My Lonely Night

Just a quick post to show my work from last night.  My wife had to sleep at work due to pending inclement weather. Apparently I worried a bit too much about road conditions and suggested that my wife go in...  Anyways, I drowned my loneliness in wood shavings and finished up my lot of hickory.  The first is about 12 x 7 and the two small plates are 6 x 3.

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A Little Oak Bowl

This little guy started off over a year ago, long before the hair-brained idea of building a dedicated bowl lathe took over my sanity.  It had some cracks in it from the onset, but I wasnt scared.  

I thought it would be a great time to try out a new medium for filling in cracks just like these.  Now just what is this mystery material?  

Is it dust from a prized scrap of ebony that you sacrificed?  No.  

Is it some expensive grain filler you had to special order?  Not a chance.  

Ill give you a hint.  Its "The best part of wakin up, theres Folgers in your"... Wood bowl?  Yep thats right, coffee grounds mixed with epoxy make a great filler.  I think the end results look promising for future use of this idea.  Ill suggest that whenever you do this kind of filling, put as much of the stuff as you can in the void. Id also suggest using epoxy as the base material.  Epoxy isnt just a glue, its void filling.  Thank means that it will take up a lot of space and still have its structural integrity. Other glues cant perform like this.  

I had a bit of rework to do with this piece.  Did I mention it had been sitting for a year?  It was very wobbly after remounting it.  Look!  My spur drive made it!  All the way from Axminster in the UK. Here is the bowl to its final shape before sanding.

After sanding and burnishing with and old shirt, the coffee filler really pops off of the piece.  I wonder if dark roast would be any better?

Here is a quick and easy finish recipe.  Equal parts of Tung Oil, Mineral Spirits, and any poly or varnish.  I mixed this up in a small bottle so that I can hopefully use it all before the finish dries up.

HERES A TIP!

As you use your finish, remove as much dead volume (air) from the can as possible.  The great thing about this little squeeze bottle I that I can compress the sides until the finish almost squirts out the spout and the put the cap on.  AWESOME!

And here it is off the lathe.  Ill add a little coffee filler to the inside of the bowl where you can see the cracks coming all the way through.  Hopefully Ill be able to scrape down the filler easily and be home free after a few more coats of finish, followed by buffing.

Thanks for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, or project suggestions, please leave them below.  Have a great day!

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Vacuum Adapter for Your Lathe

Need another option for reverse turning?  A vacuum chuck could be your answer.  

Yes, there are other methods of reverse turning, but vacuum chucking allows you to hold natural edge pieces with ease.  The objects that can be held by vacuum chucking are endless and the best part is that its easily modified!

The following will spare you the learning curve I had and hopefully get you on your way quickly.  My lathe has a hollow spindle with a few cross-drilled holes.  This forced me to use a through spindle vacuum adapter instead of something like the Oneway Rotary Adapter.

If you are like me, youve spent a great deal of time studying online articles learning how to accomplish the task at hand.  Many designs rely on using a double sealed ball bearing as a component to be a vacuum seal.  I was skeptical of this, but moved forward in spite of my doubts.

For this system, you will need to buy or make an adapter for each side of your lathe.  One will fit on the outboard side and the other will match the morse taper of your spindle.  You will need two ball bearings.  I used a R10 and 6000 series bearings.  I would recommend double sealed bearings simply because of the dust that will be present .  The main aspect that drives bearing selection for this purpose is the size of pipe fittings you will use.  I had the R10 bearing on hand, so I had to use a 3/8 NPT fitting to adapt to this bearing. 

In addition to bearings, you will need:

• material for your spindle adapters
• an assortment of pipe fittings
• all thread lamp tube (3/8" OD, 1/8-27 thread)
• valve rated for vacuum
• vacuum pump (well geez, I wouldnt have thought of that)
• filter for your pump
• vacuum gauge
• tubing (size of pipe fittings)
• pipe tape/pipe dope
• epoxy
• a bleeder valve is nice but not a must have
• a muffler for the vacuum pump
• electrical switch
• wire nut
• pliers and wire strippers
• wranches (wrenches for those of you not from the south)
• someone else to do all the work for you! (optional)

So, once youve assembled all of your loot, it may look something like this.

I started off by making the spindle adapter for the outboard side of my lathe.  I used Delrin for this piece because it is not porous, can be shaped by hand with wood turning chisels, and it was available.  Good reasons, I think.  The downside to Delrin is that its terribly difficult to permanently bond something to it.

The criteria for this part are as follows:

• needs to fit onto lathe spindle without too much slop
• hold bearing with slip/press fit
• allows lamp rod to pass through it and clamp on an internal step

This sketch describes how this part works in the original design.

Here are the process photos of making the outboard side spindle adapter.

Rough turning spindle adapter

Ball bearing recess

Flip it!

O.D. profiling

Sized to fit out board spindle

Finished bearing side of adapter

Now, lets move on to the inboard spindle adapter.  For this item you need to:

• match taper of spindle
• allow lamp rod to pass through 
• make a surface for nut and washer to lock lamp rod in place 

Here are the process photos of making the inboard side spindle adapter.

Roughing inboard adapter

Turning recess

Test fit

Reducing O.D. of  adapter

You may have noticed that I switched lathes while making this piece.  I did this because my Nova G3 chuck doesnt have a large enough opening that I could push the spindle adapter into.  Using the Vicmarc 120, I was able to hold the spindle adapter on the larger diameter and form a recess for the washer and nut to sit in.

Well, the spindle adapter is wrapped up... for now.

The next thing to move on to is pipe fitting!  Oh what fun!  I wanted to use push to connect (PTC) style fittings for this system so that I could easily adapt the vacuum pump to be used for other applications in the shop.  While PTC fittings are not the answer for this application, this blog is a journey and youre invested, so lets see how things go.

Turning threads off fitting

Bearing, fitting, epoxy...

I didnt get epoxy on myself!

Remaining parts for system

Manifold components

Now with those parts all married, lets plug the suction end of the system and see what the vacuum gauge reads.  This is where my disappointment began.  For the pump to pull down more than 5" Hg, I had to push and hold the tubing into the PTC fittings...  That will be hard to do while Im turning.  In addition, the double sealed ball bearing was another leak.  In an effort to remove as many potential leaks as possible, I rethought the design of my spindle adapter and replaced the PTC fittings with compression fittings.

I started by removing the plastic PTC fitting I had all too recently epoxied into the ball bearing.  But first I needed to remove the ball bearing from the outboard spindle adapter.  This was easily done by putting a screw driver inside the fitting (through the bearing) and hitting it with a hammer (plastic, no one wants a cracked screw driver) a few times.  I then scuffed up the inner race of the bearing for the next fitting to be epoxied.

To remove the need for the seals of the ball bearing to hold vacuum, I changed the plumbing and affixed the lamp rod to the ball bearing with marine grade epoxy.  This involved a few extra steps, which are shown with pictures below.

Remove threads: 3/8 fitting

Cut off one side of 1/4 NPT

Tap 1/4 NPT with 1/8-27 tap

All parts epoxied together

Now that Ive affixed the lamp rod and bearing, I need a ball bearing for the other spindle adapter.  By assembling the parts in this manner, I no longer need the "step" in the outboard spindle adapter.  However, there is no need to remove it or remake the part.

Size adapter to fit bearing

Replacement compression fittings

Testing new configuration

The last step is to attach the tubing from the pump to manifold and from the manifold to the spindle adapter.

Tube fitting for spindle adapter

Vacuum system!

Zip tie capacitor to keep it tidy

I recommend testing your system for leaks before you use it for turning.  A good way to do this is to plug or otherwise seal the open end of lamp rod, let the system pump down as far as it will go, and then valve off or turn off your pump to see what the leak rate is.  This system isnt for a particle accelerator, so no need to go overboard.  However, if the vacuum drops rapidly, you may want to look into it.  A good way to find leaks is to mix up some soapy water and apply it to each of the connection points.  You will see bubbles wherever there is a leak.  Just give the fitting a bit more oomph and retest.

I will soon post about building vacuum chucks.  I will be making my chucks completely from materials I have on hand and those commonly found at a big box hardware store!  No face plate required for the method I will use.  Once the holiday season is past, or once I catch up on my ornament orders (which ever is first), Ill make the vacuum chuck and finish off a platter!

Thanks for reading!  As always, if you have any questions or comments, dont hesitate to contact me.

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Cedar Bowl

This is a little cedar bowl I made back in 2012 and put on display at the Sunset River Marketplace.  I really enjoy turning cedar.  The contrast in the wood along with the smell make it a joy to work with. Anyways, it sold last month!!!  Knowing that someone likes your work enough to pay for it is a really awesome feeling.

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Making Bowl Blanks

Today Ill show you how I process a log for making bowl blanks.  This is a hickory log that has sat for about 4 months.  Today, a brisk Black Friday, I played while my wife and mother-in-law went shopping. 

First, lets get something straight.  This is my method of processing logs.  Using a chainsaw is inherently dangerous.  If you cut off your leg while attempting to cut a log, thats on you.  Proper PPE should be worn. Any lack of PPE on my part is not an excuse for your injury.  Now since thats outta the way, lets get to it!

As you can see there is some substantial checking on the end of this log.  I first need to cut back enough to remove the majority of this checking.  Ill cut back 2-3 inches on each end since the log wasnt long enough to get three segments out of.  Before I start, I prop the end Im cutting with some scrap.  This prevents the chain from contacting the ground as the cut is finished.




I "measured" the length of this short log by laying the bar across the log and referenced the logs circumference compared to the length of the saws bar.  Then I laid the bar axial next to the log and eye balled the length referenced previously.

This is where a slabbing/ ripping/ skip tooth chain comes in handy.  If I were cutting a lot of logs, Id get my other saw out that has a standard cross cutting chain on it.  This would save a bit of wear on the slabbing chain and I wouldnt have to sharpen it as soon.  The only reason I have two chain saws is because the second one was given to me as a box of parts with the words of "If you can fix it, its yours.  Otherwise throw it in the trash if you like."  

The process here is to cut with the grain, as it is much easier on you and the saw.  This will create nice long shavings.  If you cut from the end grain (think splitting a log) then you will get short shavings and a lot of dust, not to mention the saw feels like youre cutting ice.  I set the log on scrap to keep the chain out of the dirt and also chock the log on both sides to keep it from rolling around while Im cutting. Here you want to line up the bar with the pith.  I missed the far side of the pith with my first cut, so I had to make a second cut to completely remove it.  I also dont cut all the way through the log until I know the pith will be completely removed.  Also, I dont usually remove the bark, but it was already falling off of this log so I went ahead and pulled it off.  Dirt and other abrasives are found in bark, so your chain will stay sharp a little longer the less bark you have to cut through.

No sense in staying outside now that the fun is all done.  Lets head over to the band saw and finish up these blanks.  I made a circle cutting jig some time ago that allows me to rotate a half log (what we just made with the chainsaw) on an indexing pin.  I have multiple diameters that can be cut with this jig.

The process is pretty straight forward.  On the flat side of the log, find the center by measuring the diameter and length.  Drill a shallow hole that is slightly larger than the index pin on your circle cutting jig.  Then decide what size blank you can get out of the piece.  Put the index pin in the proper location on the jig and then locate your soon to be bowl blank on the pin.  You can do this with the jig on the saw or on a bench.  

Once you are ready to start cutting, grab your ear plugs, safety glasses, and a dust mask.  Even with a dust collector, you will probably want a mask.  Locate the jig on the table and be sure that the blade is not contacting your blank.  Fire up the saw and slowly advance the piece into the blade.  Once the jig is fully seated on the table, begin to rotate your blank.  360 degrees later, you have a bowl blank ready for turning!

Now pat yourself on the back.  Youve cut bowl blanks and can remove some of the initial roughing out drama.  If these blanks are going to sit for some period of time, you will want to coat the end grain with a sealer.  Lots of people use anchor seal.  I use paraffin wax or exterior latex paint.  Ive never had trouble with just using paint, but others will tell you to steer clear.

Let me know if you have any questions and Ill be happy to answer them.  Thanks for reading!

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