Safely Turning Large Square Platter
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube and FaceBook. But it is best right here.
When a fellow club member moved from the area, I inherited a couple of pieces of saman wood that he had brought back from Venezuela after he lived there for a while. It is 12 by 12 inches and looks to have beautiful grain and color.
I decided to turn a square platter. Unfortunately, turning a square platter is dangerous, even more dangerous when for larger dimensions. The danger comes from the corners rotating at high speed. If the turner happens to let a finger or hand in the path of the rotation, there could be broken skin, bone, or, at least, bad bruises. In addition, leading and trailing edges are prone to chipping. For the turner, riding the gouge bevel is impossible in the corners.
My solution is to glue additional wood around the square. The plan is to turn the round platter in the extended wood blank. This leads to another problem. Once the platter is turned, remove the wood. But how? A band saw does not cut straight without jigging and leaves a rough edge. Cutting a round object on a table saw is also dangerous. Again, my plan is to screw on another board which then will serve as a guide to ride the saw fence. But, I cannot turn the platter with the board attached. Instead, unscrew the extra board and screw it again to all the added boards using the same screw holes. Then remove the board completely. After all turning is complete, reattach the guide board using the same screw holes. Using the guide, saw the opposite side; remove and re-attach to another side that is at right angles; saw again; remove the board. The freshly cut sides serve as a guide while cutting the remaining sides.
Voila, a large square platter. The big plus is that I am still intact.
The wood is saman, about 12×12 inches finished with wipe-on poly.
Enjoy.
Thanks for this Alan. My midi lathe will not turn a 12×12 square, certainly not with 2x4s attached, but I do have access to a Powermatic. I now need to find a piece of wood that I want to try your method on.
My I suggest you scale it back to your lathe capacity. This large bowl had its own size difficulties.
Assuming your lathe has a 12 inch swing: (adjust to your actual)
1. Lets allow 1/2 to 1 inch (capacity for the safety wood rim
2. So your net capacity is about 11″. Divide 11 by 1.414 (square root of 2) to find the side of a square whose diagonal is 11″
3. Therefore, you could turn about a 7.5″ square bool.
4. The safety wood would be about 2.5″ wide.
At least it would be good practice for a larger one an d still a nice project.
Alan – You do great videos. Miss you from Portland. I’ve turned a lot of square platters from sushi plates to larger ones, and my suggestion is to simply mark on the tool rest where the corners are and keep your hands out of the way.
During the Pandemic 4 years ago I did a video on the topic for our NWWT monthly meeting, and it is on our NWWT YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=185ztrqg_Xk
Marking is good but does not prevent accidental contact. It is more work but my hands are worth it.
ALan
Thanks Alan for this unique approach. I have turned a number of square bowls from 4 to 10 inch square. This approach, while more time intensive certainly will reduce the stress.
It is a trade-off. intact hands vs quicker turn. My vote goes with my hands.
Alan
love the approach to a square bowl. im going to have to try your method.
Please do and let me know.
Alan