Olive wood cone with spirals - Woodturning and carving

 

Tools and materials I propose:

Longneck Angle Grinder

Flat file

Lathe

Wood turning tools set

Chuck kit

Rotary tool

Carving bits

Cordless Chainsaw

Vacuum chamber kit

In this video I make a wood sculpture out of olive wood. It is a cone with three carved spirals. I also used epoxy resin to fill the cracks and give my piece a bit more character. 

I begun by shaping an olive wood log to fit my lathe. I used my small cordless chainsaw and an axe for this job. 

I then turned the piece true and created a tenon to fit my chuck. 

I turned the piece to a cone shape. 

I then made a mold out of a plastic cup and vinyl film. I mixed some epoxy with black dye and poured it into the mold. I then degassed the resin in the vacuum chamber. 

I then rechucked the piece and turned it true again. 

I had some gaps on the resin so I refilled them.

I used a homemade divider to divide my cone into 6 parts. I then drew my spiral forms.

I used my small angle grinder to remove as much material as possible.

Then I used my rotary tool and a ball shaped bit to hollow my spirals. I worked little by little on each spiral and at some point I was done. 

I sued the rotary tool and files to do the final shaping. I sanded until 320grit. 

I reversed the piece on the lathe and used a spindle gouge to clean the bottom.

I finished the piece with mineral oil.

It was a really interesting project for me and I learned a lot of stuff.

But that was it, see you soon with a new project video.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, that at no cost to you, I get a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Green wood and fire - experimental woodworking project

 

Tools and materials I propose:

Starter carving tool set

Lathe

Wood turning tools set

Chuck kit

Bandsaw

Propane torch

Forstner bit set

Rotary tool

The idea was that if you have really thin wet wood, you can dry it with a blow torch. The problem is that the wood will also distort. In this project I tried to turn this disadvantage to my benefit. Besides the wet wood, I also used some basswood to make a few more elements of the project.

Using a roughing gouge I started turning my blank true.

Then I secured the piece with a steady rest and started hollowing. I begun with a forstner bit and I finished with a hook tool. 

I then used a skew to turn the really thin piece of the project.  I also used a spindle gouge to turn the small element on the base. Finally I parted the piece off using the knife tool. 

Using a blow torch I dried the wood. This process also distorts the piece. Hopefully it will distort even more over time. 

I sanded the piece and finished it with mineral oil. 

Using a carving knife I shaped the flower. 

I then turned a piece of basswood on the lathe to make a base. I used the screw chuck for this job.

Using a carving gouge I decorated the base. 

Finally I carved the leaves out of basswood. I used the bandsaw, a carving knife and a carving gouge for this job.

I used the flower as sanding block to match it’s curve. I made two pins out of nails and epoxied them in place. 

I also used a 6mm dowel to connect the base with the rest of the flower.

It was a really interesting project for me. But that was it. See you soon with a new project video,

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, that at no cost to you, I get a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

How to make a branding iron

 

You can find CNC project file here.

Tools and materials I propose:

Lathe

Wood turning tools set

Chuck kit

Bandsaw

Caliper set

Mini machinist’s lathe

Jeweler's saw

Centre drill countersink bit

Propane torch

Wire Burning Kit

Tap and die set

In this video I make a homemade branding iron. For this project I used an M6 threaded rod, a couple of scrap brass pieces and a piece of oak.

First of all I set my CNC up to carve my logo on a piece of brass. I used a V carving bit and I set the machine to do really shallow passes. On my design I added a circle. I need that as a reference so I can later centre the piece on the lathe. In these type of stamps the design must be mirrored so the imprint will come out the right way. 

I then cut the piece on the bandsaw. 

I hot glued the piece on the metal lathe. This wasn’t such a good idea because the heat melted the glue. But it worked at a certain extent. 

Next I counter sinked the piece and drilled a hole. I then threaded the hole with a tap. 

On the metal lathe I also worked on the threaded rod and I also made a brass ring for the handle. 

Next I started working on the handle which I made out of a scrap piece of oak. 

I first made the tenon and epoxied the ring in place. I then counter sinked the hole and drilled the hole for the handle. 

Next I finished shaping the handle. I then secured the handle with my steady rest and used a bowl gouge to clean up the front of the handle. 

I taped the handle as well. 

Next I finished the handle with mineral oil. 

My branding iron came out awesome. Because the brass tip is really thick it can hold heat for a long time. The CNC did a really good job and my imprints are really sharp. But that was it, see you soon with a new project video.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, that at no cost to you, I get a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Fluorescent resin and wood pendants that glow in the dark - Woodturning

 

On this project I used Inventables X-carve CNC machine:

Easel

X-Carve

CNC project files

Tools and materials I propose:

Lathe

Wood turning tools set

Chuck kit

Bowl bottom flat chuck jaws

Bandsaw

Fluorescent bright glow powder 

Vacuum chamber kit

Resin

Mini machinist’s lathe

Jeweler's saw

Solder and flux kit

Centre drill countersink bit

In this video I make two pendants. One out of birch plywood and one out of mahogany. On both I used my 3D carving machine to carve an owl. I then filled the owl element with fluorescent epoxy resin and used my woodturning lathe to turn them round. I also used my mini machinist's lathe to make brass hangers for both pendants. 

First of all I created my vector design of the owl and imported it into Easel. Easel is the on line software my CNC uses. So I set up my project and started carving  the design on my CNC machine. Note that on my design I have added a swallow circle. This will only act as reference so I can centre the piece on the lathe later on. 

When I finished, I lightly sanded the burrs left over from the router. 

Then I used my hot glue gun to add a ring fo glue around my design. This would help me later on while I pour the resin. 

Next I prepared some resin and added my fluorescent pigment. I degassed the resin in the vacuum chamber. I poured the resin and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I used a lighter to remove the bubbles from the surface. 

I cut the pieces round on the bandsaw and then I sanded them flush with my reference circle. 

I mounted the pieces on the lathe using my bowl bottom flat jaws. I used a pencil to create some reference circles on the bottom of the pendants. I then epoxied the pendants on a wood block. As you can see the circles really help to centre  them easily. 

I used a round scraper and a round carbide cutting tool to shape my pendants. 

I sanded dry from 100 to 300 grit. Then I wet sanded with mineral oil until 1000. Finally I used fine and super fine abrasive paste to polish the pieces. 

I parted the pieces off the lathe and then I reversed chucked them using my flat jaws again. 

Finally I made two hangers out of brass on my mini machinist’s lathe. The first one was a ring.  I cut the ring open with my Jeweller’s saw and then I soldered it back using a small torch lighter. I then made the second hanger and epoxied it in place.

My pendants came out really nice. It was a really interesting project. I hope you’ll enjoy it too. But that was it see you soon with a new project video. 

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, that at no cost to you, I get a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.