I've had a lathe since May and so far I've made one turned box out of a bit of a branch which fell off a banksia tree in the yard. I was expecting it to split (I couldn't hollow far enough in so the bottom was quite thick) and indeed it did!
What I'm aiming to do is to use the challenge as an opportunity to make some headway with turned boxes. So, I'm planning on spending about an hour each day in August making boxes and we'll see what happens!
I don't expect to make anything very exciting but I hope that posting about what I'm doing will be interesting for other beginners. I'll try and post every day after turning.
When I made my first box I had trouble hollowing (with a 3/8" spindle gouge) beyond about 25mm, I got to about 37mm in the end but it was getting too out of control so I stopped there. I decided to make an Oland tool for next time and I had Cliff's 5/8" drill bit for the handle so I got on and made that last weekend. Hopefully it will help - picture attached, the handle is 16" long to give an idea of scale.
Tell me to stop if this gets boring!!