burr oak hollow form's

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hello folks heres a breif step by step on some burr oak vessels i've been doing recently

heres the blocks fresh from the chainsaw
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6" faceplate attached
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on the lathe ready to spin
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knocked into the round- but the pith is in the top and runs diagonally through the piece, will this cause a problem?
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rough shape
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hollowed out to around an 1/8" and sanded to 320 in this pic
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oiled with lemon oil ready to part of
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heres the two bits from the two blocks that i made that day- they will now go in to my drying cupboard where they will dry and warp. there was some rot in the second piece i turned so i had to reduce the diameter to get rid of it.
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Looking good, George. :thumb: The one with the diagonal pith may bend and or crack a bit on you, but even if it does, I'll bet it'll still be a cool piece.
 
Great looking piece George. You might want to treat the pith with some CA. I have found if you don't it may crack beyond repair. I have did a couple like that and soak the pith and around it fairly well. First one I didn't and it ended up as firewood.
 
thanks
I did ca it and its still holding (for now)
this wood is a little bit tricky but two forms in a day dont wear me out :thumb:
 
Great Forms George! I love to turn burr oak. It's plentiful around here too. Hope they don't move to much on you, please post pics as they do though.
 
well folks heres how the one with the pith in turned out

on the day i made them i was struggling to gauge the wall thickness in the bottom third of the big piece (i have now made some ellsworth callipers which will help me next time) when i cut it of the lathe it was very bottom heavy and may be from half way it was possibly 1/2" thick-too thick

well it did crack as it dried but not from the pith- the pith open up a bit but not to a bin it level.

so i have cut it open to see how right or wrong i was and why it has cracked in the way it did-
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it was 1/8" at the top then quickly went to 1/4" then 3/8 near the base
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the form cracked due to uneven wall thickness- the top dried out quickest and caused a stress to build up which is why it split from the hollowing hole.maybe the pith didn't help but the main problem was the wall thickness.

if one of these thickness 1/8", 1/4" or 3/8" had have been consistent and the piece dried slowly i doubt that it would have cracked.

so every now and then cut a piece open and learn how and why for next time.
 
George,
'Til you broke it, that was a nice looking hollow form... :rofl:

You refer to Burr Oak... I've seen the reference before in the UK turner's posts... do you know what it may cross reference to in the US... the grain on one of your pictures looks a lot like the oak I got from a friend... we have several types here so I'm not sure which one my friend had. Her's was a huge tree a little over 50 inches diameter at the base.

I picked up some Red Oak from a neighbor who was cutting it up after the tree fell across the road... It's pretty nice wood to work with.
 
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