Dave Bonnette from the “Turning Tuesdays” woodturners group gives us an inside-out woodturning lesson. Pictured left is Dave with one of his designs that he turned on the Powermatic lathe behind him.
Take 4 machined equally square and equally long pieces of your choice of wood, and CA glue them together with brown paper in between the 2 center surfaces. Why brown paper?
Well, using the paper to temporarily glue the 2 center surfaces together, then turning a shape that will eventually become the inside shape of the final piece, after the four pieces are seperated, flipped from outside corner to center corners, and permanently glued together. The outside turned shape is now on the inside. What was the flat surface of the inside of the four pieces before seperation, now become the outside flat surface, ready to be turned for the outside shape! Now I am not sure if this is called “inside-out” for the purpose of woodturning or to turn your brain “inside-out” trying to understand it!
Clear as mud, right?
Let’s try to un-confuse the situation here by looking at the design on paper below, hopefully making this crystal clear!
In the right view of diagram 1 below, the drawing shows to mark the wood on the outside 4 corners with an arrow. CA glue with brown paper on the 2 surfaces shown below, so they may be easily separated for the second turning in step 2 of the process later in diagram 2. Mount the blocks to the lathe and turn the desired design. Sand the current outside surface now, because once the four blocks are rotated in step 2, you will not be able to do this from the inside. Diagram one below, also shows the first area to be turned in the main view. Remove from the lathe after turning and sanding. Separate the four blocks and see diagram/step 2 below.
Rotate the four blocks individually so the 4 arrows now point to the center as shown in diagram 2 below. CA glue the 4 blocks of wood permanently without paper. Note that the first turned detail is now on the inside of the combined block. Mount the combined block and lathe turn the outside desired design as shown by the hidden dashed lines. Complete the inside-out woodturning by drilling a hole in the top of the piece so that it goes through the top inside detail as shown in diagram 2, main view. Sand and detail with your favorite choice of Woodcraft finishing product to complete the project.
Here are some pictures of the steps taken for creating the inside-out turning design:
Below, Dave helps us along with a video explanation…
Remember the blog on the walnut wood here are the bowls Dave is working on from that piece of wood:
Here Dave is pen turning for the Turning for Troops effort…
While at the Woodworking in America show, Dave stopped by the Woodcraft booth with his wife, Sandra to spend a little time with Master Woodcarver, Reto Odermatt…
Woodworkers have some good times whether they are in the company of other woodworkers, being creative at home, or making something to benefit others with their craft!
Now you know why this group has so much fun together every Tuesday!
Join us from 10AM to 1PM at the workshop of Bill Sands, as we create, eat donuts and great food, but especially enjoy the comeradery. Every one of these guys have many special, creative woodworking talents that they share week after week. So come on down to Lubeck, West Virginia and be a part of it all!
Thanks Dave, for teaching us how to inside-out woodturn and also for supporting the Troops!
Auf wiedersehen…Frank
