Wood - Storing, saving drying etc... |
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Making the most of expensive materials.by Frank Clark RPTIt is useful not to waste expensive woods and materials e.g. African Blackwood and polyester resin rod. Hollow cylinders or rings can be made using holesaws. Turn the wood or polyester resin to a cylinder, face off the ends and hold the piece in a self centring chuck on the headstock. Remove the pilot drill from a holesaw and mount the holesaw and arbor in a tailstock Jacobs chuck. Running the lathe at its slowest speed, feed the holesaw into the blank, withdrawing frequently to remove waste. Continue cutting to almost the full depth of the holesaw then turn the blank round and continue from the other end until a centre cylinder is freed. The hollow cylinder can be used as the basis for a box or cut into rings for decoration. The central plug can be used for another project or even re-drilled with a smaller holesaw. My recommendation is to use a 38mm holesaw on a 50mm cylinder and a 64mm holesaw on a 75mm cylinder - both allow for cleaning up the inside of the cylinder. There is a limitation on the length of cylinder made using this method due to the length of the holesaws.
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