More newbie stuff

If you're getting a lot of vibration and the piece is in balance, I'd suspect your technique.. Sharp tools, LIGHT cuts and proper tool angle are critical..

If I'm hollowing end grain with a bowl gouge, I lay the gouge almost level like a scraper with the flute facing the center of the opening.. It's not the best method, but it works and I feel safe that way..

If you're going to play with scrapers inside bowls and boxes, I'd STRONGLY suggest investing in a "box rest".. It's a flat rectangle of steel with a post for the tool rest banjo.. Set up the height so that when the scraper is laying flat on the rest, the scraper is slightly above center, so that if you raise the handle a bit you're on center.. MUCH safer and much less vibration..

IMO, vibration is the enemy.. You get tired faster and it's hard to control the tool..

On rounding the piece, are you working in sweeps from the center to the outside, of are you trying to round the piece from the outside? Most new turners will set the toolrest at 90 degrees to the wood and try rounding it from the side.. Very hard to have a light enough touch to avoid "clunking".. Set the rest as if you were shaping the bottom of a bowl and "sneak up" on the edges by sweeping from center out towards the edges..

Sorry about writing a novel here.. ;(

Tools sharp - balance fine - it's my technique for sure. The main problem is after I've hollowed out the sides and am using the scraper to flatten out the bottom. Probably pushing too hard.

Never heard of the 'box rest' but I'll look for one - it makes sense.

Rounding - yes, I start from center to outside. Since this was the first time I rounded side and end grain I think I was trying to take too deep a cut. Probably would have been fine on a pine spindle but rosewood end grain - I don't know.. Just to be clear - on a spindle between centers, I start center and sweep to ends. This blank was in a chuck but I did start and sweep in the same direction as I do a spindle. I'm trying to visualize rounding the piece from the bottom.

Vic

I've turned a fair amount, perhaps not as much as some here, but enough that I can generally concentrate on what I want to make rather than how (see the gallery page on my web site,

under hobbies) - anyway, I really don't like scrapers, I find them catch prone and dangerous, I rarely use them and then only in shear with the scraper very lightly touching the wood - for flattening a bowl bottom I use the same gouge I hollowed it with - typically a 1/2 to 5/8 gouge with a very swept back fingernail grind. MY guess is that you are cutting too broad a swath and if you went to something much thinner (in cutting width) you would fare better -

But then aren't you just using the tip of the gouge as a scraper? My little cup for example is just 2 1/2 inched in diameter. So for the bottom, only the tip would contact until it got to the sides. I'm having difficulty visualizing the cut. I assume you push the gouge - level - in the center - rotate it to about 9 or 10 o'clock while pulling across the bottom to the outside wall, then pulling the gouge out along the wall.

I'm having a tough time with that cut - since I really can't see inside the hole, I'm still having a tough time 'feeling' the bevel, if you understand what I mean. But, that's what practice is for. Still can't make a v cut with a skew either!

Vic

when I am cutting from center to edge of a bowl or jar, I use the fingernail ground gouge, as I said. I start at the center with the gouge turned 90 deg so the sharp edges are facing me, and then rotate it clockwise a few degrees so it cuts and then bring it towards me controlling the cut by increasing or decreasing the rotation of the gouge. When I am cutting in the other direction, e.g. from edge to center (which is what I prefer to get thin walls), I start with the same

90 deg orientation but with the sharp edges facing the tailstock and then rotate a degree or so counterclockwise - so in both cases I'm cutting with the trailing edge. I can make a cut from a thin wisp of a shaving to a 1/4 inch deep by 5/8 inch wide mammoth steaming shaving by adjusting the angle of attack and pressure - I only have 2 HP on the lathe, so with larger stuff I have to modulate the cut to avoid stalling the motor, but even a fairly large bowl hollows out in a few minutes.

so, no, not scraping, cutting. if you are getting shavings, you are cutting, if you are getting dust, you are not.

hope this helps.

OK I see it now. I've been rewatching Raffan's videos and some of the youtube ones with a better eye. I sure wish some of these people who make videos would take a close-up of the cutting edges. Seems to me you can do a lot of stuff with a gouge depending on how you present it to the wood. Have to glue up some more pine blocks and keep practicing. :)

Thanx again.

Vic

There's a good piece of advice lurking in the above: If it doesn't feel comfortable, don't do it. Applies to all woodworking and lots more besides.

Ok.. Picture a jar/box blank in the chuck, no tail stock.. My first cuts are usually to level and true the end of the blank..

After the end is true, I start taking light cuts from the center of the END of the blank.. Not as in spindle turning, but "bowl" turning center..

I end up with a flat, true end, which will be the top of the lid later.. I use a pull cut to draw the gouge from the center of the end/lid towards the sides of the blank, lightly rounding my way as if I was shaping a bowl bottom..

The scraper rest is good of you're going to use scrapers a lot.. Scraper angle and tool overhanging the rest are the 2 bad situations with scrapers.. If the tool rest is too high, you have to lift the handle to cut, which increases your probability of a catch.. If the scraper blade overhangs the tool rest very much, you get vibration ion the blade which will give you a bumpy surface and probably a catch..

I have my beginners make shavings on scrap with each tool, to learn the use and feel of each tool, especially scrapers.. Are you doing flat bottomed bowls? I can't do them with a scraper, I am really bad with a square nose scraper..

This is a link to a box scraper rest from Craft Supplies:

I have tried scrapers for box bottoms, including buying a box scraper rest, but did not like the results. I tended to make square corners which are hard to sand for me. I like a little transition between the side and the bottom.

I made several custom tool rests, including two for box bottoms. I ordered some 1" round steel stock and some 3/4 x 1/4" bar stock. Sawed the post length with a hacksaw then sawed a 1/4 x 1" shoulder at one end. A local welder put them together and bent the end. I tapered the rest with a grinder. Note: He put this one together backward with the arm coming off the back side of the post, but I still use it a lot.

I use a small bowl gouge and do the side sweeping across to the center.

Pictures in Alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking

I still have all my parts because I follow that rule! :)

Got it.

ok, I see what you mean about the rounding - saw a video - think it was titled 'Why you don't use roughing gouge for bowls'.

Something to practice.

I'm trying different things. I use a square scraper and a radius scraper - can already see that I'd like to grind a square scraper with a slightly rounded corner. :)

Working on getting a better feel for the gouge bevel.

Interesting though - I started out getting hand cramps from clutching the tools so tightly. I can now hold them firmly but soft enough to feel the wood - so there might be hope for me yet.

I'm still playing around with the tool rest height - getting a feel for what happens when it's low or high etc.

Also finding that it's MUCH better when the tools are sharp.

Having fun and that's the name of the game - have a 5x5x12 maple burl that I'm just dying to get at but need more practice before I give that a shot. Plan on cutting it in half and making two lidded boxes out of it.

Appreciate the guidance!

Vic

Same here, Gerald.. I've always preferred the look and feel of a rounded bottom in the box.. Much easier to shape and finish and I think it's a bit more "elegant" when folks look inside the box..

Marketing turnings is a "touchy feely" thing and I don't think people get a warm, fuzzy feeling from square edges and flat bottoms..

FWIW, my favorite box tool is the Soren Berger thing that is basically a bar with a rather odd shaped sharp blade at the end, you can use it to make the bottom and the sides very quickly.