I mentioned in another post that I have decided to make a couple of wading staffs during the winter.
To this end I have ordered some wood in order to make the first one, which should be delivered .
4 x 500mm x 35mm of Bulnesia sarmientoi which is one of the hardest, heaviest and most durable woods known. It also happens to be gorgeously striped! I've also a piece of rosewood for the handle. £50 so far for the wood alone never mind the joints.
Now I have a basic design in mind.
[attachimg=1]
The handle can be grasped as a staff or as a walking stick.
Two bottom sections and an extender in order to have a different set up for small rivers where an ultra heavy foot isn't necessary (the wood itself is heavier than water). It can also be used as a stout walking stick.
So now turning to the great minds here as I see a few problems and solutions which may or may not work.
1. Straightness. If I drill out the holes for the fittings it has to be very accurate. Even a millimeter out will leave a skew. I have a possible solution to give me some leeway and that is to put the fittings on before the lathe. That way (as the wood is 35mm and I will reduce it to 25mm I have a small amount of leeway.
2. The material doesn't glue wonderfully well. so I am intending to put a number of vertical and horizontal grooves inside the joints to provide a solid key.
Now I won't be starting for a month or two yet so any advice, thoughts will be most welcome.
Having seen examples of your work this may be a Grandmother and egg sucking situation, but I can delete my stupidities from this post as they are pointed out or better ideas are posted.
Bulnesia sarmeintoi, or Palo Santo, is a fine choice, but with a quoted specific gravity of 0.92- 1.1 compared with water (1) and lignum vitae at 1.23 g/cm3 it is heavy but close to floating. You might want to check it before turning and then determine the amount of lead to add.
Glueing is going to be a problem, it is an oily wood (the oil is extracted and used in perfume making and for incense). Your proposed grooves will help. I presume the ferrules are threaded and screw together, in use this adds a rotational force on the joint, could you drill and countersink the faces for some long, small dia screws to add to the holding power?
Concentricity would be my biggest problem, I presume you'll be drilling on the lathe. I have seen various solutions in the past.
You have the option to make the ends very slightly concave (as the ferrules will cover this), that might help. Checking the set-up of the lathe and practicing on some scrap will always be a benefit, as will the use or construction of some fixed steadies. Adding a block of scrap to the ends before drilling and inserting (by hand) a small drill bit, checking this with a dial test indicator before and after mounting the drill in the chuck is another option. In a hard wood like this one there is always the tendency for the drill to wander, a metal worker's combination centre drill is an option if the finished size matches. Otherwise I'd start with a small diameter, shallow, and work up to the required dimensions, with the bit mounted in the cuck only to the depth required for added strength.
I'd go beyond the standard woodworking squares, calipers and so on for measuring and use engineers tools throughout.
I look forward to hearing of progress and seeing the finished result.
Rosewood eh?
Be careful if you intend taking it abroad anywhere!
Quote from: zeolite on August 31, 2012, 05:00:20 PM
Rosewood eh?
Be careful if you intend taking it abroad anywhere!
Why?
Thanks Inchlaggan,
I don't have a decent lathe. The canoe paddles I have made so far I have fashioned the shaft by fitting an attachment to an electric drill and using a sandpaper belt and working by eye (setup is a bit like the gears on a bike).
I tried the Bulnesia sarmientoi in water and it sinks like a stone, nothing remotely marginal about it.
Malcolm- try a quick Google for "self centering pen vice", available in a number of designs and there is a fair amount of discussion as to their use and efficiency.
I don't know much about wood , but if you look up ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood) ) you will see some species of rosewoods are internationally protected as endangered. that's why you should not take it abroad.
Also have a look here, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulnesia_sarmientoi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulnesia_sarmientoi) ) it would appear Bulnesia_sarmientoi is on the red list of threatened species.
I am surprised and disappointed that a global moderator of a site which promotes the protection of wild trout and the environment should be considering using wood from endangered tropical rain forests.
:( :( :(
Quote from: islaangler on September 08, 2012, 01:04:50 AM
I am surprised and disappointed that a global moderator of a site which promotes the protection of wild trout and the environment should be considering using wood from endangered tropical rain forests.
Do you know the circumstances of that particular piece of wood? I have two 40 year old guitars with rosewood fingerboards. It was perfectly legal to cut and use the wood back then, but should I not play them now as a gesture? If the material has already been cut and is old, what purpose is served or what is gained by not using it for non commercial purposes?
Plenty of woods on the red list that are perfectly legal to obtain and use- including rosewood- if you go through the correct channels and obtain the required certification. Either recycled, salvaged or from sustainable sources
You are, of course, absolutely correct Isla angler. I tend to assume that if the product is sold here from a bona fide retailer all is above board. I've never checked the provenance of the amboyna, curly maple and rosewood reel seats on my rods. Neither do I know about the mahogany veneer on my fly box. As a matter of fact I don't even know whether the tuna I've just eaten came from a dolphin friendly fishery.
I need a bit of advice here from the craftsmen. I've now turned the sections of the wood down to 25mm. The sections look absolutely wonderful. I have drilled out the sockets for the joints. The sockets are about 0.75mm larger than the snooker cue type screw joints themselves and are very straight (I devised a way to do this very accuarately on a drill lathe).
The question is what adhesive do I use to set the metal into the sockets. I have two choices. First epoxy resin and second epoxy putty. However although I intuitively favour the latter I have never used it before but it does seem to harden very well. Have any of you used it before and how does it compare in hardness and durability with epoxy resin?
Malcolm
I've used both. My preference would be for the putty, I use Milliput.
It is easier to handle and finish than standard epoxy it can even be tapped.
http://www.milliput.com/how.htm (http://www.milliput.com/how.htm)
Malcolm
I don't know much about putty type epoxies but know that the quicker drying epoxies tend to be brittle if I was investing this sort of time and money into a project I think I might experiment with a few different types I know from experience that the blue araldite (8 hr drying)works well in this situation.they don't work very well if only thinly applied.
On the sticks I produce I use tubing but I thread the hole that the tube fits into this provides the key you talked about but also bulks the glue to allow the chemical reaction also DO IT IN THE HOUSE or at least a well heated work shop I put in the airing cupboard To make sure.
Tom
Thanks for the replies. I'll go with the putty on Ken's advice. The epoxy I normally use is slow drying made by West Systems which is slow drying. However this has a bit of gap filling (thr screw threads) and I didn't sknow how the epoxy would do. I already have Milliput but havent used it yet.
Thanks
Can you drill a small hole through the side and pin it Malcolm?that way its sure to stay in place, maybe use a copper rivet?
I did wonder about that Burnie but decided that strong glue - supported by a copper ferrule over the joint would be plenty strong enough. I'll speak to my partner in crime though.
Well I've been whittling away at this project for a while now. First turning the shaft wood using turning chisels and then down through the grades of snapaper to get nice smooth cylinders and then inserting the joints (thereby in one sentence chiselling down many hours of work. I used milliput for the joints.
I made the stick so that it would have three different formats.
1. a heavy staff with a lead insert on one of the pieces.
2. A lighter staff without the lead insert (but still very substatial as the wood is so heavy).
3. A heavy walking stick.
The stick is now close to being finished - just requiring some filler to tidy up the joints and a final sanding with fimne grades of sandpaper to be finished
The handle in made of a mixture of sonokeling and Cocobolo and this is how it started out after the initial saw cuts:
[attachimg=1]
and after many hours of chiselling, whittling and sanding
[attachimg=2]
here it is in walking stick form
[attachimg=3]
and the full lightweight wading staff
[attachimg=4]
The lightweight version has a spiked end
[attachimg=5]
and the heavy weight version has a rubber end but the end is shown here with a load oaf lead glued up the centre
[attachimg=6]
An interesting project and making the handle in particular was very interesting and satisfying. Just another couple of hrs going through the sandpaper grades now and the handle will be fisnished. Then It'll be getting bashed about on the river!
Excellent work.
Excellent Malcolm. There has been a lot of time and effort put into that.
That is a work of art Malcolm
That does look very nice, and could double as a snooker cue too when it's cold out :)
That is a lovely piece of workmanship. The finish on the handle is stunning. :D
Thanks guys, I would say that these projects are great fun to do - just a little bit every day and you get something useful for the start of a new season. Now it's rod building and continuing building the frame for the cedar strip canoe.
As you are still sanding, how do you intend to finish this masterpiece?
Awesome Malcolm, impressive engineering and craftsmanship, in admiration of skill & man hours!
Well done.
That'll be it I think. The woods are so naturally oily they won't need oiling at all. Currently polishing up with 2000 grade. Don't know why it'll be getting bashed about on the river bank in the summer!
Agree on the oily wood bit, but I'd still try some Rustin's Beeswax to protect it- just a suggestion!