Wood Turning

[ric47]

Well we all have to keep busy. Here is a picture of one days work. I have lots of walnut to turn up so about everything I am making right now is walnut. I am cutting logs into 4 slabs each. The outside left and right slabs that are mostly bark are turned in to the NE bowls. Then the two center 4-5" slabs are being made into bowls. But I am using the Mcnaughton to core 2 bowls from each large bowl. So from one 14"diameter X 14" long log I end up with 8 bowls.

All turned green start to finish,then one coat of Arm-R-Seal. I may take them to the Beal buff later.

[RussBoyd]

Nice looking bowls. Great workmanship. I didn't know you could turn green, finish and have such a beautiful work without the worry of cracks and checks. Is it the finish that you use that prevents the future problems?

[TxMoose.]

I really like those natural edge ones. Do you have to do anything special to keep the bark on?

TxMoose

[ric47]

I don't think the finish has a lot to do with it, put it may help a little. I have some that I don't apply any finish to and they seem to dry without cracking too. Now they do warp some, some it is visable right off and others you need to pick up and study a little to see the warp. I have found that turning green then starting sanding with 80-100 grit at about 1500rpm it seem to dry the outer part of the wood. Then the finer grits I slow down to maybe 1000rpm and sand like normal. I seem to run about 2% may crack using htis method.

As for the NE bowls. I do not do anything to the bark. If the bark is solid when I start it seems to stay when dry. I know a lot of turners seem to always glue the bark with CA, but I have never done that and not had any problems yet.

[ductape]

I keep hearing, CA glue. Tell a dummy, what is CA?

[johnclucas]

CA glue is Cyanoacrylate adhesive.  Better known as super glue but that's actually a brand name.  The CA glue you buy in the small packs called Super Glue is not very good.   Woodturners use it for all sorts of things and we buy a better quality CA.    It generally comes in thin, medium and thick.  I use thin to patch small cracks or to make punky wood hard.  The thin is also handy to patch small holes by filling the holes with sawdust, metal or even coffee.  Then you pour some Thin CA onto the hole and t will harden the shavings and patch the hole.

[ductape]

Thanks. Now I am not as dumb as I was.

[RussBoyd]

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ductape wrote:

I keep hearing, CA glue. Tell a dummy, what is CA?

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A lot of pen turners also use CA glue for the finish. I, personally use a combination of BLO (boiled linseed oil) and the CA glue to finish wood pens. VERY VERY nice and rock hard finish. Looks great.

[rxeagle]

Rick, Nice bowls. Must have been a very large tree for that much sap wood. The one I got was about 20 inches and only had a 2 inch sapwood layer. I wonder does a faster growing tree have more sapwood?

[ric47]

Not really, it was a 12-14" branch with about 2" of sapwood. I cut a section about 3" off each side of the log, those are the NE bowls. Then I cut the remainder of the log down the pith and that makes 3 bowls from each half. Gets me 8 bowls per log.

On the 20" logs I maybe have 3" of sapwood.