• Beware of Counterfeit Woodturning Tools (click here for details)
  • Johnathan Silwones is starting a new AAW chapter, Southern Alleghenies Woodturners, in Johnstown, PA. (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Paul May for "Checkerboard (ver 3.0)" being selected as Turning of the Week for March 25, 2024 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Don Armour

Joined
Jan 31, 2021
Messages
29
Likes
4
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Hi All. Sorry - no picts of me in shop, but will do best to get one and send.

Was introduced to turning as a kid, but other stuff and eventually life got in the way of taking it up as a hobby. So I am a new member and a new turner hoping to turn bowls and eventually hollow forms.

Now that I am retired I have been able to set up shop. No finished products yet, but the pict i have attached shows a trimming from a piece of firewood that I have turned into a blank....my wife says I am obsessed as I currently have more blanks from local trees than I can possibly use :)

burl.jpg
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
Messages
2,326
Likes
1,105
Location
Nebraska
You can never have too many turning blanks, if you are in it for the long haul the first couple of years you should try and process and collect a variety of wood in your area and get some of the blanks dried out for various projects down the road. Having dry wood blanks allows you to turn many smaller projects and finish them the same day. If all you have is green wood for turning bowls you have to wait for the bowl to dry before you can do a second turning, sand the item and apply a finish to the bowl. You should also locate an operator in your area that has a portable sawmill, you can work out good deals on various wood blanks, slabs and scraps they would normally throw away. Selling turning blanks is a sideline business for many of these sawyers, bring them a log and they will saw it up and split the wood with you any way you want it cut.
 
Joined
Jan 31, 2021
Messages
29
Likes
4
Location
Jacksonville, FL
You can never have too many turning blanks, if you are in it for the long haul the first couple of years you should try and process and collect a variety of wood in your area and get some of the blanks dried out for various projects down the road. Having dry wood blanks allows you to turn many smaller projects and finish them the same day. If all you have is green wood for turning bowls you have to wait for the bowl to dry before you can do a second turning, sand the item and apply a finish to the bowl. You should also locate an operator in your area that has a portable sawmill, you can work out good deals on various wood blanks, slabs and scraps they would normally throw away. Selling turning blanks is a sideline business for many of these sawyers, bring them a log and they will saw it up and split the wood with you any way you want it cut.
Thanks Mike and it is part of my plan. so far i have gotten blanks from a neighbor who is getting ready to build, a buddy with a farm in SC who needed help with a fallen tree and my own firewood. I have magnolia, hickory and what I think is catawba burl. I also found a local millwork that has an enormous barn full of "small project wood" that I have gotten some small pieces of african hardwood that I have trimmed up and layered with black cherry from a different neighbors home that i brought with us when we moved to FL
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2010
Messages
3,058
Likes
900
Location
Cleveland, Tennessee
Welcome. My wife says I have enough wood to build another log cabin for Abe Lincoln.
 
Back
Top