I was able to pick up a few mesquite branches yesterday. Not very big, they range from about 3" - 5" diameter. One of them was a triple crotch piece, so that's the one I decided to start with.
I trimmed the ends with my chain saw, pulled off most of the bark (mesquite bark can be very dusty), then mounted it between centers.
I used my Easy Rougher to take it down to a cylinder, can't imagine the beating I would have taken if I had to use my roughing gouge.
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Roughed out the basic shape and turned a tenon on the bottom.
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The outside is finished and sanded to 800 then wet sanded with BLO.
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Mounted it in my chuck, then using a 1" forstner bit, drilled out the center to final depth. Then started hollowing. Had to use my small Sorby hollowing tool which doesn't work very well and chatters like crazy with the small diameter shaft size. The 1" hole was too small to use my Sorby Hollowmaster and the neck of the piece is a little too long to use my Easy Hollower easily (had to remove some waste from the shoulder and center section 1st). But finally got it hollowed.
Took it out of the chuck then exchanged the 35mm spigot jaws for the pin jaws. Mounted the HF on the pin jaws in expansion mode and brought the tailstock up to center it and support it, then turned off the tenon leaving a tiny nub which I removed with a chisel after taking it off the chuck.
Finished turning and sanding and now just needs several coats of WOP.
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I forgot to take measurements before I closed up the shop for the night, but approximates are: 3" at the widest, about 7" in height, base is about 1" and opening is just over 1".
Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but I think it would have looked better with a narrower neck (don't have the tools to hollow thru less than a 1" opening) and I think the very bottom portion could be improved, and it looks like the center section could have been reduced just a tad, may just be the pic but it looks just a bit bulky to me.
C&C's welcome.
Thanks for looking!