How many roughouts?

[Kevin J Lalonde]

I've just started turning within the last few weeks and have already 20 roughouts stashed and waiting. I cant imagine doing this for years and see how many bowls i will have hanging around. How many bowls do you all have roughed out waiting on finishing?

[Jeff Nicol]

Kevin, I think I have close to 300 sitting all over the place rigt now! I just finished 7 or 8 so the pile is getting down! I do a lot of roughing in the summer when I get the wood fresh and then do a lot of finishing in the winter. Also this time of year is when I sell the most. My cousins new gallery is opening the first weekend in November so I need some new stuff fo there also. So you will start to get a pile of them if you don't keep track of them it can get out of hand like me!

Have fun,

Jeff

[Tom Lewis]

I have enough rough outs to last me several years. I have so many, I don't even know what I have anymore. People keep giving me wood that is hard to refuse. Every few days I will work exclusively on finish turning rough outs, but the rough out pile keeps growing.
I don't consider this a problem.

[Michael Mills]

Kevin,
I am fairly new also (about 1-½ years) I rough turned quite a few to start with and then tapered off…….. waiting 6 to 9 months to dry. Finally started using the denatured alcohol method. I only have eight or so rough turned and it is taking a month at the most to dry. I can finish turn a couple and rough turn a couple more. As a hobbyist that fits my needs fine.
Mike

[Steve Schlumpf]

Kevin - turning green wood is so much fun it is easy to get carried away when roughing out bowls and hollow forms! I only have around 25 hollow forms and 50 bowls left to finish - so I probably need to start thinking about getting some more wood - but I am not in a rush.

One thing that I learned about roughing out is to try and limit how many of a certain style I do. I have found that bowls and hollow forms that I roughed out 2 years ago are not even close to the style that I like to turn now. I did manage to luck out in that my method of roughing out a couple of years ago left me plenty of wood to work with - but it is something that I will plan for when I start roughing out again.

[Denis Puland]

Hi
I have a couple of sheds have full of many forms and shapes drying and dry. It would take a couple of years to finish them all, heaven forbid that I have to do such a thing as turning the green stuff is a lot of fun too.

Some for sure will never see the lathe again but then again some day I will need this certain piece or shape and low and behold there it is all dry and ready for use.

If you have the storage space keep turning green if you have the wood.
It will enhance your turning skill even if you do not ever finish it all.

Denis

[Terry Quiram]

I have over 100 dry and waiting. I agree with the statement that is a lot more fun to turn green. I used to rough turn everything I could get my hands on. Now I am more discrimanating and only turn figured wood.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I lost count on bowls and HF's I have in different stages of drying. I have them everywhere and just keep roughing out new ones. I am more picky now about what I rough out. In the beginning I roughed everything I could get my hands on. I know someone will come in for a particular style and I go find it, put it on the lathe and finish it.

[alex carey]

I have around 50 or so.

[Allen Neighbors]

I only had 5 roughed out bowls day before yesterday. Then, I cored out 3, and finish-turned two, so now I only have 6. I don't have any roughed out pieces other than bowls. I've never been able to rough-turn a hollowform... don't know how.
I just turn hollowforms from start to finish, and let them warp or move the way they want to.
I'm soon going to get a very large Cottonwood tree... double trunks, each about 24" diameter and 25 feet tall... so I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of roughing soon. (I guess that could be called a drive-by gloat, huh?) :o)
Rough-turn all you can, and you'll not regret it; procrastinate, and you'll regret it, like me. :o(

[Richard Madison]

Pretty sure I have two, but forgot where I put one of them.

[Rick Prosser]

I got Richard beat...but only by a couple pieces:p

I do have a couple of logs laying around waiting to be cut.

[Richard Madison]

That's a new thread Rick (how many logs do you have). I do have three really short and scroungy mesquite logs from West Texas and still have one good one from Robert.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Well, I have certainly over 100 dry and drying. Some are finish turned but not sanded, some just rough turned for returning later. I rough turned a LOT of bowls when I started turning a few years ago, and have since started to turn natural edge pieces thin when green, then sand when dry, and turn salad bowls thin if they are special or nice grain, and rough them when they're not particularly spectacular grain or if I just have a lot of wood of a particular type. Then I can worry about them later.