OK, it's not Wednesday. You remember the old saying "When life gives you lemons..."? Well, for a turner, the correct response would be- "..you make a fruit bowl."

When we last left our adventure, the large Maple salad bowl had been roughed out and I was going to try a different drying technique. Normally, I would have placed the roughed out turning in a large paper bag filled with shavings from the roughing operation. Then, set it aside for about a year to dry. Recently, however, I found a site which explained about using the Microwave as away of speeding up the drying process. You can read about the procedure here- http://www3.sympatico.ca/3jdw8/microwavedrying.htm

I was amazed at how much water is actually trapped within the wood. The roughed blank measured about 12" in diameter, 5 1/2" tall and about 1" thick. I weighed the blank when I started and it came in at 7 lbs, 15 3/4 oz. After about 40 cycles in the microwave (defrost for 4 minutes and then a rest period) and a some time in a bag, the blank weighed about 6 1/2 lbs. If "a pint's a pound the world around", that means the blank gave up almost 1.5 pints of moisture!!!!

It was time to mount the blank and bring it to the final size. When I removed the blank from the bag, it became obvious that that beautiful grain was going to be problematic. At this point, there's not much you can do but see what nature has in store.

Oh, yeah, about those lemons-

It was my own fault. Had a catch, with the bowl gouge, when truing up the outside of the blank. Normally, I would have used a scraper, to be on the safe side, but being the wild, untamed, happy-go-lucky, adventurous turner.........

Anyway, the large, deep, salad bowl- in the blink of an eye- was instantly transformed into a shallow fruit bowl.

It was probably for the best, anyway, due to the knots disintegrating.

As Don Imus used to say, "The adventure continuuuuueessss."

Safe turning

 

Nice bowl and a good recovery. Being that I am just starting into turning, I probably would have thrown my hands in the air and said a few choice words. Being that I have done that I know what the words would be too. You are really encouraging and prove there is light at the end pf the tunnel.

Thanks for the kind comments, Wayne!

As an old Navy guy, those words were used in abundance!

Wayne Mahler said:

Nice bowl and a good recovery. Being that I am just starting into turning, I probably would have thrown my hands in the air and said a few choice words. Being that I have done that I know what the words would be too. You are really encouraging and prove there is light at the end pf the tunnel.