Turned Art Object – #16 Turned Finial & Finishing

The last part to make is the second finial.  The prototype is shown here with the bowl assembly grayed out.

I have a cutoff from the bowl material that is just the right length needed.  I would like to say that it was planned but that would be a fib, I was just lucky.  Unfortunately, there is no good way to mount just the block in the 4-jaw chuck or by screwing it to a base then mounting the base block in the chuck.  As a workaround I decided to glue it to a base then mount both in the chuck.  To make sure the two pieces are glued together along their center axis there will be a very small dowel used for alignment.  Actually, it’s just part of a toothpick but will hold the parts in place while the glue cures.  First, is to drill a small hole in the center of each piece using the lathe as shown below.

Because the toothpick is just a smidgen larger than the hole it is put in a drill (top photo) and sandpaper is used to bring it to the right diameter.  Once that’s done it’s cut to the correct length and is ready to glue up.  The bottom photo shows the two pieces with the toothpick stuck in the left piece.  That piece also has lines drawn showing how the other part will mate up when assembled. 

Because the two pieces will be glued together at their end grain which is typically a weak joint, I used epoxy to give me the best chance of things not coming apart during turning.  The right photo shows the completed blank and the prototype finial.

The blank is put in the lathe and trued up here all ready to bring the tailstock up to the center point and get started.  Since the Leopardwood end piece is square, I was concerned that if I used traditional turning methods to knock off the corners the shock of the tool hitting those corners might break the glue bond so a different method is used.

My tool of choice to do that is air powered die grinder that uses a carbide burr to remove material.  Let me tell you that when the tool gets up to its 20,000 plus RPM full speed the burr chews through material like its nothing.  One disadvantage is my air compressor won’t keep up with it running at full speed so I slow it down considerably which is not a bad idea as the cutting action is a little less aggressive then.  The top photo shows the tool and the inset shows a close view of the carbide burr.  To use, the lathe is run at a slow speed and the tool is gently brought in contact with the blank.  I use tool rest to steady my hand and it does not take but a couple of minutes to round the blank.  However, as you can see in the bottom photo the cut surface is really rough but it’s round which is the point and can be easily turned smooth.

From the rough cylinder the blank is turned to match the prototype.  Here is what the finished product looks like dry fitted to the lid on the bowl.

In the last post I had not decided what method was going to be used to hold both finials in place during the glue up.  For the just finished finial (top photo) I decided to turn a short tenon on the bottom of the piece before parting it off the blank.  The tenon is a different color wood since it’s from the mounting piece.  A shallow flat bottom hole drilled in the bowl’s lid will be used to lock the piece in place.  The other finial shown in the bottom photo did not have the option of turning a tenon and I didn’t want try and cut a shallow square mortise so went with the toothpick method used earlier.  This will work fine since I only need something to hold the finial in place while the glue dries.  

In preparation for dyeing the lids black the area where the finials will get glued on are masked off.  The top photo shows the lid that has the hole drilled for the second finial with the circle (red arrow) drawn on the tape.  The bottom left photo is after the tape was cut.  The bottom right photo is the lid for the Winged Figure of the Republic finial.

Applying the India ink is next and as per usual the first coat left a few white spots where the dye didn’t get into the oak’s pores.  It may take a couple attempts at spotting to get them all taken care of but it will happen.  On the left is the inside of the turned lid while the right is the exposed top for the Winged Figure of the Republic.

The finishing is done the same way as previously discussed.  Here are the finials and lids with three coats of lacquer applied and wet sanded with a 6,000-grit pad.  

After the lacquer has cured overnight the blue tape gets removed so the finials can be glued in.  This photo shows that done along with the finials that go in each of the lids.

Gluing the finials to the lids is the last bit of woodworking that’s needed.  This is done by spreading a little glue on the underneath face of their bases then clamping them into place making sure to match the finial’s grain direction with the lid’s.

Once the glue cures the lids can be put on their respective bases and the pieces are complete.  For reference the pieces are 12 ½” wide, 4 inches thick and 9” tall to top of bowl’s lid not including the finials.  Looking at the combination of different woods, the dyed oak and the turquoise inlay I am happy with the way they came out.  In retrospect this has to be one of the more challenging pieces I have turned.  That’s mostly because of the precision required in making a matched pair and due to the very close tolerances needed so there aren’t any gaps between adjoining parts.  The matching required with this project is all done via measurements and free hand material removal.  I did enjoy it but don’t plan to make any more of them. 

As a comparison the whole process for these pieces are different than the segmented bowls I have made in the past.  With segmented pieces once the jigs used for those bowls are set up the many matching individual parts can be cut relatively quickly and the assembly is more forgiving.