What are you working on this weekend?

[John Turpin]

As for me, it's some interesting old elm. My favorite sawmill called me a couple of weeks ago and told me that he had some cut-offs for me. He even threw the word "FREE" in every now and then. That's the sort of conversation that gets me off the sofa pretty fast. He gave me some interesting chunks of oak, walnut and cottonwood--enough for four or five 12" bowls and a bunch of smaller ones.

Then, he asked if I had any interest in elm. He moved some boards around in the back of the sawmill and showed me two little mantels. He said that his grandfather had cut them from a local elm tree about 30 years ago. For some reason, they'd never sold and he wanted them gone. A twenty dollar bill put both of them in my pickup. Each piece yielded eight or nine little blanks--one mantel giving 10-inchers and the other closer to 7s. I turned one last night just to see what it was like. This is dry wood. Oh my goodness, it's dry. But, this first one had some pretty figure (and it didn't stink like green elm). I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend working through these.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Nice score! Some cottonwoods can be a challenge to turn, the grain seems to transition in various directions.
Usually requires a sharp tool and more time sanding and finishing compared to other wood types. Have seen
some nice turned pieces from cottonwood but it does required more effort compared to other wood types.

 

[Odie]

This weekend, I'm experimenting with the two angles of carbide posts supplied with the Veritas raised bur tool. I made a special tool last week that greatly enhances the ability of the Veritas to create a uniformly smooth bur.....still analyzing the new possibilities and applications created with the two interacting facets. It's great to open new doors.....and in this case, I suspect maybe nobody else has ever opened before!


-----odie-----

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

I am working on some flowers to put in a art market. Several of our club members are going together on this project so it will not be too heavy on just one person. Yesterday I turned for the first time a hollow form all the way top partoff in one session. Had a dry piece of magnolia and needed a vase for the flower display. Will post pic when get the finish on it.

 

[Fadi Zeidan]

It is getting in the upper 80s Today, so no turning for me outside. I will probably build my wife a flower bed instead. My general contractor is coming over to hookup my 220 line in the garage and I’m ordering new lathe once done. I will try to sneak some turning Tomorrow, but we’re getting busy planning new business.

Incidentally, my contractor also does tree trimming from time to time, promised me free logs. We’ll see.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Made a dozen different style handles for some ferrite rods this last week found some small compasses that
will fit it the recess of the handle. The mini compass is available for very little cost when you purchase a quantity, they also come in several different diameters which will work for different diameter handles.

 

[DON FRANK]

Odie,
Does that burnisher work as nice as advertised? Looks like a neat set up.

 

[Lamar Wright]

Working on a couple of ceiling fan pulls for our ceiling fans. Using some scrap Spalted hackberry with very nice spalting.

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

I've been playing with half-cut rims on natural edge bowls. I found the full natural edge just too high and somewhat clunky. Great piece of hemlock. First picture is rough, second picture still sanding.

 

[Odie]

Odie,
Does that burnisher work as nice as advertised? Looks like a neat set up.

Don.......It does, but there are many things to consider that will effect (affect?) how and when it can be used.....as well as how it can be formed. For instance, in a previous discussion, someone mentioned that they were "curling" the bur, and therefore it was unusable. In that case, the probable cause was likely too much pressure, or the grind angle of the scraper was too acute.....or, both. It's easy to use too much pressure on forming the bur......it doesn't take muscle if the leverage is used right. The bur from grinding needs to be removed, and I've found that a flat diamond hone does this very well. Once the bur is removed, the resulting edge will be very sharp......what needs to be done is slightly turn that sharp edge upwards the right amount. It's important to get used to the idea that all that effort to produce a finely shaped raised bur needs to be repeated frequently......the edge only lasts a short time, a very short time.....but the results can be incredible!

I'm not an expert at forming raised burs.....yet.....but, I have been doing this for several years now, with sometimes great results on a tooled surface. Different species of wood will have different results with the raised bur. The raised bur is always used in a shear scrape mode.....

-----odie-----

 

[Jason Waguespack]

Finishing up on my Lathe benchtop cabinet stand.

 

[DON FRANK]

Don.......It does, but there are many things to consider that will effect (affect?) how and when it can be used.....as well as how it can be formed. For instance, in a previous discussion, someone mentioned that they were "curling" the bur, and therefore it was unusable. In that case, the probable cause was likely too much pressure, or the grind angle of the scraper was too acute.....or, both. It's easy to use too much pressure on forming the bur......it doesn't take muscle if the leverage is used right. The bur from grinding needs to be removed, and I've found that a flat diamond hone does this very well. Once the bur is removed, the resulting edge will be very sharp......what needs to be done is slightly turn that sharp edge upwards the right amount. It's important to get used to the idea that all that effort to produce a finely shaped raised bur needs to be repeated frequently......the edge only lasts a short time, a very short time.....but the results can be incredible!

I'm not an expert at forming raised burs.....yet.....but, I have been doing this for several years now, with sometimes great results on a tooled surface. Different species of wood will have different results with the raised bur. The raised bur is always used in a shear scrape mode.....

-----odie-----

Odie,
Thank you for the details. I have been using a burnishing rod but it looked like Veritas gizmo would allow a little more control and consistency. Also, the fact that the posts has a slight angle to allow for the angle your tool was sharpened seemed well thought out. There always seems to be a new temptation out there in the tool department. Tks,

 

[Jeff Hornung]

New student just left, we made mushrooms. Rest of today will be spent moving furniture and rewiring the home entertainment setup. Bought my first flat panel tv and hdmi cables. Yeah, you read that right. Next step is moving the 15 year old tube tv. I think I’m strong enough...

 

[Mike Johnson]

I like to finish my mushrooms with a mixture of vinegar and oil.

 

[Hy Tran]

New student just left, we made mushrooms. Rest of today will be spent moving furniture and rewiring the home entertainment setup. Bought my first flat panel tv and hdmi cables. Yeah, you read that right. Next step is moving the 15 year old tube tv. I think I’m strong enough...

Hey, Jeff,

I enjoy working on the Nova Comet ii on weekends when I'm not able to go hang out with my Robust AB. Thanks for the support last summer!

This weekend, I did get to hang out with my Robust (unexpectedly). I managed to up my project rate, from 1 project/day to 2 projects on Saturday (today was dealing with the time change and sweeping up the shop before heading back to Albuquerque).

I'm attaching two photos. The small (about 5" diameter) bowl is an unidentified wood given to me by one of our club's older members. It was dry (and hard as a rock). It started out thinking it was going to be an end-grain bowl, but after discovering the hardness, I re-designed. The shavings smell like cherry wood. The color looked like cherry too, so I'll guess some sort of cherry.

The second is a 10.5" ambrosia maple platter. The wood had been sitting on my shelf for more than 2 years, luckily (?), it had not started to spalt accidentally. Applying walnut oil (Dr Woodshop's) before a final coat of friction polish has made the maple look dramatically more amber, and has really highlighted the ambrosia marks. The platter was too large to fit in my cole jaws. I decided to use a vacuum chuck. Now, I know why some folks call this "wormy maple." A couple of the beetle holes were whistling while I was removing the tenon. (Well, I actually used a bit of issue paper to plug the beetle holes...)

Cell phone photos. At some point, I'll try taking better photos.

 

[Fred Belknap]

Don.......It does, but there are many things to consider that will effect (affect?) how and when it can be used.....as well as how it can be formed. For instance, in a previous discussion, someone mentioned that they were "curling" the bur, and therefore it was unusable. In that case, the probable cause was likely too much pressure, or the grind angle of the scraper was too acute.....or, both. It's easy to use too much pressure on forming the bur......it doesn't take muscle if the leverage is used right. The bur from grinding needs to be removed, and I've found that a flat diamond hone does this very well. Once the bur is removed, the resulting edge will be very sharp......what needs to be done is slightly turn that sharp edge upwards the right amount. It's important to get used to the idea that all that effort to produce a finely shaped raised bur needs to be repeated frequently......the edge only lasts a short time, a very short time.....but the results can be incredible!

I'm not an expert at forming raised burs.....yet.....but, I have been doing this for several years now, with sometimes great results on a tooled surface. Different species of wood will have different results with the raised bur. The raised bur is always used in a shear scrape mode.....

-----odie-----

Odie I have the same Veritas burr maker and I have tried both pins and I'm still not sure if one is better than the other. I normally use my scrapers flat on the toolrest so I decided the burl would be more toward the wood with the more pointed pin. I'm still not sure, also the burr straight off the CBN wheel seems to be about as good as going through the process of removing the wheel burr and replacing it with a burr from the Veritas. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. The wood makes a significant difference to.

 

[Fadi Zeidan]

I ended up taking long naps

 

[Bill Boehme]

I worked on setting up a new computer. I'd rather take a whipping.

 

[Glenn Lefley]

Sunday projects, trying my spindle gouge out , to see if I can do a finial.

 

[Hy Tran]

Glenn, that's awesome. Not only can you do a finial, but you can do two of them! (And you can also decorate boxes very nicely!)

Did you turn the threads?

 

[Odie]

Odie I have the same Veritas burr maker and I have tried both pins and I'm still not sure if one is better than the other. I normally use my scrapers flat on the toolrest so I decided the burl would be more toward the wood with the more pointed pin. I'm still not sure, also the burr straight off the CBN wheel seems to be about as good as going through the process of removing the wheel burr and replacing it with a burr from the Veritas. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. The wood makes a significant difference to.

Hello Fred.....It would be difficult for me to try and give advice, because anyone else is unlikely to be using the same tools/equipment I do, nor use them the same way I do. A couple big differences between mine, and your tools and techniques, are that I am using Norton 80g SG wheels (Not 3X), and I'm only using my raised bur scrapers in the shear scrape mode. As do you, I have been unable to determine that a raised bur will perform any better than a ground bur, if it's being used flat to the tool rest. The raised bur is more time consuming to acquire than the ground bur, so I suspect those who are using their scrapers flat to the tool rest will be disappointed with the results they can get with the raised burs. I do feel the raised bur excels over the ground bur, when used in the shear scrape mode, though.

Your CBN wheels are likely to be a finer grit than my SG wheels, so there's that. Your ground bur is likely to perform a bit differently than mine does. My scrapers are ground to about 72° and the more pointed carbide pin supplied with the Veritas tool will make contact with the leading edge of the scraper a little less aggressively than the more stout pin. For my purposes, I tend to lean more toward the more pointed pin as the better of the two for forming my raised burs......the results could be entirely different for someone else who uses a different grind angle on their scrapers, and not the same pressure to form the bur.

All I can say for sure, is nothing is for sure! Someone else who wants to play around with raised burs will just have to experiment and put in the practice time to find out what works best for them.

-----odie-----

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

I did 2 demos and a hands on at the Honolulu woodturning symposium. I did my hand chased threads demo. I was treated like royalty! I got a new pink smock with my name on it and Honolulu symposium logo and a few nice tshirts.... Food was great! Lots of awesome people. Super fun weekend! Ashley Harwood was the main demonstrator...
On the last picture I'm teaching one of Hawaii's most well known woodturning professionals, Andi Cole.

 

[john lucas]

I spent the weekend driving all over Georgia doing demos. Did an Air Brush Demo for the Elijay Club and then did a demo on putting feet and handles on a bowl for the Columbus Ga club. Had a good time and of course met some good people. Gotta make a small platter this afternoon and then I will start testing the Woodpecker Carbide tools and see how they compare to other carbides.