NEVER Scrape!

A SHARP scraper an the inside takes less than 5 minutes to sand. Green or dry.

How are you burning you knuckles? Inquiring minds want to know! Mine never get close to the wood.

Hi George

Sounds like a bad hair day, maybe the winter blahs, yes sometimes you can't win for loosing, just walk away, tomorrow is an other day.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

George wrote:

You know George, one of the best turning tools is neither the scraper nor the gouge, it is the cup of coffee. When nothing goes right it is time to pour out a cup and just contemplate the good stuff of life. Then we get to go back and try the mistakes again. Most of the time they seem to come out right.

Pretty much what put me in front of the computer, only it was cran-grape. Went back while dinner was simmering, instead of me, and it doesn't look too awful. Never get back the time I have in it, but it's a nice deep nut or chip bowl.

Nope, not in this bugger. Especially when you're trying to keep the blend into the sides.

I steady the tool to the rest with my clumsy left hand, and with rest, hand and tool inside the bowl, there just wasn't quite as much room to maneuver as my hand size would require, especially as I tried to make a graceful cut from side to bottom. In the end, I did recut the curve anyway. Should have done it right off.

"Darrell Feltmate" wrote: You know George, one of the best turning tools is neither the scraper nor the gouge, it is the cup of coffee. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Or a good night's sleep. I have had the solution to a really vexing problem come to me in a dream. More than once. Really.

That's your subconscious working.. I use this a lot when I have a problem on a web page I'm working on... I'll go out to the shop for a while, play a computer game, etc.. anything to get my "mind" off the problem and let my subconscious work it out..

I think that's why folks say that they went to eat dinner or something and when they got back they saw their shop project in a "different way"..

mac

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Mac I write most of my sermons over the lathe. One of the good parts of being a pastor is being able to combine the two passions. Another is being able to stare off into space and people can not tell if I am working or just staring. "Sometimes I sets and thinks, sometimes I jsut sets."

Darrell:

Careful! You are going to expose a lot of "woodworkers". :-) Now wash your fingertips with soap and don't type stuff like that again. Pastor indeed! :-))

Darrell Feltmate wrote:

=========================

Works well with cross word puzzles also.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX

At my newbie level, I don't think it would be sermons I'd be writing, Darrell..

Maybe that's why you have the patience top do things right..

mac

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George

First. let me commend you for going out there and turning - ham handed and all! The best part about turning is there is a starting point and from there it is all in the gaining of experience and how you apply what you learned!

I think I see part of your problem - from your post. You state that the curve was not very graceful. That is indeed something that makes scraping more difficult. When you make your first couple of bowls, it is best to have a good example of a bowl close by to compare what you are making to it. A cereal or soup bowl from the kitchen will work just fine. Notice the gentle curve from lip to base. You can make yours just as graceful!

When turning a bowl, it is a good idea to use your bowl gouge first and have it go from lip to base inside the bowl, Then when scraping, it is best to go from base to lip. If you are scraping to remove tool marks - which is the proper application - it is a good idea to hold the scraper to the wood at an angle - about 40 degrees. This will have the effect of removing the grooves without changing the profile too much. It will also help you to be more graceful in your movements. Finesse is more helpful - especially if you are ham handed. It took me a while to gain the needed coordination, as well!

If you never want to scrape, then that is up to you. But if you plan to never scrape, then you will need to become extremely good with the gouge or with sand paper!

Oh, by the way, how are you sanding? Are you using a power sander or are you doing it by hand? If you were to invest in a power sanding set up($150), you could shave about an hour off your sanding time!

Ray Sandusky Brentwood, TN

I _am_ very good with a gouge, which is how I rescued the project. I don't use a scraper because I don't normally need to, which may lead to the proficiency level demonstrated the other night.

My sanding gear also removes wood at a rapid rate, which is what caused the dish-in when I tried to salvage the scrape, I was concentrating on the torn area, not blending back up. It's supported sanding, which is great at preserving circularity, but if you stay in one place, it removes only in that place....

Thanks for the encouragement, but I'll probably avoid scraping the next hundred face-grain bowls just as I've avoided it for the last few hundred.

Hi Ray, You offered very good advice for beginners or less experienced turners. George, as you know from his many posts is an experienced and competent turner and I bet he offered a rcw thread as an enjoyable tale of woe for some of us and as a way of teaching others. Also I suspect him of prodding other good turners, like you, to jump in with helpful advice. Thanks to you for picking up on his 'benign troll' and thanks to George for another of his thought provoking threads.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Well some people are saying that scraping is not as good as cutting. I am still at the improver's stage. The scrapers I use are 1" wide X 3/8" thk and the other is 1/2" wide. Using these I remove continuos strips of wood that are thinner than onion skin paper. Lately in an attempt to emulate wooden bowls made during the middle I made a 7" OD maple bowl without sanding. I only used the thick scraper. The surface finish is close to 120 + grits and it as a nice gothic look. I am thinking of using a finish of mineral oil and beeswax and using the bowl for serving food like cooked rolled oats and salad. If the bowl failed the food serving test I'll use it to feed the birds.

Arch

You are, as usual, on the spot with good comments.

Maybe I need to get a better sense of humor. I take everything too seriously! I thought Geo was calling out for help - and what do you know, I was all too happy to offer my 2 cents! My wife tells me to stay out of other people's business - I guess she is also right

Ray

I'm not the only one here. See Denis' input. So good advice certainly stretches. I still prefer a cut surface, but sometimes the only thing in my mind is cutting corners. My ill-fated adventure certainly show that I should have gone immediately with what I'm comfortable with, even if the clearances weren't the greatest.

Also noted as I oiled the piece prior to finish, that the area I was trying to scrape sucked oil _very_ rapidly. I have a feeling the modest deterioration of the sapwood might have contributed to the grain pull at the shallowest part of the curve. Believe me, folks, the scraper was sharp, and the flakes feathery thin. Problem, as always, is they were scraped, and the rough edges told the tale of the surface left behind as well as what was taken. I like my shavings sharp-edged and twisted, like you get from a gouge taking a continuous pass.

continuous pass.

me too!! (and one out of about 100 passes so far is exactly that *g*)

mac

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