"CELTIC LACE"

[Splinterz25]

Hello once again everyone I'm embarking on a new piece and Thought I would share the process.
The last time I did a carved edge piece "Celtic Pride" I had many people ask how I did the carving and was able to keep it so even; I do not have any tricks other than a very good lay out and remove very small bits at a time we will get to that another time.

This piece will be entirely different both the carving and the bowl; I've already started the blank making process and It's like nothing I've ever done before so it may have problems even fail all together but I will show everything as best I can threw the  whole process.

  To start off with the piece will be made from  Walnut & Curly Maple and Oak veneer.
 I started off  making Walnut staves ( I will not go into making the Staves look it up on Youtube) I do my stave's in a very unconventional way.
  Once they were made I glued the Oak veneer to one side the same side of each wedge and got them cleaned up and ready to glue into a blank. (blank in photos)

Once dry I drilled a clean 1 1/2" hole in the center so my chuck would fit and chucked it up and turned it inside and outside just cleaning the outside up and getting the angle I want on the inside. This will accepted the next piece the Curly Maple set of staves that has to match the angle exactly for gluing.

  The Curly Maple  staves were cut 1" thick then band sawed  in half to save material giving me 1/2" thick or there about staves.  It is much harder to glue these up at 1/2" thick so I don't recommend  doing them this way, I only did this because I was short on this material, and most of this will be turned very thin anyway. The Curly Maple is the rim of the bowl and will be carved with the lace pattern latter on in the project.

  So this is where this project is now I just matched the Maple to the Walnut section and glued them together on the lathe. I'll post some photos and if you have any questions please ask and I'll answer them the best I can.
 PS there's a few photos of my saw w/ my jig used for cutting the staves, I have not taken the time to make an elaborate saw jig for this that is why I say look it up on YouTube.

[Splinterz25]

These are the photos of the saw jig set up I used.

[Arlin Eastman]

I can understand the box part of the jig but what are the angled pieces used for??

Also I never thought of using pine as a sub base glue up.  I am always thinking of wasting wood and using hard wood pieces. 



Makes more sense and just turn off the pine. Hit me with a stick.

[Splinterz25]

I can understand the box part of the jig but what are the angled pieces used for??

Also I never thought of using pine as a sub base glue up.  I am always thinking of wasting wood and using hard wood pieces. 



Makes more sense and just turn off the pine. Hit me with a stick.

Okay  I'll tell you what you are looking at w/ those angle pieces: I cut my segment pieces to 11 1/4 degrees first at a 90 degree on the Miter saw, in this case 4 1/4" long. Then I set up the jig your looking at the blade is at 3 or 4 degrees tilt. With this set up I cut one side of the segmented piece being held in place by the two angled blocks on the right:  then flipping over the piece it's moved to the left to blocks and the second angle is cut for the staves. Most people do not cut the segments first when making staves they cut them from rectangle blocks...My way produces less waste for each stave.

To answer your second question about the pine it's what I had laying around, Ply would work so will MDF but I've had MDF fail and tear away so I don't use it. Also it is on there w/ HOT melt glue there's a photo in the next group showing me removing this sacrificial plate. ( you do not have to cut it all away)

Bruce

[Splinterz25]

Okay everyone here's where I'm at today I needed to remove the pine plate that the face plate was attached to, but first I had to fill the hole in the middle of the bowl. 

  So to do this and create a tenon and what will be the base or part of the base (not determined as of yet) I made a Maple plug that I glue in w/  5 min. Epoxy this is used for no other reason than speed. (no drying time)  An hour later it's back on the lathe to remove the plate and clean it up. 

  Then at this point I take it back off the lathe to do lay out for my design, you will see part of what I've come up w/ so far there will be a great deal of hand carving on this one. I'm still thinking up the center of the bowl and there may be another pattern carved below the one in the photos.   

 The design is drawn on card stock and I'll remove the parts that will get carved away making a cardboard template using an Exacto knife, once I like the pattern I'll cover it w/ CA glue to make it hard more ridgeit 
this makes it sandable to make fine adjustments before tracing it for the layout.

Long ways to go yet but you can get a feel where it's going.

Bruce

[Splinterz25]

Okay I forgot to mention that the rim was turned down to 3/16" thick for carving, here's a few more photos.

[Splinterz25]

Okay quick update lil more done on the shape, base and carving template. I under cut the lip of the bowl and cut in three rings around in the Maple section. I'll be gluing another piece of Walnut on for the base the piece of maple it attaches to will become a oval bead then the base will flair out from there but not the height of  entire chunk I'm adding most of is for the chuck to grab while turning this section. So mainly all that is left to do is the pattern lay out for the carving and to turn the base, then the carving starts.

A few photos for a visual reference. 

Bruce

[Arlin Eastman]

Whoo you are going to inlay that into the platter top?  This I must see so I can try it myself sometime. 

[Splinterz25]

Okay everyone I was able to get the lay out drawn even w/ the use of a template it took a while and somethings I'll adjust while carving. Arlin asked if this was a INLAY not on this project: if you look at the template the dark cardboard is what wood will remain. take a look at my new photo there's a dark circle line drawn everything above that will get cut away except the lace knot pattern. There's a great deal of carving & negative space on this project. I have been toying w/ the idea of covering the carving section w/ 24 kt Gold leaf but I'll make that decision later.

Bruce

[Big Dave]

I'm enjoying the hell out of this, Bruce!


Too cool...