Archive for December, 2010
Xmas Build
For family gifts this year we made some bowls out of Oregon Walnut, red Padauk, and European Beech. It was a fun project and we hope the recipients enjoy them. They look great in the “group shot”:
The following pics show some of the steps along the way. As usual, you can click on one of the thumbnails below to see a full-size image.
- Walnut blanks after being rough-cut to size and then template-routed to final shape
- Boards for top two layers – European Beech (top middle of photo) and Padauk (bottom middle)
- Sanding Walnut blanks to remove initial milling marks
- Shaped and sanded Walnut blanks, ready for glue-up to Beech and Padauk layers
- Walnut offcuts
- Rough-cutting Padauk sections
- Stack of Padauk rough-cut blanks waiting for glue-up
- Newly glued-up 3-layer blanks, still in the clamps while the glue dries
- Newly glued-up 3-layer blanks awaiting routing
- Making top two glued-on layers even with the Walnut blank with a flush-trim router bit
- 3-layer blanks after top two layers have been trimmed with a router flush-trim bit
- Sanding exterior of 3-layer blanks to even out all three layers and remove machining marks
- 3-layer blanks after router-trimming Padauk and Beech layers
- Using the drill press first saves wear and tear on the router bit, and is faster
- removing the bulk of interior material on the drill press
- Bowl blank installed in fixture, ready for final shaping of interior with plunge router
- Shop vac attachment on router gets most of the chips, but some still manage to escape
- Bowl blank in fixture; first level of routing completed
- Bowl/tray router bit used to for final shaping of interiors
- First level of bowl routing on interior of blanks completed
- Routing last level of interior, including bowl bottom, after adding extension to router bit
- Extension added to router shaft so that last level of interior bowl routing can be done
- Rounding over the edges on the router table
- Machine sanding of interior side walls
- The Sanding Duo, hard at work
- Beth and RuairĂ hand-sanding corners and edges
- With edges rounded, machining of the bowls is complete
- Final hand sanding of completed bowl; after this they are ready for finishing
- Big pile of wood chips underneath drill press
- Finish ingredients – 3 parts each of Varnish and Mineral Spirits plus 1 part Boiled Linseed Oil
- Beth and RuairĂ applying finish
- Wet finish drying on bottom and outside sides
- Finish drying on interiors