The View From Within

What do you get when you cross a woodturning fanatic and a radiologic technologist ?

You get some unique "insight" into a piece of wood. These are CAT Scan images of a maple burl I did a few years ago when I was still working in a hospital. I got called in one Saturday and just "hapened" to have this burl in my car. When my actual work was done I scanned the burl, just to see how it would come out. I got the idea from seeing the old plywood backboards under ER patients. I could easily see the different plys and grain of the wood. Soooooo.....

One of the best patients I ever scanned-stayed very still, no bodily fluids on me. You can clearly see the growth rings, the medullary rays that give it the "birdseye" effect, even air pockets and bark inclusions.

I have some other stuff somewhere too for another time.

Don....I wonder if you could "dry" a wet blank that way? Maybe an MRI instead......

That's fascinating, Don. One of the most unique turning posts I've ever seen!

I wish we could get that good of a view on all our blanks. I hate coming across that inclusion right in a critical spot.

I'd like to have one of those machines in my shop, but I suspect it's outside of my tool budget. For turning a very expensive blank (and hoping to sell the finished product for major money), I wonder it it'd be economically worthwhile to go to a commercial CAT scan office and talk them into shooting pics of the wood?

Very interesting series of images, Don. Thanks much for posting them.

Neal Addy said:

I wish we could get that good of a view on all our blanks. I hate coming across that inclusion right in a critical spot.

Click to expand...

Boy, and I thought that the Oneway, or Robust lathe would be the ultimate tool purchase for the woodturner, now we are going to have to save our pennies for used CAT scan machines............ where the heck will I put it

Come on Stu...I figured you'd be asking Ken and Don how you could build one.

Thanks for sharing that with us Don, pretty neat!

Can it be cured?

Don, someone with an unusual sense of humor might leave that for a doctor to find, labeled as someone's brain scan!

Bill

Thanks

The people in my woodworking and turning clubs think I'm about a half bubble off plumb, but I figured you all might get a kick out of them.

Ken, I don't think the scan generates enought heat in the blank to do much. As you know MRI works on the Hydrogen in water but does not really impart much heat either. I do have some MRI images of wood. I had to have a very freshly cut piece to have enough water in it to get an image.

Frank, The burl is pretty well cured by now!

My first thought was "How much did you bill Medicare for that Cat Scan?