slightly O.T.

Another boredom project. somewhat like turning like carrots and potatoes on a homemade lathe.

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Reply to
Reyd Dorakeen
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Tell me more about the project.

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Reply to
Owen Lowe

the project: occupy my time until I can get back to the school's Woodfast lathe. hence the carrot turnings. but im back now, yay made a bowl, practiced with the skew doing the different things that RR shows in his turning boxes book. and I made 2 tagua nut mushrooms. any suggestions on mounting them? i just stuck the ends on a disk sander then mounted between centers. the only problem being that its a live cup on the tailstock, so I have to do a fair bit at the top on the sander too. do tagua nuts come any bigger?

Reply to
Reyd Dorakeen

I've never worked with tagua nuts, but Bonnie Klein (out of the Seattle area) has a video on turning odd materials like horn, plastics and tagua nuts. She super glues the nut onto a wood block held in a chuck - after sanding a flat on the nut. (Bonnie also has a bunch of other videos - one on boxes that's worth a look. If you're able to hook up with a turning group in the Vancouver area then maybe you can check the videos out from their library.)

I don't believe taguas come much larger than a lime or so - XL egg is more common. It's pretty cool how the plant produces the nuts - sorta like a bunch of bananas but on a shrub.

As an aside, I've had a coconut sitting in my kitchen for a few months now and think I may put that on the lathe - just to see how it may go. at least the shavings and spray will be tasty. At least the pineapple's were... ;)

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Reply to
Owen Lowe

that sounds beter then my carrots... hmm so they do come bigger, these ones are a small egg size.deer antler is next on the list after I run out of wood (with a scrap bin to raid from, thats gonna take some time)

Reply to
Reyd Dorakeen

---------------------------------------------------- A suggestion for turning the Tagua nuts; soak them overnite before you want to turn them. That softens them some and they're not so brittle around the edges.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX

Reply to
Ken Moon

yeah, I tried that, but I just found it makes them spray soggy dust instead of dust, not much other difference, and I'm using a torch to change the colours in some spots, if they are damp it takes longer. , I was more wondering if I could make something bigger with them, guess ill start cutting and glueing them to make bigger ones.

Reply to
Reyd Dorakeen

------------------------------------------------------------- Reyd, You're pretty limited by size when using Tagua nuts. Their greatest value in production turning was from Victorian times to WWII when they were turned into buttons for the clothing industry. Plastics put an end to that, but you can make some pretty interesting minatures from them. Also, you can make very nice jewelery pieces. If you slice the nuts into thin slabs, they make excellent bases for scrimshaw images. or you can open one end down to the void and pour fabric dye into the void. Then cut the nut into slices perpendicular to the void and it makes a nice pendant. The possibilities are endlless.

Some other palm trees have larger nuts, but they are not as widely available as taguas. Taguas in the 1800s and up to WWII and, to a lesser extent to the present, came from plantations in S. America, mainly Ecuador. The other palm nuts come from other tropical locations in the Pacific and Africa. For more information than you'll ever need put "Palm nuts" or "vegetable ivory" into your favorite search engine. You'll find palm nuts up to 2 1/2 - 3 inch diameters, so you can expand you possiblities of what you can create. That should give you a boredom buster! Good luck.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX

Reply to
Ken Moon

yeah, sounds great. I dont need anymore boredom project, I'm back at school. the nuts seem fairly useless, they are 1-1/2 inch long and less then 1 wide. the lathe's center in the tailstock is larger in diameter. oh well.

Reply to
Reyd Dorakeen

Heck yeah, that's a good idea! Finally peel off all that hard rind stuff the easy way!

Reply to
Silvan

No kidding, I just had a coconut on the lathe last weekend. But just for sanding. 50 grit to get rid of the fibers outside, then stepped up as far as 150. A little oil really made it look nice. Opened the top with a forstner and wasted the contents (I think it was bad anyway). Put a simple spindle under it to make a goblet, so it WAS a turning project. Gave it to a friend who had used one in an object lesson about how hard it is to get through to some people ... he tossed the coconut to one side and it shattered all over the carpet! (He is pretty good at getting through to people, by the way.)

I need another project. I don't have any banksia pods, but there is a potato in the kitchen about 8" long ...

Silvan wrote:

Reply to
BobaLew

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