Back to milky skies from the Canadian wild fires.

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@Ron Altier has perfected his technique for getting a glass like finish on his Christmas ornaments. Now inquiring minds want to know his secret!!

 

Head on over to Ron's post and add your comments-

 

 

@RustyFN finished up his lidded gift box. His mixed media turning is truly beautiful. Notice how closely the grain matches at the lid/box interface.

 

Check out Rusty's post at-

 

 

Our "What's On Your Lathe" still has weekly additions! I really want to thank @RustyFN to starting this thread. It's so great to see what everyone is doing and the progress on the projects. This week picks up here-

 

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

Click on the images for links to more information and registration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For The Newbies-

Haven't turned a bowl yet? Here's a nice little beginner's bowl from Mike Peace-

 

 

 

Some important safety information for beginners and experienced turners alike. Kent Weakley discusses the importance of keeping that respirator clean and functioning properly.

 

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

You've turned a natural edge bowl, now how about a natural "sided" box?!?! Alan Stratton shows us how it's done!

 

 

See how Richard Raffan re-turns a small warped bowl. Notice how he chucks the bowl to true up the outside.

 

 

You might remember that Easy Wood Tools ( @Jordan Martindale ) recently added beading cutters to their product line. In this video, Carl Jacobson demonstrates their capabilities as he turns some really neat refrigerator magnets. @Steve Krumanaker might just ad these to his product line!

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

Last week we posted a video from Mike Peace where he demonstrated how to make wooden faceplates/glue blocks. Part of his video mentioned the Beall taps. This week he updated the Beall information to let us know that John Beall sold his company to Lee Valley and that Lee Valley will be the sole distributors of Beall products. Mike there is a quick note in this video-

 

 

 

Everything Else-

Interesting thoughts from a recent Ron Brown's newsletter-

 

How To Become An Overnight Success

 

As a new turner, you are anxious to become as good as some of the names you hear regularly; Nick Cook, Richard Raffan, David Ellsworth, Kirk Deheer, Mike Mahoney, Cindy Drozda, and many more.

 

So, you develop a plan:

 

1.    You buy a top-of-the-line lathe, a Powermatic 4224, a Robust American Beauty, A OneWay 2436, a Laguna 2436, or something in that same category costing between $5,000 and $12,000.

 

2.    Next, you spend whatever it takes to get the very best lathe chisels, Robert Sorby, Carter and Sons, Crown, Ashley Iles, Doug Thompson, etc., and you need at least one of everything they sell in multiple sizes because great tools make great turners, or so you’ve been told.

 

3.    Then you must set up your sharpening station with a slow-speed grinder, sharpening jig, and not one, but two CBN wheels.

 

4.    You’ve watched untold hours of YouTube videos, including some of mine, so you have tons of head knowledge under your belt. You have many ideas on how this turning thing works; now is your time to shine!

 

Wait! You are still not a turner.

 

You are a student and you will be for the next several years. Granted, you are a student with lots of nice expensive gadgets, but you are missing the one thing you can’t buy: Time in the seat, or hours in front of the lathe. You are a novice until you have put in the time, made the mistakes, tried something 10 different ways, made 100 pieces of the same thing, and made 10 different kinds of turned items.

 

The wonderful thing about turning is that even our first pieces while we are learning can turn out pretty good and it is just a given that our wives (and most of our kids) will love whatever we make. But you are still a beginner. That isn’t a bad thing, it is just a thing. Over the years I’ve met thousands of folks that had been turning for 20 years. The problem was that they had one year of experience 20 times over!

 

Since you can’t get around the time needed to become an overnight expert, a master, or someone to pay attention to, just put in the time as a student to acquire those skills, make those mistakes, and perfect those methods and techniques. It is all part of the journey that will one day result in your overnight success.

 

 

Safe turning

Thanks Lew for another great post , now to check out a video

Thanks Lew.  nice line up of videos again.  I made some ring/change bowls etc. on year.  I picked up some small stainless dishes at the thrift store to use as a liner to keep the wood from deteriorating.  Worked well.

 

Thanks Lew

 

@Gerald  Thank You!

 

@HandyDan Thanks! Really neat little bowls. The metal liner is a great idea!

 

@RustyFN  Thank You!