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newbie pics and a question

I got a Jet Mini lathe a few weeks ago after many recommendations from this newsgroup. I wanted to post some pictures of a few of my first turnings. Look for them over in rec.binaries.pictures.woodworking.

They maybe not up to everyone's standards in this group, but certainly enough to make this novice very happy! I've always heard that woodturning was addictive and now I see how true that is. Great stress relief for me every evening.

A big problem I have right now is learning how to finish properly. I find my self rushing through the finish of what I'm working on so I can get to turning on the next bowl. Just something about making those shaving fly!!! I guess its ok now, but I realize at some point, I'll need to concentrate more on finish.

I do have a couple of question, though.

First....I have an unlimited supply of oak where I live and that's what I've been playing with mostly. When I'm sanding the oak, I seem to run into problems where the grain bends over in the direction that I sand. If I run my hand over it in the direction the lathe turns it feels very smooth, but if I run my hand backwards across that grain, I can feel the roughness of the grain. Seems like if I could reverse the lathe and sand in both directions, it would be better. How do I handle this with my Mini being able to run only in one direction. I'm not power sanding. Just by hand with the lathe running.

Second...When shaping my bowls, sometimes the oak grain has a tendancy to break off instead of cutting or slicing. It always seems to do this when the grain turn direction in ther wood creating an endgrain on the side of the bowl. Not all chunks of wook do this, however, when one does, there doesn't appear to be too much I can do to stop it. I make sure and sharpen tools and it continues to happen. What can I do?

Walker

Reply to
harleydude
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Oak has a lot going for it, but one thing against - the medullary rays. If you're not careful on thin work you can induce a crack along the ray figure. One reason why I like it in the firewood stack is this ease of splitting. Same for beech.

Avoid "bounce" is always good advice. You can get bounce as the bowl changes shape while hollowing - steady is a good idea, though a hand or a couple of tight wraps of duct tape around the rim can help. You can also get bounce or squirm by pressing the gouge into the wood as you ride the bevel. The end grain will run away, the face be cut, Here, light cuts, referenced primarily to the toolrest, with a guide from the bevel work best for me. If you don't smack, it won't crack. Listen, and strive for an even sound.

One other thing about those rays - they can close after once opening. Often this is invisible, though the separation is complete. When selecting your chunk, be more generous with the end trimming, and unless you have some sort of horrible lathe whine, leave your ear defenders off, so you can hear the first "click" which presages disaster. Always a good idea on burls, too. Seek and close the crack with CA or your flavor, and stay clear of the disintegration zone.

Reply to
George

I had some complaints over in rec.binaries.pictures.woodworking about file sizes. I'm sitting here with an OC12 and forget to think about bandwidth. Just wanted to let y'all know that I've resized those pictures I posted and broke them up into individual messages for ease of download.

Reply to
Walker

I work with a lot of wood the has the problems you mention.

First, the sanding problem:

One thing you can do to the outside of your bowls is to leave a post down the center of piece, so that you can leave it between centers. That way you can flip the piece end for end periodically as you finish the outside. Also, with the lathe stopped, run your hand over the surface. When you find "flattened grain", hand sand in a circular motion to help take off the laid down grain, then turn on the lathe and continue. For the inside, all you can do is either power sand or hand sand the rough areas.

Now for the Tear out:

Sharp tools are necessary as you already know. The other thing is the correct presentation angle of the tool. This is something you learn by feel and practice.

You didn't mention which tool you are using on the inside. Depending on the area of the inside I'm working on, I use Scrapers, Bowl gouges ground to a fingernail profile, and sometimes a skew. The area that seems to cause the most trouble is where the side turns into the bottom.

Hope this helps.

The Other Bruce

The joy of woodturning is that all you have to is remove what's not needed to hve something that's beautiful. Nature does the hard work.

Reply to
Bruce

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