Advice before I turn a lump of elm burr

[Les Symonds]

I'm thinking of using a disk of elm burr that came with the batch of blanks that I bought recently. It's 12" x 2" and will only just fit over the bed-bars on my lathe. The blank is very pippy, as this picture shows.....


.....and it's probably several years old. It's shape is anything but flat, in fact I'll be lucky if I get an inch and a half out of it, but at least (I think) it should be bone dry and quite stable after I work it.



My doubts about this piece revolve around what to make.....I'm assuming that it will have to be a platter, but perhaps there's other options that I just haven't thought about. Also....what does elm burr turn like? The pieces of myrtle and thuya that I turned recently were quite nice to work with and took a finish well, but the visible grain on this makes me think that it's going to be tricky.

If anyone has any advice it will be gratefully accepeted.

Thanks guys....Les

[woodndesign]

Les, I'd say save it for Ron ...  Late-ron .. it will keep, has done so far and someday you'll have the need for just that .. if only pen blanks if burr if right through it, then a platter would be nice..  Give it time.

Don't send it to George, even if he makes the suggestion ..   ..

David

[bodrighywood]

Decent sized platter would be ideal but unless you have something specific in mind at the moment I'd go with David. Burr elm isn't exactly everyday wood and it's a piece worth storing for a special purpose IMHO. It'll probably be very hard and you will need sharp tools.

Pete

[David Buskell]

Hi Les,
 
I have a piece of Burr Elm about 10" x 2" which I bought from Nigel at Woodworks on the lathe right now.

You're doing the right thing to consider your options! All the burr elm I have sold so far has been because customers like the swirly grain so I took time to see what design would show off as much of the grain as possible.

Check out Mark Baker's book Woodturning Projects which has some good ideas. I've decided to go with bowl with incurved rim for my piece.

The wood cuts well but does take the edge off your tools quickly so the grinder will be working overtime!

I;ll post a photo when the bowl is finished.

David

[TWiG]

Once you have "trued" up the bottom ( outside ) glue a block of scrapwood to it to cut your dovetail chuck tenon into ( assuming you are using one !) it will save some thickness /depth . Then when you have finished the piece you can then reverse turn it to remove the tenon ! .... Simples !!!

[Les Symonds]

Cheers everybody for the go-for-it/leave-it advice......my head is now spinning!

David (woodndesign)...Ron's not having it....this lump is for turning soon. I need to build up a portfolio of finished pieces that I can take to a few select local galleries and hotels, and this lump of wood has got that label well and truly printed on it.

Pete....I fully accept your HO, but my current needs make this a special occasion. I am, indeed, fortunate that I didn't have to fork out for this piece. The lady who sold me the rest of the timber thought  that I wouldn't want this piece because it was full of knots - bless her. When she realised how enthusiastic I was, she just wanted me to take all the special stuff and do something interesting with it.

George....I'd love to, but I need the practice and I need some striking pieces to show when I look for buyers

David (Buskell)....thanks for the reference and I look forward to seeing the finished piece.....I'm not clear in my mind as to what you mean by an 'incurved rim'....care to enlighten me?

TWiG....thanks....I'm quite familiar with that process for turning without loosing much to the chuck recess. My main difficulty is that the platter will be the maximum size that I can spin over my bed. So, to reverse chuck it I'll have to set a second bed-bar bracket onto my bench-top and slide the bars back out of the way to get clearance to chuck it. Also, I'll have to make a special set of extended jaws for my soft-jaws chuck because the current set isn't big enough to cope with it.

Thanks guys....I might not get around to it this weekend as I'm going down to the show at ISCA, where I'll no doubt bump into George and I definitely won't be taking the lump of burr with me (sorry George)

Les

[woodndesign]

Cheers and if's must go for it.. will watch for yet another wonderful result that you've been getting from that stack of lumber ..

[Les Symonds]

Cheers David....I knew that you would understand! By the way; I mentioned that this bit of wood has a label on it. Well, it does, and it says that it cost about £18.00 - I wonder what it would fetch in this day and age....if you could still buy it.
Les.

[woodndesign]

Cheers David....I knew that you would understand! By the way; I mentioned that this bit of wood has a label on it. Well, it does, and it says that it cost about £18.00 - I wonder what it would fetch in this day and age....if you could still buy it.
Les.

Understand...     ...  OoooH ....  you lucky .. lucky Man ... To have found and to try an find a piece of Elm, an Burr at that, anywhere near to this would be well ...    ...  ...  You found what must have been a knowledgeable gentleman .. his investment couldn't have been cheap, even in that day at £18.00 ..  Looks like you'll get Elm, but not alot of that's Burr ..

Cheers  David

[Richard Findley]

Gwyntog

Definitely don't give it to George, he'll only pour paint all over it!!!  

You really need to get a copy of the book David suggests. It gives some really great examples of classic shapes for bowls, platters and boxes. I recommend it to all my students (who are into bowl work)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Woodturning-Projects-Mark-Baker/dp/1861083912/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368741583&sr=1-1&keywords=mark+baker%2C+woodturning

An incurving bowl looks something like this:



Hope that helps

Richard

[Les Symonds]

Thanks for the link, Richard...I'll Orr a copy today. The inturned rim turned out to be just what I thought that it would be, but I don't think that I'd be able to apply such a shape to a platter....nor that it would be appropriate.

David......it's all burr!.....burrillliant!

Regards....Les

[bodrighywood]

This is only 1 1/2" thick and was turned from a piece off an old table top using the hot glue method mentioned earlier. Centre piece is a pewter inlay, outer rim is aluminium powder and CA glue. This is 14" dia. so your elm would work fine by this method
.

[David Buskell]

You guys should have been at Woodworks -  Nigel had some great blanks of elm there for less than £10 and one burr elm piece (the one I bought) left on Sunday. He also had some logs there, some odd shapes but a snip at £30 or so.

The hot glue method does give you a bit of extra depth but you can also get this by cutting a small spigot and using the O'Donnell jaws to hold the work. Bring up the tailstock for support as well!

David

[Les Symonds]

Hi David....I'm a bit new to this forum and not yet clued up on the wood-based shows that you guys sometimes refer. What is Woodworks, and who is Nigel? Is there a chance that he'd be at this weekend's show at Newport, as I'm going there?
Les

[woodndesign]

Hi David....I'm a bit new to this forum and not yet clued up on the wood-based shows that you guys sometimes refer. What is Woodworks, and who is Nigel? Is there a chance that he'd be at this weekend's show at Newport, as I'm going there?
Les

It is the Event at Daventry ...  http://www.awgb.co.uk/awgbforum/index.php/topic,1491.0.html ..

Cheers.

PS ..  I do half a job ...    .. Nigel ...  http://www.english-hardwoods.com/ ...  He has Burr Elm ... Why didn't I pay better attention at WW@D ... ... Just didn't see everything ..  Next Time ..

Cheers