A local business trimmed their cherry tree this past May and I snapped up the wood they discarded. My father owns a van and so we both went to pick it up. One piece was just a splitting off the edge of a trunk section maybe a foot long, 5" wide, and 1.5" thick, including the bark. My dad looked at me like I was crazy when I picked it up and ripped on me all the way home for taking the 'junk wood'.
Well, I went on the lathe this past Sunday and decided to use a piece of that junk wood - looked at it, cut the non-split end off, mounted between centers, and proceeded to turn it round. After I got done, there wasn't much left, but enough to make this small cherry dish. Having no chuck, I glued it to a waste block on my face plate and returned it after the glue was dry, but the wood had already cracked - this is the crack on the side you can see in the pictures. The crack has been filled with wipe-on poly and after the finish cured, had carnuba wax impregnated into the surface with 0000 steel wool, then another coat applied with a soft cloth.
I had some difficulty with the parting tool leaving chatter marks on the bottom, as the lag screws holding the waste block on and initial piece being so thin didn't leave much room for my parting tool - it chattered and rattled around more than a little, producing a series of spiral grooves on the bottom.
Overall, I'm happy with how it ended up, even though it's far from perfect. Plus, I now get to show my dad what I made out of a piece of 'junk wood'.
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