First Bowl, Darn Mesquite!!

[Lupe Duncan]

For the most part all I have done is Pens, This is my first bowl made on my "New to me" Delta 46-460 (Love the thing).

The wife and I were at Woodcraft and I told here to go grab at a piece of wood she liked and I would make her something. She handed me a heavily waxed dark piece of wood and we got a few other items and left.
The following weekend I FINALY got a chance to do some turning and inspected the 4x4x2 block closer. Wouldnt you know it the block was labelled in black sharpie on one side it says "Black Mesquite"!!! :eek: :mad:
WHAT!!!! part of the reason I wasnt able to turn sooner was because a large Mesquite tree fell over onto my barbwire fence. At least it was Black Mesquite and not Honey Mesquite....:o and I love the Mesquite. :p

I got a little agressive on the bowl. Made the tenon a little too small for a foot and actually finished the outside before I remembered about the bottom. So I was thinking about using the bowl and making an "add on" base or stand. I figured I could practice turning either of those since I have no other turnig experience anyway.

Thanks for looking,

Coments appreciated and encouraged, How else will I learn......;)

[John Keeton]

Lupe, very nice work on your first bowl!! The Delta is a fantastic lathe, and you are going to really enjoy it more as time goes on. Great finish on this one, too. Looks like you have some thickness left in the bowl - you could turn a piece of scrap to create a very slightly rounded jamb piece (kind of match the bottom inside curvature of your bowl) and then you could put your tailstock on the tenon in the center mark to turn the bottom of the bowl. In that process, you might be able to round the bottom third some to continue into the base, the nice curve you have going on the top portion.

Nice work!! And, a great finish - looks almost like CA!! Look forward to seeing the second bowl!

[Lupe Duncan]

Thanks John.

I dont have a hollowing tool so I had to use a radiused square carbide insert tool and couldnt get as deep as I wanted to.

Good eye John, that is CA. I have some that is thickening up and I need to use it. But on the good side the finish was completed in about 2-3 hours.

[Jeff Nicol]

Lupe, You will love that little lathe forever! I use mine but not as much as I do during ornament making time. The bowl has a very nice shape and the finish is alive so you did good. Hollowing or undercutting a rim is easy to do with a simple shop made tool using some old saw blade as a cutter, I know lots fo guys can't or don't want to get into tool making, but the rewards of doing it yourself are much greater than buying them.

Keep plugging away and you will become addicted soon enough,

Jeff

[bob svoboda]

Nice bowl-especially for a first. I have heard good things about that lathe-I believe you are adequately hooked!:D

[Roger Chandler]

great piece of mesquite! Pretty finish. Do you not have a bowl gouge? I would take more out of the inside, and I do like your idea of making a foot.....out of a contrasting wood would set it off.

[Norm Zax]

Very nice first bowl Lupe. How many layers of CA do you have on that and was it applied like on pens? Looks like a wet candy!

[Mark Hubl]

Nice first bowl. It has a good shape and the finish looks good. John has given good advice for finishing the bottom. I have vacuum and a donut chuck, but I find that I finish many pieces with some sort of jam chuck and the tailstock and then just a little sanding.

[Jim Burr]

Great looking wood Lupe. I'd suggest changing to a gloss poly or similar finish just because CA is so expensive...but very pretty!!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Nice first bowl out of some good looking wood. Really nice finish but also would suggest like Wipe on Poly or something like Antique Oil. Be lots cheaper.

[Jon Nuckles]

Really nice first bowl (or mirror with that finish). Great work!

[Lupe Duncan]

Thanks for the responses. I really appreciate the feedback and pointers on this stuff.

Believe me I am hooked. I would love to be able to get into making my own tools but I have no shop. I drag out my lathe and turn off my back porch (you can kinda see it in the bowl) . That Delta is heavy. I need to get casters.

I do have a HF bowl gouge but I probably have a butter knife thats sharper. No sharpening equip.

I put the CA on the way I do my pens and its got about 3 layers of a thickening medium. I have tried WOP and but it still takes a while to dry. For me I have never made bowls and I need to get the finish at least dry before I can haul my equipment back inside. Once the sun goes down my lights attract everything. I have problems with bugs/Moths/gnats ALWAYS landing on my finish. So I figure 2.00 and ounce isnt that bad. But as I get into larger turnings that may start to hurt.

I probably will follow your guys advice and make a jam chuck and use the tailpiece, just need to find some time for it.

The bowl does have an undercut and the side wall is about 3/8th till you start to get toward the bottom corner. I have about 3/4 of an inch I need to remove at the bottom. I was just having problems with my Woodchuck and the reach with a stright toolrest.

[David E Keller]

That's pretty awesome, Lupe! I don't recall many first bowls that were as nicely finished as that. I agree with the others about using a jam chuck and getting rid of the tenon... You may have some issues blending that CA finish into the bottom since you have to finish the last bit off of the lathe, but I have no reason to doubt your CA skills! :D

You ought to keep an eye out for some sharpening equipment, or I suppose a round carbide cutter would suffice for a lot of things. I'm impressed that you were able to get the inside that smooth with a squarish cutter... Who knows what you could do with a sharp bowl gouge?:D

Keep up the good work!

[Donny Lawson]

Great first bowl and LOVE that shine.

[Thomas Canfield]

Congratulations Lupe, that is a nice 1st. As John suggested, you could remount the piece and do something about the lower section and tenon. I do not have a vacuum system and turn off most of my tenons using a jamb chuck (block with rubber shelf liner) to fit the inside curve and live center against the tenon. I can then turn down the tenon to a small nub and remove that with chisel or flush cut saw and sand the small raised section. Welcome to the larger world of turning past pens and get started on additional bowls and hollow forms.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Pretty wood - outstanding finish! Looking forward to seeing your next one!

[Lupe Duncan]

Thanks guys.

It means alot comming from people who know.

I will make a jam chuck and round the bottom half to continue that curve and start looking for another chunk o wood.

[Chip Sutherland]

That is a great finish.

There's a lot of turning skill to be obtained by the fixing of mistakes you perceive in your work. Mistakes don't always make firewood. I'm still fixing pieces I screwed up on 5 years ago at the beginning of my turning. I broke the tenon on my very first HF from a catch. I didn't know how to solve it for at least another year of learning. The lesson learned was the value of making a Bowl Steady jig. On my finish table right now is the same HF awaiting me to lime it, finish it, part it off the 'new' tenon.

I also have wormy mesquite 'funnel' to fix where I parted through the bottom. It needs a new base with a reverse tenon. The lesson learned was to measure the depth, hit it and don't get obsessed with a nib-free, flat bottom HF. The final piece won't match my original design perfectly but I bet the person I give it to or sell it to won't care. And I won't tell them it was a 'salvaged' piece.

I cannot think of a piece I haven't made a mistake on....but that's what 12 step programs are for.

[Bill Boehme]

That is a beautiful bowl especially considering it was your first one. I still have the remnants of my first one -- it sort of resembles a bowl with big holes in the side where the tool caught and dug through -- woo-hoo was that exciting for a new turner!

The incredibly nice glossy finish tells me that you must be a pen turner -- it is glass smooth. You mentioned turning on your back porch and I can see trees and perhaps a patio door in the reflection. We are having some great turning weather right now.

If you can find some large green mesquite (shouldn't be too difficult in Lockhart), it is an absolute joy to turn -- it makes beautiful long wet streamers and will do wonders to boost your turning confidence because green wood is a bit more forgiving of tool handling mistakes. If you think that you are hooked now, just wait until you turn some green wood. You will be wanting to "do" wood 24/7.

The folks at Woodcraft must be pretty good at selling things if they can sell mesquite to a Texan. I'll bet that they can sell ice cubes at the north pole too.

[Bill Boehme]

I forgot to mention that there are no mistakes -- only design opportunities.