Aspen Bowl

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Well, working on some of the free wood I have. The bowl is 2.5" high, and about 4.5" in diameter. Guess this is about my 5th bowl. Please critique to help me learn.

Thanks.

[Tom Sherman]

Tim, it looks fine to me I think you have the idea pretty well down. My personal preference is for the foot to be turned off or turned down very small to give the bowl the appearance of floating off the table, but that is just my preference. Your bowl is excellent.

[Ed Scolforo]

Tim, I'll echo what Tom said. If the foot was a little smaller it would be perfect IMHO. Keep turning!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking bowl Tim. I agree with Tom and Ed. Smaller foot or turn the foot of and make the bottom concave. Well done.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Good looking bowl Tim! Really like the wood, color and finish! You already got the general concenus when it comes to the foot... I always like to turn them slightly concave - but that's just me. Nice work! Keep posting!

[Ron Chamberlin]

Good job on the bowl. The relationship between the curved section and the straighter top section works quite well, I think. I differ from the other guys on the foot issue. I personally like them a bit larger. Just my opinion, so try it both ways.
Ron

[Brodie Brickey]

Tim,

Great looking bowl and finish.

[Paul Engle]

The only thing wrong with it is ... it belongs in my gallery. :eek: Nice work for sure Tim. Gallery addy is ......:rolleyes:

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Thanks for the feedback, espescially about the foot. Looking at it, I think the foot could have been smaller. I'll have to try that next time around. Allways a reason to turn another piece.:D The foot on the piece is slightly concave. It doesnt really show on the pics, since it is very slight.

I just need to figure out how to reverse chuck the piece when I am done. I have not yet tried any of the methods to do that.

[Dean Matthews]

looks great to me.

What is the finish?

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Thanks.

I don't have a lot around for finishes (at leatst that would dry quickly for a practice piece), so I decided to experiment. I used some friction polish, and topped it off with some liquid carnuba car wax:D :D :D . Just applied per the instructions and buffed on the lathe with a soft cloth.

The wax turned out awesome, but I got a bit thick with the friction polish, and had a hard time evening it out without sanding it all off.

[Richard Madison]

Tim,
Bowl looks pretty good, but might be better with smaller diameter foot.

Might want to try wipe-on sanding sealer, followed next day with spray lacquer (from a can). Let set up a couple days before buffing. Lots of different finish materials to try. Different strokes for -----

As your work continues to improve you reach a point where you gotta start working on your photography so others can see that your work is good.

My photography sucks, and I need to sell a calf so I can buy a decent camera. This will be a little tricky, because the calves all belong to my neighbor.

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Sick thing is, the camera cost about $2K, with one extra lense. It takes great pics (more by my wife than me). The light in my house is very dim. I should wait to take them in the light to reduce shadows, but I am impatient. Also, lowering the dpi of the pic, and bumping up the compression of the jpg to meet the uploading requirements here, really hurt the quality. I could post them on my server and link, but there again, I am being lazy.

I'll look to try that finish. Are you talking hand buffing, or using something mechanical? If powered, what system is recommended, and would it work well for the inside as well?

[John Hart]

Tim...I think it's a fine looking bowl. You asked for critiques so I really had to look. I agree about the foot...but more along the lines of how you finished it off. Reverse chucking is just a matter of spending a couple hours making a donut chuck which is really just two pieces of plywood and some bolts. Another quick and dirty way is to just turn the bowl around and jam it into your chuck or faceplate with some mouse pads in the bowl for protection. Finish off the foot with the live center providing the pressure...then sand off the nub thats left over in the center of the foot. You'd be surprised how much a little detail in the foot adds to the overall piece.
The only other thing is...it seems that the wall is just a smidgen too straight toward the upper half. Just a little bit of a curve will add to its fondleability. But that's just an opinion....some folks like the straight sides and I'm just nit-pickin'. :)

It is a very nice piece. ;)

[Al Killian]

Looks good. I will have to give aspen a try. I have a few smaller peices out back air drying.

[Allen Neighbors]

I think you did a bang-up job on the bowl. 5th one? Exceptional.
My finish is a quick wipe with 25%Lacquer/75%Thinner, and dry while spinning, with a clean soft t-shirt. Then I sand with my final grit of 400 or 600, depending on the wood. Then it's ready to buff immediately, or ready for a Danish Oil finish.
My buffing wheels are homemade, from 1 1/2" to 3" thick. I made them each 8" dia, cutting circles of material while recuperating from a heart attack in '05. The Tripoli wheel is 3" thick, made from layers of felt. The White Diamond wheel is 1 1/2" thick, made from layers of Cotton/Polyester mix Denim. The Carnauba wheel, is 2" thick, made from 100% cotton Denim.
I also have a clean wheel made from 100% cotton flannel.
I super-glued a short piece of 1/2" cpvc pipe in the center of each wheel so they would slip onto a 1/2" mandrel on an electric motor. I had to drill out the center of the pipe just a skosh so it would slide on and off the shaft easily.

[Richard Madison]

ALLRIGHT, Allen! Thought I was the only one dumb, er, clever enough to make his own buffing wheels. Yours sound bigger and better than mine. Sure got tired of cutting out circles.

The "sanding sealer" I mentioned is lacquer based, very similar to Allen's 25/75 mix, maybe with a higher solids content but essentially the same stuff.

Tim, You apparently have excellent equipment so just need to check out some of the many posts on "photo tents" and whip one up. Granted that quality is lost in cropping and compressing for posting online, but improvements in background and lighting will make a world of difference. Some excellent info on the AAW forum.

And yeah, it does look like the sides get kind of straight toward the top. Have been working on that myself too. Smoothly varying curves. It's remarkable how some very subtle changes in shape can improve a piece from "ok" to "pretty nice", or words to that effect.

Press on, Mr. Tim. You can get there from here.

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Looking at the pictures, the sides do appear straight. There is a slight curve to it in person, allthough I had to put a straight edge up to it to be sure.

I know the worst part of the photos was on my end of things (the lighting), as we all have the same issue with the compression. That just hit mine worse from the poor starting images.

Ill try the seal / sand / finish next time around. The tip is appreciated.

[Richard Madison]

Hey Tim,
Check this thread about turning photography (if it doesn't get edited out) http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=4116. It includes several tutorial references. Meanwhile, your post gave me some needed insight re. photographing turnings. My present camera cost $1,950 less than yours, takes poor pictures, and am saving nickels for a better piece in the $5-600 range. But what I need to be doing is developing a decent photo setup (tent, lights, whatever) that works with the $49 camera while saving the nickels. So, thanks for the insight. If I can help with finishes, please PM me, but there are a lotta folks here that know more about it than I do.

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Thanks for the llink. I bookmarked it for later, in case it is removed. Will check it out after work.