Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners February 3, 2021

[lew]

We had an awesome snow here. Right around 14" of the light powdery stuff. New snow blower worked flawlessly!

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@Steve Krumanaker has expanded his Lid Making business to include pieces for spice bottles. Steve shows us some of the work it takes to create these new items-

 

Check out his post for more details-

 

 

@Pauley turned a couple of spectacular bowls. The wood color and grain patterns take your breathe away!

 

Please see his post for the images and the types of wood he used-

 

 

@RustyFN was also working on a beautifully colored bowl. 

 

Rusty received lots of comments about his choice of wood and the bowl-

 

 

@AndrewB is really having fun with his new pressure pot and casting resins. He continued to update us on last week's post with more images of some of his castings

 

You can can see the updates at- 

 

 

Andrew used one of the castings to begin turning an egg-

 

In Andrew's post, @Gerald gave us a link to some of his favorite color additives for resin. Here's the link to the discussion-

 

 

Andrew didn't just turn acrylic resin this week. I suspect there will be some pine tar resin on his lathe after working with some wood his local tree guys gave him.

 

See more images and his progress in this post-

 

 

I hope you all are aware The Patriot Woodworker has added another sponsor- General Finishes! While we may be tempted to think of their finishes being used for woodworking, they have a woodturning finish, too!

 

Here's a short video from General Finishes demonstrating that finish-

 

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

Although there is light at the end of the tunnel, some of "The Woodworking Shows" will still be virtual. You can get more information about the schedule and demonstrators at- https://www.thewoodworkingshows.com/?fbclid=IwAR39zWURThvLgnzTRqV9OAdVKFxNtR9qON_8bR36HupZ-GVNMR11oAjnQcU

 

 

 

Highland Woodworking is offering an online course for photographing your work. Although it is directed toward photographing furniture, there certainly could be some worthwhile content for the turner-

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

 

 

For The Newbies-

Over the past month or so we have had a reoccurring topic about gouges and the discussion often centers around the choice between HSS and carbide. In this video, the author provides pros and cons of both types of tools.

 

(Editor's note: The thing I have found in these comparison videos/articles is that the author(s) are often turners who have used HSS tools from the time they started turning. Many of them have decades of experience using the "traditional" tools. Then with a few hours of carbide turning, they render their often not so positive verdict. Perhaps the opinions would be different if they had the same tool time with both types of tools.)

 

Expand Your Horizons-

Maybe I should call this compress your horizons.

 

One of the first questions, when considering casting resins, is how to get rid of the bubbles that form in the pour. Should I use a vacuum or use pressure? This video attempts to answer that question.

 

Having had some experience with casting objects (cold cast porcelain) we found that a combination of both was the best way to go. We would vacuum each part of the components- before mixing. Carefully mix. Apply pressure.

 

 

Looking for that perfect toy for the grandkids, or great grandkids? Tim Yoder has you covered-

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

Ruth Niles has a couple of new items on her website-

This 3/8" three fluted spiral tap is especially suited for acrylics and very hard wood-

 

 

https://nilesbottlestoppers.com/product/spiral-3-8-tap/

 

She also has new mandrel adapters-

 

https://nilesbottlestoppers.com/product/mandrel-adapters/

 

 

 

Everything Else-

Rick Turns list of YouTube turning videos from last week. If you missed the Virtual Craft Festival this past weekend, several of the presenters' videos are included in Rick's list.

 

 

 

 

Safe turning and stay well

[Gunny]

Great post!!

[FlGatorwood]

Thanks, Lew. This is another busy week at TPW site with turners and the videos are also informative again.  I did appreciate Kent's views and almost completely agree with him.  I prefer the traditional tools in certain situations, and in other situations, I like the scrapers.  And, I also agree that traditional tools cut more cleanly.  My EWT round nose is a hog, but with a good sharp spindle gouge, I can get along just as fine except that I have to stop sometimes and sharpen.  These are always fun to read and view.  

[HandyDan]

Thanks For keeping us informed Lew.  I have a bottle of the Wood Turners Finish.  I like it for some applications.  Being water based, sanding between coats is required. 

[AndrewB]

another nice post @lew

[Larry Buskirk]

11 hours ago, lew said:

We had an awesome snow here. Right around 14" of the light powdery stuff. New snow blower worked flawlessly!

 

...We got 13.4" of the "Wet Heavy Crap" that burnt the belts up on 2 snow-blowers. 

 

 

[RustyFN]

This is my snow machine.

[lew]

Apologize for just getting back here. Thanks for all of the nice comments.

 

@Gunny Thank You!
 

@FlGatorwood Thanks! There are a few things for which I don't use my Easy Wood Tools. Rounding larger blanks and getting the bark off of green bowls.

 

@HandyDan Thank You! And thanks for the information about the Wood Turners Finish.

 

@AndrewB Thanks!

 

@Larry Buskirk Sorry to hear about the snow blower! Our last snow was the fluffy stuff. May change my mind about how mine works when we get the slushy snow.

 

@RustyFN Now that's a snow machine!

[Masonsailor]

As always Lew a great job !

Pail

[lew]

@Masonsailor Thank You!