AusBonsai

Apologies for accidently posting a unfinished post. I found an old steel pipe that was a relict from the tinmining days of the late 1800's recently that was dislodged by a flood. The patina was obviously a result of many years of weathering. Yesterday I decided to use it as a pedestal for a bonsai turntable. I cut bluegum discs that I inserted into each end of pipe and used a rotating bearing used to convert bench seats in tinnies (boats) so a seat with backrest can befitted. They cost about $20 from a boat shop. A few large rocks in bottom of pipe emsure a stable workspace. Anyway here it is.


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..so rather than expanding on your original post you created another one?

Sounds interesting though.

I deleted the first post after bumping abutton. I thought.... then ended up editing old one to get it out there in timelime....sorry again for mistake

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Very cool but looks heavy. Is it portable at all Good find, any value for a collector

it happens to the best of us.

That looks amazing! (I didn't see the pictures before)

Without the added rocks about 20kg I reckon. I designed it so I could just xlide it onto grass to work on but also to photograph specimens on. I'm pretty tall and find it easy to work on things up pretty high.

I am also working on another tabletop turntable that is 650mm diameter and 50mm thick table. I like like substancial equipment that I can use for other purposes like photographing rocks etc on.

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Hey fossil finder, i like it a lot. The tables i make are practical and strong but nothing fancy. This has got style, very very nice . Where do you get the gum slabs
Regards
Peterb

Cheers PB
It's satisfying to repurpose someting thats been unloved for so long. The bluegum timber, which I'll let grey, is from a tree I had to remove on a building site. I salvaged even the limbs and had it all cut into slabs. After making a ed, 2 media units, work benches, 2 tables, coffee tables a d numerous shelves I'm using he rest to make saikei boxes and several turntables.

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Very impressive.Love it.I am not a carpenter(read-no talent)so could you tell me about casters.What to ask for in a shop?I would love to make a turntable out of a wooden slab,but what do I do with casters?

There are no castors. The turntable is fastened to another piece of timber fitted inside the top of pipe by what is called a 'seat swivel' or 'big hole swivel. Whitworths Marine sell them for $16.95. Some have a lock. Because they are flat there is a little trick to mounting them? I first screwed the swivel to the disk of timber to be later fitted inside the pipe. Because the swivel is flat and only 25mm thick a hole big enough to take the screws you are using needs to be drilled through the bottom disc. This way access is provided so a cordless drilll can be used to fasten together both pieces by rotating swivel until each hole in swivel can be located.

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Thats really cool. Well done.

fossil finder wrote:There are no castors. The turntable is fastened to another piece of timber fitted inside the top of pipe by what is called a 'seat swivel' or 'big hole swivel. Whitworths Marine sell them for $16.95. Some have a lock. Because they are flat there is a little trick to mounting them? I first screwed the swivel to the disk of timber to be later fitted inside the pipe. Because the swivel is flat and only 25mm thick a hole big enough to take the screws you are using needs to be drilled through the bottom disc. This way access is provided so a cordless drilll can be used to fasten together both pieces by rotating swivel until each hole in swivel can be located.

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Thanks for the info.