The heatwave has finally broken here in south central PA. I guess the grass will start growing again.

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@RustyFN turned another beautiful bowl from a glued up blank of several different species.

 

Rusty got lots of great comments about his work and answered questions about his procedure.

 

 

@gerald has gone organic on us! I think he may have had a flashback to the 60's with these cute mushrooms!

 

He explains his coloring process in this post-

 

 

And, Gerald, received quite an honor for his turned eggs. He showed us his egg turnings a couple of weeks ago and entered them in his club's challenge and this one came in first. Congrats Gerald!

 

 

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

If you are in the Leesburg, VA area, the Makersmiths are having an Introduction to Woodturning.

 

Click on the above image for the link to more information.

 

 

For The Newbies-

Here's a cute little turning project from Tim Yoder. Mostly spindle turning with some woodworking and pyrography thrown in.

 

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

@Gerald posted a link to a great tutorial on hollow turning. You can check out his post and find the link here-

 

 

New Turning Items-

Although not a new product, I recently watched Bradley McCalister do a turning. He wore a face shield that incorporated goggles. The design looked like it allows the use of prescription lens and possibly a low profile dust mask. I have not tried this mask. 

 

Available from Amazon- https://www.amazon.com/Jackson-Safety-Shield-Protection-Goggle/dp/B000RMF5PQ/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_328_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=E27R12J12DSZZYVT041H

 

 

If you are looking for a new lathe light, the folks at Woodturners Wonders have a sale on a nice light at a great price-

 

https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/outlet-products/products/quasar-magnetic-lamp-factory-second

 

 

Everything Else-

Last week I posted a link to a spreadsheet for helping to get ratio and proportions of a finial. Well, the results of the calculations do make a nicer shaped finial. You have seen this picture before. The finial wasn't very graceful-

 

 

Using the spreadsheet to determine the lengths and diameters, I turned another one. The shape is a Cindy Drozda design-

 

I like this one a lot better.

 

Side by side-

 

 

The thing I discovered was that the spreadsheet's starting point is the height of the finial. This can be problematic because all of the other dimensions hinge on that number. If you already have the vessel turned, as I did, and you want a long finial- the base of the finial may end up being larger that the vessel's opening rim. I went back and modified the spreadsheet to calculate the the maximum height of the finial based on the rim diameter. 

 

Entering the rim diameter in "cell B17" will calculate the max value of H which then can be entered into "cell B1".

 

The spreadsheet is still located at-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dZTi9FvkfC9OBwN2VnOnV2MGJVWpKw11/view?usp=sharing

 

 

Safe turning

Some good stuff in here this week.  By this winter when I am in the shop again I should have lots of new stuff to apply.

Thanks for the post Lew. Yes the new finial is better , more elegant and downright eye-catching. As to the googles I have seen some safety discussions saying for a full frontal impact the Z87 face shields we wear are not enough. So googles may be in order under a face shield. At least that was the conclusion of the discussion.

Thanks for this weeks recap.  I was wanting to play with the finials from last weel too.  I got the figures for a couple on paper but didn't get them to the wood yet.  Finally have some nice weather and have a ton of yard work to do.

@Woodbutcherbynight Thanks!

 

@Gerald Thank you for the additional information on the face shield!

 

@HandyDan Thanks! I don't know if I could ever turn one by "eye" and get it to have the correct proportions.

1 hour ago, lew said:

if I could ever turn one by "eye" and get it to have the correct proportions.

just takes practice Lew. The thing is use these dimensions as a basis and then work out your own design. Maybe put some plates < at least I think that is what it is called.

I always go with what pleases me.  The given formula does produce an appealing finial every time.