You folks were right, pecan is not an ideal turning wood...
Very hard to avoid tearout, even with carbide...
Sanded it in both forward and reverse and still have to sand some areas off the
lathe because of the weird grain pattern..

I'll make several more pieces, though, since I still have at least 100 pounds of
the stuff left..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

On 09/27/2010 10:12 PM, mac davis wrote:
You folks were right, pecan is not an ideal turning wood...
Very hard to avoid tearout, even with carbide...
Sanded it in both forward and reverse and still have to sand some areas off the
lathe because of the weird grain pattern..

I guess it's something everybody has to do at least once. Glad my turn
is over with! g

Gotta admit though, it came out quite nice. Lovely polish on that. Is
that just with the buffing system?

I'll make several more pieces, though, since I still have at least 100 pounds of
the stuff left..

Ah, a gluten for punishment eh? At least it's pretty wood.

Post some more shots, and pics of your new work when you finish that
too, of course...

....Kevin
--
Kevin Miller - http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
Juneau, Alaska
In a recent survey, 7 out of 10 hard drives preferred Linux
Registered Linux User No: 307357, http://counter.li.org

On Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:42:43 -0800, Kevin Miller wrote:

Kevin.. Finish is just the Danish oil that I wet sanded it with, then buffing
when the oil hardened..


On 09/27/2010 10:12 PM, mac davis wrote:
You folks were right, pecan is not an ideal turning wood...
Very hard to avoid tearout, even with carbide...
Sanded it in both forward and reverse and still have to sand some areas off the
lathe because of the weird grain pattern..

I guess it's something everybody has to do at least once. Glad my turn
is over with! g

Gotta admit though, it came out quite nice. Lovely polish on that. Is
that just with the buffing system?

I'll make several more pieces, though, since I still have at least 100 pounds of
the stuff left..

Ah, a gluten for punishment eh? At least it's pretty wood.

Post some more shots, and pics of your new work when you finish that
too, of course...

...Kevin


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

You folks were right, pecan is not an ideal turning wood...
Very hard to avoid tearout, even with carbide...
Sanded it in both forward and reverse and still have to sand some areas off the
lathe because of the weird grain pattern..

I'll make several more pieces, though, since I still have at least 100 pounds of
the stuff left..

mac

Came out really nice Mac. I've never tried it personally and from the
sounds of it I won't be anytime soon. LOL. Actually hard to find
around here. We're mostly inundated with walnut. So have you figured
out what to make out of that 100 pounds yet?

`Casper

On Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:09:05 -0400, Casper wrote:

You folks were right, pecan is not an ideal turning wood...
Very hard to avoid tearout, even with carbide...
Sanded it in both forward and reverse and still have to sand some areas off the
lathe because of the weird grain pattern..

I'll make several more pieces, though, since I still have at least 100 pounds of
the stuff left..

mac

Came out really nice Mac. I've never tried it personally and from the
sounds of it I won't be anytime soon. LOL. Actually hard to find
around here. We're mostly inundated with walnut. So have you figured
out what to make out of that 100 pounds yet?

`Casper
Whatever it cuts into, Casper..
Both slabs have major cracks, so no large bowls as I had hoped.. I really
wanted to get a 16-18" bowl or platter out of it..

It will probably break up into a few vases, pens, small boxes, platters, etc...


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Came out really nice Mac. I've never tried it personally and from the
sounds of it I won't be anytime soon. LOL. Actually hard to find
around here. We're mostly inundated with walnut. So have you figured
out what to make out of that 100 pounds yet?
`Casper

Whatever it cuts into, Casper..
Both slabs have major cracks, so no large bowls as I had hoped.. I really
wanted to get a 16-18" bowl or platter out of it..

It will probably break up into a few vases, pens, small boxes, platters, etc...

mac

Sounds like you'll get quite a few things out of that 100 pounds. Not
a bad deal. Wish I had room to store that kind of wood. Unfortunately
where I live we're a bit restricted and I had to curb what I had
already begun to store. Probably a good thing anyway because a good
portion of the 150 year old pear I had gotten was starting to rot. I
gave some away and a club member who turned them into nice bowls, tea
lights and lamps. He filled the rotted areas with ground turquoise.
Not my first choice but they look pretty good. They're going into our
club's show raffle next month. Hopefully from there to good homes.

Anyway, keep up the great work Mac. Really enjoy your stuff.

`Casper

On Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:15:39 -0400, Casper wrote:

Came out really nice Mac. I've never tried it personally and from the
sounds of it I won't be anytime soon. LOL. Actually hard to find
around here. We're mostly inundated with walnut. So have you figured
out what to make out of that 100 pounds yet?
`Casper

Whatever it cuts into, Casper..
Both slabs have major cracks, so no large bowls as I had hoped.. I really
wanted to get a 16-18" bowl or platter out of it..

It will probably break up into a few vases, pens, small boxes, platters, etc...

mac

Sounds like you'll get quite a few things out of that 100 pounds. Not
a bad deal. Wish I had room to store that kind of wood. Unfortunately
where I live we're a bit restricted and I had to curb what I had
already begun to store. Probably a good thing anyway because a good
portion of the 150 year old pear I had gotten was starting to rot. I
gave some away and a club member who turned them into nice bowls, tea
lights and lamps. He filled the rotted areas with ground turquoise.
Not my first choice but they look pretty good. They're going into our
club's show raffle next month. Hopefully from there to good homes.

Anyway, keep up the great work Mac. Really enjoy your stuff.

`Casper

Thanks for the kind words!
These are pretty easy to store.. just 2 slabs, one about 6" thick, the other
about 8 or 9" thick..

Most of my stock is ironwood in trunk and root form, so that stays outside.. not
much is going to hurt it..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

On Sat, 2 Oct 2010 18:04:10 -0700, "Lew Hodgett" wrote:

What we have here is a failure to communicate on my part.

They use epoxy to hod airplanes together, not sure about TBIIG.

TBII provides a very strong joint if the parts can be clamped and the
initial
joint is tight.

OTOH, if you have a gap, all bets are off.

TBII has NO gap filling prosperities.

OTOH, high quality laminating epoxy DOES HAVE excellent gap filling
properties,
especially when thickened with micro-balloons and/or some Cab-O-Sil.

I assumed (foolish me) that an 18" dia x 6" thick piece might have a
crack that might
look like a wedge of pie had been removed.

IOW, a "V" shaped gap, perhaps 2" wide at the outside, tapering down
to maybe
1/16" at the center, running thru the entire 6" thickness.

The length of this wedge might be longer than the radius of the piece,
IOW, 9"-10".

This wedge can be repaired using thickened epoxy.

Think of a dentist filling a tooth.

Thickened epoxy (think Hellmann's mayo) would fill this wedge, just
like a dentist filling a tooth.

The bond between the wood fibers and the thickened epoxy exceeds the
strength
of the wood itself.

The strength of the thickened epoxy exceeds any other part of the
wood.

You can machine the cured epoxy with conventional tools but they will
need to be
sharpened more frequently.

Swinging an 18" dia x 6" thick piece of wood between centers on a
lathe would certainly increase the pucker factor, but if another crack
developed, it would be in the wood, not the thickened epoxy.

You are the wood turner, not me.

What are the chances of additional major structural cracks developing
as a result of machining?

I'm certain you could reclaim a lot of pieces using the filled epoxy
technique; however, the results might look like UGLY on an ape.

But then again...........................

I'm not an artist.

Lew


If I have that big of gap, I either cut the piece into other shapes or leave the
gap in it, Lew..
I might gill a large gap later, after the piece is turned, with a contrasting
color or with epoxy/copier toner mix, but normally I'd just leave the gap in the
piece..
My style seems to have evolved into rough with smooth/polished features..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing