Since the vessel was now finished we could get a better understanding of it’s relationship to the base and after some ‘eyeballing’ it was decided that the ‘legs’ were a bit too long. We were also looking for more of an arc than the strict ‘U’ shape that we had.
We figured that by shortening them about an inch and a quarter both these considerations would be covered.
Prior to turning the legs shorter it was decided that to minimize stress and to ensure a more stable workpiece that we would hot glue a couple of stabilizers across the legs:
Here is the shortened base:
Next we had to enlarge the hole in the top of the base for the hollow vessel to sit. To do this we mounted the base to the tailstock and then brought it in to a wooden faceplate. This ensured that the base was seated correctly:
The base was then hot glued and the tailstock removed:
And the hole was enlarged to the correct size:
From here we went on to the finial, or what we referred to as the ‘Finial Finale’ (Sorry, just had to put that in :))
For the finial a small piece of Ash from the remainder of the block that was given to us for this project was mounted and turned:
Look, a small ring was found floating under all that wood!:
And the finished finial… finally :):
We had a couple of trial attempts at getting the right shape finial that was appropriate for this project. Something about them just didn’t seem quite right. However, this one felt right almost from the beginning (there was a slight sizing error that led to a welcomed design change). The redesign put everything in place and once the ring was discovered and released we knew that this was the one. 🙂
Now it’s just a matter of applying the finish and it will be complete!
Back to the shop…