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I usually don't show a lot of progress pics here, but the piece I turned last night was kinda interesting, so I figured I'd share it. Pardon the overabundance of photos.
I started out with a piece of dried ash from recent 'Going Out Of Business' giveaway at a local firewood lot. This chunk had a wavy outer surface, which looked promising for a natural edge bowl. The dimensions on the bark face were about 24" by 18". I started with a beater chisel to make a flat spot for the faceplate...
Then I used long hex head sheet metal screws to hold it. I don't drill pilot holes. I just drive the screws in with an impact driver.
Here's the initial blank mounted on the lathe. It's blanks like this that make me glad I got the dropped bed extension for my 3520B.
Here's another view. Notice that the spindle indexing pin is in place. The piece was pretty badly out of balance, so needed to use the electric chainsaw to trim it up a bit on the lathe. I use the indexing pin to hold things in place while I'm cutting. Also note the lathe is not even powered up. That's just a reminder to not hit the switch with the spindle locked.
And here's the blank after a bit of chainsaw balancing...
Tool rest and extension in place...now the fun can begin.
Do you really want to stick a piece of sharp steel into that?
Making a little headway. The ash is dry and hard, so progress is slower than on a piece of green wood. It's also still pretty unbalanced, so I was running in the 250 to 325 RPM range at this stage.
A while later, it was down to this shape, about 17 1/2" across.
And a look from the headstock side...
More in the next post...
I started out with a piece of dried ash from recent 'Going Out Of Business' giveaway at a local firewood lot. This chunk had a wavy outer surface, which looked promising for a natural edge bowl. The dimensions on the bark face were about 24" by 18". I started with a beater chisel to make a flat spot for the faceplate...
Then I used long hex head sheet metal screws to hold it. I don't drill pilot holes. I just drive the screws in with an impact driver.
Here's the initial blank mounted on the lathe. It's blanks like this that make me glad I got the dropped bed extension for my 3520B.
Here's another view. Notice that the spindle indexing pin is in place. The piece was pretty badly out of balance, so needed to use the electric chainsaw to trim it up a bit on the lathe. I use the indexing pin to hold things in place while I'm cutting. Also note the lathe is not even powered up. That's just a reminder to not hit the switch with the spindle locked.
And here's the blank after a bit of chainsaw balancing...
Tool rest and extension in place...now the fun can begin.
Do you really want to stick a piece of sharp steel into that?
Making a little headway. The ash is dry and hard, so progress is slower than on a piece of green wood. It's also still pretty unbalanced, so I was running in the 250 to 325 RPM range at this stage.
A while later, it was down to this shape, about 17 1/2" across.
And a look from the headstock side...
More in the next post...