Re: Playing with Platters..Answers
Thomas Saunders
>Thanks for all the interest in these little guys. I can tell you how I do these but...then I have to confiscate all your lathes, wood and turning tools! (Big Grin) What a shop I will have then!
Also, Dave Peebles has to tell me how he keeps his shop so clean!
For the most part it is just making holes in wood on the lathe and then making round pieces of other wood (coins)to go in those holes.
This part goes from outside to inside.
Figure out what diameter the bowl or platter will be. Pick a color or type of wood that you want the rim to be. I mount these on a piece of pine 2x4 ripped square. I leave about three inches of pine (waste block) sticking out of the chuck jaws. That keeps me a bit farther away from these spinning beauties.
Turn your wood just round. Decide what inside diameter the rim will be. Use a gouge and/or square scraper to make a hole for your coin.
If there is a secret, it is here. I do not take the wood out of the chuck now until the piece is done. I have two chucks so the coins are made using the second chuck.
I take the second chuck with the coin wood in it and make a short dowell exactly the size of the hole. When it is the right size, I part off a piece.
The thickness of the coin will depend on whether you just want an inlay or if you want the coin color to show through the bottom of the piece.
Swap chucks
Glue the coin in place. I either use a clamp if I need the lathe for something else or I use the tailstock quill as a clamp. When glue is dry, either repeat the process with a different wood or start turning.
As for the segmented ring...Start with a square piece of wood. Cut it in half. Sandwich a piece of veneer between the two pieces and glue back together. Let dry. Same process going the other way. When it is dry, you have a square piece of wood with a cross in it. Carefully mount this to a waste block and turn it round. Line the cross marks up to the square corners of the waste block.
When that is dry, turn it round and way you go.
You can also hollow this coin whilst it is still mounted. This makes a ring you can use as inlay by using a parting tool or narrow scraper and make a groove in your piece the same size as the ring.
That is it really. The segmented blocks can be as complicated as you want...just keep cutting and gluing.
Time to do these puppies....5 days...mainly cutting and gluing and waiting. Turning time...45 min. Worth it? You bet...it makes wood chips and that makes me happy.
Are there easier ways...probably...I've only had my lathe a few months so I'm still a newbie.
Someone asked about reverse chucking...I don't use it. I mount everything on waste blocks and then work back towards the chuck. I do the center of a piece first, then rim ect. By the time a piece is done all I have to do is part off. I use a home made parting tool that is very sharp. My pieces have no feet (they don't walk much) so doing a flat bottom is ok.
The tailstock of my lathe feels like the Maytag repair man. It never gets used.
Hope this helps. My wife has gone walkabout today with the camera so no photos.
Any other questions, just ask.
Tom in Red Deer
PS..I'll start picking up the equipment next week.
