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Hi, Alan Stratton from As Wood Turns dot com. I'm "on location" in Arizona. So, for this
project, I picked an Arizona theme, a saguaro cactus. So this I'll call a necklace holder.
But it really, for me, is an exercise: one in a turning that is cut and bent after being
reglued; and also as an exercise, since I'm on location and don't have a drill press,
of drilling on the side of a turning -- on the lathe. Not too bad in the end.
So, here we go with a saguaro cactus necklace holder, turned on a lathe.
I'm using maple salvaged from a friend's tree. It has dried for about six months and feels
quite dry. It will be dry enough for this project. I've already roughed it down and
mounted the timber to a 4 jaw chuck. I started with a gouge then switched to a skew for some
skew practice. I'll use my wrench tenon cutters to size a tenon for the base. The cactus is
not uniform so I'm just having fun with shallow coves.
I'll sand the main portion now. After parting off the top of the cactus, I sand the top
then, stain and finish this segment at this time. The green stain in an alcohol based
dye followed by shellac friction polish. I was about to grab a scrap piece of wood
for the base when I saw the remnants of my wagon wheel bolo tie. I decided it could make
a nice base for the cactus and add a little to a western theme. Keep all those scrap segment
pieces -- you'll never know when you can use them. All I need to do is to shape the top
with an ogee curve and start to part off the bottom from the faceplate. I'll make the base
concave so it can sit well. After finishing the top surface I'll finish parting it off.
Now for an arm for the cactus. I've chucked up another piece of maple and off I go. Again
I'll start with a gouge then switch to a skew for a smoother surface. There's a little knot
at the end that I need to get rid of. Whoops, the wood came loose as I parted off the end.
I'll cinch it back up and continue. One thing to note when using a wrench tenon
cutter -- The tenons will be slightly oversized. It never hurts to check them before relying
on the size. Then more skew practice with shallow coves.
Then sand but no stain or finish at this time because I'll have to cut, glue, and re sand
the arms. For safety when sawing the arm, I taped it
to a scrap piece of wood on both sides of the cut.
Then glue the arm back together aligning the short sides of the cut where it would be difficult
to sand later. This is something I learned from Mike Hosaluk.
I also turned a short cactus bud. Now for another arm for my cactus. Same process
here as the first one. Start with a gouge then switch to a skew. I want to size the
tenon early in the process. To drill the side, I don't have access to
a drill press. So, I built a little cage on a faceplate to capture my cactus. Then at
low speed, I could drill the hole. Then partially dismantle the cage, move the cactus, and re-assemble
to drill the second hole. Finally, I'll sand the corner on each arm.
First with a sanding disc on the lathe then followed by hand sanding.
Voila, a saguaro cactus necklace holder. In one sense a simple project but one in which
I wanted to try cutting and re-gluing pieces together. I probably did not need to drill
the arm holes on the lathe but I wanted to try it out. I think there's a lot of possibilities
in cutting and regluing pieces together. Please click the like button on this video
and subscribe to my website and YouTube channel. Always wear your face shield. Until next time,
this is Alan Stratton from As Wood Turns dot com.