• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Beech bowl, probably, and in use

AndyP

AndyP

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My labelling leaves a lot to be desired.
This rather large and not at all round lump was definitely not going to be trusted to a glued on tenon.IMG_4528.jpeg
My approach to this is to try and use the existing shape as a guide to the finished shape by by turning away as little as possible. There are also a few cracks that will need to be turned away too.

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I leave you to imagine how much the bench danced around the workshop just to get to that state.

By the end of my third session I had managed to stop the bench dancing and had the piece more or less round. Just one “crack” to turn away.
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Final shape starting to appear. Stub tenon turned on the base. This bowl will have quite a large rim, a first for me.
IMG_4532.jpeg
A little more finishing on the outside shape then I can turn it round and start on the inside.
 
The advise I was once given (it was for carving but holds well for turning), just remove all the wood that isn't part of what your making. I had been seeking advise on carving a horses head for a rocking horse and was told to take away anything that wasn't a horse. The clarification I got was its your project and how it ends up is how it was intended you therefore cant get it wrong, unless your horse looks like a badger.
 
thanks Alasdair I have seen that advise elsewhere and hold true so long as you know what a horse looks like. :)
Something that has thrown be in the past is the transition from one angle to the next and the proportion of the finished piece. The rule of thirds may work for furniture for example but when is a bowl too deep for it's width or the rim to wide? Of course none of this may matter in the eyes of the beholder.
I'm half considering trying some texturing techniques on the rim just to justify a new tool for an early Christmas pressie.
 
AndyP said:
thanks Alasdair I have seen that advise elsewhere and hold true so long as you know what a horse looks like. :)
Something that has thrown be in the past is the transition from one angle to the next and the proportion of the finished piece. The rule of thirds may work for furniture for example but when is a bowl too deep for it's width or the rim to wide? Of course none of this may matter in the eyes of the beholder.
I'm half considering trying some texturing techniques on the rim just to justify a new tool for an early Christmas pressie.
Click to expand...
There is enough variety in bowls so that almost any combination of height and width can work - I tend to stop at the point where it looks surprisingly good, knowing that if I continue I simply risk making it look worse! I then just accept the proportions and pretend that is what I planned all along...
 
I can't offer any advice (you're miles ahead of me in turning skill) but I'll follow with interest. That's quite a lump of wood: I can just imagine the amount it shook your workbench up. What's the diameter?
 
When I first mounted on the lathe it wouldn’t spin but fouled on the bed . I had to rasp away a few mms on one side, therefore diameter was just about at the lathe’s maximum of 12”.
 
akirk said:
There is enough variety in bowls so that almost any combination of height and width can work - I tend to stop at the point where it looks surprisingly good, knowing that if I continue I simply risk making it look worse! I then just accept the proportions and pretend that is what I planned all along...
Click to expand...
I second this, you make the bowl and ultimately you have final say on the design so whatever you end up with is what was designed. i have found that turning bowls is a bit of a dynamic process and what you may start with in your head is nothing like the finished article (in my case due to catches and poor cuts as well as the blank having fissures voids or cracks that need dealt with). I have never tried texturing but will be interested to see how it turns out, good luck with the bowl and if you're not keen on the final article remember my old dads advice "theres always christmas son, just give it to someone". :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 
Looks good Andy. I'd suggest of course keeping the large rim but try and make it quite thin and dainty. 'Tis a fair lump on that wee lathe as well! - Rob
 
Woodbloke said:
Looks good Andy. I'd suggest of course keeping the large rim but try and make it quite thin and dainty. 'Tis a fair lump on that wee lathe as well! - Rob
Click to expand...
Thanks Rob, should rim be a constant thickness or get gradually thicker towards the side of the bowl?
 
One of the most important tools in the wood turner's armoury (at least in mine) is Dither Time.
If unsure of how to proceed, I put it aside and one day it'll suddenly become clear what I should do.
There are always other projects to carry on with in the meantime.
Duncan
 
Duncan A said:
One of the most important tools in the wood turner's armoury (at least in mine) is Dither Time.
If unsure of how to proceed, I put it aside and one day it'll suddenly become clear what I should do.
There are always other projects to carry on with in the meantime.
Duncan
Click to expand...
The other name is Procrastination Time; I do plenty of that :ROFLMAO: - Rob
 
Duncan A said:
One of the most important tools in the wood turner's armoury (at least in mine) is Dither Time.
If unsure of how to proceed, I put it aside and one day it'll suddenly become clear what I should do.
......
Click to expand...
I would say this is OK if you have only got as far as rough turning the blank to determine if there are any 'characteristics' that need to be accommodated or speed up the drying of partially seasoned wood.**

Delaying finishing anything nearing final dimensions is risky because it's almost guaranteed It Will Go Out Of Round.

Finishing a base or similar you can get away with but going back to a rim area is fraught with risk.

I don't think I have ever produced a bowl that has not moved out of round by a measurable amount once finished, more often than not before it's even left the lathe.

**Remember to leave at least 20mm of wall thickness to accommodate distortion for every 240-250 mm diameter of finished item if using unseasoned wood.
 
CHJ said:
I would say this is OK if you have only got as far as rough turning the blank to determine if there are any 'characteristics' that need to be accommodated or speed up the drying of partially seasoned wood.**

Delaying finishing anything nearing final dimensions is risky because it's almost guaranteed It Will Go Out Of Round.

Finishing a base or similar you can get away with but going back to a rim area is fraught with risk.

I don't think I have ever produced a bowl that has not moved out of round by a measurable amount once finished, more often than not before it's even left the lathe.

**Remember to leave at least 20mm of wall thickness to accommodate distortion for every 240-250 mm diameter of finished item if using unseasoned wood.
Click to expand...
The wood, I am sure it is beech, has been in store for just over 5 years, so no problem with seasoning.
I would say I am still in rough turning of the blank stage. Once I start on the inside I will finish it one go.
 
I do not think that I have ever been so disappointed with a finished bowl.
i am happy with the rim and the inside but holding the bowl while shaping the base was a nightmare. I always knew that the bowl was too large to hold with the button jaws in compression on the outside of the rim but I had hoped it would be held in expansion on the inside of the bowl. Also no, it would not hold without pressure from the tail stock. Had I undercut the inside of the rim perhaps the buttons may have had a better grip…next time. I also overdid the branding iron.:mad:

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IMG_4598.jpeg

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I will defer a decision as to whether this ends up with the intended recipient to a higher authority. The images makes the finish looks better than it is.

That’s me done in the workshop until the new year. i’ve some circular hinges coming that will be used on some lidded walnut pots I hope. And a quaich to be inset into a lignum vitae bowl.

Edit: and despite the warning from Chas the part finished bowl sat on the lathe for nearly a month between the inside and the outside being shaped.
 
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