Finally managed to turn a bowl at home

[Stephen Saar]

I had turned a semi decent looking bowl in a class awhile back and I had bought a lathe, but it seemed that I always had trouble when trying to turn things at home. I got rather frustrated and started doing some flatwork, and I would occasionally try to turn again only to make the same mistakes (I'm a quick learner, huh? :-)). I finally tried again tonight and for once I actually slowed down and took my time, and tried to do it right and hey what do you know it worked! I still made a bunch of mistakes, and the bowl turned out looking very bad, but I was able to complete my turning.

I did realize why I see so few flat sided bowls, they're a real pain to get to that inside corner.

Including a pic, but be thankful it's low quality. High quality just makes the bowl look that much worse.

-Stephen

[Donny Lawson]

I figured out last week that was the easy part.When you get close to the bottom I use a 1/4" parting tool to flatten out the inside bottom.
Donny

[Bernie Weishapl]

Stephan that is a pretty nice first bowl. They will only get easier from here on out the more you turn.

[Fred Perreault]

Stephen,
Save your first bowl. You will be surprised how quickly you will improve your technique, and the quality of your form. Nice flowing lines, a light touch, and a moderate, patient attitude will get you closer to where you want to be. Turn, turn, turn.....
Good luck

[John Keeton]

Stephen, it is kind of like learning to ride a bicycle - all of a sudden it will click. Really a pretty decent bowl given the form - that is a difficult one that would give anyone a challenge.

Stick with it!!

[David E Keller]

Nice job on getting it finished. I agree with you... That's a tough shape to turn.

[Stephen McGregor]

Stephen Great Bowl...

[Stephen Saar]

Thanks for all the feedback. I did have a question though, how do you prevent this type of tear out? Sorry for the picture quality, but I think the tear out is still obvious. The problem I always seem to have is that once I get this way it almost always goes so deep that trying to fix it almost always makes it worse, or I have to take off way to much material to finally get to back to a nice flat surface.

-Stephen

[Scott Hackler]

I have had a few end grain areas that ended up like that and although I couldn't get rid of all the "chip out", I was able to drastically help it with the ole 80 grit an the power sander! It just takes a lot longer to finish because of going that rough with the paper.

Nice looking first bowl. Be sure and date it and definitely keep it. It will amaze you what comes off the lathe in a year from now!

[David E Keller]

Thanks for all the feedback. I did have a question though, how do you prevent this type of tear out? Sorry for the picture quality, but I think the tear out is still obvious. The problem I always seem to have is that once I get this way it almost always goes so deep that trying to fix it almost always makes it worse, or I have to take off way to much material to finally get to back to a nice flat surface.

-Stephen

I would try a light finishing cut with a sharp bowl gouge making sure that I was cutting with the grain(usually from base to rim on a side grain bowl). Option 2 for me is a shear scraping cut using the wing of a long grind bowl gouge cutting in the same direction. Sometimes an application of thin shellac will help stiffen the wood fibers enough to allow for a cleaner cut. My third option is coarse sandpaper.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Stephen - congrats on getting your first bowl turned! It does get easier with time!

As far as your tearout - couple of things immediately come to mind - your gouge was dull and/or you were pushing/pulling your cut faster than the wood wanted to be cut. Figure that most likely it was just that your gouge needed to be sharpened.

What speed were you turning your bowl at?

[Stephen Saar]

I was most likely trying to take too much material off, and my tools weren't as sharp as they should have been. I did another bowl tonight and it was much better. I've gotten a much better idea of how to properly sharpen my tools so I'm able to get a better edge now.

Thanks for all the help. Still have a lot to learn, but I've been making some big strides the last few days.

-Stephen

[Thomas Canfield]

Stephen,

That is a good looking and hard 1st bowl. Shallow bowls or even saucers are much easier when starting to avoid the sharp transition. I personally gained a lot of confidence in turning bowls after rough turning a bunch of green wood where I did not have to worry about the end product, but could see a lot of wood shavings fly off the tool. Good luck on the next 100.

[Chip Sutherland]

I'm with David on his response. Here is the order I do them in
1) sharpen tools
2) thin shellac to seal/bind the grain better than nature did
3) light cut(s) - I also turn the speed up about 50%
4) shear cut - this is a bit tricky so you want to learn this before you need it on a valuable piece...done wrong and the mistake can make a bowl into a platter. DAMHIKT. I do love the angel hair shavings that this cut produces.
5) sand it out.... power sand out with both directions (reverse the lathe or reverse the drill or both)...hand sand between grit changes to deal the swirly scratches for power sanding. I really, really, really hate this last option so I will do 1-4 more than once before I resort to this one because there is no skill in sanding....This is just a patience builder. (yuck).

FYI...If I know the wood is punky before I start, I know tear out will be a problem....I use Miniwax Wood Hardener on the blank. This stabilizes it some more but inevitably the above will be used, too.