Woodturn My Eggs Easy Over Please
May also be viewed on YouTube.
This project is a fun way to use up scraps and please both the grandkids and their parents.
This time, I’ll use a egg chuck derived from work done by Vern Bunn. The main difference is that I’ve mounted mine to a threaded wood faceplate to avoid using my 4 jaw chuck.
According to Ron Washall, the perfect egg is a series of arcs: one describes the bottom, the big end; 2 identical arcs define the sides; and one more describes the top. However, you will never find a “perfect” egg. They are all different. But, calculating from his description, the perfect length for an egg is 1.29 times its diameter. I made several templates to help me with this measure.
All this was compiled by Jerry Klug in the February newsletter for Cascade Woodturners.
The two eggs in this video are both walnut of different types. They are finished with shellac friction polish. They are about 1 3/4″ diameter and, of course, their lengths are 1.29 times their diameter. Approximately of course.
All this is just in time for those spring egg hunts. 🙂
Link to Jerry Klug’s article:Â http://www.cascadewoodturners.com/newsletters/TurningTimes0215.pdf
Link to Fitting
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Mueller-Global-2-in-PVC-S-x-S-Compression-Coupling-160-108HC/202283769
Woodturn Segmented Hash – Art From Leftovers
Also may be viewed on YouTube.
Leftover Time!
I’ve accumulated some segment rings leftovers from previous projects. Most are from my Crazy Droopy bowl that have a taper on the rings. Â Rather than make new rings, I’ll make these into this project.
The first two rings are flat and not very tall. These will make the base. The first is cherry with 12 segments; the second is oak with 24 segments. These I glued to a threaded wood faceplate.
The next rings are 8 segment rings of walnut, padauk, oak and walnut. These total 69 segments including the walnut plug in the base. All of these rings have a taper.
This bowl presented a challenge in gluing the rings to the base as they had a strong tendency to slide and were difficult to clamp. Actual turning resembled multi-axis turning and natural edge turning. I carved three feet into the foot instead of a round base.
Not bad for leftovers!
The bowl is 5 to 6 inches in diameter and 2 to 3 inches in height finished with walnut oil.
Remount and Finish Bowl – No Rush To Finish Russian Olive
May also be viewed on YouTube.
This bowl is turned from Russian olive from Idaho. It is generally considered a weed tree, planted for wind protection. It is now classified as a invasive species.
My sons’s in-laws had not qualms over cutting down with the tree. I rescued several chunks from the burn pile to take home and turn. I’ve never before turned Russian olive. Looking at the log’s end grain, all that I could see was a medium brown color.
When roughing the bowl, the wood seemed somewhat dry – definitely not as much water as other woods I’ve rough turned. I roughed it out anyway, waxed it and set it aside to dry.
After a couple of years, it’s ready to remount and turn. Since I did not then keep the nub on the bottom to mark the center, I used my cole jaws to reform the tenon. This had a disadvantage in that now I had to turn the exterior while mounted in a 4 jaw chuck. This meant that I was trapped between the headstock and the bowl. I felt constrained.
Still, I did complete the bowl and soaked it in walnut oil for a finish. The bowl is ten inches in diameter and about two inches in height.
Many would find fault in the soft sections of the grain. They sanded away creating a wave pattern. However, I like the result and may want to magnify the effect in future bowls.
Woodturn A Cherry Goblet Wood’n U Like A Toast
May also be viewed on YouTube.
This goblet is turned from a large chunk of cherry given me recently from someone who saw my work in a GEARS exhibition, mainly a metal working show. I’ll give him the goblet in appreciation for a large cherry stump he gave me after the show.
The goblet is 5 inches tall and about 3 inches in diameter. It is finished with shellac friction polish. A goblet is a great exercise, combining skills from a finial and end grain hollowing.
Woodturn Natural Edge Fig Bowl – My Smallest Yet?
May also be viewed on YouTube.
This is another project from pruning my fig tree. It is a bowl turned from this small about 2.5 inch diameter limb.
This project was a challenge due to its size. It is too small to mount in my standard chuck jaws. I have smaller jaws but I do not trust a tenon that small to not shear while I’m turning it. So, after some consideration, this video shows how I turned this small limb bowl. With its natural edge and small diameter, it is cute.
The bowl is about 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 2 inches tall and finished with walnut oil. It will need more hand sanding when the wet wood dries.
Woodturn Natural Edge Fig Mushroom – Not For Soup
May also be viewed on YouTube.
My wife’s sister asked me to turn a mushroom for her. Right now I have cuttings from a fig tree in my front yard.
Why not a natural edge mushroom from this fig. Figs and mushrooms both have nice flavors for cooking, why not see how they go together for a gourmet chef?
The end result is about 3 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall. The bark and limb make a nice irregular natural edge. This mushroom is finished with walnut oil – another flavorful cooking item. 🙂
Since this wood is wet, it will dry, shrink, distort and crack for more character and personality.
Woodturn Natural Edge Winged Tea Light From Fig
Also may be viewed on YouTube.
This wood came from a fig tree in my front yard. It’s a small limb but had to go. I’ve never turned fig nor heard of anyone turning it. But why not try.
Although it’s small, it is large enough for a simple tea light. I did not want to just rip the limb in half. I wanted the top surface to be the natural bark from the fig then bend around to a flat on the bottom. This tea light base is 5 inches long and about 2.5 inches in diameter. The light is a battery operated LED tea light. I’d never put a wax candle in a wooden holder.
Since the wood is very green or wet it did not absorb much walnut oil. After it dries, I’ll apply more oil. then we’ll also see how fig turns out.
Woodturn Cherry Box From Wet Wood
I started this project in July 2013 when I helped a friend cut down a large cherry tree in his back yard. I turned some of the wood into cylinders starting to make small boxes. But the difference is that the wood was very fresh and wet. Knowing that it would shrink and distort as it dried, I left the walls thick but did bore out the inside. Then I wrapped them up with the bored out ends exposed and left them to dry–hopefully from the inside out.
Now with the wood dry, I remounted the pieces to re-trim the tenons, and finish turn the box.
I used gouges, a skew, and a square carbide cutter. I used a mixture of mineral oil and beeswax both as a sanding media and as a finish. The box is about five inches high and two inches in diameter. The joint has a nice vacuum friction fit.
Woodturn Rustic Cedar Natural Edge Coasters
This project is relatively easy, a great way to practice with natural edge forms without the risk of a bowl. These coasters are wet, freshly harvested, cedar. After slicing a limb into discs, I started them drying with a quick soak in Denatured Alcohol to accelerate the drying process. They had lost about 30% of their weight before I started turning them.
Then in a quick but repetitive process cut a mortise on the bottom, smoothed the rim wood and smoothed the top surface.
Later I realized that they were reversible — the mortise was large enough to hold a cup or mug.
These coasters are irregular size between 3 and one half to four inches and finished with walnut oil.