Hard Maple Salad Bow, continued-near miss with disaster

 Hi Everyone,

 Well, I finished all of my chores for the day and decided to reward myself with several hours of wood turning. Wow, what an afternoon this turned out to be. 

I finished hollowing out the bowl, got it to the depth I wanted and it looked really great. The next step was to refine the bottom and sides of the interior and I began this with some bowl scrapers I have. The bottom looked smooth but the sides had a lot of ridges and some torn fibers that the bowl scraper wouldn't remove.  

The project had gone well up to now and I'll admit I got a little cocky and reached for the fingernail gouge to smooth out some of the issues. I adjusted the tool rest, turned on the lathe and before I knew it -BANG!!-I had a catch. Not just any catch. A catch long enough and deep enough to nearly cut the bowl in half. And it almost came off the lathe. 

I let out a big yell and stopped the lathe. My husband came out to see what was going on and my heart nearly stopped when I realized what had happened. If that bowl had come off the lathe, I'd probably be in a hospital ER someplace with some terrible injuries. And heaven knows where the bowl would be.

So I collected myself and looked at the bowl and decided I could remove the catch. So I put it back on the lathe, turned the speed down, and got out the bowl scraper again and patiently removed the catch. The walls of the bowl are still substantial and the bottom of the bowl probably closely match the thickness of the walls. So I decided to end the turn at that point and begin sanding.

Here are some photos of the bowl at this point:

Here are two photos of the inside of the bowl. I think you can see the depth of the bowl better in the first photo. The bowl is nearly 2 1/4" deep:

The next several photos should the side and the underside of the bowl. I will be removing some of the thickness of the foot of the bowl at the very end of the project:

When I stopped turning, I began sanding the inside of the bowl. I usually begin with 100 grit paper but today with the amount of scratching inside of the bowl sides, I began with 80 grit sandpaper on a disc. The bowl will require more sanding with 100 grit sandpaper and this will take time so I'll be working on this over the weekend.

As for the fingernail gouge, it's resting in the very rear of my tool drawer where it will stay for a while. 

And I'll be taking a nap.

VW

Hard Maple Salad Bowl, continued-hollowing out

 Hi Everyone,

 Well I had a very productive afternoon in the wood shop. Made a huge mess but removed most of the inside of the bowl. Here are some photos and comments:

Here's the beginning of the hollowing out process. I've been turning about 10 minutes and the depth is about 3/4" deep. If you look closely at the center you can see the screw holes from the faceplate:

 

I was using a fingernail gouge to work on the sides when all of a sudden I got two deep gouges  along the inside of the bowl. I haven't used a fingernail gouge in a long time so I'm out of practice with it. I have a large heavy bowl scraper and I removed the damage with that.

 

 I wanted to shape the inside of the bowl to match the outside shape so here you can see the upper sides are straight. Next I'm going to curve the bottom half of the bowl to match the curved surface of the outside-bottom of the bowl.

 

 And here is where it's at right now. The sides are looking good but there is still more wood on the bottom to be removed. As it's getting cold, I'll stop here for today.

 

Tomorrow I'll finish hollowing out the bowl and then refine the inside surfaces and if all goes well the turning part of the project will be finished.

 

What a mess! I have enough wood shavings to stuff a mattress!!

See you all tomorrow,
VW

 

Hard Maple Salad Bowl, continued: working on the foot

 Hi,

Well, the side of the bowl came out very well. I've sanded it to 320 grit and it's very smooth:

Ok, the next step is the foot of the bowl.

There are several ways to attach a bowl blank to a lathe-I have a face plate that I could screw on to the foot but that would leave screw holes that I would have to deal with later so that leaves a bowl chuck:

This is a large Nova chuck that I use for very wide turns. It's heavy and very solid-it's 7 pounds of steel-and it fits snugly and firmly on the bowl foot and that's what I'm going to go with:

This will give me a safe attachment and dampen some of the turning vibration that occurs with spinning large heavy blocks of wood.

It's beginning to get cold and windy so I'm going to stop for the day. I'll be back tomorrow to begin hollowing out the bowl,

 

VW

 

 

Hard Maple Salad Bowl, continued-shaping the side

 Hi Everyone,

Well I just came in from examining the bowl on the lathe and there are several considerations here:

First-the volume of the bowl. I've wanted to preserve as much of the volume of the blank as possible. Salad bowls are typically large and deep so a salad can be tossed easily without the contents spilling out. This bowl will be a little under 21/2" deep which is not very deep. But the width is just around 13" at this point so that should mitigate the shallowness of the bowl. 

Second-Salad bowls are also typically very eye catching. If you go to Pinterest and search for wooden salad bowls you'll see some really gorgeous bowls in a variety of woods with all sorts of detail turned into the sides. This bowl is solid maple and has very little in the way of visible grain pattern. But the color is a soft white which is unusual for a salad bowl so I think it needs a little detail to catch the eye. As I don't like adding details to bowls that stand out from the surface (and which can break off if dropped) I'm going to add a band to the upper part of the bowl that is depressed from the surface.

I'm going down to the wood shop a little later on to work on the side. When I'm done I'll do another posting about the foot.

See you later,

VW

Hard Maple Salad Bowl, continued-shaping the underside of the bowl

 Good Evening All,
I've been down in the wood shop for an hour shaping the underside of the bowl. Here's some photos and discussion:

This is the bowl on the lathe. I began by truing up the bottom and part of the side. I like to begin by turning away wood on the side diagonally instead of approaching it straight on. It reduces the amount of damaged wood fibers  and pitting to almost nothing as opposed the tear out you can get by trying to cut it straight across. It's also easier on my hands:

Here's a side view after a couple of minutes. The bottom is beginning to round off a bit:

This photo was taken about 30 minutes later. I used a scraper across the surface to smooth it. I also cleaned up the foot of the bowl too.

Here is the bowl after about an hour of turning. The rim is finished and all the surfaces are smooth from scraping:

 I'm going to stop here for now.

The next important part is the foot of the bowl. Not only will it provide a place for the bowl to sit on but it also will be the attachment point for the lathe when I flip the bowl over for hollowing. And it has to look nice as well as it will give the rest of the project a nice professional look to it. If I decide to add any detail to the outside surface, this will be the time to do it. 

Once I finish the underside I'll sand it perfectly smooth and apply a coat of polyurethane to it, let it dry, and then flip it over.

 Stay tuned,
VW

 

Pizza Cutter with Ebony Handle

 Hi Everyone,

While I've been getting ready for the maple bowl project, I completed a much needed project for my daughter-in-law: a small pizza cutter.

Her son, my grandson, has difficulty managing large slices of pizza, which is also his favorite food in the whole world. To deal with this, my daughter-in-law is tasked with having to cut pizza slices down to small pieces, which restaurants never seem willing to do. It can be difficult to cut up food with a knife and fork.

So I offered to make her a pizza cutter she could take with her when they all go out for dinner.

Woodcraft sells pizza cutter inserts in two sizes. I got her the 2 1/2" diameter cutter so it would fit into her bag. I also wanted to maker her something special so I used a piece of ebony from my wood pile for a handle and finished it with flax seed oil.

Here are a couple of photos:

In this photo you can see the entire handle. I turned a depression into the top of the handle to give her thumb a places to rest while she's cutting the pizza:

I also rounded off the bottom so it doesn't dig into her hand:

And the kit comes with a brass insert so the pizza wheel can be removed if it's ever damaged or for cleaning:

And here is the whole thing assembled and with an oil finish on the handle:

And now my grandson can eat his favorite snack anywhere!

 Ok, as it's really cold and rainy outside I'm going to go out and get the maple turning blank ready to be mounted on the lathe.

See you all soon,
VW

Small Turned Boxes-One finished, the other is on the lathe

Good Morning All,

I've got some photos for you - the small turned boxes! One is finished and another one is just getting started on the lathe.

Enjoy the photos:

This is the hickory box from several days ago. I sanded it to 400 grit and finished it with polyurethane. It is going to be a gift box for Mother's Day.

Here is the next box. This is part of a tree branch from a pile of tree trimmings I came across. I like the look of the end grain so I took several of them back to the shop, cut one of them to size, and started turning in.
It's going to have a goblet-shaped box with a nearly invisible base. In the photo you can see the cream colored white sap wood and the darker heart wood together, along with a couple of knots. The wood is damp so I'm going to be turning it slowly to let the water inside evaporate slowly so the wood doesn't crack. When I'm done hollowing it out, I'll make a lid for it so stay tuned:

The surface looks like it's torn and it is as wet wood doesn't always turn cleanly.

So stay tuned, there's more to come.

VW