Playing with a free burl:)

[scottp55]

Met a guy at Leo's unofficial meet and greet last summer...not a Shopbotter(DIY), but hit it off.
Brian has been dropping burls as gifts, and I've been stuck in bed for a month, so first time back in shop I decided to surface the biggest burl to max thickness just to see what I had to work with:)
First thing was it was 1" too tall for my shortest bit...timber framing chisel made short work of that.
Then changed my VC "safe Z" to .01", and in my VCP material set up I changed Z1 and Z2 and home position to .02".
Eyeballed the thickest point and my cutters CEL, and set my Z there.
With the Whiteside 1.25" mortise bit the Desktop easily handled 3IPS .2" pass depth at 30% stepover at 15K.
I just MN'd down with a one pass pocket toolpath so I could see what the grain was doing.
NICE to get back into cutting, and see grain emerge!:)
The tree side has major holes and bark intrusions, and thinking maybe trying infill ala Steve G.
Going to go over it with dental pics/etc. removing loose bark while it moves to its final shape, so I can go final depth depending on if it wants to be a side table with live edge Black Walnut legs I've surface that were firewood.
Heck...Maybe it wants to be something else:)
Made me smile while it was cutting!
Sorry so long winded.
scott
Hey, I'm easily amused with free burl at every visit:)

[evan]

Beautiful! Thanks for the post, it put a smile on my face.

[Bobtail Farms]

Burls just fall off of trees around here; but it takes the artist to bring out the natural beauty. Looking forward to what next you bring out of it. Thanks.

[Jerry Carney]

Waiting for a pic. of the final product. Nice piece of wood. Jerry

[scottp55]

Thanks guys:)
Brian...when and what time of year did that burl fall off the tree at the sight of you with your chainsaw? :)
Shame the "Grand Canyon" is 2" deep, and the burl is 2.2"
Jerry..You might have to wait a bit...still playing with ideas such filling the canyon and bark "rivers" with molten Tin, OR all kinds of crazy ideas that will gell while it's acclimating to the house and me removing 2.5" of it.

Of course the perfect use for it would so that both sides could be seen:)
scott

[scottp55]

Brian,
What species of tree was the first burl you gave me? Yellow Birch?

That crazy method of linseed waxing the bare wood/floating in water for 24 hours/freezing for 48 hours/ and then setting in the sun in 80-115F greenhouse for 3 weeks loosened most of the bark wonderfully:)
Insects had gone crazy just under the bark, and I'll probably use 3M 400G radial bristle discs to burnish after I get the loose stuff and the rest of the bark off.
Taking the bark side down let me spud most of the bark off with those Ebony wedge scrap shapes.

I mucked up when I flipped it and used 3 year old rockler CA on the carrier board:(
Super light .03" passes at 3 IPS, and then almost as I was totally finished I saw it move!!!
It was solid when I started, but then loosened up???
Shifted it and reclamped...but I'll wait a couple hours before I finish it, OR reglue?

This one definitely wants to be bowl.
I'll probably take a pic and then put it in my App Data Wood folder so I can Play with it.
Probably a circular array with the fluting toolpath /smooth/100% and then trim vectors to the shape.
FUN!!:)

[joe]

Scott,

I'm one of your fans and read and re-read all your posts.
Your a bright light for all of us.

Joe

[scottp55]

Awful nice words for this "Hobbyist" Joe:) THANKS!!

When Dad visited last night he agreed with my friend from OZ that the "Grand Canyon" should be cleaned up and left as Mother Nature left it.
Anything that moves with 90psi, or a bamboo skewer easily will be removed and then burnished on that big Maple slab.
Judging what I got done in 2 hours this morning...I won't lack for something to do while something is cutting:)

The smaller burl doesn't have much in pattern, BUT the chatoyancy(Cat Eye Fire) is GREAT:)
The worm holes will be brushed and hand sanded burnished with all the bark off.
Really haven't done much with VCP9, and it really showed....but this is roughly what I'm thinking....except smoother and tweaked.

Definitely was what I needed to get out of my slump!! :)

[scottp55]

And from VCP.

[Brian Harnett]

Nice pieces, going to look good when you are done. make sure to follow up.

[scottp55]

Thanks Brian...Will do.
Funny...I was thinking about you twice in the last day:)
First when I realized on that small burl, that the bug dust was so tightly packed...I should NOT have brushed it off...maybe burning to a golden marshmallow color fading to black with my mini-Blazer torch, and THEN brushing it off might have looked cool!

THEN trying to think how to leave the option of seeing both sides of the burl...and how you would do it without screws or glue...I thought of a slab side rolling cart that would be strong enough independently to rest the burl on top. Got a 8/4 eight foot length of one side live edge Quilted that tapers pretty much the same size as the smaller bark side of the burl. Thinking 2 slab shelves with housed through tenons and wedged into the sides would be strong enough to prevent racking(Maybe).
Need to grab that slab(all the way in the BACK), and take some measurements.
It would be by my back atrium doors where I critter-watch at least couple hours a day...so it would get a lot of use.
26" is a very good height for for binocs and camera with the wheelchair, and bottom shelf would be loaded with heavy coffee table books for ballast:)

Between the casters and the burl height...I can make it on the Desktop!!!! :) :)

[scottp55]

Gotta go trim the carrier board and then cut it off, if I want to work on the base today.
More later on old CA failure/cedar end grain testing/ and why I left the .375" depth as a finish cut.
Just a few pics for now straight off the machine yesterday.
VERY much a learning experience:)
Time to warm the spindle up and jig this:)
scott

[Bobtail Farms]

Scott,
Presume you are referring to me. It could have been yellow birch. When I come across burls, I seldom am concerned with species. However, I can be more selective when bringing them to you. Camille likes what you've done with them. As to the one burl being too low for the Grand Canyon, I can certainly provide you with some thicker should you want. Are those carved whales in the photo? Were they made using those Chinese TBNs you recommended to me (and which I find work well at a good price)? I've located a couple of models on Thingiverse, but although realistic have too much undercutting IMHO to come out well when machined on a 3-axis machine. I do especially like the ones in your photo.

agreeing with other commenters: certainly look forward to seeing what's next.
regards,
Brian.

[Jerry Carney]

Scott, what was the toolpath time for this carve?

[scottp55]

Hey Brian,
No...I bought the hand-carved whales here in Maine somewhere from a Dry-Ki carver.
You bring me some more burl, and Camille can have her pick of what she likes in the FUTURE....THESE are MINE!! :)
Thickness was fine with a bare minimum of work with a 2" timber framing chisel....haven't even got into sawing/hatchets/12" drawshave yet:)

Jerry,
The pocket toolpaths for me skimming were roughly 4:00
The 360 circular arrayed line segment cuts with the Fluting toolpath could be tweaked more as my alternating Start Points got mucked up somewhere in all the variations I tried, and there was a little more air time than perfect. On my test cut in Cedar end-grain I was happy with 1.5,1.5 IPS IF the wood were oiled first!
But, on my first test cut .2" depth on the Birch I used 1,1 IPS, and at 80% completed I manually increased X,Y Feed to 1.5IPS and I got a noticeably rougher cut with more end grain tearout......so at 1,1 IPS the 360 Flutings took 1:16
I found best surface was by Z-Zeroing as normal, then MN'ing Z up .02"...cutting/oiling/ and then MN'ing down .02" to original Z and simply RR'ing.
Sanded it a tad yesterday with 600G...but will hand sand with 400G oil, and then 600G to get rid of any .5"BN marks and bring it to mirror smooth so the "Fire" is maxxed.

Got all the bark off using my smallest deadblow and a wedge shaped piece of Ebony scrap left from making wedges for furniture joinery.
Still some scraping/sanding/burnishing to do on edge....put a coat of my 3D Illuminator/Earthpaint polymerized Linseed/D-Limonene mix on it...and see what it looks like before maybe attempting a VERY light torching to accentuate the worm paths.

I skimmed the bottom .2" to get rid of all the glue squeeze out....and it was still "Plain Vanilla"....decided to skim down .02" at a time(best finish for me)looking for at least an interesting grain pattern(even if no "Flame")...I was just about to quit at .3" of skimming when I decided to go one more....saw a VERY slight figure....and .04" later I stopped where you see in the pic:)
Maybe help me figure out the "Flame" pattern in any future cuts:)
scott

[scottp55]

Oh....My oiled end grain 4X8" 20 yr old Eastern White Cedar(YES, I KNOW it's Juniper family) test cut for surfacing, and then the bowl shape toolpath for my .5" Ballnose(center), and a Centurion .5" FEM downcut(LH).

Both cut very decently IF it was cutting an oiled section.
My first dry cuts reminded me of a dry shave with a DULL razor!!
BUT a Fluting toolpath is TOTALLY a 2.5D cut, and on an irregular shape it will leave different shapes depending on the cutter size and profile.
I liked the Ballnose shapes the best(and easiest to sand:).
scott

[Bobtail Farms]

Scott:
:)!
Brian.

[khaos]

I can only imagine just how stunning that is in person!! Perhaps you can make an open coffee table or such with a bottom shelf that is a mirror. Then you would see both sides.

[scottp55]

Thanks Joe:)
Coffee tables and wheelchairs are generally not good together...besides, it's only about 23" long.
Making a slab side rolling stand with 2 shelves and the slabs will be topped with either leather or cork. That way I can flip the burl as the mood hits me:)
Ball casters just came in today, so I can start planning the cuts better, as I don't want any screws or glue in this one.
None of my Quilted live edge is exactly the right size, and hate to rip off an edge on 16-18" live edge slab.
Still planning:)
scott

[khaos]

Sounds great. Keep us informed. :)

[scottp55]

Will do Joe.
Going to be a LOT different than the other similar pieces I've done:)
No layout lines/no hollow chisel mortiser/no drill press with Forstners/no jigs for the big PC plunge router/and hopefully no chiselling:)
Sure could have used a Desktop 20 years ago when doing all the hardwood "Chinese puzzle" trim throughout the house:)

[scottp55]

Had another Visit from Bobtail Farm(Brian) on Friday and he brought ANOTHER burl:)
This one is Pin Cherry, and he had a friend with a Woodmizer cut a 5/4 chunk we immediately jigged and started surfacing wet.
Full pics at the Vectric Forum;
http://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=30001
Too lazy to post all over again, and want to play in shop:)
BUT, just a couple.
scott3209832099321003210132102

[Bobtail Farms]

Splendid work Scott. Camille says the same.

[Jerry Carney]

Thanks guys:)
Brian...when and what time of year did that burl fall off the tree at the sight of you with your chainsaw? :)
Shame the "Grand Canyon" is 2" deep, and the burl is 2.2"
Jerry..You might have to wait a bit...still playing with ideas such filling the canyon and bark "rivers" with molten Tin, OR all kinds of crazy ideas that will gell while it's acclimating to the house and me removing 2.5" of it.

Of course the perfect use for it would so that both sides could be seen:)
scott

Hey Scott no grass growing under your feet. Keep it up.:D:

[scottp55]

Another visit from Brian....another Yellow Birch burl:)
Shade under 2" thick finished.