Mallee Burl Bowl

Vaughn McMillan

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This is a piece of mallee burl I picked up at Rockler a while back. I had a hard time deciding on a base I liked...this maple one is about the 5th or 6th one, but I think I'll call it done. The color seems complimentary to my eye. (Still haven't glued it in place yet, though.)

The top is about 13" x 9", and it stands about 3 1/4" tall. The bowl itself is about 5 1/2" wide. This has my standard Antique Oil followed by lacquer finish, with the cut parts buffed. The cut face of the blank had been dipped in paraffin wax about 1" or 2" deep, so I had some work getting the wax out of the nooks and crannies of the backside. In the end, a heat gun and paper towels got it handled.

Figured I'd post a whole boatload of pictures, and let you guys sort through them.

Bowl 047 - 01 800.jpg Bowl 047 - 02 800.jpg Bowl 047 - 03 800.jpg Bowl 047 - 04 800.jpg Bowl 047 - 05 800.jpg Bowl 047 - 06 800.jpg Bowl 047 - 07 800.jpg

I didn't have a lot of wood to grab with the chuck. This stuff was HARD, and my Forstner bit was dull. I had things smoking by the time I got the hole this deep.

Bowl 047 - 08 800.jpg

As always, I'm open to comments, critiques, or suggestions. Let me know if you think the base should stay, and if not, what you'd replace it with. ;)
 
Vaughn, this is a beautiful piece of wood and you have done a terrific job of displaying it.

I have limited experience with turning this kind of burl but let me share what I was taught by someone who turns a lot of them.

Instead of mounting the burl by drilling a hole in the back for the chuck to expand into he suggests mounting the burl to a sacrificial faceplace made from MDF using wedges and hot melt glue to get the display surface in the correct plane for turning. The sacrificial faceplate should be as large as you can swing on your lathe and allow you to position your blank anywhere within its circumference without having the blank hit the lathe.

Basically you locate the center on your blank where you want to turn your bowl. Then using the tailstock and three or more hands:p position the blank against the sacrificial faceplate. Then using a square, square up the face of the blank until it is perpendicular to the ways of the lathe bed.

Fix the blank to the sacrificial faceplate with lots of hot melt glue and wedges. Obviously the wedges are to help keep the blank face perpendicular to the ways and parallel to the faceplate. You can also screw weights to this sacrificial faceplate to help balance the whole contraption for smoother running.

I know this may be difficult to understand after reading the crappy explanation I have written but I think you will get the drift.
 
Thanks for the idea, Mike. I don't know if that would have worked on this one, since it didn't have a good natural foot to set it on. It wanted to list pretty badly to one side. I also thought of screw chucking the face to make a flat foot on the bottom, but it would have wiped out quite a few of the spikes.
 
Vaughn,

Looks like it's time for me to renew my congratulatory posting - the one that carries me through 10 of your turnings and helps me avoid having to post the same message for each of your projects.

Wow! Neat! Way cool! Nicely done! Really sharp! Beautiful! and the ever popular "nice photography!":thumb:
 
Well Vaughn, Rennie says it all, so for the change I'm doing it in Dutch, verrassend mooi, goed gedaan!!
Ad :wave:
 
Beautiful piece, Vaughn. I happen to like the foot very much as it would have been a shame to turn away any of those pins. That's a neat idea you had and one I will have to use sometime.
 
I like it Vaughn! I'd suggest keeping the foot! It doesn't subtract from the piece and allows it to display all the little pointy things on the bottom of the bowl. Very nice - sure is some amazing looking wood!
 
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