Another pine mess...

Roger Tulk

Member
Messages
3,018
Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Today's practice. I attempted to make a dish almost exactly like the one shown here, but better. I ended up with thicker walls than I wanted, expecially around the bottom curve. I didn't seem to be able to make the inside cuts, expecially in that wall, as easily as I did yesterday, and I was generally unhappy with the result. I'm thinking I needed a radius scraper to do the sides properly, my tools may not have been sharp enough in some cases, especially my scrapers, and I need some more and better instruction in how to hold the tool for various cuts. Did I miss anything.?

DSCF6506.JPG DSCF6507.JPG DSCF6508.JPG

My family will think it's just lovely!
 
Looks like progress is being made to me! Would make a perfect little peanut bowl.

On figuring out the cuts, past the gross initial bits I've had pretty good luck with holding the tool how I think it ought to be and then rotating the piece by hand into it and seeing what happens. I'm sure that someone who actually understands this stuff would have helped me figure it out a lot faster of course but without that, its been a useful learning technique.

You can most certainly do side wall->bottom transitions at least that abrupt or even more so with just a bowl gouge, but its still the hardest part of the bowl for me and I often reach for the radiused scraper to clean it up a little. The more even the transition the easier it is to pull off so doing a dozen or so shallower bowls and then working up to the deeper ones also seemed like a useful learning experience. It allowed me to practice some transitions that were a bit gentler to start with.

I'm also thinking you ought to start hunting up some free wood of a slightly higher grade, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how good you've gotten working on this stuff :D :thumb:
 
I agree with Ryan...I see improvement in this one. Well done. :thumb: Like a lot of relative beginners (including me about 10 years ago), you've chosen a form that's not easy to do cleanly. For some reason, it seems we're all eager to turn bowls with turned-in sides, so the opening is smaller than the largest interior diameter. Those are challenging to most experiences turners, and even more difficult for beginners.

I use a scraper on the inside and outside of nearly everything I turn. Scrapers are my go-to tools for finessing a curve or evening out a surface. Unlike a lot of guys, I don't try to get a shearing cut by holding the scraper at an angle on the tool rest. (I can do all the shearing cuts I need with a gouge.) Instead, I hold it flat on the tool rest and take super light cuts. If I'm doing it right, I get this wispy, gossamer-thin shavings floating off the top of the scraper. (And if I'm doing it wrong, I get a puckerific catch that pull a chunk of wood out of the workpiece.) :D
 
Like a lot of relative beginners (including me about 10 years ago), you've chosen a form that's not easy to do cleanly. For some reason, it seems we're all eager to turn bowls with turned-in sides, so the opening is smaller than the largest interior diameter. Those are challenging to most experiences turners, and even more difficult for beginners.

Yeah I know, why DO we punish ourselves like this!?!? :rofl: On the same vein, why do we insist on turning everything paper thin? Why do bears to the proverbial activity in the proverbial location.

(And if I'm doing it wrong, I get a puckerific catch that pull a chunk of wood out of the workpiece.) :D

Those are sort of fun in an exhilarating sort of way as well :D
 
Actually, I don't like real thin walls or bases (feet). People drop stuff. And, a lot of the places where they drop stuff the floor is tile or such as that. A paper thin wood bowl will not likely survive a drop like that. But, a more robust walled and footed bowl will. That's why I don't like thin stuff. I have taken this to the test by dropping a finished bowl onto concrete to see how it did. Just the same as I will fill a bowl full of water and look for leaks. So, thicker walls for me. But, like the others I do see some progress going on here so keep up the good work. All comes with continued and dogged practice. I never went to any classes. I learned by sifting out the crud on You Tube and learned a few things and practiced them and developed I guess some of my own techniques. Which don't ask me to describe, I ain't smart enough. I just know they work.
 
Top