3D Patterns in wood working

3D Patterns in wood working

Hey there fans.

For some time I have been experimenting with designs in wood art. Some of them make it to my grandfathers lathe and some are used in a flat design, (cutting boards, lazy susan’s etc.) The 3D concept is a fun project and although it has particular challenges, they can be overcome with practice and determination (not to mention a lot of wrongly cut pieces in the scrap bin).

So without any further ado, lets get started.

Lets start with the tumbling block design.

As you can see this design is made up of diamonds. These diamonds take some time and lots of scrap to get just right. You will need a very accurate mitre box or cutting tool to get these just so. Proceed only after you have a very tight uniform result or you will be chasing gaps and spacing in the glue up and never get a good result. Start with pine before you get into the expensive stuff. Here you see I have chosen ash, brazilian walnut and brazilian cherry. Go for an equal contrast, ie: pick types of wood of equal denisity and hardness and more important for the 3D, equal distances of diversity in color. Two colors that are similar will highlight the third and diminish the depth of the 3D’ish,ness ??? (is that a word) of the work.

Back to the cutting, each piece must be uniform in length and length of cut. What does that mean? Well, they need to be equal length across the cut and the running grain. All 4 sides must be equal for this to work. The width of your material will form 2 sides. Likewise the length of your saw cuts will form the other 2 and must be equal to the first two. This takes some practice and a couple of custom jigs to get just right. The coolness in the character of the 3D design is enhanced by the smaller diamonds but the smaller are much more difficult to get right. A smaller diamond tumbling block design is a real eye catcher every time but start with the larger on your first try for simplicity sake.

I start the gluing with 3 diamonds and a hexagon. If I use any clamping (which I usaly do not) it may be a rubber band. Holding them in place for 10 seconds is more than enough though without any assistance or clamps, then just set them aside to dry. If your cuts are right you need not force a better fit with clamps.

In all wood working you can not and should not make up for bad jointery with clamps. This will internalize stress within the piece which will some day find its way to the surface and express itself. Besides, wood has enough issues all on its own (moisture content, grain stress etc.) without us adding to the mix.

 Here we are combining the hexagons into groups of 3.  When you do it this way it is essential that you clean all the glue off the exposed or unused (exterior) sides or this glue will keep your next glue up from going well. I use my wife’s tooth brush, please don’t tell her.

Coming along fine

The problem with these 3D designs is always jointery and glue up. You are essentially gluing up hundred of joints simultantously verses multigenerational work in which the sections of multiple pieces are joined, a much easier thing to do. Jigs help but honestly it is a mess. Don’t spare on the glue, get it everywhere. Here is my glue up jig being used to hold for the belt sander. I do run these through the planer also but only for uniformity and only a 32^nd or 64^th off in any one pass.

Here is a hint on glue up jigs you will love. There is a material that is used to paint the ends of lumber to keep it from drying too quickly and also used to cover exotic woods so their moisture content does not change. You know the stuff right, essentially a liqud wax which hardens into a coating. This stuff is not hard to get and is sold by the gallon. I coat all my jigs with it, especalay my glue up jigs. I use it on my some of my tools also. Brush it on and wait 24 hours and nothing will stick to your jigs. It is God’s gift to those of us who love glue.

 ere is a close up of this piece which is a cutting board.

And here is the final product with edges of a 45 degree. With this design rounded edges do not seem to compliment the work. Now we finish sand up to 400 grit and apply finishing oils that are food friendly

 Hey fans
Here is a Mechine I have been working on
For some time I have been having trouble keeping a finished or almost finished work on the lathe.
Being so far from the head stock with no tail stock (can not use a tail stock with interior work or mouth and base finish work) the piece tends to be dicy and fragile, flying across the room if you look at it wrong especially if you use a chuck like my Nova chuck.
So a couple of steal parts, some nuts and bolts and 4 roller blade wheels and this is what I came up with.
It is very noisy but after pushing and pulling during a test with this vase it seems to add a much higher level of stablility to the whole affair.
Above is it turning , below with the lathe off.
Looking forward to your comments.
I know there are expensive ones you can by but who isnt on a budget these days, right?
Keep turning.
Steve
 PS. the piece below is of black locust and brazilian Walnut. Should be nice
PSS the Manchester Public library was a hoot , next library on the schedule is Amherst on 7/24.
Be there or be , .... , well you know.

Here are a couple of vessels I just finished, fresh off the lathe.

Both have The Oats design of from

http://www.turnedbygeorge.com/

To the left a maple with walnut vase with a teak hat

On the right a segmented walnut vase with a blood wood top ring.

Both were lots of fun.

Hoping to have a web site up soon so stay posted.

Steve

P.S. I will be doing a presentation at the Sandown NH public library Tuesday March 27th at 6PM. Would love to see you there.

Well I promised you

some pics of the fruit of my triangle design so here they are

the Glue ups were very difficult because they were not multi- generational but one large glue everywhere mess. That being said still they came out nice. One vessel using a stay construction and 2 cutting boards. Let me know what you think. Triangles of Teak, walnut and cherry with some birch triangles on the edges.

I have been playing with triangles lately.
The cut out show the design I am headed toward.
Lots of rubber bands and 3 color triangles.
this is a single generation glue up , so needless to say lots of clamps and special glue up jigs are a must , but they are easy to come by and the jigs easy to make.











After playing with them for a while I have decided on two forms. A cutting board and a vase.
the upper 6 will be developed into a vase using stay construction and the lower as seen below.












These are in glue up now so in a couple of weeks they should be close to finished and on the blog.

If you are free on Feb 28 or March 7th would love to meet you.

Steve

Here is some fruit from the multi generational tree.
This one was an experiment with half step 15 degree fallowed by a peak to troft cut.
all in all , 3 generations and very simple glue ups.
then we use a stay construction to make it into a Vase.
Walnut and birch with mahogany balance rings.
Steve

What the hek????

OK, here is one of the funkiest pieces I have ever made.
It is a gyroscopic segmented piece with a solid rosewood interior with magnets pushing against each other and teflon gaskets on brass rods to make frictionless bearings. It also is segmented in a continuous loop, meaning the rings of segments are not rings but a long coil of segments like the threads of a screw. If you can get this thing moving fast enough you can actually become younger and grow hair.

I will be in Gilford at the public Library on Feb 28 presenting and some of my work is on display there until then.
On the 28th my stuff will be moving to the Sandown library where it will be on display until March 7th when I will be doing a presentation there.
Hope you can come by and join us for any or all and thanks for your support
Steve

Hey there folks
We have been developing the Multi Generation lamination concept in the shop and here are some pics to bring you up to speed without 1000 words per picture.

First you make a stick, preferably a pretty stick like the one above.
For now it is important you have a uniform pattern in the coloration and dimensions of each piece.
Above you see Maple with Satine, or what is also commonly called 'bloodwood' and a center of Ebony as a highlight kicker.
This is the first generation of this multi generational piece or the first lamination or glue up. As you will see each consecutive glue up gives birth to a new pattern or design.


Above we see the beginning of the second generation with the formation of what are called 'chevrons'. Chevrons are the 'Sargent stripes' design , created with a 15 degree cut and a flip of the wood.


Now we are getting somewhere.
With the zig zag 2nd generation we can begin to lay out where the cuts will be to form the 3rd generation. I have chosen peek to troft and drawn in with pencil. Above you can see the paper mach up which is a must. I wall ways first make it with paper before cutting wood.




Now we begin to see the design on wood of the 3rd generation laminated design.
And this is where we end.
Why?
Well, what it becomes from here is the real fun.
I could place 22 degree cuts and with 'stay' or vertical construction make a kickin vase. This is also a a great pattern for a lazy Susan and or cutting board.
There are just so many things you can do from here, it is endless and that is one of the many reasons I like the multi generational lamination concept. The variables are endless, the potential artistic expression is without measure. Every mistake leads you to a new design with its own applications.
So have fun with it and send me a pic of what you create.
Steve

Hey there everyone
I will be doing a presentation at the Hooksett Library on the 29th of Nov.
It will be on holiday crafts and gifts you can do at home.
the link is below
Have a great turkey thing
Steve

http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/friend.cfm?curOrg=HOOKSETT&curKey1=Library&curMonth=11&curYear=2011&curHelp=arl&tEvt=2417889

Game boards

My Grandfathers Lathe

My apologies fans. A couple of big jobs back to back have taken me out of the loop but not out of my shop. I have been experimenting with a couple of new ideas and designs that I think you will really love, both on the lathe and off. Give it a read and tell me what you think.

Like most folks I have been playing on game boards since I was a child. For years now my son’s have enjoyed beating me at games that I taught them at a young age. Chiefly on the list are chess, (which I always loose at) and backgammon, (at which I can sometimes still beat them). Winning or loosing they are fun for everyone and the board and its elegance seems to heighten the experience, especially if you can say ‘yea, I made that’. So I thought I would take some time to show what can be accomplished with this post and wet your appetite. In the near future I will make separate posts on the how to of the chess board, the backgammon boards and some basic tips on how to develop the playing pieces on the lathe.

This board is actually the first try at a chess game board I did some 18 years ago. It is of ebony and curly maple squares with a satine (bloodwood) trim and maple, ebony highlights. The board is approximately 24 inch by 24 inch with 4 inched tall sides with drawers for the pieces on each end. Its sides are of mahogany and it has a bottom of simple felt. 18 years ago my shop consisted of a 10 by 14 room with a craftsman 10 inch contractors table saw, hand tools and a belt sander along with my grandfather’s lathe. So this is doable for the humblest of shops. Notice also that the alignment and glue lines are remarkably intact. With these there are so many ends glued together that separation is an issue. After 18 years it is still looking good and that is remarkable for this type of woodwork. Simple tips help get this result.

Here you can see the drawers and how they slide into and under the board. The pieces are of ebony and bird’s eye maple and are 2 to 4 inch tall and their bottoms weighted with poured lead and finished with felt. We wanted to make the bottoms heavier so the pieces would be less likely to tip over during play and we are fond of banging them down with a resounding ‘checkmate !!!!!’.

These are more recent creations and consist of both the backgammon and chess. Both of these pics are of different sides of the same piece. Bottom is chess, the top backgammon or vise versa.

Cherry, walnut, ash and mahogany make these stunning boards which also house drawers between then for the playing pieces. Again they are around the 24 inch square area.

Same here again with some basic pieces beginning to take shape. Notice on the chess side the drawers are slightly pulled out giving you an idea of the depth of the piece.

So I hope this post left you wanting more. These projects are not simple or easy, but doable if you are willing to make mistakes and push through the difficulties to get to a finished project. As some wise old woodworker once said, ‘the difference between a carpenter and a wood craftsman is the craftsman has very expensive kindling in his fire place’.

Keep turning, keep gluing

Steve