Just for fun

[Paul Williams]

First a little introduction. I am Paul Williams, fairly recently retired, living in Inver Grove Heights Minnesota. I have been around the forum for a year or so and have posted a few times. I have been woodworking since grade school, a long time ago. Have made furniture, two boats, one airplane, and a lot of stuff for the house. Most of my turning has been making parts for other projects. Originally on an old Gilmore kit tube lathe. 15 or 20 years ago I bought a small metal lathe, and the tube lathe was tossed in the back of the shed. A few years ago I noticed the pen kits at Rockler and decided to try a few of those. The metal lathe does a nice job on pens and you don't need special bushings for each pen type.

I had been looking at the Delta midi VS on every trip to Rockler or Woodcraft. My wife noticed and bought one for Christmas. After finding time to clear out a small space and mount it on the stand from my old lathe, I decided to fool around a little to renew my rusty turning skills.

I'm remodeling our house. I had some scrap timber strand left over from the stair stringers. It looked like a difficult wood to turn with the glue and voids, so I thought it would be good practice. It didn't turn too bad but the dust was terrible. Anyway here are a few things I turned just for fun and to renew my skills.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4458227417_a871f000a6_o.jpg

For the offset turning on the pendants I just used a chunk of maple held to a screw in the center of a 2 inch face plate. I reset the screw to different positions on the maple. Worked OK. Try it if you want to try pendant making but are not ready to invest in an off center chuck.

Of course I had to try a bowl. This one is walnut 7 3/4 by 1 1/2. No finish yet other than the wax in the polishing compound.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4458227449_7ac0e596fe_o.jpg

I think it might be my 4th bowl, but it has been 20 years since the last one. Comments and opinions are welcome.

Thanks to all of the Creekers who have posted here. I have learned a lot from you and am looking forward to more turning. I have a little cherry, quite a few chunks of olive, and a lot of maple that I cut and sealed last fall. Now all I have to do is finish my home remodeling so I can spend more time learning how to use my lathe.

[Mark Hubl]

Congratulations and welcome. Your pieces look great.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats on your retirement and welcome back to posting. Look forward to more. I just retired in December. Those are some great looking turnings. I love the walnut bowl. Really nice form and finish.

[David E Keller]

Doesn't look like there's much rust on your turning skills... nice work. Welcome aboard.

[Ted Calver]

Very nice Paul. Glad to see you spinning again.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Paul - nice work on everything! Looking forward to seeing some more of your work real soon!

[Richard Madison]

Paul, +1 what Steve said. Be sure and take a break from the home remodeling now and then for some turning time.

[John Keeton]

Great comeback on woodturning, Paul!! Very nice looking bowl - just have to love a walnut piece!

You guys keep doing these pendants - it is a conspiracy to suck me in deeper!

Paul, I envy your retirement - but, then I am not sure I would have time for all the home projects! I'd better keep working for awhile to rest up for retirement.:D

[Roland Martin]

Nice work Paul. If you lost any skills over the past 20 years, you would have had to phenominal. Really like the walnut bowl. Congratulations on your retirement.

[Thom Sturgill]

Nice. It's not quite like what they say about learning to ride a bicycle, but not that far off either. Once you develop the 'muscle memory' it will re-assert itself and at least speed the re-learning. Welcome back to the 'vortex'. It's pull is strong.

[Paul Williams]

Thanks for the nice comments. I got to a decent looking bowl, but it took a lot longer than it would have when I was more active. Also a lot more sanding. One thing I forgot to do was measure the depth of the recess for my chuck. So I was afraid to cut too deep on the inside. After sanding and some polishing, I took it off the chuck and found there was quite a bit of thickness left in the bottom. Back on the lathe, cut to within 3/16 of the recess and more sanding. I could learn to dislike sanding, but it will teach me to do thinks in the proper order.

[steven carter]

Paul,

I was hoping that you would write another smash song before you retired, but ...oh well:rolleyes:. Seriously, your turnings look like you haven't forgotten much, I really like both bowl, and the pens and pentants, I would say that on the whole, "You've Only Just Begun" to return to producing quality turnings.

Steve

[Baxter Smith]

Nice looking collection!

[alex carey]

im totally digging the far right pendant, great job on everything though.

[Paul Williams]

I think the two lighter colored pendants are white oak. We were cutting lumber off a friends land many years ago. It was mostly white oak. After sawing into boards we cut out and threw away pieces that were off colored or had knots or wierd grain. Must have tossed more than a pickup load into the burn pile. I kept one or two pieces that I thought were neat. Today I am wishing I had kept it all. Better yet saved it before it went threw the saw mill.

Interesting day sawing lumber. There was an old guy not far from home who had a steam powered sawmill. He agreed to cut up the trunks for us if we rounded up lots of help and did all of the manual work. Didn't look like the mill had run recently but the old guy knew what he was doing and how to get work out of our crew. Some of the guys started the fire at 4:00 am. The rest of us hauled logs to the mill. The old guy sat at the controls and pulled levers. It was a great day. Everyone left bone tired and with a load of boards. The old guy didn't charge us a dime. Said he had a good day and wouln't take any money. He did keep some wood, but not what it was worth.

[Richard Madison]

Good sawmill story Paul. Would like to have seen it. Thanks.