Eastern Red Cedar

[Doug B]

I met a guy at the gun show that wanted to trade some wood for a pen or whatever else he could get out of the deal. Well I made a bottle stopper and a pen out of the wood he gave me and thought I post the pic here too. I sent him a pic to see what he wants, but have not heard back yet.

Personally, I really like the bottle stopper best. It is finished using the lacquer dipping method.

[maverick31]

you get the wowza of the day. both are awesom. I really like the bottle stopper the best. I really like how you selected the sap/heartwood combo. I think they both turned out great. I have a huge load of erc I have yet to do anything with. I am feeling inspired now......

[imahic]

I have 4 big old logs of that stuff out back I can't decide what to do with it.

Awesome job, Doug. Both look great to me. I love red cedar. It's not a bad wood to carve either.

[Joe Lyddon]

NICE!

[Doug B]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

I have used aromatic cedar before but this was a first for me and ERC is much harder than I expected. Easy to turn, sand and polish, and the color is outstanding. FWIW the lacquer finish on the bottle stopper is a lot better than the CA finish on the pen. I think lacquer is the better finish for this wood.

[boodrow]

Doug very nice pair ! Im not a cedar fan , im one of those that think it stinks.
Boodrow

[sachbvn]

Friggin' awesome job Doug! I love the stopper!

I gotta work on being able to get things perfectly round like that without getting catches.....

The finish on the BS looks great too.... I tired a lacquer dip on a BS the other day - I got the runs.... and NO ONE likes having the runs! I also seemed to get kind of a.... "coarse" type finish on it - not sure if dust nibs or what got in it.


Zac

[maverick31]

I get a lot of runs with dipping too. I am going to add some thinner to see if that helps. I always wet sand nibs between coats with 2500

[boodrow]

A lil trick that Doug passed to me and it worked great. I leave the turned piece on the mandrel , dip it in laquer , bring it back in the shop , screw it on the lathe and turn it on. It takes care of the runs and such. Although I have to say ive had the trots today. Mandrel wouldnt do me any good unless it was shaped like a cork.
Boodrow

[sdb777]

The runs..... Can see this one getting all twisted out of shape!!!




I've read(never done) that the Lacquer was supposed to be a 50/50 mix with thinner.... Then dip and 'sling' the excess off....
Are you guys not doing this?



Scott (slinging the runs) B

[sachbvn]

Scott - it is split 50/50 and I sling it as hard as I can.... I think the runs happened after the fact.... kinda like after you drink a bunch of natty lite - not WHILE you are drinking it!

I will try the late method - but I'm going to have to put a piece of cardboard or something behind the lathe.... it's a cinderblock wall and already it's full of "oops" splatters


Zac

[Doug B]

Boodrow I'd love to take credit for the lathe method, but I think it was Mav who recommended that. I have not tried it yet, but that's only because I am getting good results with what I've been doing and LOML does a lot of the Lacquer dipping for me.

The method of dipping that I have settled on is to dip in a 50/50 thinned mixture of Lacquer/Lacquer thinner. Then I fling the chit out of the pen barrel or bottle stopper - it helps to have a long handle to get more leverage. I fling the excess off into a big cardboard box so that is does not go all over the place and I rotate the dipped pen or bottle stopper about 1/4 turn before each fling. I fling until I can no long see or hear any Lacquer coming off - probably between 4 and 8 times.

Then, I hold the pen or bottle stopper upside down for a few seconds, turn it back down for a few seconds, then back up and so on until I feel comfortable that it is not going to run. If I see a run starting to happen, I re-dip immediately and start the process over - at least that has worked for the couple of times when I saw the drip while rotating the piece. Each flip can last a little longer than the previous one before rotating. My wife is very good at this type of finishing and she actually counts the seconds...I'd have to take my shoes off so I just guestimate it

Even so, once I had a run on a stopper that I had to sand out and apply another coat and the same on a pen barrel, but that is out of quite a few that I have used the dipping method on.

I always dip at least twice, and sometimes 3 or more times - One particular piece of Black and White Ebony had some puncky grain that took 5 or maybe 6 coats before I was satisfied with the finish. Open grained woods I think I would have to seriously consider using a grain filler first or at least a sanding sealer before dipping.

So far, I have not had to sand between coats or after the last coat except for those times that I had to get runs out.

For oily woods that CA finishes sometimes don't work as well for, the dipping has been just the ticket for me.

About the runs...I'm not going there...nope not this time anyway ;D

[boodrow]

Thanks for the correction Doug , Now that I think bout it , it prob was Mav that posted that. I still like doin it that way best.
Boodrow