Ever feel like you got away with something?

[Odie]

Does a bear sxxt in the woods? 🙄

With woodturners.......that just goes without saying.......right? Most of us have been there, done that! 😀

This block of maple burl went on the lathe for finish turning a couple weeks ago, and not only was it looking dangerous.....some of the burl was refusing to cut cleanly. I had second thoughts, and it sat on the shelf for a couple weeks while I stared at it and contemplated! After a photo session and adding a couple listings yesterday, I went out to the shop around 4pm, and came back in shortly after midnight. Once you get started on these things, and you begin to see some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, the time just passes, and you're just totally oblivious to the outside world!

It was an expensive piece of burl, and I was afraid I would lose it. It was certainly the definition of "danger zone"! Definitely stay out of the line of fire, and if you've got some extra protection.....this is the time to use it. 😉

There was a big piece of bark in the big gap.....and, I heard it smack the wall during the turning session! I was afraid a big chunk of the wall would go flying at any minute....but, I lucked out! There is a very tiny bit of solid wood bridging the gap at the rim, and I adjusted the shape to try and keep what I could of that bit of extra help in holding things together. It's pretty weak at that point, but I managed to keep it in place.

Anyway......feelin' good about this one! 😎

Have a good day, everyone.........

ko

 

[hockenbery]

Good job!
As you know Bark inclusions have little structural strength.

From what I can see the bowl appears to be structurally sound.

The one view shows three bark inclusions on the inside.
If the area between them is solid wood the three holes pose no significant risk. If the bark inclusions connect on the outside of the bowl there might be a big risk of that whole side of the bowl coming off should the supporting wood be cut too thin to hold it.

A general issue with burls is they sometimes have hidden pitch pockets and bark inclusions.
I usually leave mass in the bottom and turn the wall to thickness in steps.
If a piece does break off it will be thin, lighter weight, and less likely to damage anyone or anything.

Also I will tape any suspicious areas (use wires to keep the tape out of voids) before I hollow.
This keep poorly supporter area from vibrating allowing me to cut it without breaking it off.

Al

 

[John K Jordan]

...There was a big piece of bark in the big gap.....and, I heard it smack the wall during the turning session!

A friend of mine has turned large bowls, 16"+, that are largely bark and air. His method: turn the outside first, then wrap the outside with strapping tape to hold it together while turning the inside, gluing anything loose.

JKJ

 

[Odie]

Good job!
As you know Bark inclusions have little structural strength.

From what I can see the bowl appears to be structurally sound.

The one view shows three bark inclusions on the inside.
If the area between them is solid wood the three holes pose no significant risk. If the bark inclusions connect on the outside of the bowl there might be a big risk of that whole side of the bowl coming off should the supporting wood be cut too thin to hold it.

A general issue with burls is they sometimes have hidden pitch pockets and bark inclusions.
I usually leave mass in the bottom and turn the wall to thickness in steps.
If a piece does break off it will be thin, lighter weight, and less likely to damage anyone or anything.

Also I will tape any suspicious areas (use wires to keep the tape out of voids) before I hollow.
This keep poorly supporter area from vibrating allowing me to cut it without breaking it off.

Al

Your pic with arrows analysis is sound, Al......and exactly where i thought the large chunk might have broken off. I wasn't sure about how solid the wood between the bark inclusions was, so I did leave some extra thickness to help with strength in that area. The walls are thicker than I normally would do, and are about 1/2" thick.......but, I did take it down in sections as much as possible from the roughed version prior to seasoning. If I had gone thinner, I would have lost that little "bridge" that was helping hold it together at the big void.

A friend of mine has turned large bowls, 16"+, that are largely bark and air. His method: turn the outside first, then wrap the outside with strapping tape to hold it together while turning the inside, gluing anything loose.

JKJ

That's a good suggestion, John........I do have some stretch wrap that could have been used. At this point, the bowl is still on the faceplate, and I could take it down further, and go for a thinner wall using the stretch wrap.....but I'd lose that little supporting "bridge".....which also, IMHO, provides some eye appeal for the big void area. I'll have to think about that, but it's otherwise a done deal, except for the foot.......

Thanks for the comments, both.......

ko

 

[chrisdaniels]

funny you should say that odie. just about an hour ago I chucked up a 16x5" fresh piece of hard maple. It had a mineral line going across it but it had some of the most awesome grain coming out from the line that I wanted to see. it didn't show a crack all the way through so I started roughing down the outside. after about 10 minutes of working on the outside I reached under my facemask to adjust my glasses and my lathe started knocking a tiny bit, I pulled my hand away from my face and the piece broke in half and hit me square in the facemask. my whole lathe, table and everything was jumping up and down with the other half still attached and my wife came running out while I was getting back to my feet! It took me about 10 minutes to make sure nothing was broken or missing on me lol. I'm more dissapointed that the piece is broke than anything because it had some awesome grain. but i'm not broken or dead so i'm happy as a pig in $*!&.

 

[robo hippy]

I keep the piece of madrone that put a hole in my wall, and show it to all visitors. It is about 1/4 of a 12 by 5 inch bowl.... I had already developed the habit of standing out of the line of fire. It is the topic of one of my videos... I am getting better at identifying high risk pieces, and either don't turn them, or turn them at a much slower rpm.

I guess the one I worry about the most is taking a head shot from a classic 3 Stooges maneuver, stepping on the rake.... Tines go down...

robo hippy

 

[Jamie Straw]

funny you should say that odie. just about an hour ago I chucked up a 16x5" fresh piece of hard maple. It had a mineral line going across it but it had some of the most awesome grain coming out from the line that I wanted to see. it didn't show a crack all the way through so I started roughing down the outside. after about 10 minutes of working on the outside I reached under my facemask to adjust my glasses and my lathe started knocking a tiny bit, I pulled my hand away from my face and the piece broke in half and hit me square in the facemask. my whole lathe, table and everything was jumping up and down with the other half still attached and my wife came running out while I was getting back to my feet! It took me about 10 minutes to make sure nothing was broken or missing on me lol. I'm more dissapointed that the piece is broke than anything because it had some awesome grain. but i'm not broken or dead so i'm happy as a pig in $*!&.

Holy Smokes, that's a fright. Is there any way to see such a thing developing? There's some maple in my wood bin that could be problematic, and I know to look for ring shake, bark inclusions and (now🙂) mineral streaks, but this one sounds like it was pretty sneaky.

 

[Jamie Straw]

I keep the piece of madrone that put a hole in my wall, and show it to all visitors. It is about 1/4 of a 12 by 5 inch bowl.... I had already developed the habit of standing out of the line of fire. It is the topic of one of my videos... I am getting better at identifying high risk pieces, and either don't turn them, or turn them at a much slower rpm.

I guess the one I worry about the most is taking a head shot from a classic 3 Stooges maneuver, stepping on the rake.... Tines go down...

robo hippy

Reed, I've watched that video a couple of times, early on, so glad it was there with the catchy "Line of Fire" title. Think about it every time I turn a bowl, and am suspecting that although my head is fairly safe, my elbow's going to get whacked one of these days. Oh, yeah, the rake thing -- drives me nuts when I see a rake "tines up" somewhere. As a former horse-boarding-stable proprietor, I always had my eye out for one of those. My Three Stooges moment from those days was trying to pull a BIG nail out of a fence post, and having the hammer slip, butt-end of the handle slammed just below my right eye. Quite a shiner, that!

 

[Gretch Flo]

my maple burl

Used duct tape on outside while hollowing. Bowl is 8x4 1/2"Figure was a little disappointing. Brought back from the Upper peninsula of Mich. Gretch

 

[hockenbery]

Used duct tape on outside while hollowing. Bowl is 8x4 1/2"Figure was a little disappointing. Brought back from the Upper peninsula of Mich. Gretch <img src="http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=9759"/><img src="http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=9760"/>

The void is spectacular!

 

[Odie]

Used duct tape on outside while hollowing. Bowl is 8x4 1/2"Figure was a little disappointing. Brought back from the Upper peninsula of Mich. Gretch

View attachment 9759View attachment 9760

With that much going on elsewhere, lack of figure is no problem with that one, Gretch! 😎

Matter of fact, lots of figure might have been too busy....! 😱

ko

 

[Bill Weaver]

Wow Gretch, you just taught me something. I would have never thought of duct tape to keep a piece together like that.😎

 

[robo hippy]

I am wondering if the duct tape left a lot of gunk on the wood? I guess I would prefer the stretch film, but if you put too much of it on, and really stretched it out, it could deform the walls if you got very thin.

One interesting variation I saw was a big burl turning. The outside had a bunch of those spikes on it. The turner put some sheet plastic like garbage bags on the spiked part, put that down in a box, then used the expanding spray foam all around the bottom and outside. Probably had to put a form on the top so the piece didn't float out of the box. They turned the inside, took it out of the box, and then pulled off the plastic. Innovative....

robo hippy

 

[Gretch Flo]

]I am wondering if the duct tape left a lot of gunk on the wood?

No gunk-but I took it right off,
Another one I had that was left on( as I was trying to keep it from cracking), left gunk, that came right off with acetone, Gretch

 

[chrisdaniels]

I cut some pieces today that i'm excited about but I don't think I can turn them yet. The most spalted maple i've ever seen, never seen pieces quite like this. I got a 14x6 bowl blank, a 13x6 blank, a 12x6 and a 10x6 blank plus about half a dozen hollowform blanks all 6+". I don't think I have a large enough setup to turn the bowls though with my sn2 and 100mm jaws. I will be coring them, as I core everything now that I'm getting medeoker at it so I don't know if I should risk it?

Chris

 

[Jamie Straw]

I cut some pieces today that i'm excited about but I don't think I can turn them yet. The most spalted maple i've ever seen, never seen pieces quite like this. I got a 14x6 bowl blank, a 13x6 blank, a 12x6 and a 10x6 blank plus about half a dozen hollowform blanks all 6+". I don't think I have a large enough setup to turn the bowls though with my sn2 and 100mm jaws. I will be coring them, as I core everything now that I'm getting medeoker at it so I don't know if I should risk it?

Chris

Looking forward to the responses you get to your post. I'm always getting "be careful!" from other turners when I score a bowl-sized piece of spalted maple, and I'm wondering if it's harder (more risky) to core than other woods. I'd guess part of the challenge is making sure it's firmly held to the lathe during the process. Here's a piece that Mr. Mentor is going to help me turn this summer, came from a centenarian maple belonging to one of the club members. 10"x5", 15.5lbs. Wish I had a coring system to get "medeoker" at, color me green.😀

 

[Gretch Flo]

Wow Gretch, you just taught me something. I would have never thought of duct tape to keep a piece together like that.😎

learned that on this forum!!!!! Gretch

 

[chrisdaniels]

these are the ones i cut. just not sure if they're TOO big for what i'm set up for yet.

 

[Jamie Straw]

these are the ones i cut. just not sure if they're TOO big for what i'm set up for yet.

Oh, you got some good stuff from that tree! Please, keep us posted.🙂

 

[chrisdaniels]

apparently I bent 2 jaw screws on that catch! I was trying to find out why it didn't feel right when I ran it up today. one of the jaws wasn't closing properly and when I took the screws out to look they were bent. that was one heck of a catch! also my wife ordered me the nova titan 2 chuck for my bday so I will be able to turn the bigger pieces safer.

 

[robo hippy]

Jamie, be careful with that piece of maple. The black line on top that borders the dark brown and follows the grain line can be a fault, and not spaulting, so it could split along the line. The dark brown usually indicated disease.

robo hippy

 

[Jamie Straw]

Jamie, be careful with that piece of maple. The black line on top that borders the dark brown and follows the grain line can be a fault, and not spaulting, so it could split along the line. The dark brown usually indicated disease.

robo hippy

Yeah, I noted that line when I first got the piece. I won't try it on my own, this will be turned under the very watchful eye of a long-time production bowl turner who's super safety-conscious. He's seen the piece and is quite interested in it, but he'll keep me safe. Thanks, Reed, I appreciate your keeping watch.🙂