Thread: A Wood Turning Tutorial

I have said I am one of the least proprietary cats around. I spend alot of time designing my pieces always hoping they look impossible. Being completely self taught I have no rules or restrictions other than the laws of physics. Naturally I love the gratification of completing a challenge and compliments from admirers but the best part for me is answering the questions and sharing my knowledge. I love teaching.

Here is a piece I called Herringbowl. It is approximately 16 inches in diameter and made of maple, brass and black epoxy. I made the bowl as a wedding gift for a young couple.

That is Really Awesome Icedog!Really superior work.On first glance,I thought it looked like a futuristic satellite dish.

Thank you Alan. I am taking care of some concert stuff as manager for SWMBO. Once I get caught up I wil post step by step photos and description of how this very cool bowl is fabricated.

Brad

that is cool.

I just got my grandfathers lathe going yesterday and made my first batch of sawdust. Think I'll start small, with a shave brush. Work my way up to something like this.

A masterful job and beautiful design.

Thank you very muchly. And here's how it's done:

First I milled a couple board miles of maple so it was all precisely the same thickness (in this bowl it was .650"). Then I ripped the stock to 2.75" wide and cut it to blocks about 9" long. These dimensions are purely incidental. It matters only that all the pieces are dimensionally uniform and the cuts are all square. The pieces are all laid out in a herringbone pattern as shown on a piece of masonite. I used yellow glue to secure them as I built the blank.

You can see that I had the blocks all evenly spaced. I did that by pasting little bits of 0.09375" (3/32) brass rod on all mating surfaces. Then I stuck a scrap block on the end of all the spaces. Soo effectlively what I did was to make a mold into which I poured epoxy that I tinted black. It took alot of epoxy! Especially considering it was running out beneath the blocks. Loud cursing seemed to help speed the process. It was very important to bounce the assembly and tap it to release as much air from the epoxy as possible. Once the epoxy was uniformly across the top, I stopped fiddling with it and let the glue cure overnight.

I have to run some errands now so you folks can look at this ugly mess until I return.

Brad

Mighty fine looking bowl!
I do think you're using a lot of materials to produce 1 piece. Bit of a shame.

Wow, Brad. That's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. Beautiful work! Now I REALLY want to learn how to use my Great Grandfather's lathe...

Originally Posted by Zwaplat

Mighty fine looking bowl!
I do think you're using a lot of materials to produce 1 piece. Bit of a shame.

Holy crap! Here I am trying to help people learn to make something rare and beautiful, something they might otherwise never even imagine and someone has to start whining about something they know nothing about. Don't be a drag. Wood grows on trees.

Originally Posted by icedog

Wood grows on trees.

And there was I thinking wood came out of a sawmill!