Frustrating birthday

[dalemcginnis]

Today's my birthday and everything was going good till I went to the lathe. Around Christmas my son said he wanted a bowl like one I made for mom. As I was making one I blew it up and had to throw it in the scrap heap. I then roughed out another one and set it aside to dry. Well today I decided it had dried enough and put it on the lathe to finish. You guessed it, I blew it up Twice.
The first time it took about a 1/2 inch off the rim. Took a break and came in the house and watched a bowl turning video. Went back to the shop and trimmed off the blow out and tried to again finish hollowing the interior. Within a minute I had again blown it out, this time beyond any modification.

Think I'll stay out of the shop the rest of the day.

 

[tmhawk]

Well Dale this is what happens when you turn 21 years old.
Happy Birthday, many more, tomorrow all your bowls will be great.

 

[wudnhed]

Happy B-Day Dale! As for your bowls, all I can say is to keep on tryin'!!!

 

[karlkuehn]

Happy B-day, Dale! [B)]

I'm right there with you, man. Half the time I'm afraid of destroying the wood, and the other half I'm afraid of destroying important crap in my shop (namely: ME). It used to be, when I got like that, I'd just walk away and go mow the lawn or something, but I've come up with a better strategy now that I'm a 'pro' wood crafter type...

I had a writing professor in college that was always having us listen to weird music, nature sounds, or sometimes she'd just read poetry to us. She told us to start writing anything that came to mind without worrying about punctuation, or story lines, or even writing actual words...she called it a 'free write', and she said that it was a great way to get past writer's block, relieve stress or just get the 'juices' flowing. It helped a lot when we were under the gun to get our bigger assignments completed.

Go chuck up a hunk of 2x4, 4x4, or any other 'junk' material, something that doesn't take any money or prep time, and just turn away, making something silly and useless! Practice is always good, and you never know what ideas a 'free turn' will spark! Lately I've been doing that with scrap wood I've got laying around, and you know, some days it's just nice to make some shavings for no reason at all. It's been helping me a ton on the bad days, and I've started spending a half hour in the shop doing that before I actually 'do' anything. Lately my favorites have been pencil cups and monkeying with bottle stopper cabochon designs that I use later with some real wood.

Or go mow the lawn. []

 

[dalemcginnis]

That sounds like a good idea Karl. Playing with some scrap wood, not mowing the lawn that is, I already mowed it
For the past month it seems like I've been making more mistakes than when I first started turning. I've got a large chunk of wood I drug home I've been putting off cutting up because if it's what I suspect it is it's not good for anything but practice anyway. I think I'll cut a large chunk off and see if I can relearn how to use my bowl gouges.

 

[karlkuehn]

I think it's like when you play baseball, and you start getting good - pretty soon you're pushing yourself to knock one out of the park every at-bat. Suddenly you look up and the days are filled with more frustration than love of the game. [B)] Sometimes you just gotta spend the day playing fly-ups and doing pickle drills. heh

 

[dalemcginnis]

Actually in my case I think it's more like developing a bad swing and not being able to correct it. I know exactly what I'm doing wrong with my bowl gouges but can't seem to avoid it. I think I'm trying to hard because I'm afraid of blowing up the blank, which is exactly what I do. That's why I think practicing on some scrap right now is what I need to do. Who cares if you blow up something destined for the dump anyway. Just wish I had a fireplace so I could destroy the evidence. I may have to order a load of firewood to have something to practice on

BTW, I've already bounced a small vase off my noggin. [:I] I was wearing my face shield so no harm was done. I saw it come off the lathe, felt it hit my shield, heard it hit the wall by the lathe and disappeared for two days. Finally found it under the air compressor between the lathe and wall. I was actually able to finish making it. Just wound up being a little shorter and straighter at the top than I planned.

 

[bitshird]

Wow am I glad I've only got a metal lathe!! it sounds like a man could get hurt on a wood lathe Heh Heh I was going to pick up a Jet 1014-I, but I think
I'll avoid any sharp cutting things with long handles and large chunks of rapidly spinning chunks of wood, that are only marginally harder than my head [)][)]