First Bowls

[David Bodkin]

I've decided to get into turning and was lucky enough to pick up a Rockwell Delta 46-499 variable speed lathe off of Craigslist. I turned a couple bowls out of some maple firewood that I've had in my garage for a couple of years. The smaller bowl is 4.75" wide and the larger one is about 5.5" wide. I mostly used scrapers on them, exclusively when hollowing. I left the walls pretty thick on them and still need to work on getting consistent thickness. They've been good for learning though. I've already had a couple of catches and the large bowl flew off the jamb chuck. Yes, I have a face mask.

David

219966

[Josh Bowman]

Well David, welcome to the Vortex of turning. The bowls look great and I look forward to you next.

[Thomas Heck]

Great start. I've only been turning about 3 months and really enjoy it.

[Dan Forman]

You were lucky to find that lathe on Craig's List! Nice bowls, ambitious to try the larger form on the second try.

Dan

[Prashun Patel]

Nice job! Don't take the catches and jamb chuck releases cavalierly. I had a 12" oak blank fly off and hit me in the chest so hard I have a scar from it a year later. Stay out of the firing line at all times. I highly suggest you practice on shallow bowls first. That 2nd one is hard even with moderate experience. I see a lot of new turners (and I'm only a year+ into this, so I say this with due humility) practice on bowls that are too small and too deep. It's hard to control the abrupt transition the requires at the bottom of the bowl. This is where a lot of tearout and catching happens.

Shoot, you don't need my help, I'm just sharing what I've learned.

[charlie knighton]

very nice, you might want to get with one of the florida clubs and work on your chucking or face plate work, they would be happy to see you

[Rich Aldrich]

Caution: The vortex sucks......the money out of your wallet, account, etc.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Good looking bowls for your first. Welcome to the vortex.

[David Bodkin]

Thanks for the comments everyone. The guy who sold me the lathe has already told me about a local turning club and I plan to attend one of their meetings this Saturday. I have some DVDs and book but it'll be nice to see other people turning in person.

[Billy Tallant]

Nice looking bowls for your 1st effort. Keep the pics coming...

[Roland Martin]

Well done and welcome to the vortex, life will never be the same.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice bowls David! Have fun at the turning club meeting! Folks there will make your trip into the vortex a heck of a lot less stressful!!

[Thomas Canfield]

Those are nice looking bowls and specially nice for first bowls. As Prashaun said, the shallow bowls are a lot easier and help you build confidence and learn the techniques. My favorite shape and size for the early shallow bowl is the Corelle cereal bowl and you can branch out from there. That shape allows you to ride the bevel for all the interior surface with a standard grind bowl gouge where a greater angle is required for the deeper straighter side and sharp radius flat bottom bowls. A good exercise is to rough out a bunch of green wood and really get hooked seeing the long shavings and easy cutting without being concerned with all the final finish.

[Baxter Smith]

Congrats on the bowls and welcome to the vortex!