Progress Pics - Mystery Eucalyptus Nested Bowls

Vaughn McMillan

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A friend's neighbor took down an old tree in their yard, and my friend talked the neighbor out of a couple big chunks of the lower trunk. The tree was dying, and the wood was starting to rot and a lot of it was very spongy, so some of it was not usable. There were a few good pieces, though, and this one seemed like a good candidate for some practice with the McNaughton rig. I was told the wood was eucalyptus, but it doesn't smell like any of the eucalypts I've turned in the past. I never saw the leaves, so I haven't really tried to identify the wood.

I'm still getting the hang of using the McNaughton coring tools. To some of you guys, this is old hat, but to the guys who haven't done any coring, maybe this will help you see one way to do the process.

I used a compass and a lumber crayon to roughly lay out a circle...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 01 - 800.jpg

Got it cut on the bandsaw into something resembling a circle...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 02 - 800.jpg

Mounted it to the lathe with a faceplate...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 03 - 800.jpg

Knocked the bark off with a Monster "Indexer". It's essentially an Oland-style tool with a 1/4" bit on one end and a 3/8" bit on the other. Stick it in a handle (I happened to be using the handle from my McNaughton rig) and it's great for "rough" roughing...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 04 - 800.jpg

One the bark was off, I removed most of the wood with a Ci1, then used a bowl gouge and a square-nosed scraper to get the final shape.

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 05 - 800.jpg

It's important for the McNaughton blades to be set to cut right at the centerline, so I have a block of scrap wood that's cut to the right size for setting a tool rest at the correct height...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 06 - 800.jpg

I failed to take pics of the first core in progress, but after the first one was removed, I turned it around and used the mother bowl as a jam chuck to put a tenon on the daughter blank...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 07 - 800.jpg

Continued in next post...
 
Continued...

Not too much cleanup needed on the inside of the mother bowl...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 08 - 800.jpg

Mounted the daughter core onto the chuck (actually, a smaller chuck)...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 09 - 800.jpg

Cut the baby core out of the daughter bowl...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 10 - 800.jpg

Reverse it into the daughter to put a tenon on it...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 11 - 800.jpg

After cleaning up the inside of the daughter bowl, I mounted the baby bowl on the lathe and finished the rough shaping...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 12 - 800.jpg

And the end result...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 13 - 800.jpg

There's some cool spalting in this wood. I guess I'd better stop giving Pete such a hard time about all his spalted beech :p ...

Mystery Eucalyptus Coring 14 - 800.jpg

The baby bowl ended up being pretty shallow, and I don't know if it'll survive to completion after drying. I'll need to turn it real thin to get deep enough to go past the screw holes from the faceplate. Even if it ends up just being a 2-bowl set, it should look nice with the spalting, assuming it survives the drying and finish-turning process. I guess I'll know in a month or two, huh? ;)
 
hey how is it yu can be playun on that lathe and yu still have a dog gate in the back grouind to finish????? clean up your plate before yu can have dessert:)
 
hey how is it yu can be playun on that lathe and yu still have a dog gate in the back grouind to finish????? clean up your plate before yu can have dessert:)

Now that I'm home during the day, the rush is off somewhat on the dog gate. I've been putting off cutting the hinge mortises. :eek: I'll probably do that Sunday. :rolleyes: Still haven't decided if I want to cut them by hand or make a template and do them with a router.
 
Vaughn,
Thanks very much for this post. I picked up two great tip/techniques--the height adjusting block and the way you use the mother as a jam chuck to turn the tennon on the daughter-- that will improve my turning. Great pics!!
 
Great tutorial Vaughn. How big was the blank to start? Does that resemble Box Elder? When I get a grown up lathe...I wanna do that too!! :D
 
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Vaughn,
Thanks very much for this post. I picked up two great tip/techniques--the height adjusting block and the way you use the mother as a jam chuck to turn the tennon on the daughter-- that will improve my turning. Great pics!!

Me too Ted, those two points are ones I'd not seen before!

Great work Vaughn, looks like you won't become addicted to daytime soaps :D :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
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