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We are into February already. Yesterday the temperature was over 60° but today back in the 30's. Typical Pennsylvania weather! Our Patriot Turners- @Woodbutcherbynight showed us a really well thought out wire burning tool. This one can be used with one hand! Check out his post for a detailed description of the build and all of the great comments Gunny received! @Masonsailor continues the process of turning the pieces for his "vertical lazy susan". He has completed the three tulips- His complete thread, showing the progress, is at- @Ron Altier posted a beautiful blue ornament. As always, Ron's work is spectacular. I think he finally has a handle on that UV finish- Please check all of the great comments he received on this one- What’s Coming Up- Click on the above image for the link to the show website and registration information. Check out who is going to be there- Chris Caliendo- president of Easy Wood Tools! Thanks @Jim from Easy Wood Tools for the heads up!!! For The Newbies- As with most everything, there's more than one way to accomplish a process. Mounting a bowl blank, on a chuck, is no exception. Some turners use a recess while others will use a tenon. Here is video from Sam Angelo explaining his take on which to use- If you are looking for classes to improve your turning skills, Craft Supplies USA may have something available. Here's the link to their complete list- https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/t/205/3-Day-Woodturning-Workshops-(Deposit-Only) Expand Your Horizons- I found a rather interesting video from Lyle Jamieson. He discusses the requirements for "reach" in turning advance shapes. New Turning Items- Woodturners Wonders has a couple of new items available. Along with their CBN wheels, they are now offering diamond wheels. They are also offering a new, two prong drive spur- All their products can be found at their website- https://woodturnerswonders.com/ Everything Else- We often mention embellishments to our turnings and have shown several methods to accomplish this. Mike Peace posted a video showing the tool he uses on small projects.- In addition, here is the link to a printed handout with sources for the parts needed to make the tool- http://www.mikepeacewoodturning.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Rotary-Texturing-tool-01282020.pdf Rick Turns has uploaded his list of YouTube turning videos for January. Why not give Rick a "Thumbs Up" and a positive comment, on his channel, for his efforts- @Cliff posted a neat video showing how one turner engineered the mechanics necessary to make specialized turnings. I remember a while back @BillyJack asking us about a more simple solution. Enjoy! Safe turning

Finally got to try a deep hollow form, not real deep, about 13". First time I've tried something like this and there is lots to learn. The laser diode I was using wasn't the best choice and it wouldn't stay in one spot. Because of that and my own inexperience this piece is just too thin in a couple areas. It won't get much sanding because there is a very real possibility of sanding through. Still, for a first effort, I've got to be happy with the results. I also know there is a lot of room for improvement, especially in the form and getting a consistent thickness. Anyway, here is my first effort and a short video of the hollowing process. The base could be a little smaller and the funnel could also be smaller I think. I was surprised how difficult the big cove was to do and I can see there is room for improvement there as well. Wife says she loves it and I have to finish it but you know how they are. Thanks for looking Steve

I've got a beautiful piece of walnut on the lathe, trying to do a hollow form about 14" deep and about the same major diameter. Drilling to start hollowing this morning and when I backed out to clear chips this is what I saw. No drill bit, this is a bad thing. At this point I'm over 10" deep with this bit. Fortunately I was drilling in steps and had made a good portion of the hole larger already. What now? Couldn't reach it with anything and there are chips packed tight around it. My first thought was, no way to save this. Still, I started picking at the shavings and blowing them out until they were pretty well clear, that took about an hour. After several failed attempts with rare earth magnets, screw drivers, etc. etc. I got the idea to make a loop in a piece of tie wire and slip it over the shaft. Held the wire with a pair of vice grips and ran the lathe slow. With a little help, the wire wound tight enough I could wiggle the drill bit a little using the wire and a screw driver. After about two hours I was able to get a purchase on the bit with a pair of deep reach needle nose and worked it the rest of way out. Next time, I'll be sure to clear chips more often and make doubly sure the set screws in my extension are tight. I think it will be faster that way. Steve

Needed a hollow form to display flowers in new booth . Had a piece of spaulted magnolia so started on it . The first for me is to turn a hollow form from beginning to parting off on one day....actually 2.5 hours.

Here is another oak hollow form with black and orange dye. Was supposed to have a collar but it warped too much so opened the top a little. It is about 4 inches in diameter.

A problem that occurs occasionally is to have a natural or oops created hole in a hollow form that you do not want to leave as a hole. Now the question is "do I fix it and if so HOW?" The answer is use a balloon . Find a balloon that will fit inside the piece and inflate it inside the apply filler of your choice to the outside. As an alternative you can use a plastic bag inside and fill it with sand.

Just a reminder, Friday March 29th is Vietnam Veterans Day Our Patriot Turners- @Gerald is turning one of his beautifully colored bowls for a present. He received lots of positive comments on the project. Check out his post on the turning- @RustyFN was also in the bowl turning mode! He showed us his latest beauty- a large maple bowl Lots of positive feedback on this one, too! Head on over to Rusty's post and let him know how much you appreciate his work- Member @Big B posted images of a hollow form he recently turned. The wood is Camphor. There are more images of this spectacular piece in the gallery. Please check it out and leave your comments for Brian. In last weeks "Wednesday's Wisdom..." @Woodbutcherbynight showed us a new gobblet he is working on- Check out what he said about this turning- What’s Coming Up- Click on the above image for the link to the show's website and registration information. For The Newbies- As much as we'd like to believe that everyone of our turners use Easy Wood Carbide Tools, we know that most new turners start with a second hand set of traditional turning tools. Even us Easy Wood Tools users have a few HSS tools around! Traditional tools require sharpening (one of the disadvantages- hint, hint ). Carl Jacobson posted a nice video on sharpening, including some jigs and tips. Notice the CBN wheel on Carl's grinder. The folks at Woodturners Wonders have some excellent prices on these wheels- https://woodturnerswonders.com/ Expand Your Horizons- @Gerald gave us a heads-up on an awesome turning site. There is something there for everyone- tips, techniques, projects, tool making, jig making and more!!! Bookmark this site for future reference!! http://aroundthewoods.com/ New Turning Items- Ruth Niles has a Meat Tenderizers set. They are made of FDA food grade 304 18-8 stainless steel and are made in America. More information about this set is at Ruth's site- https://nilesbottlestoppers.com/product/tenderizer-set/ Everything Else- To paraphrase "The Carpenters"- 'Rainy days and mondays always gets me to the basement shop' or something like that. I received a few big pieces of freshly cut locust. In the past, I've tried to make a large bowl from this species but it always cracked during drying. This time I'm going to try the water/dishwashing soap method. Started with this- Rough turned it to a 1" thick bowl and put it in the solution Monday afternoon. According to everything I read, I should be able to pull it out on Thursday and then move it to a paper bag full of shavings. Then wait 3 weeks to do the finish turning. The folks who gave me the locust wouldn't take any money for the wood so while I had the lathe fires up, I turned a wine bottle stopper as a gift. Safe turning hkjj

October already but the weather is more like early September. At least it isn't raining! Please checkout @John Morris's announcement concerning the Easy Wood Tools ornaments. Let's all pitch in and help load up the Easy Wood Tools lobby Christmas tree! You don't have to be the most experienced turner to create some neat items for their tree. Here's a couple of really easy spindle type items- Remember, you don't have to paint/decorate the turnings. @Jim from Easy Wood Tools told me they have volunteers who can do that. Our Patriot Turners- @Jim from Easy Wood Tools has been honing his hollowing skills. Check out this beauty- his first attempt! Jim posted his description here and received lots of positive feedback- @Ron Altier has created another gorgeous ornament. Ron always finds creative ways to embellish his turnings. He received lots of comments and Ron exposes his source for some of his materials- @RustyFN posted a fantastic seam ripper he made as a gift. Lots of interest in his technique and he answered questions about how he produced such an awesome finish- We had a couple of questions this week. @hawkeye10 asked about purchasing turning chisels. The group is pretty much split between the standard tools (gouges, etc.) and the newer carbide tools. Please head on over to Hawkeye's post and give him your insights and experiences. Hawkeye also posted images of his newly cleaned/restored lathe. It sure is a beauty- @Ron Altier asked about the cushioned micromesh sanding abrasives. Ron was curious about sanding speeds and what materials could be sanded with this product. Check his post and the responses. If you have any tips or hints that will help him, please give him the information- @Gerald posted two excellent videos on lathe maintenance. I know I need to do preventative maintenance more often. From The Internet- Our friends from Easy Wood Tools shared a video from Tracey Malady. In this one, she turns a bowl with an internal rim. You get to see the EWT hollowing tools in action! On my old lathe, I had a honing wheel mounted to the "left" side of the headstock. It was really handy for honing tools during turning. Mike Peace demonstrates how to make one of these for sanding or honing- Tim Yoder put up a video about turning a pumpkin. I'm sharing it here not so much for the project but for Tim's concern for safety when turning large pieces. Everything Else- I did get to spend a little time at the lathe. I'm working on the last two ornaments to send to Jim Luley for the EWT Christmas tree. The first one is made from a piece of spalted maple. The "finials' are also maple but ebonized with india ink. The second one is from a blank I glued up a while back that was intended for salt/pepper grinders but that never happened. It's a combination of walnut, maple and cherry. I used a jig designed by Mr. David Reed Smith to create the balls. Everything was completely turned with Easy Wood Tools. Safe Turning

So this is my first ever attempt at a hollow form turning. Simple... yes Clunky base (I'll probably turn it off) But... I did it! Proud of myself for trying this. I've always been very intimidated by this for some reason. So here it is... Cherry... 3" tall, 2-3/4" wide. The walls are less than 1/8" ..... mostly

We are about half way through the Patriot Raffle period but we are only about 64% of our site goal 😥. If you haven't bought your tickets yet, Please head over to this post and take a chance on one of the wonderful prizes- Major thunderstorm passed thru and another on its' heels. Home the UPS holds up! Our Patriot Turners- @HandyDan posted a free wood score he made! Looks like it could be cherry or maybe even walnut. What do you think?? Dan has also been busy in the shop turning pens- He creates these beauties out of inexpensive, bought pens. @Gerald posted his gorgeous hollow form turned from Live Oak. Gerald discusses his turning and it color in his post Gerald also posted a bowl he made using the ringmaster system- See what our turners had to say about this gorgeous piece- Our own @Steve Krumanaker received a well deserved honor recently. His maple "Rock" bowl was given the "Judges Award" at a show presented by a local art council. We all know Steve has awesome talent and now his community does, too. More images in Steve's post- What’s Coming Up- I had the very pleasurable experience of demonstrating Easy Wood Tools ( @Jim from Easy Wood Tools ) to the Lancaster Woodturners. They are participating in the Mid Atlantic Woodturning Symposium, September 28-30, in Lancaster PA. More information is available at their site- http://www.mawts.com/ . From The Internet- Rick Turns has the July list of YouTube turning videos ready- Mike Peace added another sanding video. He describes additional techniques non-spindle pieces Along those lines, last week I mentioned using Abranet sanding screen. I found a website that has a similar product and not as expensive. These folks carry a wide variety of turning accessories- https://woodturnerswonders.com/ Everything Else- Several weeks ago we featured a project finish called "water droplets". The latest issue of American Woodturner magazine (August 2018) has a How-To for doing that finish. As it is a copyrighted article, I won't put it here but you may be able to get a copy of the magazine to see additional information about this technique. I finally finished up the little mixed media turning. It didn't come out like the picture I had in my head- but then my turnings rarely do! The base is a piece of walnut. Overall height is about 5" and the "glass" is about 1.25" in diameter at the top. Finished with wipe on poly. I call it "Half Full"- Safe turning

Started roughing a Beads of Courage Bowl and noticed that this blank may allow for a natural edge or bark on side , just an area about 2 inch wide by 3 to 4 long. Question is has anyone had good luck doing a bark side on a hollow form?

Some may remember I posted pictures of a hollow form I was drilling and the forstner bit got stuck deep inside. Happily, I eventually got the bit unstuck and was able to continue. Even more happily, the vessel was dry enough to finish this week. Here it is, third coat of oil just applied. It will probably get two or three more coats before I'm done. Keep in mind, the oil is freshly applied so it will lose a little shine. It's about 14" tall and 12" major diameter. I have to tell you I was nervous, nervous while turning off the bottom. Afraid I was going to through. Walnut, what can you say? Steve

Finally got the walnut hollow form off the lathe, actually, it's been "off" the lathe several times over the past couple of weeks. Gerald had mentioned in another thread I might have problems with my laser and he was right, it was too heavy and wanted to move all over the place. Had to address that. Had some other issues and some other projects got in the way. This is my second attempt at hollowing something deep and it was probably a little too ambitious for me. Have to keep telling myself, this is a learning process and that was the main purpose for this piece. Next one will probably be smaller. Anyway, here's a pic, it's about 16" tall and about 14" major diameter. It will go in a sack to dry and then get remounted for turning off the tenon and sanding. Close to 1/4" through out, a little thicker here, a little thinner there. Still learning you see. Steve