Good morning wood spinners!
Here are 3 bird houses that I just finished for a client of mine, he wanted one birdhouse and sent me the dimensions he would like. But since one never knows what color, combo, or grain will be what the buyer likes I made 3 of them. They all have red oak tops with walnut stems and the tops have been textured and stained with "Fruitwood" stain to darken the caps closer to a real acorn. The lightest body is red maple with some spalting that followed the grain some figure and a few worm holes for character. On one end is a Red Oak body and the other is Black Cherry with some knots and such. I started these 3 weeks ago from wet logs then rough turned them leaving plenty of wood in the base for the chuck to hold the tenon. This also gave me a foot to stand them up while I used my newly tried drying technique. What I did was take some "Kitty Litter" and put it inside the hollowed out portions and left them sit for a few days. After a few days the kitty litter is removed and place in the sun to dry out again and then put back in for a few more days. After that I left them sit around the shop until I was ready to return them and get them finished. After I was finished turning them the average moisture was about 10% so I think the method worked well for this application. I also just use floor dry from the automotive parts store or where ever it is sold. It can be reused many times, I have even put it in my old smoker (Without wood for smoke) just the electric element to dry it out and warm it up. To hot and it can dry the wood to fast so that is still being perfected. I do not seal anything except the end grain on the top rim and a little at the base where the extra wood is left for the tenon. The are all finished with 3 coats of Spar Varnish and should stand up to the weather pretty well. They are about 8" tall and 6" in diameter. There are 2 more pics in next post.
Time will tell and thanks for looking,
Jeff
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Originally Posted by Don Alexander
