Heebie Jeebie Bowl

[Curt Fuller]

My daughter found this chunk of wood, a log with a burl growing out the side. It was old, dry, and starting to rot. I decided to try and make a bowl from it anyway. First got it mounted to a face plate and started turning. Felt like I had something crawling on me, stopped the lathe and found the voids were full of ants and they had flew all over me and the shop and were still crawing out by the dozens. After doing a little ant slapping dance I stuck the shop vac in the voids and sucked out all the ants but still had the heebie jeebies. Got the outside turned and a fairly solid tenon (i thought). Turned it over and mounted in chuck. Got down into the bowl and hit huge void with more ants. Discovered the tenon was hanging on to almost nothing at the edge of the void. Got a catch, broke the tenon. Finished sanding inside as well as I could by hand, reversed and jam chucked to finish foot. About 13.5" by 5". Will try to sand the inside better sometime.

The last picture is the void where the ants had been spending the winter.

Still have the heebie jeebies!

[Travis Stinson]

Ewwww, bet that was fun!:eek: Great job getting it done, looks very cool.:cool:

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Neat, but can you imagine what the ants were thinking :D

[Jim Dunn]

Just mounting and allowing it to turn would have given me the Heebie Jeebie's. Real neat piece of wood though. Your daughter has a good eye:)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Interesting Curt! You really don't know what's in a piece of wood until you open it up!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Nice one Curt. That one will raise the pucker factor about 3 fold. Looks pretty good and did a nice job on it.

[John Hart]

Nice piece Curt!!! It's funny...I was just out in the driveway chainsawing a bunch of wood looking for a nice piece for the Creeker trade and ran into a nest of ants m'self. Those big black carpenter ants. Creeped me out. They're all dead now.;) I guess I creeped them out one better! :D

[Barry Stratton]

Now thats a good story behind a neat looking piece! My skin is crawling just thinking about it.

[Jim Ketron]

Funny Story Curt!
I had the same thing happen to me with an apple bowl!
looks like that one has a lot going on with it, good job!

[Ernie Nyvall]

I guess I creeped them out one better! :D


Yea well... with that face, I find myself backing away from the keyboard.:p

Nice work Curt. That's some purdy wood and you are a brave man.

Ernie

[Michael Stafford]

What a great story to go with a great looking bowl. Very "antsy", er artsy fartsy....:cool: :D

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Crazy lookin Bowl. I love IT! The next time, if the piece is small enough Nuke it in the Microwave. The ants Snap, Crackle AND POP! UMMMMMMMMMMMM YUMMY!

Bruce

[Andy Hoyt]

Curt - Be sure to let us know what happens when you next empty the shop vac. Ewwww.

[Frank Fusco]

Your persistence is to be admired. Bowl too. :) Be grateful those weren't yellowjackets.

[Mark Cothren]

Gives a whole new meaning to "dizzy as a termite in a yo yo" for me...:D

Neat bowl/turning... thanks for the story and pics...

[Curt Fuller]

Curt - Be sure to let us know what happens when you next empty the shop vac. Ewwww.

Maybe I should give it a squirt of Raid!