What's on your WORK BENCH ? - May 2020

Carl said:
You're welcome! You really are doing gallery quality art Dave.

BTW, Did the wood and punky areas firm up well once dried or did you have to stabilize it with something?
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Carl,
No this particular piece of wood is still too soft to make a functional bowl. (about two steps below balsa?) [sly] This piece will be decorative only. There are products out there, Cactus Juice is one, that are just for that. One needs a vacuum chamber for the liquid to penetrate the wood. Then the piece must be oven cured to harden the product. At that point in time the piece is ready to be finish turned. That process (haven't gotten into that yet) would add a whole lot of time, effort and expense into the finished piece. The best scenario is the catch a piece of wood at the stage where the spalting colors are popping, but the wood is still relatively solid.
 
Dave, really nice work. You are making me want to put my old Delta Rockwell lathe to work. Need a new chuck, spur drive and live center or at least some rehabilitation on the live center bearings.
 
Brad Bortner said:
Dave, really nice work. You are making me want to put my old Delta Rockwell lathe to work. Need a new chuck, spur drive and live center or at least some rehabilitation on the live center bearings.
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Brad,

Get'er out and get'er done. It doesn't take much to turn a basic bowl. I turned several bowls with just a face plate and glue block. I will admit I much prefer using a chuck over a glue block. I'm in the process of converting one of my faceplates to a "doughnut chuck", to allow me to recut the base of a bowl if needed.
 
Huntindave McCann said:
It was a challenge to work on this this piece of wood. The wood is "spalted", which is a nice way of saying rotten, depending on how far gone it is. This piece was really getting soft and was full of moisture. I rough turned the outside and formed a dovetail in the base to hold it in the lathe chuck to hollow the inside. Turning the wood away on the inside was a experiment in futility, due to the excessive moisture in the wood. The wood was so punky, my tools would only tear away at the wood. Plan "B" was to further dry the wood before final turning could be completed. A few months later, I got back at it and am quite pleased with the results. Right now I'm kind of attached to it and haven't yet decided if I will offer it for sale or keep it for myself.
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Dave,

Looks GOOD.

Spalted wood has it's own natural character, and charm. Lotta "earthiness".

I understand you wanting to keep it.

Not only for the beauty, but for the patience and time it took you to work with it. Many folks think it useless, but it is not, just takes some TLC.


I have carved & rasped many a decoy from spalted Sugar and White Pine. All got a good slathering of West System to stabilize the wood, and sealing prior to painting.

Most of them I have kept, but I can recall where every one that went to a new home. Things like that just stick with a person.

Keep A Turning!


Best regards
Vince
 
A few more have been colored up.... The hen Mallards are "First of Species" for me. One is a Father's Day give for the SIL of friends at church, one of the drakes earlier this month go with her to him.

And another pr of Hoodies.... I am still trying to tune in the colors on the hens.

All critique and suggestions welcome! Thanks again, Steve, your paint tutorials are truly viral! There are lots of birds being done to your schedules.

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Tom, agreed. The bodies are Homer lifesize, but the heads they offer for this body are some 5% too small to my eye. The wood duck heads John Bourbon carved for the body look right to me. You?ll see the drake head in June with the drake woodies.
 
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