This is the last of the green wood microwaved from green to dry in 2011.
As of this date in 2012, this blank is 11 months dry. It's moisture level is under 8%, which is about right for the climate.
I think I will talk a little about the ShopSmith. This is an incredibly versatile, many tools in one machine. You can dramatically cut down on the number of tools you need in your shop with the ShopSmith.
One of the disadvantages of the ShopSmith is that it is very light weight. Trying to turn a bowl blank like the one pictured above at the slowest speed would tear the lathe motor apart. ShopSmith has a bowl kit which adds weight to the base but I wouldn't bother with that.
Use a speed reducer. This is the first step to adding on a speed reducer.
This is the speed reducer. It reduces speed by somewhere around 7-1.
This is the completed assembly.
The maple blank is now mounted and has tail stock support.
I'm thinking this bowl blank is too tall for what I generally do. When it comes to bowls I tend to be more utilitarian when it comes to the larger blanks. I'm thinking if I cut this down to 4", the rest would either make a smaller serving bowl or maybe some plates.
I've got about 2" to spare so that should work either way.
This maple blank is considerably out of round. I could spend a while getting it back to round but I will probably lose more material.
I opt for leaving it out of round while cutting a deep groove with the parting tool.
Yup, this is a little out of round. - a Short MOV file.
I like to cut a nice, half inch deep groove. Ordinarily, you'd need a really deep throated band or chop saw for a decent cut.
You can turn an ordinary sharp toothed saw into a great parting tool with the ShopSmith.
The groove cut with the parting tool helps keep the hand saw in place.
You hold the saw in the groove and let the ShopSmith turn the piece. Move the saw around a bit so you don't overheat the saw teeth.
Getting this far takes about five minutes.
Crank up the speed as you cut further into the piece. Helps with making a more even cut and the saw is not as likely to bind.
This is a big advantage with the ShopSmith and using a gear reducer because it has slip. If you bind the saw, the piece stops turning.
If I was on something more robust, I would probably end up with a bent to hell saw and cracked knuckles.
The entire process takes 12 minutes. I timed it.
How's that for flat!
Well how about that! This piece has some spalting and it's just starting. It appears to run through the blank and should look quite attractive.
Now if I was turning pens and wanted spalt, I would cut this section out of the blank and from that, cut pen blanks.
I'm thinking this would look better as two plates rather than as a smaller bowl.
I'll get the perimeter round and see what it looks like like.
About 11" wide.........that could make a couple dinner plates.
Cutting this blank in half only takes for or five minutes and...........I can still see spalt!
A plate could look very nice!
A matched set like this could look verryyyy nice.
Might as well get started.......
Simple Way to Turn a Plate:
For a plate blank , I like about 750 Rpm. It is a light weight piece so vibration won't be a problem once the piece is rounded.
Start with the back side and figure about where you want the plate bottom to set.
The scooped out area serves as the plate bottom. The raised edge will eventually become the bottom rim.
Contour the plate out and up.
At this stage the plate bottom should be fairly well defined. The bowl bottom edge is raised. The rim thickness is 1/4-3/8" thick.
Turn a 1/2" or flat face and hollow our the plate from there. The spalting looks pretty good too!
Hmmm... I seem to be picking up a few cracks.
Once most of the meat has been taken out of the plate front, I switch back to the other side and do some more clean-up.
This looks fine-tuned enough. The next step is to sand the plate bottom down with an 80 grit sanding disk (while the lathe is turning).
Repeat the procedure with the plate front, contouring the 1/2" lip with the rest of the plate.
There are some cracks that need to be fixed but this won't take long.
Take some 400 grit sandpaper and lightly sand the surface, which will fill in the cracks with sawdust.
Drench the plate with thin CA glue. CA Glue darkens wood and in addition to filling cracks, that's exactly what I want.
As an aside, I should buy stock in the company.
This should look pretty good.
Flipping the plate over, there is some leak-through. You know how to fix that, don't you?
More CA Glue!
I'm going to let this dry for an hour or so. It's incredibly warm in the garage for a March day.
The next objective is to re-mount the plate and sand off all the excess CA Glue. The only CA glue left should be what's in the filled cracks.
Sand the back of the plate as well.
The inside will be sanded through 400 grit using Wave Disks.
Helpful hint : Buy these direct from Performance Abrasives. You can get 50-packs for $14.00, slightly better than $3.99 for five from Woodcraft.
Most of the CA glue has been sanded out but removing it from edges by sanding can be a pain, especially if you wish to maintain a sharp edge.
There is a solution:
This is a rare occasion where a mini-tool works very well. I use this to trim out the excess CA glue and to sharpen edges.
If you're careful, all you need when finished is some 400 grit sandpaper to finish the work.
Next step is the finish. I like tung oil because it darkens the wood, soaks in well and really hardens up.
This wood is porous so lots of tung oil is applied.
Don't forget the back side as well. It looks like there is still some more edge cleanup to do.
Let the plate sit for half an hour or so.
The spalting looks pretty good!
Well this is interesting.......there is virtually no excess even though the tung oil was slathered on
Start the lathe again and clean off any extra oil and use a bit of friction.
Since most of the oil soaked in, I'm going to let this sit the night and put on another application of tung oil tomorrow.
So far so good.
Meanwhile on the other side, I missed some glue.
Lightly turn the affected area and re-sand.
It's a good idea to periodically check the blank thickness. Not that I've ever run a gouge through the plate bottom...
The plate is now ready to be parted from the sacrificial block. I'll fix the bottom finish later.
I always use a saw remove the final inch or so of material. Better that than the plate flying off the lathe.
Looks good so far.
Meanwhile, might as well get the second plate ready.
This sacrificial block has been used more than once. I see Hedge Apple, Maple and Cedar.
The idea here is to make the end slightly concave.
Use something like this to easily find center.
This looks about right.
Check that you are still on center at least once before the glue starts to get hard. If you have the blank on an uneven surface and sometimes even not, the block can slide. A ways. Voice of experience here.
If the block slides 1/4", figure on having to cut half an inch of material away to get it back to round.
Probably the most frequent question I've been asked is why I use sacrificial blocks when I have a really good chuck.
Fair question.
Two reasons, actually.
The first reason is I usually don't have a lot of material to waste cutting a tenon. I generally need all the wood I can get.
The second reason is that when dealing with spalted woods, you are often dealing with different densities and that means crushing tenons sometimes. Other times, say the piece is really out of round and you jam it hard with the tool.
If the tenon is soft in just one small area, the piece sometimes gets knocked a little loose and off center.
If I had a heavier lather, I would probably make more use of the chuck but for me, I know that if I have block glued on with Titebond, the piece isn't going anywhere.
This will set for three or four days. Two days is usually good enough for light stuff. The heavier pieces I give it at least one or two days more.
