help with bowl turning

[tyb525]

DH, Are you talking about natural-edge bowls?

[Fla._Deadheader]

I'm not.  : :

  I have seen oblong turned bowls. Like taking a limb and turning the center of it, so you have a hollowed out limb, something like a canoe ???

[metalspinner]

I've seen a video clip of a picture frame shop turning oval frames. That was their specialty. It was really cool.  I will try to hunt down the video to get more specific info.

Edit...

Here is a link to a fella that made his own oval lathe...

http://www.ovalturnlathe.com/index.html

[turningfool]

how goes the battle with the lathe dana..should i drive up some nice day?

[Dana]

T.F. I haven't turned anything since making starting this post. We have lost a lot of our snow and I've been doing outside work. The other day I was going to work on turning a bowl again but had left the blank inside the house and it had dried enough to check all the way through the entire blank.

[turningfool]

been down that road disappointing taint it :-\

[Dana]

been down that road disappointing taint it :-\

Yes it is. What are the methods used to keep this from happening? The same as with lumber, preparing the ends with paint, anchor seal or ?

[Lud]

Anchorseal any endgrain after cutting a blank.  Cut a bunch and give them a few months.  Rough out a few to a thick wall and seal those and let them dry for a few months.  Cut chuck sockets a little big to allow for shrinkage.

Think about possible drying closets/rooms you could arrange.   have fun.  Haven't met a woman yet who does'nt like wood bowls.  

[turningfool]

all depends..if i'm in a hurry to dry a blank ,i use pentacryl..if not than as lud mentioned anchorseals the way to go.but both methods are for green wood,dont know how either would fare on heavily spalted woods as the moisture contents is screwy,nearly dry here and saturated there type of thing

[CHARLIE]

Right or wrong, here is how I turn a bowl.  I do use a 4 jaw chuck.
1) Cut several circles of 1/4" hardboard.  A 4 inch, 6 inch, 8 inch, 10 inch and 12 inch diameters with a sheet metal screw dead center.
2) Place chunk of log on bandsaw table with barkside up and flat, sawn side down. Screw the appropriate sized circle of hardboard into the bark. Use the circle as a guide to cut the half log into a round bowl blank. Keep your hands out of the bandsaw blade! Don't ask me why I know this.
3) Put bowl blank between centers, true it up. Take small cuts until it's running true and smooth. Then rough shape the outside of your bowl and cut a tenon on the bottom. Continut to work on the shape of the bowl until it is close to finished.
4) Transfer to your 4 jaw chuck clamping it firmly by the tenon. Finish turning the outside of the bowl and sand it nice and smooth.
5) Remove wood from the center of the bowl blank and work your way to the edge and deeper with each cut. Take your time.  Keep the inside curve the same as the outside curve.
6) Use a homemade depth measuring stick to make sure you don't turn through the bottom of the bowl. Sand very smooth.  I finish most of my bowls on the lathe and apply a finish to all but the bottom at this point. But you can wait and finish the bowl off the lather too.
7) Remove bowl from chuck. Fasten a disk of wood that will fit the bottom of your bowl to a 1 inch dowel. Put the dowel into your 4 jaw chuck and true up the disk. Glue some rubber from an old mouse pad onto the disk.
8 ) Put the inside of the bowl against the padded disk and move the tailpiece up to the center of the bottom (You should still have the center hole there from when you were turning between centers).  Tighten up the tailpiece to hold the bowl tight against the padded disk. Turn on the lathe and check if the bowl is running true. If not turn off lathe, move bowl a little and try again until bowl is running true.
9) Start turning the bottom except for the nub (about 1/2 inch) that the tailpiece is against.  Sand bottom smooth. Remove bowl from lathe.
10) Use a chisel and cut the 1/2" nub off the bottom a little proud of it. Use chisel to carefully shave a little more wood off and then sand smooth to match the rest of the bottom. You now have a bowl.

[CHARLIE]

If I were to use a faceplate. I'd do steps 1, 2 and 3 above.  When I turned the tenon, I'd turn it the same size as the chuck and turn a nub of wood in the center of the tenon that would fit snug into the center hole of the faceplate. Remove the bowl shaped blank from the lathe and slip the center hole of the faceplate over the nub of wood. That easily assures you that your faceplate is dead center. Then screw the faceplate to the bottom of the tenon. Wnen finished hollowing out the bowl and finish sanding it, remove bowl from the lathe, take the faceplate off and proceed with steps 7 through 10 from above instructions.

Everyone has their own method but that is mine.

[turningfool]

I opted for the recess yesterday when i turned this quilted maple hollow form,it gives it a more finished appearance in my opinion,and it can all be done on the lathe vs hand sanding and finishing after parting off the tenon





..HAPPY TURNING

[CHARLIE]

TF, that is some mighty purty maple.

[turningfool]

charlie..i'll agree with you there butt ugly on the stump but pretty awesome looking inside

[Burlkraft]

Awesome wood and nice turning TF   8)  8)  8)

[turningfool]

ty,burlcraft..dana..any progress on the lathe project?

[Burlkraft]

I was turnin' a bit today. Shudda stayed in the house.    : :    I glued up some real purdy but check challenged blanks for a special Turn And Burn project.


If I had a stove in my shop like Pigman they wudda become heat  :D :D :D

[CHARLIE]

I know those type of days well. Some days when things just ain't goin' well, I shut everything down, lock the shop and go do something else.  I've found that when the stars ain't lined up right and the moon is out of phase, there just ain't no use doing any woodworking. 

[Dana]

I roughed out an Elm limb yesterday. Didn't have time to do more than that.

[tyb525]

TF, I only have a picture of one of my bowls on here. One of my first, it's pretty simple.

[fishpharmer]

Wow, some nice looking work here.  I gotta stay away from this thread.  Makes me wanna start a new hobby.  Ty you have many talents for such a young fella.  Stick with it.  You gonna be great ;D

[CHARLIE]

Very nice job on that bowl Ty!  Nice finish too.  Looks like Box Elder, only guessing though.  I wish I had started turning when I was 17.  I missed out on a whole lot of years of fun.

[tyb525]

It's marblewood. I wouldn't ordinarily use an exotic wood, but this was done for a lady that wanted a bowl made with an exotic wood, and marblewood was what she chose. It turned very good, and I was able to get a very smooth finish on it.

Fish and Charlie, thank you I like to have my hands in everything. :D

Turningfool, I remember you posted a picture of some snakewood logs you got, have you done anything with them yet?

Dana, make sure you get some pictures up! I always like to see others work.

[CHARLIE]

Ty, I've turned a few exotic woods but I turn mostly domestic woods for 3 reasons.

1. It's plentiful and free.
2. I've seen some beautiful grains that rival any exotics.
3. It's free
l

[turningfool]

great looking bowl tyb,and charlies right domestics are the best ,tried two snakwood bowls thus far and they checked immediately,so sold the rest of it on ebay...lol someday i'll learn to use backyard woods exclusivley