turning fir

Red: I have turned fir and it has been "ok" but there tends to be tear-out due to the large grain of the wood. I have made a large salad bowl out of built up 2 x 4's. Needed sharp tools and a fair amount of sanding. With that type of chuck and your experience with it, I would suggest that you start out turning between centers or use a faceplate with a sacrificial block glued to it.

Hi Reyd. A method you might wish to try out if you aren't doing it already...

When working on the block held in the chuck, bring the tailstock up to give a little more security to the chuck. Shape the outside. Then when you move on to the inside hollowing, leave the tail stock in place as long as possible. You'll end up with an inverted cone of wood from the center out to the tailcenter, but that's easily broken off by hand or by cutting it away with a gouge. This way you'll have the additional support from the tail side for practically the entire roughing and shaping - and only remove it for the final light passes to clean and finish shape the interior.

A cool technique for finishing softwoods like fir is to singe the surface with a propane torch and wirebrush the charring off. Do this a few times and the density differences between the early wood and the late wood of the growth rings will become apparent. The effect is a softly rippled surface. Do the final smoothing with steel wools and apply a finish. I've got a picture of my first singed pine bowl on WOW in my album if you're interested. (I singed a little bit too much and started burning/eroding away the wood on the rim - more careful singeing on later bowls kept the entire shape intact.)

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

This method will work for all woods, and if your chuck won't compress is a much better/safer way to do things. Turn the outside, turn all but a "top shape" inside, between centers, back off your tailstock and twist the top shape out of the bowl. Turn the rest of the inside w/o the tailstock, it's much lighter and better balanced now. Part of from the sacrificial blank, and either sand or plane the bottom. VERY sharp tools. Dave in Fairfax

Does your chuck operate in the compression mode rather than expansion? I have turned large (>14") pieces of softwood (jackpine) by first mounting on faceplate then putting into my chuck in compression mode. If you find that you are crushing the tenon too much in tightening the chuck you can apply thin CA to it to firm it up.

Billh

Hi,

I enjoy working with the branches from a large fir. It goes really well and turns out well.

I have turned some fir that had coarse grain and it does require a tremendous amount of sanding to get it looking good.

I currently have a piece of Fir on the lathe. It is a large piece (about

10-12 inches at the widest) that I cut from a root mass. I thought it might be a burl and there is some burl in it. It had been excavated by carpenter ants at some point. It is not at all balanced and there was no way that I could put the tailstock in to hold it as the center came out the first time I tried that. Instead I got out the forsner bits and drilled a pocket for the chuck. All went well for a while and then the blank came off and chased me down. Now I usually turn out of the "throw zone" but this bowl was cagey and realized that and found a new trajectory for itself and I ended up with a bit of a bump on my cheek. (it didn't require a 911 call so it is ok). I went back and made the pocket a bit deeper. I started turning it just fast enough to begin rounding the outside and have it roughed out. I then had to start on the inside to begin to get the thing balanced. I am taking very fine cuts and using a lot of patience and gradually getting a little more speed on the bowl as I go. It is going well now.

Lessons learned

Patience sharp tools (already knew that one) light cuts patience sand paper patience more light cuts and of course PATIENCE

Isn't this a great pastime

Brian

mine seem to like taking off at 90 degrees to the normal throw zone as well (straight towards the end of the lathe). unfortunately this is a crappy chuck, it doesnt really fit the name, as it doesnt adjust for sizes, working only with a 6mm deep by the size of the bit that it comes with wide hole, any abnormalities(hole too big because the press vibrated a bit) or a bit too deep because the depth stop moved a little, and you redrill, or the pieces fold upwards, and just split it. in article snipped-for-privacy@harbornet.com, Brian Combs at snipped-for-privacy@harbornet.com wrote on 1/23/04 9:26 AM:

Hi Owen. Hate to express my ignorense, but whats WOW and how do I get to your album. Would love to see the burning technique.

Earl

Hi Earl. WOW is "World of Woodturners" and is a site dedicated to turning. It's a private site and moderated by a couple of fine folks who occassionally post here too. There are literally thousands of pictures and commentary from novices up to professional, gallery-represented turners.

If you'll send me an email with your real first and last names plus a valid email address I'll get you signed up. Others are welcome to do the same - just be warned that spamming, trolling or attempting to disrupt the group will get you booted off with little hesitation from "Papa Herm".

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Hi Reyd I might have a solution for holding your soft wood blanks. A vcr has one of these aluminum flyweels in them, they are nicely balanced and have some screwholes in them already, also shoulders to hold on to with your chuck if you can go to that size, they are aprox. 2

1/2"D and 3/4" thick you should be able to get some of those flyweels from some tv repair sh> sigh. I was trying to avoid having to glue it to a block. it blew up