My First Attempt at Bowl Making

[beeg]

Not sure if this is the correct way but it's my way:D

Fred

It's Knot the "correct way". BUT it WORKS for you.

[terrydowning]

The "correct" way is the one that yields desired results safely.

Nice job Fred!

[skou]

The "Spam"inator strikes again!

steve

[fredsheldon]

After turning 20 new bowls on my 10ER using my Carbide Easy Tools I have some opinions. First, I really love my Carbide tools. I can usually turn two large bowls with just one square cutter, which cost $5.00 off E-bay. I have found that I can sharpen the cutters somewhat but they never get back to the original sharpness. Probably about 70% at best. But this is good enough for the rough rounding process so I swap out the cutters using the used ones over again to do the rough work and then mount a newer one for the interior work. So I probably have used $50 worth of cutters to turn 20 good sized bowls without having to stop turning to sharpen my tools. Is it worth it, yes if you don't like having to stop and sharpen your tools every 15 minutes or so.

How do I like using my 10ER for my turning work. Once I figured out how to adjust the speed controller's belts so they wouldn't slip, I find I really like the 10ER. I have my band saw attached to my V520 PP which I use to round out the blanks before mounting on the 10ER. It's nice to not have to disconnect and reconnect the band saw every time I have a new batch of blanks to round out.

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Here is a bowl that I turned tonight in two hours using my Carbide tool with my left hand and I'm right handed. No catches, just perfect shavings flying all over the place. I've gotten to the point where I can turn my bowls completely to the bottom of the inside without turning the blank around on the lathe until I need to remove the support tower.

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Can you find the 10ER behind all those chips.

[skou]

Sure!

It looks like a real Shopsmith.

They are simple tools compared to the MkV
stuff, aren't they? Glad you figured out the speedchanger.

Now, check out Skip's DC motors. They will (almost) turn an
ER into the newest and greatest, PowerPro. Increasing (or
decreasing) the speed is as easy as turning up the volume
on your radio. They will over double your power, too.

When I finish my FrankenSmith double length lathe,
the base will run the DC motor, and the drill-press/
extension ER will have a normal 1/2 HP motor, and
the speedchanger.

steve

[fredsheldon]

I found a better use for the support columns that I was just cutting out of the inside of my bowls and throwing away. Now I'm incorporating them into the bowl as a center holder. The bowl can be used as a chip bowl with a small dip bowl placed in the center.

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Was throwing these away.

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Now incorporating them into the center of the bowl to hold chip dip bowl.
I turned 2 of these today and like the way they came out.

[terrydowning]

They can also be turned as small bowls themselves.

Nice work Fred.

[fredsheldon]

I now have 42 bowls in bags from my second round of turnings. The first bag is dated 7/7 and the latest 2 are dated yesterday, 09/27. In early November I will take a look inside to see how they all held up during the drying process. At the rate I'm going that should be about 60 bowls from this second batch of logs I got from the prison.

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I'm going to be quite busy sanding and applying finishes to all these bowls in November and early December. I will have plenty of bowls to give to everybody I know for Christmas. I've been thinking of including a gift bag of walnuts or pecans and a nut cracker with each of the smaller bowls all wrapped up in a nice gift bag.

[fredsheldon]

I turned 5 large bowls this weekend, and have run out of storage space so it's time to take a break and let what I have bagged finish the drying process so I can begin sanding and polishing the 52 from this second round of turnings. I received a nice visit from one of our newest forum members, 2centsworth, whose real name is Jerry. Jerry is getting back into the shopsmith business but has only 1/2 of a garage to work in so he was interested in seeing how I was able to fit 4 shopsmiths in my 1/2 of my garage. I also demonstrated how I turn my blanks round on my band saw and set it up in my 10ER lathe for turning. Jerry wants to also get into the bowl turning business. I also offered to assist Jerry in restoring a 10ER if he is able to acquire one.

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Here is a pile of shaving from todays activity. They completely filled a 40 gallon garbage bag. My storage shelves are full so it's time to take a break until the last bowl has dried then I will take my first look at my latest stash to see how they held up during the drying process. Jerry and I did take a sneak peek at one and it turned out to be one of the bowls that I turned from a left over part of a log that still had the pith and, as expected, there were cracks. Not a problem, I have some fiberglass filler that will take care of that.

[fredsheldon]

I removed all my bowls from their bags that I have turned up until October 1st and have stored them in my reorganized shelves ready for sanding and polishing.

[ATTACH]23096[/ATTACH]

As expected, some are out of round, others have cracks due to the fact that I didn't remove the pith completely, and others are crack free and fairly round. Some CA glue and fiberglass filler will fix up those with cracks and give them character