It ain't much but this is my first turning that's a keeper. It's already filled with assorted nuts. I followed a process shown in one of Robo Hippy's videos by attaching a face plate, roughing it out and then creating a recess for the chuck. The recess I thought was rather shallow at about 3/16" deep but that's the way Reed did it. I then worked on the inside using a chuck and the tailstock at the beginning. The wood is dried maple and is the first time using something other than construction lumber. As mentioned before, what a difference a good piece of wood makes. Sanding turned out to be more challenging than expected. I tried to do it on the lathe by hand but after watching another of RH's videos I purchased a Milwaukee close quarter right angle drill and sanding setup from Woodturners Wonders. About 5 grades of grit were used out of the 8 purchased. RH was correct about it being so much easier. There are still imperfections in the finish but this one is a wrap. It seemed that when one imperfection was sanded away another one crept in. I have a lot more to learn about sanding for sure. Howards Feed-N-Wax was used to finish off the bowl. I have a lot to learn about that stuff too. Here's a few pics of the finished bowl.
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I didn't like the depth of the recess so I went back and made it more shallow. I think it looks better. Here is what it looked like before.
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