bowl turning thread

[Pete Hart]

how thick are you leaving it?

 

this one is only a tiddler (4 1/2") so perhaps that helped. it was a core from a larger bowl that i bough inside the house to see how much weight it lost so i could judge when the rest were dry. i left it next to the fire to force dry it, there was no pith so i was happy that it would be ok.

 

i've had good experiences with all the cherry species...

 

I tend to go fairly thin on most bowl projects and I'm leaving approx 1/2" of 'meat' on before leaving it in shavings and eventually finishing it off.

Should I be leaving more on during the initial rough out and drying?

[se7enthdevil]

it varies with the wood a bit, i'll leave 1/2" on little ones and go up to 1" for something 12" across and up to 1 1/2" at 18"

[Pete Hart]

it varies with the wood a bit, i'll leave 1/2" on little ones and go up to 1" for something 12" across and up to 1 1/2" at 18"

 

Ok thanks, I'll be leaving a bit more wood for bigger bowls in future.

[se7enthdevil]

are you sealing the endgrain or leaving it?

[Pete Hart]

are you sealing the endgrain or leaving it?

 

The only time I seal is when cutting blanks. I use liquid emulsified wax.

[devon TWiG]

I " rough out" all of my bowls , but do virtually all of them in winter so they slowly acclimatise to moisture loss , and put them in a well vented shed , it depends on species how much I leave oversize and if I intend to make a thick or thin walled bowl . Any wood I acquire in the summer I usually wrap in cling film until the winter arrives , but I still lose some now and then ! Sometimes I coat end grain with PVA

[bluemerlin]

My first and only attempt at turning. Made it for the missus for christmas on a friends lathe a couple of years ago.

 

 

[Pete Hart]

On the whole I end up with pleasant results. It was just specifically plum that I've had problems trying to get it to stay stable.

[se7enthdevil]

with the fruit woods and others prone to splitting i will always seal the endgrain once roughed out as this will give you the best chance of having a good yield of bowls once dry...

[Pete Hart]

with the fruit woods and others prone to splitting i will always seal the endgrain once roughed out as this will give you the best chance of having a good yield of bowls once dry...

 

Ah.....right. I haven't been doing that.

Thanks for the tip!