really needed. What are others using?

Mushroom Video : Free

At the request of a couple of people I have made a video of myself turning a garden mushroom, that is a musroom to go in the garden figuring that an 11" mushroom is too large for the house. Just head for the site and check out the Free video section.