Woodturning

Bowl from a log

August, 2011

A half log of ash was produced by splitting a whole log with a wedge and sledge hammer.

Half log was cut to size and a 3/8″hole drilled for the wormwood screw

It was mounted on the lathe and the center of balance found by inserting the live center tail stock in the bark and turning slowly to find the best center position. Then it was dismounted, the wormwood screw removed temporarily, and piece of shingle was nailed in the position of the indent created by the live center.

Cut to a round blank on the band saw using a piece of shingle as a constant radius guide.

Here it is half done

and then completed.

The wormwood screw was re-inserted

The bowl blank was mounted by the woodworm screw in the 4 jaw chuck.

I turned it to the desired shape, chiseled off the bark;

Remounted it and sanded the outside by hand running through the grits from 50-80-100-120-150-180-220 and then 3M superfine and microfine sanding pads to a polished surface.

After turning the tenon (which I wish I had spent a little more time on at this point), I
reverse mounted the piece in the 4 jaw chuck and start scooping out the inside (with the new bowl gouge) using the live center tail stock to stabilize it little.
That turned out to be a mistake,

because I got a catch on the resulting tenon and had to spend some time cleaning that up.
So I removed the tail stock and turned off the tenon inside and here is the final result.
(At this point I sanded the inside running through same the grits as above.)

I reverse mounted the bowl on the jam chuck (using green Scotchbrite for friction to hold it.)
(You can see the reflection in the polished surface in this photo; very smooth.)

I made an indent and then turned off the tenon with a skew chisel.

While turning off the tenon, as it got very small, I got a catch and the bowl went flying, hitting the tool rest on the way across the shop.
I thought for sure the bowl was going to crack in half , but it didn’t. And there were no chips out of the rim and only two little marks on the outside. I used a chisel and 50 grit sandpaper to clean up the inside of the bottom. You can’t quite see the catch (gouge) in photo of the bottom.

Nice grain and smooth finish but not as smooth as the beech bowl I did earlier since ash is open grained, like red oak. I think it will need some kind of finish.

I don’t like the Beeswax+linseed oil mix – too smelly.
Maybe orange oil, which I have lying around.
I’ve tried olive oil and candle wax on one piece.

Finally … I’ve got a decent real sized bowl under my belt. This one is 8″ in diameter.

September 5, 2011

A Box

I started with a firewood log (very well seasoned – that, of course, made it difficult to cut).

Turned it into a cylinder with a tenon at each end and cut it into two pieces 1/3 from the top with a hacksaw. Cut a lip in the bottom and hollowed it out. And then mounted the top in the chuck and cut a recess in the top whose inside diameter just matched the OD of the lip on the bottom half. The top fits snugly.

I won’t bore you with all the details (mainly ’cause I didn’t photograph each step this time).

The interesting shape (not intentional) at both the top and bottom is because I got several catches and had to cut them out.
That turned out to be good because the original shape was somewhat unimaginative – no loss.

It was sanded on the lathe. Haven’t decided how to finish it yet.

I couldn’t tell what kind of wood it was when I started. But it’s very hard and now looks like white oak (i.e. the grain is filled). It could be some other kind of oak as well. But it’s not red oak, tho.

This looks darker in real life, so I imagine it will show some good grain etc when I finish it.

August 31, 2011

When I got the 3/8″ Sorby fingernail bowl gouge, I tried it out on this piece first. Big difference.

Started from a half log from the firewood pile on the front porch

Mounted between centers etc etc … catches and gouges and …

… hiatus …

After I got the fingernail bowl gouge, I finished it up.

fingernail bowl gouge and rescued bowl

turned but not sanded

To finish the bottom, I used a jam chuck. The jam chuck was turned out of a small maple log by turning it round, cutting a tenon in one end and rounding over the other end. The tenon end is mounted in the 4 jaw chuck and the other end receives the inside of the bowl. I used a square patch of green ScotchBrite to provide friction between the jam chuck and the piece to be turned.

Jam Chuck

bowl mounted on the jam chuck showing ScotchBrite

Turning the bottom using the jam chuck

This bowl was hand sanded after dismounting it … not the way to do it.

Should have sanded while it was on the lathe and in the 4 jaw chuck.
Minutes vs. hours.

Finished with boiled linseed oil and beeswax (too smelly and not food safe)

August, 2011

Very small beech bowl (4" dia.)

This was rescued out of the trash bin after I had created multiple spiral gouges in the surface and nearly destroyed the tenon using a spindle gouge. This was finished with the 3/8" fingernail bowl gouge for the outside and inside. Used the jam chuck for the bottom.

It was sanded on the lathe running through all the grits. It is very smooth and highly polished with no finish – yet. Closed-grain.

First small bowl.

August 20, 2011

First little bowl

This was turned from a piece of unidentified fruit wood, probably apple. It is rough turned to allow shrinkage during drying. It has already warped into an interesting shape. After it dries, I’ll turn it again to make it a little deeper and make the wall thinner. This has been rubbed with olive oil and candle wax.

I’ve decided not to re-turn this bowl. Want to keep as a reminder of where I started.