I like to learn new things. My goal is to be able to fix anything at The Fort At #4. A large part of that is learning how to turn wood.
This is not as difficult as it could be because I have experience with a metal lathe. The concepts are similar, but very different.
In metal working, we look at the type of metal, the amount of metal we want to remove, and the speed at which we wish to do it. This informs us of the type of tool to use.
Steel likes larger nose radius than aluminum. The chip breakers are different, the rake is different. The cutter shape defines speeds and feeds. What tool I pick is dependent on what I am doing.
In wood turning, there are two major types, “spindle” and “bowl”. A spindle is a long, round thing. Think of round legs on chairs, or the spindles in the back of a chair. Round chair rungs. All of those are spindle turnings.
Bowl turning is just about would it sounds like. You are carving out wood from the center of a round, thick piece of wood. The difference is grain orientation.
In spindle turning, the grain is oriented end to end. In bowl turning, it is side to side.
When cutting the outside of a spindle, you are always cutting away the along the grain. The easy way. In bowl turning, you are cutting side grain, then end grain, then back again.
The tools are different. A bowl gouge and a spindle gouge have different shapes and different sturdiness.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had to learn how to cut bowl blanks. This is an art in itself. I’ve had to learn how to mount bowl blanks. This is more difficult than it sounds because you have to mount the blank, turn part of it. Reverse it, then cut the inside, then cut off all the wood used for holding it.
The first four attempts were complete failures. I was attempting to make a bowl with a spindle-gouge into end grain. This just doesn’t work.
This is my first fully successful bowl. It was made from an off cut from my failed first attempt. I might have enough to make another. It still needs to be burnished, and the mounting food removed, but still an acceptable third try.
The small bowl on the left, which is reddish, was my first successful bowl blank. The others were all because I got lucky and worked my way to success.
I like the color and the grain pattern.
The dark brown with the black marking is from a side turned piece of limb that was in the fire pill from last fall. It was my first side grain, true bowl cutting with a bowl gouge.
This is a box made from another limb from the wood pile. It is made by spindle turning the outside and the inside is hollowed with a drill. This will be a grease box or a salt box. It depends on what I get made before my next trip to the Fort.
Once I get a little better, I might toss some up for sale, but for now, I’m not happy with the quality. I’m getting there.
P.S. Tomorrow’s Tuesday Tunes will be supplemented with an article about Alec Baldwin’s case being dismissed. I have to finish reading some Supreme Court Opinions before I can finish the article.