Santa Delivers Wood Bowls

[Left Coast Chris]

Santa will be delivering wood bowls this year!

After all of the hard work I thought I would take pictures of the bowls before giving to my brothers and nephews/neices to keep a record of them.   Since I had the pics thought you might want to see them.


These bowls are made from Apricot.  Had about a 50% loss when drying due to shrinkage even when wraping in paper inside a paper bag.

These bowls are Oak, Cottonwood, English Walnut and Claro Black Walnut

These are my first bowls.  Learned much along the way.

[metalspinner]

Very nice!

I like the trumpet shaped one the best. ;D   

[Part_Timer]

I like the one with the natural edge.

Hope to get my lathe up and running soon.  I mounted the motor today and hope to mount the headstock in the morning.

[SwampDonkey]

farmer77, very nice work. I like the mix of sap and heart on some of them bowls. It's amazing the grain that comes out in wood bowls. I like turning wood too, when I get the inspiration. ;D 

Merry Christmas Santa.  ;)

[jerry-m]

Thanks for sharing Farmer77, I like them all...

I have my lathe in storage right now, but hope to have a shop built soon...

Jerry

[CHARLIE]

WOW!!!!  If that is your first attempt at bowlturning then you is wearing the robe! You da man!  8)  I really like the shapes of your bowls and the smooth finish. My favorite bowls are the ones where the sides are slightly rounded. You've made some very nice bowls and I hope you signed them. The bowl that is front center in the first picture is my favorite. Apricot sure is a pretty wood. I've never seen it before now.

Fruitwoods are very prone to cracking and can crack on the lathe as you are turning them. Once you start turning them, put a finish on the areas that you have completed to help slow down the movement. Also, if you have to stop midway during turning, wrap the bowl with that "packing saran wrap stuff".   When drying fruitwoods, seal the ends and put them somewhere where they won't dry too quickly.

[Left Coast Chris]

Thanks all for the compliments.

Charlie:  thanks for the info.  The method I was using was to turn the green wood to about 1" thickness with the shape desired then wrap in paper and put inside a paper grocery (thick) sack.  Then let dry until the weight does not change (3-6 months normally).  Then complete the turning and finish.  I never let green wood stay on the lathe or outside the sack.  Still I lost a good amount of the fruit wood (Apricot, Plumb).   Walnut, Redwood, Oak & Cottonwood I had relatively little problems with.    I did notice that fruit wood with the heart center was the worst for cracking.    I did glue up any cracks in the first few weeks of drying and used parafin on end grain with heart center (some worked and some did'nt).

I finish with the Verithane natural wood penetrating oil.  At least three applications then buff with red rubbing compound followed with carnuba wax.

How do you finish your bowls?

[DWM II]

Those are very nice, and I agree, it doesnt appear to be the first effort smiley_clapping. Your family will be impressed as well.
Merry Christmas.

Donnie

[Norm]

Those are beautiful!

For a first try at turning bowls I think you have a natural talent for it. Can you tell me what books you used to help get started with?

Norm the wanna be bowl turner. ;D

[asy]

Wow, another would-be bowl turner here. :D

I'm in awe of your "First effort"...

I love the bottom left one in the top photo, and the bottom right one in the second.

I'd be proud to get something like that for Christmas, which is good, since Andy's dad usually gives me something he's made on the lathe, and I love them!

asy :D

[SPIKER]

wow NICE work!

not sure how all that is done but I can tell there is more than a few men of work to make them puppies!

as for other turners:  I recently cut some standing dead slippery elm, one which had some very interesting spalting in a trunk/branch area that I saved back if anyone is interested.  it did crack down one side across one of the branch sections when it hit the dang hard dirt.  I believe there was 4 or 5 branches which came out and turned almost 90 degrees at this section some 16~20" long and 12" or so across with lots of figure in it.  I'll post some photos once I get a camera working.  it is in the barn now under somewhat dry conditions and was dead 2+ years standing on the north east side of the woods so slow growing too.
I intended to put it into a plastic bag to prevent further uncontrolled drying but haven't yet


Mark M

[sawguy21]

I agree with the others, if those are your first pieces you are a very quick study. Those are very nice  8)

[Left Coast Chris]

Thanks, all for the compliments...

Norm:  to get started........well.......I cheated a little.  I joined the local wood working club where I met a master turner that was displaying bowls in galeries.   I invited him down to my place and he went crazzy over all of the wood I had stashed in my shop, barn, and ex-horse stalls.  I then traded some pretty nice walnut block wood for lessons for myself and my son.   When I return to club meetings I keep asking him questions as I go along.    It took awhile to gather a decent lathe, tools, sand paper, buffer attachments, the correct glue, epoxy with dye for larger cracks.   

The one thing he did that I thought I did'nt need to do was spray his bowl blanks with bug spray.   Well sure enough, some powderpost bettles were in the bark of the natural edge bowls and ate up some of the sap wood and then bored there way out of the paper and bag they were drying in.   Wrecked the bowl. :(  I will now spray with timbore before leaving them alone for long.   My next step will be to learn artistic form some more.  That part gets exciting to me and it has no bounds since the wood can be so spectacular. :P

[asy]

Wow~!

Does he ever get to Aussieland? Bet I could find some timber to throw at him for some lessons!

asy :D

[Norm]

Thanks farmer77, guess you live to far away to kidnap you so maybe I'll have to see if someone's closer to help with some learning.  :D

[Left Coast Chris]

Asy & Norm........yea....too bad we are so far apart....we could have some real fun!!

I just installed a wood stove that is pretty close to the lathe.  So now if there is a rainy day on the weekend I get out in the shop toasty warm by the stove and put Johnny Cash on the CD player and throw chips!    Its fantastic.   8) 8) 8)   I tend to turn mostly in the winter and try to do the finishing in the late summer when there is more heat to dry with.

Here is a good source for info and accessories:     www.woodturnerscatalog.com
It is the Craft Supplies catalog.   When you order the catalog they advertise classes also.  Suggest trying the local wood workers club and there are a few wood turners clubs around the country also.   Most are very willing to get you going.    There are videos also but in person is much faster.

Hope you find a way to get started!

[asy]

My father-in-law is a magnificent wood craftsman.

He has started teaching me to turn wood, and I love playing on his lathe.

Unfortunately he hasn't taught me bowl turning yet, haven't had time :(

I'm looking forward to him teaching me more.

asy :D