Post a photo of the last thing you turned

[scooby]

A few weeks I finished a job which included replacing the clients staircase. It was the type commonly seen in the 70s, I call them death trap staircases (no offence if you have one). Treads (complete with super slick varnish finish) sat on 2 notched pseudo strings and no risers.

Anyway, bloke said I could have all the timber. Only the treads and newels were any good. I’m pretty sure the newels are sapele (3” square so will be useful). Treads are some sort of mahogany.

Decided to make something to give the guy as he was an ace client. Didn’t want to spend too long on it as I’m completely snowed under at the moment with work.

 

[scooby]

Kept it super shallow as it’s got a Chuck recess and my first attempt ended like this I’m really out of practice.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Kept it super shallow as it’s got a Chuck recess and my first attempt ended like this I’m really out of practice.

Welcome to the funnel club

 

[Richard_C]

my first attempt ended like this

Keep going, make it into a ring and drill one small (1.5mm?) hole in from the perimeter to the middle. You then have a keyring for the shed key you are always mislaying, or a really good pull light switch end for someone with arthritic hands* or frequent drunkenness to the extent that a conventional light pull is just too small to grab.

* or, I guess, Cap'n Hook the pirate.

 

[pat from Marck]

100% @Richard_C Now to see if SWMBO has any drinking straws hidden away in the kitchen

Spray paint gold and may be grind the nail heads to a half moon shape one more suggestion

 

[Agent_zed]

Finished a spinning top today. Probably not the most challenging thing in the world for a lot of people but still takes me a fair bit of time. It's from a piece of indian hardwood that came as a runner on a wooden crate for stone paving slabs.

I've got an office secret santa coming up soon max £5 budget so I figured this might be a nice-ish gift

 

[Stigmorgan]

Finished a spinning top today. Probably not the most challenging thing in the world for a lot of people but still takes me a fair bit of time. It's from a piece of indian hardwood that came as a runner on a wooden crate for stone paving slabs.

I've got an office secret santa coming up soon max £5 budget so I figured this might be a nice-ish gift

View attachment 171325

I've seen someone make these but instead of a point to spin on they turned a concave and glued a marble into the base, looked really good.

 

[Richard_C]

Sounds like a good idea for "showroom appeal". If the spinner is a gift for a small child, a swallowable marble that might come unstuck is a worry.

 

[pat from Marck]

Not much of a project got given a red cedar log, but it is my very first-time processing one for turning. Wow what a buzz seening inside so thought I'd share.

 

[Ronny]

Very nice wood.
Ronny

 

[pat from Marck]

Good and bad day from an oak log small piece of the side made a lovely little dish 30 cm diameter and the main piece a bowl on a pedestal. Two large cracks one top to bottom through the heart and one on the side. Looks as though I'm going to experiment with epoxy new to that. What do you think, am I on a hiding to nothing and just chuck it in the fire wood pile or preserver.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Good and bad day from an oak log small piece of the side made a lovely little dish 30 cm diameter and the main piece a bowl on a pedestal. Two large cracks one top to bottom through the heart and one on the side. Looks as though I'm going to experiment with epoxy new to that. What do you think, am I on a hiding to nothing and just chuck it in the fire wood pile or preserver.View attachment 171505View attachment 171506View attachment 171507View attachment 171508View attachment 171509View attachment 171510

Tough one to call, at the end of the day's its all down to personal preference, I think the inclusion void on the base would be fine as it is or filled, the one on the side (personally) would irritate me no end regardless what I did with it short of using it as an opening and turning it into a yarn bowl in which case you would want to lose the foot and have a wider base.

 

[akirk]

depends whether you have easy access to wood - in which case life is too short - spend time on a better piece of wood...
if not, then it becomes a harder question - I don't think it adds to the piece - it looks broken rather than just a natural flaw...

 

[pat from Marck]

Tough one to call, at the end of the day's its all down to personal preference, I think the inclusion void on the base would be fine as it is or filled, the one on the side (personally) would irritate me no end regardless what I did with it short of using it as an opening and turning it into a yarn bowl in which case you would want to lose the foot and have a wider base.

I like the yarn bowl suggestion and its one of things on want to do list

 

[Tris]

Unless I'm mistaken that looks like a crotch piece. It'll probably change shape considerably turned due to all the stresses and strains in it so for me it would be artisan firewood

 

[pat from Marck]

Unless I'm mistaken that looks like a crotch piece. It'll probably change shape considerably turned due to all the stresses and strains in it so for me it would be artisan firewood

Yes there are two hearts so bang on with the crotch piece

 

[Stigmorgan]

I like the yarn bowl suggestion and its one of things on want to do list

You've nothing to lose by trying it,
I've turned plenty of crotch bowls, mostly natural edge and whole log keeping the centres of the log in the piece and none of them have really moved much, it depends how long it has been sat around waiting to be used I guess.

 

[pat from Marck]

Well they do say it comes in threes today put the cracked oak bowl to one side and decided to make a big brother roman bowl from an ash log.got it processed on the lathe rough shaped and proportioned between centres then turned and fitted in to the chuck

by now I've noticed small cracks around the top so turned out the top to see what was hiding

and found a bunch of cracks. Bit deflated as there was going to be no big brother to the one I'd made earlier. So chase out the cracks and was left with this

so now it was home time so packed up and am going to have a hard think as what to make with whats left. At least I've some thing to go back to so its a win win for me

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you turn stuff with the pith in a huge percentage of it will crack.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Was asked by one of the office girls at work if I could make a cheeseboard for to gift as a Christmas present to her brother, I immediately knew what to use, when I moved in there where several old style school desks with the top that lifts up in the garage so i kept the flat tops, pretty sure theyre beech but could be wrong, yesterday I cut two 9inch circles and sanded back the varnish to bare wood and then used 5 minute epoxy to laminate them together with the grain 45degrees to each other in the hope to help stabilise the boards, today I mounted between centres and formed a recess, mounted it and flattened front and back, rounded the corners and sanded up to 320g, took it off and removed any trace of the recess and then used a foodsafe finish.