From firewood to....

[Damon McLaughlin]

I'm a disabled veteran and have been dealing with my issues for the past 16 years. Its been a rough time. I was introduced to woodturning earlier this year and have found it to be the best therapeutic treatment I have ever had. I find that it distracts my mind and puts me into a good place. I've found that I can be creative and I'm proud of everything that comes off of my lathe. I started with borrowing my cousin's very old Craftsman bench top lathe and after a few months I was able to save some money to buy myself a Rikon 70-220VSR. I love the lathe, and have slowly been getting a few turning tools though for now I am still borrowing my cousin's old Craftsman tools. While I live on a small fixed income I find myself saving every penny I can so that I can get a bigger lathe and better tools. But for now I'm content turning on my Rikon, and in order to boost my savings I am only turning wood that I can find for free. Sometimes I see a log along the side of the road or if I go and visit my cousin I'll acquire a few pieces of wood from his firewood stack. I'm also saving to buy some nicer woods, it'll be nice to see what I can do with some hardwoods.

Anyway, I've been turning for eight months and here are a few things that I've turned out of firewood;

Fir from North Idaho
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Fir
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I think is is also fir
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Ash
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350019

[Damon McLaughlin]

Okay, here are a couple more, done last month. I would appreciate comments and critiques.


Pine from Spokane WA
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Cedar firewood from North Idaho
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Ok, so here I found some scrap wood including walnut, oak, beech, plywood. I glued it all together to make a block and turned it into a lidded bowl. The lid is spalted maple and the finial is walnut.
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This is one of my favorite pieces. The bowl is cottonwood and is full of worm holes. I got it from my grandmother's backyard. I came from a tree that had a swing in it that I played on when I was a kid. The lid maple. The base and handle are gabon ebony that I found on clearance at a local wood store. Finished with Danish oil. It stands about 15.5" tall.
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[Tim Passmore]

First of all THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE! Secondly, that is some very impressive work----great job!

[Roger Chandler]

David, congratulations on some fine pieces! Love your story as well, because it adds meaning to what you have accomplished in such a short time. I hope things develop where you might be able to sell some pieces, pick us some extra $$$ and perhaps have an accelerated path towards your tools and the lathe you have your heart set upon.

All of your pieces are well done, but as for critique, on your natural edge bowl, I think you could benefit from studying pictures of them online in order to gain more sense of form. The walls are a bit too vertical, but that is a common thing among newer turners, as we all try to get the maximum out of a piece of wood rather than take a pleasing curve and asthetic form as our first consideration, but that will come in time with the amount of projects you get under your belt.

Overall, I would say you are doing very well! Welcome to the "Creek" by the way! :) I was remiss to not thank you for your service to our nation..:o....better late than not at all!

[Sid Matheny]

Those are all very well done David and thank you for your service.

[Damon McLaughlin]

Thank you for the compliments and suggestions. As I don't have very much wood to work with you are correct, I've been trying to maximize real estate. I'll see what I can do about studying some natural edge forms and the wall angles.

One problem I'm having is sanding in tight corners, such as where a foot and bottom of bowl meet or in the corner of a tenon where the jaw fits. Any suggestions for getting those sanded out properly?

[George Bokros]

Thank you for your service. You have made some pieces that are outstanding. You should be proud of what you have made.

[Mel Fulks]

Like them all ,my favorite is that cedar piece pool with "water fall" side. Wishing you happiness and success .

[William C Rogers]

David, yes thank you for your service. You should be proud of those pieces they are exceptional. I would say you have a natural talent for turning. Something I do for tight sanding places is taking two adhesive backed sanding disks sticking them together to make one disk. Then I can cut it to make a shapes to fit the area I need to sand. This give a little stiffer piece with grit on both sides. I hope that is explained enough. Look forward to more of your work.

[John K Jordan]

Thank you for the compliments and suggestions. As I don't have very much wood to work with you are correct, I've been trying to maximize real estate. I'll see what I can do about studying some natural edge forms and the wall angles.

One problem I'm having is sanding in tight corners, such as where a foot and bottom of bowl meet or in the corner of a tenon where the jaw fits. Any suggestions for getting those sanded out properly?

David,

Excellent! You are making amazing progress for such a short time. I really like some of the pieces, such as the second one, the lidded piece with the small lid. I am definitely going to steal that idea!

I've been turning about 15 years and I started with a cheap set of Craftsman tools. I still use some, for example the spindle gouge, skew, and still my all time favorite, the diamond parting tool. When you get some money saved up you might look at the Thompson tools.

You will find that as your tool skills advance you will need less sanding in the places you mention. One thing is to avoid the sharp corners, perhaps making a curve to the foot instead, for example (the first one was from a neighbor's firewood, the second one curves all the way to the foot):
350038 350039
I usually use small negative rake scrapers to shape get in the tight places on the bottom - that surface needs only a bit of 600 or perhaps 400 sanding. On the second one I cut the recess on the bottom exactly the size of the chuck jaws so expanding into a slight dovetail didn't mar the inside and needed no sanding.

If I do need to smooth into a sharp corner, I first use a small hand scraper to remove tool marks, then sand with the edge or folded edge of the sandpaper by hand, with the lathe off.

As for wood, I do like to turn expensive exotic woods but most of my turning is from free wood. A lot of it is just wood salvaged from trees taken down in the area or trees that fall down on my farm. Do you have access to a bandsaw? I cut wood into turning squares and put them up to dry. I've been doing this a long time so I have a lot to choose from now. For example, the Dogwood I'm turning now has been air drying for 10 years. I have shelves full of wood drying and dry: maple, cherry, walnut, sassafras, osage orange, holly, poplar, oak, persimmon, c.chestnut, and more - all was free wood. And some from actual firewood that looked interesting while splitting.

If you could use some wood to play with send me private message with your address and I'll throw some in a box. I've got some nice pieces of dry cherry, for example, and I can send some dogwood - my favorite local wood! (Did you every turn dogwood? Very hard, fine grained, generally light color, takes detail and finish well) Do you like spindle turning? I do more spindle turning than anything so a lot of the blanks I make are spindle squares, for small boxes, tops, wands, ornaments, finials, etc.

And I too thank you for your sacrifice for our country, for me, my family, and the kids I teach.

JKJ

[Frederick Skelly]

Beautiful work David! You seem to have a talent for it, that's for sure.

I too thank you for your service.

Fred

[Damon McLaughlin]

Thank you again to everyone that responded. I wasn't expecting so many compliments and they are all appreciated! My favorite tools to work with so far are the bowl gouges, I have one traditional and two fingernail. I'm not good yet with the skew chisels but I'll just have to keep practicing. And thank you all for the tips as well. I have some mushrooms that I turned at first, some weed pots too. I keep those next to these latest turnings so that I can see how I've progressed. This site has also been really useful, lots of good tips and ideas. Oh, and feel free to steel my ideas, I promise you, I'll probably steel some of yours! Merry Christmas everyone.

David

[Steve Arnold]

Great work David!

Thanks for your service and sacrifices for our country.

[Damon McLaughlin]

David,

Excellent! You are making amazing progress for such a short time. I really like some of the pieces, such as the second one, the lidded piece with the small lid. I am definitely going to steal that idea!

I've been turning about 15 years and I started with a cheap set of Craftsman tools. I still use some, for example the spindle gouge, skew, and still my all time favorite, the diamond parting tool. When you get some money saved up you might look at the Thompson tools.

You will find that as your tool skills advance you will need less sanding in the places you mention. One thing is to avoid the sharp corners, perhaps making a curve to the foot instead, for example (the first one was from a neighbor's firewood, the second one curves all the way to the foot):
350038 350039
I usually use small negative rake scrapers to shape get in the tight places on the bottom - that surface needs only a bit of 600 or perhaps 400 sanding. On the second one I cut the recess on the bottom exactly the size of the chuck jaws so expanding into a slight dovetail didn't mar the inside and needed no sanding.

If I do need to smooth into a sharp corner, I first use a small hand scraper to remove tool marks, then sand with the edge or folded edge of the sandpaper by hand, with the lathe off.

As for wood, I do like to turn expensive exotic woods but most of my turning is from free wood. A lot of it is just wood salvaged from trees taken down in the area or trees that fall down on my farm. Do you have access to a bandsaw? I cut wood into turning squares and put them up to dry. I've been doing this a long time so I have a lot to choose from now. For example, the Dogwood I'm turning now has been air drying for 10 years. I have shelves full of wood drying and dry: maple, cherry, walnut, sassafras, osage orange, holly, poplar, oak, persimmon, c.chestnut, and more - all was free wood. And some from actual firewood that looked interesting while splitting.

If you could use some wood to play with send me private message with your address and I'll throw some in a box. I've got some nice pieces of dry cherry, for example, and I can send some dogwood - my favorite local wood! (Did you every turn dogwood? Very hard, fine grained, generally light color, takes detail and finish well) Do you like spindle turning? I do more spindle turning than anything so a lot of the blanks I make are spindle squares, for small boxes, tops, wands, ornaments, finials, etc.

And I too thank you for your sacrifice for our country, for me, my family, and the kids I teach.

JKJ



John, thanks for the tips and I will pm you about some wood. I'll see about making curved transitions rather than tight corners, I'm always willing to try anything that will make sanding easier. I'm glad you liked my second photo, I hope to see a photo of yours when you're done with it.

[Steve Doerr]

David,
I'm amazed at how nice your piece look for only turning for 8 months. You have done an excellent job on your shapes and forms. I agree with Roger on your NE bowl. Like Roger said we have all made "dog dish" straight sided bowls because we did want to waste any of the wood. Keep up the good work and I'm sure we will be seeing some more outstanding pieces in the future.

And, thank you for your service. I'm so glad that you find woodturning to help you get to a good place. As you are also learning that the vortex is strong and it really sucks you in. The other thing, my wife always tells me that the aliens must have gotten me because I would tell her that I'll only be in the shop for an hour and it ends up being 4 or 5.

[Allan Ferguson]

Very nice turnings, very good on the sanding, pine can be very challenging. I am located 120 miles northwest of Spokane. Have you joined the local turning club? All is looking really good for a short time turning.

[Damon McLaughlin]

Very nice turnings, very good on the sanding, pine can be very challenging. I am located 120 miles northwest of Spokane. Have you joined the local turning club? All is looking really good for a short time turning.


Hi Allen, I received your pm and sent a reply but I don't know if it went through to you or not. Please let me know if you got it. I'm not sure yet if I'm ready to join a local club. The thought has crossed my mind but I'm still working on issues with being in a crowd of people. Maybe in time.

And also, to the others that sent me a private message, I have sent replies but my "sent box" doesn't show anything as being sent. If you sent me a pm and didn't receive a reply please let me know, and let me know how to reply correctly (or pm me your email address). Thank you.

[Damon McLaughlin]

David,
I'm amazed at how nice your piece look for only turning for 8 months. You have done an excellent job on your shapes and forms. I agree with Roger on your NE bowl. Like Roger said we have all made "dog dish" straight sided bowls because we did want to waste any of the wood. Keep up the good work and I'm sure we will be seeing some more outstanding pieces in the future.

And, thank you for your service. I'm so glad that you find woodturning to help you get to a good place. As you are also learning that the vortex is strong and it really sucks you in. The other thing, my wife always tells me that the aliens must have gotten me because I would tell her that I'll only be in the shop for an hour and it ends up being 4 or 5.

The aliens have landed here too. I think I'm going out to play on the lathe for an hour or two only to find out the whole day has gone by. I'm pretty sure I'm sucked into that vortex, but I'm not complaining.

[Don Jarvie]

Very nice work! To eliminate the sanding issue sand the outside to its final smoothness before you flip it to do the inside. Sometimes us beginner turners forget this and have to sand close to the chuck.

As for tools buy good tools as you need them. A good bowl gouge will go a long way and buy good ones as you go along. You would be surprised you only use 2 or 3 tools most of the time.

[Damon McLaughlin]

David,

Excellent! You are making amazing progress for such a short time. I really like some of the pieces, such as the second one, the lidded piece with the small lid. I am definitely going to steal that idea!

I've been turning about 15 years and I started with a cheap set of Craftsman tools. I still use some, for example the spindle gouge, skew, and still my all time favorite, the diamond parting tool. When you get some money saved up you might look at the Thompson tools.

You will find that as your tool skills advance you will need less sanding in the places you mention. One thing is to avoid the sharp corners, perhaps making a curve to the foot instead, for example (the first one was from a neighbor's firewood, the second one curves all the way to the foot):
350038 350039
I usually use small negative rake scrapers to shape get in the tight places on the bottom - that surface needs only a bit of 600 or perhaps 400 sanding. On the second one I cut the recess on the bottom exactly the size of the chuck jaws so expanding into a slight dovetail didn't mar the inside and needed no sanding.

If I do need to smooth into a sharp corner, I first use a small hand scraper to remove tool marks, then sand with the edge or folded edge of the sandpaper by hand, with the lathe off.

As for wood, I do like to turn expensive exotic woods but most of my turning is from free wood. A lot of it is just wood salvaged from trees taken down in the area or trees that fall down on my farm. Do you have access to a bandsaw? I cut wood into turning squares and put them up to dry. I've been doing this a long time so I have a lot to choose from now. For example, the Dogwood I'm turning now has been air drying for 10 years. I have shelves full of wood drying and dry: maple, cherry, walnut, sassafras, osage orange, holly, poplar, oak, persimmon, c.chestnut, and more - all was free wood. And some from actual firewood that looked interesting while splitting.

If you could use some wood to play with send me private message with your address and I'll throw some in a box. I've got some nice pieces of dry cherry, for example, and I can send some dogwood - my favorite local wood! (Did you every turn dogwood? Very hard, fine grained, generally light color, takes detail and finish well) Do you like spindle turning? I do more spindle turning than anything so a lot of the blanks I make are spindle squares, for small boxes, tops, wands, ornaments, finials, etc.

And I too thank you for your sacrifice for our country, for me, my family, and the kids I teach.

JKJ


John, I sent you a PM but I'm not sure my messages are going through. I would like to talk to you more about cherry and dogwood. Can you pm me your email address or tell me how to properly reply to pm's? thanks.

[Thomas Canfield]

You have some really nice pieces for short time turning. Glad that you found tuIrning therapeutic. I did not see anyone above recommend getting with a local turning club, but that is one of the best ways to find help and often a way to find some "free" wood. Most turners that work with local wood have an excess and are usually glad to share to make room for the next find. I am big on encouraging the use of 2x6 lumber scraps to learn tool control and sharpening when learning to turn bowls. Your lathe choice should serve you well for some time. A 12" bowl or plate is fairly large when you look to store it.

[John K Jordan]

John, I sent you a PM but I'm not sure my messages are going through. I would like to talk to you more about cherry and dogwood. Can you pm me your email address or tell me how to properly reply to pm's? thanks.

I got your PM and just sent a reply with my email address. Let me know if you don't see it!

JKJ

[Martin Drummond]

Great work david

[Mike Turner]

Yes Thank you for your service. Your pieces are great.Keep on making sawdust,enjoying the journey and keep sharing with us.I love seeing great turnings like yours!!

[Steve Schlumpf]

David - just wanted to jump in here and say 'Welcome to the Creek!' Looks like you are off to a great start by sharing your work. Looking forward to seeing more of your turnings. If you have any questions - please let us know!

[Ronald Blue]

Thank you for your service. Great looking pieces too. You have came a long way in 8 months. I think if you go to your settings you have to set it so PM's sent show up. I had to do that. Go to your profile and then "General Settings". Scroll down and select save a copy of sent messages.

[Allan Ferguson]

David. Tried to PM you, did not work. will try again.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Thank you for showing us all your work, and thanks for your service to the Country. I think some of your forms are exquisite. Very elegant designs and execution. You should be proud to have accomplished so much in such a short time. And attending a club meeting will help you learn some nice tricks, and most wood turners are very friendly and courteous. When you feel ready to socialize, you will be surprised how open and helpful those guys an gals can be.

[Damon McLaughlin]

Thanks guys, your compliments are really nice to read. Because I'm not working (haven't been able to work for a decade) I have had a lot of time to sit and contemplate, practice, practice some more, and then do some turning. To be honest, even if everything I turned was bad I'm at least having fun. I don't know what's more addictive, hunting for wood, collecting wood, dreaming about tools or turning. Again, thank you for your compliments, it truly means a lot to me.

David

[Steve Mawson]

Great job on your pieces David. Keep after that free wood, you will find that there are great pieces to be found in lots of places. With free wood you don't have to worry about messing up a piece where the purchased wood you want to be careful because of the dollars spent. You live in a place where there is some great timber. Keep up the good work, good luck on your "journey".

[John K Jordan]

...I don't know what's more addictive, hunting for wood, collecting wood, dreaming about tools or turning.

I know I have the wood "adiction"! The first steps of my 12-step program involve acquiring more wood and processing it into turning blanks. :)

A lot of people who mostly turn bowls accumulate big stores of free wood they can't possibly use before they are ruined by cracks. Since I mostly turn smaller things I process almost everything into blanks for spindles, boxes, and smaller bowls and such, seal the end grain, and let them air dry. 99% dries without degrading so the loss is small. I've been doing this for almost 15 years and unfortunately, my drying and storage space is also not large! To make things worse, I have a sawmill behind the barn. Ack! Fortunately, I'm prepared when our club has a wood auction - we did one last week to benefit the Arrowmont rebuilding fund after the terrible fires in Gatlinburg.

If I didn't have a bandsaw that would be high on my wish list. An older used 14" Jet or Delta will work fine. For years I used a 14" Delta with a riser block to prepare blanks until I got a larger saw a few years ago. I'll let you guess what I did for the holidays... A hint: it involved some rare spalted dogwood, white oak, hard maple, and spalted beech.

BTW, did you get the response I sent on Saturday morning in response to your PM?

JKJ

[George Guadiane]

As has been said, Thank You For Your Service
and please don't burn that "firewood." Difficult to believe that it's only been such a short time for such nice work.

[Damon McLaughlin]

=BTW, did you get the response I sent on Saturday morning in response to your PM?

JKJ

John, I didn't get a reply on Saturday I don't think. The last pm I received from you had some photos. I sent you an email to the email address you provided, I hope you got it. I also just sent you a PM with my email address. It seems that I'm having a difficult time with private messages on this board but I'll figure it out.

David

[Steve Schlumpf]

David - if you have any problems or questions about the PM system here, please let me or any moderator know and we'll try our best to get you up and running.

[John K Jordan]

John, I didn't get a reply on Saturday I don't think. The last pm I received from you had some photos. I sent you an email to the email address you provided, I hope you got it. I also just sent you a PM with my email address. It seems that I'm having a difficult time with private messages on this board but I'll figure it out.

David


Ah, ha! I found your email in my spam folder! The Google spam filter is amazing good and I rarely lose an email to it. I'll put your address in my contacts and maybe that won't happen again.

The last PM I sent was the one with a couple of pictures. Maybe I was confused and it wasn't a response. It was just after midnight, Saturday morning but that was Eastern time.

One odd thing - I just checked and I do not see the PM with the email address. Maybe it takes a while. But I'll send an email reply right away to make sure that's working. :)

BTW, your quote in the last message didn't work since it was missing some characters near the beginning, specifically a right bracket after the word "QUOTE".

JKJ

[Damon McLaughlin]

As has been said, Thank You For Your Service
and please don't burn that "firewood." Difficult to believe that it's only been such a short time for such nice work.


Thank you George.

[Jon Shank]

For turning for such a short time, that's amazing work! PM me your address and I'll send you some different woods to turn. Nothing exotic or large but I've got some Bradford pear, some locust, maybe something else. Least I can do to pay you back for your service, service I couldn't do. I'd be happy to send some timber your way. The Bradford pear turns really well and finishes well, the locust can be a bear to turn but it's a good and fun challenge and finishes out well. Let me know and I'd be happy to send some your way brother. No charge, just give me an address to ship it to.

Jon

[Damon McLaughlin]

For turning for such a short time, that's amazing work! PM me your address and I'll send you some different woods to turn. Nothing exotic or large but I've got some Bradford pear, some locust, maybe something else. Least I can do to pay you back for your service, service I couldn't do. I'd be happy to send some timber your way. The Bradford pear turns really well and finishes well, the locust can be a bear to turn but it's a good and fun challenge and finishes out well. Let me know and I'd be happy to send some your way brother. No charge, just give me an address to ship it to.

Jon

Thank you Jon for your kind words. I sent you a PM not too long ago, please let me know if you didn't get it.