--Hi, gang. I'm taking a breather from metalworking for a spell in
order to finish a project I dropped a while back. I've been using a metal
lathe to turn little widgets out of various materials, but I reeeeally like
Purpleheart for this thing. I've put up a page of my progress, or lack
thereof. I'm sure I'm doing several things wrong and I'd appreciate any
useful input the sages may care to convey.
--Current problems, aside from a dreadful setup, include getting a
good finish and preserving it in some way.
Direct link: C:\html\wbfeb06.htm
TIA,

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Woohoo! Cheney sez
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : lawyer season's open!
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

Actually this seems to be the link he meant.
http://www.nmpproducts.com/wbfeb06.htm

On 14 Feb 2006 00:54:38 GMT, steamer wrote:

--Hi, gang. I'm taking a breather from metalworking for a spell in
order to finish a project I dropped a while back. I've been using a metal
lathe to turn little widgets out of various materials, but I reeeeally like
Purpleheart for this thing. I've put up a page of my progress, or lack
thereof. I'm sure I'm doing several things wrong and I'd appreciate any
useful input the sages may care to convey.
--Current problems, aside from a dreadful setup, include getting a
good finish and preserving it in some way.

As noted, the link you should have posted is
http://www.nmpproducts.com/wbfeb06.htm , in case anybody sees this and
not the other one.

You might want to invest in perhaps an inexpensive set of Harbor
Freight HSS woodturning tools, if you're going to be doing much of
this. Save yourself the frustration of trying to do stuff with an
inadequate edge and wrecking good wood.

That aside, and assuming you have gotten the shape and sanded to the
surface you want, you can put about anything you want on purpleheart
for a finish. The key to keeping its purple color is keeping it out
of UV light, including sunlight and fluorescent lighting. Both will
turn it brown, sunlight rather quickly. You could go with some UV
protectant finish, like an exterior varnish, but it may help but a
little. I have a purpleheart bowl I eat out of every day that is 5
years old and still a brilliant, rich purple. I believe the only
finish on it is a couple of coats of ZipGard poly.

As for the connecting rod trunk guides, they look like they might
possibly be bocote, but there are a number of striped woods. And
bocote is more yellowish and dark brown, than chocolatey brown.
There's another wood I'm thinking of, but I can't quite wrap my brain
around the name of it. It'll come to me after I hit the "send"
button, probably.




Direct link: C:\html\wbfeb06.htm
TIA,

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Woohoo! Cheney sez
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : lawyer season's open!
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

--
Chuck *#:^)
chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply.


September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

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Chuck wrote:
As noted, the link you should have posted is
http://www.nmpproducts.com/wbfeb06.htm , in case anybody sees this and
--Oops! Sent it from the wrong source; I wrote it using
Arachnophilia which has some odd little quirks.

You might want to invest in perhaps an inexpensive set of Harbor
Freight HSS woodturning tools, if you're going to be doing much of
this. Save yourself the frustration of trying to do stuff with an
inadequate edge and wrecking good wood.
--Actually I *do* have a larger wood lathe and a decent set of tools
for it, but this is my first try and something really small. The groove is
1/8" wide and about .150" deep measured by radius. I'm trying to keep the
rings to 1/8"; the fun part will be rounding them over.

for a finish. The key to keeping its purple color is keeping it out
of UV light, including sunlight and fluorescent lighting. Both will
turn it brown, sunlight rather quickly. You could go with some UV
--Yeah I've noticed. The piece I'm holding in photo #4 sat in a dark
box for a few years and it darkened even without exposure to sunlight; I'd
suspect the fluorescents in my shop but for the fact that the darkening was
uniform all around, so I guess there's also a natural oxidation or some such
going on.

protectant finish, like an exterior varnish, but it may help but a
little. I have a purpleheart bowl I eat out of every day that is 5
years old and still a brilliant, rich purple. I believe the only
finish on it is a couple of coats of ZipGard poly.
--Not familiar with this; will get some and give it a try. Thanks!

As for the connecting rod trunk guides, they look like they might
possibly be bocote, but there are a number of striped woods. And
--Yeah, I found my notes. The sides are Bocote and the base is
Cocobolo. I had a bunch of wood varieties that I'd bought and I just played
around with them. This brings up another point: it's obvious from a casual
glance that I haven't got clue one about what looks good with what. I'm
thinking I should have used more contrasting colors; i.e. sort of an
ebony/ivory thing. Any artistic insight in terms of rules of the road, so to
speak, would also be appreciated.


--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Woohoo! Cheney sez
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : lawyer season's open!
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

On 14 Feb 2006 00:54:38 GMT, steamer wrote:

--Hi, gang. I'm taking a breather from metalworking for a spell in
order to finish a project I dropped a while back. I've been using a metal
lathe to turn little widgets out of various materials, but I reeeeally like
Purpleheart for this thing. I've put up a page of my progress, or lack
thereof. I'm sure I'm doing several things wrong and I'd appreciate any
useful input the sages may care to convey.
--Current problems, aside from a dreadful setup, include getting a
good finish and preserving it in some way.
Direct link: C:\html\wbfeb06.htm
TIA,

If you'd like to see what purple heart looks like with natural Danish Oil and
buffing, I posted 2 pictures of a nice blank that Chuck sent me that I messed up
trying to make a heart out of it.. *g*

it's in
alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking
the title is Ping: george...

Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm