All of the wood cutting is done and pieces are fitted, stained and have their first of 3 coats of varnish. I turned the finial this afternoon and stained it.
I should be finished this weekend. And then the entertainment center for another customer.
heir first of 3 coats of varnish.
Looks good. Seems the pieces aren't as complicated as I was assuming, but I had never paid close attention to those Federal design features, to repl icate them. I've never had a Federal project, to consider having to make t hem. Your pic is worth a thousand works, and a good reference. Thanks.
I'm impressed with your fabricating that "crown". Similarly, I have a cou ple of decorative corbels, salvaged from an old building in New Orleans. Ha ve you ever had reason to consider fabricating a decorative corbel? I'm s ure you would do a reproduction justice. You're expert enough not to need them, but would you like a few pics of these corbels, for possible future r eference? Ever since I obtained them, I've been wanting to try my hand at duplicating them or something similar, for the experience and learning. * One or two need minor repairs.
his weekend. And then the entertainment center for another customer.
I rarely turn anything. I should practice more, as a turning friend prods me to do. Which reminds me, I had saved the scraps of the walnut rootball to give to him. I need to contact him.
Sonny
Thank you!
I simplified the project for the sake of keeping the price reasonable. ;~) The piece that I was copying had dental molding also. the customer was more interested in getting rid of the current "Olympic Circles/Audi Logo style head board than have a perfect match. I warned him that the color and other details would not match. He was fine with that.
I would very much like to see pics of your corbles.
I have owned a lathe for probably 30 plus years and my wife gave me a new one about 13 years ago. Until the last couple of years you could probably say that the money spent on the lathes and the turning tools was not money well spent. I still do not turn a lot but if you are interested in turning and don't want to go through the learning curve I VERY HIGHLY recommend buying 3 more turning tools. 2 years ago my wife bought me 3 Easy Wood turning tools, the yellow, red, and orange handled tools pictured in this link. If you have done any turning at all you will be an instant pro with these tools. They really are as easy to use as the video indicates.
BTW, Sonny, is that your real name or nick name? I have been Sonny all my life to those that know me. Until I started first grade I knew nothing but. I had to get used to being called Leon. ;~)
Don't see no link, but I read your comments in other posts/threads. I think I checked them out, then, but will redo that search.
Yep, nickname. Real name is Wilson. Like you, I've always been Sonny, to relatives and close friends. I recall asking Mom where the name came from, how the name came about. She didn't remember.
Will get those corbel pics this evening.
Sonny
Glas you at least saw my post. I never saw it and was not sure I even sent it. LOL
I probably forgot to post the link too.
Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Do they have a referral program? You could probably get enough Money to buy a Monet.
I do like the carbide insert tools for turning. I'm working with a little Taig with a variety of materials, and the carbide inserts are really nice. They work great for wood as well as metal.
Puckdropper
Not that I am aware of.... There are numerous other brands, this company specializes in these type cutters. Once I used one and considered never having to resharpen and or learn to sharpen certain tools the price was of no further thought.
I turned a lot for years, and even taught turning for a while. When sharpe ning I learned the Jordan grind, Ellsworth grind, how to fingernail grind a gouge, and on and on. I got tired of turning and personal challenges have kept me from turning for about 5 years or so, which is about the time thes e hit Woodcraft.
I have seen a lot of this type of tool with the insert/bit arrangement, but have never seen one cut a fine bead or surface. Good enough to sand no do ubt, but since they are scrapers not cutters, they seem to have trouble wit h the surface they leave on soft woods. On most woods, a sharp spindle gou ge can leave a surface that requires almost no sanding as there is little t ear out. Although my largest scrapers can leave a fine finish inside a holl ow form on a medium to hard woods, tear out around knots and burls is alway s a problem with scrapers inside a piece.
So tell me Leon and Puck (and anyone else that uses these tools!), what kin d of surface do these tools leave across a spectrum of woods, green or drie d? What kind of forms are you guys turning?
Robert
Pretty smooth. That is relative. I do have to sand but in my case I don't turn often enough to learn and to remember the proper technique with traditional tools. With these, the beginner almost needs no practice. I have turned fir, oak, this mahogany and a couple of other hard woods. I was expecting tear out with red oak and this mahogany but really have no issues. This is kind of the down and dirty tool that gets the job done relatively fast for the novice.
Here is the mahogany piece that was in the chuck. I was using the rough-in tool which had 4 square/flat cutting surfaces. There is a slight oval surface insert available for rough in too. You will notice that where I was not careful on the end round section the lite rings where the corners dug in. On the narrow round piece at the top the result was better. There is also a round "finisher" tool for curves and smoothing out the flat surfaces and of course a detailer.
You might go by your local Wood Craft and try them out to see for your self. I'm sure they would have them to demo in the shop area. Being old school, so to speak, you may be totally disappointed. For some one like me, they are an enormous time saver with few problems. contrary to what the picture in the above link shows, cutting in to end grain was not much problem either on harder woods.
I guess it comes down to how much time you want to spend turning, or learni ng to sharpen. When I had classes with our local club, my spot was always sharpening. It took a lot of months to get "good" at it, and many, many mo re to become proficient. Then even longer to be able to replicate my favor ite grind angles without jigs, free handing on the grinder. Honestly, as w ith most folks, it took much longer to learn to sharpen well than it did fo r me to learn to turn wood. All in all, even when obsessed with turning, i t still took me a couple of years to be able to walk over to the grinder at will and flip it on to resharpen.
If the scrapers were better then and I had an opportunity to try one that a ctually worked, I might have skipped on the sharpening learning curve stage and stuck with learning how to turn. As it was then, it went hand in hand , and I sadly saw several gifted turners in my club (much better than me) l eave turning as they couldn't sharpen their tools easily. They all said th e same thing - they spent as much time at the grinder as they did at the la the since they could never get their grinds right.
When I met a lot of the professional turners that were making the paid circ uit going from club to club in larger cities, we had some great conversatio ns about the difference between "cutter" and "scrapers". I am definitely o n the "cutter" side of things, probably because I became adept at sharpenin g. This was really important to me to avoid tear out as much as possible, and when turning hollow forms like vases, sanding away tear out areas is ju st too time consuming for me. Any edged tool (in my eyes) needs to be abou t as sharp as it can be at all times. I even strop some of my pocket knive s...
With a long modified Ellsworth grind on a tool as small as 3/8", I could at one time reach as much as 5" deep in a vase with no problems and did so in demos. The tools were sharp enough not to catch, and that was the point I was trying to make. Most of the time, my sanding started with 220 on a pie ce, then to bronze steel wool depending on the desired finish.
It is sad to me though to think I haven't turned in years. I used to turn out Christmas ornaments for family and special friends, turned out a lot of offset turned mushrooms for some of my buddy's wives, made a lot of bowls, small vases, a ton of oil candles, baby rattles, spoons and scoops, coffee measures, pens, etc. Then were immediately became too much demand on my p ersonal time (think of your Dad...) with both parents, one of Kathy's, then the demise of two of them, and all the attendant stuff that follows those things...
I have four lathes and it disappoints me that I don't get out there and get with it. One tiny Carbatec, two Jet minis (one for traveling demo) and a Nova 3000, which is crated back up due to space considerations, All of them sitting. Maybe this year...
Robert
Well my had is off to you Robert. I am pretty anal about most of my work but turning and sharpening was mostly beyond me.
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