I know you probably don't want to hear this, but Christmas is only 2 months away. Lockdowns and job layoffs are really affecting everyone. Again, this year, we will have the opportunity to make one family's Christmas not so bleak. Please check out this information on our annual Adopt-a-Family project-

 

 

Also, reminding our turners to please add tags to their posts. Those tags help us all when searching for specific information.

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

Today, @Gerald added an extremely informative blog on drying turned wood. I had asked Gerald what his techniques were and he offered to put together the information. Please check out what he has done. Lots of great information!

 

 

@Ron Altier showed us a couple of his recent projects. First up is one of his beautiful ornaments. Ron generally creates his own blanks but with this one he tried something different-

 

Ron tells us about this one in his post-

 

He also made some turnings from an aromatic wood-

 

Lots of comments about uses for it-

 

 

@Masonsailor put the finishing touches on the fireplace utensils stand. It sure is a thing of beauty-

 

Paul shows us the final steps-

 

 

@PostalTom gave us an update on his lathe. Tom and Gerald had been working together to solve a problem. With Gerald's help and a Jet technician, he is back up and running! It's wonderful how our turners can "turn" to each other for help and advice!

 

 

@AndrewB cranked out a couple of pine bowls from a Home Depot board

 

He showed us some of the progress pictures in his post

 

 

Andrew also refined his lathe bench after removing the standard Harbor Freight metal stand-

 

 

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

Cindy Drozda has another online demonstration coming up. This one is her signature finial box-

 

 

Click on the above image for the link to Cindy's site and registration information.

 

 

For The Newbies-

The skew chisel, what can I say?! An often ignored tool but in the hands of a master it is a wonder to behold-

 

 

A nice project that can have you practicing learned skills and maybe developing some new ones-

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

This is quite a lengthy video from Sam Angelo on embellishing turnings. Sam demonstrates various tools and techniques.

 

 

When I first saw the picture, I thought- "only Tim Yoder would attempt this on the lathe"! It's a pretty neat project. When I was subbing at school some of the kids were doing this with 3-D printers-

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

The folks at Woodturners Wonders have a Pro Sanding kit put together. If you are thinking about upping your sanding game, this might be for you-

 

Here's the link- https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/random-orbital-sanders/products/pros-pro-pack

 

 

Everything Else-

Last week's YouTube videos from Rick Turns-

 

 

Last week I posted a couple of closeup pix of repaired knots in the cherry bowl I was finishing. 

This is the bowl as it came out of the bag of shavings-

 

Turned, sanded and mineral oil finish-

 

 

 

 

@Gerald's blog on drying originated from a question I had about drying green wood- specifically for this project. This large bowl dried without cracks but I needed two smaller bowls as well. Last week I mentioned that I found Rick Morris (Rick Turns) had a couple of videos on a simple dryer that could speed up the process. It was a simple build, everything needed was in my spare parts stache.

 

A quick Sketchup drawing to get the idea-

 

Then the build-

 

 

 

 

...and the results are in...

 

Not exactly what I had hoped for.

 

What went wrong??? First, I think I had a too high wattage bulb. I grabbed a 60 watt bulb which I think generated too much heat in the box. Second, the little bowls were about 5.5" in diameter and about 2.5" deep. I left the wall thickness at about 1/2" which is around 1/10 the diameter (see Geralds blog). This is typical for the bag/shaving process but I think it was too thick for this application.

 

I'm on the second attempt, now. I reduced the bulb wattage to 40 watts and turned the bowls to a wall thickness of about 3/8". After 24 hours in the dryer, no cracks have appeared. Fingers crossed!!

 

If you are interested in Rick's process, 

 

 

 

 

Safe turning and stay well

 

 

Nice post @lew  I'll have to watch the videos later on I think I came across a person Lisa Ramlow I think the name is that did a dryer kiln out of an old dishwasher not sure how it turned out but this was the video I saw...

 

Lew some nice videos you have found.

 

I did not get into some specifics in the blog as it was just a overview. In your box since it is small compares to a dishwasher or refrigerator a 25 watt may be safer.

 

Some other tips on successful drying

     1. round over all sharp corners. Cracks can emanate from these areas

     2. even wall thickness from top to bottom. If uneven it is better to be thinner at the bottom so it will flex and be less likely to crack.

Some good stuff to watch this week!!

@lew, great videos, great post with many links.  Our turners have been busy this week.  I have 4 of 23 rolling pins turned.  Need some sanding on the ends and burning the name and year.  

 

Been trying to learn how to use the EWT and I learned like you and John said, the round tip is a real wood hog.  That thing would make a beaver colony take notice.  And, I have learned how to smooth with the roughing gouge.  Just touch the target wood with the center of the blade and it is close to a good sharp skew.  Also, have learned when I am only riding the shaft bevel.  It does a nice job polishing the wood.  LOL

 

Nice post Lew.  Tim's skeleton hand was fun to watch.  He always has good videos.  Your bowl turned out nice.  I like it.

14 hours ago, FlGatorwood said:

skew.  Also, have learned when I am only riding the shaft bevel.  It does a nice job polishing the wood.  LOL

 

Be careful about riding a bevel . That shine is burnished and it actually crushes wood fibers. Not too bad if final finish cut but it may not sand as well or rather as easily.

 

By the way take a break now and then sounds like you working hard on the pins

@AndrewB Thanks for the video. Wish I had room for something like that!

 

@Gerald Thank You! I really appreciate you creating that excellent blog on drying techniques and you answering my questions.

 

@Gunny Thanks!

 

@FlGatorwood Thank You! 23 rolling pins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow you are really going to be busy! Glad to hear you are getting some use from

     @Jim from Easy Wood Tools's products!

 

@HandyDan Thank! I hope the customer likes the bowl.

Yea I don't have the space for those things either unfortunately....  Also found a propane heater I'm going to get for myself so I can actually be warm while turning this winter and its a small one that will heat the area in my shed nicely hopefully...

11 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

Also found a propane heater I'm going to get for myself so I can actually be warm while turning this winter and its a small one that will heat the area in my shed nicely hopefully...

I used to teach Scuba Ice Diving. For small groups we used one of these to heat the dive van for changing clothes, Very effective and no open flame.

 

Yea I was looking at something like that at home depot that was fairly in expensive...

29 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

Yea I was looking at something like that at home depot that was fairly in expensive...

We had 2 types of these heaters. One as pictured and one that just had the heating pad that screwed on the top of a propane soldering type cylinder. The little cylinders didn't last long so I engineered an adapter that would connect it to a 20lb propane Bar-B-Que cylinder. We'd fire it up when we got to the dive site and at the end of the dive, the van was toasty warm. Ebay may have them.