Finally Done Turning It.

[Dick Parr]

I started turning this green walnut bowl and rough turned it to about 3/4" thick and sealed it up about 3 months ago and finally finished it up. Ended up with a little bit of spalting in it. It's 6" X 2-1/2". The grain is really nice, the picture doesn't do it justice.

Thanks for looking

[Jim Ketron]

Nice job Dick!
haven't turned any walnut yet!
How hard is it on the tools when it's dryer(not green)
Jim

[Dick Parr]

Jim, Walnut is an easy wood to turn green or dry and the tools hold up pretty well. I think I only had to sharpen once or twice during the turning. It's one of my favorite woods to turn.

[Kurt Aebi]

Dick,

If the pictures don't do it justice, it must surely be awesome - because fom what I see, it looks great!.

I haven't tried my hand at bowls yet, but I do have a nice walnut limb to work with. Looking at your bowl give me inspiration. Thanks for sharing!

[Jack Hogoboom]

Dick,

Really nice bowl. I was wondering about the bottom. The foot of the bowl looks concave. How did you mount it to turn out the inside of the bowl?

Jack

[Dick Parr]

Jack, after I was done with the inside I mounted it in a cole jaw setup that I have attached to my supernova chuck. Just turned the dovetail down and added some rings.

I love this supernove set-up. I can go from using the wood worm screw in the chuck to turn the bottom shape and make my dovetail for the chuck, then remove the screw and chuck it up to turn the inside and then turn it back around to finish the bottom. :D

[Jim Becker]

Very nice Dick. That's a good bowl, with a stable profile for actual use and it has a lot of character in the wood.

One observation about the photos and based on the tutilage of Jamie Donaldson, a photographer/turner I know from another forum...if you made the picture with a blue background, don't. (If, in fact, the blue background is the result of your camera or software "color correction", there is not much you can do other than adjusting your location, lighting, etc., to eliminate the changes from being necessary) A background should generally always be white, grey and in a very few situations, black. Any color will be picked up by the piece you are shooting and that will make it harder to get an accurate representation. A simple, cheap white window shade makes an excellent background. A sheet makes a very poor one, especially if it's wrinkled. Using white or grey for your background also helps your camera more accurately deal with color, contrast and brightness...the meter that measures these things to adjust the camera settings is normalized to 18% grey.

Jamie (and John Lucas from Tenn) did some excellent photography training sessions at the AAW symposium in Orlando. In my copious free time, I'm going to try and put together and post a short pictorial on the basics of inexpensive lighting and shooting of small projects, just as turnings and carvings. It's really neat how easy it is to do...we don't need to be pros to get great results. Their classes were a real eye-opener for me!

[Dick Parr]

Thanks Jim for the comments and tips,

Yes I did use a blue background after looking at Bill Grumbine's web site. Just got a couple of sheets of poster board to use since I am not making anything big at the moment. I'm trying out different backgrounds to see what works. I will try the gray or white to see what it does.

Thanks again for the tips and look forward to your short pictorial. :)

[Jim Becker]

Dick, if you look at your photos above, you'll actually see the blue reflected in the sheen of the bowl! That "cools" the real colors of the wood. You will not get that with a neutral background. Using a window shade also gives you the opportunity to "sweep" the background up and away, making for a seamless backdrop that also doesn't introduce problems with light reflections, etc.

[Tyler Howell]

Nice Bowl Dick, your talents abound!

Good discussion on photos as well.
Thanks to the SMC group for another winner.

TJH;)

[Ed Marks]

Nice job Dick. Walnut is fun to work with. Just can't seem to get my hands on much of it in this corner of the world.

I was trying to follow your chucking sequence. I use the supernova as well but start with a faceplate, turn a spigot or dovetail, remount in the supernova and do the outside/inside, and then put the cole jaws on the supernova to finish up the base. Do you leave the cole jaws on all the time? It looks from your picture that you might. I was wondering how that worked since the cole jaws tend to have a speed limit, not to mention the habit of biting ones hands if (when) I don't pay attention.

BTW, I made a little picture taking booth out of white poster board (the stuff with the foam core) and some duct tape. It works really well for shooting turned objects and can be made so it folds up real nice and stores in a trash bin liner to keep it clean.

[Dick Parr]

Ed, I don't seem to have a problem with the speed of the jaws since I only use the nova for bowls right now. I do have to watch out for them spinning though. :eek: They do bite. Once I get some more $$ I would like to get a dedicated chuck body for the cole set up, but that will have to wait for now.