Over this past weekend I was able to attend a platter turning class offered through the Minnesota Woodturners Association. It was instructed by Dick Hicks, and assisted by Dan Larson, both of whom were great guides and help in the process.
I’ve only taken a couple in-person classes as it pertains to woodworking/turning, but I highly recommend it if you’re able. You can learn a lot from videos and pictures, but having someone to stand over your shoulder and give helpful feedback or tips is immeasurable. Little things like “that’s great, but try just tweaking your cutting angle to here”, “that doesn’t sound quite right, try adjusting this”, or “That works great, have you ever tried it this way too” is fantastically helpful over just hoping you’re copying the video correctly.
Right, on to the platter. This is what I ended up with after the class. It was a 9am-3pm class, but I’d say we all spent about 3-3.5hrs actually turning, with instruction at the beginning and after lunch (and a lunch break). The Ash wood blanks were provided (for a cost), and the finish is Mahoney’s Walnut Oil.
The diameter of this finished piece is about 10-3/4″ and an overall height of 1-1/4″. There is a decorative bead around the edge of the rim, and the remainder of the rim is domed leading in to the dished out portion.
The profile on the back side of the platter for the class was a roman ogee. It’s essentially two concave hollows connected by a convex hump in the middle. I think I could have refined my shape on the upper portion of the ogee a little more, but overall I’m pretty happy with it. The bottom has a dovetailed recess where the 100mm chuck jaws held it for turning the top of the platter.
A little bit more on the process of the platter. We started out with a slightly under 12″x1.5″ blank. The lathes we had for the class could only turn up to 12″ diameter, so I’d guess the blanks started around 11.5″ or so. Dick was our primary instructor, and would show us the steps along the way before turning us loose. Here he’s demonstrating turning the blank round from headstock towards tailstock to avoid tear out on the wood being kept around the rim, then flattening the face of the blank. After that we were to cut the ogee profile, before making the recess for the jaws..
I was woefully bad at taking pictures while actually turning, as the excitement of progress takes over. But around noon we took a break for lunch and some story telling. One of the members in attendance (Bob), was gracious enough to buy pizza for the group, which was both very much appreciated and delicious.
After lunch Dick showed us how to turn the top side of the platter after turning it around and mounting it on the chuck. First we started by flattening it out, then marking some lines for the bead around the rim and where the dished portion would start. He then showed us how to start by making the domed rim and roughing a small area for what would eventually be dished out.
After that, we would then turn the bead on the rim, and refine the rest of it. Sand and finish that part, before hollowing out the dish portion in the middle and then proceed to sand and finish that.
Here I did actually take a quick second to take an in-progress picture. This shows the outer rim cut, along with the bead established. You can see what I was talking about earlier, where we would rough out a little of the center dish before doing the rest of the work. This just gave us somewhere to aim for with the outer rim.
Here we can see that dovetailed recess in action with the chuck. There was another member and I (the guy who was immediately in front of me here), that were uncertain about the “it only needs to be about 1/8 inch, or possibly a little less” guidance provided for this recess depth.
We both used different chuck systems at home than the ones supplied for the class, and we weren’t used to them being that shallow. Mine ended up right at 1/8″ depth, and his was similar. Neither of our platters went flying off the lathe so I guess it worked out alright after all! It was an interesting observation to share with someone else, and I was somewhat glad that I wasn’t the only one thinking that initially.
Once again this was the final form to show the end result. The class was a great time, and I got to meet some fellow turners whom I hope to catch up with at future monthly meetings. This was the first class I had taken in a few years (pre-pandemic), and it was good to get to another one. Just to reiterate, if you’re interested and able to take a class (woodturning, woodworking, or otherwise), I highly recommend it. The internet is great, but in person is better.
Now I’m looking at my stack of 6/4 air dried walnut in the shop and thinking about how many platters that could be… It’s nice that the blanks don’t have to be as thick as a bowl blank; makes the possibilities for sourcing them a lot easier, though they do tend to require wide boards to avoid glue-ups.
I definitely think I’ll be making more platters in the future, they are great fun.
Thanks for checking it out, I will catch you in the next one!
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