Spinning Up Some Chocolate

Vaughn McMillan

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As I mentioned in this thread, Larry Merlau, a.k.a. The Ambassador, sent me some of his Michigan chocolate, and the boxes got to my house Monday. That night I went out to the shop to play with it.

Since we all know Larry is turning vicariously through all of the spinny folks he's been sending wood to, I figured he deserved a boatload of pics so he can share in the fun of making something on the lathe. So, you turners will have to forgive me for posting so many shots of the process...they're for Larry. :p

To start out, I needed the square blanks to resemble something round. With the help of a couple reject bowls I had laying around the shop, I used a lumber crayon to mark perfect circles on the face of each blank. You can see the blue lines showing the exacting degree of absolute accuracy I hold myself to...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 01 800.jpg

Along with perfectly exact lines, it's necessary to follow them with absolutely no mistakes. This pic shows the kind of tight tolerances necessary for this type of work...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 02 800.jpg

After several painstaking minutes, two round(ish) blanks emerge. There's some promising figure peeking out from the side...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 03 800.jpg

In looking at the blanks, I see that the smaller one has some cracks developing, so it's the one I decided to handle immediately. The other blank had some finer cracks, so I stuck it in a garbage bag and poured about half a gallon of water on it to keep it moist until I could get to it Tuesday.

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 04 800.jpg

The outside face of the blank was pretty rough, and I needed a flat(ish) spot in the center of it, so I took care of things with a few strokes of a Forstner bit on the drill press. I could have used a bigger bit, but I already had one in the drill press and was too lazy to change it. It did the trick just fine...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 05 800.jpg

The flat spot gave me a place to put the spur center. (That's the pointy thing on the left side of the blank, Larry)...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 06 800.jpg

The other face was already relatively flat, and that's where the live center went. (The pointy thing on the right side of the blank, Larry)...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 07 800.jpg

A few minutes later, it's stating to resemble a bowl...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 08 800.jpg

And a few minutes after that, it's even more bowl-like...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 09 800.jpg

Continued in the next post. I told you I had a lot of pics... :D
 
At this point, the outside is to its rough form. The shape's pretty good, but there's a deep crack coming off the face that will have to be turned out...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 10 800.jpg

Before handling the crack, I need to turn the blank the other way around. As you may have noticed in the previous pics, I cut a tenon in the center of the blank, which will give my chuck something to hold onto when I reverse the blank. (Larry, when a turner "reverses" a piece, they turn it around like this. They don't make the lathe spin backwards.) :D ...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 11 800.jpg

Grabbed the trusty ol' lumber crayon, and made a line so I could see where the crack ends while the blank is spinning. I'll lose some wall height, but this crack has got to go...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 12 800.jpg

Here's the blank after the outside face has been trued up a bit. It's not visible in this pic, but I'm partway through the crack at this point...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 13 800.jpg

By the time I got rid of the crack, I discovered something else. Gorgeous figure. I was originally thinking this blank had a bowl inside of it. Turns out, it wanted to be a hollow form instead...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 14 800.jpg

So, I put the drill chuck in the tailstock and a 1 1/2" Forstner bit in the chuck. Here it is, ready to start taking wood from the inside of the blank and putting it on the floor...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 16 800.jpg

And here's it is in action, putting said wood on the floor...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 17 800.jpg

Continued in the next post. Did I mention I brought a lot of photos? :p
 
OK, at this point I must apologize. I could swear I took a few pics of the hollowing process, but when I downloaded all the pics off my camera card, the shots I thought I had were not there. :doh: So instead, I have a few pics showing things after I was pretty much done hollowing it out. This shot shows the scraper bit on my Monster hollowing rig. I only use the scraper to do a little cleanup after the hollowing is essentially done. Sorry I didn't get pics of the other bit I used for the bulk of the hollowing...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 18 800.jpg

I made the walls a bit thinner than I usually do for a roughed-out hollow form (about 3/8" or so thick), in hopes of keeping the cracking to a minimum. Here's one crack that did get started while it was still on the lathe. (That bit of tearout you can see in the pic will get handled when I finish turn it. Hopefully, the crack will be, too.) ;) ...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 19 800.jpg

So, it's off to the alcohol bath...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 20 800.jpg

I keep a few chunks of cinder block in the tub to displace liquid (raises the liquid level in the tub) and to weight down any floaters...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 21 800.jpg

Then I put the lid on the tub, using the ball valve on top to let the air out as I push the lid down...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 22 800.jpg

And as a parting shot, here's a pic showing what happens when you forget to wax the ol' lathe bed before turning wet wood. It was no biggie...nothing some paste wax, a Scotch-Brite, and a little elbow grease couldn't fix...

Larry's Chocolate In Progress - 23 800.jpg

So Larry, there you have the first blank rough turned. :D It looks real promising so far, and should yeild a great-looking piece if I can avoid blowing it up. I rough turned the other blank Tuesday, but those pics will have to wait until tomorrow or so.

Thanks again for the chocolate, Larry. :thumb: It's mmm mmm good!
 
...BTW, in that last picture of the purple tub, looks like a familiar tank setting in background. Ye used it yet?
Not yet. I haven't had a chance to hunt down a gasket and the other fittings I need for it. It's on the to-do list for sure, though.

Vaughn,

Your articulating lamp seems to have disappeared!...
It's still there, just up above what you can see in the pics.
 
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