Great bouncing bowls!

[Gary Herrmann]

Well one, anyway.

While scooping out the interior of the bowl I was working on, I apparently passed the point where someone with my meager skills should have switched over to a scraper. Or maybe I presented the wrong angle or tried to remove to much wood. Or something equally ignorant.

There was a catch.

Apparently, sufficient torque was generated to snap the tenon. The bowl skittered across my lathe stand like an angry crab. I ran into a few in my delinquent youth while growing up in Florida. It ain't pretty.

Bad words were used. Shorts were checked. Sensing a disturbance in the Force, my Darling Bride poked her head into my cave and asked if everything was alright. Perhaps the Force was disturbed by my choice of adjectives and nouns. Either that, or the bowl as it achieved escape velocity.

I've glued the tenon back together. If I finish the bottom and part it off, the glue joint will also be gone. I know glue joints are stronger than the surrounding wood, provided there are good long grain mating surfaces.

I think I'll let the glue cure for a day. Perhaps the bowl will have calmed down by then as well. If I get any shop time tomorrow, I think I'll turn a pen...

Here's a question: Have any of you more experienced folks ever glued a tenon together and successfully completed the bowl?

I think its time for a beverage.

[Travis Stinson]

Yup, if I remember correctly, this HF from Hell either pulled out of the chuck or broke the tenon at least 3 times before I got the knot inside hollowed. Would be a good idea to reverse it against your chuck and true up the tenon before you tackle it again. ;)

[Don Fuss]

Gary,

For all of the reasons you've already described, I think I send more pieces rolling across the shop floor than I complete without incident. However, I've saved every single one of them by carefully regluing the tenon (or glue block in my case, since I don't have a chuck). Good luck!

[Jim Becker]

You must have been dreaming, Gary...there is absolutely no visual evidence of any bowl crabbing it's way across your shop nor your beautiful bride checking in on your, umm...state...at the time... ;)

(I hate when that happens, by the way...the crabby bowl thing...)

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Since we all know that none of us who claim to be turners ever suffered from that thing called "EGO"; Mother Nature, in all her wisdom, placed within her creation, the tree, those little wonders that teach us "HUMILITY".:eek:
Gary, I empathize, believe me.:)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!

[Curt Fuller]

I couldn't turn without titebond II and a 24 hour cooling off period.

I had to chuckle when you said your Darling Bride poked her head into the cave to check on you. I can turn my greatest masterpiece and get maybe a slight "hmmph" from my wife. But let one break loose and ricochet around the garage and she's right there with more smart aleck comments than any man should have to endure.

[Mark Pruitt]

Happened more times than I care to admit. My wife has learned to ignore the sounds coming from the garage.:rolleyes: I would take Travis' advice about reversing it and trueing the tenon before proceeding further.

[John Hart]

I remember when I was turning a large piece of something or other and got a big catch....wham!...the handle came up and hit me in the chin. My wife came downstairs and asked if I was alright.(which she never does) Evidently, it shook the whole house...but from my perspective, it didn't make much noise at all.

Maybe I was unconscious.:confused:

[Bill Grumbine]

Gary, I have taken tenons off of a number of pieces in my turning career, and some of them fairly recently. I have glued numerous ones back on with success. Below is probably one of my scariest examples. Not only was I able to finish it, but I got a core out of it for another one just like it, only smaller.

Good luck with your own piece!

Bill

[Jim Dunn]

Hey Gary just have a cuppa and let your nerves settle down a little and have another go at it. Did it wake up the dog? If not you didn't do it right.

[George Tokarev]

I'm chicken, so I turn with a crutch (or two) until I'm almost done. Really does limit the disaster potential. Make a point of looking at the annual rings on your tenon before you decide it's ready. You'd much rather have it grip at the darker latewood or across a year than through the softer earlywood alone. If you can't get there, consider reinforcing the tenon or mortise edges by running water-thin CA in to refusal. Let it cure, and then trim to round to eliminate nubs or captured dust elevations.

Don't neglect the value of the shoulder. If your jaws are broader, you can take advantage of support 90 degrees to the axis of rotation with some pretty good leverage. Love the 75mm Nova jaws on long cantilevers for this reason. Whatever you do, snug, don't crank the jaws. You're going to distort and possibly crush wet wood easily, perhaps even start cracks you'll regret. Even dry wood is vulnerable. That's why I like smooth jaws which exert less force on any given point versus serrations.