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Remembering all my Brothers and Sisters on this 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Welcome Home. Our Patriot Turners- @Headhunter posted some of his Ringmaster turnings in our sub-forum. Thought it would be nice to share them with the entire group. He also posted an awesome open segment turning. Headhunter was kind enough to add a photo of how he created the blank to create this beauty. @forty_caliber Has bee working with some spalted pecan. I really like the way he embellished the rim of this bowl- Check out his post to see what our turners had to say- Forty also posted an inquiry asking if any of our members had any experience with a specific type of knot/gap filler. Please check out this post and offer any additional help- Can't express how happy I am to see everyone adding to our continuing thread of "What's On Your Lathe"! Some of the recent additions include- This is about where we left off last week- What’s Coming Up- Click on the images for links to more information and registration- For The Newbies- Found this article that compares these tools. https://turnawoodbowl.com/carbide-vs-traditional-hss-wood-turning-tools-high-speed-steel/ Alan Stratton's video on turning a box from tree to display. To add interest to the turning, Alan burns some detail lines. Check out his wire burning tool at 9 minutes- Expand Your Horizons- Carl Jacobson turned a small lidded box, and used the urn threaded rings. This was a live demonstration so it's a little long- Mike Waldt turns a hollow Mulberry hollow form- New Turning Items- Couldn't find anything new but checkout this week's Vendor Showcase (link above). Not sure what they will be doing. Everything Else- From Ron Brown's newsletter- Driving A Stake In The Ground Sometimes progress seems so slow that you have to drive a stake in the ground to see if you are moving. I first heard this phrase when I worked on the railroad as a long-haul trainman. The first half of our route took us from near sea level over a 4,000 foot high mountain range. Sometimes I could run alongside the train faster than it was moving! Developing our skills can be a lot like that. You want to be able to use a skew chisel like they do on YouTube and roll perfect beads, disks, and wonderfully symmetrical coves. But you get catch after catch and it seems like you are never going to figure it out. Or the grain tears on the outside of your bowl blank even with freshly sharpened tools. You wonder if you will ever be able to start sanding with 120 grit or higher rather than 60 or 80 grit. You look forward to the day you don’t have to spend so much time sanding. Practice makes perfect because each time you try, you get a little bit better. You develop muscle memory whether you know it or not. Suddenly, or so it would seem, you can roll a beautiful bead with that skew and not get a catch. Where is the stake now? I used spinning tops as my demonstration canvas on the Woodworking Show Circuit for 13 seasons. I glued up 1,200 top blanks at the beginning of each season and more when those ran out. All day long I would load a blank into the lathe’s collet chuck for my next demo. I used a skew to turn the disk to round in less than 3 seconds. Then I shaped the disk in preparation for texturing. That took another 10-15 seconds, one pass on the front, and one pass on the back. In one continuous motion, I shaped the stem using the same spindle gouge I had shaped the front and back of the disk. Then I made 3 cuts with the texturing tools and finished with various color combinations. I had developed so much muscle memory that I could carry on a lucid conversation and make the top at the same time. Elapsed time, less than 5 minutes including all of the decoration and coloring. It didn’t start out like that, but after the first thousand tops, it got easier. I’ve told you before that you don’t really know how to make something until you made 50 or 100 of the same thing. Then you begin to understand but still have much to learn. So, drive that stake in the ground, metaphorically, and watch as you get better each time you try again. Remember that wherever you go, there you are. Safe turning

Snowing a little outside but tomorrow it's to be 70°! You gotta love Pennsylvania weather! Our Patriot Turners- @forty_caliber gave us a heads up on a very worthwhile endeavor for kids suffering from life altering conditions. Please check out his post and see if you can find the time to participate. @Gerald turned some little boxes for the folks at his physical therapy location. Really beautiful combination of species- His post has more information about the species and comments from our members- Our continuing topic of "What's On Your Lathe" has had a few additions. Sure would like to keep this thread going as our members work on projects. @Steve Krumanaker was commissioned to make some handles. His post gives us lots of ideas on how it is done- What’s Coming Up- Quite a lot of events coming up. Click on the images for links and more information- A week or so ago, we shared a new thread chaser tool. Bradley, from Spiracraft, will be demonstrating it. A YouTube reminder and the link- https://www.youtube.com/@Spiracraft For The Newbies- An article from Kent Weakly on recommend equipment for bowl turning. https://turnawoodbowl.com/recommended-equipment/?ck_subscriber_id=1577117793 From the Woodworker's Journal, the Woodturners Monthly newsletter, nice article on making a texturing tool. Click on the image for link to the article. Another article from the Woodworker's Journal on wood holding on the lathe. Click on the image for the link- Richard Raffan gives us an insight into the wood turning lathe- Expand Your Horizons- Last week we shared a video from Alan Stratton showing his shop made Longworth chuck. In this continuation, Alan demonstrated making bracelets using the chuck- Pizza cutters make awesome gifts. Here's a way to have your work showcased in its new home- Mike Peace demonstrates how to add a fluted rim to a wooden vase- Mike Waldt turns a beautiful ash bowl with an undercut rim. We've been seeing a lot of turners using this technique for a finish. I have been forbidden to try this unless I carry the lathe outside! New Turning Items- You may have seen the "teases" on social media about Easy Wood Tools' new product. Here it is! Can't wait to get to try them! ( @Jordan Martindale ) Here's the complete, current list of EWT pricing- EWT Customer Pricing - 1-1-2023.pdf Everything Else- Rick Turns list of YouTube woodturning videos from last week- From Ron Brown's Newsletter- You Are Unique You’ve heard that all your life. Good or bad, you are the only one exactly like you. But what if you are an identical twin, or have found your doppelganger, what are you going to do with that information? You are still unique with your own combination of gifts, abilities, and talents. There is a famous parable about servants who were given different talents in Matt 25:14-30 that would serve us well. The lesson is not how many talents each of us has but what we do with the talents we are given. You may have many more talents than I do, but what are you doing with those talents? I sometimes watched various turning demonstrators thinking “I could do a better job than that guy.” But he or she was the one up there doing it and I was the one with my butt in the chair not doing it. I used to have the same reaction to certain YouTube videos. But they were the ones showing the world what they had learned and I was the couch potato watching them do it. You might be thinking that you don’t have a creative mind or know where to start. I have some suggestions that will catapult you to great and wonderful things. 1) Consider an existing item. a. Make a larger version b. Make a smaller version c. Use it for something totally different that what it was designed for d. Add capabilities by adding some new features to an existing item 2) Consider an existing challenge like roughing down a spindle or a bowl blank a. Use a different tool to make it easier, faster, safer i. Have you ever brought a spindle square to round with a skew? ii. Have you ever ground your own negative rake scraper from scratch? iii. Have you ever made your own parting tool from an industrial hack saw blade? iv. Have you ever ground a miniature hollowing tool from an Allen wrench and fabricated your own handle? You’ve heard the expression “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” My suggestion is to take an existing wheel and make it better. Everyone has ideas for how something can be a little bit better. I know because you tell me those things about my tools frequently. Start today, and remember that wherever you go, there you are. Safe turning

Last day of August! Where did the summer go?!?!? Our Patriot Turners- Our turners have been busy this week! @Gerald posted about a novel idea for embellishing a turning. He describes the materials he used and how he obtained the neat colorization in his post- @Gunny posted this in the "What's on tour weekend agenda"- Gunny has these down to an art! @forty_caliber finished up a bowl he started a while back. The grain and color in this one is incredible! He explains the name in his post- @RustyFN posted his beautiful Calabash bowl. He received lots of positive comments and @Gerald was kind enough to post a couple of his bowls for comparison. What’s Coming Up- Hold onto your hats- lots coming up in the near future! A bunch from the AAW. Click on the images for links and information. For The Newbies- Jim Rodgers continues his instruction on how/why catches happen. In this one, Jim discusses the scraper- Expand Your Horizons- Mike Waldt turns and embellishes an ash hollow form- ...and a Yew lidded box Seems we have been really concentrating on making scoops. Another idea but quite different than the previous designs- New Turning Items- SWAT was this past weekend. Cindy Drozda took the opportunity to video many of the vendors and their products. She was live on several occasions. She has posted some of the material on her YouTube Channel. The link to her channel- https://www.youtube.com/user/cindydrozda Craft Supplies USA is having a closeout on a bunch of their products. Some good prices! https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/Sales/20/Closeout?utm_source=csusa&utm_medium=email&utm_content=closeout&utm_campaign=22-08-closeout Woodturners Wonders Weekly sale: https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/weekly-sale A couple of weeks ago we mentioned the 3M Xtract sand paper. Taylor Toolworks is currently having a sale on the product- https://taytools.com/collections/3m-xtract?afmc=17p&utm_campaign=17p&utm_source=leaddyno&utm_medium=affiliate Everything Else- Rick Morris must be on vacation this week- He didn't post his usual list of turning videos. Tim Yoder is always a lot of fun to watch- I've been kicking this idea around for a while. Usually, when I make a lidded container, I will use contrasting species for the lid and body. Some things like pepper mills are made from a single piece of the same species. Cutting the blank in half and then creating a tenon can cause a noticeable grain mismatch where the cut/tenon is created. I was watching one of Cindy Drozda's live tool talks and she described a technique that minimizes the material loss and grain mismatch. After cutting the blank, it is glued back together with a sacrificial piece between the halves. This sacrificial piece becomes the tenon. My first attempt at this was a miserable failure. The cuts were not clean enough to create a good glue joint. I'm thinking I need a way to ensure the pieces will look seamless when mated together. My next try was a little better. The first thing was to create a sharp cut with no tear out. I forgot to take a picture in my haste but I used a skew chisel to start the separation cut. Then used my freshly sharpened, shop made, thin parting tool. Also cranked the lathe speed way up to part off the pieces- I did not create a tenon. Instead, I decided to turn tight fitting plug that would be used as the lid tenon. Mortice in one end- Fitting the plug Glue the plug into one of the mortices- the lid on this one. Trim the plug so the two halves fit together- Carefully hollow out the insides making certain not to touch the plug mating surfaces. I did not spend a lot of time sanding the inside. My main goal was to see if the plug idea would work. Some sanding on the outside and testing the grain match- Had to play a little to fancy up the very plain shape- I think this will have a much great effect when used on highly figured wood. This was from a very old piece of air dried walnut. Quite brittle. Safe turning

OK, we are getting close to the end of our summer fund raiser and we are seriously short of our goal. If you haven't donated, please consider helping our site stay alive. Our very generous sponsors have donated some awesome items as prizes. Please head on over to this post and donate. Every little bit helps! Our Patriot Turners- @Gerald started catching up on some older projects and in the process did some cleaning- Part of Gerald's post was a challenge to our members to show us some of the unfinished projects we are procrastinating about completing! One of Gerald's projects to be finished up was a turned vase that cracked. Instead of the burn pit, Gerald used this as a chance to turn it into spectacular embellishments. In his post, he shows us his process- @RustyFN Finished up a gorgeous lidded box. Perfect glue-up and centered on the lathe. Made from two of my favorite woods. In his post, Rusty explains a little on how he mounted it on the lathe. What’s Coming Up- Click on the images for links to more information- For The Newbies- Another informative video in the series from Mike Peace- From the AAW, a video demonstrating a beautiful turning from shop scraps- Alan Stratton posted a video turning a bowl from start to finish. A couple of things of interest are his reason for not band sawing the blank round at the beginning and his thoughts on drying. Check out his faceplate jig for uneven surfaces! Expand Your Horizons- Watch Mike Waldt turn a beautiful, shallow mahogany bowl! Off-center and eccentric turning are similar but different. In this video, Carl Jacobson turns an eccentric goblet. Notice he does this without the aid of jigs. Cindy Drozda posted a short video demonstrating sphere turning- New Turning Items- From Craft Supplies USA, their new turning smocks- Everything Else- Rick Turns list of YouTube woodturning videos from last week- Safe turning

Just adding the finish.

My daughter asked me to make her a small box...Presto changeo, ala kazam.... Had a lot of fun with this one. Not bad for a first box. I wish it had turned out a little more centered, so that the variations in wood types were more even. .40

My wife and I watched our Grandson, Teddy, for a week, while his parents moved into their first house on Long Island. While here, he did the usual things for a 5 year old, play dates, swimming in the local creek/pool, helped with yard work, and helped me start a dovetailed, sliding lidded box, that is to be used to store loose parts for my Delta shaper. We didn't quite get around to painting it but I'll show him the results when finished. All-in-all, he had a great time!!!!

Memorial Day weekend is coming up. Let us never forget the ultimate sacrifice given by our service members to keep us free. Hey gang, don't forget, we are into our site fundraising raffle. We started off like gangbusters but we have a long way to go! If you haven't already purchased your tickets, please consider checking out the fantastic prizes! All the proceeds from this fundraiser go to the operating costs of this site. Here's more: Our Patriot Turners- If you are a regular reader, you will remember @RustyFN purchased a Record Power lathe sometime back. One of his concerns during his investigation of various manufactures was customer service after purchase. Well, Rusty got a pleasant surprise this past week! Rusty isn't letting any dust grow on that new lathe, either! his week he showed us his latest turning- a gorgeous turned, lidded box. Rusty has more images in his post- @Ron Altier proves once again that "necessity is the mother of invention". Ron solved a problem most all of us have faced while trying to mow the lawn on a sunny day- Check his post to see what Ron made on his lathe- @Gerald was kind enough to add images of some of his turnings to the Patriot site albums. His designs and embellishments are impeccable- What’s Coming Up- Click on the above image for more information and registration. More AAW calendar events can be found at- https://www.woodturner.org/Woodturner/Events/AAW Virtual Events/Woodturner/Virtual-Events/Master-Series-Landing-Page.aspx?_zs=ceDib&_zl=BQDc2 Craft Supplies USA is hosting several turning events- Click on any of the above 3 images for links to more information and registration. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQBave9vnYL9L2Y08HZhy_Q/featured For The Newbies- A little spindle turning, a little hollowing and a little gluing. Alan Stratton puts together more goblets out of two different species- Expand Your Horizons- Mulberry log to bowl with microwave drying- New Turning Items- Not really new but they are now back in stock from Woodturners Wonders- https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/hand-power-tools/products/angle-drill Everything Else- I've been in a real creative slump lately. Can't really come up with any ideas that stir my turning juices. Thought maybe there was a scrap of cherry down behind the garden shed but when I cut into the carpenter ants had converted it into a summer resort. There was a small piece of Chinese elm crotch there. Cut it round and mounted it on the lathe Got the chance to finally use the present I bought myself a month or so ago, I know, it's like a Rolls Royce hood emblem on a Ford, but hey... Started an ogee type shape on the outside Created the mortice- When I re-chucked it, I didn't think the ogee looked so nice and modified it slightly Hollowed it out- I decided to turn this to finish thickness and let it dry/warp Added a clamp around the perimeter to lessen the warping- The clamp fell off over night. Warping has commenced and a crack has opened up where a bark inclusion was located. Safe turning and stay well

Free live online demo! https://youtu.be/CSi5HkSVjmo

The box for my uncle is completed. I used tung oil as the finish.