There goes Glowforge solving problems again! This weekend I finally completed my largest lathe turning ever. My lathe has 16" of swing and this platter takes up 15 7/8 inches of it. Problem is, when it came time to take photos none of our plate stands fit it. For that matter, the photo booth-in-a-box barely contained it.
Glowforge to the rescue! I took a cutfile for a normal plate easel and Frankensteined it until the joint cutouts, sized for 3mm wood in the original, fit my 5mm Walnut stock. So maybe 160% over the original.
And it STILL was a bit small. I still haven’t decided if it is a giant-plate easel or a giant plate-easel. It’s awesome to identify a need for something then have the skills and tools to crank it out in a matter of minutes.
Anyway, you can see the easel here peeking out from under a platter so big it could double as a hub cap on a big truck.
Thanks but the embellishments in the easel were in the cutfile when I bought it. I only just learned how to make a cartoon text bubble in Inkscape. Those little spiral-tipped flourishes are still way out of my league. But I like that you thought I did that. Maybe someday I will be able to.
Abalone for the inlay. It came as a bag of small flakes but I screened it and ground up several of them. I used that to lay down a bed of fines, then arranged the flakes over top. Not the best but pretty good for a first try. Next one will be better.
Beautiful! Is that purpleheart? I’m a noob turner myself – Hubs got me a lathe for our 25th anniversary in November. We live out in the Texas boonies, so I haven’t found a nearby place to go take lessons yet, but I’m muddling along with the help of YouTube and having a lot of fun!
Yup! Found a large kiln dried board at Woodcraft and bought enough to make three 16x16x2 blanks so there will be a couple more of these. Won’t show them here though. This post was really about the plate easel and on-topic for the first post. Y’all hijacked it!
I’ve been learning on YouTube as well. Main takeaway is safety! Also, if you are thinking about a back-pack style respirator, read this before buying and get the upgraded filter. Trust me.
OK, you made me Google nacre and now I see the answer to the first reply above was technically “yes”. Never heard of nacre and I thought mother-of-pearl was something distinct from abalone and not the parent category. Sooooo…thanks y’all for teaching me something new tonight!
I was just admiring your work again, I love both of those organic materials, and combining them created a one-of-a-kind work of art.
Over 30 years ago I built my jewelers bench out of that wood. A cabinet maker vacated his space and left a large pile of cut-offs in the middle of the space. I was thrilled with the purple heart I found there.
(The darker color is due to my wiping the exterior with the only thing I had, Watco light walnut. That was stupid)
I sawed it up into my requirements for drawers and doors and stacked it up for the next day. When I cut it I was surprised the interior looked like black walnut. I though it had been dyed.
The next day I was surprised again when I found the cut surfaces that were exposed were purple, while those surfaces covered in the stack were still brown! I speculate oxidation…?
Did you have a similar experience working that wood?
Anyway, that plate/platter of yours is in the same category as jewelry. You should be proud of that.
Okay, I’m a wood turner too. Beautiful bowl. My lathe’s swing is only 12 inches, so large projects like that are impressive. Beautiful wood and nice inlay.
Unfortunately, no. I would love to have that feature, but it’s only available on larger lathes anyway, and I probably wouldn’t use it much. I mostly turn Christmas ornaments, pepper mills and lidded boxes.
Well, flat-ish. The blank was nominally 2" thick. Finished it is about 1.5" thick. The interior slope matches the exterior so it’s definitely NOT a cutting board or charcuterie board.
This was my first time turning a piece that large and I was nervous about cutting through the bottom so I left the foot a tad tall. On the next one that rise at the rim of the foot would be maybe 1/8" and I’d lose 1/4" or so of rise sloping up to the rim. Still not flat but a much lower profile would be possible.
And this is why I love this board!! “Wood turner”…“lathe”…these are terms that honestly have never been on my radar. And now I get to nerd out and learn all about new (to me) creative processes. With that said, great job on the easel! And the plate is gorgeous.
With that said, great job on the easel! And the plate is gorgeous.
And the stand is just what we need lasers for.