Tom Boley loves the lathe. As proprietor of Red Oak Hollow Lathe Works, Tom makes a variety of architectural and practical pieces (such as this plate), in ones or hundreds, as well as maintaining active interest in craft art and teaching.
Did I say plates? Here is a batch he made recently for a customer. He can make these in his sleep (and may).
An example of three styles.
Tom is an outstanding demonstrator, not only because of what he shows, but because of how he approaches teaching. This beautiful, oversized wooden gouge makes an excellent teaching tool (so to speak) that permits him to demonstrate his various cutting techniques clearly for the audience.
This demo highlights the approach of using double-sided tape for holding plates on the lathe for turning. This permits thin pieces of wood to be used without a tenon or recess and is a simple and good alternative to using a glue block, which is much harder to clean up after.
First, Tom applies two pieces of double-sided tape to a faceplate...
...and peels off the backing for the second side.
This is applied, carefully centered, to the dry wood blank, ...
...and pressed into place. Tom also used a little foot pressure.
The work piece, with its "top" surface taped to the faceplate, is mounted on the lathe, ...
... and the tailstock is brought up, as always, for safety. It will be removed when necessary, leaving only the tape to hold the wood in place.
With the aid of his teaching gouge, Tom discusses some of the cuts he's going to make.
He uses a bunch of drinking straws to simulate the wood fibers to emphasize the reason for wanting to cut "downhill" into longer, supported fibers to get a clean cut.
Wood chips fly...
...as Tom begins to rough out the shape of the bottom of the plate, starting at the rim.
As a design feature, Tom adds a bead on the bottom. Note that he holds the tool against his body and moves his body in the "turner's dance" to make his cuts very smoothly.
He makes very light and gentle cuts to get the bottom perfectly flat and smooth.
The tail stock has now been removed, and Tom easily cuts away the nub with the plate held in place only by the double-sided tape.
Tom continues to discuss his different cuts with the gouge, ...
...and, here, shows the shear scrape he plans to use to help remove any tool marks left over from his push cut.
And here's that shear scrape for real.
Tom checks very carefully to make sure the bottom is precisely flat and even.
Another tool Tom likes for his finishing cuts is a heavy-duty, square-end scraper. Tom shows the desired "handle raised" approach...
...and makes the actual cut. Note the tool handle tucked firmly under Tom's arm for added stability and safety.
To turn the other side, Tom will have to tape the faceplate to this finished bottom, so he very carefully marks some circles lightly with a pencil to provide him with a guide to center the faceplate.
He then pries the plate off the faceplate. The tape sticks remarkably well.
The interim result is a finished bottom. The tape residue on the top will now be turned away.
The tape is used only once! Always use fresh pieces.
As before, the double stick tape is applied to the faceplate, the backing is removed, and...
the faceplate is now attached to the recently completed bottom, centered according to the pencil marks.
Again, the faceplate is mounted on the lathe, and...
the tailstock brought up for safety for as long as possible.
Tom has started defining the shape of the rim on the top/inside of the plate and discusses his cutting angles.
Measuring the thickness is always a good idea.
Here's the angle of the next cut, ...
...and the cut itself.
Tom has removed the tailstock, completed the roughing cuts, with the plate being held only by the tape, and is checking the flatness of the resulting surface.
The usual finishing scrape...
...and a little touch up at the rim. This piece is dry and thick enough to permit him to go back to the rim without getting a devastating catch. Don't try this on thin wood, particularly if it's wet.
Satisfied with the result, Tom removes the piece from the faceplate, and...
...cleans off the tape residue with a little mineral spirits. Any remaining evidence of the pencil marks is removed by light sanding.
And there you have it. Here's the top...
...and the beaded bottom (still wet with the mineral spirits) of a lovely dinner plate. Thanks, Tom, for an excellent job of making a plate with a simple chucking technique and for being such an excellent teacher so that we always knew exactly what you were doing and how and why you were doing it.
