Bits, pieces, and practice turnings.

[DanialMcCoy]

Hi all! I thought I would post updates and projects here. There will not likely be anything extravagant, just me practicing away!

As I have no proper chuck for turning bowels and have been relatively frustrated with trying to use the wood block and hot glue method I have opted to just do spindle work until I can get the proper equipment for bowls. As such I have been turning a lot of wands and small pendulums. Ive been turning the wands at the shop and carving them in the living room. I have also been turning mushrooms, I find that they can actually be challenging, are good practice and fun to boot. Here are some pics of different wands, a platter, mushroom and a video of a few mushroom incense burners that I did last week.

I tried to keep the pics as small as possible, just to give an idea.

~Danial

mushroom 1.jpgwand collection.jpgelm wand end.jpghollow wand 1.jpghollow wand end.jpgplatter 1.jpg

[Diicode]

Absolutely appreciate your work. Im a new turner, and havent shown my work here yet. I will post some tomorrow.

[Art in Prince George]

I'm impressed! What tools are you carving with?

I'm also curious how those incense burners function.

[Brian_ToyGuy]

Don't be sye..nothing wrong with your work.... I love your carving, wish I had that talent.
The incense burners are really cool....... I also would like to know more about these.

[DanialMcCoy]

Thank you Guys for the comments.
@ Art in Prince George - I have been carving with a basic Olfa craft knife: http://www.model-making.eu/products/...nife-AK-1.html
It is cheap and the blades are extremely sharp so it does alright for the carving I do. It is useless however, for doing flat surface carving.

The incense burners came to mind when I was thinking about chimney designs, and as I had already made some mushrooms it just seemed obvious to combine the two (my mind works and weird ways lol!). There is a hole drilled the length of the stem and it flares out at the bottom to accommodate the incense cone and holder. Four air intake vents are put in the bottom and allow the incoming air to hit the cone directly allowing it to burn. The smoke goes up the step to the cap where there is carved an X through the part of the cap that connects to the stem. It is a fairly straight forward project but for figuring out the min/max diameters of all the openings, and is quite fun to do.

Oh, and the inside flared out section has been coated in high heat paint to try and help with the safety factor of burning incense in a wooden holder lol. I am waiting on a ceramic insulating paint to arrive and that should make it quite safe to use.

[Bellsy]

Well done Danial. Very impressive.

Dave

[DanialMcCoy]

Thank you Bellsy.

I brought the two mushrooms in the video to a little boutique here in town to show a friend of mine who was working there at the time. I was quite surprised and happy when she and her and her husband bought both of them and ordered a third one! LOL I was quite shocked to be honest, and now she is going to be talking to he boss about getting them in the store to sell. On the same day I had another shop ask me when I could have some for them as well. I've been laughing about it for the last couple days.

Afterwards I went out and got some proper drill bits. I ran into a conundrum however when I realized I had no way to mount the now drilled blanks onto the lathe. The pic below is what I have come up with to hold the stem blanks. The large hole where the incense is burned slides over it tightly and the tailstock fits the smaller drilled hole nicely. Does this seem like a good way to do this or is there a better solution?

Stems and blanks.jpgStem chuck 1.0.jpg

[Leo Van Der Loo]

That is certainly a good way to go about it Danial, I have used setups like that, much easier to work around this than having a chuck holding it and safer for your knuckles or/and tools as well.

Of course now you have a job making these, don't know if that's what you want, I've always tried to keep my turning as a enjoyable hobby, not another job, but that's just me of course.

Still it is nice to get some $$ to pay for your tools and materials that you need and some extras

[DanialMcCoy]

Im not sure that I want it as a job myself either, although selling them is a nice incentive to practice my spindle work hehe.

Oh and in the pic of the stems and blanks there is a small stem to the right that used to have a knot in it. I thought it was in there nice and solid until it came whizzing out past my head lol! I've not read anywhere about turning and knots, but I think Ill generally steer clear until I know more about them.

[DanialMcCoy]

I'm still plugging away on various spindle projects. Lots of mushrooms, and a few other small projects all to try and get better control over my tools. I'm feeling pretty good with all of them accept the skews which can be scary at times.
Here is a couple pictures of one of the mushrooms that was made over the last week. I've been trying to set up a small light booth for taking better pictures of what I am making. It is seemingly as tricky as making the pieces lol. here is how they turned out.

Mushroom burner1.jpg Mushroom burner2.jpg

[DanialMcCoy]

Here is an incense burner that I just finished. I believe it is elm, although I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that it fell onto my aluminum boat from the neighbors yard , so...mine now. Oh and the boat survived hehe. I hope to get some video of it working at some point as the way that the smoke interacts with the top of the burner is quite interesting.

XL-elm-burner1.jpg XL-elm-burner2.jpg XL-elm-burner3.jpg

[Keith W]

Danial,

Interesting turnings! Not knowing anything about burning incense, I'm curious as to what happens as it burns. Does it just lay against the side of the holder and burn away? any chance of a fire? Do you get different "smells" depending on the wood used?

Sorry for all the questions, but I have a daughter that would be into these so I may try to make one or two.

Thanks for the pictures and info.

Keith

[DanialMcCoy]

Hi Keith,

All of the burners I make use cone incense. That means that you don't have to worry about the incense coming into contact with the walls of the burner. Cone incense does burn much hotter than normal incense and it is a challenge to make the burner with so that it does not scorch the burning chamber.

In these burners I have had to line the inside with fireproof materials and cast heat resistant cone holders to make it safe. There is always a risk of fire if it is not used properly. Someone who doesn't know how to use incense could start a fire in the burner chamber. I have purposefully set fires in my test pieces and so far none of them have gone out of control, but the possibility is always there. That's where product disclaimers come in LOL!

I haven't noticed any difference in the smell so far in using different woods, but there is a lingering smell after the incense goes out.