From Friction to Flock, Journey with a Bowl Gouge.

Club Meeting: 30 October 2024
Report By Cory Wyatt

Our journey starts with our mighty turner lamenting how he was bullied into tonight demonstration, followed by a small interval of him wandering around trying to remember what he forgot to bring, “you always forget at least one thing” wise words from Terry Scott. Once on track the work started.

Making the Box

Using a 100 x 110 mm square, by 60mm deep blank, with the centre marked and biddled (using the nail thingy with a handle to mark the centre point), Ian attached the blank to the lathe with a friction chuck. He had a 50 mm jawed chuck mounted on the head and Steb centre in his tail stock. He then moved the tail stock up with the blank and held the blank on to the jaws by friction. He tightened up his tail stock checked his clearances and hand rotated his lathe to check for any issues before turning it on.

With the speed set to 1000 to 1200 rpm, he started shaping the outside of the box with his bowl gauge, just like you would a bowl, creating a spigot on the Steb end with a push cut. He did not round the square edges first; he did the shaping and rounding at the same time. All cuts were done so that there was wood supporting the bevel as the cuts were being made. Once the form is ready sanding can be completed once the outside of the box had the desired shape and finish, the project was reversed and the spigot place in the jaws and tightened. Speed set to 1500-1600 rpm. The top of the box was then faced to ensure a flat surface with a push cut. The hollowing started with leaving a lip in the box for a lid to sit on later. The hallowing was completed with the bowl gauge. Depending on the shape of the box and the angles a skew can be used to create the desired shape. At this point the inside is ready for sanding.

Once completed you can reverse the box and remove the spigot, this can be done in many ways, using a jam/friction chuck, Cole jaw’s, vacuum chuck, expansion mode with chuck, etc. When happy sand and finish as before.

Flock the Box

To make the Box standout Ian flocked the inside of the box by painting the inside the same colour as the flock he wanted to use. Once the paint was dry, he painted the inside of the box with an even coat of flocking glue (any clear drying glue such as PVA may be suitable), before using his flock gun to add the flock and get an even coat. By using the same colour paint and flock, this helps hide any inconsistencies with the final covering of flock. Ian used a Rayon flock which he got from Carbatec many years ago. It was noted that you could use a mixture of paint and glue to speed up the process, but if your paint mixture dry’s too quickly the flock wont stick.

Making the lid

The lid can be made form the same wood, a contrasting wood or other material. The key step is to not make the lid to tight. Again, Ian started with the friction chuck and used his push cuts to make his spigot, and shape the lid. He then turned the lid around and mounted the spigot in the chuck before facing the top of the lid at about 1200 rpm. He moved his toolrest to level with his centre point and used the calipers to mark a guide for his recess. Remembering to only have the edge with the wood travelling downwards make contact with the wood. He then used his push cuts to make the recess using the already made box to check the fit and make any changes as needed. Once the fit was right, he tapered the lid to ensure a good fit. You can also taper the underside and add texturing as desired. The lid was rounded and turned around and the spigot removed with the friction chuck, using push cuts into the piece, not along the piece to avoid throwing the lid at the front row. The speed was then turned up for a cleaner finishing cut.

The completed box can be finished as you see fit, but note that some wax finished will have white spots when wet or exposed to hand creams. Hard oil finishes seem to handle the water and hand cream better.

Here is a list of places to check for your flocking needs:
Carbatec NZ and Timberely as normal. If you want more info either see Ian and Terry or google.
For the same Flocking gun as Ian try: https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/851880211/mini-flocker-flocking-applicator
For NZ based flock stockist try: https://www.msfibreglass.co.nz/flock-coating-hamilton
Be wary of wargaming and modellers flock used for model railways etc, as these can be much grainier than what we are after and may damage the wood or jewellery.
Temu and Ali Express also have flocking guns/kits and a wide range of colours and prices, but most are listed as nylon, not the rayon used by Ian, so results may vary.