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Jack Hogoboom
07-05-2004, 5:08 PM
Attached are pictures of my second and third bowls, which I turned this weekend. Fortunately, things went way better than the first time....

The first (second) bowl is quilted maple, finished with 2 coats of Mylands nitrocellulose sanding sealer, three coats of Mylands high-build friction polish and a coat of Renaissance wax. Unfortunately, I turned the tenon too small and couldn't reverse chuck it. That gave my an opportunity to try friction chucking. Needless to say, I need some practice. Couldn't get a real tight fit and ended up using masking tape all around the tenon to get it to fit. Given my first experiences, I brought the tailstock up, just to hold everything. That went great until I realized I had no idea how to part off the piece attached to the tailstock. Eventually, I figured out how to get the tailstock back far enough to give me room to get into the bottom with a parting tool. Unfortunately, the angles were bad, and I took the little divot you see in the second picture.

The second (third) bowl went much better. It's ash, finished the same way as the other bowl. This time, I made the tenon about 2 inches per Mr. Rowley, but made it a little deeper than the 3/16" he recommends. When I reverse chucked it, everything was OK, except I couldn't get the bowl to turn true. After 8 or 10 attempts, I gave up on achieving concentricity, and just hollowed it out. For what it's wqorth, the ash was much easier to work than the maple. Of course, that could also mean I was learing something.

The finish works very well and gives an easy, glossy finish. I got to use my friction sanding system, which worked great and saved a lot of time.

I guess I'm hooked, because the only thing I used my table saw for was to store all of the lathe accessories.

Thanks for looking!!

Jack

David Klink
07-05-2004, 5:25 PM
They look pretty good to me Jack. If I ever decide to try turning, I could only hope my 2nd and 3rd efforts turn out so well.

Tyler Howell
07-05-2004, 8:42 PM
Pretty Pretty!

Fred LeBail
07-05-2004, 9:22 PM
Jack,
Don't you just love the grain pattern in the Ash. I have 2 or 3 peices of 8' ftX 15" peices of ash in my firewood pile so I will have intersting turning.
Fred

Dennis Peacock
07-05-2004, 9:30 PM
Very nice bowls Jack. You're doing a fine job on those bowls and looks like your tool control is pretty good as well. How much time do you spend sanding?

Jack Hogoboom
07-05-2004, 11:02 PM
Fred,

I LOVE the ash. Great color and texture. I was worried that I'd be able feel the grain through the finish, but it is smooth as silk.

Dennis,

I started with 180 grit on the ash and worked up through 600. On the maple, I had to drop back to 120 because of some torn end grain. I'd say about 2 minutes per grit max.

The friction sander makes sanding a breeze. Much easier to get rid of tool marks, torn grain, etc. Takes a little getting used to, but definitely a worthwhile tool.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Jack

Jim Ketron
07-05-2004, 11:05 PM
Great Job Jack!!
Jim

Ken Fitzgerald
07-06-2004, 12:16 AM
Jack......I don't do spinny things but those sure look good to my eye!

Chris Padilla
07-06-2004, 1:10 AM
Very nice, Jack! You are doing well.

John Bussom
07-06-2004, 2:09 AM
Fine job Jack, I really like the ash bowl myself.

I was turning a base for a segmented bowl using maple today that almost got the best of me, still don't know if was me or the wood! Whatever was going wrong I adjusted to it by taking a couple hours away from it then very cautiously made sure I did everything right, finally salvaged the piece.

If I ever get around to turning real wood instead of scraps to make bowls I hope I can get them to look as nice as yours!

John

Stanley Campbell
07-06-2004, 6:43 AM
Very Nice Jack, I admire your work. I also have an interest in turning some bowls, but I havent worked up enough nerve yet.


Stan

Jim Becker
07-06-2004, 5:30 PM
Very nice job, Jack. Keep on turning and each one will get even better than the last!