Shopsmith Forums

I set aside woodworking for other interests for a while. Getting back in to it and reviewing this thread was quite a joy. Rediscovering old projects, remembering working on them, the stories behind them, and the associated memories of the times. Posting my projects here is mainly for myself rather than seeking attention.

Anyway, some new lathe projects.

The first weekend I had my Nova G3 chuck, I practiced with some Snowmen. This was the 3rd one I made. The first two were pine, but this was from a branch of Magnolia. I wish I had more of that wood! I really enjoyed turning it. Every time my son asked my wife what she wanted for Christmas, she said a good pizza cutter. She has a cycle of buying the cheapest pizza cutter The Dollar Store has to offer and breaking it. I was shopping at PSI for a bowl gouge and saw the pizza cutter kit and asked my son if he was interested in working on it together and he said yes.

I glued up a blank from two wedges of Zebrawood? or Marblewood? and a strip of Purple Heart that I got from a friend who's dad makes wood recurve bows. My son did a lot of the turning himself.
While visiting my parents for Christmas, I looked over my dad's firewood stack and found a couple pieces I thought I might could do something with. I could see quite a bit of spalting on the ends of this one piece. I cut off enough of the ends to hopefully make a couple turned boxes and with the middle I turned this goblet. I thought it looked better on the lathe, and I now dislike those two large beads on the stem, but I'm still proud of it.

Looking good heath.

I have to agree on the 2 beads on the goblet.

Remount it turn one bead off and create a captive ring on the other. and maybe make the stem a bit more slender or add some contour.

Just my .02

Nice work!
By the way, I just drove through Georgia, so I'm curious on what magnolia lumber would be like. Your piece looks a little like sycamore. Any more you can say?

Chris

I mentioned to my wife that I might remove those two beads on the goblet and she said she liked them and to leave them. Maybe she's just being nice, but I guess they're staying.

There is a lot of Magnolia in Louisiana. The Magnolia Blossom is the state flower (Bald Cypress is the official state tree). The only piece I've ever had to work with was a section of limb that was about firewood size. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so it sat outside my shop door for a few years. Along with my new interest in turning came a chainsaw and a bandsaw blade appropriate for resawing and I finally did something with that Magnolia. It has a very tight grain structure but with some interesting patterns. I've never had any Sycamore to compare it with. It turns very smooth with hardly any sanding needed. You can still see some tool marks in my Snowman, but I don't think I even touched it with sandpaper and I didn't apply any finish. I did try turning a bowl with another part of it, but it started cracking like crazy. I wish I had more of it and have told everyone I know that if they know of a downed Magnolia tree, to please let me know!

Today's project was a lidded box made from the same piece of firewood the goblet came from. I have another piece about this big and will try to make another box tomorrow.

Stunning!

Very impressive! I love them all!

Looks like the 10ER is still doing good work!

Thanks for sharing!