Featured Club Turner - Scott Landon

Look at this piece. Stone and black epoxy inlay. Big deal. Half the turners in the world have done "stone inlay".

Look more closely at this piece. That's NOT turquiose chips nor is that black epoxy.

How about this piece? Interesting - a beaded inlay.

Interesting yes.
Beaded? No.

Does this help you recognize what you're seeing - but didn't see?

Now do you get it?
That's right!
String - layed up or braided and then layed up.
Interesting yes?

But using unusual materials with his turnings is just one of Scott Landon's Thinking Outside The Box modes.

This is Scott Landon
See Scott's computer?
See the Epilog laser engraver?

When Scott brings his imagination - and his machinist background - AND a laser engraver - to woodturning, well things can get very interesting.

Here's Scott's "October Piece" . The piece must have an obvious use of, or connectiion to, the letter "O" - in this case the shape of the lidded box (yup - it's a lidded box) and 15, count 'em, 15, laser engraved, interlocking "Os". We'll get to HOW he engraved the "Os" on the next page - after you've seen some of what he can do with the laser.

You've probably seen an ornamental mill and examples of what it can do. But if you've watched a demonstration of ornamental turning it's sort of like watching paint dry - cut a little, crank it back, index things, crank it in - repeat 20 times, change the set up and repeat the process. The results can be really interesting, but the process . . .

And if you've ever tried hand engraving a pattern on one of your turnings, especially an interlocking geometric pattern, one slip and it's either you bleeding - or some real creative thinking to incorporate the OOPS into an "adapted design".

BUT - with a bit of creative ingenuity, a little math, some time with a computer graphics program, a Make It Yourself indexiing jig - AND - a laser engraver - most of the risky grunt work is eliminated, leaving the creative work for you to play with.

In addition to using the laser engraver for engraving, Scott also uses it to - CUT - in this case a Wave Edge of a bowl. Actually the laser BURNS through the wood - but does it so quickly that only the cut edge is charred. Creating the wave pattern and working out the scaling of the wave pattern to match the circumference of you piece takes a little math and a little time with a graphics program, Scott uses Corel, which the Epilog laser engraver can "read". And there is some set up time when you get to the laser. But once you start laser cutting the process is very quick. Hit the Go button, in less than 2 seconds the cut's done, you index the piece to the next location and hit the Go button again. It takes much longer to break out the "waste" than it does to actually laser all the cuts. Well get to the process in a bit.

How about a little laser cutting AND engraving?

BTW - if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Saw Dust Shop in Sunnyvale has a fully loaded woodshop you can rent time in - including time no the laser engraver. For more on that check out their website www.sawdustshop.com

If you'd like to see Scott's DIY indexing jig and more about laser engraving - and cutting - CLICK HERE

Want to add some turned marble to your next piec?. How about another thing Scott is experimentting with - Polymer Clay. Remember playing with clay, or, if you're not THAT old, how about Play Doh? Remember rolling out a couple of "worms" one in red and one in blue, then twisting them together and rolling that "worm" out to make a striped candy cane? Then you'd mush it up, roll it into a ball and smuch it flat - creating a red and white marbling looking thing? Well this poly-clay stuff works a lot like that - except - when you've got something you like - you can bake it in the oven and make it hard - like plastic - or marble. Now imagine how easy it would be to turn your creation - to fit in with some wood you've turned!

Here's a piece Scott did using baked polymer clay and redwood.

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