My first attempt at a Frank Penta style platter. 12” and made from an oak desk my parents left in the house when we bought it ... Now I just need some good platter wood to try again!


A tumbler / pencil holder (5” x 2 3/4”) from a scrap piece of walnut that has a few cracks and voids - good for practicing multiaxis.



Did this bowl today.
Nothing fancy.
I'd cast it a few weeks ago and wanted it done
Coated it with resin to make it shiny.
I'll cut the glue block off tomorrow and use Odie's brake spoon trick again as it worked so good last time.
The pine cones are from the White pines that litter our property.
The spalted wood is more from the dead tree I got the lamp wood from.
I want to try turning one of those burls I got next.
I've never turned one before.
Craig
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Thanks John - I’ve turned sapele spindles into tops and ornaments, but have never had anything larger than 2” in diameter. It is beautiful and turns nicely.Fantastic! Frank is one of my favoritest people.Incredibly creative - some of his other multi- and off-axis ideas are amazing.
If anyone else want's to try one with the multi-axis base I posted his doc somewhere on this forum, instructions, dimensions.
@Thomas Wilson
Since you would like to continue with another Penta Platter, stop by Tennessee and I might just have a piece of wood for you.
It'd be a long walk but I might just have a piece of Mahogany, Sapele, or Walnut or something in a size good for a platter!
(Frank is the one who got me turning Sapele)
BTW, if you haven't tried it, Sapele is wonderful - cuts cleanly, sands nicely, heavy, often has a nice chatoyancy with an "danish" oil finish. Since my first Penta multi-axis I've used Sapele for more platters. I like to use 8/4 planks to make them sit up off the table a bit. The larger one is a bit under 20" dia, the capacity of my lathe over the bed. (These are "normal" platters, NOT multi axis)
(Wanrning: once you turn Sapele you can't go back!)
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For those who haven't hung around Frank, he's a gluing up maniac! You should see some of what he displayed in his shop. And he kept many hundreds of thin cut-and-sanded pieces in lots of colors in big drawers, many in sets cut ready for glueup.
Frank and a page from one of his instructional documents:
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Hey, are you the Thomas Wilson woodturner who built the amazing timber frame shop on Norris lake?
JKJ

Very nice! In the picture on the lathe it looks kinda like it's 4 axes, the other 3. ???
JKJ
Oh, mesquite is nice! Hard to find around here - a friend gave me a piece he brought back from a trip.but have you ever turned mesquite?
Ha! I guess three plus the center could be called 4 axes! Never thought of it that way.Turned round on the center axis, and then three points at 120 degrees apart, so is that technically three or four axes?
A tumbler / pencil holder (5” x 2 3/4”) from a scrap piece of walnut that has a few cracks and voids - good for practicing multiaxis.
Dropbox
www.dropbox.com
Oops, manzanita, not mesquite.Oh, mesquite is nice! Hard to find around here - a friend gave me a piece he brought back from a trip.
Ha! I guess three plus the center could be called 4 axes! Never thought of it that way.
Ooo, that might be good too. The only manzanita I've ever turned was a root burl we found at a wood dealer in Gatlinberg TN. I never knew where they grew. It was hard, fine-grained, wonderful to turn. I bought a few, gave some away, turned this small bowl from one:Oops, manzanita, not mesquite.

there are flights out of Provo to Knoxville (her parents live in Greeneville, TN)