Vase in Sweetgum

Ted Calver

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Location
Yorktown, Virginia
Lots of sweetgum in my wood stash these days and this one started to get a little punky without a lot of spalting. Roughed end grain, DNA'd and stored in my 120 degree attic for several months and when it was unwrapped there were no major cracks, so it went on the lathe.
Vase1 .JPG
I first turned a plug to fit in the mouth of the rough out to help center it in the chuck....
vase2.JPG
and also to center the Kobra.
vase3.JPG
Laser guided to a little under 1/2" and that's about as thin as I dared since the wood was punky. I also used epoxy tinted with transtint red brown to fill some obvious cracks....
vase5.JPG
....and finish sanded with the extension and fingers
vase7.JPG
 
Off comes the blue painters tape to keep the rollers from making a ridge in the wood...
vase8.JPG
...and using the adapter on the tail stock...
vase9.JPGvase10.JPG
the vase gets positioned to finish the bottom. Vacuum adapter fit just right, but there were still too many fine cracks in the base to hold a vacuum...
vase11.JPGvase12.JPG
 
....so the vacuum chuck becomes a jam chuck until I get enough CA into the bottom to seal it up.
vase13.JPG
Finish sanded...
vase14.JPG
and the final product
vase15.jpgvase16.jpg
Size is 15"h x 8"w
Finished with many coats of minwax antique oil
Thanks for looking.
 
Last edited:
Ted -- well done! I 43QLLY err really enjoyed the photo series... thanks ----- wish I could take the time to do the photo things my memory is shot!

paul
 
thanks for sharing love all the shots. very nice looking finished piece! that steady rest looks as well built as that PM that you have.
 
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