I have had this blank of curly sycamore that I got from Jeff for quite a while. Never really got the nerve to chuck it up. Well today either stupidity or machismo got the best of me and I decided to turn it. This is the largest piece of wood that I have turned on my lathe, and I don't recommend you try this at home. I square danced with it until I got it round and then really couldn't go over 1000rpm with out my lathe taking a hike. I decided to take a few WIP pics in case it blowed up on me. I could at least prove I tried :lol: :lol:
Here is the blank mounted and rough turned round. It's about 10" in dia. and 5" thick at this point.
Here it is turned to the final outside shape and a BLO added to POP the curl.
After finishing the outside, I re-chucked with a tenon (in a recess, I don't know why it's called that) and got prepared to hollow her out 8-O
Hollowing it out took forever. That' s a lot of wood to remove. I had to stop and sharpen twice during the process, and still had some tear out. I don't think that I have large enough chisels for a bowl this deep :eusa_doh:
Turning bowls makes a huge mess, that's why I really like it. You ain't turnin' unless you end up taller than when you start. Anybody need some Sycamore curlies?
Well here is final product, it started to warp on me so I couldn't get it as thin as I would have liked to. But the curl and slight spalting is really nice. Jeff, you need a lathe, you're sitting on a gold mine of beautiful wood :icon_thum
And a inside shot, I think I got it down to a 1/2" uniform thickness throughout. I was scared to go smaller. I finished it with BLO, that was burnished at high speed and then a coat of paste wax. It will do what it will do...that's art, right??
Thanks for looking, any critiques, advice or sales welcome :-D :-D
Dave
Here is the blank mounted and rough turned round. It's about 10" in dia. and 5" thick at this point.
Here it is turned to the final outside shape and a BLO added to POP the curl.
After finishing the outside, I re-chucked with a tenon (in a recess, I don't know why it's called that) and got prepared to hollow her out 8-O
Hollowing it out took forever. That' s a lot of wood to remove. I had to stop and sharpen twice during the process, and still had some tear out. I don't think that I have large enough chisels for a bowl this deep :eusa_doh:
Turning bowls makes a huge mess, that's why I really like it. You ain't turnin' unless you end up taller than when you start. Anybody need some Sycamore curlies?
Well here is final product, it started to warp on me so I couldn't get it as thin as I would have liked to. But the curl and slight spalting is really nice. Jeff, you need a lathe, you're sitting on a gold mine of beautiful wood :icon_thum
And a inside shot, I think I got it down to a 1/2" uniform thickness throughout. I was scared to go smaller. I finished it with BLO, that was burnished at high speed and then a coat of paste wax. It will do what it will do...that's art, right??
Thanks for looking, any critiques, advice or sales welcome :-D :-D
Dave