Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners December 13, 2023

[lew]

About midway thru December, need to start thinking about doing some Christmas shopping soon.

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@Masonsailor updated his post from last week to show us the finished Christmas bowl he turned. Talk about a beauty!!

 

Paul added a little more about the experience in his post-

https://thepatriotwoodworker.com/forums/topic/39795-a-bowl-for-christmas/?do=findComment&comment=325402

 

 

@Fred W. Hargis Jr asked us a question concerning carbide cutters and dust creation. Our turners had lots of advice. Please check out Fred's post and see if you can add your own experience-

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

A list of some of the 2024 woodturning events-

 

https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/l/Woodturning-Symposiums

 

 

For The Newbies-

It is always helpful to see how other turners approach a similar project. That is the premise of the "4 Ways" series at the beginning of each month. This month the project is to turn a serving tray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

A hodgepodge  of ideas from a few well known turners-

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

The Woodworker's Journal recently reviewed the new Jet 1221 VS lathe. Here's the article-

https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/weekly/vip/turning-techniques-features-and-benefits-of-the-jet-1221vs-lathe/   

 

 

 

This would make a nice stocking stuffer-

 

Orders can be place here-

https://store.popularwoodworking.com/products/woodturning-basics-with-jimmy-clewes-combo-pack?utm_campaign=PWW - NL - Sunday Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=285905188&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8uGMQyOk6eL8OM6vb4iIlMHuyz4aaNDe4RqU3IspCLxylrDDkN6ElsI4ye1O2d9kMfSAXtgKU-uLXs_pPcNIOxAtLHFQ&utm_content=285905188&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

Everything Else-

From Ron Brown's newsletter-

 

Think Ahead

 

“If I had thought about it, I would have done this first, or at least before now.” Certain things make your life much easier if you do them at the proper time. Woodturners learn the importance of WHEN to do something, usually after they forget to do it and have moved on to the next step and can’t go back.

 

Sometimes you see it coming after it is too late. I have a couple of examples to consider as you think ahead:

 

Twice turned projects
1)    You rough-turned a bowl from green wood and it has now dried. You are ready to finish turn it but it has gone dramatically oval, including the tenon and your scroll chuck won’t seat properly. You are finding it very difficult to center your work. You could have added a very simple 5-second step that would greatly simplify your life.

  You could have left a divot in the center of your tenon. 

2)    Bring the tailstock with a pointed live center into the divot and secure your bowl.
3)    True up the warped oval tenon to round again and the scroll chuck will now hold the bowl properly for final turning. (This is a perfect time to use our natural edge jam chuck since the rim of the bowl will not be flat or level either and won't sit flat against cole jaws or a longworth chuck.)

 

Rework a finished project:
On the outside or bottom
1)    There is no tenon and you are having difficulty centering your work. You didn’t want to leave the divot as it would have been unsightly. 
   a.    Alternatively, a single nearly invisible small circle or series of 3 small rings on the foot will make finding the center much easier and will look like a decorative detail to most onlookers.
   b.    I use the tip of a skew, my micro detailer, or a point tool for this.

 

Removing sanding scratches:
Before moving on to the next finer grit, STOP! Blow the dust off your project and use a strong light to LOOK at your project. Are all of the scratches gone? I see otherwise beautiful work with elegant shapes and excellent finishes on the internet that have scratch marks showing through. That ruins the piece for me every time.

 

If you find scratches that are still visible, go back one grit and sand until they are gone. Then LOOK AGAIN before moving on. Otherwise, you will either have to live with ugly scratch marks or remove the finish and go all the way back to where the scratches are and start over. I’ve done that, but it is much easier to take a few seconds to discover them as you go. I find this happens often when turning pens.

 

Over time, you will develop those little things that save time and effort if you do them as you go

 

 

Safe turning

[HandyDan]

Love the tray videos.  I'm looking forward to watching them.  I have a couple pieces of wood I've been wanting to use them for this.

[Gerald]

Thanks for the post Lew. Looks like there is some good stuff in all that.

[Grandpadave52]

4 hours ago, lew said:

About midway thru December, need to start thinking about doing some Christmas shopping soon.

Keep me posted on the official start date. I thought I was behind.

 

BTW, great post again. Thankful someone posted our bail.

[lew]

@HandyDan  Thank you!

 

@Gerald  Thanks!

 

@Grandpadave52 Thank you! It's great to be free!