AWGB Woodturning Forum
General Category => Tool tips & reviews => Topic started by: Les Symonds on April 21, 2015, 08:14:54 AM
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How times change, eh! In the wee small hours of the night, I was reading a book by one of our most highly respected and revered wood turners. A gentleman who has inspired many of us, whose books can be found in many a woodturner's library and whose influence is felt (consciously or sub-consciously) in much of the work that we produce. In this book, there was a section dealing with projects and the first amongst these was the simple chopping board. Take a 1.5" plank of sycamore, skim it through the thicknesser and drill a hold in the centre of what you decide will be the underside. At this point, I'm immediately thinking to myself, 'How's he going to overcome that when he reverses it?' The simple answer, in his paragraph dealing with finishing the board, was to fill it with plastic wood. Now admittedly, this book was published in 1998.
So it prompted me lobby your wealth of tips and techniques, and to ask the question, 'How would you mount and finish such a simple shape?' Remember, it's a featureless, flat disk which has a simple radiussed edge. For the sake of ingenuity and creative thinking, let's assume that we don't all have a vacuum chuck!
Les
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I would glue a tenon onto the one side with hot glue then clean the face. another tenon glued and trued up and reverse. No marks, easy to clean glue off.
Pete
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Yes Les, how times change. I used to make many cheese boards with this method ( mostly beech) and filled them with a wood dowel. Now due to cost and chopping boards being CNC produced I don't make any, just not able to make a living with them. If I was asked to make a special board and if the price justified it I too would use the hot glue method. But like you say sadly times have changed and this is one of the items that I no longer get asked to produce.
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Like Pete says.
I keep a slack handful of waste wood tenons laying around for just this purpose.
Select one, skim it true, glue on item, turn it, cut-off.
Job done
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I do turn a number of flat discs that are for the top of display stands for a shop fitting firm. They are just 8"dia with a full radius edge. I have two flat wooden plates covered in rubber, one fits in the chuck and the other I have made to fit an old revolving center and I just hold the job in between using pressure from the tailstock this method obviously does not give you the option to skim the face or sand it but if the chopping board was plain I am sure this would work.
Ps. I would not use this method on large dia or any timber out of balance.
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I use a vacuum chuck for mine. No tenon required! ;D
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i turn between centers to do the rim and then mount in my 16" plate jaws to tidy up the faces.
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I would use my Vacuum chuck. If not that I would make dedicated oversize jaws as seventh has already highlighted.
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I do turn a number of flat discs that are for the top of display stands for a shop fitting firm. They are just 8"dia with a full radius edge. I have two flat wooden plates covered in rubber, one fits in the chuck and the other I have made to fit an old revolving center and I just hold the job in between using pressure from the tailstock this method obviously does not give you the option to skim the face or sand it but if the chopping board was plain I am sure this would work.
Ps. I would not use this method on large dia or any timber out of balance.
I do it like Steve, although I don't have rubber pads, I have wooden blocks faced with 400g abrasive. If you are able to clean the faces first and all you need to do is turn the edge, this is the quickest and easiest way. I echo Steve's comment regarding only doing this with properly flattened and balanced timber!
Cheers
Richard
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I don't do them but I would use my vacuum chuck.
Ed
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I also do the edge between centres and then use cole jaws. If the plate is to big for that then a couple of six inch nails would work.
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....a couple of six inch nails would work.
....as in, 'Knock 'em in around the edge and bend 'em over'? ;)
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....a couple of six inch nails would work.
....as in, 'Knock 'em in around the edge and bend 'em over'? ;)
Of course. :)