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What’s on your lathe?

Timothy White said:
This is Bois D’Arc. According to my French Speaking friend, it is pronounced Bwa dock the a is short. Notice the bolsters in the Third photo.
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But Texans pronounce it "Bo-Dark" . Non-Texans pronounce it as "Osage Orange". 😀 Beautiful handles, well done!

I made sure I brought some Bois D'Arc when we moved to Florida.

@Timothy, where in McKinney are you? We used to live on Cheverny Dr. (near Eldorado Pkwy and Hardin Rd.) We really enjoyed living there. You're welcome to DM me to continue this conversation. 🙂
 
Ed, excellent work on the yoyos! I played around with them a bit, and since the trans axle/ball bearing axles came into existence, the yoyo world really changed. Are those bearing axles? I found when making mine that I needed to weigh them on a gram scale, down to 1/100 of a gram, in order to get them to spin true. You didn't show them in use.....

robo hippy
 
robo hippy said:
Ed, excellent work on the yoyos! I played around with them a bit, and since the trans axle/ball bearing axles came into existence, the yoyo world really changed. Are those bearing axles? I found when making mine that I needed to weigh them on a gram scale, down to 1/100 of a gram, in order to get them to spin true. You didn't show them in use.....

robo hippy
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Thanks, these three (and almost all of the yo-yos I make) are one-piece, with no glue holding the sides and axle together. Harder to turn (balance) properly that a three-piece design, but after the first 1,000 or so, I got the formula down pretty good 😎
 

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My biggest bowl so far at 13x5" in progress. The customer wants a big, centerpiece-level salad bowl, so I'm finishing up this fine black walnut that I got as a rough-turn from Scott at https://alexanderdesigns.us/ . When I was just overwhelmed with work during the school year, Scott's rough turns, some of which are much larger than I can get anywhere around here, really helped me crank out some nice work in my limited time. He is a a great guy to deal with, and I thought his prices were reasonable.

Anyway, this one was sanded to 400 with the 3" Norton Dry Ice discs that I am now really sold on, then got a Yorkshire Grit friction polish, followed by several coats of Doctor's Workshop Walnut Oil and Wax as a friction polish to make it a food-safe but beautiful bowl. I hope to finish the inside tomorrow. (And yeah, I've got the usual clean-up to do after turning dry walnut-yay!).
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I've been waiting to take some tenons off till my vacuum system was set up. Where's this piece of magic been hiding????

Boxelder,Walnut,mulberry and oak. bing bing bing. I'm liking it so far. And I have been pushing it a little too because I'd rather something happens now when I expect it than later when I'm more complacent about it. These have probably been seen before but they weren't truly finished until today.
 

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Wow, that walnut and mulberry especially! Someday I gotta figure out a vacum system. It's hard to re-tru a big/wide piece on a big 20" Longworth chuck that oscillates quite a bit past about 400 rpm. I've had some problematic bottoms over those issues, and then you just have to sand more. Anyway, nice work!
 
Aaron Harris said:
Wow, that walnut and mulberry especially! Someday I gotta figure out a vacum system. It's hard to re-tru a big/wide piece on a big 20" Longworth chuck that oscillates quite a bit past about 400 rpm. I've had some problematic bottoms over those issues, and then you just have to sand more. Anyway, nice work!
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I'm sure I was unsafe about it and someone will tell me so but I was running it 900-1100 rpms (had a good connection) just to push it. My old man always said, "You're not going to learn any younger"
Messing with the vacuum I haven't had a chance to try out my flex shaft for sanding yet. I just sanded the bottom by hand and a random orbit pneumatic but the air compressor is noisey.

I just got the vacuum system from Bob Leonard the other day. (frugal vacuum) He has just gotten in a shipment. Might give it a look.
 
Sam Fleisher said:
I've been waiting to take some tenons off till my vacuum system was set up.
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If you don't mind, Sam...... let's see your vacuum system with some commentary and sources.....thanks. 🙂

Is your system something you can easily set up when you need it, and easily stored out of the way when not being used?

edit: I have access to a lot of burl caps that don't lend themselves easily to my usual methods, but would make great natural edge bowls. I've played with a Grumbine chuck for this, but isn't such an easy thing to manipulate.....so, I don't do this much.

ps: I have photos of the Grumbine chuck, if anyone is interested in seeing it.....but, I've come to the conclusion that a vacuum setup is probably the best way to do the foot, when mounting a natural edge bowl for doing the foot...

-o-
 
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odie said:
If you don't mind, Sam...... let's see your vacuum system with some commentary and sources.....thanks. 🙂

Is your system something you can easily set up when you need it, and easily stored out of the way when not being used?

edit: I have access to a lot of burl caps that don't lend themselves easily to my usual methods, but would make great natural edge bowls. I've played with a Grumbine chuck for this, but isn't such an easy thing to manipulate.....so, I don't do this much.

ps: I have photos of the Grumbine chuck, if anyone is interested in seeing it.....but, I've come to the conclusion that a vacuum setup is probably the best way to do the foot, when mounting a natural edge bowl for doing the foot...

-o-
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here you go, I added it to the post I already had. Am I going to get in trouble for the links?

New Frugal vacuum system up and running

And another lesson learned...... No matter how bad you want to stick your hand in front of the vacuum chuck just to see how strong it is...... Resist that urge! I didn't have the bearings sealed in yet so it wasn't at maximum but first thought was obviously OUCH! second thought was Wow...
www.aawforum.org www.aawforum.org
 
Red River Gum from Australia.....still wet from D.O. This piece was terrible to sand, as it tore up my disks and sandpaper from catching on the voids. Some really big voids here that don't show up on the photos well, but several went all the way through, and about the size of a quarter.

Edit note: This RRG bowl was kept extra thick.....about 3/8" to 1/2", or so.....because of the voids and cracks. I was afraid to take it thinner, because I feared it might not hold together if I had tried.


-o-

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Vincent Vogel said:
Odie, I would be interested in seeing a picture of the Grumbine chuck you talk about, I've never seen one.
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Here it is, Vincent. The Grumbine chuck makes it possible to do a natural edge bowl, and is do-able......but, if a turner wants to do more than one or two of them, I can see where a vacuum setup would be much more problem free.....other than the overall expense, of course!

The orange rubber ball compresses into the interior of the bowl, and the foot area is exposed for turning the final version of the foot. These photos were taken just after I made this Grumbine chuck, and I have since used a leather strip between the outer plate and the bowl to prevent any marking on the bowl. The long screws make it possible to finish turn the foot on different heights of a bowl, and I believe the maximum width bowl that this chuck can accommodate is 12". A standard large 8" faceplate is used to mount the chuck to the lathe spindle.

The last photo is someone else's Grumbine chuck, and shows a bowl mounted within the chuck. This photo served as my "model" for making mine.

-o-

Grumbine chuck center (2).JPGGrumbine chuck left (2).JPGGrumbine chuck right (2).JPGGrumbine1[1].jpg
 
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odie said:
Here it is, Vincent. The Grumbine chuck makes it possible to do a natural edge bowl, and is do-able......but, if a turner wants to do more than one or two of them, I can see where a vacuum setup would be much more problem free.....other than the overall expense, of course!

The orange rubber ball compresses into the interior of the bowl, and the foot area is exposed for turning the final version of the foot. These photos were taken just after I made this Grumbine chuck, and I have since used a leather strip between the outer plate and the bowl to prevent any marking on the bowl. The long screws make it possible to finish turn the foot on different heights of a bowl, and I believe the maximum width bowl that this chuck can accommodate is 12". A standard large 8" faceplate is used to mount the chuck to the lathe spindle.

The last photo is someone else's Grumbine chuck, and shows a bowl mounted within the chuck. This photo served as my "model" for making mine.

-o-

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It does look like there are a lot of present day items missing in your pictures. Everything is always evolving. "Kaizan" is what it was called when I worked for Mitsubishi. We even had little areas within areas called Kaizan shops to construct our ideas for "constant improvement"
 
Sam Fleisher said:
Another newbie question? Does it stay more stable for when it is dry? My luck I would think it would go out of round so much it would be like how a tenon on the outside ends up. Is it dependent on the wood species or just luck?

**edit**
I just put some more thought into it and I guess it would only work on pretty big bowls or a thin platter because otherwise how would you get to the chuck to tighten it when it's down inside?
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The recess will go out of round, but in most cases, it will still be gripable. Yes, it works well on big bowls. But I still took an extra chuck key and had a machine shop cut it so it’s only about 2 inches long. The regular chuck key won’t work of course.
 
Aaron Harris said:
Wow, that walnut and mulberry especially! Someday I gotta figure out a vacum system. It's hard to re-tru a big/wide piece on a big 20" Longworth chuck that oscillates quite a bit past about 400 rpm. I've had some problematic bottoms over those issues, and then you just have to sand more. Anyway, nice work!
Click to expand...
I can't find in my posts but now I'm thinking what I'm calling mulberry may be an ash bowl. I questioned it because you can't see it in the photo but I have used bronze embellishing wax on it to make the grain pop and I don't think I would have done that with mulberry but you never know. I need to keep better records!
 
Not on the lathe yet, but it will be starting tomorrow. I picked up a couple loads of wood (maple, beech and poplar) and got it chainsawed into blanks today. Tomorrow I will bandsaw them round and then start the rough turning and coring process. With the start of summer vacation, I teach high school science, this is much more enjoyable than my other summer project of painting the house.
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This is the latest one still in progress, perhaps the best way to describe it as a cousin of the previous piece Kirikiri, similar but different and all the details are still be mulled over in the old grey matter. Camphor Laurel, very dry maybe 10 years on the shelf, super soft great to turn.
 

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Charles Cadenhead said:
But Texans pronounce it "Bo-Dark" . Non-Texans pronounce it as "Osage Orange". 😀 Beautiful handles, well done!

I made sure I brought some Bois D'Arc when we moved to Florida.

@Timothy, where in McKinney are you? We used to live on Cheverny Dr. (near Eldorado Pkwy and Hardin Rd.) We really enjoyed living there. You're welcome to DM me to continue this conversation. 🙂
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Us ellenoyans call it a hedge apple tree or just a hedge tree in my neck of the woods anyway.
 
Some Hackberry from a 1 year old log I stored outside on a farm. Like the spalted look but hoping to bleach it a white color somehow, any ideas? Milk paint? Don't care for the yellow tint in the wood.
 

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Another Hickory bowl from the same source. Have 20 logs @4ft. each. Getting lots of practice in. Still roughing out bowls for the past year to get a good inventory for the next year. Running around 120 bowls roughed out so far.
 

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Currently it is this month's challenge at our local woodturners meeting. Have to make something with the bandsaw which is turned hence a
bowl from a board, measures about 14" x 4.5". Made from all scrap material laying around the shop from other projects!

Just finished sanding again and going to put rattle can lacquer as a finish.

Will be posting video on Jim'sWoodpile on YT in the next couple days of the build.

Keep a turning,

Jim

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I'm down to ONE, count 'em ONE, pecan bowl blank. I have a few roughed out bowls in the kiln. This travesty will not stand. Need to find another downed tree.
 
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I am making handle extensions for my chain saw filling jig since as you can see the factory handles are awkward to use. The metal pieces are 16 ga. steel the one shown attached is held by 2 machine screws into tee nuts mounted from the opposite side and the other will be permanently attached with wood screws.
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This is the chuck jig used to hold the blank for turning the handle, the opening is 2" by 3/4" and a cutout of the handle shape.
The wood part of the extension handle is hard maple machined to 3/4" thick by 2" wide with walnut thickeners glued to both sides
 
Just getting caught up after the Louisville symposium. Great seeing everyone’s projects and systems. Good to be back! I fully intended to cleanup and reorganize my shop, and then make some handles…but I couldn’t stay away. This is a piece of rock hard Black Cherry that I’m turning into a base for a project I’m almost done with.
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Thanks Barry! If all goes according to plan I should finish everything tonight. You know how the plan goes though… 😛
 
Butternut once turned natural edge with charred edge since bark fell off. Cored these from one decent piece of wood I had and I think it made a decent nesting. The log laid on the ground for about a year before I got a piece of it and the sapwood was starting to get soft, so not much could be used for natural edge. I made the cores 3/4" thick, next time I'll try 1/2" thick and see what happens. Wall thickness is just a little under 1/4". they will have to dry some before I finish sanding and put finish on.
 

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