Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Platter

Just finished this platter.  It's about 11 inches in diameter from box elder.  It is for the Straits Area Audubon for their raffle.  I burned an abstract wolfs head in the center and a little gold run n buff detail on the rim.




Friday, November 4, 2016

DIY Visualizer

I have my DIY Visualizer up and going.  I have turned 4 or 5 pieces with it and I really like it.  For me this works much better than the laser.

My system is a Logitech 270 web camera attached to a small windows notebook computer.

I have a couple of pictures below.  The camera is mounted to the area of the boring bar where my laser was before.  The camera plugs into the USB2 port of the laptop.  This laptop is running on windows xp.  So I just start up the computer then select "my computer" then find the usb camera in the file tree and select it.  The image comes up on the screen and I then move the camera  into position the image of the toll bar cutter is near centered in the image.

Next I taped a piece of page protector plastic over the computer screen.  Once that's set in place I can trace the outline of the bar and cutting tip.  Then its a matter of drawing in a wall thickness and its off tot he races.

It works for me, your mileage may vary.  Some are accustomed to the laser and may like that better.
The camera was around $25.00 on amazon.  I grabbed the page protect form my wife's desk, the laptop I got it off a friend and it cost me a bar tab at the brewery.  So maybe $50 total.

Oh I should point out that I didn't need to build a shelf for the computer.  You know the guard that most lathes come with.  The one we all remove, well mine is swung open and the laptop sites neatly on it.  I am a happy camper.








Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Vase

In the pictures below is a vase I turned recently.  It's from a piece of maple, stands about 8 inches tall and is about 5 inches wade at the widest point.  The finish is several coats of satin lacquer.
Hopefully the pictures capture the unique character of the wood.  The wall thickness is just a little thicker than I would normally do.  I didn't want to have voids showing all the way through, about 5/16" was about the limit before holes started to show up.