This bowl is available for purchase at: formanwoodworking.com/product...
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Today's video:
Hello, friends! Let me say right up front that I'm shocked this bowl even made it to completion; it was one thing after another from start to finish, and I considered giving up on it more than once. I'm glad I didn't, though! This bowl was made from "bricks" of black walnut and epoxy resin (Deep Pour Magic Resin) dyed with a transparent red alcohol pigment. As many people have mentioned on various past videos, particularly the Jade Brick Bowl which inspired this project, it's unfortunate that so much material has to be removed and ultimately discarded during the turning process. I completely agree with those feelings, and while wood/resin turning is an inherently wasteful wood working technique, I definitely am motivated to find new ways of reducing wasted material in my projects. So, for this bowl, rather than using a wooden waste core like I did for the Jade Bowl, I decided to use a plastic bowl that I picked up from the dollar store which would allow the center of the blank to be mostly hollow. This, unfortunately, led to my first problem with the project. I'm not sure if it was simply the smooth surface of the plastic, or plastic is just a bad material in general, but the hot glue used to adhere the bricks to the plastic bowl really didn't want to stick. As I was applying the final plastic cover to the blank before the pouring process, two bricks popped right off the center plastic bowl, which required me to cut open the plastic sheet and essentially perform an impromptu surgery to reattach those bricks. This, in turn, led to numerous leaks in the blank, which, because I was using a deep pour resin with a very long working time and a very low viscosity, became a nightmare to fix. After 2 full hours of trying to stop the leaks with additional hot glue and paper towel, I was finally able to put it into the pressure pot and leave it to cure. Once I removed it from the pot, though, I immediately noticed that some of the bricks on the top most layer appeared to have moved at some point. I have no idea how this could have happened, but my best guess is that the hot glue on the plastic bowl center was so weak that even just the buoyancy of the bricks themselves floating in the resin was enough the dislodge them. Regardless, I decided to press ahead and get the thing turned. The turning process, for the most part, was uneventful, but I did end up cracking the mortise on the bottom of the bowl at some point, which required a glue up onto a waste block to finish. I think my typical mortises just aren't deep enough, as this has happened to me once in the past. Lesson learned! After the turning, I wet sanded the bowl up to 1500 grit and finished it with Waterlox's Original Varnish.
All in all, this project was WAY more work than originally planned, and my attempt to save on wood/resin waste probably resulted in even more hot glue/paper towel waste, but I'm overall happy with the end result. What do you think?
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Want to use the same pigments shown in this video? Check out the following affiliate code for a discount on SquidPoxy products! squidpoxy.ca/?sacode=duo8gk&u...
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Check out our Instagram! formanwoodw...
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Key equipment/products I used:
Rikon 70-220 VSR Midi Lathe: www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/...
Woodstock 1/2 inch bowl gouge: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005...
CA Technologies Resin Casting Pressure Pot: www.finishsystems.com/product...
Magic Resin Deep Pour: www.amazon.ca/dp/B08W4WD6ND?p...
SquidPoxy mica pigments: squidpoxy.ca/products/mica-po...
Waterlox Original Varnish: waterlox.com/original/
9 апр 2023
