That's what it's all about.  Practice makes perfect and being perfectly honest I am always practicing and having those wonderful "AHA!" moments.

 

Looking very nice Fred.

By Gosh ! I think he's got it.

Well, after 5 tries I'm still not perfect on getting the profiles to match, but I'm a lot closer. The story stick helped a lot with the spacing of the details, but I'm struggling with getting the profiles to match slightly better. I'm going to try one more, then work on the feet before I pull out the real wood (cherry). I mentioned the doug fir for practice wasn't working that well, so I may have one cherry billet as a test before I commit the rest to the effort.

Maybe a pattern band sawn from hardboard?

I dunno, it's something I could do and see of that would help. Clearly my visual interpretation isn't doing it.

It's not an easy thing to do but you have made great progress.  Make something to hold the one you like best across the back of the lathe for a visual reference that is right in front of you.  It helps me when I do so.

5 hours ago, HandyDan said:

It's not an easy thing to do but you have made great progress.  Make something to hold the one you like best across the back of the lathe for a visual reference that is right in front of you.  It helps me when I do so.

I was thinking of a negative pattern. 

I like the transitions at the top on your first one the best. For the bottom #5 works.

9 hours ago, Gerald said:

I like the transitions at the top on your first one the best. For the bottom #5 works.

Yeah, those are my choices as well (maybe #4 for the bottom bead detail). I've got my cherry billets but I need to get my sanding DC thing set up, and a rack to hold my example. I'm also going to try and cut a hardboard pattern from those choices above. I've got one or 2 practice billets left to try those techniques.

Edited March 1, 20215 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

Fred, give this a thought...when I'm copying something on the lathe I hang the item to copy right above the piece I am fixin to copy so both pieces  are within two or three inches of each other...this way my eyes are on both pieces at the same time..........It does work better if one is crossed eyed.

On 2/28/2021 at 12:42 PM, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Well, after 5 tries I'm still not perfect on getting the profiles to match, but I'm a lot closer. The story stick helped a lot with the spacing of the details, but I'm struggling with getting the profiles to match slightly better. I'm going to try one more, then work on the feet before I pull out the real wood (cherry). I mentioned the doug fir for practice wasn't working that well, so I may have one cherry billet as a test before I commit the rest to the effort.

I think the 3 on the right would work and not be questioned as to whether they were all alike.

Well, I was able to work out a way to set the parent leg on a rack right above where I'm turning, much as Jesse and Dan suggested. It was an easy thing ot do, I have a tripod lamp set up, and I just used the stand form it. That same stand will work for the  sanding dust catcher. Made another practice run yesterday on doug fir, then put a cherry billet in to rough it round. The cherry is a lot harder to turn (versus the poplar and fir) and I'm pretty sure this one will become another practice piece....we'll see. In the meantime, following gene's suggestion to use a template, I couldn't find my very old, very cheap, contour gauge. I doubt I've used more than twice in the 40 years or so I've had it. So I ordered another that will be here today.

 

Artie, I think you're right, if they are on a table with some distance between them you'd have to look hard to see the errors. So I'll be moving on to the actual legs maybe later today. One thing that is really giving me fits is my face shield, I find it so uncomfortable I can only wear it for maybe a hour or so before I need to take it off for a while.

You’re getting pretty close Fred. It’s a hard thing to do but remember that you are producing a hand crafted piece of work and the difference between yours and something cranked out on a duplicator is that yours will have those slight variations. That’s what makes yours hand crafted art as opposed to a piece of wood stuck in a CNC lathe and made by the hundreds 😎

Paul

Turning real wood is always harder, but cherry is one of the best. Not sure what you are using but sharp tools will give you a finish on cherry that barely needs sanding. So if using HSS sharpen frequently. By the way skews work well on table legs. Good Luck.

Of the woods that I have turned, I really like turning mahogany.  So smooth and cuts like butter.  

13 hours ago, Gerald said:

Turning real wood is always harder, but cherry is one of the best. Not sure what you are using but sharp tools will give you a finish on cherry that barely needs sanding. So if using HSS sharpen frequently. By the way skews work well on table legs. Good Luck.

As it turns out (pun intended) my first comment about cherry being hard to turn was based only on using a roughing gouge to get it round(er). Yesterday I work on it a little with the parting tool, spindle gouge, and a carbide scraper and it really was neat how well the wood behaved. I love cherry, now I have another reason to like it.

Edited March 3, 20215 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

I like Cherry, Maple and Birch for their solid grain characteristics.  Mahogany and Black Walnut are favorites for their rich colors.

Well, here's where I wound up...at least for the moment. I still have wood for a couple of more billets so I may try some more, but for now these are the ones I'll be using. Still not all that close to each other, but the tricks you'all suggested help me get this close. I used all of them. I had my first one right nest to the lathe to look at and for Gene's suggestion to use a template I just used my contour gauge. The new one I have is a lot better than the old one I've lost. It really helped when i was trying to visualize what needed to be cut off next. So for now it's on to the feet, and then maybe I'll do another leg or 2. The third one in the pic seems (to me) to be the biggest outlier so replacing it may be in the cards....or it just may be a back leg.

Those are plenty close enough to each other.  Spread out to the four corners and they will look exact copies of each other.  You have accomplished your goal and don't let this go to your head but you have some "nice looking legs". 

Perfect.