None of it is labeled. Looks like a piece of maple, walnut and cedar in there. Not sure on the rest. Only one board has a crack in it. The rest are just small blems that would be turned off anyway. I'm happy with it for the money!
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What’s on your lathe?
- Thread starter Rusty Nesmith
- Start date
Nice Michael! I turned Redwood burl a few years ago and it sure is soft. That Bloodwood looks really nice with the Redwood.
You know... a starter Woodland Mills HM122 log mill is cheaper than a new Harvey T60 ...I had debated getting myself one (Living in firewood country it's fairly easy to get a local log truck to haul a load of poles for under a grand - Firewood logs may not be the best for quality lumber, but for $600 for a truckload of logs which might give a couple thousand board feet of lumber plus a few hundred bowl blanks and spindle blanks, it'd seem pretty cheap, if you don't factor in the backbreaking labor involved in running a HM-122 mill...
Several of these manufacturers have starter mills around $3k. I believe the HF mill is $2,500. A friend of mine has a portable mill with all the bells and whistles. He's selling it, but he wants $15k.
Great idea to stabilize a knot with a pewa. I used CA yesterday and it still blew out, leaving a hole that now is getting colored epoxy.
Well unless you have a branch showing on the surface of the log or a noticeable hump or swirl on the outside there is no way to know what is inside especially as you get closer to the pith. By splitting the log along the pith you can get a slightly better idea of where those grown over knots are.
The Woodmizer that I have was purchased used (1982 model) in 1998 for $6,000.00 slit 50/50 between myself and my brother and that includes power feed and lift for setting the thickness. The mill is used primarily as was intended for milling lumber, but splitting logs for turning was just an added dividend. We have never done any contract milling, but rather only milling for ourselves and friends.
If I was 30 or 40 years younger and had some woodlands, I would want a mill. Watched a few videos about them. One interesting thing is that Woodmizer makes carbide toothed blades that cut like butter for far longer than the bimetal blades do. I did ask once if they made that type of blade for home bandsaws and never got an answer. I would switch to one for my Laguna 16HD bandsaw....
robo hippy
robo hippy
Challenge accepted. Friend gave me a piece of arbutus with a funky knot hole missing in the middle and the challenge was to successfully turn something out of it. First tried to fill the hole with clear epoxy then add some things "island" centric. First couple of pours were no good as the epoxy turned a darkish yellow. Using a dremel cutter bit cleared out the epoxy and the white $hit and went at it. Will try shellac in the hole then clear epoxy plus little beach shells and dried teeny starfish that hopefully are viewable from the bottom and inside views. The 3rd pic shows how the original hole looked except it went clear through the blank. Cracks filled with medium brown CA glue.
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One gentleman's valet dog dish. Of the walnut variety. Does the other one count as a bowl from a board? Because that was what it was from. A thick ash board I was going to use for something else and decided to do a quick thank you bowl out of instead. Hence the mortise bottom. It ended up with nice grain I think.
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Stunning!
13”x 9” walnut vase. Added a coat of sealer to slow drying. Not thrilled with the shape but I like it. Getting better at smoothing the inside, just need to order a negative rake..
I’m beginning to feel someone has to be touched to enjoy basket illusion so much. 10” x 3” Maple bowl.
Finishing up a piece of spalted sweet gum. I was worried it was going to be punky but it was pretty solid. I lucked out.
Note: They can only be resharpened with diamond. That's OK if you resharpen them yourself with something like a Dremel, but most places that do resharpening of bandsaw blade are not kitted out with diamond wheels to do carbide.
The teeth are up near 90 HRA hardness, which means they are very hard and will cut for longer but are also very brittle, so you have to avoid embedded pieces of hard metal like screws or the teeth will shatter. Soft metal like old iron nails are not a problem.
By doing the same things over and over again, one refines the process for doing what one does.....and,
in turn, gains a particular kind of knowledge that is reserved for those who do.
Those who bounce around from one turning discipline to another, will not benefit from this very refined
evolutionary process.
It is that which defines what is important about how you do what you do, rather than any single example
of what you did.
-o-
Big Leaf Maple burl bowl finished last evening:
Mulberry bowl, 8" x 3.5". Tried and True Original finish.
Bunch of waste walnut, apple and maple all glued up and waiting to be turned.
A white ash vase hollowed with my Trent Bosch hollowing rig. Total length is 12”, diameter is 7 1/2”. Wood was harvested from a large tree that was brought down by the local power company a few years ago on the property of a neighborhood hospital, and left in the woods. I’ll be able to go back to it for some time as it is lying with a good portion of it off the ground. This piece is still drying and I’d love to come up with a finish that gives it a bit of shine, but preserves the color.
A quick hair stick for my wife. With such long hair she often puts it up and when I see her using a pencil it means she perhaps doesn’t have enough hair sticks sitting around. Ten minutes later she has one ( forgot to take a photo while it was still on the lathe.
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Tempting fate with this mulberry burl. I’ll smooth out the curve of the profile and start hollowing tomorrow…and hope it stays in one piece 😅
Looks like it would, maybe wrap with clear plastic or tape. Post your progress, very interested in seeing this.
It’s pretty solid right now, but I plan on going thin, so we’ll see. A little gaffers tape may help a bit. I’ll keep y’all posted 👍🏻
I had request for some large salad and center piece bowls so this is a17-1/4” ambrosia maple that should have been 17-1/2” but had a lot of tear out on the ambrosia area. I can usually shear cut that out or use a freshly sharped gouge to cut it out. But three very sharp Thompson gouges didn’t do it this time.
I remembered Mike Mahoney saying he sometimes has to put some walnut oil on that area and shear cut/scrap to get it out. So first time I tried that and it really worked great. So I guess he wasn’t just trying to sell more walnut oil after all😂.
I have round 8 this size to do plus several 16” and 15”. I sell a lot more 10-14” bowls but lately people have been wanting larger bowls.
I think I will make the thickness around 3/8” since I think larger bowls need to be a little thicker.
Edit: Unfortunately some of the ambrosia was cut out on the inside.
I remembered Mike Mahoney saying he sometimes has to put some walnut oil on that area and shear cut/scrap to get it out. So first time I tried that and it really worked great. So I guess he wasn’t just trying to sell more walnut oil after all😂.
I have round 8 this size to do plus several 16” and 15”. I sell a lot more 10-14” bowls but lately people have been wanting larger bowls.
I think I will make the thickness around 3/8” since I think larger bowls need to be a little thicker.
Edit: Unfortunately some of the ambrosia was cut out on the inside.
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A little cedar natural edge bowl has been hanging out on my lathe all week while I look for my round tuit.
Took a chunk of magnolia and made this little hollow form, 5 3/4 inch diameter and 3 1/2 inch height, 1 1/2 inch opening and less than 1/4 inch thickness. No finish yet and needs a bit more sanding. Trying to get consistent on wall thickness, smoothness internally, and a smaller opening. Happy it didn’t blow up.
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A while ago a friend brought over a piece of burl. Most of it was past the expiration date but I did manage to make him a little box.
When I called to take it to him and he told me to bring my chainsaw with me. He has offered me to cut a burl from his woods for some time. I think this is the nicest piece of burl I have ever had. I hope to get a core or two from it. I think it is elm.
When I called to take it to him and he told me to bring my chainsaw with me. He has offered me to cut a burl from his woods for some time. I think this is the nicest piece of burl I have ever had. I hope to get a core or two from it. I think it is elm.
Not on the lathe yet.
Helped out at a lumber mill. He is milling up and giving me three cherry trees for payment on fixing his tractor.
Figured I could at least help.
First load. The other two trees are still out in a field. He says he has an apple tree also if I want it.
Log was a little over 4 foot long. Got 3-4 and 5 inch thick pieces. It was cut down about 3 years ago.
Helped out at a lumber mill. He is milling up and giving me three cherry trees for payment on fixing his tractor.
Figured I could at least help.
First load. The other two trees are still out in a field. He says he has an apple tree also if I want it.
Log was a little over 4 foot long. Got 3-4 and 5 inch thick pieces. It was cut down about 3 years ago.
Osage orange will be on my lathe this winter. Had a short 4 foot log sawn this week. Typical Osage though, had to cut out all the voids, cracks, bark inclusions and the like. Some of these will be rough-turned and dried, others will be dried as is and turned in the coming years. 
Wrap with blue painter's tape, then wrap with duck tape. That makes easy to remove.
Hollowed ✅
Wanted a solid base, so shortened the height a bit. I’ll finish the bottom and sand the exterior this weekend.
Cherry measured out at 30 % moisture so I roughed out a bowl to 3/4 inch walls and bottom. Will wait to see if microwave will bring it down to our usual 9 or 10.
Looks great. How thick do you leave the hollow form for second turning, do you use the 10% like bowls?
Exactly. Haven’t made many. Sometimes I’ll rough turn and then microwave so I can finish turn sooner.
5 x 3 apple wood box. Started with a 5 inch diameter branch. Happy with the top and middle but the bottom had to many defects and is now to small! Going to try the same shape in cherry or maple later.
That should keep you busy for a while. What is the wood in this last picture? Is that the apple? If it's cherry, it's the strangest cherry I've ever seen.
I'm working on my hollowing. I grabbed this piece off the shelf. It was sitting next to some elm, which is what I was going for. It turned out to be a mulberry blank. 6" x 2.5". Finished with shellac. I was inspired to try shellac after seeing Jaramiah's pieces. Mine didn't turn out as well. I use a 1# cut of shellac. I brushed it on with a fine brush with the lathe turning at 80 RPMs. I still got pooling and runs on the shellac. @Jaramiah Severns, would you share your shellac application technique?
I also made a couple of funnels yesterday. 🤬
