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How'd they turn cardboard?

C

Charlie Harley

Joined
Jun 20, 2006
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Location
Cincinnati, OH
This issue of AW had a 6" sphere that was turned from laminated currogated cardboard.

How'd they do that? Did the cardboard have to be specially treated so that it would cut clean instead of tear?

Inquiring minds want to know. I was impressed with the piece for sure.
 
I thought the same thing but I believe it would turn OK. I've taken some thick cardboard that looked kind of like that and cut it up on my table saw to make target stands for shooting practice. It cut very clean.
 
I never turned cardboard, but I bet sharp tools are the way to go.

I had to design a business card for a cardboard company once. The owner wanted the background to be a photo showing the edges of stacked corrugated cardboard.

Later, when I showed him the photo I took (which I thought looked really good) he said, "You need a sharp knife to cut cardboard." (I really thought I had a sharp knife.)

We went back into the the factory where he grabbed a sheet of cardboard. Then he grabbed a knife and took a few swipes on a stone and proceeded to cut a neat pile of cardboard for me to retake the photo.

I never noticed the fuzzy edges on the cuts I made before, but I sure noticed the difference when he showed me his cuts.
 
Do you think it was sanded?
I didn't notice any tooling marks, but I can't say I was really looking for them either.
 
Considering the size it had to be laminated by the turner, I would think. Would the glue used to bond the laminations add strength also?
 
For natural-edge pieces, I dribble CA on the bark and cambium to reduce tearout. With no glue showing in that piece, I suspect CA was used for assembly, and would similarly harden the cardboard. Perhaps with additional applications as the turning progressed. That'd be my first attempt. And chisels sharp enough to shave eyelashes.

Joe
 
Ron Sardo said:
I never turned cardboard, but I bet sharp tools are the way to go.
Click to expand...

Well, they start sharp, but there's usually not a lot of care involved in the making of cardboard, especially "post-consumer" type. Floor sweepings and bark all seem to make it into the mix. It's hone and hone time, and keep things at a skew angle. No bullying ("shavings flying") on something that can crush that easily.

I've turned the semi-rigid foam they use for packing before, as well as cardboard skids. Kids used it for experimental nose cones on their rockets. It'll cut, but you sort of "think" the tool into contact. Doesn't sand worth a squat.
 
Cardboard source

Where can I obtain 6-8" thick cardboard?
Click to expand...

Good question.
What I've seen was packing material. Usually around the corners of something big and breakable.

I checked a few days ago with a friend that works in a lumber yard. He says they sometimes get pieces that big in their shipments. He's watching for me.

Otherwise, I don't know.

T-Bird
 
bowlman said:
Where can I obtain 6-8" thick cardboard?
Click to expand...

Jason uses glue-ups of single thickness cardboard. When I was at Anderson Ranch last month, there were stacks and stacks of single sheets of cardboard in his studio. He was not around when I was visiting or I would have asked him about his methods.
 
Too many turners use blunt tools ... and think that they are sharp.

If you can't get a clean cut when you draw a sheet of paper across the edge of a tool, then it is not sharp.

Remember that cardboard is just wood with the fibers rearranged.

Bill
 
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