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Piercing?

john lucas

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When I learned from Binh Pho the first piece i made to pierce had a varying wall thickness down toward the bottom. So I got to see first hand how hard it is to do anything thicker than 1/16". I have since done some with 1/8" wall thickness and it is definitely much slower and harder to cut through it. I've done thicker walls and used my dremel or foredom and man is that hard. Takes tremendous patience. The High speed grinder and a wall thickness of 1/16 is like cutting through butter and easy to control.
 

Tom Gall

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If I were wanting to do some piercing how thick should the wood (maple) be? I think I've heard 1/8", but would 1/4" or 3/16" be too thick?
Depends on several things. Tool(s)? - air turbine (40-50k rpm) - only for very thin, delicate piercing. Dremel type (slower rpm) will work on thicker, larger, more open piercing - but, harder to control and usually a PITA to control. See John Lucas' post.
 
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Tom brings up a good point. What are you using for piercing? I use a dentist handpiece and dentist drills. The dentist handpiece turns at 400K. If you use something 50,000 or less the tool tends to follow the grain, where it is not a problem with a dentist drill. As far as thickness that is a preference. I like 3/32 and feel 1/16 makes the piece a bit fragile if a large area is pierced.
 
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I was thinking I might buy the micromoter, but right now all I have is a Fordam. I wouldn't get to piercing this before January so there's some time to sort that out. I started thinking about piercing only because I've never been this thin before.
 

Tom Gall

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I was thinking I might buy the micromoter, but right now all I have is a Fordam. I wouldn't get to piercing this before January so there's some time to sort that out. I started thinking about piercing only because I've never been this thin before.
Unless you buy an extremely high end / high torque unit the majority of the micromoters on the market don't have enough torque and will stall (depending on wood thickness) and most likely shut off frequently. Your Foredom probably has a 1/3 or 1/4hp motor and would be better, but its lower speed will want to follow the grain and be harder to control and the shaft is not flexible enough for comfortable and controllable cuts. My 2¢. ;)
 
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Follow up question. How do you handle finishes when piercing?

Do you apply the finish coatings before or after the piercing? (I assume after). If you pierce first and then finish how do you coat the edges of the pierced areas? Spray? Wipe on?
 

Donna Banfield

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Follow up question. How do you handle finishes when piercing?

Do you apply the finish coatings before or after the piercing? (I assume after). If you pierce first and then finish how do you coat the edges of the pierced areas? Spray? Wipe on?

Piercing will leave the edges of the wood burned, whether or not there is a finish prior to piercing. So putting a finish on in advance doesn't give you any advantage. You'll have burned through that finish. I spray lacquer on the entire piece when it's completed.
 

Donna Banfield

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Ms. Donna, I'm new so....would I be out of line to ask you how you're texturing. I've viewed your work with kind of a dumbness/headshake.....

No, you're not out of line. It depends on the body of work you're looking at. I use a variety of tools to achieve textures; in my Soul Series texture is created with tiny dental burrs held in the same handpiece I use to do the piercing/cutting to create negative space. In some of the Soul Series pieces, I am using several different tips in woodburning handpieces to create those textures. Some of those tips are also the ones used to create the pieces in my Illusions in Wood series.
 
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After watching the Glynn Cox video the dental tools were my first suspects for texturing your "It Satisfied My Soul No. 19."
Ive done some of the pyro type textures but they leave a burn, obviously:D....the dental tools look interesting!
Thank You!
 
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I've done quite a bit of piercing over the years especially on my free will series. The Lord blessed I was able to buy the NSK to learn piercing with. Unfortunately, it was like having the perfect tool for wood surgery but no ability to turn thin enough yet to make piercing easier. I burned out my turbo cartridge trying to pierce wood too thick. I learned an expensive lesson that your ability to pierce well is directly proportional to your ability to turn wood thin enough to pierce. 1/16 to 3/32 is optimal piercing with the NSK that Binh Pho used. Like many have already said 1/8 is really too thick for easy piercing but it can be done using different rotary systems. I have found my favorite piercing bits from Tree-line USA. Once you realize that the very high-speed bits will burn the inside of your piercing holes, you can use that knowledge to give your piercings a uniform clean look. It's like most every new aspect of woodturning is knowledge, practice and experience will make your skills improve. Good luck and have fun learning.
 
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What kind of wood would you folks recommend for turning 1/16" thick?
What's the best wood for piercing?

My Son and I loaded about half a pickup of this today. He said his cows licked the tree to death about a year ago...:eek:

F5122B87-EE64-4A0E-A560-7665150D97A9_1_201_a.jpeg
 

Donna Banfield

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What kind of wood would you folks recommend for turning 1/16" thick?
What's the best wood for piercing?

My Son and I loaded about half a pickup of this today. He said his cows licked the tree to death about a year ago...:eek:

Green, always, and turn once to final thickness. If you try to twice turn, your success rate diminishes significantly. As you turn down the walls to that thinness, you will experience a lot of wall vibration, resulting in shattered pieces. When turning green, once to final thickness, you work from the edge of the blank, down about a 1/2" at a time. When you get to the wall thickness you desire, only then do you continue down the next 1/2". Never go back to clean up an edge; the wall is too thin, and has already begun to warp - remember, it's green wood, that has already begun to dry. As you continue down the wall, only remove enough wood from the center mass of the blank to allow your gouge to get down into the blank. The mass of wood in the center helps keep the walls from stretching outward. If you've ever tried to turn a thin walled bowl, and cut right through the wall at about 2/3rd's down, you have experienced the outward stretching of those walls.

Straight grain, closed pore is preferable to the open grain. open pore like oak, ash, mulberry, walnut, etc. While it is possible to turn these species green to final thickness and pierce, the closed pore is easier. Woods like cherry, maple, birch, poplar, pear or apple are woods I like to turn thin and pierce.
 
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Every piece I’ve pierced has been a touch too thick! It is really a tough process if you don’t get it thin. I’m using the NSK air tool; a must IMO! Get ready for some smoke, use a fan to suck it away from yourself. Definitely mask up!!
 

Randy Anderson

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OK, I confess I didn't even know what this topic was about when I opened it. After reading and seeing some of Donna's work I'm interested. I'm not nearly as artistic as she is or as many of you are but, I think I could try some simple designs to see if I can but - another tool more $ so will do some research and see what I can do with a basic setup.
 
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I don't have the patience for that. The latest issue of AAW has an article about Donna.
Edit- Love NH.
 

Tom Gall

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What kind of wood would you folks recommend for turning 1/16" thick?
What's the best wood for piercing?

My Son and I loaded about half a pickup of this today. He said his cows licked the tree to death about a year ago...:eek:
Looks like Eastern Red Cedar to me. I still have at least a half dozen logs in my shed that look just like those you showed. Here is an anniversary gift made in 2014 from ERC.....and it has piercing on the sapwood. :)


index.php
 
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Thank you for this thread Mark J. ...Very informative.

Tom that's beautiful!

I did a little test today to see what this stuff looks like. I was wondering if the red turns brown like purple heart? ...we'll see

BDA723AC-2A93-4D19-9B28-C42AFBEF23CD_1_201_a.jpeg
 
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I have used soft maple and sapele for piercing, Here are a couple maple shadow dancers I call them and a sapele and ebony piece. I prefer kiln dried wood turned to 1/16 or 3/32
 

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Dave, My hands couldn't take much more than 10 minutes or so of texturing with the Foredom or Dremel flex type tool, so I clamped the tool in a vise, and it worked quite well....enough to finish the project. Holding the workpiece with both hands also helped me with the grain control thing.

btw, your Zipper Series are a scream...I love 'em!
 
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