Gary Beasley

Heres a view of the chatoyance of the curl. https://youtu.be/85Q8L7qpPlM

Back in the shop today. Ive been working on a black walnut root ball sourced locally and Ive rough turned and cored five bowls out of that root ball of varying sizes. This is an example of the color and grain I found. After shaking the sawdust out I mounted up a curly maple platter from a scrap Ricky gave me. I have the shaping done and sanded to 120 and a coat Of sanding sealer. Thats enough for the day.

It does take a torch and heating to soften the metal enough to bend it back. I would recommend retempering afterwards so the teeth dont wear so bad.

You might be as well off making the part and heat treating it, and wind up with a better part than you can buy. Looks like its just a rod threaded top and bottom.

Im in the Marietta area. I mostly do woodturning and a bit of scrollsaw. Actual woodworking projects beyond that are rare as I wouldn't have a place to put them!

Sounds like hes got his wood to deal with too! Keep the wood wet so it dont crack, maybe Ill have some travel time eventually.

He got it high enough off the ground he can back a dump bin up under it so it catches a big pile to haul away. Just have to be careful of the rain wetting it and starting a hot enough composting it lights up. Ive seen a sawmill pile that spontaneously combusted and turned into an ash pile overnight.

Thats similar to the problem at the grocery store checking out. A cart full is unloaded on the conveyor then it takes a cart and a half to hold it on the other end!

Ive used my bandsaw lots of times, made an angle sled for the blanks. You will need to get a solid chunk of similar wood and make a test cut into it to check the sizing on whatever insert you use. It will change with the different blades. It will even change as the blade gets miles on it as the set sometimes gets knocked down a little, best to make a fresh test cut at the beginning of each session.

Should be pretty easy, same technique as bottle stoppers.

I look forward to seeing your projects. Looks like a good setup for a peppermill.

Im not sure it has to be in segments, but if glued all in it should all be the same grain direction, the borders would have to be end grain as well if you could get end grain pieces that big. Be sure the wood is cured well before glueup too, the shrinkage during drying may not be even all across the board.

Nice job explaining this. Ive done quite a few celtic knot pen blanks, pretty much the same way with table saw and band saw. One option is to use multiple layers of colored veneer for the infill, doing contrasting borders on the knot loops look pretty cool. Aluminum and plastic cards are popular for infill borders, recommended to use epoxy for these materials.

Good, he can pick up that little bowl I made from the offcut I got from you during our visit.

The last one I got was urban wood from a co worker here in Georgia and it was at least 12” in diameter.