Turning a laminated wooden vase on the lathe

I've made a series of wooden vases and similar items by laminating contrasting boards, then turning them on the lathe. I like to use walnut, maple and either bloodwood or padauk to create a white/black/red theme. I almost never use stains, instead I just finish the wood with clear wipe-on polyurethane, using two coats for a fairly matte finish.

Holiday woodworking projects

I made this vase by laminating walnut, maple, and bloodwood, into a 5" square by 14" long block, then turning the composite block on a wood lathe. I drilled a 1-5/8" hole with a forstner bit and extension, then inserted a closed acrylic tube so that the vase can hold water (and fresh flowers).


This picture frame is made from walnut, yellow heart, and bloodwood. The pattern is NOT inlay, it is solidly constructed by gluing small blocks of bloodwood and yellow heart between two long pieces of walnut. The entire glued assembly was planed, then cut into segments to make the frame. The needlework of the rose was done by my aunt.

Drinking glass carrier

This project was inspired by a brew-pub in San Francisco called the Beach Chalet. They have a "beer sampler" on their menu that includes small portions of six of their beers. The beers are served in small glasses that fit into a wooden rack. Neat!


It's been a while since I have been to the Beach Chalet, so I don't remember their wooden sampler rack in detail. That's just as well, since I wanted to design my own anyway. I used maple, walnut, and bloodwood (the same woods that I always use) in this project. The central brass rod is threaded from its midpoint to the bottom and it passes all the way through the wood top and base. A brass nut and washer clamp the top of the rack and another washer and nut are located under the base. The set of nuts clamp the top to the base with no danger of a glue joint breaking (the end-grain to side-grain glue joints aren't very reliable). The brass rod has a hole drilled through it near the top, and a small brass ring is mounted in it for easy carrying. The ring was sealed shut with silver solder.

Woodworking with a piece of raw tree trunk

My friend recently had a tree die and fall over on his property. He cut it up with a chainsaw, and offered a few of the pieces to me for use in woodworking. I have never started a project with just a raw log, so I figured it would be a fun learning experience. The tree died in the winter, and it was soaked with rain water, so I put the pieces on a few bricks to keep it off the ground and covered it with plastic on rainy days, leaving it uncovered on dry days. After the rainy season was over, I removed the plastic, and left it sitting in the sun for few months. It's dry now, but badly cracked. I have a feeling it may have been cracked even before the tree even fell over, but I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has experience drying logs.

I chose one of the smaller logs and sliced off a piece with the bandsaw.


Next, I clamped a 4x4 to the bandsaw table to act as a crude fence. It's set to a little over 1" of thickness from the blade.

I jointed the exposed log face before cutting each 1" slice with the bandsaw. I then jointed the other side of each board, and also jointed one edge. I then planed each board to exactly 1" and used a table saw to square up the other side. I now have flat, square stock ready for the project. The wood had lots of cracks, but the figure was really pretty. I think this was an almond tree.


I ended up cutting the boards into 1"x1" x 12" long strips. I decided to make a napkin holder, since it was something that I could build with a small amount of wood, and would be useful. I used standard yellow wood glue and only used tape while drying -- no clamps.


I used a 1/8" radius round-over bit in my router table to smooth the edges, then sanded with 150 grit on a random orbital sander, and also did some hand sanding. I applied a Tung oil finish (my favorite finish) in a few heavily-rubbed coats.