4 hours ago, Masonsailor said:

Really beautiful ! I have never heard of the JCC. I just looked it up. Very interesting stuff. 
Paul

It is place that has its own "feel" and the beauty of the surrounds only serve to help with that. Students from all over the USA and several countries are a regular occurrence.

After taking some time away for those things that take you away from what you want to do for the things you have to do I finally got back to this vase last week.  Managed to finish it today finally. Construction is Maple, Sapele , black veneer with Aluminite resin feature ring. Finish is five coats of Minwax wipe on poly. Approximate 7 inches wide x 9 1/2 inches tall. I am kind of hooked on this stave turning thing  

mike calabrese55

That is gorgeous Mike @calabrese55. Good to have you back. Hope all is well.

Beautiful Mike.  Looks flawless.

Thanks Dave, Dan  and all for looking in. We are doing OK here . My attention was drawn away and to a point still is after a long awaited cataract surgery that kind of  of went  south. 

The surgery from a procedural standpoint went OK but the visual correction, the corrective power of the implanted lens the surgeon used came up short as far as failing to  improving my vision. 

 

Without going into the whole story allow me to send up a warning to anyone contemplating cataract  replacement.     

 

Be your own advocate and make sure your provider addresses a common condition known as DED, Dry Eye Disease. Simply put DED is very very common in most  individuals to some degree. Simply DED is  where the tear film is insufficient to properly establish and maintain a protective tear film / lubrication on the eye. The significance here is with insufficient eye film the eye is physically changed.  Cataract surgery is preceded and critically supported by multiple eye measurements taken well before the surgery date. These measurements are very critical and specifically used by the surgeon in selecting the corrective power of the lens they will implant. 

Taking  measurements of a dry eye results in  measurements that are errant due to the physical changes in the eye from the lack of tear film.  These critical measurements, the metrics,  are then used by the surgeon in calculations that establish the characteristics , the proper corrections of the implanted lens specifically the corrective power.

Please if you are contemplating cataract surgery talk to your surgeon about dry eye conditions before you have the surgery.

mike calabrese55 

14 hours ago, calabrese55 said:

After taking some time away for those things that take you away from what you want to do for the things you have to do I finally got back to this vase last week.  Managed to finish it today finally. Construction is Maple, Sapele , black veneer with Aluminite resin feature ring. Finish is five coats of Minwax wipe on poly. Approximate 7 inches wide x 9 1/2 inches tall. I am kind of hooked on this stave turning thing  

mike calabrese55

I think this is your best one yet! Love the feature ring!!

Thanks Lew for looking in.  I feel like I am getting there a little bit. The stave elements are are the most challenging parts. I can get them pretty close off the table saw but need to dial them in with some flat plate sanding. After that it gets a bunch easier . The steady rest has improved my luck a bunch really saves those nasty catches I seem to get if there is some chatter while turning. The resin is Alumilite clear slow with a couple colors of mica powder, it turns nice as long as I can remember to use a soft touch . Catches there can be real attention getters and tough on the underwear .

mike calabrese55 

2 minutes ago, calabrese55 said:

The resin is Alumilite clear slow with a couple colors of mica powder, it turns nice as long as I can remember to use a soft touch

I know some of our turners will groan and roll their eyes- and say here it comes..

 

Have you considered a negative rake carbide cutter on the Alumilite? They really do work well to lessen chip out and catches on acrylic. Of course you know what brand to which I'm partial 

Yes I have negative rake carbides but my type A personality gets too impatient with the cut and I force it and ...well you know the rest.  I have some HHS gouges they are collecting dust, that is a mountain I gave up trying to climb. The mountain gets steeper the older I get and then there is that type A thing all over again......  BOOM goes the dynamite 

mike calabrese55

Bowling bowl.

 

Love the colors @RustyFN.

Looking great @RustyFN!

Love the idea of those bowls Rusty.  I'm not a fan of the mess they make when turning them.

2 hours ago, HandyDan said:

Love the idea of those bowls Rusty.  I'm not a fan of the mess they make when turning them.

I know what you mean. I have two more to turn then the mess will only be a one time cleanup.

This is what is on my lathe.  I’m not doing the turning, it’s a friends son.  He is interested in woodworking and wood turning.  He has Harshbargers and ADHD.  He is a great kid. He just turned 16.  He also has a HUGE interest in NASA.  He wanted to turn a rocket.  You can see the beginning stages.  Once he got that far, I asked if he would like to turn that rocket into a space shuttle.  His eyes got very wide and yelled yes!  So that’s what we’re going to do.  I’m just showing him, and explaining to him how to approach the lathe, explained how to use the bevel of the tool, speed,of the lathe, etc.  it’s going to take some time because he can only come one day a week, or so.  But that is fine with me.  Never seen someone as a\happy as he is.

On 3/3/2023 at 2:05 PM, forty_caliber said:

New lathe setup.  Powermatic PM2014 sold.  

 

 

Five bowls turned on the new lathe in the kiln.  All pecan some with spalting.  

 

 

Can't say enough good things about the swivel head feature on the RP.  Allows more ergonomic tool access when hollowing.  No leaning over the work trying to get an angle on the gouge. 

 

Gathered all the off cuts, failed specimens, funnels, disasters, and other unusable bits and sacrificed to the fire gods.  6 big cart loads over to the fire pit.  Fire burned for 12 hours.  Now I'm going to have to make another woodpile. 

 

.40

WOW!  What a great looking shop!! And so clean, unlike mine. Ha ha ha.

7 minutes ago, Pauley said:

This is what is on my lathe.  I’m not doing the turning, it’s a friends son.  He is interested in woodworking and wood turning.  He has Harshbargers and ADHD.  He is a great kid. He just turned 16.  He also has a HUGE interest in NASA.  He wanted to turn a rocket.  You can see the beginning stages.  Once he got that far, I asked if he would like to turn that rocket into a space shuttle.  His eyes got very wide and yelled yes!  So that’s what we’re going to do.  I’m just showing him, and explaining to him how to approach the lathe, explained how to use the bevel of the tool, speed,of the lathe, etc.  it’s going to take some time because he can only come one day a week, or so.  But that is fine with me.  Never seen someone as a\happy as he is.

I had a student, at school, who suffered from the same afflictions. He would fixate on one specific topic and learn virtually every fact on it. He was almost always 100% accurate, too. Really nice kid. We got him a job fixing computer for a local library. They gave him his own area where he could work undisturbed. Haven't heard from him in a long while.

7 hours ago, Pauley said:

it’s a friends son.  He is interested in woodworking and wood turning.  He has Harshbargers and ADHD.  He is a great kid. He just turned 16.

Good on you Paul for showing the interest and willingness to be a tutor.

 

16 hours ago, lew said:

I had a student, at school, who suffered from the same afflictions. He would fixate on one specific topic and learn virtually every fact on it. He was almost always 100% accurate, too. Really nice kid. We got him a job fixing computer for a local library. They gave him his own area where he could work undisturbed. Haven't heard from him in a long while.

I understand the fixation part.  I was standing and watching him turn, and if he came to a spot were there was a nick in the wood, he would stay at that mark to take it away.  I had him stop the lathe so I could explain to him why he shouldn’t do that.  He seemed to understand it.  He made that rocket (as it stands right now) pretty straight down the 14 inch long piece of maple.  That’s something I still struggle with.  I told him and I got a rare smile from him.  His mom later told me he was so excited about working with me in my shop and using the lathe.  

9 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Good on you Paul for showing the interest and willingness to be a tutor.

 

For a very long time I was wanting to share what (little) I know about woodworking and wood turning.  But in this day and age, you really need to be careful.  It’s a shame it has to be that way.  I’m enjoying showing him almost as much as he is doing it.  I hope he keeps coming back.