Finally!!

Jeff Horton

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4,272
Location
The Heart of Dixie
I have fought with the lathe and gave up. Been really wanting to try it again but just now got the nerve to try again. Not the best wood to work with. Soft and slightly spalted sweetgum.

Based on some advice I got I cranked up the speed this time. Made a huge difference too. There was some pitting in the end grain but that is hard to prevent in spalted wood.

Their nothing fancy, nor did I spend a lot of time sanding. I just wanted to see a decent bowl come off the lathe again. I am sure relieved to see them too! Was wondering what the heck I was suddenly doing wrong.

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I meant to add that I have not finished the bottom on the one on the right. It won't fit in any of my jaws so I need to go ahead and build a Longsworth (??) chuck.
 
Looks good Jeff!

I found when I went to two demos by pros how fast they turn, they turn REALLY fast, and now so do I, when the time is right.

Eli Avisera kept telling us that we have to make the wood balanced to get a smooth cut, so he does a good shape on the outside, then the inside then back to the outside to finish cut and then to the inside to finish cut, and the finish cuts on a bowl, he was doing FAST, like 3500 rpm :eek:

He starts sanding at #240 :thumb: and he is a pro, and can get smooth finish cuts, I'm still working on that :rolleyes:

Good effort on the bowls!
 
Bowls look good Jeff. Gotta love that spalting. I really like what others have done with sweetgum....someday, I'll get to try it.:)
 
I really like what others have done with sweetgum....someday, I'll get to try it.:)

John, I have a source for a good bit of down sweetgum. Most of it is spalted slightly but nothing spectacular. I found just bit with the amazing orange colors in it, but just a little and I am hoarding it. :D

The guy is going to sell this land and I am not sure if I can buy it but I want it since it joins me. I need to got cut it it up before it's to late.. Once I get some I will get back with you . I was so impressed with what you did with "Jeffs Dunno" wood (dirty turning swap at SMC) I would like to see what you could do with some Sweet Gum.

By the time you get back to turning instead of house building I might have some more.
 
....By the time you get back to turning instead of house building I might have some more.


Cool! I'll be turning before the end of the year I'm sure. Got the shop cleaned out and ready for benches. Just have to clean off some rust and it's rock-n-roll time for sure.:thumb:
 
I found when I went to two demos by pros how fast they turn, they turn REALLY fast, and now so do I, when the time is right.

Here is what I think happened to me. I started turning YEARS ago on a Craftsman tube lathe like you had. It's lowest speed was fast! I turned a lot of nice looking bowls on that lathe just using spindle gouges and scrapers. I rarely had any serious problems like I have now.

Move forward to this old Yates-American lathe. I hunted a 3 phase so I could ad variable speed to it. Since it had been years since I turned I think I forgot how fast I was spinning things. I started turning blanks that were not even close to round so that took some really slow speeds even with this heavy weight lathe. When I cranked up the speed I was running it fast relative to what I was roughing at, which I realize now was no where near as fast as I was turning on the C-man lathe.

I cranked these two up much faster than I have been turning and I can see a much better finish on the bowls too!
 
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