My First Attempt at Bowl Making

[fredsheldon]

I've been out of action since December due to a scheduled operation to my achilles tendon which has been giving me fits for 2 years now. I'm ready to get back to work. I have a bunch of logs from my first batch that have been drying for almost 2 years that I want to use to turn more bowls. I'm thinking about turning a large salad bowl with 4 smaller serving bowls as a set. This will be my first attempt using dry logs and I don't know what to expect in terms of cutting ease and shrinkage/cracking. Let the chips fly

[ChrisNeilan]

Welcome back! Those logs will turn fine, they will have more moisture than you might think. Plan on twice turning....

[fredsheldon]

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/downl ... w&id=31006
Getting started on my batch of blanks that have been drying for 2 years now. This will be my first attempt to turn bowls from dry wood. I first removed the bark, then turned them round on my bandsaw using a 1/2 inch blade, using my cutouts as a guide. The next step will be to begin turning the bowls on my 10ER lathe.

[joedw00]

Looks like you are going to have fun. I like you circle pattern.

[Bruce]

Did you seal the ends of your blanks before you dried them? Just wondering because I have some logs that I want to turn. I was thinking I needed to seal them or turn them part way while green, then finish drying in some saw dust before final turning.

[fredsheldon]

Yes, I sealed the ends when I first acquired the logs. I resealed them every 6 months or so. A few of the logs cracked several inches into the ends anyway. It remains to be seen if turning dry logs works better than when wet. I'm sure I will need to be careful of blowups. The challenge in turning partway while green and then finishing up when dry is they will warp and become out of round, making turning a shaking affair. If turning while green I found it best to go all the way to the finished size then bag with sawdust for a few months, then remount to sand and apply polish and remove the tendon. Will find out in the next few weeks if waiting until dry before turning will be easier or harder.

[fredsheldon]

Finished preparing 42 blanks to be turned into bowls. I applied sealer on the blanks to prevent them from cracking since it will be a few weeks before I can get started on the turning process itself. This batch of wood has been drying for about two years now.

After trimming round on band saw

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Trimmings

IMG_20151107_155841753 (1024x576).jpg (561.44 KiB) Viewed 18624 times

Before Sealing

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Sealer from Woodcraft store

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After sealer applied.

IMG_20151108_132209227 (1024x576).jpg (552.03 KiB) Viewed 18624 times

[fredsheldon]

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/downl ... w&id=32230
Here is my first bowl that I have managed to turn since recovering from my Achilles Tendon surgery last February. I used dried wood stock instead of green wet wood. I must say I much prefer using green wood because dry wood blanks will blow up while turning if there is even the slightest crack in the wood. You could get away with this with wet green wood because no cracks have formed yet. I blew out 3 bowls before finding a blank without any drying cracks.

[oldiron]

Fred, That is a beautiful bowl!!!

How long did it take?

Mike

[JPG]

Welcome back Fred!!!!!