Following on from my earlier question, tonight I had some wood with some rot within on the lathe.My wife came to the workshop door and as I walked past the bowl it shattered into three pieces. One hit my elbow the other two bounced off the ceiling. Stuff has left the lathe at speed before but this was a first. Must say seeing herself taking to her heels on hearing the bang was amusing.Thats the christmas orders stuffed then.
At least you know what to get each other for Christmas. New underwear....
I'm guessing that the lathe was running... what speed?
Sounds as if the bowl was sitting on a table or something and decided to demonstrate expansion...
mac
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Lathe was running at 1300 rpm.
LOL!
Sorry to keep asking questions, but we all learn from them...
What diameter was the bowl?
Thick or thin?
Have yo looked at the pieces to see if they broke along old cracks, punky parts or whatever?
mac
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More questions are fine.
Bowl was 9" wide, 6" deep and 1" thick. There was some rot in the wood but nothing I could see to make a difference.
Thing is, there are two more roughed out sitting on the shelf. :)
Hmmm... I've had a few go, especially from unseen cracks that had obvious aging once broken, but never on something that thick..
Sort of a no-brainer, but I'd be very careful with the other 2.. Hopefully, it was just some defect in the wood that the others won't have..
mac
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Did you notice any change in the sound as you were turning? I've discovered that most problems announce themselves audibly before they become serious.
Old Guy
You never mentioned what kind of wood you were turning. Recently I've been turning some Sugar Maple. It turned nicely when I roughed it out. However, when chucked back on the lathe the second time it hasn't been so kind. Of the eight bowls I've turned to finish, 3 have, for lack of a better word, "Popped" while on the lathe. It didn't appear to be anything I did while turning. The wood just had the energy built up in it from drying and as I turned the walls down to the finished size, the bowls released the energy by splitting. As was mentioned earlier, the sound changed immediately. I've 6 more blanks to finish and I've found myself doing this with a cautious had and an ear towards the change. Good luck with the other 2.
JD
To answer all, I did`nt detect any change in sound but then the music in my workshop is quite loud. The wood I was turning was Ash. Opened up this morning, lit the stove, fired up the coffee, looked up at the remaining two on the shelf and thought, hump that, spent the day turning spalted beech instead.
ok.. Just a personal thing, but I won't have music on any more and if the wife is watching tv, I'll close the door between the shop and great room..
I used to have music in the shop until I realized that without it I could not only hear the clicking of a crack develop, but also tell if my tool is getting ready to sharpen.. You just intuitively hear and feel how the tool is contacting the spinning wood..
mac
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