This is the best that I've made so far:
I really like this purple poplar wood, although this was much darker than the last ones - the dust from sanding was essentially black. Gosh - variations in natural products! Who'd a thunk it?
My skill is also developing. I started this but had to stop it (ran out of time that day). It was a mess - big jagged chunks broken off the lip, horrible ridges inside and out. I was able to fix all of that, and I think it came out pretty nice.
One thing that was striking was how you get tiny droplets of water splashed all over your face when you turn green wood. This was very green and basically soaking wet which I think led me to make the mistakes I made that first day. It was a lot easier a week later when it had dried out a bit. But that led to a different problem:
See the cracks on the rim at eleven o'clock and four o'clock? Yup, unfinished wet wood shrinks and cracks as it dries. There's a powder/epoxy product that my teacher says I can fix this with, which will continue my learning experience. Hey, that's what it's all about, amirite?
But as I said, I'm pretty pleased with this one. If you scroll back through all of these you can see a definite progression of skill. Yay, me!
This is the sort of stuff that has me looking at the lathe in the corner and wanting to spend some time there.
ReplyDeleteAfter the belaying pins, and an assortment of baseball bats.
Rough turning wet wood, then storing the product in a bag of shavings for a year or so while it finishes drying out, will help reduce the damage from the drying process. It'll still warp, but not as badly, and if you leave lots of material to remove later, you can still end up with a nice end product.
ReplyDeleteSave some of the shavings and dust from turning wet wood. Reduce the lot to powder and then use that to colour the clear epoxy you will use to fill the cracks. You can make any small cracks disappear completely.
ReplyDeleteBP,
ReplyDeleteI'm getting dangerously close to starting my first turning project. Got the lathe and tools, just got to clear some space in my shop to set it up. Anything you wish you knew before you started up that you didn't know?
Good onya.
ReplyDeletePoplar can also be pink, green, yellow, cream, nearly white and variations of those. I suspect those colors come from slight wounds or stresses of the tree. It was always interesting to open a new log at the sawmill.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of turning wet wood before BP. How will you finish it? Some kind of resin...?
ReplyDeleteI'm with Glen. Never heard of doing 'wet' wood...
ReplyDeleteonce it dries, those cracks might be able to be able to turn it into a yarn bowl
ReplyDeleteThought you might find this interesting.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/p1qxrG2pHNE