Its absolutely freezing cold here today-18 degrees this morning with a west wind and snow flurries. But this isnt going to keep us out of the wood shop today!
As Im planning on giving the bass wood platter away as a Christmas present, I needed to finish it so Ive flipped it over and placed it back on the lathe and got it ready to go.
Bass wood is a very soft wood. Its better known as a carving wood than a turning wood. Because of the softness of the wood, were going to have to be careful how we approach this piece. The tools have to be super sharp to avoid tearing the wood fibers and we have to turn this piece at about 900 rpm. This type of wood also requires a very easy hand with regards to using turning gouges-this has to be done very gently or you risk tearing out a big chunk out of the surface and ruining it.
Heres the process photos:
This shows the blank on the lathe. Ive mounted on my Nova chuck and moved up the tailstock so I can turn it between centers. This is a wide piece and I want to avoid excess vibration at the edges. You can see in the photo that the edge is beginning to form. Ive turned the edge first rather than the center in order to keep the blank solid. This also helps to dampen any vibration and possibly ruining the edge:






This is the finished platter off the lathe on sitting on a table. There is no finish on it at this time:

VW
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