Turning Banksia Pods

[John Abt]

I received a few banksia pods a few weeks ago. My first attempt at turning one was, to say the least, an adventure.

Does anyone know of a source that describes a good turning technique to produce weed pots? I saw the online article about doing a winged bowl, but I seem to have a lot of trouble with the openings on the pods.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

John, I can't help you much with turning weed pods, but I recently used a lot of basksia pod material in a stave-constructed turning. The openings are prone to dislodge themselves, therefore I learned to apply a coating of CA glue during the turning phase (actually several coatings as the wall thickness was turned away). The seed casings are very hard and the material outside of them is quite soft. The CA not only holds the casings in place, but it hardens the soft material. It's nasty stuff, but the results can be worth the trouble. Hope this helps.

 

[GeorgeK]

John,
I've turned a few of them and they can be a real bugger.
What I do is :

1. Saw off ends

2. Place between centers and turn a tendon for the chuck

3. Mount in chuck, rough turn to basic profile

4. Drill out inside and hollow ,( Not too thin they will blow up DAMHIKT).

5. Finish turning outside profile , leaving plenty of wall thickness.

6. Sand and finish.

7. Turn around mount on jam chuck to finish bottom.

I've never been able to turn one really thin due to the seed holes, some of them interlock and the stupid thing blows up and becomes a flying hazard . 😛

Here is a pic of one of the ones I did the rest of them are among the missing,probably walked off with one of the kids.
The other one is a winged bowl I use for pen pics.