Now that the test piece is finished including the
sidetrack it took me on I can take what was learned, apply it and proceed with
the actual project. For the last couple
of weeks, the top and bottom halves had just been setting and now it’s time to
glue them together.
The small jaws on the scroll chuck are swapped out for
the large ones, the bottom half is clamped in place, the turned cone is screwed
on the live center and the top half is set in place. Dry-fitting is next so I put on a bunch of
clamps then took a close look at the joint to make sure the mating faces on
both halves lined up good and tight with no gaps. Fortunately, everything looked good so I unclamped and took off the top then ran a bead of glue on the top mating face, set it in place and clamped the assembly up.
The photo below proves that you can never have too many clamps.
After an overnight curing of the glue the clamps came off
the lathe turned on and the joint where the two halved came together was trued
up. For the application of the turquoise
inlay I cut a 1/8” x 1/8” groove centered on the joint undercut like in the
test piece. In the photo you can just
see a light pencil line near the edge of the outer top face. That’s a reference line for where my planned
finished edge between the outer face and the top will end up. Right now, it’s a sharp corner but plan on it
being made into a nice soft transition to the top surface.
The weighing of the inlay is next. In the photo below all the necessary items
are set out. The digital scale is the
one we use in the kitchen and I have to be very careful using here in the shop
since if I get it all messed up my wife will not be happy.
Mixing and application of the inlay material follows the
same method as used on the test piece.
The one change is that because it took quite a bit longer to pack the
material in I did not have a problem with the mix wanting to ooze out. Once in place I let it set overnight to cure
and the result is this.
After some turning to clean and true up the surface the
turquoise band really shows up. The
outer edges are still sharp but the pencil lines show roughly where I plan on
narrowing the edge down and then making the soft transition mentioned above.
Turning to round and blending in the edges followed by
sanding completes the woodworking phase.
To start the finishing process the body is final sanded to 400 grit
while the inlay is sanded finer using an 800-grit paper. I want to get a sheen on it so used the very
fine paper.
The finishing is the same, an application of dye
dissolved in alcohol then a coat of lacquer to act as a seal. Here are both sides done. Nice thing about lacquer is I can spray the
bottom then come back in an hour, flip the piece and give the top its seal
coat.
I let the lacquer cure overnight then lightly wet sand
with an 1,800 grit foam pad and wipe dry.
This is followed by the application of the gel stain making sure I rub
it into the pores. The photo below shows
the effect on the left side. It acts
like a glaze that changes the overall color a little but being a gel packs into
the wood’s pores and really makes them stand out. After this photo was taken, I did buff the
piece some with a clean soft cloth which removed a bit of the glaze and color
from the body but left the pores dark.
The next day I could spray on a couple of coats of
lacquer then let it harden for two more days and finally rub it out with a wet
12,000 grit foam pad. My final result is
shown below a rather simple soft elliptical shape highlighted by the turquoise band around
the perimeter.
In looking at both pieces, the test and the final I find
that the more I look at them the more the test piece appeals to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment