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Various Turning Projects

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A crotch grain red oak bowl. 7" wide, 2.5" tall, weighs about a pound! Made from firewood, finished with oil and wax.

One of many maple bowls I've been making lately. I call this the "power bowl" series, because the power company cut down a maple tree on my property, and I got the trunk. This one is 7-3/4" wide and 2-3/4" tall. Others from this tree range from 3" to 13" wide.

A "fat" bud vase from a piece of birch firewood. 7" tall. Not completely hollowed (sigh).

This is a shallow bowl made from oak, showing the "crotch grain" that appears between the trunk and a branch. It's 7" across and 1.5" high, finished with oil and wax.

This is a "weed jug". Similar to weed pots and weed vases, it has a single 3/8" drilled hole in the top rather than being fully hollowed. The shape was chosen to maximize the visibility of the spalting available on the particular log this was turned from, which was a piece of 4.5" birch. The finished jug is 6" high and 3.75" across. The finish is two coats of natural Danish Oil. 4-May-2002

Technique: I used a 1-1/8" forstner bit to drill a shallow relief in what would become the "bottom". The spur center went inside this relief, so I could turn the bottom while it was between centers. Initial rounding was between centers. I switched to my 3 jaw chuck to drill the top hole and form the inside of the lip. The tailstock was positioned a few inches away from the wood to help guide the drill and to test the "fit", as the inner bevel around the hole was fitted to the center's ring (think "jam chuck" sorta). I switched back to the spur center with the tail center fitted inside the lip to complete the turning and a majority of the sanding. To complete the lip, I tapped a 3/8 steel rod into the hole, fastened a depth stop onto the rod a few inches from the lip, and slid the tailstock up to the depth stop (the center was removed, leaving the 3/8" bore). I sanded to 220 before oiling. I used a block of wood with two 3/8" holes in it as a stand - one hole for the forstner bit to hold the jug upright, and the other for the 3/8" rod to hold the jug upside down. After the first coat dried, I sanded to 600 and applied the second coat.

This is part of a project I'm working on using the segmented turning calculator. The end result will be a 1/2" thick by 5" diameter torus. The wood is mahogany. I glue up each section using the two pine boards with the slots; positioning the glue line at the slot so it doesn't squish the glue into the wood pores. The anvil holds them flat while the glue sets. Here is the finished project.

I was working on something else and was trimming an end, and just for chuckles I made this - a 5mm tall goblet. The wood is birdseye maple, but it was not sanded or finished ;-)

Rebecca is getting into turning. This is a pine plate she made with my new PRO-PM bowl gouge. See the shavings fly! More pictures of this


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