I wanted to share my 1st project with all of you.
We've got a ritual we started 2 years ago since we moved to the mountains. We go into the forest and cut down a Christmas tree. In early January when we take the tree down we cut off the branches and put them in the yard for the deer to eat. Then in the spring I gather the branches and the trunk, cut them into firewood size lengths and then stack them up to dry.
Kind of a recycling thing.. none of the tree goes to waste.
Now that I have a lathe I wanted the 1st turning project to be something meaningful, a keepsake if you will, so I decided to make a small goblet from the trunk of the tree.
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I made a wooden face plate out of plywood so I could attach the tree trunk (since I don't have a chuck... yet
).
Prior to attaching the trunk to the face plate I squared up one end and left a small tenon that would engage into the face plate center hole... just to help line things up.
I used the drill chuck out of my drill press, which just happens to have the same taper as the tail stock on my lathe, to hold the spade bit for boring into the trunk.
Next step was to turn the goblet. I left some bark on the bottom.. as an homage to the tree.
The 2017 Christmas Tree goblet came out great. The 2018 worked well too, but the wood was still green so I couldn't get a good finish. I'm betting it will crack so I've stashed the remaining 2018 tree trunk in the woodshed. I may make another goblet next year from it once it dries.
So what do you think?
We've got a ritual we started 2 years ago since we moved to the mountains. We go into the forest and cut down a Christmas tree. In early January when we take the tree down we cut off the branches and put them in the yard for the deer to eat. Then in the spring I gather the branches and the trunk, cut them into firewood size lengths and then stack them up to dry.
Kind of a recycling thing.. none of the tree goes to waste.
Now that I have a lathe I wanted the 1st turning project to be something meaningful, a keepsake if you will, so I decided to make a small goblet from the trunk of the tree.
_________________________________________________________
I made a wooden face plate out of plywood so I could attach the tree trunk (since I don't have a chuck... yet
).Prior to attaching the trunk to the face plate I squared up one end and left a small tenon that would engage into the face plate center hole... just to help line things up.
I used the drill chuck out of my drill press, which just happens to have the same taper as the tail stock on my lathe, to hold the spade bit for boring into the trunk.
Next step was to turn the goblet. I left some bark on the bottom.. as an homage to the tree.
The 2017 Christmas Tree goblet came out great. The 2018 worked well too, but the wood was still green so I couldn't get a good finish. I'm betting it will crack so I've stashed the remaining 2018 tree trunk in the woodshed. I may make another goblet next year from it once it dries.
So what do you think?
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