Some interesting stuff happening this past week here with the Patriot turners!

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@Steve Krumanaker turned a cowboy hat!!!!!!!!!!!

 

He showed us some pictures and explained the process in his post. You gotta see this!!!!!!!

 

 

@Mijohnson1984 showed us some really sweet mallet handles he turned.

 

Lots of great comments were provided by our members. Read how he got the finish these-

 

Matthew also asked for advice on storage of spalted wood.

 

Several members provided him with their experiences and even a link to a video on the subject-

 

 

 

@Artie asked a question concerning Easy Wood Tools. He is new to turning and inquired about where to purchase these them. Our members had lots of advice and information. As the discussion continued, it branched off to the area of safety equipment and this garnered even more comments from the group. 

 

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

 

Click on the above image for the link to the registration/information page. Thanks to our friends at Easy Wood Tools for the heads up on this event.

 

 

For The Newbies-

Well, turning spindles can get old pretty fast (unless you try the Skew chisel and then it's always exciting). Here's a site that has lots of ideas for the new turner. Simple projects that make great gifts and will help develop your turning skills/experiences.

http://www.stevefreemanonline.com/2017/01/wood-turning-projects-for-beginners/

 

 
Expand Your Horizons-

I think @Steve Krumanaker has this one covered this week. Let's keep watching his post as he finishes up his cowboy hat!

 

 

New Turning Items-

Ruth Niles has introduced a new style bottle stopper. The "Cosmopolitan" series is available in both FDA grade stainless steel and brass. This product line has stoppers that fit both wine or whiskey bottles.

 

Check out Ruth's site for these and all her great products-

https://nilesbottlestoppers.com/

 

 

Everything Else-

A while back I mentioned reading about a procedure for preventing bowl blanks from warping/splitting/checking during the turning and drying process. Although it seems to fly in the face of common sense, part of the drying process in to soak the blank in a soap and water mixture.

 

An acquaintance gave me two locust log pieces that had been recently harvested. Having had little success turning locust in the past, this seemed like an excellent opportunity to experiment. Within a day or two of picking up the logs, I converted them into round bowl blanks about 5" thick and a little over 10" in diameter. I coated the circumferences with TiteBond II. I got that idea from a Mike Peace video. It has been more successful in preventing cracks and splits that using latex paint. 

 

A couple of weeks went by before I had a chance to turn the blanks into bowls. In the meantime I scored a small dried cherry log section. So now I had two species to test.

 

I turned the green locust blanks a couple of days apart. Turned each to the typical first turning dimensions with wall thickness of about 1/10 of the diameter. After turning, I put the rough blank in a solution of Dawn dishwashing liquid and water (1:6 ratio). The submerged blanks soaked for 3 days. At the end of the 3 days, I pulled the blanks and transferred them to paper bags of shavings where they stayed for 3 weeks.

 

While I was waiting for the locust to hangout in the shavings, I started in on the cherry log. I turned it to a rough blank, put it in the solution for 3 days, pulled it and went straight back to the lathe.

 

I was a little worried about the color change but very happy about the shape and absolutely no cracks.

 

 

 

Mounting it on the lathe and starting the finish turning the true color of the cherry came back out-

 

Completed the turning and sanded. Notice the shape. Virtually no warping!

 

 

This piece is currently waiting a finish.

 

Back to the locust. I pulled the first blank, from the shavings, on Saturday. 

 

I couldn't believe how much weight it had lost in only 21 days. Typically, 3 to 6 months are required to get to this point! The dark color, from the soak, had completely disappeared, too, and no warping!!!

 

 

Bottom view of the recess for the chuck jaws.

 

 

I stopped here but thought the walls could be a little thinner. This is about 1/4". Eventually the walls are turned to about 3/16".

 

 

Bottom foot.

 

 

Inside (with thinner walls). Here's where I messed up. When I turned the walls to the 1/4" thickness, I was called away and didn't get back to the lathe for a couple of days. During that time the bowl warped slightly so that during the final turning/sanding, the walls do not have a consistent thickness. I need to do the turning and sanding all at one then if there is any warping, it will not change the wall thicknesses.

 

 

Beeswax and mineral oil finish.

 

Safe turning

Some nice looking bowls!!

Great write up Lew, And good tutorial on the green bowl turning. Very interesting.

 

Herb

Great job Lew on the bowl and post overall. I began to think there was no end to this post, guess it was a busy week while I am out of town.

Good post again Lew.  Nice review of soap method of drying.  I love hearing someones first hand experience on items such as this.  Thanks.

Great info Lew, thanks for taking the time to experiment and share.

Thanks so much Lew for a great Wed topic! Matthew sure is getting around a lot for being a Newbie, I think we can move Matthew out of the Newbie spot and into a woodworker!

As the other have, I've heard of the anti-cracking methods for bowl blanks but having you actually do it and prove it, great job sir.

Beautiful images too, I love that about topic, good photography.

Thanks for taking the time to get this weekly topic up and running Lew.

Another great WWFW post, Lew. 

Nice roundup Lew. Your bowls just get better and better.

@Woodbutcherbynight Thank You!

 

@Dadio Thanks!

 

@Gerald Thank You and Welcome Back!!

 

@HandyDan Thanks! Can't wait to turn the second bowl.

 

@Cal Thank You!

 

@John Morris Thanks! It's really great to have all of the turners posting their stuff for us to see!

 

@Gene Howe Thank You!

 

@Steve Krumanaker Thanks! Be sure to keep us up to date on that cowboy hat!

On the post about a skew. So far it hasn’t tried to kill me in my sleep. So that’s a plus. Now am I going to use it to round a spindle blank.  Ummm......no, I like my spindles between centers. Other then that It does really nice for smoothing out the rough parts. Well that’s when I don’t dig the tip in first. 

17 hours ago, John Morris said:

Thanks so much Lew for a great Wed topic! Matthew sure is getting around a lot for being a Newbie, I think we can move Matthew out of the Newbie spot and into a woodworker!

Thank you @John Morris. I still feel like I’m super green when it comes to woodworking, especially with the beetle issue. But I can finally see my garage floor   As for woodworking this week. Let’s see ummmm...nope nothing. It’s been all cleaning and preparing to nuke garage in the morning maybe Monday I can start up again. See how long it takes to clear the air. The wife asked why I don’t spray then work in while it drys out. Mmmm....I like living and not visiting the er for pesticide poisoning. 

8 minutes ago, Mijohnson1984 said:

The wife asked why I don’t spray then work in while it drys out.

I had an issue with water bugs and such under a building.  Got a 3 pack of bug bombs and one night put one to work.  Killed a lot of bugs, since I had 2 left I hit it again next night.  Few days later, yup hit it again.  No more bugs since.  

So last week I hit it again!  Because hey dead bugs don't cause issues!!!

17 hours ago, John Morris said:

I think we can move Matthew out of the Newbie spot and into a woodworker!

8 minutes ago, Woodbutcherbynight said:

 

So last week I hit it again!  Because hey dead bugs don't cause issues!!!

Cheers to that bora-care tomorrow then throwing on the ceder oil once I’m back in the shop. Like they say in the army there’s no kill like over kill. So double tap and move out. 

16 hours ago, Mijohnson1984 said:

On the post about a skew. So far it hasn’t tried to kill me in my sleep. So that’s a plus. Now am I going to use it to round a spindle blank.  Ummm......no, I like my spindles between centers. Other then that It does really nice for smoothing out the rough parts. Well that’s when I don’t dig the tip in first. 

Ok here is a video by one of the Greats of teaching and turning Allan Batty yes this is Stuart's dad.

 

@John Morris Where is a good place to put videos like this for reference? Tips?

Edited April 26, 20197 yr by Gerald