• January Turning Challenge: Thin-Stemmed Something! (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Scott Gordon for "Orb Ligneus" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 20, 2025 (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.

Eric Friedman

E

Eric Friedman

Joined
Dec 24, 2024
Messages
8
Likes
6
Location
Berkeley, CA
Hello everyone,

I'm Eric, a hobbyist woodworker in the SF Bay Area. Most of my work is with flat things (portfolio site: https://justwood.design/), but I got into spoon and then bowl carving a couple of years ago and really like those, in no small part because there's a community around it. They make great gifts and I enjoy the thrill of discovering what's inside a log when you split it open.

I took a class a few years ago on turning and liked it but didn't pursue. One of the guys in my carving group is a very accomplished turner and I realized that I had an opportunity to pursue it with some informal coaching. So, when a toolmaker - Wahuda - that I like (I own a jointer and planer from them) started making lathes, I waited until their second model emerged and went for it during their annual promotion, which included free shipping + lift gate as well as a free chuck.

I'm a buy once / cry once kind of person when it comes to tools, so I sprang for a really nice set of turning tools from Carter + Son based on advice on reddit and feedback from my friend. The pre- and post-sales experience have been phenomenal.

For sharpening, I went with a common setup: Rikon slow speed grinder, a 180 grit CBN wheel + wolverine. Craft supplies didn't have the kit with the raptor set up components. So I just copied my friend's using them as templates on a router table with a pattern bit and some 1/4" plywood. All of these things work well although I'm not really impressed with the build quality of the wolverine. I couldn't get the long bar past the cam and called Oneway who told me to grind off a corner. Really? Quality control? Also you have to jostle it so that it doesn't move when you lock it down -- this seems like a solvable problem, but they are the "default" so why bother.

I have a backlog of green wood that is getting less green and so rough turning those has been a priority. I will still carve bowls by hand too as I enjoy the quiet physicality of that. I'm experimenting with different ways to move drying along - I already had some desiccant beads and also tried boiling a couple of rough turned bowls. But I'm prepared to use the most effective tool, which is patience. I'm including a photo of the bench I made for the lathe. That sled hanging on the wall is no longer there as it's in the splash zone for green wood. I've hung a water proof poster-like thing in its place.

For fun I'm including a photo of a recent (hand carved) bowl as well as an interesting piece of plum crotch that I rough turned. That's enough for now I guess - I'm grateful that this forum exists and look forward to learning from others here.

IMG_9657.jpeg

IMG_9680.jpeg

IMG_9706.jpeg
 
Welcome, Eric. This forum is full of extremely knowledgeable and experienced folks, and they are willing to share pretty much everything they know. Carving a bowl seems hard. 😉
 
Welcome, Eric. Looks like you are having a blast! I did flat woodworking for years (including at the wood industries where I went to college in Berea, KY) but never tried turning until I wanted to make something for my son when he was in college (now an architect). I eventually got hooked on woodturning. Some years back I built a shop down by the barn and outfitted it with flatwood and woodturning tools but the the table saw with slider and some others mostly sit unused! The lathes and some other tools helpful for woodturning get a lot of use though! My favorite thing is teaching.

I don't turn much green (prefer dry wood) but I hear that some people hang a shower curtain or something behind the lathe to catch wet shavings.

I've never heard of that brand but it looks nice! From their website it looks like it might be their 15" model, good specs and with three speed ranges - you can make a LOT of things on that! I have some 16" lathes and a 20" but frankly, I rarely turn anything that wouldn't fit on a 12" lathe although I do like the long bed lengths. I see you added an nice way to move it around!

One question, what's the height of the spindle with the lathe on that (very nice!) cabinet? Hard to tell from the photo, but at first glance it looked a bit high but from the photo it appears to be about 45" which is only a few inches higher than what I prefer for my height. (For best tool control control the it is generally recommended to have the height of the spindle and the axis of the grinder for sharpening at about elbow height.) For some of my shorter students, I built a a small platform.

This is thought by some too be so important - a well-known professional woodturner, Rudy Lopes, showed me the details of a collapsible foot stand he made to carry with him everywhere when he travels to teach or do demos! (most full-sized floor-standing lathes are made with about the same spindle height) Clever design, uses one threaded rod to hold the hinged sides tight!

Lopez_platform_small_IMG_20160130_115332_027.jpg Lopes_platform_IMG_20160130_114925_072.jpg

The piece you showed is beautiful! And hand carved! - what a wonderful time-honored tradition, sadly seldom seen these days. (This part of the country has a long tradition of hand-carved "dough bowls" made of yellow poplar.)

I've never turned or even seen plum wood. We have a lot of hardwoods here but fruit wood here is mostly pear, apple, peach, cherry, and persimmon. (I love persimmon - not beautiful wood but hard, fine-grained, a type of ebony)

I'm certain you'll be in good company on this forum. I've seen a lot of turning wizards here!

JKJ
 
Welcome to the forums. I'm a new turner as well and jumping head first into the deep end. Looking forward to seeing what you're journey brings.

Gregory
 
Welcome to he forum. I see you are ahead of me as we like pictures. Oh by the way when making bowls on a lathe we call it turning a bowl. Thats a nice job for #1. You might want to find a turning club and check out the AAW. That stand looks like it belongs in someone's bedroom.
 
Thank you all for the warm welcome! The spindle height is indeed at my elbow and yes, the lathe is the 15" model. I suppose there are circumstances where I'd want to make something bigger, but they are probably rare and my friend has a giant Oneway, so I'd probably just bring him a cold beer. 🙂

I'm glad folks like the bench. It's kind of a Frankenstein project and therefore ideal for shop furniture. I never work with oak but I happened to have some from a woodworker who moved away and gifted a bunch of material to me. So, there were the legs, aprons, and stretchers. I knew the bench was going to have to withstand some intense vibration at times, so I reenforced the glue by using drawbores through the mortise and tenon for a mechanical connection.

I happened to have some drawer slides lying around that I was eager to get rid of and also the retractable casters which had even I tried and failed to sell. Glad those are pressed into service. Drawers were quickie box jointed plywood with bottoms in a groove. I was short one pair of drawer glides so I did the trick of making the bottom on that one oversized so that it rides in a groove of the web frame.

Speaking of the web frame... I was kind of pleased with myself for using the pallet that the lathe arrived on to build that. It is some ugly, ugly wood but the beauty of a web frame is that no one will see it.

The one "wood that could have seen a higher purpose" for the project was the cherry fronts. I love cherry, so these make me happy. The pulls are some sapele I had lying around and which I beveled on either side. Yes, it's weird for a lathe bench to have pulls that weren't turned, but I was bootstrapping and regret nothing. 🙂

One thing that I was not happy about from Wahuda is that they didn't supply a piece of paper (or digital file) with the location of the mounting holes. So I had to take a rubbing from the underside of the machine. I believe they are going to address this based on feedback.
 
Eric Friedman said:
Hello everyone,

I'm Eric, a hobbyist woodworker in the SF Bay Area. Most of my work is with flat things (portfolio site: https://justwood.design/), but I got into spoon and then bowl carving a couple of years ago and really like those, in no small part because there's a community around it. They make great gifts and I enjoy the thrill of discovering what's inside a log when you split it open.

I took a class a few years ago on turning and liked it but didn't pursue. One of the guys in my carving group is a very accomplished turner and I realized that I had an opportunity to pursue it with some informal coaching. So, when a toolmaker - Wahuda - that I like (I own a jointer and planer from them) started making lathes, I waited until their second model emerged and went for it during their annual promotion, which included free shipping + lift gate as well as a free chuck.

I'm a buy once / cry once kind of person when it comes to tools, so I sprang for a really nice set of turning tools from Carter + Son based on advice on reddit and feedback from my friend. The pre- and post-sales experience have been phenomenal.

For sharpening, I went with a common setup: Rikon slow speed grinder, a 180 grit CBN wheel + wolverine. Craft supplies didn't have the kit with the raptor set up components. So I just copied my friend's using them as templates on a router table with a pattern bit and some 1/4" plywood. All of these things work well although I'm not really impressed with the build quality of the wolverine. I couldn't get the long bar past the cam and called Oneway who told me to grind off a corner. Really? Quality control? Also you have to jostle it so that it doesn't move when you lock it down -- this seems like a solvable problem, but they are the "default" so why bother.

I have a backlog of green wood that is getting less green and so rough turning those has been a priority. I will still carve bowls by hand too as I enjoy the quiet physicality of that. I'm experimenting with different ways to move drying along - I already had some desiccant beads and also tried boiling a couple of rough turned bowls. But I'm prepared to use the most effective tool, which is patience. I'm including a photo of the bench I made for the lathe. That sled hanging on the wall is no longer there as it's in the splash zone for green wood. I've hung a water proof poster-like thing in its place.

For fun I'm including a photo of a recent (hand carved) bowl as well as an interesting piece of plum crotch that I rough turned. That's enough for now I guess - I'm grateful that this forum exists and look forward to learning from others here.

View attachment 70849

View attachment 70850

View attachment 70851
Click to expand...
hello,
I like the Carter and Son turning tools as well thinking of getting one of the bottom bowl gouges. Have not yet sprung for CBN wheels though they are on the wish list. Just started to turn some green wood too soon to tell how it will turn out (pun intended), but it did turn way easier. The only drawback was when I cut the blank round on the bandsaw it got the bandsaw blade and wheels all dirty and needed cleaning after just a couple of blanks cut. I have since got a timberwolf blade with 3TPI hopefully that helps a little.
 
Kevin Huber said:
he only drawback was when I cut the blank round on the bandsaw it got the bandsaw blade and wheels all dirty and needed cleaning after just a couple of blanks cut. I have since got a timberwolf blade with 3TPI hopefully that helps a little.
Click to expand...

Hello Kevin,

There was recently some discussion in another thread about this. You can still get some gunk on the tires and the blade.
I wrote about what I do about it:

John K Jordan

Post in thread 'best bandsaw blade for bowl blanks'

Ivan Stancioff said:
I am in the middle of processing green maple bowl blanks but am having a difficult time cutting them in the round with my 18" Jet 1-1/2 HP bandsaw with a 1/" 4 TPI blade. The blade builds up on one side (left) with caked on debris causing the blade to wander. Any thoughts on size of blade or how to keep it clean
Click to expand...

Don't know about "best" (there are some variables and preferences to consider). I almost always keep a Lenox 1/2”x3tpi blade on my 18” Rikon, for green wood (including processing log sections) and dry wood, from a local Lenox blade shop. I usually sharpen several times...
  • Love


As mentioned in that thread, I use 1/2" 3tpi blades for green wood up to 12" high cut, and for sizing dry wood for the lathe. Been using the same type of blade for maybe 15 years now.

BTW, if you find yourself with too much green wood, a word of advice from some experts is to never take more than you can turn in a week or so. I visited a turner once who had a HUGE pile of green wood log sections and chunks on one side of his garage shop. In his enthusiasm he got too excited and took way more than he could use - offered me as much as I wanted but it was all ruined, IMO.

I posted a video to this forum about how I go about cutting up green wood to make turning blanks. (I typically dry them since I prefer turning dry wood which stays good "forever".) The video is in the Tutorials and TIps section but this is the direct Youtube link if you get bored or want to take a break:
View: https://youtu.be/4Rbdas-jtD0


JKJ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top