my first big bowl

allen levine

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new york city burbs
whoooopppeee, made some errors, had some catches, learned a few things about where to keep fingers when turning and sanding, and a few other things,like I should have left enough room between wall and lathe so I could get inside bowl by allowing myself more room to handle tools.

Sanded until my fingers were sore, time to get a sander, but its done. I put in about 4 hours of turning on this, another hour of sanding, far from perfect, but I enjoyed it. might be the first time I was happy with the way something I did for my first attempt.
I also finished the antique pepper grinder base.(Vaughn, you were spot on, I didn't turn the speed on the drill press down nearly enough, moved it to lowest speed and went a lot smoother)
first coat oil on the bowl, one coat rub on poly so far on the grinder.

oodles of fun. I realized I might flatwork out of necessity, turning is all fun for me.

I did most of it with my easy tool carbides, but I used my new 1/2 gouge a bit to see the different feel.
Got good shavings, but I think it needs a better sharpening.

since Ive cut the bottom out of a couple of smaller bowl attempts, I made a very sophisticated depth device so Id leave myself enough on the bottom.

bowl is around 10.5 inches wide by approx. 6 inches deep maple and sapele

2 questions:
I made a jam chuck for the grinder out of pine, but noticed near the end, the piece got a bit wobbly. should I use only hardwood for the temporary jam chuck?
next, paper sandpaper doesn't seem ok for sanding, what product/sanding sheets should I purchase.
I used my pen sanding strips for the grinder, seemed much stronger than paper and worked easier.


I have to go out and purchase a new bathroom vanity for downstairs, the nut holding the shutoff valves underneath loosened up and flooded my vanity. Being particle board under melanmine(1990 ish), its gone, all swollen, and I don't have time or desire to build one right now.
 

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That came out nice! It is a lot of fun isn't it :D

I've had medium luck with pine for jam chucks as long as there wasn't a lot of torque on the piece and i was just doing a light cleanup cut. With something as long as the grinder I suspect it would be more likely to be problematic. If it gets to wobbly I'll sometimes add a couple wraps of painters tape around the chuck but that makes it harder to keep everything centered as well so isn't the end all. I think if you were doing a lot of them some sort of expansion chuck would be the ticket and allow you to compensate for small differences easier.
 
That came out nice! It is a lot of fun isn't it :D

I've had medium luck with pine for jam chucks as long as there wasn't a lot of torque on the piece and i was just doing a light cleanup cut. With something as long as the grinder I suspect it would be more likely to be problematic. If it gets to wobbly I'll sometimes add a couple wraps of painters tape around the chuck but that makes it harder to keep everything centered as well so isn't the end all. I think if you were doing a lot of them some sort of expansion chuck would be the ticket and allow you to compensate for small differences easier.

I never heard of an expansion chuck, now is a good time to look it up, thanx.
 
Looks great! Is that the piece you did the glue up with? Looks like you got the broken screw out ok.

yep, used the plug cutter, the screw just wiggled out with a pair of pliers.

if any trees fall on your property this winter, think of me when you cut it up, seal the ends if that isn't asking too much.:D

Im looking for free bowl blanks to play with.
 
I never heard of an expansion chuck, now is a good time to look it up, thanx.

You can use a set of pin jaws on your chuck for some uses ((I think it would work here? haven't tried it of course :D).

I guess some folks call them "expansion mandrels" as well - nomenclature is complicated..

The idea is pretty simple, you compress something and it expands (either a rubber disk or fingers that can be presssed out by something in the middle of them). You need some way to keep the work from wiggling on just one expansion point.. - the beal mandrel/chuck/whatever seems to do this by having the end bite into the work. I've seen some that had two squishy things that expanded. Sometimes the mandrel just fits close enough its not a problem, and I'm sure there are other ways to do it.

A fancy one made from metal for just the use case you were working on:

There are some for sale like the beal: http://www.bealltool.com/products/turning/treen.php (I've never used any of these).

I tried to find some more pics but my search foo is faily badly today..
 
Both the bowl and the grinder look great, Allen! :thumb:

I use a large piece of cardboard to cover and protect my tablesaw. I bring this up because I figure you'll soon be looking for horizontal surfaces to keep turning blanks and unfinished turning projects. :D
 
put it to use, nice thing about turning and flatwork, I find uses for almost everything I make for myself or family.
Not sure what Im going to do with those pepper mills. The one on the right was a cutoff from a cutting board, for some reason I saved the piece and it came in handy.
 

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