Well either way, I'm starting a NEW project on a bowl.... This one will be my mothers birthday gift although it will be late I think she'll be happy with it when its finished up.  I've never tried working with Birtch wood before so I wanted to try it.  Fortunately home depot has plenty in stock.  I bought a 12 foot section of board at 5 dollars a foot.  That crap AINT cheap.  I cut the board down to size.  I took one of the bowls I had previously done.  After the glue finished up drying.  I went down drew out the lines.  I'm still going to finish letting the glue cure up on the the lathe.  Its dry yes but not fully cured.  Either way.  I got it drawn out with the bowl.  Fortunately I marked center on the piece before I even started cutting out the round.  My little Ryobi bench top bandsaw was having plenty of difficulty cutting through 3 inches of material.  It pretty much struggled.  I got it cut round as best as I could.  I also had two new roughing tips coming from EWT which was nice, also placed an order for two new ewt negative rake roughing tips.  Those should come in quite handy.  Either way..,.. I'm hoping this one turns out nicely.  I will be recording it so I'll post the video of it when its complete.  AND HECK NO I'm NEVER USING A PEN MANDREL AGAIN for turning unless its for pens.

 

 

 

 

Lookin good 

Thanks @lew.....  Turns out I am NOW a HUGE fan of birch wood.  It has the feel of Poplar but its not as Olive Green colored.  I'm going to try and get this bowl finished by thursday evening so I can just give the gift then and call it good.  I would rather hand make a gift than buy one although thats tough with a niece and nephew.  Either way this one is the experiment.  Also just ran about 20 minutes of video on this one.  But yea with the EWT carbides HOLY crapola the wood shavings just come off so nicely.  Too bad I have to wait on my negative rakes to get here I could have used those tonight.  Either way.  Rounding the bowl first worked a heck of a lot better too.  Going to do that from now on.  Heres a couple shots of the work in progress.  Makes me wish I had a decent power sander.  Unfortunately out of sand paper for the disc sander.

Nice. Are you going to curve the sides more or leave them vertical?

I think I'm going to leave them a bit more vertical I'm not quite comfortable curving it out more.  I'll try that on a cheaper type of wood.  Birch was 5 bucks a foot so NOT cheap.

Edited September 2, 20205 yr by AndrewB

Yea I really like birch wood sands nicely too.  I only went up to 600 grit believe it or not.  Its turning out quite nicely.  This should make for a decent gift.  Hopefully I'll be able to have it finished by tomorrow night.  Maybe sooner.

Looks pretty nice. Maybe it’s the lighting, there seems to be some scratches left. 

Some but that's okay its not too terrible.  I only sanded up to 600 grit on the outside.  I used a heavy duty 36 grit piece of sanding belt from my 2x72 to start the sanding to get all the tool scuffs off.  It should still clean up quite nicely.  I'm going to have to get a new carbide tip for my hollower its gotten a work out over a few bowls.

Going back over the turning using a light touch can often eliminate a lot of the turning marks. That way you can start with a higher grit paper. Don’t skip a grit!

I never do skip a grit.  Fortunately I still have plenty of sand paper.  I'm also stopping every 20 minutes or so to edit video LOL.   Which in reality editing video is actually becoming much more fun than gaming LOL.  Just a pain to record on a regular basis with the iphone.  But at least the video of this bowl turning is coming out nicely.  I should HOPEFULLY be able to keep this one under 30 minutes if I edit it right.

Andrew you are definitely making progress. Glad you have started using harder woods as it is much more rewarding. Lots of tear out tho on this and after sanding I still see it. Ok lets say I don't pull my punches. I still think a sharp bowl gouge would give you a better surface on the outside. I know it is not fun getting all those catches when you are learning but you will learn and it will be rewarding. Keep challenging yourself but stay safe.

@GeraldYea the harder woods are turning out to be a lot more fun and challenging to work with.  Softer woods tend to be TOO EASY.  I do enjoy turning Myrtle wood still.  How ever I've got to find a cheaper source of birch wood.  I don't think I want to pay 5 dollars a foot for it again.  As far as turning I've pretty much been sticking to my carbides.  I've been enjoying them way too much.  Not sure if I would have the patience to learn HSS at this point now that I've gotten used to carbide.  It would also be nice to do larger projects how ever the small bowls is about all I can do with my lathe.  Either way the smaller bowl projects are quite enjoyable and easy to finish off.

Edited September 2, 20205 yr by AndrewB

Heres the video from this bowl.  It turned out semi okay in the end.  Either way I've got the second one up on the lathe in progress. I think I'm going to try a steeper angle with the curve on the bowl this time hopefully I dont horribly mess it up.

 

On 9/1/2020 at 11:13 PM, Gerald said:

I still think a sharp bowl gouge would give you a better surface on the outside.

And he would save money on sandpaper.  The smoother the cut the less sanding needed and used correctly, a bowl gouge can leave a very smooth surface.

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by HandyDan

Andrew, no turning advise from me as I haven't done enough to give any.

But I can on lumber

Check around for someone close to you that has a portable (or not) sawmill that sells local lumber.  You can check on Craigslist, Bookoo, Marketplace or other social media for this.  You might also check with local tree service companies.  Some may have a sawmill, some may provide logs to mills.

To get you started on the hunt, here is a link to Woodmizer.  There is a page where you can search for local mills:

https://woodmizer.com/us/Find-a-Local-Sawyer

 

When you buy lumber at Big Blue, you pay for having it S4S - surfaced (planed) on all four sides.  Since you are turning it, you don't need to pay for that!  If you find a good local sawyer that you can work with, you will be able to get what you want, however you want it.

Keep in mind, I only have a 12 by 18 inch lathe.  Unless I hook the extension up to the lathe then it goes to about 36 inches.  As far as a bowl gouge goes at this point I'm kind of stuck into Carbides to be honest.  As far as finding rounds that I want to get well, I eventually need to take a trip up into Capital Forest and do some wood hunting but not until the virus gets more under control.

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by AndrewB

just wonderful now my hollowing carbide tool the screw is rounded out talk about ever living frustrating.  It always seems to happen before I need a new tip.

I am seriously HOPING these will do the trick.  Just picked them up from home depot.  Thankfully that danged store is Literally right next door to me LOL.  So now I can say I officially OWN a set of easy outs.  The sad thing was I didn't even over tighten the screw in the hollower so not fully sure what the deal with that was.

7 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

I am seriously HOPING these will do the trick.  Just picked them up from home depot.  Thankfully that danged store is Literally right next door to me LOL.  So now I can say I officially OWN a set of easy outs.  The sad thing was I didn't even over tighten the screw in the hollower so not fully sure what the deal with that was.

I think you need to make sure the allen hole is completely cleaned out. I use a safety pin to do mine. Then when you INSTALL a screw, use the supplied Easy Wood Tools allen wrench. Put the LONG end of the wrench in the allen head hole. Use the SHORT end of the allen wrench to apply the torque. This method prevents overtightening. When removing the screw, if it seems too tight, use the heat from a lighter or match to loosen the built up gunk on the threads. That small amount of heat will not hurt the tool, screw or cutter.

Yea I double checked that the hole was completely cleaned out first.  It was pretty clean.  None of the wrenches I had would work for it the ones that I had that fit at least.....  They would just slip.  So I'm hoping with the easy outs I can fix two tools for the price of 15 bucks LOL instead of 200.