Planet Mesquite

[John Tisdale]

 

[John Tisdale]

It took me about 5-months to get the profile shaped into a globe. The globe is now about 32-inches in diameter.
Now the hollowing begins. The four pics show several things:
1) Using a Keith Clark steady rest (OK Spin Doctor)
2) The two bottom wheels that support the weight are marginal - changing the bearings
3) The ring is a stave construction of hickory - provides a runway for the wheels.
4) Re the hollowing system, I will not use captive. The pic shows the internal tool rest with LED lighting and pivot pin
5) I use the first edition Rolle Munro on a 4-foot titanium bar for rough hollowing - HSS cutters
6) When the wall thickness get close to 1", I'll shift to the Rolle Munro second addition with Hunter carbide
7) I use a 5/8" gun drill to pre-drill - discovered that the Milwaukee Tool 2-9/16" forstner doesn't work - the inconsistent wood conditions make it wander too much.
8) The ourside is pallet-wrap to keep it from cracking - this will take more than a month (probably more than two months) to hollow.
Will be happy to answer questions. And to those that feel they deserve the Darwin Award, forget it.
John

 

[Bill Boehme]

Looks like it might have its own gravity field.😀

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

You had one piece on the lathe for 5 months?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Five months doesn't sound too bad. Mesquite requires a lot of TLC and planning to keep it in one piece. Sometimes it's a bunch of loosely interlocking pieces. The better the piece of wood looks, the more dangerous it is liable the be. I have a lobed cross section of mesquite in the garage that makes me think of slices of cake. It's roughly 30" in diameter with a punky pith. I need to make a really large faceplate to make sure that it holds together.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Five months doesn't sound too bad. Mesquite requires a lot of TLC and planning to keep it in one piece. Sometimes it's a bunch of loosely interlocking pieces. The better the piece of wood looks, the more dangerous it is liable the be. I have a lobed cross section of mesquite in the garage that makes me think of slices of cake. It's roughly 30" in diameter with a punky pith. I need to make a really large faceplate to make sure that it holds together.

I only have one lathe, I could not afford to have something on her for 5 months.... I preturn most of my bowls, so most go on a shelve for at least 6 months... I would go crazy if I can't turn one day! Lol

 

[DON FRANK]

Wow, I have thought about this piece several times since I saw the first post with pics of this huge burl. That is an incredible undertaking.

 

[John Torchick]

Interesting. At my age, I might not live long enough to finish a piece like that. Thanks for sharing the photos and the story about this particular piece. All the mesquite I saw in east Texas was more like a shrub. Where did this come from?
Edit: Noticed the words "root ball." Hmmmm!

 

[Mike Johnson]

That is the advantage of having several machines in your shop, you can always leave a large piece mounted on one machine while you have the other machine/machines available for your daily turning. I like turning my smaller pieces on a small machine, the accessories are smaller and lighter and easier to handle quickly compared to a bigger machine that uses bigger chucks, bigger face plates, bigger morse taper adapters etc.

 

[Raul McCai]

sweet. cant wait to see the finished work, but given as how it's been five months ~ ~ ~ patience seems in order

What's that tool rest you have in there? and what's that cabled beneath it? A light?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Interesting. At my age, I might not live long enough to finish a piece like that. Thanks for sharing the photos and the story about this particular piece. All the mesquite I saw in east Texas was more like a shrub. Where did this come from?
Edit: Noticed the words "root ball." Hmmmm!

What you saw is mesquite scrub which is what 99.999% of mesquite looks like. It's good for barbeque* and fire wood. There are places where large mesquite trees can be found, but it's fairly rare, especially large pieces like the one that John is turning. Here is a typical example of mesquite scrub.



Out in west Texas they call those things trees. 🙂

Despite being slow growing, mesquite scrub has greatly expanded its range into what had been grasslands, former farmland, and pasture as a result of drought and overgrazing. There are some huge mesquite trees in some of the river bottoms.

* barbeque, pronounced Bar-Bee-Que and sometimes written as BBQ is a Texas word meaning beef cooked over wood coals (post oak, pecan, and/or mesquite) in an enclosed pit with a corrugated tin lid. Note that the word "tin" is a Texas word for galvanized steel used for roofing and siding. When beef isn't available, you can substitute rattlesnake, jackrabbit, or chicken. Note that rattlesnake and jackrabbit once barbecued can't be distinguished from chicken. There is a similar Tennessee word, barbecue, which isn't the same thing at all. They call it pulled pork barbecue, but note the spelling difference and the fact they substitute swine for beef,

 

[John Torchick]

Bill, to add to your comment about a gravity field- how often does it orbit the sun? 😎
Barbecue or however you spell it or abbreviate it comes from a word "barbacoa" which is a process by which Caribbean natives prepared long pig, that is, human flesh. Sailors adapted it to cooking meat to keep on board ships. This is described in detail by Peter Hathaway Capstick in his book, Maneater. What started out as a simple process has evolved into a multi million industry in the USA. It is interesting that there are as many ways to cook various meats as there are fleas on a coyote. Each state or region has its own way to prepare meat plus a myriad of sauces. In Ohio, the sauce was cooked with the meat. Most places add the sauce after cooking. North Carolina uses a mustard based sauce. Others are varied as to local tradition and/or taste. Now I'm getting hungry! 😉
BTW, New Mexico looks like that picture. No shade trees that are good unless you are a jackrabbit or roadrunner. I certainly wouldn't fit under one!

 

[John Tisdale]

To answer Emiliano: It is my only lathe. I got the log early April 2016 and started modifying lathe and platform. Log went on early September - outside rough profile complete in early January, hollowing in process. As soon as I get it "rough hollowed" (about 1.5" thick), it will be a manageable weight to get off the lathe and take it into a room with dehumidifier and small heater. Hope to get a longer tool rest made in a few weeks to allow the deeper cuts and gitter done.

With a bit of luck I'll achieve "self-bail" today - that's when I break through the deep bark inclusions and the shavings can fall out the side.

Also had an interesting duh-moment: I was chatting with a guy in my shop and remarking that I found that some of the vibration as I turned the RPM past 150 came from the lathe legs opposite the headstock - the log is so heavy that the balance point is somewhere along the log and lifting the other end. Although the lathe is lag-bolted to the platform, the hole platform wants to lift. He suggested a few sandbags on the end of the lathe bed - can't hurt.

And to all forum guys, if you find yourself in Dallas you're welcome to visit the shop. I'll even be tickled to let you take a turn at hollowing - this log is beating me up.

 

[hockenbery]

Just hope you gitter dun in time for SWAT
Even as a work in progress

 

[Bill Boehme]

If I were to help you out with turning that huge thing, both my shoulder and that piece of wood would be history. At least my shoulder would be.