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Saturday 26 February 2011

Roughing out.

Yesterday I bansawed some  Ash and Beech .Some of it is cut for Vase's and some for bowls.
It has all been air drying for a couple of years so it will need to be rough turned and given time to dry out enough to finish.
They are reasonably dry so will not need bagging .I will leave them in my wood store to air dry further until they are ready to finish.
Because some of these are too big to rough out over the bed I will use a faceplate.
Thats it with the outside roughed out and a spigot on.
The shape of these dictate the finished shape because they came from the outside of the tree.
They are too big to go over the bed so i use the outboard rest.

If I could sell shavings i would make a fortune.
All done as you can see most of them will be wide rimmed bowls.
Not a bad few hours work three hours inc a lunch break.
Not up to Glen Lucas standard but I am happy.

Friday 25 February 2011

Another sawing up session.

I am trying to tidy up my wood stock here I have one piece of Beech that is about ten feet long and two pieces of Ash that are about the same lengh and it is all four inches thick.
The Ash is too heavy for one person to lift and cut up so I have got number one son Mark to help.
This is the Beech Mark is removing the bark and making a lot of woodlouse homeless.

The Beech ready for cutting it is a bit wet and will need a bit more drying time.
This one of the ash pieces there are two the same size and the have a lot of olive ripple in them.

To make it easier I have cut everything  strait across ,it is now ready to be cut into rounds and squares.
Some lovely colour in this Ash.
I have changed from a one inch blade to a 3/8" to cut the rounds.
Still using my discs as a guide.

That is the lot cut up into round from 16" to 10" and a load of 4" x 12" vase blanks.
The pile on the right are the Beech and they are up to 20" and will make nice platters.
It seems a shame to only use these rounds for one bowl so I might use a bowl saver on some of them.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Bandsawing session

I have just been cutting some blanks from Beech.
This wood came from a tree that was felled on the Quantock hills about two years ago.
It has bee stored in a container with sticks between each layer to allow air circulation.
This is is all that i have left ,I probably started off with about six times as much as this.
It all cost me about £200 00 so it was a very good buy.
The two shorter pieces are 5" thick and the two long pieces are 2.5" thick
To get the most out of the planks I use a selection of thin disc's cut from ply.

It is surprising how much more you get and how little wastage there is using this simple method
Don't forget to mark your centres it saves a lot of time later on.

It is a bit awkward cutting these on my own.The thick ones are just about as much as I can comfortably lift.
I manage it with a bit of support from my Nova.
It is a good idea to have some wedges handy just in case your blade starts to tighten or jams.
This should keep me going for a day or two.
A good selection of round bowl and platter blanks and some vase blanks.

Friday 18 February 2011

Floor standing sculpture.

I have just started making a floor standing sculpture .
Up to now I have only made the first section.
I am not sure what sort of top I will make I will have to give it a bit of thought.

This is made from some green Oak kindly given to me by my Nephew Matt.
This piece is 28" long 6" x 6"
I have cut it on the badsaw to 3" x 3" top and 5" x 5" on the bottom.

First slice removal.
Note that the blade guide is brought down close to the wood for safety and to support the blade.



All four sides are now removed.

Now I am ready for my first bit of texturing and colouring.
For this texturing I am using a 3" chainsaw toothed miny grinder.
Please note whenever I use one of these I always wear a welders glove on my left hand.
I don't know whether it would save me in an emergency but i am sure it would help.

Just a rough pattern.

That is that done.
I am always pleased to finish this bit as I don't really like using it.

Time for scorching.
Always have a spray bottle of water handy when scorching an never use a dust extractor.
A small spark can live for a long time in a dust extractor.

Thats that done.
Next i go over it with this wire brush to soften the edges.


Now i will colour it with green Chestnut spirit stain applied with a diffuser.

That is that covered.
Now i want to add a bit more colour and texture.
For the texturing i will use the Proxone with a chainsaw toothed cutter.
This is more controllable than the mini grinder.

Just a light texture.

Now
I will add some red to brighten it up. after another light scorching to get rid of any fluff.
Red Chestnut spirit stain applied with the diffuser.

Although you cannot see it in this pic the green does show up as you can see in this next close up.
Yellow has been sprayed over the top I always finish with yellow as it seems to liven up the colours.

That is as far as i have got I now need to put on my thinking cap and design a top.
Suggestions welcome.
I have decided to try an Obelisk shaped top.
I have cut it to shape on the bandsaw.
I am going to carve it lightly with the Axminster carver a good tool but it does get very hot.
A light bit of carving and ready to scorch.
I don't know why but i seem to scorch everything.
Scorched.
Now time to apply some colour:red Chestnut spirit stain.
I am Happy with that.
Lets see what the completed thing looks like.



I am not at all happy how this has turned out.
The proportions are all wrong so it is back to the drawing board and see if i can make some improvements.

I have given this some thought and looked at a lot of pics.
I have always been interested in shells and fossils so i have made a top using this for inspiration.
I felt that It needed something bigger and bolder but I do not have very much big pieces of Oak.
Luckily a member of our woodturning club Giles brought me in a nice lump of Oak a couple of days ago.
As you can see this is quite green but OK for this job.
This is the piece roughed out to shape .
I wanted to get a spiral shape and tried tape a handsaw and a pencil.
None of these worked so i just did it by eye.
To create the carved spiral I have used my mini grinder with the chainsaw cutter.
I first carved the shape and then the groove pattern.

I have mounted it now on the same pedestal as before as i like the contrast between the colouring and the bare wood.
On one pic it is shown with the middle section and one without as I am not sure yet which is best
I am also tempted to give the top a light scorching but I am not sure.



The temptation to scorch became too great so here is the result and I am pleased with it.
                                                       Click on the pic to make it bigger.
Thats it final pic.
The top two parts are on a dowel and fixed with hot melt glue.