Well, I'm back turning and have a question or two

[clovishound]

I haven't done much of anything on the lathe for a number of years. Several reasons, but needed to get an urn made for a family member so it will be ready, if needed. Hopefully, won't need it for many years, but I want to be ready just in case.

Anyway, I had a piece of spalted maple that has been sitting in the shop for about 5+ years. I roughed it out and hollowed it, then did a final shape and sand. I left it a little on the thicker side, about 1/2 inch, with it a little thinner at the top. Moisture meter says 7% in wood that was freshly cut and well into the blank. I'd like to cut this off the face plate and start finishing it, but if I need to let it sit for a while, I likely have time. What say you?

The other question I have is about the finish. I have a partial can of clear acrylic lacquer that is about as old as the wood blank. I opened it yesterday and spread some by hand on a sample piece. It looked and smelled normal and dried just fine. I hate to go buy a gallon of lacquer right now, but don't particularly want to have to strip and refinish the piece. I imagine a gallon of real lacquer runs at or over $100 now, if I can even get the stuff I'm used to. I guess the worst case scenario is I'll have to strip it. I would imagine that if it goes on and dries OK and I can wet sand and polish it up, it should be good to go for the long haul.

Here it is. I'm a little rusty, but a lot came back pretty quickly. I made a quick ginger jar sytle lid for it. Don't think this will be the final lid. Doesn't look quite right to me. I may need some wider stock to make a larger diameter one. I may have to go to a finial style. I never had much talent with that style and usually went with the ginger jar. I'll be cutting it off the waste block where you see the line cut near the bottom. This is just sanded, so the colors will darken and deepen considerably when finished. Looking at the scrap I experimented on, I think I will go with straight lacquer versus an oil finish covered with lacquer. The top may get the oil/lacquer finish for a darker color.

   

[iclark]

I really like the form and wood features. Nice job.

I tried using some Deft lacquer as a wipe-on for some highly figured maple. The maple sucked it up like crazy and went really dark. That made the figure much less visible.

If you stay with the liquid lacquer, I would try for a very thin seal coat as the first coat. I wish that I knew how to do that.


I bought some rattle cans of Deft to try to use that for the first coat next time, but I have not had the sawdust time to try it yet.

[clovishound]

When I use lacquer, I usually just use a normally thinned coat for the first coat. Lacquer gets thinned a lot anyway and one coat will soak in a good bit. It usually takes several coats to get enough on the surface to start the wet sand and multiple coats. I've done this with rattle can, but get the best results from spraying with a spray gun.

I have often put a first coat of oil finish, like Watco Danish Oil, if I want to accentuate the grain and darken the color.

I've never used lacquer this old before, although it looks fine to me. 

FYI, I shortened up the current top and put a couple coats of oil finish on it. I like it better now, but may try my hand at a finial. I did one from a scrap of the blank, but it wasn't big enough to fit the opening. Looked good sitting on top, however.

[Arlin Eastman]

If you want a smooth finish use few coats of clear shellac first to seal all the pores then put on the lacquer and buff after several coats.

I let my shellac dry for several days and then use the rattle can of lacquer and several coats of that and then buff off a coat of it to get it glossy.

Lately I have been using rattle can clear shellac just because it is faster.

[clovishound]

OK, after a week or so after the last exterior cutting, this thing hadn't changed shape, and moisture reading was still at about 7% to 8%. I took a chance and decided to finish hollowing it and part it off.

Lacquer looked good and dried normally on test piece, so I went ahead and put several coats on over the last couple days. I wanted the smaller detail gun from HF, but all they had were the expensive ones and the $15 full sized gun. I got the full sized cheapo, as this is lacquer, which can be very forgiving. Spraying went well. Had to relearn some technique, and had one bad spray when some gunk clogged up the feed, but hey, it's lacquer. Just let it dry and sand it smooth.

Anyway, here it is with the (hopefully) last coat of lacquer straight off the gun. I will wet sand and buff this coat and hopefully have that knock your eyes out mirror surface.

   

I'm fairly pleased with it. Could have gone a little thinner and a tad more consistent on hollowing, but I reached a point where I decided I was done. Just got tired of messing with it. Next go round I'll be working with green wood, and have less time pressure. Right now it looks like I will hopefully not need it in the near future. Will know more tomorrow after he has a visit with the oncologist. Hopefully won't need it for many years, but it should be ready in a couple days. I might experiment with an ebonized top, and maybe get some blackwood if it looks a lot better. Finials aren't my thing, but I need to develop some skill with it. They are just too much the right top for a lot of urns.

[clovishound]

I wet sanded and buffed it today. Went ahead and took some more pictures.

The finish came out quite well.

   

   

I used Tru oil on the finial. Darkened the walnut nicely and easy to use. I thought about spraying it with lacquer, but decided the benefit would not be worth the effort. Trying to wet sand in all the nooks and crannies would be difficult at best. Probably end up with a big mess, unless I shoot it really thin with retardants in it. No idea where I could even find retardants for lacquer.

[Arlin Eastman]

Very nicely done. 

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