Critique Requested - First Turning

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Well, I have completed my first "real " turning. That is one I put some time in besides just pactice cuts.

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The wood is Aspen, turned green. The piece is about 4 5/8 inches high by 7 1/8 inches wide. a tool catch caused it to pull off the four jaw chuck, tearing out the small foot on it. I had chiseled the rest of the foot off, which is why it is a bit rough. I will finish that end of it up when the wood dries.

I used a gouge and a scraper. The scraper tore alot of the wood, as can be seen in the photos. I did sand, starting at 60 working up to 200 grit (not the bottom), but the tearing was pretty deep. No finish yet - the wood is wet.

There is a bit of natural cracking along the wide section, and a crack in the lip near the knot. We will see how those go with the drying.

Some issues I had:
First recess ut for the four jaw was too wide.
Screw pulled out of the wet wood while I was cutting dovetail recess (second attempt).
The recess ended up shallow, and thus tore out on a tool catch (hollowing out, trying to get wider at the wide section).

Also, how is Aspen percieved as a turning wood? I have a bunch from a neighbor's tree.

Thanks for any input to help me improve.

[George Guadiane]

Looks like you have been tough enough on yourself, and are fully aware of your "failings," so no need for a critique, other than to say that it looks like you were headed in a good direction (overall).
I have no experience with Aspen, but I'm sure someone will be able to help with that.
Some woods, and sometimes select pieces of wood just don't cooperate, but you did pretty much the same things that the rest of us (ok, I) would have done to recover this piece.
You have a great attitude, slap on another piece of wood and go at it! :D
Welcome To The Vortex :eek:

[Gordon Seto]

Very good, especially this is your first. The shape that you chose was a difficult one. A shallow open bowl will be much easier for beginners. It is difficult to maintain bevel support on deep bowl. Undercutting is another challenge. With practice, your next one will have less "issues".

Gordon

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Tim, first let me welcome you to the Creek! Personally I like the form of your project. Gordon is right about it being a more difficult shape to start with, but that's OK. As I look at the piece I think the biggest thing we should focus on is the issue of tear-out. I know you know it is there, so the focus is with regard to how to overcome it. Tear-out is one of the things that plagues a lot of new turners. I have found two things that help me more than anything else with tear-out, and believe me when I say I have had my share of it. The first thing is sharp tools. I too, use a scraper quite a bit. Be sure it is a scraper though. Sometimes new turners refer to a Skew as a Scraper and there is a big difference. (see drawing below) The edge of the scraper should have a bur that you can feel on the top edge (Cutting Edge) and it is produced when the tool is ground on the grinder but better placed by honing with a diamond card. Using a scraper you should be able to produce long thin ribbons of material being cut from the piece. To achieve this very light cuts should be taken. The next thing I would point you to is wetting the wood; however, this should really not be necessary on wet or green wood. If the wood is dry I usually wipe it down good with mineral spirits and let it soak in for a few moments then cut again very light until the tear-out is gone. I have been told that water also works but I have not used it so can't speak to how it does. Try these two things and let us know how it does for you. Again, good first turning and we look forward to seeing many more.:)

[Glenn Hodges]

Chris gave you some good advise. I use a sharp skew like a scraper, then go to as rough a sandpaper as I must. If this piece was able to be placed on a lathe, a heavy sandpaper would remove the tearout after it dried. I would make the bottom smaller. Aspen is a soft wood and turns easy, but being so soft leaves scratches as one sands so you will have to take this into consideration when you work with aspen. I have found some nice wood in old trees, good luck and welcome.

[Paul Engle]

Nice work Tim,I agree with Chris, as I have found on wet wood just to turn rough shape ( mostly Birch and fruit woods) pack it in the chips from in brown paper bad ( or DNA soak) or ???? and let sit for 4 weeks or ??? then do the finish turning and sanding, as you get more comfortable with your bg you will find the wings are better than your scraper for finish work and scrapers used for lite touch up. Check up on David Ellsworths instructions on shear scraping with a bg ( his in particular) and investigate a " negitive rake" angle on your scraper, I felt mine was too senitive and put a slight neg rake across the top of the scraper ( say 15 degrees , in case it did not work) well .... and what a difference , I did have to sharpen somewhat more but as I learned to use the wings on my bg , it became less. Tim Yoder from the Oklahoma Wood Turners group did a 9 parts series on PBS and he used a scraper with a neg rake on a bowl and was very impressive indeed ( he also, on that episode did a tour of last years AAW symposium and oh baby some really outstanding pieces on display), his was a 1" and used it on the inside of the bowl . Hope this helps.

[Jim Becker]

Nice job for your "first". And aspen is a pretty soft material which is actually harder to work with as you need absolutely sharp tooling 100% of the time to avoid issues. But turn anything you can find...the best species is "free wood"... :D

Suggestion...just turn simple forms for awhile to help you get really comfortable with your tools and how they cut. Bowls with continuous curves are a good choice as they let you practice both even wall thickness and following contours...something else that you learn to judge by eye and feel with practice.

[Tom Sherman]

Tim this is a right nice bowl for your first. Some good advice has already been given only thing I would add is to seek out a turning club in your area or at least another turner that could help with hands on tips.

[Jim Kountz]

Tim, being new to turning myself I cant offer up much advice but I can say thats a great first turning. You got some nads doing a bowl right off the bat, Im still thinking that one over. I started with a small little goblet/trophy/thing-a-ma-jig and cant wait to do a bowl. Now that you got one under your belt let me ask. ARE YA HOOKED YET!!!!????

[Bernie Weishapl]

Welcome to SMC Tim. That is a nice but difficult first turning. You got some good advice from the others.

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Thanks for the feed back from all of you. I realize that the form is more difficult that what I should be working on:o , but I like to push things a bit. Probably faster than I should. I am definately hooked though.

Christopher, I appreciate the comments on the skew. I try to avoid that one. I was using a rounded scraper. I believe the lack of burr, as you mentioned, was to blame for the tear out. I had switcher to that after getting some catches on the gouge.

I definately noticed the difference between a sharp and dull gouge on this project. I think my sharpening got better on this as well.

Thanks again, and I will be sure to review comments before the next shot.