Oct. Turning Challenge- Something Other Than Wood

Jason Goodrich

Jason Goodrich

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Fall is here. Hopefully that means more of us are back in the shop. Let’s see if we can get these challenges going.

I thought there was a list of previous challenges but didn’t find it. I looked through some of the previous challenges and didn’t see this. Turn something other than wood. I suppose that epoxy fits that description, but hopefully we see some other options that don’t show up often.

Some ideas-
Brass
Aluminum
Seeds like Tigua, Avocado, or Betel
Stone, I have some soapstone to turn, alabaster would be cool to see
Some metal spinning would be great to see
Technically, palm is more of a grass than a tree, so you could make an argument that it isn’t wood.
Plastic works too

Let’s have them done by Halloween. Voting will be the first week of November.
 
Been trying to think of something to do with a banksia pod that Jerry @Nubsnstubs sent me years ago - I hope it can find it among the clutter in my garage :lol2:
 
Sounds like fun. Should be a number of pen / kitchen utensil handles/ bottle stoppers show up in this challenge. My last turning that was not wood was a drawer knob for a mcm dresser that I was putting back together for a friend.
Does cork count? It is technically bark, right?
 
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Sure, cork would be interesting. I have thought about doing something with cork, but I imagine that tear out would be a big problem.
 
Jason Goodrich said:
Sure, cork would be interesting. I have thought about doing something with cork, but I imagine that tear out would be a big problem.
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Cork has a grain direction much like wood. It does stabilise though. One of my German contacts did it once. Didn’t make nothing. Just wanted to see if it stabilised well. Then shelved the idea.
 
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I stabilized and turned a pen with pine bark that turned out ok. It was an interesting story, but probably not worth it for a pen. It needed something bigger to show off the character.
 
I have a bunch of scrap corian counter tops. I wonder if I could glue em together and make something?
 
I did a pen and a final from some early corian, decades ago, and they turned out kinda floppy and didn't cut well. Maybe newer corian and the quartz stuff is harder.
 
Had a bunch of microlam cutoffs, stuff turned pretty good. This is for example only, was turned about 8 years ago
TimR

Thread 'Microlam bowl'

hey all, been tied up with lots of activity while our house gets built, so not much time on forums except those to do with finding fixtures, tubs, lights and such.
I’d been wanting to try turning this stuff for s while, plenty of scrap pieces available while framing going on.
Splintery, soft, inconsistent...yep. All that being said, wasn’t really difficult turning and result is interesting. Whadaya think?
9” diam, couple coats of shellac.
I’ll probsbly do another, but less curve and smaller base.
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Do you turn soapstone with typical wood turning tools? And it looks like ebony accents on the lid - do you glue that with epoxy or Gorilla glue - surely not wood glue. Very pretty vessel.

And that microlam turning is cool. I'm thinking cutting thin strips at a 45 degree and gluing them together one could make cool designs like chevrons and boxes, etc. I have some Baltic birch scrap, might have to look into that sometime as a trim accent or something.
 
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The soapstone turned very well with carbide tools.

I attached it to a waste block with thick CA glue and it held very well. I heard that wood glue does work. Hot melt glue does not. Epoxy is also supposed to work great.

I used some African blackwood for the lid and again used thick CA glue.
 
DLJeffs said:
Do you turn soapstone with typical wood turning tools? And it looks like ebony accents on the lid - do you glue that with epoxy or Gorilla glue - surely not wood glue. Very pretty vessel.

And that microlam turning is cool. I'm thinking cutting thin strips at a 45 degree and gluing them together one could make cool designs like chevrons and boxes, etc. I have some Baltic birch scrap, might have to look into that sometime as a trim accent or something.
Click to expand...
That would be very cool. Wish I hadn’t toss scraps away…whoda thunk.
 
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