How I Made It
Project 05-064
Plate With Wood Inlay
Updated 01/08/06
Plate With Wood Inlay
This was my first attempt at making an inlayed piece. The plate is walnut with a cherry inlay.
I had a couple of pieces of 12” x 12” x 3” walnut that one of the guys in the Space Coast Woodturners club gave me. The top surface was very weathered so that part of the wood would have to be turned away. I had some cherry that was ¾” thick and 2 ½” wide. I cross cut the walnut at 20 degrees and cut the cherry to fit. I used Gorilla Glue to glue the pieces together. These photos show the top and bottom view of the glued-up pieces. Note the weathering of the top of the walnut.
I would have to clamp everything together so I used two pipe clamps which is all that I have. Well, let me tell you that glue acts like a lubricant when it is fresh and the pieces slid all over the place. Consequently, there is a little offset in the two pieces of walnut. Next time I do this, I will clamp everything four ways.
I used a nine inch circular template and cut the stock on the band saw. There is a difference in size between the walnut and cherry of about 1/2” but that part of the walnut was the weathered sided that would be turned away anyway.
I mounted the stock on the lathe using the screw center and turned it round to balance it.
I rough turned the outside shape while it was still mounted on the screw chuck and turned a spigot to mount the stock in a chuck like the left photo shows. Note that I was careful to leave the point center from the tailstock for later use. You can see the difference between the walnut and the cherry in the left photo. I turned the face or inside surface flat to remove all the nasty weathered stuff before I finished the outside.
I went back to the outside surface and finished turned it, sanded it and applied sanding sealer.
I went back to the inside and finished turned it, sanded it and applied sanding sealer.
I took the plate off of the chuck and used this mandrel thing you see in the
photo on the left. The point center from
previous operations was preserved so that I could center the piece on the
tailstock properly. I turned the bottom
the way I wanted it and then remove the piece from the lathe and used a sharp
chisel to cut the nub off. I sanded the
mark left by the nub and finished the piece with butcher block oil. The oil darkened both the walnut and the
cherry.
Here is a top view and a bottom view of the finished piece.
