Tuesday, October 13, 2020

How to make a mallet out of aluminium, epoxy resin and mulberry wood

 

























Tools and materials I propose:

Vacuum chamber kit

Resin

Lathe

Wood turning tools set

Chuck kit

Mini machinist’s lathe

Forstner bit set

Wire Burning Kit

Centre drill countersink bit

Caliper set



I had some aluminium savings from my metal lathe. So I decided to incorporate them into an epoxy resin project. I decided to make this mallet. I think it came out pretty interesting.


First of all I placed the metal savings in a plastic cap. Then I mixed some resin and added black pigment. I poured the resin in the cap and the I de-gassed it in the vacuum chamber. 


Then I used a wood off-cut that fitted my chuck’s jaws and I epoxied the blank in place. To prevent the piece from moving around while glue up, I used a bamboo stick as a pin. 


I did most of the turning using a round nose scrapper. I then Used a centre drill countersink bit to drill the centre. Then I used drill bits and forstner bits to hollow the epoxy head of the mallet. 


I then sanded from 100 to 320 dry. I wet sanded from 400 to 1000 grit. Finally I polished the epoxy with fine and super fine abrasive paste. 


I parted the piece off the lathe.  I then used my bowl bottom chuck and reversed the piece to finish it’s other side. 


I then turned a piece of mulberry on the lathe to make a handle. I used the roughing gouge and the round scrapper. I also used a flat chisel to make the tenon. I also used the skew to make the entry points for the wire burning tool. 


I epoxied the head in place. The I cut the piece off the lathe and used the belt sander to clean the cut parts. 


I finished the mallet with a coat of mineral oil.


Aluminium savings and black epoxy resin worked really nicely together creating a really interesting material.


I am really happy with the way my mallet came out. But that was it. See you soon with a new project video.



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