Old Turner - New Member

[Bob Stewart]

Have been turning for several years, but only got into segmenting a little less than a year ago. Wanted to give WoodturnerPro a try so will be spending a little time trying to watch the videos and get started thereafter with this new aide. Have finished a few projects during the last few months & will post the latest here to at least share a little.

 

[stuart johnson]

Bob, welcome to the group. You are certainly well into segmented turning and I believe WTP is going to add to the fun.

 

[Glenn McCarron]

Need stuff Bob. Be interested to learn your process. Is the inside done with Laser etching?? Outside?

 

[mfisher]

Welcome to the forum.

Looks like your well on your way.

 

[Bob Stewart]

Glenn - The bowl was constructed and turned up to the point of ready for the feature ring. That ring has the same number of segments (12) as the other rings. With the bowl finished up to that point we knew we needed the segments to be no wider than 1/2" as the laser cut inlays on both sides would be cut to 3/16" deep. All of this ring is natural woods as to their color - Soft Maple, Bloodwood, Gabon Ebony, Walnut, White Holly, Pernambuco & Yellowheart with the basic bowl being Mesquite. My wife designed the inside logos and used the WT logo belonging to West Texas A&M University. The laser was used to vector each design with the cuts being side by side as this was much faster & safer than using the raster function which would have flamed too much trying to go that deep. Each design took less than 2 minutes time to burn & then we cleaned out the cavities on both sides of the Maple segments. The same design having been cut from the above listed woods were slightly less than 1/4" thick and were glued and pressed into the cavity and then sanded flat inside and outside. The segments were glued into a ring and then onto the bowl and turned. The outside cuts were not an issue with the close sizing of the ring as all of the turning was on the outside edges. The real issue was on the middle of the inside of each segment which is where most of the cutting was done & of course that was the center logo too - if not centered properly or cut too deep the design disappears (experience proved this). The bowl was commissioned by the Athletic Dept as a gift to our president upon his retirement. Thanks for taking time to give it a look.

 

[Glenn McCarron]

Thanks for the explanation Bob, a lot of tedious planning and execution.