my first finished HFs!

[Wes Ramsey]

I am relatively new to turning and have a Delta 46-525 given to me by a cousin last fall - mostly just for fun and gifts, but I'm starting to get requests for purchases. Woohoo! I wanted it to turn bowls mostly, but have enjoyed turning some HFs. Here are my first two finished HFs:

This is from a chunk of very dry sycamore driftwood. It sat on my shop floor for several months and sucked moisture up through the concrete and spalted beautifully! I sealed the wood with Danish oil and put on 7 coats of Minwax poly and sanded them all back off. For the life of me I couldn't put it on thin enough to not sag. Good learning experience though! I sanded it to 600 grit and polished by hand with Minwax paste wax. I had a buyer lined up, but the wife claimed it for her own.

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This is from a chunk of elm my mom wanted me to try to salvage. The tree was cut last summer and had sat on the ground in her yard since then. It's hard to see all the color in it, but some of the spalting is green. I filled the cracks with coffee grounds and CA, sealed with Danish oil, coated with poly and polished with paste wax.

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Comments and critiques are welcome!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wes - congrats on your first adventure into the world of hollow forms! Nice work - especially on the sycamore! Looking forward to seeing more HFs from you in the future! Have fun!

[David Delo]

Nice job Wes, certainly hit it out of the park on your first go 'round. How about some dimensions.

[Wes Ramsey]

Thanks guys! The sycamore form is about 7" tall and 8-9" across and the elm is about 8-9" tall and 4" across.

[Scott Roy]

Looks Great!

[Dave Fritz]

Wes - really nice forms. You've got a good eye and hands.

Which of the finishes sagged? I suspect the poly? If so was it regular poly or wipe on poly?

Dave Fritz

[Wes Ramsey]

Wes - really nice forms. You've got a good eye and hands.

Which of the finishes sagged? I suspect the poly? If so was it regular poly or wipe on poly?

Dave Fritz


Thanks Dave! It was regular ol' Minwax semi-gloss poly. I've used it on flat wood before without issue, but never on curved or vertical surfaces. The first coat was okay, but after sanding between coats the surface of both of these was very smooth and I suspect not porous enough to hold it in place very well. If my lathe would go slow enough to not sling it off I would try applying the poly and let it skim over at slow speed, but ~300rpm is about as slow as I can go and too fast to even try. Looking back I probably could have saved a lot of time by calling the 2nd or 3rd poly coat good and spending a bit more time on the wax polish and buff. I just got the Beall wood buff wheels and really like how easily it shines up the paste wax.

[Dave Fritz]

I use poly that I cut with mineral spirits, wipe it on and wipe off the excess. I have to say I only use that on pepper mills, pens, seam rippers etc.

A member of our woodturning club is selling a slow rotational device he made up. He uses that for bowls. Shouldn't be too hard to make one up.

Dave Fritz