Post a photo of the last thing you turned

[Lakeburch]

It's just painted on then washed off after a minute, it turns the oak a shade of pink initially which gradually darkens. I really like the effect.
I use slaked lime (calcium hydroxide).

 

[Andy's Shed]

It's just painted on then washed off after a minute, it turns the oak a shade of pink initially which gradually darkens. I really like the effect.
I use slaked lime (calcium hydroxide).

Thanks, I hadn't heard of it before.

 

[pat from Marck]

I had a smallish spalted Sycamore blank in the shed that I got fed up of looking at it, so yesterday afternoon I set about it.

In my opinion, it has too much spalting, I think it just looks too busy?

There may have been a few curse words here and there, mainly due to the soft spots in the wood (and bug holes), making it difficult for me to get a reasonable finish with my bowl gouge. I found that I was becoming quite adept at making spirals! Thanks to my Crown Cryo square end scraper and some very light angled scrapes, I eventually got the surface looking somewhat reasonable.

This inside didn't turn too badly, but despite very delicate touches, it seems to have thrown up some slight wavy ridges, only in a couple of places though. Odd.

Anyway, here it is with the crazy spalting.

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Love the spelling effect on this one makes it look like you've turn a crazy pathing

 

[loftyhermes]

NIce bowl, I did a shallow maple one recently with similarly interesting grain and figuring. You never really know what you've got until the cutting starts.

Thinking about bottoms. I used to leave a wide shallow mortice, sometimes decorated with grooves. Then I got persuaded that it wasn't 'the thing' , heaven forbid that a bowl made on a lathe should have any sign that it was ever attached to a lathe. So I started to use a tenon, reverse it and cut it off to get finished flat bottoms like yours.

Last week I had a couple of bowls I've been using for a long time to serve my nuts and crunchy things and they were looking a bit shabby inside - I know, I'll pop them back on the lathe and re-polish them. No 1 went well, it had moved a bit but I had no intention of using tools, just abrasives, great. No 2 - no mortice, bother. Hand sand, polish with buffer. Much less satisfying.

So I'm going back to the old ways. Makes you think.

The only people who notice and comment on chucking points are other woodturners, non woodturners don't give a rats arse about chucking points, they either like/dislike the piece, whether or not it has the chucking point.

 

[Owd Jockey]

Question I've not got a cole jaw yet but looking at the photos I ask myself if the original spigots could have been put in the interior and expanded outwards to have held your gorgeous bowl in place

Sorry Pat for not picking up this earlier. That is a great question and one that I did'nt ask myself. So I attempted to mount the piece using that method. I could soon see that the concave interior surface of the piece would not allow sufficient surface area between the spigot and bowl to safely work on the piece. However your idea would almost certainly work if I turned some bulbous/spherical spigots instead of the straight ones I used. So thanks for your suggestion, which I may use on a current project.

 

[alex robinson]

Sounds like a perfect job for a vacuum chuck. Paul Hannaby has a great section on his website about them. Another project on my to do list

You should go for it. I had been meaning to make one for ages and when I finally got round to it, I couldn't believe it had taken me so long. Makes remounting even big items trivial. The rotating bearing is the only specialist bit, the actual chuck is dead easy to make out of some neoprene off eBay and a piece of toilet waste pipe.

I had tried various versions of cole jaws and jam chucks and was amazed how much easier the vacuum is. It also means if I wet turn a bowl, I can safely and quickly mount it to recut the recess. This can be a right faff with the other methods as the thing isn't round at that point.

 

[Tris]

You should go for it. I had been meaning to make one for ages and when I finally got round to it, I couldn't believe it had taken me so long. Makes remounting even big items trivial. The rotating bearing is the only specialist bit, the actual chuck is dead easy to make out of some neoprene off eBay and a piece of toilet waste pipe.

I had tried various versions of cole jaws and jam chucks and was amazed how much easier the vacuum is. It also means if I wet turn a bowl, I can safely and quickly mount it to recut the recess. This can be a right faff with the other methods as the thing isn't round at that point.

I've been lucky enough to have been given a high quality vacuum pump and a length of 6" dia PVC rod to form the chuck. All I need to do now is make time to put it all together and that seems to be the hardest bit

 

[alex robinson]

I've been lucky enough to have been given a high quality vacuum pump and a length of 6" dia PVC rod to form the chuck. All I need to do now is make time to put it all together and that seems to be the hardest bit

What are you going to use for the rotary bearing? I found that the hardest bit to source and ended up just buying an off the shelf one. Unfortunately not many places sell them in the UK. I got one of these: https://www.oliverswoodturning.co.uk/product/holdfast-vacuum-adaptor-kit/

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The only people who notice and comment on chucking points are other woodturners, non woodturners don't give a rats buttocks about chucking points, they either like/dislike the piece, whether or not it has the chucking point.

Yes, you can pick out the turners - they're the ones who always turn things upside down.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Yes, you can pick out the turners - they're the ones who always turn things upside down.

They also seem to be the ones most likely to make unfavourable comments when they come into the shop and decide to give their opinion on what I've done wrong

 

[Tris]

What are you going to use for the rotary bearing? I found that the hardest bit to source and ended up just buying an off the shelf one. Unfortunately not many places sell them in the UK. I got one of these: https://www.oliverswoodturning.co.uk/product/holdfast-vacuum-adaptor-kit/

The chap who gave me the pump was a retired aero engineer and after an interesting discussion with him the plan is to turn a fitting for the pipe end from brass or delrin, into which I can press two shielded bearings. An airline fitting will be epoxied into the inner races and that will fit into the headstock tube. The thinking is that a silicone rubber seal and some suitable grease will hold that in place by vacuum force alone. There's an old fire extinguisher I might plumb in as a vacuum pressure container, but as this pump can pull down so low I may not need it.

 

[paulm]

A very viable option for some situations, and cheap and simple (!), is a circular board of ply or mdf with a block attached at the back to fit into your chuck jaws, used by placing the rim of the bowl against the board and bringing up the tailstock and applying a little pressure to keep the bowl in place. Can use a small spacer on the end of the live centre to avoid marking the bowl, wine cork or similar gives some friction which helps. Low speeds and gentle cuts of course, but very effective.

A variation for bowls with uneven or natural rims is a length of wood held in the jaws and with padding on the end like a washing up sponge or bit of foam, and some router mat over that for friction. The padded end can sit inside the bowl and again the tailstock brought up for pressure.

A vacuum chuck would be great of course, but if not an option these two methods, and cole jaws of course, will deal well with a variety of challenges with little cost or effort

 

[alex robinson]

The chap who gave me the pump was a retired aero engineer and after an interesting discussion with him the plan is to turn a fitting for the pipe end from brass or delrin, into which I can press two shielded bearings. An airline fitting will be epoxied into the inner races and that will fit into the headstock tube. The thinking is that a silicone rubber seal and some suitable grease will hold that in place by vacuum force alone. There's an old fire extinguisher I might plumb in as a vacuum pressure container, but as this pump can pull down so low I may not need it.

Nice - doing it the professional fancy way! Make sure you post pictures when you get round to making it

 

[pat from Marck]

(Saving money.) Last weekend I dug out the four old tool blanks that came with my lathe and also repurposed a used rebate saw blade as a cutter for small items. I had some left over pine frame from when i made the missus a garden table which impressed me with its hardiness compaired to other pine I've used before. Using this and a piece of small meranti i turn for the first time some handles. Using some old copper piping for the inserts and watching Ronald Kane on utube for some tips, these are the results.

two of the blanks were already rounded the other two were still square so they are now at my mates work shop to get turned on his metal lathe and as it happened he was having his trees cut cypree and poplar. The last two days have been spent helping clean up the carnage leftover from his tree surgeon more money saved for him.

Here's the work site all the poplar has been saved for fire wood bar one piece thats currently sitting in the boot of the car and he gave away the cypree

which is all packed away in my small trailer on the drive. Free wood more money saved. So now I am thinking the next time browsing in the tool section for turners I'll be looking in the tool blank section. Even more money to be saved.

 

[Owd Jockey]

This small little fella is turned from a piece of Damson, that has been hanging around for years. I knew things were not going to be straightforward as a number of large and deep radial cracks were visible. Some of the cracks were turned out, but others remained. In keeping with the colours on show I opted to fill the larger cracks with Gorilla Clear Epoxy Resin, adding a deep violet dye to the resin. Adding the dye does slightly affect how hard the resin sets, but it was fine in my case. I do have 'normal' Epoxy Resin, but it has a longer set time. The Gorilla stuff sets in about 5 mins, which is ideal for curved cracks. Normally you can buy this stuff from Hobbycraft and Screwfix/Toolstation and costs circa £8.25. However, you can buy it from Halfords for £5.99!!! I don't think I have ever got stuff cheaper from Halfords!
Most of the cracks, fortunately did not penetrate through to the inside. With the wood being 3 or so years old, I was not surprised at the moisture level of 17% within the inside of the bowl. So it was into the wood kiln for for a couple of days. I put it back on the lathe and made further final cuts and apply further epoxy to fill emerging gaps.

The Violet dye did not reveal its true colour, but the natural reds, magenta and purples of the wood where beautiful. I didn't intend to leave both pith's in, but it turned out fine in the end.

 

[pat from Marck]

This small little fella is turned from a piece of Damson, that has been hanging around for years. I knew things were not going to be straightforward as a number of large and deep radial cracks were visible. Some of the cracks were turned out, but others remained. In keeping with the colours on show I opted to fill the larger cracks with Gorilla Clear Epoxy Resin, adding a deep violet dye to the resin. Adding the dye does slightly affect how hard the resin sets, but it was fine in my case. I do have 'normal' Epoxy Resin, but it has a longer set time. The Gorilla stuff sets in about 5 mins, which is ideal for curved cracks. Normally you can buy this stuff from Hobbycraft and Screwfix/Toolstation and costs circa £8.25. However, you can buy it from Halfords for £5.99!!! I don't think I have ever got stuff cheaper from Halfords!
Most of the cracks, fortunately did not penetrate through to the inside. With the wood being 3 or so years old, I was not surprised at the moisture level of 17% within the inside of the bowl. So it was into the wood kiln for for a couple of days. I put it back on the lathe and made further final cuts and apply further epoxy to fill emerging gaps.

The Violet dye did not reveal its true colour, but the natural reds, magenta and purples of the wood where beautiful. I didn't intend to leave both pith's in, but it turned out fine in the end.

Gorgeous colourful grain pattern

 

[pat from Marck]

Not turned by me.

Well folks didn't expect to post anything for a while but found this giant turned glode in the reception by the accommodation where we are staying in Tenerife. Apparently its about 20 years old don't know the artist or wood but will be going back tomorrow for any other information as the reception is requesting that from the owners of the resort. Pen and paper pad gives the size scale.

 

[Doug B]

3 more pens,
Rippled Sycamore & Olive Ash on Athena click ballpoint pen kit, a new kit to me
Segmented Ash & Cherry on a Zeta twist ballpoint kit

 

[pat from Marck]

3 more pens,
Rippled Sycamore & Olive Ash on Athena click ballpoint pen kit, a new kit to me
Segmented Ash & Cherry on a Zeta twist ballpoint kit

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Lovely natural feel

 

[treeturner123]

Just finished this for the Showborough Sculpture Exhibition in May. I need to get cracking on another two though!

It's nearly 1m tall, made of Holm Oak (evergreen), heavy and made in 2 parts which I will glue together. It will have a steel rod inside which projects into the ground.

I based it on the Skylon from the Festival of Great Britain