GrahamR's Turning Thread

[GrahamR]

Hi my hames Graham and im new to the forum. Hope its ok to make a thread for my Turnings and probably pleas for advice and ideas of what to attempt haha.
Been turning for a month and grew fed up off turning bits of soft or rubbish wood so went out today and bought :

Some spalted beech (7cmx7cmx44cm) - appears to have a nice amount of spalting that runs deep without there being so much as to weaken the wood. (can someone confirm if the spalting does weaken the wood or if its just an old myth)

A block of Purpleheart very dark and rich purple though this may be mainly due to recent cutting? (8cmx8cmx23cm)- Got to be my favorite wood to look at so far and currently planing to make an earing stand much like the one in a recent woodturning magazine (dunno if i can mention the name and it escapes me anyway haha)

Also was given a tiny block of bubinga which as far as i can see could only be useful for making an egg? (4.8cmx4.8cmx9cm))


If u could give me anyadvice on possible difficulties with these woods it would be much apreciated and i hope u can help suggest what to make with the spalted and bubinga items looking forward to many chances of woodturning in the near future

Cheers Graham

 

[tekno.mage]

Hi Graham and welcome to the forum - you are bound to find lots of useful advice from the friendly folk on here.

With regards to your questions about the woods you bought...

Yes, spalting does weaken the wood. It is the result of fungal decay to the wood when it is wet/damp. If caught soon enough and the wood dried out, it results in the lovely black lines and other figuring we admire so much. If left too long before drying it also makes the wood go very soft (punky) and difficult to get a good finish on. My rule of thumb is that if I can easily poke a fingernail into spalted wood it's too far gone to be used for much except firewood (although some people do use very punky wood and soak it with various wood hardening substances).

Purpleheart is usually pale brown when freshly cut and turns purple on exposure to UV light - so don't be too disappointed if your ear ring stand is pale brown when you've finished turning it! Just leave it on a sunnt window-sill for a day and it will go purple again.

You could use your piece of bubinga to make a finial for the lid of a box you could make out of some of the spalted beech?

 

[Jonzjob]

Welcome from me too Graham. Don't ever forget that the only really silly questions are the ones that you don't ask if you don't know. We have all started with no experience so ask away.

One thing I will say about the spalted anything is to say to wear a good dust mask when you are turning it. The fungal spores are at best not good for you health! It is a wood that I love to turn. One reason is that although you can see the shape it isn't until you stop the lathe that you can see what you really have!

A quick example

Good-ere-init :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[GrahamR]

Hey thanks for your help

I am currently studying at a uni in glasgow so cannot turn till i get home (moray) next week.

I like the box and fineal thing idea but do not have a chuck will that be a problem?

Loving the vase but i dunno how to do hollow stuff between centers :s

We have - Normal fixing + a revolving center + a screw face plate.

cheers
graham

 

[chrisbaker42]

Using the screw faceplate you can easily hollow items but the blank will need to be big enough to fit the faceplate.

 

[GrahamR]

Yeah sorry i more meant that i dont know how to do it without leaving holes or wasting loads of wood :s

Cheers
Graham

 

[mike s]

you can glue your good wood to a scrap piece and screw the scrap to the faceplate

 

[Jonzjob]

My 4 inch face plate has a bit of 2 inch thick pine screwed to it, turned to the size of the plate, a 'tommy bar' hole drilled into the side to make it easy to take off the live end thread. The face is trued and several lines are cut in the radius to make it easier to true pieces that are to be hot glued to it. Then the pieces are hot glued to it. When they are turned I just either prise them off with a chisel or a sharp tap with a mallet will remove them. If the removed bit takes any wood from the face plate I just true it up and replace the lines with the point of a scew chisel.

If you are turning a bowl, you could glue the blank to the wood on the face plate, turn a flat base and roughly true the blank up. Then remove it from the face plate and clean the face plate up. Re glue, I use hot glue, the bottom of the blank to the face plate and make sure it is as central and ballanced as possible and then hollow and shape the bowl.

If hot glue is used correctly it is very good stuff and if you can start on fairly small stuff and build up it will be both good fun and good practice.

Good luck and welcome to this very slippery slope!!

 

[GrahamR]

Thanks everyone for there input i like the idea of using hotglue on the pine. should hopefully have my first turning this monday coming for you all torn between the earing stand and a box atm


kind regards Graham.