Alan a very fast learner

Alan my Student today was very quick to pick up turning and this made my day very easy.
Anybody can learn Woodturning given enough time but sometimes you get somebody that you just know would pick it up quickly and make a good Woodturner and Alan was one of them.
I only had to show him something once and he could very soon do it.
Alan's finish strait of the tools was unusually good and left very little scraping and sanding he also had a very good eye for form.

Very well done Alan .
A couple of pics from the day '

A nice 11" x 3" Sycamore Blank

The bottom of the bowl has already been finished at this stage  the top turned an being sanded

 I showed Alan some Texturing Techniques and after a bit of practice Alan textured the bowls wide rim with the Crown tools Texturning tool and added some colour.

 Final sanding of inner Bowl

 Polishing

 Finished Bowl and a very pleased Alan.

Wide rimmed Bowl WIP for Will Stewart

I am not saying this is the best way or the only way it is the way I do it.

This is a Spalted Sycamore blank I roughed out probably a year ago.It would have been partly air dried but not dry enough to finish.

 This blank has quite a large spigot because when it was roughed out  I would probably have done a batch of about 50 or more and with the bigger spigot I could turn it safely at a very high speed therefore getting through the work a lot quicker

 At this stage the underside has been given its final shape and the spigot reduced. To save on time the  large spigot is now reduced in size to create the finished foot and I put a slope on the side of the foot so that when I sand the underside the abrasive goes over the slope and saves time better than sanding a square edge. .The underside is then sanded down to 1000 grit 120,180,240,320,400.600.1000 I sand all of my work down to 1000 grit.Then I apply a coat of Cellulose sanding sealer and wipe of excess and spin the piece up fast with a bit of Safety cloth held quite firmly against the piece to create a bit of heat to set the sealer.

 Next with the Lathe stopped and a thin film of Yorkshire Grit is wiped on.The lathe is then spun up slowly to star with and building the speed gradually to break down the grit this creates a very fine finish

 Then a thin coat of Hampshire Sheen High Gloss polish is applied again with the lathe stopped followed by buffing with safety cloth with the lathe at quite a high speed.

 This is the underside finished to a very high standard and all that is left is to remove the Spigot later

 Bowl reverse chucked and rim sanded to 240 Grit don't go any smoother than this as the paint needs something to grip on

 I then apply a coat of Chestnut Ebonising lacquer taking care not to spray inside the inner Bowl or the paint will be sucked up the end grain and you will never remove it.What I used to do to avoid this was to coat the surface of the inside with wax polish to fill the end grain and then if you get over spray it will not be sucked up into the grain If you do it this way when you have finished your colouring turn out the first bit of the inner bowl with the Lathe running slowly or the polish we go all over the rim because of centrifugal force

 To speed everything up I have dried the paint with a hot air gun.

 I am going to do the colouring with Jo Sonja's iridescent paints as pictured below.I keep the paints upside down because then I don't have to turn them up to get the paint to the top it is already there time saved.

I am using three colours on this piece first is Red

 Followed by Turquoise and a bit of Gold.I do not like putting on too much Gold I feel it can over power the other colours. The paint is simply dabbed on with a bit of crumpled up carrier bag

 All colours on and to save time I dry the paint with a hot air gun this does not hurt the paint just don't burn it.

The inside of the Bow is then turned down to a finish and sanded to 1000 Grit

 I am now going to put a border both sides of the coloured rim to make the painted area stand out and tie the whole piece together.Firstly I cut through the paint very carefully with the point of a Skew chisel.Take care doing this and only use the point of the skew or it might track of left or right spoiling the piece.The skew must be dead upright.

 Skew from another angle.

 That is the two lines defined then I carefully remove the paint with a Spindle gouge to create a nice margin keeping them the same size or they will look odd

 Carefully sand down again to 1000 Grit

 Then the whole top wood and paint is given a coat of Chestnut Acrylic sanding sealer and a couple of coats of Hampshire Sheen Gloss lacquer sprayed wet on wet .The sealer coat in my opinion is very important to seal the Paint and protect from fading.

 Then again I go through the the same process with the Yorkshire grit and Hampshire Sheen high Gloss this gives a very good finish but this is only on the wood not the paint.

 Remove the spigot and put my Brand on the bottom and we are done.

 Finished Bowl

It took me longer to write this up than it did to make the Bowl.I have been making hundreds of these for about 15 years and have got it of to a tee.When I do these in bulk I do each stage on about ten bowls at a time and I have got it down to about 30 minutes from roughed out Bowl to finished

A present for Christine

Christine's Husband Scott treated her to a days Woodturning experience because she had shown an interest in the past.
Christine was great company and a lot of fun, we had a very nice day.
These are the sort of days that make teaching easy good company and plenty of laughs .
Christine took to turning like a Duck to water and turned a lovely Sycamore bowl.

Doesn't she look proud and well she might she did well.

New Project

I have made a start on a new project and just completed the first stage.It is going to be quite a bit of work and I will do a WIP as I go for anybody that is interested.

I am trying to use up materials that I have had about for a long time.The 3/8 Ply is left over from another project and the piece of Hardwood on the right was salvaged from the Pier at Weston super Mare after the big fire.I bought the Hardwood (I think it is Sapele) from a local salvage yard thinking I would make a load of pens and sell them as souvenirs. It was part of one of the outside seats.

 The Hardwood had quite a bow and twist in it so as I needed it to be strait I straightened it on the planer

 Here we can see evidence of the Big fire a scorched area

 I have cut the board into roughly lengths that are needed and flattened and planed a face side and face edge

 The boards are now flat on both side and edge ready to thickness.

 Thicknessed

 I needed four strips about an inch deep so they have been Bandsawed of the outer edges because they have been thicknessed flat

 Planer and Thicknesser put away .You need to keep everything tidy and in its place if you have restricted workspace

 One pass through the Drum sander on all four sides as this needs to be to a good finish

 Face side marked this is important because everything will be worked from this side

 The Ply had a bit of a bow in it so a couple of turns through the Drum sander has sorted it near enough for what I need

 I will be making a frame around the ply with a quarter of an inch up stand.To make it easier for gluing up and to create a bigger glue area a recess has been created on the Router table,

 Router table and Drum sander put away to create more floor space.Nearly everything in my workshop is on Wheels.

 Mitres cut on the Bandsaw.But first dummy cuts to make sure the cut is 45%

 All glued up ready for the next stage .The frame has an up stand of 1/4 of an inch.

Got a bit more done today

Today I am making Molds and casting Pewter in them .The molds are turned from Mdf which seems to be the best material for the Job.

Having cut rounds in the MDF I am making a chucking recess much safer than a spigot on MDF

 Circles get marked out in in the sizes I want for my rings

 To safe time and material I am making several recesses in each piece of MDF This piece will have three.These moulds are worth keeping for another day.

 13 Rings ready to fill with Pewter

 Very important to have the mold dead level before pouring or the pewter will not flow to a level finish

 Here we go ready to make a start

 Using up swarf from the last pewter Project always worth catching as much as you can when turning Pewter because it is not cheap

 First pour and all went well.

 This is taking a lot of Pewter but some of it will be turned off later and saved this is the best part of £200  00 worth of Pewter

 That's it for today 13 rings poured

I am doing this in stages not because it takes a long time I find it more enjoyable if I do a bit at a time not so much of a chore.Please stick with it I will finish in a day or two.

I am almost at the giving up stage on this project it is not as easy as I anticipated

Mounted in the lathe and because of the weight I have brought the tailstop up for safety

 I found a scraper was the best for flatening these off but still far from easy

 With one side reasonably flat I am putting them through the Drum sander on both sides

The problem I am having is getting them all the same thickness the sander only takes off a very small amount at a time and some need as much as a few mm off. .They have to be the same or it just won't work I have been on these all day and I am getting through lots of abrasive .
Not sure it is going to look good enough to warrant all the work.

I have had more problems with this but I am now back on track.
I rolled on a coat of black paint to the inside let it dry then went over it with spray paint and there was a reaction it all pickled up.This meant I had to remove all the paint and start again so I only used spray paint and it is OK.
I want a good finish on the black base because I will only lightly colour the resin because I want to create depth.

The outside of the rings were rough from the mold so I smoothed the off on the belt sander

The inside is smoothed on the Bobbin sander

The Pewter rings are now glued to the base and the next job will be to pour the Resin when the paint is totally dry then it will be sanded and polished

Teaching today but found time this evening to do the Resin pour.
The important thing is to keep it all dead level as the Resin is very thin and will run over the edge
As you can see I have added some purple colouring this should give a nice effect on top of the Black Base.