A Cypress Launching

[Bob Borzelleri]

I almost posted a note last night that would have asked about a few fine lines that I found on the outer finish of the Cypress bowl I have been working on. By the time I finished for the evening, I was a bit tired so I passed on the post. As it turned out, I answered my own question a few minutes ago.

After turning an undercut rim on the 7" shallow bowl I was working on, I decided to use a Hunter #3 carbide tool to clean up the undercut. Before starting the cut, I decided to read the instructions that came with the Hunter. It suggested that the #3 works best at 1800 to 2000 rpm; I had been working at 1,000 up to that point.

So I ramped it up to 2,100 and the bowl promptly came apart along one of the faint lines that I was going to ask about had I not been too tired last night.

Sometimes you gotta experience things for yourself. Talk about one trial learning.

[alex carey]

yep that was definitely a crack.

[David E Keller]

Glad you're safe... sorry about the bowl.

[Mark Hubl]

Glad it missed you. Funny how it waited to come apart until you thought it was almost done. Sometimes I think these things have a mind of their own.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bet that was a surprise! Glad you are OK! 2100 rpm seems awfully fast to be turning a bowl - at least for me.

Looking forward to seeing the next one!

[Reed Gray]

I will turn bowls that size in that speed range (2000) , but never if there are any defects. If in doubt, tap it with your fingers when the inside is mostly turned out. If solid, it will ring, if there are cracks in it, it will give off a dull thud. This speed range is for crazy people, and professionals only. I am probably a bit of both. Well, maybe a lot of both. I would never recommend that speed for any one, even though I do it.

robo hippy

[Bernie Weishapl]

Reed hit the nail on the head. Reed gave me that advice a long, long time ago and it does work. Reed I still remember the advice.

Oh and Bob when they come apart like that it makes you talk to yourself.

[Richard Madison]

Another design opportunity (?) rears its ugly head. It's slow range only (to 1250) for me.

[John Keeton]

Bob, glad you were not in the line of fire!! Looks like the bowl had several cracks in it, so it was destined to come apart at some point. Would have been a little less traumatic had it opened up before cranking up the speed!!

I have yet to turn a bowl above 700 rpm - the top end of the first speed setting on the Delta 46-460. Seems to work for me.

[Roger Bullock]

My first thoughts when reading your post was "flying saucer" and "Speed kills". If the bowl had not came apart, a year from now it would have just been another bowl that you had completed. As it is, this bowl has taught you a lesson for life so all is not lost. Glad you are not injured, feelings hurt a little but not physically hurt.

[Roland Martin]

Well, not getting hurt is a blessing, unlike the split. Learning a lesson for life, as Roger said, is priceless. Your unfortunate mishap has also taught me a thing or two.

[Roger Chandler]

It is incidents like this that speak of the safety aspect of turning. Some simply think safety is not all that important, after all, what is likely to go wrong?

As you have experienced by this accident, sometimes the wood has a mind of its own, an no matter how careful one is, things go awry fast.

Glad you are okay!

[Jeff Nicol]

I have had this happen but with a lot worse outcome. In previous posts I have mentioned the outcome and posted a picture of the character marks left on my face after the chunk of red oak slammed me in the face! 28 stitches later and a few choice words from me and my wife, back to the lathe to turn some more!

I see in the pictures the wood has very straight grain running side to side, just like the oak piece I had fly apart. These are prime chunks for this hidden cracks to be and speed creates what I call a harmonic vibration in the crack and then KABOOM!! Its time to duck and cover!

Glad you are O.K. and to bad about the bowl, it looked like it was coming along nicely!

Get back in the saddle,

Jeff

[Alan Zenreich]

If it's a clean break, just glue it back together and do a little tweaking.

Glue is our friend.

[Gary Chester]

Reading the directions was your mistake!!!:D:D:D

Glad your OK and thanks for reminding all of us about the dangers.

Nail it to the wall as a reminder...

[Bob Borzelleri]

Thanks for all the kind words of near grief and encouragement to get back and turn.

Here's the list of newly discovered insights:

1. Spalting does not usually appear as parallel straight lines running across the grain.

2. If you have been turning successfully at 1,000, rpm, doubling the speed is not likely to make things go twice as well.

3. It's OK to turn a nearly finished project into firewood (or, as in this case, an object on the mantle for further discussion).

This last point is probably the most important for me at this stage of my turning experience.

For reasons that are both complex as well as too lengthy to explain, I have evolved into a person who doesn't like to redo anything. My mode has always been to do it right the first time. My wife likes to tell folks about when we had a sailboat and, if there was any other boat on the lake, it was a pretty sure thing that I would track them down and pass them. She thinks I'm competitive; I liked to think that I simply wanted to get the most out of the equipment.

I began to recognize that this approach was raising the stakes on my turning projects because, the closer I got to completion, the less I was willing to risk screwing something up. As a result, I was passing on design ideas that called for higher risk (to the blank) cuts.

I really wanted to complete the cypress bowl and when it came apart, I found myself doing two things; one of which I expected and the other which came as a bit of a surprise. First, I commended myself for standing off to the side as I switched the lathe on and then, I just stared at the pieces on the floor and the remnant in the chuck and said to myself, "Well, that didn't work out the way I had in mind". No particular sense of disappointment or having screwed up. I just thought through what happened and why and filed the experience away.

For awhile, I wondered if I had the patience to slowly carve out shapes and forms from spinning hunks of wood. In particular, I wondered how many screwed up blanks I would tolerate before maybe thinking this wasn't for me.

Now, I think I have reached a point in turning where the journey is at least as important as the finished project (or passing the only other boat on the lake).