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Serendipity. Stumbling On Another Way To Add Movement To Turnings

Have you ever - started out - with a vague idea of what you THINK you want to turn

- and end up somewhere completely unexpected?

This started out to be a first attempt at a "winged" vessel - maybe a winged bowl - or probably something smaller - a winged cup.

If the term "winged" is unfamiliar to you - image taken a 10" long piece of a 2x4. Mount it between centers like a 4" wide propeller - the 10 length UpDown, the propeller 2" thick. Turn the piece as if you were making a shallow bowl - but leave it unturned in the middle - plus an inch or two on either sided of center. Next, turn the area previously unturned into a little "full round" cup or bowl - leavihng the previously turned "wings" of course. cup /U\ / \ wings

I seem to have trouble keeping it simple - and this would be no exception. Instead of turning simple wings, I decided to do them on multi-centers - creating them from two intersection arcs. And to add a bit more to the challenge, I tapered the two intersecting arc wings - fat on the outside, narrower at the "cup". And I left the wings thick because I wanted to do some carving and sculpting on them.

What I ended up with is an unintended version of a tight rope walker - with an odd looking outrigger balancing pole. And because of all the extra wood out on the ends of the wings, the center of gravity of the winged cup is below the bottom of the cup - which happens to make it very stabile - when you sit it / balance it on something - like a turned pull - on top of the lid - of a lidded box - or amphora.

Here's a link to more about this thing - with a link from that page to a YouTube video of it - in action (another unintended consequence / option this piece has)

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What I hope comes acrossed with all this is - ideas can come from anywhere. There are so many possibilities you can't help but stumble onto them. The trick is to follow opportunities when the pop up.

Have YOU stumbled on a possibility - and then pursued it? if so, care to share where it went?

Reply to
charlie b
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Very nice result in the winged bowl. It looks too scary for me to turn. I started replacing the floor in my shop and then I have been suffering with a sore hip the last week . Going to try to get back at the floor job today. Then I want to try your firewood bowl. Murray in Cape Breton Canada

Reply to
Moray

On Sun, 9 Jan 2011 15:19:22 -0600, charlie b wrote (in message ):

Your winged cup is not too terribly different from a wedding spoon with two handles and would serve very nicely in the same or similar context.

As for the interesting balancing aspect... well the possibilities are wide open I think. tom koehler

Reply to
tom koehler

One of these days we'll wake up to find you turning the planet!

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

I've only got a little itty bitty lathe - a JET mini VS. The limitations it imposes on the size of things I can turn seems, in retrospect, to have advantages. When things go wrong while turning small things it's a little piece of wood - easy and cheap or free to replace - and not big enough to require emergency room treatment ; ). Because the Intimidation Factor is relatively low, I'm proned to try things I wouldn't even consider trying on a larger piece of wood spun on a much larger, more powerful lathe.

When I watched Jimmy Clewes turn a winged box - out of a foot long

4x4 of black walnut - my jaws were clenched the whole time - and I stayed way out of the line of fire of what seemed like a helicopter rotor sized propeller - spinning at a very scary speed. But a little chunk of wood, doing the same thing, albeit at only 1800 rpms was far less intimidating. The first contact of cutting edge to the end of that spinning propeller was done with a bit of trepidation and not absolute terror. That went well so I continued on - and found it wasn't as tricky or as scary as I'd thought.

Smaller Lathe = Lower Intimidation Factor Lower Intimidation Factor = Try More Wild Hare Idea Trying More Wild Hare Ideas = MORE FUN!

Reply to
charlie b

Makes sense. I finally dug out the Unimat, but I need to figure out wood turning on it. Missing a tool rest and centers. Got a faceplate somewhere, but they are relatively inexpensive and as soon as I buy one I'll find the missing one.. Should be interesting, as the Unimat also has milling capability and I have a Proxxon XY table.

1/2" winged turnings shouldn't be too scary!
Reply to
Lobby Dosser

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