My First Attempt at Bowl Making

[terrydowning]

One does not make sawdust when turning. One makes Shavings!!!

Shavin's is better!

[fredsheldon]

The inmates at the Huntsville prison unit across from my office cut down a 150 year old oak tree that's as old as the prison itself. I had the inmates stuff as much as they could into my Prius. I'm taking my pickup tomorrow to pick up another 10 logs or so. I should be fixed for years to come.

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Roots had no where to go. I guess that's why it died.

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My Prius really had to work to get these logs home, a 40 mile ride. I painted the ends to prevent cracking and checking. I should get at least 20 10" bowls out of these logs. The chips are going to be flying tomorrow night.

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Cut logs into 12 to 15 inch lengths depending on diameter which will provide 2blanks each. My $75.00 electric 16" chain saw works great for this job.

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I have sealed the ends using wood sealer from Woodcraft. I have moved most of the logs to the back deck out of the sun for storage.

[heathicus]

Fred, I got that bowl you sent me today! It's beautiful and I'm proud to have it! Thanks!

[fredsheldon]

Heath, your welcome. I enjoyed turning one for you and thanks for the Red Oak log. I just trimmed 20 new bowl blanks on the band saw and have turned the first bowl from this new batch which will be 16" in diameter. I have created several patterns from cardboard for the different diameter blanks that I needed to trim round on the band saw.

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I tack the pattern on the non-flat side and turn it round on the band saw.

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I have enough wood blanks in storage now to produce at least 60 more bowls. I guess I can start stockpiling my retirement nest egg

[apexsunguitars]

I just went through all 13 pages of this post and its great that you decided to keep adding to it Fred! I have learned a lesson from it all, that you can make some beautiful things from just 'plain' old wood! I guess I have become somewhat of an exotic wood snob but the grain just pops out of all these carved bowls no matter the wood. I prefer to play flat topped guitars but I may start carving them more just to see if the grain will pop the same way on them. The spalting on some of the bowls is outstanding!

[fredsheldon]

Fred -

I think that you would be very impressed with a good bowl gouge instead of scraping tools. It seems that Shopsmith has discontinued their bowl chisels, but any good quality HSS gouge would serve you well. The SS bowl gouges were fine quality, but there are many more out there - Sorbey, Oneway, Thompson, etc.

Try one, I think you'll like it.

Mike

Mike,

I sharpened my bowl gouges tonight and I must say they do cut much better now and don't vibrate as much as the scrapers. I still stay away from the edges of the bowl with the gouge and use the carbide square blade so I won't catch something and ruin the whole bowl. I think I have the gouges figured out now and thank you for encouraging me to use them. I just finished my third 15 inch bowl tonight. I'm just taking my time now and turning only one a night. I have been spreading all my leftover shaving on my gardens each night and that takes up some of my cleanup time.

Fred

[fredsheldon]

I decided to give my 10ER a go at turning a bowl to see if there is a difference in how it accomplishes the task over a VS 520. I must say I was surprised by how good of a job it does. Only issues I have currently is I don't have a speed changer yet so I was stuck with a fairly high RPM on the slowest speed setup and the first block I mounted was out of balance and bounced all over the place. I mounted a smaller block that was more in balance and it worked well. If I had to guess I would say the rpms were around 500 to 600. The extra weight seems to have tamed the vibrations and noise I was getting on the 520. Or most likely it's because I decided to give my UTR (Universal Tool Rest) another try. This time I found I could use it by mounting it between the work and the power head rather than between the work and the tail stock. As you can see from the pictures I could reach the side of the work to turn it round and also reach around to the right hand side to turn the interior of the bowl. I have a bid on a speed changer on E-bay which I hope to acquire to make life a little easier for larger turnings where I need to slow things down to prevent the lathe from dancing all over the place.

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UTR mounted between the work and the power head. By extending the quill to the max I was able to reach the extended live center as well.

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I have lots of room to work in the interior of the bowl with the live center in place using two extensions. The tool rest reaches around the work from the front of the block. As you can see there is lots of room between the UTR base and the bottom of the work itself, something I couldn't accomplish with the UTR mounted between the work and the tail stock, like I did on my 520. I assume this setup will solve the issue I had with the 520 with the lift assist getting in the way of the base of the UTR.

[fredsheldon]

Well it had to happen sooner or later. I made one too many passes with a not too sharp scraper to thin the walls on my little vase turning. Glad I didn't spend more than 30 minutes on this one or I might have been a little upset. I did complete a larger bowl earlier so I do have something to show for my efforts today. I did learn something from the experience and hope not to repeat it.

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I'm going to try to glue it back together and see if I can save it. Will report my results if successful.

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Well it's all back together now, but lots of CA glue holding things together.

[terrydowning]

CA is a turner's best friend!!

Good luck on the broken one. As long as the breaks go back together cleanly on a dry fit, the CA should do you well.

[fredsheldon]

Here's what happens when you spend 4 hours turning and sanding bowls non-stop with a PowerPro. My shop is a cool 78 and the motor never quit but it did display this message until I turned it off and let it rest for about an hour.

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