Lee Alkureishi
04-20-2012, 11:54 AM
Hi all,
Started a new project, representing a lot of new things for me. Most went well, but with a few hiccups. Here goes:
- First time attempting a hollow form. Quickly realised that my oland and bowl gouge weren't going to work for the nooks and crannies so, I decided to make a couple more tools using 5/8" steel rod and 3/16" HSS cutters. Here's the results:
230128230130
To my surprise and delight, they work great! The stabilising bar really helps with the torque, but I'll need to pad up the handles better - my fingers are still tingly from the beating they took!
- Next, I realised the angles I needed to hold the tool wouldn't work, as the lathe is up against a wall. So, for the first time I rotated the headstock. Worked great, rock solid!
230126
- First time attempting a really thin-walled vessel. It went well, up to a point...
230125
- nicked the lip of the vessel on my way out - disaster!
230124
- Decided to salvage the remainder of the piece, turning it into a bowl instead of a closed form.
- Also my first time using light to gauge the thickness of the wall - very handy!
230127
- So here's the finished result. I'm pretty pleased with it, though it still has a few problems. Seen in the pic above, there are some cracks that developed in the wall. This was a very green ash log, cut into a bowl blank 2 days ago. I roughed out the outside same day, then stored it in an airtight tub full of the shavings until I could hollow the inside yesterday . Even as I was hollowing, the cracks started developing - I'm guessing because of the delay. Had originally planned to rough turn it, and dry it after DNA soaking. But, after I noticed the cracks I decided just to finish turn it and see what happens. Hopefully they don't keep going!
230132230133
- Still have to reverse mount it and turn off the foot, but I'm hesitant to take that step as the bit where the tenon meets the bowl is REALLY thin - got a little overeager with the hollowing there! I'm also not sure whether to use cole jaws or a jam chuck, as the wall is super thin and I don't want to mar it or worse, break it. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks for looking!
Started a new project, representing a lot of new things for me. Most went well, but with a few hiccups. Here goes:
- First time attempting a hollow form. Quickly realised that my oland and bowl gouge weren't going to work for the nooks and crannies so, I decided to make a couple more tools using 5/8" steel rod and 3/16" HSS cutters. Here's the results:
230128230130
To my surprise and delight, they work great! The stabilising bar really helps with the torque, but I'll need to pad up the handles better - my fingers are still tingly from the beating they took!
- Next, I realised the angles I needed to hold the tool wouldn't work, as the lathe is up against a wall. So, for the first time I rotated the headstock. Worked great, rock solid!
230126
- First time attempting a really thin-walled vessel. It went well, up to a point...
230125
- nicked the lip of the vessel on my way out - disaster!
230124
- Decided to salvage the remainder of the piece, turning it into a bowl instead of a closed form.
- Also my first time using light to gauge the thickness of the wall - very handy!
230127
- So here's the finished result. I'm pretty pleased with it, though it still has a few problems. Seen in the pic above, there are some cracks that developed in the wall. This was a very green ash log, cut into a bowl blank 2 days ago. I roughed out the outside same day, then stored it in an airtight tub full of the shavings until I could hollow the inside yesterday . Even as I was hollowing, the cracks started developing - I'm guessing because of the delay. Had originally planned to rough turn it, and dry it after DNA soaking. But, after I noticed the cracks I decided just to finish turn it and see what happens. Hopefully they don't keep going!
230132230133
- Still have to reverse mount it and turn off the foot, but I'm hesitant to take that step as the bit where the tenon meets the bowl is REALLY thin - got a little overeager with the hollowing there! I'm also not sure whether to use cole jaws or a jam chuck, as the wall is super thin and I don't want to mar it or worse, break it. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks for looking!