That BIG BLOCK

[dicklaxt]

That big ole piece of pecan is now a fruit bowl failure...but I learned a lot...... played with that damn lathe for 6 hours today.

Ive got to figure a better way to get a starting balance. I guess that chunk of wood weighed 20 #'....it sure had that lathe jumping at the start.
I got one hang up that bent the tang on a roughing gouge.It kind of twisted the wrist as well..got to learn to go slower.It also broke that 3/4" shaft on my 12" tool rest...(cheap cast SH!T)...when that big block got loose...got to go slower.Glad i wasn't standing in front of that SOB when that happened.I put it on that 8" face plate after that with 4-1 1/2" lag bolts.
When working inside of a bowl(10") I am going to need one of those curved tool rests that gets you close inside for more tool control. I used the tail center to hold the bowl while cleaning it out and then parted the center post left in the bowl later. I don't know if thats the right procedure or not but thats what I did.
Heres an odd thing I found that piece of wood had a hole all the way thru it. I believe it was from a high caliber rifle bullet as it had some small metal flakes that hit me on the hand..... ouch!!!

I did some stupid things and learned..my biggest problem seems to be I am impatient and another is I am not presenting the tool to the wood in a proper way evidently, as I get in trouble a lot with bounces,dig ins and cutting where I don't want to....you were right Limey I need lots of practice.

I think a 10" fruit bowl with a 6" pedestal was a little too much to start out with.All in all it didn't come out to bad but he green pecan started doing the twist and crack routine be fore I got it finished.

I did get the walls down to less than 1/8 inch and that sure gets a little scary when you are thinking about blowing threw and whats going to happen to the tool in your hand.....any answers on that problem?

Time for bed I'm bushed


dick

[volleyheads]

Dick,

sounds like you had a good time, learned a lot and may have a bit of the bug nibbling at you. I bent a spindle gouge to 45 degrees or so when starting out so you are far from the first. Try to keep the tool rest between you and the potentially loose flying wood. You can get another tool rest. You probably chose a little much for a first effort, but you also learned more than most do on first tries. I don't think you need a curved tool rest, but they are nice to have. That hole sounded pretty intriguing, too bad it is now firewood.

As you already guessed, patience is a thing that you need to acquire. The tool can cut quite rapidly, but initially, things may seem a bit slow. The speed picks up very rapidly with practice. I don't think you shoved a board through the tables saw too quickly the first time, hopefully you still don't. :)

Bounces and catches are usually from either pushing too hard during a cut or entering a cut in the wrong way/direction. Hard to say from here. But the practice is fun and the pieces are generated very quickly. 1/8" walls are pretty impressive for a first run, even getting close to it is a good sign. The only answer to stopping blowouts (well ok, cutting down on the number of them) is to take you time, light finishing cuts, measure thickness often and practice.

Hope you enjoyed you first turning experience.

Best Regards,

Bill

"If it is worth doing, it's worth overdoing"

[Sonny Edmonds]

Sorry to hear that she didn't turn out well, Dick. But brovo on the time spent.

Did you use the line all the way acrossed method? LOL :)
Centering is a shot in the dark issue for me with a raw chunk. Starting at your lowest speed and advancing as you attain a full, or as full as you want, circumferance cut. I go for the entire outside so far. Getting the whole piece smoothly rounded.
Your lathe shuddering from the out of balence makes me think the starting speed was a bit high. But maybe it was as low as you could go. Mine is minimum 500 RPM, no variable speed. :(
I was afeared that big chunk might be a handfull. But live and learn, (shrug, :) ), today is a new day!

Bent one of your gouges AND snapped a rest :( CHIT!
I've done some catches and flung chunks myself. One slapped me on the wrist on it's way, just for good measure, I guess. Ouch!
Maybe that machine shop could fab up a bar rest for you. At the Woodshow I noticed most of the lathes had fabed tool rests of round bar stock, cold rolled. About 5/8 to 3/4" in diameter I believe. These were welded to a stem to fit into the tool rest clamp on the frog.
One thing to bear in mind though, when you beef up one area, like a tool rest that can't be broken, something else must give. Either the tool gives or the frog socket for that honking rest will snap.
I have gotten by with my puny 6" straight rest, so far. But I do my best to be patient and go slow and try and enjoy what I'm doing.
If you have a bar rest made you could get them to curve one end to see if you like it, then use the udder end straight for udder stuff. A dual cool rest.
Proceedure? Hell, whatever works best for you is the right proceedure.
I was having trouble with the center and tried boring it for another venture into a vessel, that seemed to work well. I had an idea how deep I'd be going without measuring as I went by doing that.
I'm glad that chunk didn't get you too, when it flung off. I tend to stop a lot to take a look-see as things are going along. Often a quick feel can tell me if something is loosening up.

We all do some things we think are stupid trying to learn. Don't torment yourself. Go have a taco at Rudy's and get some more chunks.
Try some smaller stuff and progress into huge stuff. Use wood you don't expect to be a finished project for practice. That's why I was using pieces I know would be cracked anyway.
Who gives a rats rear end? It was for fun and play and getting used to spinning the wood into the tool, instead of the tool spinning into the wood.
This lathe business give the wood a lot of advantage over the woodworker. And as we've found out it can even come after you. :o

Getting the walls down to 1/8" is real impressive so you must have been doing something right out there in the shop.
Like I told Marc, I find the scraper to be one of the easiest to use of my tools starting out. It worked really well inside the bowls and gobblets so far.
Keeping them sharp is the trick, all of them. And as I learn I can feel and see when it isn't quite doing as well as it was fresh off the grinder, or belt sander as I was using to touch up the edge.
That's one of the biggest reason's I have 9 really cheap tools and one gooden. I don't grind a lot off anyway, and I don't care if I ground the whole darn 12 or 13 dollar chisel away in the comming months.
So what if I go back to the grinder 4,5,6, or more times in one turning? It's a learning process.
Learning patience, learning to avoid catches, learning to find that sweet spot where control is yours with a nice streaming curl of shaved wood is shooting away from the cutting edge.
Don't expect anything super nice right off the bat. It's supposed to be fun afterall. Give yourself room for error and learning.
Turning is a damnsight nicer than a screeming jointer or planer, to me. And it gives you a chance to see some really cool figure in the wood.
Slow down a bit and smell the roses. Make some smaller stuff. And who cares if it cracks or warps, it was headed for ashes before you explored it. And warps and cracks just add caricture to it.
Go have some Bar-b-que with Rudy and hawk somemore chunks off him. :)

:D

Sonny Edmonds
"Precision Firewood Specialist"
http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/
God Bless America !

[dicklaxt]

I said it was a failure not that it was fire wood..it was a failure in that it cracked and the base warped a little but like you say thats character....I tried something on the finish.......picture this ,it is pecan-I put 2 coats of golden oak stain on it ....nope ,didn't like that so I hit it with sand paper and removed some of the stain........I then tried black walnut stain..hey now I got something,end grain and wood imperfections took on a real dark hue . I then sprayed it with clear laquer and it is proudly setting on the bar waiting for some fruit.It looks like it is 137 and 23/64ths years old with that color the crack and the wavy base.

dick

[volleyheads]

Dick,

when did it crack? Was it cracked during the turning, during sanding or after finishing?

Best Regards,

Bill

"If it is worth doing, it's worth overdoing"

[dicklaxt]

It cracked shortly after I hollowed the bowl out. This was really a wet piece of wood, you could feel the moisture in the shavings.

dick

[volleyheads]

Did it crack at the rim or near the base? It may have crcaked due to the heat of sanding (too fast) or due to uneven drying if in an area where the all thickness changed.


Best Regards,

Bill

"If it is worth doing, it's worth overdoing"

[Sonny Edmonds]

..Dick's wood art.
Sounds like a nice recovery.
Now get to turning some candle holders to compliment it.
And maybe a cheese board. And some gobblets for grog, since it's on yer bar.
Avast ye matey! Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum. :)

:D

Sonny Edmonds
"Precision Firewood Specialist"
http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/
God Bless America !