Bits & Pieces 2018

[Robbo3]

Derek (Dalboy) asked for backup , so here goes.

Some people, like me, have no practical ability, or artistry, so what I make is copied from other woodturners. Whilst my work may look ok in the photos, close up, the faults can be seen in all their glory.

Brendan Stemp posted a video on his Youtube channel about plagiarism & attribution (which now seems to have been removed), thus the idea for these owls came from Paul Howard via Martin Saban-Smith
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCknDGGZMSE

I make stuff from whatever material I happen to have on hand - or what I can scrounge from other woodturners. The owls were turned from this ash then stained. The largest one in this parliament is 95mm.

Some plinths were turned from a 10+ year old laburnum branch but because it contained the pith they cracked about a week after. Others were turned from ash, cherry & yew with the ash & cherry being stained to darken them. A few of the smaller ones were finger painted with acrylic paint.

The off centre duck (far right) is from one of Mike Darlow's books as copied by Alan Stratton of As Wood Turns
- http://www.aswoodturns.com/2013/07/dece ... nter-duck/

& the Metrognome (far left)
- http://www.aswoodturns.com/2016/12/abstract-sculpture/

 

[Chris152]

Derek (Dalboy) asked for backup , so here goes.

Some people, like me, have no practical ability, or artistry, so what I make is copied from other woodturners. Whilst my work may look ok in the photos, close up, the faults can be seen in all their glory.

Brendan Stemp posted a video on his Youtube channel about plagiarism & attribution (which now seems to have been removed), thus the idea for these owls came from Paul Howard via Martin Saban-Smith
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCknDGGZMSE

Obviously I've nothing to say on your turning skills, but on borrowing ideas/ plagiarism I'd say nearly all creative thinking/ work (in all disciplines) is largely a remixing of what already exists, sometimes coming together in a new way. The key thing is to play with the bits til something new happens - that is, if doing something new is important to you, which it doesn't need to be. The owls look fantastic together like that (I just watched the Saban Smith vid, and it looks technically pretty difficult to me) and I'd not heard the term 'a parliament of owls' - brilliant!

 

[CHJ]

Keep them coming Robbo, having seen your workshop and the bits and pieces dotted around the place I'm sure you have enough interesting output to give people ideas and encouragement.

 

[Dalboy]

The owls look great from here. Keep at it and show more of your work as you do it. I like the simple seat made from logs but the problem with something like that (well for me ) is that I can see it ending up as turned items :lol: :lol: :lol:

There is nothing wrong with copying while you learn as long as you can attribute it to the original turner and that it is purely for yourself and not for payment. This is how many a turner started out especially after they have turned a few bowls or goblets and any other run of the mill turning. After all by making something that takes a little bit more thought into how to do it and makes you use new skills can only give you a better knowledge.

A good place to find things to turn is the Woodturner magazine where some of the authors do a run through of how to make something.

As you stated there are faults but by recognising them you are on to a good path in this hobby. So keep posting and put C & C welcome at the bottom of the discription hopefully will bring commentsabout the piece. If you get a persistant fault just ask on here or if you are a member of a club ask them as they will be able to show you hands on.
I am at the moment trying to turn 20 items all with different faults in them and that is harder than you think this is for a demonstration I am doing at our club

 

[Robbo3]

Derek, the 'seat' was ash logs delivered by another woodturner who was moving house & couldn't take it with him. I didn't really have a choice - he rolled up with it on a trailer & had half unloaded it by the time I found out.

Some more owls in the making.

I want to have a go at a larger owl but don't have a large enough piece of wood. So I am going to attempt it by joining two pieces together. This will still only give me a 200mm sphere but more probably 180-190mm.

You don't need any fancy equipment to saw up logs.

Started by axing some of the face of the first piece to level it up, but I'm no Ben Orford (if you don't know who he is, look him up on Youtube) & followed up with a portable electric planer wasn't working for me so off to the bandsaw.

Luckily tidying up the end with a cross cut resulted in it being upright when stood on end which allowed the face to be trued up. A 300mm cut, even with a 6TPI blade is possible, if you take it slowly.

 

[Dalboy]

You would have loved the logs I just cut up they were 16" diameter and wet and very heavy

 

[Robbo3]

Blanks roughed out on the bandsaw.

The two halves glued & turned.

Oops!

Back to a sphere of two halves. The centre hole was for a dowel.

 

[Robbo3]

I decided to remove some of the centre on both halves of the large sphere with a small hand held router, leaving a raised 25mm rim. After gluing & leaving for some weeks there is still some movement leaving a small crack but it seems to have settled down. That'll teach me to dry the wood properly next time!

These owls seem very popular. Not only have they nearly all been given away but I've been given strict instuctions to provide some to be put away for christmas presents.

Hence another batch in a natural edge bowl, Mike Waldt style. Whereas he used Hampshire Sheen C wax, I used black shoe polish on the outside & left the inside natural.

 

[Robbo3]

An ignominious end for the owl. The two bumps on top are butchered solar powered lamps. The LEDs projected below the bottom hence the two carrier rings.

Didn't like the square box so changed it for a goldfish bowl. A pity the rim is coloured but I couldn't find a clear one. Still @ £5.35 it's cheaper than a real glass one for about £32.

 

[Robbo3]

Made from oak burr on the right. A 70mm slice removed carefully with an electric chainsaw.

Router Sled
Unfortunately I either didn't take any photos or I have lost them.
However a sled is only a base larger than the work & two sides that are taller. The router needs only to be mounted centrally to a board that must be longer than twice the width of the sled, so that when the router is at one edge the other end of the board is still supported.
Other sleds have the router sliding in a movable trough thus the router makes multiple passes with the trough acting as a guide.
Edit:Jarred Fedor (https://www.fedorwoods.com/) from San Jose, California kindly allowed me to use this photo.

Only one face needs to be flattened to mount the burr on the lathe. The flattened face will be the back so no screw holes allowed.

The centre point is chosen.

I then prepared a 7" disk with a 5" tenon to suit my largest chuck jaws which I paper glued to the work with PVA & strengthened with hot melt glue round the edge. This should allow for an easy clean up later.

Mounted & part turned over the end of the lathe & using the bed extension.
Attempted decoration which went wrong. I purposely left the work in the chuck at all times so at a later date I cleaned up the incised lines by remounting the piece with the headstock at Ninety degrees to the bed & used my home made outrigger.

The end result had about 10 coats of lemon oil over several weeks then a coat of microcrystaline wax which was buffed with a bristle brush & then repeated. The brush cleans any excess wax in the voids & adds it back to the surface.

Addendum: Maximum speed throughout was just under 400 RPM. I even hot melt glued & duct taped a couple of spare jaws in the voids at the rear in an attempt at balancing but the centrifugal forces were massive so I had to remove the one that stuck out the furthest.

 

[Dalboy]

That turned out nice. Great job

It always surprises me what you find in the most unexpected pieces of wood, sometimes you get an idea other times totally different from what you expect

 

[CHJ]

Full marks for the tenacity to tackle that Robbo3, a bit un-nerving I suspect spinning it at that speed with the limited shop room you have.
Hot melt really is a boon sticking big nuts & bolts etc. to the rear of such pieces to improve the balance.