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Pierre

Graduate Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Posts
996
Location
Southern Central France
First Name
Pierre
A friend of mine lost an almond tree in one of the recent storms, he called me up and asked if I wanted the wood; by the time he had removed his arm from my teeth I was there with the tractor and after many grunts and heaves I ended up with 6 large sections of trunk each one weighing about 30 kilos!! I have now cut some in half and what a beautiful grain.

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Anyway with so much of the wood I thought I would try and post a work in progress (WIP) mainly for those who have never tried a big piece before, and so here goes:

First cut a piece to rough shape on the band saw (keep on looking and admiring that grain):

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Next attach the face plate with 6 screws:

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Then attach it to the lathe, don't forget to bring up the tail stock it saves you getting a face removal later on :thinks:

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Use the biggest bowl gouge you have to rough out the shape:

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Don't turn too fast else the lathe will walk away, mine weighs 200 kilos and at 400 rpm that 'little' out of shape (now 5kg) bowl blank tried to make it walk

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When the thumping stops its such a relief and you can now increase the speed. The shape of the bowl has so far been decided by the wood and I'm hoping that it will com out as a 'Tazza' shape fruit bowl, but keeping in mind that the wood is still complete green it will probably warp, but then if its any good I shall be entering into the J-F Escoulen open day competition next week, since the theme is movement.

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Pierre

Graduate Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Posts
996
Location
Southern Central France
First Name
Pierre
This is as far as I have got today I'm letting the CA glue set into the cambium layer to try and keep the bark attached and my protective headset has run out of charge. More later

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Unique

Registered
Joined
May 7, 2017
Posts
251
Location
Kent
First Name
Tony
Hi Pierre - The colouring in the almond is just so rich.
I had several almond trees trimmed back last spring but took the option of end sealing the slabs and leaving covered to air dry - but that hasn't worked out too well (a lot of splits)
I wish I'd done as you have by cutting and turning while still wet.
I shall watch how this goes with a real interest.
Good luck with it.

Tony
 

Pierre

Graduate Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Posts
996
Location
Southern Central France
First Name
Pierre
This is gonna be good, thanks Pierre

Don't always bet on it :sob: Normally a nice piece of timber is bootiful.... you find the grain, you see the opportunity to keep some bark for the rustic bit, you glue the edges to stop the bark leaping off into the nice self ventilating face mask and you continue turning; You finish the foot and make a nice design in the chucking point... then you notice that despite all of the sanding sealer it's still raising the grain in the sapwood but less in the heart wood; nevertheless it worked on the last piece of oak, it should work here; you sand and sand and apply sealer (not to sand for sealing but to slow the evaporation of the sap which will create the cracks!!! :vangry:) Those aren't tool marks on the foot, they are raising of the grain where the tool has pushed with the bevel and compressed after cutting , squeezing out the sap and so you have differential drying, it starts off dead smooth and in 5 minutes it shows concentric rings which are smooth to the touch but obvious in light, they go after a while (but can come back).

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Then you remount for hollowing; I'm using the inner chucking point and I need to flatten the face. For the shavings addicts please note the cascades of ribbons of wood (nice sharp tools getting wet with sap :rolling:)

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Then you notice the split, an attempt at super glue doesn't work, no worry got lots of wood turn it of!! :wink: Then you get fed up with the IPhone camera and the way the forum uploads the photos to put them on their side (hopefully a nice moderator will fix the problem later!!)

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Then the tension cracks start appearing so you flood them with superglue, seal the whole bowl to slow down the drying process, sand finish, sand finish, hope that the huge internal crack that was always there but not seen till you got to it will will not propagate further and leave the thing on the lathe to see what will happen tomorrow.

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That's where I am at the moment. I told you its a WIP... well its a real here and now, a WIP a bit like EastEnders or Coronation street (Neighbours to those upsidedowners) . Tool marks are yet to be removed, I'm going to bed, then tomorrow I have to pick up a yew tree from a mate then I shall come back to the WIP. Don't forget it can all still go wrong :winking:


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Goodnight all
 

yorkshireman

Wood Rat
Executive Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2013
Posts
5,199
Location
wrexham
First Name
Keith
Good luck Pierre mate. Looking at that grain I hope it holds together for you. I've got a slab of sycamore about the same size that I must get round to tackling but I've got loads on at the moment so it'll have to wait a while longer.
 

Pierre

Graduate Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Posts
996
Location
Southern Central France
First Name
Pierre
Well that will be that, I got back into the workshop hoping that all of the sealing would have slowed down the drying out process and lo and behold the cracking has become too much :vangry:

The foot has cracked too far and on the rim there are some ugly cracks which will propagate over time. So the bowl will be consigned to the drying bag and I'll bring it out in a year's time to see if anything can be recovered :sob:

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hawkeyefxr

Full Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Posts
373
Location
Yateley Hants
First Name
ken
What was the time frame from when you left it for the CA to go off and when the cracking occurred.
I ask as I have made a couple of pieces that were defiantly wet but show no signs of cracking, yet.

I was given some turkey oak and and is cracking really bad just siting in the shed!
 
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