Shopsmith Turned Bowls

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:02 pm

Beautiful work - I love the live edge bowls. My first question was going to be if you turned any of this stuff green but I saw from your comment that your are drying logs and then turning them - I'd love to hear any insight you have into doing this effectively without getting checking etc. How are you drying logs, how big/long are you leaving them for drying, and how long does it take?

cousinwill · Post by **cousinwill** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:31 pm

dgale wrote:Beautiful work - I love the live edge bowls. My first question was going to be if you turned any of this stuff green but I saw from your comment that your are drying logs and then turning them - I'd love to hear any insight you have into doing this effectively without getting checking etc. How are you drying logs, how big/long are you leaving them for drying, and how long does it take?

Thanks !! I personally do not turn my bowls green. I know some people do but so far I haven't. Here is a quick run down on the process. Please let me know if you are interested in more information. I just don't want to bore you to death !!
After harvesting the logs I cut them in half and draw out the size of the bowl and trim off excess wood. I then seal the ends with Anchor Seal to slow down the drying. Some checks will still happen

. To help deal with this I don't cut the blanks completely round. I leave two to three inches on each end to allow for some checking that's more than likely to occur. Lot of it depends on the type of wood. Some woods check and crack more than others. I then put them in a storage building and leave the alone for several months. Once again certain types of wood dry fast than others. Box Elder is ready in two to three months and Mesquite blanks might take a year to dry. When they reach a moisture level of less than 18% they are ready in my opinion. I then move them into the shop and time to turn!!!!
As I said before this is a brief overview and please let me know if you would like more details

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:42 pm

2centsworth wrote: I am up for a lesson...

Or much closer to ya is this.

http://www.lonestarwoodturners.com/

Looks like ya have about 3 near you, found here.

http://www.woodturner.org/community/cha ... apters.asp

benush26 · Post by **benush26** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 4:28 pm

Wow!

My favorite is the one with the hole in it. I've been known to make a couple with holes in them, but never on purpose!

Is it difficult to avoid a catch? Any "trade" secrets you would care to reveal?

Be well,
Ben

cousinwill · Post by **cousinwill** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 9:02 pm

benush26 wrote:Wow!

My favorite is the one with the hole in it. I've been known to make a couple with holes in them, but never on purpose!

Is it difficult to avoid a catch? Any "trade" secrets you would care to reveal?

Be well,
Ben

Thanks !! I really like the ones with holes in them too. I think it adds a lot of character to the bowl. About the catch issue........ Yes it happens !! I've learned that by controlling how much pressure is applied to the gouge or whatever tool is being used I can greatly reduce the catches. Maintaining consistent pressure across the entire "holey" bowl is the key. Hope this helps!!

texomawood · Post by **texomawood** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:02 pm

Great work and a nice tribute to your father-in-law. Hope we can pass on some of this to our younger folks. I just made some pens and pencils for my nephew out of zebra wood that his grandfather had given me before he passed away. It is a beautiful wood. What did you use for the finish?

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:22 pm

cousinwill wrote: After harvesting the logs I cut them in half

Just so I'm sure I understand, when you say cut the log in half, do you mean cut it in half length-wise (like splitting firewood) or do you mean cut the log to length and otherwise keep it round?

cousinwill · Post by **cousinwill** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:31 pm

texomawood wrote:Great work and a nice tribute to your father-in-law. Hope we can pass on some of this to our younger folks. I just made some pens and pencils for my nephew out of zebra wood that his grandfather had given me before he passed away. It is a beautiful wood. What did you use for the finish?

Thanks for the comments !! I use Wood Turners Finish made by General Finish. It's a wipe on finish . I like it because because it's water based and has nearly no odor which is good since I do most of my finish work inside the house. It's also non toxic. The only downside to this finish is its a little more costly than other finishes.

cousinwill · Post by **cousinwill** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 6:05 pm

dgale wrote:Just so I'm sure I understand, when you say cut the log in half, do you mean cut it in half length-wise (like splitting firewood) or do you mean cut the log to length and otherwise keep it round?

Yes like splitting firewood.. I attached a picture of one half of a log and another picture of the storage shed with bowl blanks in it. PLUS a picture of my lovely wife helping prepare bowl blanks !~!~! She's not much into woodworking but agreed to help with this task. This day we put 32 bowl blanks into the storage shed to dry.

teacherman · Post by **teacherman** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:37 pm

cousinwill wrote:Thought I would share a few pictures of bowls I've turned on my Shopsmith. I turn about 100 bowls a year. I've been turning for about 6 years now and love every minute of it !! I started selling them a few years ago after I ran out of places to put them !! I must admit I have an addiction to bowl turning

Those are very nice!! Looks like some of the wood had been under water, judging by the coloration. Beautiful work. Thank you for sharing these!