Thanks!
None of those methods -- domed back. I don't have a vacuum chuck.
I think you're thinking of Douglas Fisher
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What’s on your lathe?
- Thread starter Rusty Nesmith
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None of those methods -- domed back. I don't have a vacuum chuck.
I think you're thinking of Douglas Fisher
Alder.🙂
Tom Gall
TOTW Team
Thanks, Robert ... that's the guy. I've made a several of those using a domed back but I used a vacuum chuck. So, what is your attachment method ... double sided tape, hot melt glue? I can't see using the tailstock to apply pressure/friction because it would be in the way. Thanks in advance for your reply.
second turning for this—finally dry. Thought it was walnut but I’m guessing bocote, one coat of polymerized tung oil.
And a rough turning for a 8 inch diameter blank of myrtle
And a rough turning for a 8 inch diameter blank of myrtle
tell me more. Fascinating.
Yes, please - perhaps some pictures. I'm always interested in methods of work holding.
Cheers.
Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!
Tom Gall
TOTW Team
Doesn't look like any Bocote I've ever seen, but I can't offer a guess as to what it is either. We'll have to wait for Leo to chime in! 🙂
These are fun but they make a mess.
Tailstock. I haven't found it to be in the way, even with an 8-9" diameter -- I'm just not that close to the live center. I also prefer spindle gouges with short handles -- for me a 3/8 an 8" handle is getting long. It may also that may be in part what lathe you are using. Profiles of tailstocks on various full-size lathes can vary widely for accessibility. Of all the large lathes I've used, the Laguna 1836 had the least obstructions. The 3520C tailstock is aggravating on many scores -- I did the demo this morning on one and I've taught many classes on 3520s (B and C). I wouldn't trust either double-sided tape or hot melt glue alone -- I'd pull up the tailstock for those too. I tend to prefer that the blank can slip a bit -- it mitigates possible catches and is no more likely to let the blank escape. I do a lot of multiaxis turning, so slippage can be useful.
@robo hippy I heard that Brian Havens passed sway. Do you know if that is true or not? Just wondering because I loved his videos.
Kevin Jesequel
TOTW Team
Both of those look like walnut to me. The “root” (or very low on the trunk) can be very dense and becomes hard when dry). This is Bocote:
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I read that Brian Havens and his wife were killed in a car accident several years ago
On another thread the subject was large square bowls but I don't remember if I ever tried any size square bowl, so I looked in my stock of dry lumber. I had a cut off from some red oak that I had milled from some questionable or should I say low quality saw logs. I used the best parts for stair treads and I had one length of clear milled down to 1 3/8" thick X 8" wide that yielded 3 8 X 8 blanks. The results are below third, second and first.
The third one became a little smaller to get a cleaner edge by unscrewing from the wood worm screw and the trimming all 4 edges at the table saw.
The third one became a little smaller to get a cleaner edge by unscrewing from the wood worm screw and the trimming all 4 edges at the table saw.
I had not heard that Brian had passed away. His straw idea was most excellent! I will use it for demonstrating bowl turning for as long as I am alive and turning.
robo hippy
robo hippy
Looks like Claro Walnut to me. Beautiful.
Just a few examples of the steps I used to make my table lamp to wall lampconversion. The 1st pic is the process used to make the vertical member to hold the lamp and the second and 3rd show the final assembly less the lamp and wiring. The horizontal members are held on with 25x6mm thread (just because I could) and the wire shown was used to pull the wire actually attached to the lamp base through the wall mount. The wire with the plug attached was brought in through a hole to the left in the picture then the 2 ends were spliced with butt splices then held in place with insulated wire staples. The finished lamp is pictured on the members gallery.
Forgot to take a photo before popping it out of the jam chuck. Roughed out a new idea for a pendant for a necklace… playing with random width ribs and intentionally tapered the 2nd and 3rd ribs in opposing directions to see how that looked. I’d place a small hole in the top center and install a stainless ring with a delicate chain rather than the heavy black cord I used for the earlier pendants…
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Worked on finishing a quilted maple bowl last evening.....past midnight.....again! 🙂
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Hi Odie. How to you attach the base of the bowl to your waste block? What type of adhesive do you use?
Howdy Paul.....I'm using Titebond III, but any of the Titebond glues will work fine.
For attaching the base of the bowl to the wasteblock, I have a homemade glue press. It's a regular bearing press where I've removed the hydraulic jack, and replaced it with a large screw. I prefer the hands-on physical connection with the screw over the original hydraulic jack....plus you can be guaranteed the pressure applied will not change during the drying time.
I'll look for a pic of my glue press to show you....
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Tom Gall
TOTW Team
Love the lug wrench crank handle!!! 😀
Thanks for the reply! So I see you turned the inside of the bowl before you put the glue block on?
Unseasoned bowls are roughed out, using faceplate for outside, and then using a chuck gripping a tenon for removing the interior.
Then bowls are prepared with full coverage anchorseal.....if over 14% MC.
Bowls are then seasoned by weight until stabilized for a minimum of 3 months without change in weight.....sometimes longer, depending on the season of the year. (Usually longer during the winter months, or when I decide more time is necessary, or appropriate.)
Seasoned bowls are then mounted to waste blocks and second, or finish turned. @Paul May , this is the point where you see the above bowl in post #2382, and this is where I normally turn the outside first, and then the interior. Because finish turning the interior usually results in some additional warpage, resulting from the wall thickness becoming much thinner.....and warpage a major contributor to loss of geometric integrity.
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@odie. thread drift—if weight is stable a week or a month, do they ever then lose more weight? In other words, if stable a month—or even a week—isn’t that enough time to wait? I’m curious—and impatient waiting for wet wood to dry.
Awesome reply! Thanks!
Walnut 8.5” square 2” tall. I turned it to 1/4” thick. It has one coat of walnut oil.
@Alan Weinberg.....I'll try to make things clear for you, but maybe I'll only be muddying the waters! 🙂
We all are impatient for waiting on roughed bowls to become stabilized......and, the one and only thing that will help in this matter....is to have plenty of roughed bowls in progress at any one time. That way, you've got lots of things you can throw on your lathe at any given time......without having to wait for that one bowl you are feeling impatient for. 🙂
I believe that some turners will consider a stable weight for a roughed bowl over a period of a week, or a month, to be satisfactory for the second turn. I do not subscribe to this, but in some cases, this may actrually be enough time to call it good. The very minimum standard I will use, is 3 months without loss of weight. (Sometimes a very little loss, or even a little gain in weight can be seen.....and, I consider a few grams of weight loss (or gain) to still be "unchanged", and applicable to the 3-month time frame standard. (When there is a very small weight gain, then many times it's the result of rainy weather, or significant snow.)
The thing to understand is judging when a roughed bowl is stabilized, is absolutely an IMPERFECT SCIENCE. One piece of wood may react entirely different under the same set of circumstances as another.....So, when we make generalized rules, it should be understood that these rules cover most sets of circumstances, for most species, and types of woods.....but certainly not ALL roughed bowls undergoing the seasoning process will be covered by these rules. With that in mind, you need to apply a little intuition, if you're going to call a roughed bowl to be stable after a week, or even a month. My 3 month rule covers a lot of ground when determining the point when reaching stability occurs, simply because time is the one factor that eliminates a myriad of unforgiving possibilities. I should also mention that during my Montana fall, winter, and spring months, I lengthen it out to 4, or even 5 months of stable weights for many wood species that traditionally lose moisture at a slower pace than other species.....and, it should be understood that lower climatical temperatures means a slower loss of moisture content.
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A white oak platter, first turned July 2021. 15” x 3. Somehow very near some crotch , with two feather areas.
Because of the movement, the diameter lost about 2”. Even with the reduction, the area near the rim was getting a bit thin. If I had created the outside curve as one single curve the piece would have been too thin for its purpose. The inside curve I settled on allowed me to smoothly increase thickness to something more comfortable. 1/4 near the rim, gradually thickening to just about 3/8.
It got the first coat of tried and true varnish oil, thinned 2 to 3 with turpentine. I find this sets finish deeper , although increases drying time by a lot. The oak, sanded to 2000 really glows which I hope to show in the studio pictures.
Because of the movement, the diameter lost about 2”. Even with the reduction, the area near the rim was getting a bit thin. If I had created the outside curve as one single curve the piece would have been too thin for its purpose. The inside curve I settled on allowed me to smoothly increase thickness to something more comfortable. 1/4 near the rim, gradually thickening to just about 3/8.
It got the first coat of tried and true varnish oil, thinned 2 to 3 with turpentine. I find this sets finish deeper , although increases drying time by a lot. The oak, sanded to 2000 really glows which I hope to show in the studio pictures.
Little Fava Amargosa calabash, just under 1.25” diameter. This is a very interesting, very hard, yet porous wood. I made a couple of mallet heads years ago, before I started turning. I had a couple of small cutoffs left over, so threw them in the “future use” bin. Most of the time those scraps never get seen again. Lol. BUT I managed to actually use one to make this little bowl. Here is the calabash, as well as a bonus pic of the two father-son mallets I made.
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With the recent threads on turning square bowls, I renewed my interest in a project I had been putting off for many months, so finally made use of those 12" x 6" x 2" or so offcuts I'd gotten in an "assorted box of offcuts" deal... Key points: they have to be cut precisely square and glued up perfectly (on faces flattened first on my planer) to get a perfect (or nearly so) cube.. Most of the time spent was in getting it perfectly positioned to cut the initial tenons.. This is after day #3 of careful cutting - Stopped at this point because I started to feel a little tired, and as we all know, it isn't good to try to keep going when you start feeling tired... But when it is done, Should have a fairly nice, slightly less than 5-3/8" 6-pointed bowl... 
Five nesting walnut and ash laminate bowls, just finished the last one.
I was trying to figure out how to avoid waste without a coring system.
I used one 12”x12” laminate of ash and walnut to make the five rings I laminated for the bowl blanks and a 2” walnut piece was glued on the bottom of each blank for the bowl bottoms.
This was a long difficult process. I cut out the rings for the three largest bowls on my bandsaw because I was getting nowhere using my saber saw. These rings were then glued back together but those junctions introduced areas on the inside and outside of each bowl that chipped out easily. Lots of fixing cracks with ca glue and filling voids with five minute 2 part epoxy.
It was a good experiment, but one I won’t repeat with this many layers.
I was trying to figure out how to avoid waste without a coring system.
I used one 12”x12” laminate of ash and walnut to make the five rings I laminated for the bowl blanks and a 2” walnut piece was glued on the bottom of each blank for the bowl bottoms.
This was a long difficult process. I cut out the rings for the three largest bowls on my bandsaw because I was getting nowhere using my saber saw. These rings were then glued back together but those junctions introduced areas on the inside and outside of each bowl that chipped out easily. Lots of fixing cracks with ca glue and filling voids with five minute 2 part epoxy.
It was a good experiment, but one I won’t repeat with this many layers.
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That's cool, Brian! I'm looking forward to seeing the final piece. Maybe you could post it here on the forum somewhere. Would be a perfect candidate for your long-overdue inaugural gallery post 😉
You are the king of calabash. Beautiful work.