I  conducted another "experiment" in turning. In a previous post, I created a checkerboard pen. Using the same process, I wanted to turn a bowl with a checkerboard pattern. So, first, I found several blanks close to the same size of contrasting color.

Walnut and Yellow Heart

I used Walnut and Yellow Heart (I think). I don't remember how I came to have them but I have about a million pen blanks and these all were CLOSE to square and all pretty close to the same size in length.

Next, I glued all the pieces together. This took some time but eventually, all 16 pieces were glued.

Glued together

I used a bunch of rubber bands and my clamps. It glued together OK but I learned some things I would change - I will mention those at the end of this post.

After gluing, I cut the cube into slabs about 3/4" thick. I need a better saw, that is, one that can handle what I want to do. Consequently, my 7" chop saw is too small and not accurate enough for this job. You will see the problem in the following pictures.

Slabs of the Cube

After cutting the slabs, I simply alternated every other slab to make sure the cube became a checker cube.

Checker Cube

So, now I was ready to glue the slabs back together to make the checker box. I will cover that and the turning in my next post. Here are things I learned from the first part of my "experiment":

- To do a checkerboard correctly, you need blanks that are PERFECTLY square, not just close. I am not sure how to accomplish this. I think my blanks were close enough but I can see that if they were closer to square and each equal to each other, it would have turned out better.

- I need a better saw to make sure the slabs are cut straight and smoothly. Because of the size of the project and the size of my saw, and the two not being compatible, it made the project a little off in some places. You can see that in the picture above.

- I need to find a better way to hold the project in the lathe. The back end of the project was really a mess (see the picture three up). It took some work to make that end something that my lathe chuck could hold on to.