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What’s on your lathe?
- Thread starter Rusty Nesmith
- Start date
Nice @Vincent Vogel . What system did you use? A coring setup is on my bucket list this summer
Well @Barry Larson …best laid plans and all, I finished the base, but in the end it just didn’t match the heart. Sometimes things look better in your head than they do in reality. I spent a lot of time on it, and then spent a lot of time staring at it with the heart attached. Ultimately I have to go with my gut and NOT use this base. I’ll save it for something else, and go back to square 1 for the heart base. A little sad, but I think a good decision. So it goes! Here is what the base ended up looking like:
Hi Michael. Pretty nice piece of wood. I agree though sometimes best to start afresh if the original idea doesn't pan out. I'm pretty sure that this base will look fabulous under the right piece - you just have to find it. I get flowing water vibes from the grain, but that might be because I am trying to design a base for a piece myself that has a water connotation - haven't come up with anything worth committing wood to yet though.
Be safe and stay well.
Barry
Be safe and stay well.
Barry
Jim McLain
Artist
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
- Messages
- 8,993
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- 5,486
- Location
- Lakeland, Florida
- Website
- www.hockenberywoodturning.com
You have a lot of terrific ideas that do work for you.
When I have time I do a mock up to determine size proportion’s etc. even helps with deciding how to Mount a piece.
I’m guessing you could have turned the basic profile in a piece of green wood you have laying around in less than 15 minutes.
No need to sand or do elaborate carving. I sometime tape paper cutouts of carvings to get the size and layout
Then you can see how it looks.
If I did it on a screw center I can do more turning cut pieces off with the bandsaw…
Can play with colors too.
Quick and dirty can guide me to where I want to invest time and use wood.
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Not on the lathe yet but I can guarantee it will be very shortly. My supplier found a box elder that had a little bit of colour in it! Not sure how much of the red will last, but I’m going to experiment. My theory is that it will fade more if the bowl is kiln dried. We will see.
@Michael Anderson, I bought a used woodcut two blade system. I wanted the oneway system and was going to build parts of it and buy the knives as I needed the different sizes. The woodcut came available for a lot less than a new one and for a 15" swing lathe it works fine, I can make bowls from 12" od to 4" od with it which means I can start with a 15" blank and start taking the 12" core first. Also I have a fair amount of wood to core and I wanted to get started on it. My lathe is 1 1/2 hp and a 12" cut is about all it wants the ones 10" and smaller it handles with no sweat. If I were buying new I would probably stick with my original plan of the oneway because of the versatility, but the woodcut does a good job. I don't know what size or hp your lathe is but you can gauge it from this.
Thanks Al @hockenbery
All good advice. I especially like the idea of paper cutouts to gauge size and proportions.
I do find I’m most successful when I draw my base ideas ahead of time. Takes longer to plan, but it’s sure quicker than turning/carving from a mental plan. Prototyping is smart too. And Its a good way to eat through the less desirable greenwood sitting around. Good call.
Thanks again for the thoughtful response.
Also @Vincent Vogel thanks a lot for the information. That’s really helpful.
All good advice. I especially like the idea of paper cutouts to gauge size and proportions.
I do find I’m most successful when I draw my base ideas ahead of time. Takes longer to plan, but it’s sure quicker than turning/carving from a mental plan. Prototyping is smart too. And Its a good way to eat through the less desirable greenwood sitting around. Good call.
Thanks again for the thoughtful response.
Also @Vincent Vogel thanks a lot for the information. That’s really helpful.
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And another walnut. Frisbee maybe? It's so thin walled I'm afraid if it gets dropped it will be finished. As in many pieces. Kind of like how the red one from #761 post ended up. Didn't like how the inside turned out on it and just one more cut. Famous last words. (and if you notice I borrowed a page from Odie's playbook. paper bowl. I assume to throw away)
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Oh yeah, this is very colourful stuff! Box elder turns so nicely. Besides the red stain, there’s lots of golden colour too. Plan to get a Oneway hollowing system soon and I’m looking forward to trying it out on this wood. The only drawback is a slightly pungent odour.
I've turned a fair amount of Box Elder. Initially the reds can be magnificent. Unfortunately they fade with time.
Bit of an up date as it progresses, sometimes I have a hard time getting the vision out of my head and into reality. So the pondering is still going and I will probably have sit down with the sketch pad and go through it a few times. I'm away this long weekend down the coast so pack the sketch pad. We have a few more public holidays down here than perhaps in the USA . This weekend is the Kings birthday long weekend, thanks charlie 
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Exactly.
Tom, my wife has a boxelder salad bowl that I turned for her in 2013. ( I don't have a great memory -the date is on the bottom of the bowl.) She uses it most nights. The reds are still beautiful because she puts the salad bowls in a cabinet after we wash them. UV light breaks down the reds.
Larry,
If you use this bowl for dailey use what finish did you use and how do you maintain it ?
Thanks, Vince
If you use this bowl for dailey use what finish did you use and how do you maintain it ?
Thanks, Vince
Vincent, I think I was using Velvet Oil back then. It has never been refinished. We only wash it with water, dish towel it dry and put it in the cabinet.
Larry
Larry
I thought you guys had gone independent.
Today is a glue up day. Not turning but prepping some blanks for future projects (yes, I wiped off the glue after the picture).
Picked up 4 large chunks of sycamore yesterday. Haven't decided how to cut these up into blanks yet. Will get them moved to the shop and anchorseal'd at a minimum today.
Remember the renowned panel talking about Al Miotke’s base at the IG critique in Louisville, lol!! Actually some good information!
Just rough turning the last piece of walnut cut in Sep 2022 that sat to long so I lost that cream colored sap wood. The roughed out form is about 6" diameter by 6" high and is turned from the full round including the pith in the base. The rough turn is a good place to practice shear scrapping and the micrometer demonstrates the fine cut possible. The shavings on the turning are from the shear scrapping and the one barely visible in the micrometer 1 is probably compressed some so 1 - 10,000 (0.0001) thick is a good guess since the reading indicates less than half thou ( 0.001).
Monty, sycamore/plane trees have spectacular medullary ray patterns, which means you have to quarter saw your blanks. For bowls, the center of the tree should be the bottom. Most of the time, the colors are rather bland, but the ray patterns can make the bland spectacular!
robo hippy
robo hippy
I started to process some English Walnut and a piece of flaming Manitoba Maple (I think that sounds better than Boxelder ).
The piece in front and four others are crotch pieces. I have them cut in half and ends coated with Anchorseal. Hopefully they will be on the lathe soon.
).The piece in front and four others are crotch pieces. I have them cut in half and ends coated with Anchorseal. Hopefully they will be on the lathe soon.
One down 3 to go....
And......(drumroll) guess what, another walnut bowl. And after yesterdays lesson of practice practice practice, every cut was as fine as I could get them with my bowl scraper. Took forever and the work station looked like a haunted house set with lot's of cob webs. And a gratuitous bowl shot. (paper bowl) Do you use them for the same reason I started using them after seeing them on your lathe Odie? I figure less chance of spontaneous combustion when I take them outside and put them in the incinerator. (55 gallon drum) aka burning barrel.
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was that the big one laying at the back of your truck?
That was one of the two "small" ones. The big one is a crotch section that I'm going to try to get a 20" blank out of.
Working on calabash shaping today. This is a piece of water oak.
I went into my loft to weigh the 2 urn forms I posted on the 11th and they both lost about 30 grams each then I spotted a walnut bowl that had been rough turned on 2-4-2012 so I decided that must be dry by now. The tenon on the bowl measured 4" linear by 3 3/4 inches and I usually make the tenon 3-3/4" so I found center then turned 1/4" off the linear (end grain), trued up the outside, shear scrapped it, took it off of the friction drive, mounted it on the tenon and it ran almost perfectly true.
Used a piece of ebony to darken the ring. Wasn't sure if it is the real deal or not. Came from an early 1800's piano and it made it shiny which wasn't expected. It wore away pretty fast too,
It didn't get a perfect coverage so I did help it with a sharpie but it was shiny like that before I did that, just the end grain didn't cover the same.
It didn't get a perfect coverage so I did help it with a sharpie but it was shiny like that before I did that, just the end grain didn't cover the same.
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Although not on the lathe, these handles were on the lathe yesterday - well.the lathe tool handles were on the lathe a week or two ago. Just putting on a bit of Danish oil for finish. Two handles for lathe chisels I purchased without. A couple of work holders (drill chucks with turned handles). Great for helping to grip things like pin vices and also handy for holding a bit to drill a hole for depth reference on the lathe. The last handle is for a small awl my dad made years ago, likely because he needed one and didn't have one handy. Made from a small rat tailed file it originally had a piece of hard rubber hose epoxied on for a handle. No real value except sentiment - a good reason to make the handle out of a small piece of figured walnut!
Cheers.
Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!
Cheers.
Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!
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A good friend gifted me this piece of Japanese Apricot, which I decided to do as a ‘once turned’. Fruit wood is so fun to turn, and this apricot as fun as any. Such close grain, silky smooth texture. It’s 10” x 5. The walls are 1/4” except for the very top which is just a bit wider, enough for a shadow line and slight undercut.
wish my shop dog acted like that. he gets nervous around music. must be my selection. Awesome bowl too! Will it keep that color?
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Sam, my original supply of these paper bowls was to microwave a couple eggs in the morning....works great for that, too!
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Red Amboyna burl from Thailand.....
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That is such a nice color. Please post a finished picture when you are done
Well, not wood, but a big improvement nonetheless. Upgraded my focused light setup a bit (a lot). Out with the old, in with the new.
Edit: working on a new base for a lathe-turned heart. This one fits the style much better:
Edit: working on a new base for a lathe-turned heart. This one fits the style much better:
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