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Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Printable Version

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Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-27-2008

I have been working on getting/making a turned aspis blank since December 2007. After much sturm und drang, I am making enough progress to share here. I purchased enough rough cut kiln-dried poplar to make a solid block 35.5 inches X 35.3 inches X 5.75 inches (902mmX902mmX146mm). I have a friend who is a cabinet maker. She planed and trimmed the wood for me. She glued the wood together for me at her workplace. It took a gallon of wood glue. I owe her big time. My idea of a good glue job would have flown apart on the lathe and killed someone. More to follow...


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-27-2008

More pics:


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Chris B - 05-27-2008

Wow. That is one huge block of wood. Good luck with it. I always enjoy seeing other people's projects. Makes me feel a bit more normal..... :lol:


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-27-2008

The whole planing through gluing took about a week. Most of the time was spent in drying. Thank goodness for big-a$$ pipe clamps. The boards had to be pulled some to get straightened out. There were no voids in the piece. The woodturner was amazed and delighted.

It took all the two of us had to load the block into the truck. We stored it upright in my foyer until turning day rolled around (about six weeks later). The block need to remain in a warm stable atmosphere so it wouldn't pull apart.

More tomorrow!


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Giannis K. Hoplite - 05-27-2008

Amazing! This is how I was panning to go for a shield,but...well.I have no lathe! It would have been impossible to make it by hand. Well,not impossible,and I'm not that bad a wood sculptor,but it would have been a HELL of work!
Khaire
Giannis


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - M. Demetrius - 05-28-2008

Well, looks like you're about to make 30 kilos of wood shavings. What are you going to do with those? :lol:

Gotta see the next step. Will the turner cut out the inside, then the outside, or will it be done in one step? How much will this beauty set you back in coin?

Hmm. It might be possible to make something that would turn a block like that, hooked to something like a clothes dryer motor and pulley, with just a couple of bolts through the middle to start with. Fill the bolt holes with dowels when complete? I dunno. Just a thought.


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-28-2008

OK, more. Yep. Lots of shavings! Seven industrial garbage bags of shavings. Fortunately, they went and are going to raku pottery artists to be used in firing the ceramic pieces. (Whew! I felt very eco-unfriendly - turning a huge log into a toothpick, like the old cartoon.) I'm about $800 into this and no where near done.


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-28-2008

Hmmm. Don't know why the second pic is a download... Anyway, It took three of us to run the blank through the bandsaw and three of us to mount it on the lathe. Ed, the artist who turned this, had to re gear his lathe. The forces on the spindle were very high. He watched the spinning piece like a hawk. If it came off the lathe, it would have taken out the shop wall and anything/one between it. He had a pretty slow RPM on the lathe until he had removed a lot of weight. We had a cardboard pattern he measured against. It is truly a hand-turned piece.


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-28-2008

More.


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Giannis K. Hoplite - 05-28-2008

Nice...But...$800? ISn't it a bit too much? I mean,the finished priduct would have costed more than a manning shield,right?
Eagerly wating for the rest... :wink:
Khaire
Giannis


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-28-2008

Actually, I mispoke (mistyped). I'm $600 into it and looking at another $200 for leather/bronze for the interior. This is my personal challenge - so I'll finish it (in steps). If I needed a nice shield "ready-to-wear", the Manning Imperial items are definitely looking more attractive.


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-28-2008

Another pic. Ed turned the outside first. He later made a huge pair of calipers to hold the interior close to spec (about 1/2" thk. - 12-13mm).


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - M. Demetrius - 05-28-2008

Funny how we (almost) all complain about the price of something, and then decide to do it ourselves, suddenly realizing why the sellers charge what they do, isn't it? I'm not being critical here. I'm amazed that you're able to find someone with the tools to do the work that doesn't want you to bring them the keys to a new car or something.

I've looked at pricey metalwork, helmets, swords, things like that and said, "Wow! That's way too much money", but now that I'm doing some metalwork, I think some of it is probably too cheap...or they're a whole lot faster than I am, which is most likely true. That realization doesn't make it any more affordable, but a lot more understandable.


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Giannis K. Hoplite - 05-28-2008

This is excellent.Looks great! How much time does it take to form the exterior?


Re: Turned Aspis Project in Progress - Athena Areias - 05-28-2008

It's hard to determine actual turning time. I would suspect around 10 hours per side. Ed said that to do it again, he would be able to do it faster. He would also have some specialist tool rests made because the interior was almost impossible to work the nearer the center he got.
Both he and I had illnesses, work, and family crises that stretched this whole phase out to two months of weekends.