Turning bowls, hour by hour.

[Jason Christenson]

Between work, my wife, and my two kids, I'm finding it really difficult to spend any time at all turning. However, if I plan my work day well, I have the chance to spend one hour at home for lunch two or three times a week. If I spend ten minutes actually eating, that leaves me fifty minutes to spend turning.

My question is this: The blanks that I am going to use are pretty green, they are currently in the form of two pallets full of sealed logs in my basement. If I can only work for fifty minutes at a time, how do I plan my work, and what extra steps might I need to take to prevent my bowls from cracking on the lathe before I even finish roughing them out. Also, it would be good if my lathe didn't turn to rust.

Jason

[Mike Vickery]

If I have green wood that I am roughing out that I have to step away from while turning for any amount of time I usually just wrap it in a garbage bag and leave it on the lathe. At this time of year it seems to work fine. If it was warmer I might be tempted to put a bunch of the wet shavings in the bag. As a note though a lot of the green wood I get here in the desert is pretty stable, if you are working with more finicky species that is prone to cracking and warping badly you may want to take extra steps such as sealing the out side of the wood with wax or a finish prior to bagging.

[Frank Kobilsek]

Jason,
Say on one lunch hour you slab out a blank maybe get it cut rough round on the bandsaw.

Next. Mount and turn the outside of the bowl.

Next lunch: do the inside.

So in a week you rough turned one bowl.

Spray with water, old windex bottle would work and keep everything plastic bagged between sessions.

If it works your a hero if it don't you've practiced tool presentation, releived your morning stress and enjoyed your lunch hour.

I've been known to turn a stopper or pen on my lunch if the morning has been especially unpleasant. I shoudl do this more often. Unfortunately food is my drug of choice so bad mornings lead to bad lunches.

Frank

Or sell the kids, my wife would take one or two, she is aweful lonely when I am in the garage. I told if we ever had kids she would stay home. God apparently had a different plan.

Or teach your wife to do the rough turning and you can do the finish turning and take all the credit.

Or buy/find dry wood to turn bowls from. I got real bored wet turning and waiting for a year for things to cure, until I learn the magic of DNA.

[Paul Engle]

What was said makes sense, just plan some of the 50 minutes for preservation for the next. time it one week and see how far you get. When I still had kids at home and was addicted to ( not drugs ) model RR building /RC cars etc. I gave up sleep time to do this. lost a lot of sleep somewhere :o between N-gauge and 1/4 scale. Good luck man , you got it bad.:D

[Terry Quiram]

Jason thats easy. Take whatever partially finished blank you have and submerge it in water. Keep it covered and it will be fresh when you get back to it. I currently have a 35 gal trash can with about 20 blanks roughed on the outside only. I plan to core them all at once.

Terry

[Jason Christenson]

Jason thats easy. Take whatever partially finished blank you have and submerge it in water. Keep it covered and it will be fresh when you get back to it. I currently have a 35 gal trash can with about 20 blanks roughed on the outside only. I plan to core them all at once.

Terry

Are you saying leave it underwater until I get back to it?

[Curt Fuller]

Between work, my wife, and my two kids, I'm finding it really difficult to spend any time at all turning. However, if I plan my work day well, I have the chance to spend one hour at home for lunch two or three times a week. If I spend ten minutes actually eating, that leaves me fifty minutes to spend turning.

.

Jason

Actually I think you'll end up like the rest of us hopeless turning addicts. You'll start by taking a few extra minutes for lunch, then you start ignoring the wife and kids, and eventually you're hopelessly caught in the abyss. That solves the time issure and after that the answers to the rest of the woodturning question just seem to come from all the junkies here at the Creek.

[William Bachtel]

Why not start it greeen and then lock the shop door , and turn it green, until it is finished, might move a little, but who cares one bowl will be done.

[Paul Engle]

Forgot to tell ya ,since Nov 06, when I do green wood during the winter,I am roughing it out and then put it outside on my deck to the shop. so far nothing has split ,poped ,craked or warped and will finish it this spring as it drys more.....we shall see if this works:confused: . I hope so ,way cheaper than DNA and my insurance agent threatened to cancel the shops insurance with overly large qty of DNA residing in the bldg with out increase in premiumn...:eek: .

[Philip Duffy]

Jason, Get your priorities straight! Get up at 4am, turn till 0630, and go to work happy! Pretty soon you won't need 7 hrs of sleep, as 5 will do you fine and then you can be like the rest of us! Phil

[Mike Ramsey]

I agree with Philip....also eat while your driving home for lunch & those
minutes wont be wasted..

[Rich Stewart]

Buy three more lathes and get the wife and kids turning. Then that time you are spending now doing whatever it is taking up your time, can be spent with the whole family turning wood. Eight hours work, 5 hours turning, eight hours sleeping, with a couple for odds and ends like eating. Genius, eh?

Rich

[John Shuk]

Jason,
I am in much the same predicament as you with 3 young boys...5,3, and 1. I make a point of going to a club which meets every other month. I also have a friend who hosts about five people each week for turning. I make it when I can and do my best to keep myself involved. Someday I will have more time but until then I do what I can. I've got alot of wood stored in my basement that has been there for a couple of years now. I guess when I go to turn it it'll just have to be dry.
I just try to do what I can and enjoy turning when the opportunity presents itself.
Making small project that aren't too involved such as weed pots or mallets or even small toys for the kids allow me to accomplish something in an hour and it keeps the turning monkey on my back at bay.