It’s Monday…let’s make something! ~ Week 18
This morning after dropping off the kids at their school I came home and happily walked up to the barn. I hadn’t been in the barn much this last week because it was quite warm and…who am I kidding? I just didn’t have the motivation. That happens sometimes. The heat did play a factor…but only a small part. So this morning, the air was cool and I headed up through the trees.
As I got to the door of the barn I noticed a piece of cherry wood lying to the left of the door. It was a scrap that I cut off the outside of the piece I used to turn that cherry vase a few weeks back…and it was calling my name! Check out today’s video! ——->
I started on the Grizzly bandsaw…even though the piece wasn’t huge, I needed to cut a flat part for the woodworm screw. Once that was done it was time to get it onto the lathe. I knew going into this one that I wanted to make some sort of a “tray.” But I also knew that this wood wasn’t super stable. And during part of the turning of the outside you see a chunk fly off! But that’s okay, I think this piece looks good the way it is. Turning this piece took me a little longer than I expected. Because of the wood being how it was, I needed to take light passes over it so I wouldn’t break it any further.
I also used the air compressor to blow decayed wood and all that kind of stuff out of the bug holes throughout. I wasn’t able to sand it like I normally sand a bowl…I had to to use the orbital sander. But this allowed me to really get it sanded to where I wanted it!
Once I finished the bottom of the tray I needed to flip it over in the chuck so I could turn out the top. This was such a crazy piece of wood on the outside. The main cherry tree itself was super twisted, I’d honestly never seen a tree look like that! It was quite impressive! Turning out the top of the tray was slow going, much like the underside. I knew pieces would be more likely to fly off if I didn’t take light passes.
Turning off the foot on this wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. I was able to do most of it on the lathe, then used my angle grinder to take off the little nub that was left. And then it was time to sand and oil!
I’m really happy with how beautiful the wood looks on this tray. I have several more logs from this cherry tree that I can’t wait to cut into. I’m sure most of the pieces that come from it will be decorative artistic pieces…but who doesn’t love something pretty to look at? What do you all think?
See you all back in the barn next Monday!
