To be strictly honest, the inspiration came whilst doodling ideas in a sketch pad to pass the time on a train journey at the end of last year - the idea was to show what the turned part could have been before it had been turned, if that makes any sense. The highly turned and processed timber connected to the raw branch wood it would once have been. This was just a first try to see if the idea was worth pursuing - I am still tempted to do it properly, and on a more elaborate piece. Next time I'll try and use the same species of wood for both natural and turned sections in the interests of continuity though!
I did try with this one to make the nuts and bolts out of wood too, but eventually decided to go for the easy option and used metal ones. Trying to hand chase threads in M10 boxwood bolts turned out to be trickier than I first thought....!
The carving was done by hand with gouges, and then tidied up with a mini sanding drum on a Dremel-type machine. I used to work in a pattern makers shop in Sheffield 25 years ago, so the idea of making industrial parts from wood is not new to me.
It is an interesting challenge though, to try and use turning skill to make industrial parts, as my experiences turning nuts and bolts showed me. Anybody else tried turning nuts and bolts accurately to scale on a lathe and hand chasing the threads, or it only me who's daft enough to try and do this?!