Christmas Gifts Turned From Construction Lumber

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Mortalis

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This is in reference to a previous thread about spare blanks for practice and some responses about using construction lumber for turning blanks.
Tomislav Tomasic is a student of Richard Raffan and turns bowls, spindles, spatulas and various other items normally from hardwoods.
In the linked video below he shows using a 2 x 4 to turn a few small bowls and a small lidded box that could be used as Holiday gifts.
Enjoy!

2 x 4 holiday Gifts
 
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I had to turn it off. He scared the dickens out of me when I saw him using a flat scraper to true up the inside of the sides and the bottom. When he was doing that if that scraper catches the side and bottom at the same time it could have had a catch and who knows what could happen It is the same when using a skew. You catch both ends of the skew at the same time it will catch. he obviously is familar with his process but not the tool I would have used or process. I sometimes just can not watch dangerous things like that because I have seen bowls and things blown up on a lathe and the operator get hit hard. Lots of videos on Utube of this.

The idea of using pine wood and lumber like that is fine. People make toys of all kind from that stuff. It is wood.
 
jttheclockman said:
I had to turn it off. He scared the dickens out of me when I saw him using a flat scraper to true up the inside of the sides and the bottom.

The idea of using pine wood and lumber like that is fine. People make toys of all kind from that stuff. It is wood.
Click to expand...
Many turners use flat scrapers inside a bowl or a box. Obviously proper technique is necessary when using scrapers on the interior of bowls and boxes. When he trued up the side, the scraper he used was angled on the tip and had rounded sides and edges so that he would avoid a catch.
The tool made to 'carve' out a hollow form is the same bit used on the round finisher carbide insert. Carbide tools are scrapers and actually more aggressive than a regular scraper.

I dont want this to turn into a debate about the use of scrapers. I only wanted to demonstrate to those that think pine is not good for turning that using sharp tools and proper technique pine makes fine turnings.
 
Mortalis said:
Many turners use flat scrapers inside a bowl or a box. Obviously proper technique is necessary when using scrapers on the interior of bowls and boxes. When he trued up the side, the scraper he used was angled on the tip and had rounded sides and edges so that he would avoid a catch.
The tool made to 'carve' out a hollow form is the same bit used on the round finisher carbide insert. Carbide tools are scrapers and actually more aggressive than a regular scraper.

I dont want this to turn into a debate about the use of scrapers. I only wanted to demonstrate to those that think pine is not good for turning that using sharp tools and proper technique pine makes fine turnings.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I do not agree. I Would never use a flat scraper like that. You do what you want. No debate on my end just won't do it
 
You can see the profile of his tool at the 12:08 mark.
If we were having a debate about whether to show this to beginning turners, I'd point out that he also wears gloves, which is not something I'd recommend...but who am I to tell him what to do - he knows what he's doing more than I do!

That being said, I'm impressed with how well the pine turned, with no tear-out or fuzziness.. I'd like to see how he sharpens his tools, as mine aren't nearly that sharp! If I tried what he did, I'd have a lot more issues, I'm sure!
 
maxwell_smart007 said:
You can see the profile of his tool at the 12:08 mark.
If we were having a debate about whether to show this to beginning turners, I'd point out that he also wears gloves, which is not something I'd recommend...but who am I to tell him what to do - he knows what he's doing more than I do!

That being said, I'm impressed with how well the pine turned, with no tear-out or fuzziness.. I'd like to see how he sharpens his tools, as mine aren't nearly that sharp! If I tried what he did, I'd have a lot more issues, I'm sure!
Click to expand...
He does mention a few times in his videos that he is wearing gloves but that with the fingers cut from the glove the chances of getting them caught is very low. Many bowl turners wear a glove on the forward hand to prevent dry wood chips splinters from hitting the hand and wet wood chip trailings from scolding the hand.
 
Mortalis said:
As I pointed out in my second posting.
He has a video on how he regrinds a purchased square end scraper If you're interested.
Click to expand...
His ever so slightly rounding the end by rocking the scraper is exactly what I have been doing with my go to scrapers since 2006 or '07. And then the angle I put on mine under the cutting edge look very close to the angle he has on his.

The effect of the "rocking motion" that slightly rounds the square end is - not much different than the radiused square carbide inserts, but I still prefer my radiuses square HSS scrapers over the carbide inserts.
 
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