A bit of practice

**Hermit** · 3rd December 2014, 02:49 AM

I haven't been saying much on the forums lately, but I have been getting in a bit of practice.
Instead of my beloved carbide tools, I've been putting in a lot more time with traditional bowl and spindle gouges. I think I'm almost beginning to get the hang of it. No catches for a while, and my off-the-tool finish is improving.

First up, for some bowl gouge practice, especially with thin(nish) walls, I made a few pale Meranti bowls. (Nice and cheap.)

They didn't come up too bad, although one is a bit thick and thin as it changes from end to side grain. (Too much sanding.)
150mm dia and 45mm tall with roughly 3.5mm walls, finished in oil-based satin WOP.

a. Top.jpg b. Side.jpg c. Bottom.jpg

While I was in bowl mode, I made a little White Beech bowl, in the same shape as the Meranti ones. (Love this timber, it's beautiful to turn and finish.)
125mm diameter, 35mm tall, 3mm walls, finished in oil-based WOP.

Top.JPG Side.JPG Bottom.JPG

Next up was some spindle turning practice. I only got my first spindle gouge a few weeks ago, so didn't push too hard on my first project, a little bud vase in New Guinea Rosewood.
It's 135mm tall and 50mm diameter with an 11mm x 75mm plastic tube insert. The eBay listing said 83mm long, but that's including the stopper, it turns out. I'll have to try to get some slightly larger ones.
It's finished in oil-based satin WOP. (The flowers aren't real - they're cheap silk ones from eBay.)

Front with flowers.JPG 75 x 11 Plastic Test Tubes.JPG

Finally, a (sort-of) goblet-shaped tealight candle holder from Southern Silky Oak. The overall shape isn't real good and the stem is a bit chunky, but it was good practice. I have a better one in the works, almost finished.
This one is 130mm tall, 48mm tealight hole, 14mm x 50mm stem, (collar-to-collar.
Sealed with shellac/talc grain filler, then finished in oil-based gloss WOP and lined with a 48mm glass insert.

a. Side.JPG b. Top.JPG

All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Thanks for looking.

**Pat** · 3rd December 2014, 04:03 AM

Looking good Steve.

**chuck1** · 3rd December 2014, 05:45 AM

Keep up great work Steve! The meranti is great to practice on. You have got some nice shapes.
wondered where you have been!

**Treecycle** · 3rd December 2014, 08:23 AM

Looks like your practice on technique has really paid off. Your finish looks first class.
Seems like you are accumulating a few varieties of wood to play with now. I hope you have been able to find some local source of free wood and not having to pay for it all still.
Keep up the good work.

**artme** · 3rd December 2014, 09:16 AM

Nice work all round Steve!!!

No pun intended!

**dai sensei** · 3rd December 2014, 09:29 AM

**DaveTTC** · 3rd December 2014, 11:18 AM

Looking mighty fine, you making me jealous that I dont have the time to get out and do the same.

Your bowls look very similar to each other in the meranti. Not sure I could do such a fine job in making a set like that.

Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

**Hermit** · 3rd December 2014, 06:18 PM

Thanks for the encouragement and 'Likes', guys.

All pretty boring stuff, but I've got a couple of nicer ones coming. I've got 3 more bowls and another tealight goblet in various stages of completion. The turning and sanding is fast, but then it takes me days to get the finish that I want, particularly on bowls. Grain filling has been killing me. The Meranti drank 15 coats of poly and is still covered in pin-holes. Like a sponge.

Charlie, the Meranti is good to turn, and even more importantly for practice, it was cheap. (Like me.)
Overall, though, give me hardwoods any day.
Thanks for recommending Timbermate when I was last at your place, too. I just bought a few tubs, Ebony, Teak and Walnut, to test for grain filling. I just thinned some a bit and tried it on some Merbau and it works great.

Dallas, I bought some of that timber, but my next-door neighbour gave me a couple of slabs of Silky Oak a while back, along with some Red Cedar and some Oregon boards. I still have a good stack of Tas Oak, too, so I don't have to think about timber for a little while. Everything for a while will be SSO.

Dave, 'similar' is the keyword. In the photo they look a bit more identical than they really are. There was a big crack through the tenon of one that looked a bit worrying, so I had to re-cut it and that bowl is 5mm shorter than the other two. Diameters vary by a few mm too.
They're going in 3 different directions, so no-one will ever know.

On an aside, I sat down to type this reply about an hour ago, with thunderstorms raging all around, when BANG. A big flash in the corner of the room where all the wiring is, a near-direct hit, and no more telephone or internet.

The computer said no ethernet connection. After a bit of playing I found that two of the ethernet ports on the modem were dead, but the other two still work fine, (phew, I really can't afford a new modem and/or computer right now). Lucky.

The telephone is cooked, though.

(The poor old dog is still shaking, too, and sitting on my foot.)

**Christos** · 4th December 2014, 05:06 PM

Really nice going on the turned pieces.

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