WOW!!! What a difference...............

[sunshine]

Went home last nite, sharpened my bowl gouge, chucked up a blank of walnut and had the greatest
time just turning.... the walnut is not really, really wet, just kind of "damp".... and I
revved up my lathe to about 1200. I can't believe
what a difference the speed makes to the cleanness of the cut... (I am really good about keeping
my tools sharp anyway) so I have to subscribe
the enhanced cut to the speed...

Anyway, I DID have fun!!!!

Cheers, Phyllis

[q9]

Ok, I have some coolibah burl here to turn (300+mm dia). I have been advised to turn slow, sharpen often.

Comments?

[sunshine]

Stopper: It sounds like coolibah is very hard? Anything like ironwood?

Phyllis

[rsser]

Ironwood appears to be used to refer to several timbers. I've turned Acacia excelsa and found it perfectly manageable - nice grain, finishes well.

Cheers,

Ern

[q9]

Ok, well coolibah, for those that don't know is quite dense (ie heavy), and reasonably hard.

My roughing gouge is ground at 45 deg (approx) courtesy of my new grinding jig.
That's generally all I use, apart from the parting tool which comes in hand for a couple of detail cuts.

I was just interested in hearing other peoples opinions. I turned a piece of box and found it scary at anything above second slowest. But that was a while ago, and probably more to do with poor technique (and no grinding jig).

I pick my wood by what I like rather than how easy it will be to work. Damn it...

[ubeaut]

45 deg! Miles too much angle for a bowl gouge, cut it back to a blunter angle (between 20 - 30 deg or 60 - 70 deg depending on which way you look at it) and it'll work much better.

Trust me - Neil.

[q9]

err, ROUGHING gouge.

well it may not be 45 (looks it to me, should measure I guess), but is nearly the same as the factory grind. And Robert Sorby, to answer the next question you haven't asked.

[sunshine]

Thanks, guys! Learned some stuff I hadn't even asked about....

(as usual)


Oh, well, back to that beautiful lathe.... (did I mention that I have a Nova 3000 DVR?) It's swell!!


Phyl...................

[q9]

I don't turn bowls. But I do have a bowl gouge, spindle gouge, skew chisel, roughing gouge and a parting tool.

[q9]

Make expensive saw dust?


expensive clocks might be more accurate

[Toasty]

Just fired up the lathe for the first time in 12 months a couple of days ago and I figurered I would get stuck into a large(ish) piece of Coolabah Burl I have had in the garage for the last two years.

Coolahbah Burl is tough stuff, especially when it has dried out a lot. Very very dusty too, face mask is essential. Had the lathe set to 800rpm (I only have a four speed Durden 10") which was about as fast as I wanted to go with a piece as large as this was (9"). Had I a better lathe such as a VicMark Shortbed I would have happily taken it to around 1200-1400

Turned it up and sanded to 1000 grit using a rotary sander. Would have really liked to have hit it with Ubeaut Triple E cream followed by Ubeaut's Shellawax, but past experince has taught me it just gets stuck in the cracks of a piece like this and makes the work look like crapolla. Instead I just polished with some OrganOil Satin Woodsheen and it came up very nicely.

Attached is the final (amateur) piece.

[Toasty]

This pic shows the figure inside the bowl. I love Coolabah Burl, just wish it wasn't so damn tough.

[q9]

Nice effort.

For me it is really about the wood first, and I like the fact that not everyone wants to be bothered with it. It is one of those things you enjoy more when it's done, than doing.

[sunshine]

Toasty: Again, WOW! What a beautiful bowl. I love to see
other turners work. Is very inspiring and wants to make me
go back to my lathe, IMMEDIATELY!

As to the EEE, I thought I would not be able to use it on
some open segment turnings, but I found that if I applied
carefully, spun it to shiney, then took a "glue brush" (that's the
little metal handle one with short stiff bristles) and gave a little
scrub to the holes where there was some wax, it worked very
well to clean it out and I still get to use my favorite finish!
Also have used that method on a bit of punky walnut to
clean out the little holes. Worked fine.

Again, beautiful work!

Phyllis

[Toasty]

Hi Phyllis,

It has been a while between drinks for me and my lathe so it was good to get reaquainted. I went down yesterday and turned a little scent flask which was fun to go to the other end of the scale.

Good sugestion on the glue brush, I'll have to try that becasue I do love the finish of Ubeaut's products.