Large Vessel with Finial and a few notes

Dan Mosley

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Palm Springs, Ca
I posted this on another thread showing the Lacquer finish.

1) - This is the largest one I have made so far - It stands 2' 2" with a 6" Finial for a total height of 2' 8" tall. My Camera is not that good but its the best pic I had.

The outside - I used a steady rest and would not have attempted it without one due to the length. On the outside the "\_/" profile was the more difficult part in that I had to take smaller slices here and there to make it straight lined so to speak. Of all the tools to make the profile straight (shear cut), I found that the Ci1 was the easiest to use and control.

I cracked the rim with my boring bar when i was hollowing and thought I had ruined the project. I used to get mad and break it up and throw it on the firewood pile. Now I stop and think about it for a bit - How did it happen ? then Is there anything I can do to save it ? With this one I used CA glue, wood dust and my Optima 1 wood burning tool and created the branches you see on it. It actually turned out better than I thought.

The inside -The wood was not real wet so cutting was a bit tougher than normally would be if it was wet. To make it easier I used a spray bottle of MS and would spray the inside and let it turn for a bit before continuing the hollowing. This made it much easier, smoother cuts and alot less vibration on the tooling. I suppose you could many other things to spray and cut with but its what I had on hand and worked very. I do not use the standard 3/16" cutting tips and grind my own now with a different profile and change the angle of the bevel but the 3/16 works. I do this so I only cut once with a very smooth surface and never have to go back to clean up etc -.

The Finish - It started out a solid white pc of dull looking wood so I changed it. The finish was done using ML Campbell hight build gloss lacquer - surface was sanded to 220 - black transtint sanded back - then Ruby red sanded back - then light yellow mist sprayed over and not sanded - Lacquer sprayed on 8 coats or so - left to dry for a couple weeks - finish sanded with 600 - 1000-1500 then onto 3m rubbing compound - then swirl mark remover. It is alot of effort but a very nice finish that I have not tried before. I really do not want to do the rottenstone/pumice thing so I thought this would work just as well. Since then I have ordered some Menzerna compound to try out - I hear good things about it so ill see how it goes.

Could I have made it easier - you could have sanded it down and used 0000 with wax and hand rubbed it in and buffed off=
could have just sanded it to 2000 and rubbed it down with a dry towel to and both would have given you a satin
to a so-so semi gloss.
 

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Way cool vase

That's really nice Dan. We talked a little about holowing extra deep here some time back. Did you hollow from both ends to go so deep? Before I mentioned a turner I knew who used a chuck with large jaws and hollowed from one end then turned it around and finished from the other. I'd like to know how you decided to do it.
Guy
 
Thanks for all the compliments on this.....................

Guy,............... I hollowed it from one end all the way down with a hollowing rig I made for large vessels and using my steady rest. I use my supernova 2 chuck with powergrip jaws. The boriing bar is 1 1/2" diameter and although you would think that I pushed it past the calculated max depth it cut smoothly all the way down. It could be because of the wood used my have been softer or because I use (self made) special made cutting tips or both. I have not figured out the max depth yet with it as this pc was the largest I have done so far. I would not have attempted this deep of a hollowing without the steady rest for safety reasons. I will say this - the hollowing was fun and clearing out the chips by the hand full - literally by the hand full.....
 
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