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A rotten job!

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Les Symonds:
This is a lump of my rotten, spalted holly, which I mounted on the lathe just as a bit of practice at hollowing and working with less-than-perfect timber. Gradually, though, I began to realise that I might just be able to make something out of it. I'd turned the outside into a vase shape and realised that I wasn't going to be able to go much further because there is a crack, going from the rim, right down to the foot and then back up to the rim on the other side. Undaunted, I fed the crack with ca glue a few times, then wrapped a big hose-clip around the vase and bound it with gaffer tape, then I mounted it into my Patriot chuck and hollowed out the inside.
That's when the fun really started! There was a great big lump of completely rotten wood right in the centre of where I was about to turn the foot. This I know because most of it came out in one piece, snagged into the cutter on my hollowing tool! Then the crack started to open up. So I cautiously scraped out as much of the interior as I could, but had to give up after a while and resort to scraping. I can get my hand inside (just) but it's too dangerous to run the lathe with my hand in there, so I resorted to lots of gentle hand-sanding and I made up a soft ball on the end of a metal rod, with various grades of Abranet on it. The inside is nowhere near as good as I'd like it to be, but I can't do any more turning in there and even sanding is a bit precarious.
I managed to reverse mount it on a jam chuck, which I made as a loose fit and then tightened a hose-clip around the vase again to hold it in place, but it was impossible to put a revolving centre against the base because there was now just a hole where the centre should be. To clean the base up I just put a small block of wood, the same diameter as the foot, onto the revolving centre and applied gentle pressure to it.

WHAT TO DO NEXT?

I'm new to this style of turning, and what I'm thinking of is applying several tight turns of silver wire to the vase, about 25mm down from the top, and perhaps securing it by putting a 90degree bend into each end of the wire and setting them each into a hole drilled half-way through the thickness of the wall. I'm not planning to fill all the cracks (despite having just researched the various methods and bought brass powder etc) because I want the vase to remain delicately intact.

I'm open to suggestions from you guys who've dabbled with this sort of thing before and just hoping that my ideas aren't completely off-the-wall.

The vase is 200mm (8") tall and 100mm (4") diameter at the widest point, with the wall thickness down to 5mm at the top, more like 7mm at the base, and what's left of the foot is solid.







Come on guys....be gentle, and helpful (as ever)...Les

bodrighywood:
If you fill the crack with epoxy mixed with sawdust then clamp it overnight. I'd leave the holes, I like holes (if they are natural LOL) Take it slow and keep your tools sharp when you finish turning and make sure you are wearing a mask, not just goggles. It isn't any worse than this which ended up selling first time out.

Pete

Les Symonds:
Blimey, Pete, that was quick!....my biggest problem with doing any more turning is that what's left of the foot is too insecure to be able to re-mount it. Having picked away the rot from inside the hole, one half of the foot is wobbling, si I was going to dribble some thick ca into it and wrap the silver wire around it to hold it together.
I agree with you about the holes, though!

bodrighywood:
If you only have the inside left to turn bind the outside with a load of tape. CA Glue is great stuff but I wouldn't rely on it to hold the foot together when under tension. With what is left of the tenon you have problems as doing the chuck up tight will just crush it. I have turned a plug to go inside things like this but yours is so random it would need carving to shape and is it worth all that effort? I use a ring tool on things like this as there is less chance of a catch and they are really good at cutting out the inside with a pretty good finish.

Pete

Les Symonds:
Just a thought....I could turn a wooden ring, perhaps in ebonised oak, and CA glue it to the outside of the wall, about an inch down from the top, and also a similar piece to put under the foot. That would make the structure more secure and would allow me to pick out bits of rotten wood in the crack with a dentist's tool....that would accentuate the crack, yet leave the whole thing more robust!

Les

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