Ply Candlestick

[willstewart]

Done as a demonstration of what can be done with plywood, in this case 19mm softwood (6-) ply - cheap and easy to find.

The ply is cut at alternate right angles and 5 layers glued (Titebond) and clamped, with a commercial red-dyed veneer glued between each layer, giving a roughly 100mm square piece ~300mm long. The corners were removed with a planer.

A 24mm diameter 40mm deep central hole is drilled with a Forstner bit (and pillar drill) in one end, which will accommodate the brass candle holder and meanwhile has a 24mm plug fitted for turning.  Turning mostly with a sharp roughing gouge, with a shallow central depression in  the base and a conical hole up to the plug to fit the candle holder (both with a parting tool).  The piece is fairly heavily sanded since the cross-grain sections can be poorly finished and the piece then finished here with hard wax oil. It is then reversed and the central boss removed from the depressed base.

The interaction of the ply & veneer planes and the curved shape seems to me interesting.

The ply is far from perfect and includes some knots. When turning chips are inevitably flipped off individual ply layers but this effect declines once the piece is rounded - and keeping the tool sharp helps!

Possibly the central stem should be narrower and the base more flared. I am not sure!

[Bill21]

That’s worked out nicely. I’ve turned a few items from plywood. The best stuff if you can get it is Baltic Birch Plywood.

[willstewart]

For completeness the pair after the demo (Tudor Rose woodturners).

Not quite matched but not bad.  Someone suggested a skew chisel skim might improve the initial finish.  It does but not very much - a good deal of sanding still needed.

[willstewart]

A variation for interest - the clock is watch-sized so fairly small and made of birch ply - imperfect internally as expected, after all this is not an expected use!

Turning is tilted deliberately of course, as is the clock face.  The clock just levers out of the 35mm hole for battery change etc.

[Bill21]

The red adds a nice contrast. I’ve done something similar on a small piece using dyed Birch Ply.

[willstewart]

Another variant - pepper grinder plus salt holder in 3mm birch ply plus red veneer spacers.

Both from bits around the workshop  - thinner ply is nice but somewhat tedious to glue! 

Grinder mechanism is 'crushgrind' shaftless - so the top and bottom parts of the stem rotate wrt each other and the top (stained sycamore) is just a lid.

[willstewart]

Yet another variant - same structure as the pen (red/white veneer epoxy sandwich)and about 42mm dia

[willstewart]

sorry - pen omitted.  here it is - also red/white veneer barrel (Beaufort Mistral - red highlights are acrylic)

[willstewart]

FTR a useful side note is that most of these sandwiches were glued with PVA (Titebond) but this does not work with the all-veneer sandwiches - the PVA normally dries into the wood and there is not enough wood.  A first attempt at the pen fell apart even after 24 hours.  A switch to clear epoxy for the pen and pendant solved this.

[Bill21]

Having glued, turned and finished items, only to have the joint creep slightly weeks or even days later, I now only use Urea Formaldehyde glue. Joints made with this adhesive remain rock solid with zero creep.

[willstewart]

Bill21 - I also like urea formaldehyde glues - but they are water based so these very thin layer stacks may be better with epoxy. I find this also stable.