Completed - back from "the bucket"

[Steve Busey]

I always seem to get projects started, but have trouble finding time to complete them; or I botch them up so badly they get tossed in a 5 gal bucket in a corner of the shop. So today, I finished up a few pens and was looking for something else to do, when my eye spotted "the bucket". On the top was a zebrawood bowl I blew up good. Got a real big catch trying to navigate the inside transition and it went flying in three pieces. One piece was deep in a corner that I could not reach, behind logs, saws, jigs and spiders. With no hope of finishing the bowl, I bandsawed the biggest bowl piece to gauge thickness (very uniform!). Into the bucket it went.

(Flashback: But when I bought my Jet, I had to clean out that corner so I could open the door wide enough to get the lathe pieces in. During that cleaning, I found the missing piece of zebrawood. Into the bucket it went.)

Anyway, something told me to pick up the pieces and see what was what. Hmm. So I glued them all together, with a strip of veneer in the bandsaw kerf, jam-chucked it onto the lathe and cleaned it up, threw some WTF on it and buffed it out. Nice looking workbench bowl! I was happy to "salvage" (be that as it may) that nice piece of wood.

1) Best side of the bowl, except the foot that shattered flying across the room.
2) Some of the glue seams and the BFC (big catch) hole in the side - no idea where that piece went.
3) Inside view with the veneer seam & glue seams.

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[Jamie Donaldson]

The forensic evidence shows that you must have been cutting with the L wing of your gouge, a high risk operation as you now surely know. I like to revisit the crime scenes to reconstruct the event as a learning opportunity, to remind you to not do that again!

[Ed Morgano]

This bowl has character and I love the wood.

[Michelle Rich]

recycled/salvaged is good!

[Steve Busey]

The forensic evidence shows that you must have been cutting with the L wing of your gouge, a high risk operation as you now surely know.

Probably more high risk than I know, since I'm not even sure what the L wing is on my gouge... :confused:

[Jerry Marcantel]

Probably more high risk than I know, since I'm not even sure what the L wing is on my gouge... :confused:

Steve, if I'm interpreting this correctly, that would be the "Left Wing"..... I'm learning also...... Nice looking bowl, and it had a lot of promise before it blew up. Now, it's not just a broken piece of wood anymore. ... Jerry (in Tucson)

[Tim Rinehart]

I think Jamie likely nailed the forensics pretty well on this. Just to clarify for what I interpret as well, here's some more thoughts to consider and work on...not the only way, but works for me.

When forming the interior with a bowl gouge, the most common direction I use is a push cut from 'outside in', the gouge groove is slightly open to perhaps 45 DEG open "AWAY" from you. My preference is starting somewhat more open and finishing more closed as the center is approached.
The only time I typically have the groove facing me, is if I'm using the gouge as a scraper, and then it's almost completely closed to work like a scraper on the lower wing. This is a technique I first saw from Jimmy Clewes, and to carry it out effectively, it helps if the grind on the wings has a gentle curve to them to provide close to single point contact of the tool to the wood. In any case, if the wood is green and 'moving', any of this scraping could also result in a catch at thinner or more outboard areas. I wish I had a good pic to show you...let me know if any of this needs better explanation.

Regardless...fine 'shop bowl' save! I'm sure like alot of mine, it will find plenty of uses for any number of objects in a shop!