Practice projects that didn't go ka-flooie!

[rwyoung]

A while back I posted about my first attempt at making a small bowl and how the wall thickness got away from me. Ended up splitting and sending the two halves flying across the garage. Wheeee!

Well, I kept at it and now I have a small family of silly little bowls. One from maple, the rest from poplar. All the blanks are made up of 3/4" laminated to get a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" by 1-1/2" thick blank. I don't yet have a scroll chuck so all done with a faceplate and waste block. Since I'm just learning how to do this, a couple ended up pretty shallow as I had to keep turning away the parts I goofed up.

Lots of fun, even if this isn't the best material to practice with. But it is what I had at hand and is pretty cheap. If I can learn to make a nice end-grain scraping cut in something like fuzzy poplar, I hope I can do it in something better too.

All finished with just plain mineral oil.

(Seems the camera I borrowed has a hard time focusing close unless there is a strong vertical line in the frame. Sorry about that.)

 

[MarkHix]

Those are nice. Everyone needs a collection of small bowls. Bowls can be just as adictive as pens. There are alot of turners that only use a faceplate. Some of my test subjects serve as parts bowls for pen assembly and I keep one by my lathe to hold the bushings when I pull them off if they are not going back into their box immediatly.

 

[ldb2000]

I have several just like those , they were fun to do and a great learning experience .

 

[Fred]

Nice bowls ... ain't they fun to do! One suggestion, use a finer pointed pen to sign them with. Looks neater IMHO!

 

[holmqer]

Making small stuff for practice whether it is a bowl or a spindle turning outa cheap wood is a great idea. I made a series of small bowls out of lamintated bits of construction studs. If you can get a nice surface out of inexpensive pine, poplar or basswood, you can get a great surface out of fancier wood.

Doing it all with minimal tooling also helps develop your skills. Master doing it with just a faceplate and a wasteblock and you will have even more options when you get a scroll chuck.

 

[broitblat]

Nice looking bowls for practice or otherwise. It looks like you coaxed is nice looking finish out of them, too.

-Barry

 

[bitshird]

Those look a lot better than the one I tried, I can't figure out how to handle the end grain I did one out of 3 pieces, a 1 inch piece of Andiroba sandwiched between two 1 inch pieces of Padauk the Padauk looks OK but the end grain of the Andiroba is nasty looking, it needs need some kind of sealer, are you supposed to use sanding sealer??

 

[rwyoung]

So far what I've read is to use a very gentle scraping cut with a sharp tool as the last pass. The operative words are sharp and gentle. Lots of experimenting with angle of attack when was playing around. Some good results, some bad results.

Then when sanding I would stop after each grit, wipe down and with some fresh paper of the same grit hand sand in the opposite direction. Seems to help shear off some of the fuzzies. My little Turncrafter doesn't have a reverse so it was a bit slow going.

The maple one I did with a little 1/4" spindle gouge that I reground to have a pseudo fingernail grind. Not the best way but it was late and I felt like trying something. Then I went and got a "real" bowl gouge, a 3/8" Sorby, seemed like a good compromise size. That made a world of difference. The 1/4" is back to a regular grind (although a bit shorter now).

 

[TellicoTurning]

Rob
Those are pretty nice little bowls... You are making good progress without a chuck... just shows to go you that you don't really have to have a chuck... they just make the job easier.

on the one that split and went across the shop, at least it went across the shop... my first bowl that came apart hit me square in the chest and left a bruise... the second one hit my face shield... thank goodness for polywhatever those things are made of...

 

[areaman]

your bowls look great and when you get a chuck they will most likely be even better.
Good Work!

 

[clthayer]

Those look like some I made once. I haven't got into making too many in a while. PM me your address and I'll send you some thicker stock if you are interested.

Christian

 

[rwyoung]

Those look like some I made once. I haven't got into making too many in a while. PM me your address and I'll send you some thicker stock if you are interested.

Christian

PM Sent

 

[nava1uni]

I did a workshop with Bonnie Klein and she used a waste block of maple to turn small bowls. She glues her wood to it and, if I remember correctly, uses a spindle gouge for turning them. Her bowls, tops and other things are really, really nice.