Week six

The abbreviated story of lumber is that a tree is cut down and then cut into flat square boards and sold. This week I reversed the process. I took those square pieces and made them round again with a lot of waste. Yep, this week I made dowels. These are not for the four projects I am working on now, but I wanted to make square boards round. The octagons are in the process of being made round. This is a new process for me called face tuning. On the back of each octagon is a piece of scrap wood. Its soul purpose is to be able to mount the hardware that attaches to the lathe without damaging the work piece. The pieces are glued together with a piece of paper in between. My instructor said that once the piece is complete this glue joint is easily separated by a chisel and mallet. I am a little worried. The lathe spins the part at 1200-1500 RPM. I am using chisels to cut the details. I don't know what is going to happen.
The octagons are maple and poplar with a ply wood scrap block. They will be made into disks. Starting on the right: the first dowel is poplar, the second is clear pine and the third is cypress. The last two are maple turnings that I started a year and a half ago. I think I need to finish them.

The other four projects are coming a long. One is almost ready to be finished. The other three have so more work to be done. It is all detail work though so the changes from week to week are going to be small now that I have to make square wood round again. My projects are starting to take notice in my class and I have received some nice compliments.