My woodturning efforts

[Yorkie]

Hi John,

Thanks for your kind comments, and indeed those of others!

I now know the thing that you mean, and have attached a picture.

It's a little 'finial box' - a 'finial' being a pointy thing, rather like you sometimes see on roof ridges, or the tops of flagpoles. The wood is 'spalted beech'. Spalting occurs when timber is attacked by a fungus when felled trees are left lying on the ground for some time. The fungus creeps through the wood in all directions, leaving distintict black markings, which can look attractive, depending on one's point of view. Some timbers are especially prone to this type of fungal infestation, notably, beech and sycamore.

The actual box itself is 2.5" tall and 2.75" diameter. The finial adds another 2.75". It has no useful purpose, like most of the stuff that I make! It wouldn't win any prizes - the finial isn't delicate enough, but when I made the box about 4 years ago, it was the best that I could do with my level of skill without risking breaking the finial, and I didn't want to do that as the finial grain must match up with the box from the same piece of timber that the box was turned from.

Looking forward to seeing you at Golborne on 10th!!

David

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I am gob smacked and in awe of all your work, but the cube within a cube, within a cube, must be down to witchcraft!!....... i've just managed to prise my jaw from the floor.

Chris

Thanks for your very kind comments Chris!

Theres' no sourcery involved - Im not saying that they're easy to make, but as with all things, with the right tools and a bit of skill and patience, they're not as difficult as might be expected. The main challenge is that all six sides of the cube must be accuarately turned or the holes on the inner cubes will be off centre. I don't think that many people who don't use a lathe appreciate that if you take 0.5mm off the diameter of the workpiece as it is turning, that reduces the overall diameter by 1mm, and 1mm can be quite noticeable.

The first challenge is to make an accurately sized cube, that's square in all directions. A cube of course, has six sides and eight corners, all of which must be spot on. But even this isn't as difficult to achieve as it may sound, and no costly equipment is needed - I made all the tools and equipment I needed from scrap, and the 55mm cubes from firewood logs - sycamore or beech usually.

As to the equipment, firstly, a sanding disc to fit onto the lathe is needed, onto which hook & loop sanding sheets of various grades can be attached, and a little platform onto which the cube rests as it is being sanded. Once one side is sanded smooth, all the other sides can then be sanded at exact right angles to its neighbour.

Secondly, a wooden chuck is made into which the cube can be securely held whilst it is being hollowed out. The chuck has a split cut into it and a nut and bolt which are tightened to hold the cube securely.

Finally, two chisels need to be ground especially for the task. One, a thin chisel to make the holes, the other a 'hook tool' to poke inside the holes and pull towards myself to hollow out each face of the cube. I ground these tools from old chisels picked up from car boot sales for a few coppers.

As each side is hollowed out, a stepped wooden plug has to be inserted to support the inner two cubes or they risk breaking away as the work progresses. When the last face has been hollowed out, those plugs are removed, and all beng well, the two inner cubes will come free.

That's the theory, but sometimes the difference between theory and practive in practice, is greater than the difference between theory and practice in theory, if you get my drift!

Woodturning chucks have dovetail jaws which can clamp a piece of wood on either an internal or external dovetail. The wooden chuck used to hold the cube has an external dovetail - the sanding disc has an internal one.

I guess that all this woodturning malarkey is perhaps of limited interest on the forum, but I do know that one or two members have lathes, so I hope that they, and a few others, may find these notes of some interest.

The attached pics show a cube being sanded on the sanding disc and table, a cube held in the wooden chuck, which itself is held in the lathe chuck, then all of the items in the kit that I made for this task, and finally, the lathe chuck with its internal/external dovetail jaws.

It keeps me active and happy, and stops my kids or wife from putting me in a home!

David

[60 oldjohn]

Hi David, That's the piece in the last photo. Is there any chance of an above view showing how well the grain matches I can understand how easy it would be for the grain not to match. Thank you John.

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks for this very informative thread David and for the descriptions of how to do the work. I'm also pleased to see pictures of your other exemplary work; all are a credit to your skill and determination.

As you know David I do both woodturning and metal turning but my woodturning is mainly functional in respect of furniture parts; I enjoy a session of woodturning but your kind of projects are very time consuming to achieve such perfection and are done just for the sheer joy of it.

I had to smile at your comment regarding what happens on a lathe if you remove material at the tool because any reduction in thickness here results in double the thickness being removed and this is a very important consideration especially whilst turning metal to fine degrees of accuracy; it is always very baffling to a novice who is metal turning for the first time and using the vernier adjustment on the cross slide; if say ten thou reduction is needed then it is so easy to put on a ten thou cut but once the cut is completed and the material measured it will read twenty thou less.

A point worth mentioning is that many timbers pose serious health hazards whilst being cut or machined and can result in cancer. Spalted Beech is a very common favourite timber used in woodturning but sensible safety precautions are needed to prevent breathing in dust particles; other timbers are very corrosive and will cause rusting of lathes whilst others contain silica that quickly dull cutting tools. A lathe either woodturning or metal turning is a wonderful machine to use and the basic skills are quickly picked up; I would highly recommend a lathe to anyone and much information is available on the Internet; Safety in use is important but common sense will usually win through; I wear glasses and find these have always been adequate for eye protection but if I'm creating dust I'll either wear my respirator or a simple dust mask and over a lifetime of using lathes have only ever suffered minor injuries and every one of these due to my own carelessness.

I don't wish to hi-jack this excellent thread but David kindly allowed me to add pictures of the wonderful wooden bowl made of London Plane he kindly gave to me and Bron as a gift a while ago and it is beautiful to look at and own; I can only aspire to this kind of excellence.

Out of interest I've added a picture of two of my own turned items both being functional and have been in every day use for about twenty years; I made two table lamps and two bedside tables entirely from softwood offcuts costing nothing; one of each at each side of the bed. A lathe can pay for itself by doing such projects.

Kind regards, Col.

[Yorkie]

John, as requested, I've attached a pic taken from above the little finial box, showing that the top was cut from the same piece of timber as the base so as to match up the spalting. It's fairly tricky to do because you can't turn a chucking point on the top piece or timber would be lost and the grain wouldn't match up. You have to turn a rebate on the top piece and make it a tight fit into the bottom piece, then mount the bottom piece on the lathe so as to be able to finish turning the top piece. In effect, the bottom piece becomes what is known as a 'jam chuck'. The trick is to not make the fit too tight that it can't be removed, or too loose so that it comes flying off, though it can be held at the tailstock end, by a revolving live centre.

Sorry if that sound tedious and boring!

The trick with woodturning is that the end result leaves other woodturners puzzled as to how the object was held on the lathe. When people pick up wooden objects in galleries and at craft fairs to look underneath, its usually to see how much the item is. When woodturners do that, it's to see how it was chucked in the lathe, and finished off. The other thing about turning bowls is that it's difficult not to end up with either a dimple or a pip in the centre, and woodturners always have an irresistable urge to run a finger over the centre inside to check for a pip or dimple!

Finally, the aim is to get a good a finish 'off the tool' to minimise sanding - the aim being to 'sand the shape of the wood' - not to 'sand the wood to shape'.

Thanks Colin for posting the pic of the little London Plane bowl I turned for you and Bron, and for your very kind comments. I think the timber is quite attractive, with its distinctive 'lacewood' figuring, but the trees themselves can look a bit knobbly and ugly. They're not a native of the UK - they're a hybrid that occured accidentally when two different types of plane were planted in close proximity (in Spain I think, hundreds of years ago) and cross pollinated.

They're remarkable trees, much favoured in urban environments in streets and parks because thay have the capacity to tolerate and absorb pollution, and shed this in their bark, large flakes of which fall off naturally. They absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and give off large quantities of oxygen, which is why they're often referred to as 'the lungs of London' where they first appeared in the late 1500s. (Some of the trees in London Parks are as much as 300 years old).

They also tolerate root compaction caused by heavy traffic, pavements etc. They're often 'pollarded' - that is most of the twigs and branches are pruned, leaving the tree looking bald, but vigoruous new growth then occurs whih needs pruning a year os so later. The large leaves don't compost down very quickly, so mountains of leaves pile up in the streets and have ot be cleared.

In London, new trees are propagated from basal shoots taken from the bottom of trees, which root readily, so if say an old tree in Berkeley Square needs to be felled, the one that replaces it will have excatly the same DNA.

They're used in major cities the world over - not just in London.

They're used extensively in France - the leaf canopy providing lots of shade, and they look very attractive when they go on for miles either side of the roads, with the sun dappling through the trees.


Hope these ramblings are of interest.

David

[60 oldjohn]

Hi David that is the Finial box I mentioned in my earlier post, Thank you for the detailed explanation of how it's made. Sorry I had missed your last posting. John.

[AlanBeckett]

David,
Why should it sound tedious or boring? That's the way we all learn, from people who've already done it. In fact the modern methodology of 'work it out yourself' I regard as barmy. The idea should be to learn from other people then move on.
Many, many moons ago a friend of mine went off to be an apprentice at RR, Crewe. One of the things that he had to make was a cube within a cube within a cube - I can't remember the depth. However, it was in Brass.
I think your turning is wonderful, and I have no problem in seeing more.
Alan

[Yorkie]

Thanks for reading my posts, and the kind words of encouragement Alan!

The cube within a cube malarkey would be an interesting project in brass for an RR apprentice, because really, for them to come out looking right, you need micrometer precision. If the hole in the central cube isn't spot on, it's immediately noticeable to anyone with a trained eye. Also, for the cubes to detach correctly on the internal corners, the turning needs to be very accurate too. The only time I feel like doing anything twice is just before I've done it once! I think that I'd have to be in prison, with it being a condition of my early release, that I'd want to make many of these cube jobbies one after another!

David.

[Retired]

Hi,

David's cube in a cube in a cube is a truly amazing piece of craftsmanship and I can confirm just how incredible these are having been so generously given one by David today at the Golborne meeting.

Ordinary woodturning is difficult at first but such work as this cube is master-class; one lapse of concentration is all it takes to destroy hours of painstaking work.

Thank you David and I take my hat off to you.

Kind regards, Col.

[Yorkie]

I've mentioned in several posts that this last year or two, rather than house my homebrew test-gear projects in plastic or metal boxes, I've taken to making little comb-jointed boxes from bits of scrap offcuts of oak etc. One or two peple have expressed an interest in the home-made jig that I use, which cost me nothing as it was made from offcuts of timber to a design in a video by the late Roy Sutton entitled 'Making Routing Jigs and Gadgets'. For anyone interested, I've attached a few pics of the jig to show how it's used. If anyone fancied making one, I'd be happy to draw a sketch of the dimensions.

Basically, it consists of two parts:

1) A table with a slide groove routed into it to guide the 'sledge' which move back and forth to cut the combs, with the the router mounted beneath the table. The table has a block of timber scrwewed to the underside of the front edge, which is held in a woodworking vice when in use.

2) A 'sledge' (in two adjustable parts so that the spacing of the combs can be accurately set for a good fit of the two combed pieces of wood), which slides back and forth in the guide groove on the table.

In use, the first piece of wood is held upright against the sledge, which is then moved forward to cut the first groove. This groove is then put over a peg, and the second groove is cut, and this process is repeated until the last groove is cut in that piece. Then the mating piece is place alongside the piece already cut, and the process is repeated until all grooves are cut. With luck, it should all fit together so tightly than it almost needs no glue!

The process makes more sense when looking at the pics.

I'll add a few more pics in another post.

Hope that's of interest.

David

[Yorkie]

Here are a few more pics, which might make the construction and use of my comb-joint jig a little clearer (or not!). The pics show:

1) Final cut of the first piece.
2) First cut of the second piece.
3) Underside of sledge showing the 'guide peg' over which each new groove is place so that the next groove is cut accurately
4) Rear of 'sledge'.
5) The end result with the two pieces properly lined up and fitted together.

(This was only two bits of scrap wood - not an actual case being made).

Hope that's of interest.

David