The Wedding Present-Completion Photos

 Hello All,

The bowl is finished and I'm happy with the way it turned out. It required quite a bit of finessing and that really helped. That and some patience to let the finish work it's magic. 

Here's the completion photos:

I think our niece and her fiance will like the bowl and find it very useful over what I hope is a long, happy marriage. Congrats to Sarah and Joseph!

Ok, this is the last project for the year. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season and a terrific New Year. 

See you next Spring!

VW

The Wedding Present project-Sanded and First Layer of Finish

 Hello All,

Well I got up early today and took the bowl off the lathe and sat down and hand sanded it and I managed to fix most of the problems on the bowl. About mid morning I stopped and went out and ran an errand and when I came back, I put the bowl back on the lathe and did a full 100 to 400 grit sanding. It leveled out the surfaces and eliminated all of the deep scratching and minimized the pitting. I followed up with some hand sanding to a couple of rough spots and smoothed them. Then I cleaned the surface with compressed air and gave it it's first layer of salad bowl finish. Here's the photos:

As it's too cold for this to dry in the shop, I'm going to wait a couple of hours and then bring it inside. It should be dry enough to pick it up by then. 

The first layer will dry and raise the grain a little bit but I'll sand that smooth tomorrow. Then I'll give it several more coats and those will be the finish coats.

I'll post completion photos this weekend.

VW

The Wedding Present-Whew!

 Hi Everyone,

Well, I managed to smooth out some of the ridges in the bowl. Here's the photos:

When last we met, the inside walls of the bowl had a lot of ridges and scratching that I didn't think I could remove by using my turning chisels and I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to hand sand that flat. Scratching like this can be really difficult to totally remove so I was at my wits end:

So I talked it over with my son Critter the Welder, and he suggested an angle grinder with some sanding disks. I went out and purchased one:

I connected it to the air compressor and sanded away. The sanding disc that came with the grinder is very coarse-maybe 80 grit and it started to really chew up the wood, so it took it off and replaced it with a wider disk that is about 120 grit. It smoothed off the ridges and helped with the scratching. It also smoothed a few high spots in the bottom of the bowl so I think with a proper diameter, finer sanding disk I can probably remove the scratching. You can still see some of this in the photo below:

It's freezing cold this afternoon so I took the bowl off the lathe and brought it outside for some photos:

And I took it inside to compare it with my fruit platter of recent memory:

Overall I'm pleased with the project and plan to finish it. The bowl is a nice size and will hold a lot of fruit.

Ok, I'm going to get some smaller, finer disks for the grinder tomorrow and give this another shot.

Stay tuned,

VW

The Wedding Present-Can this Bowl be Saved?

 Hello Everyone,

Well, tragedy has struck. I was working on the inside wall of the bowl when all of a sudden the tool rest came loose and I accidently cut a big gouge out of the side of the bowl. So I've tried to turn the rest of the thickness of the wall down to match the bottom of the gouge and I've wound up with a series of ridges in the surface. I've tried every tool I own to correct this but no good. See the photo:

The rest of the bowl is ok but the bottom of the bowl needs some work, as does the rim and the outside of the bowl. Here's a photo of it at present:

I'm going to stop and figure this out.

Later,
VW

The Wedding Present-Hollowing out the Bowl

 Hi Everyone,

Well it's not as cold as yesterday was so I decided to get out and get a couple of hours of wood turning done. Here's the photos:

Here is the blank attached to the chuck which in turn is attached to the lathe:

I spent several hours hollowing out the bowl and I've probably removed half the volume of the blank. The inside and outside of the sides are parallel with each other at this point:

To keep the style of the bowl intact, I'm going to finish turning the bottom of the bowl first-I think I can do another 3/4" in depth. Then remove a wedge-shaped section of wood from the wall of the bowl to the center area. That should create a similar shape:

I'm going to try and finish the turning by Friday so I can work on the finish over the weekend. Several days of drying beyond that and it will be ready to be sent off.

_______

I'm a big fan of Peter Follansbee. I enjoy watching him make chairs out of unseasoned wood. I especially like the photos he posts of the wildlife that lives near his shop.
After I finished turning, I sat down with some darning eggs I'm finishing up and I caught a neighborhood woodpecker pecking away at my cherry tree. So whenever I an catch a photo of some critter, I'll be posting it.

See you tomorrow.

VW

The Wedding Present: Finished the underside of the bowl and ready for hallowing out

 Hi Everyone,

I just had to come indoors right now, not because the blog posting is bursting with news, but because I'm half frozen right now. It's breezy and cold. A miserable day for turning.

But I hung in there and got some turning in this morning. The underside of the bowl is finished and I've flipped it over for hallowing later today, if I don't die of hypothermia first.

Here's today's photos:

I still have problems with some ridges that have formed. I managed to flatten them somewhat but they're still there and you can easily see them in the photo:

I'm going to try and correct this when I flip the blank over later on.

Next up was creating the foot of the bowl and a slot for the Nova chuck. That didn't take terribly long to create and it came out very nice:

I've sanded the surfaces and it's smooth and ready to be flipped over. This is a photo of it off the lathe. There is about 1/2" clearance from the table top and it's going to look really nice when it's finished:

And last of all, here it is on the chuck and ready to be attached to the lathe for hallowing out.

If I manage to thaw out, I'll be back down in the wood shop a little later to get the bowl ready to go.

Stay tuned,

VW

The Wedding Present-Turning the Outside of the Bowl

 Hi Everyone,
Well, it's really cooling down outside and the sun is shining-perfect day to do some wood turning. Let's go!

I've been thinking about the design of the bowl. I am going to create a bowl that has a series of long bevels on the outside, with corresponding sides on the inside of the bowl. This will produce a bowl with straight slanted sides while preserving as much of the volume of the bowl as possible. 

Here's today's photos:

Here's the laminated block I started with-it's a big, ragged looking thing:

I got the bandsaw up to speed and cut out the turning blank and screwed a faceplate on to it and then put it on the lathe. It just clears the bed so I won't be using the lathe extension for this turn:

Next I trued up the underside and sides of the blank. This went very well and rather quickly. As it's heavy, I'm turning it at about 275 rpm. It looks like a big cheese wheel:

The best way to approach this design is to create 2 long bevels. The first bevel with be underneath the bowl and run from that green line in the photo to the edge of the foot of the bowl: 

Something's going on with my camera so the photos I took of the second bevel are nowhere to be found. Suffice it to say, I did turn the second bevel and the bowl looks pretty good at this point.

If I can figure out what happened to the photos I'll post them here later.

Tomorrow I'll clean up the sides (there's some pitting issues to be dealt with) and create the foot and the slot for the big Nova chuck. 

See you tomorrow,

VW

Tea Box #20

 Hi Everyone,

Just finished turning a tea box for a friend of mine who had some cancer surgery last week:

Cypress wood, and laminated hickory and mahogany for the lid.

I'm going to finish it with polyurethane and place something inside the box before I send it.

VW

Final Project for the Year-The Wedding Present/Discussion and Set Up

 Hello All,

As it's getting cold here now, I'm going to be closing down soon. But I think there is still time for one last turning project for this year. A wedding present for my niece Sarah and her fiance Joseph. This project will be a laminated fruit bowl, similar to the one I recently completed but a little bit deeper in depth. Here we go:


I've been laminating leftover lumber from the cabinetmakers together and creating blocks of various sizes this year and if you'll recall, I've made a music box, a serving platter, and the fruit bowl that I kept over the past several months. This is simple construction with various thicknesses and colors placed together randomly and then glued and clamped overnight together until dry. This project is no different:

This block has tigerwood, hickory, white oak, black walnut, Honduras mahogany, and jatoba woods incorporated into it:

Here it is glued and clamped together. It was inside last night as it got too cold here for the glue to dry:

And here it is ready to go. It's about 13 inches in diameter and 3 inches thick. I used Tightbond glue for this project:

My bandsaw is temporarily down for some maintenance. The bearings have nearly frozen (crud) and one of the bolts that holds the bearing framework came loose so the saw blade was off center. I'll set this right shortly and be back up to speed with that and cut the bowl blank out of the block:

Ok, almost all set to go. I'll probably begin working on this tomorrow or Monday.

Stay tuned,
VW

Salt Cellars-Completion Photos

 Hi Everyone,

The salt cellar lids are finished-here's a couple of photos:

The lids are redwood, furniture grade plywood with black walnut, cumaru and hard maple, hard maple and jatoba. All are finished with polyurethane.

The next and last project for the season will be the wedding present bowl. Stay tuned.

VW

Salt Cellars-Part 2-Preparing the Lids for Turning

 Hi Everyone,

Well I made it back down to the wood shop and worked on the lids some more. I've got three lids ready for the final shaping on the lathe and the fourth lid laminated and drying inside. Here's the photos:

The first thing I did was true up the lid blanks and then I turned all of them round and to their final diameter. Two of the lids will have blocks added to the top in contrasting colors. I also drilled holes in the centers so I can glue and screw the blocks and the lid blanks together: 

In this photo you can see those two blocks have the blocks glued on. The screw and glue together will help the block withstand the rigors of turning and not pop off while their spinning. You can also see the redwood blank is rounded off and ready to go:

Later this weekend I'll begin the final turning for all the blocks and they'll be ready for finishing early next week.

Stay tuned,

VW

Salt Cellars-Part 1: Discussion and Preparing the Lids

 Hi Everyone,

The holidays are coming up and that means lots of holiday bazaars. If you're a wood worker you've probably been asked if you can donate a few items for sale (or sell your own creations). This is a good time to go through your scrap lumber and pick out the choice pieces you've got squirreled away and make use of them. And as this uses empty, small glass jars, it's a great way to recycle.

I use canning jars that I've lost the lids to, along with other odd shaped jars, and turn small lids for them. Some of them work well as salt cellars and others are good for spices, small jewelry, or as gift boxes for small items:

This makes a fun day project and it's a great way to use that micro turning set I know you all have in a drawer someplace.

Here's a couple of photos to start with:

In this photo you can see the jars I'm going to use and some small pieces of scrap wood leftover from earlier projects. I keep small lid-sized pieces of wood and smaller pieces for knobs-that's what those cube-sized pieces are for. I'm going to drill a 1" diameter hole which will serve as the attachment point for the nova chuck, and I'll drill a small screw hold into that larger hole. Then I'll drill a matching screw hole into the small cubes and screw the lid piece and the knob piece together before turning. That will give me a lid with two colors of wood instead of just one color. 
I also will be cutting out lid-sized circles out of the lid pieces. 

The thick reddish piece of wood in the photo is a piece of redwood. It's a soft wood and requires sharp tools and a fast turning speed but it looks lovely when turned. I am also laminating a small block out of furniture-grade plywood and thin black walnut:

The laminated block and the redwood block will be thick enough to turn a knob from so they do not need a separate piece of wood for that.

Ok, I have some gardening to do as it's getting cold here but I will try and get back to the shop later today and do an additional blog post. 

Stay tuned,
VW

Laminated Fruit Bowl Project-Completion Photos

 Hello All,

Well, the last coat of finish went on the bowl this morning and it's dry enough to pick it up. I'm very pleased with the way it came out and it holds a lot of fruit. 
Here's the photos:

 

The bowl is quite shallow but it can hold more fruit in it than a bowl of the same diameter with higher sides. If you need to make a large bowl to hold things in you might consider a flatter design. Works well.

My next project is a large laminated bowl for a wedding gift and several wooden tops for some small glass jars. These make good gift boxes, or small jewelry boxes or salt cellars and they're easy to make and a good way to get at your scrap wood pile.

The weather here is turning cooler so I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay open.  At any rate thanks for stopping by the woodshop. I'll see you all soon.

VW

Laminated Fruit Bowl project, continued-sanding and ready to finish

 Hello Everyone,

Well, the fruit bowl needed just a bit of sanding to smooth the surface of the bowl. I did that and took it off the lathe for a few photos:

Here is the bowl with some apples so you can kind of understand the depth of the bowl. It can accommodate round fruits and also flat ones like bananas without falling out of the bowl:

Here is the bowl without anything in it:

And of course the rotten cats insisted on this:

Tomorrow I'll begin applying a salad bowl finish to the bowl.

See you tomorrow,
VW