Woodturning Green Wood Bowl – All At Once
The wood for this bowl came from a friend who lives nearby. When someone gives me a bunch of wood, I like to make them something from it. In this case, I gave her a choice of a bowl soon but that may warp a little and a bowl that would not warp but that would take much longer to make. She chose a bowl now.
This bowl is from green or wet cherry from her back yard. It is over six inches tall and about 5 inches in diameter. It is finished with walnut oil. Since it is still very wet, I told here to keep it in a grocery store paper bag for several weeks.
She’s happy with the bowl. I just hope it does not crack.
Woodturning Weird Rolling Doodad Toys
At the Desert Woodturning Rounding in Mesa Arizona, I saw a weird toy in the instant gallery. I studied it but couldn’t figure out how it was turned. Fortunately, the woodturner was nearby and explained both the simplicity and the critical portions of the toy.
I had to make one. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what the toy is called – nor do I remember the woodturner’s name.Somebody, please enlighten me.
These are made from a common cedar 4×4, sealed with sanding sealer and painted with acrylic paints.
Bud Vases For Mothers Day
Two brothers and I met recently for a woodturning Turnover. They wanted some supervised practice and training. We started with a project agenda to give them several woodturning experiences.
However, our well planned agenda was interrupted when our wives called back from visiting Saturday’s Market. They had seen bud vases and each wanted one for Mother’s Day.
So we switched gears to make a bud vase. It was a good experience; they turned out very nice.
Then then agenda took another turn. Bud vases for daughters and daughters in law for Mother’s Day. So we spent the rest of our time making bud vases in Apricot, Walnut, Poplar, and Maple.
We have a degree(?) of sibling rivalry. Please view all the vases at the end of this video and select which one you like best. Please put your selection in a comment below this video.
Turn A Seam Ripper For Quilting and Sewing
February, at the Desert Woodturning Roundup, I met Wayne Wolfe. He showed me pictures of several quilt and sewing tools that he has woodturning. My wife said she wanted one – so off I go.
For the hardware, I purchased a seam ripper at a fabric store and discarded its lid. The wood is a exotic wood pen blank I purchased in an assortment. The woods were not labeled so I don’t know what species of wood it is.
Step 1: Mount in a chuck.
Step 2: Drill 1/4″ hole 1 5/8″ deep (for my ripper). Then enlarge the hole by one bit size down to 1/2″
Step 3: Turn a simple, easily held handle. A lot of beads and coves may show off turning skills but would be less comfortable to hold. Mine is finished with beeswax and mineral oil
That’s all – a simple but usefull project.
Turning A Green Wood Dish By Accident
For bowl turning, I’m always on the search for wood. And, when someone gives me some, I like to give them a bowl from their wood in return. Here, I want to turn a bowl from elm for a son’s friend who gave me the wood.
However, it turned out that the wood had a lot of cracks – not from drying – the wood had been sawn in half thru the pith, waxed, and sealed in plastic bags.
Initially, my plan was to rough turn the bowl then let it dry before finishing.
As I cut into the wood, the cracks appeared more and bigger.
First, I wasted off the top 1.5 inches to get rid of some real bad ones at the top.
Then as I hollowed the bowl, the cracks were apparent thru much of the end grain sides.
I decided to finish the bowl all at once but then the cracks became worse. I feared the end grain areas of the sides would disintegrate
Then I decided to cut down the sides until I found solid wood….
I wound up with a dish. That’s a real downer. I don’t know whether to be happy with the dish or sad that I wasted so much time and wood?
Faceplates and Drill Press Jig for Handcrafted Wood Buttons
When Jari Hirvonen from Finland, asked how to make wood buttons, I had to pause and reflect, “What could be so hard about a wooden button?” The challenge is not in the individual buttons but in making them consistent with each other in pattern, hole positioning, and diameter. Very different from a one-off turning or even a series of similar turnings that never are used together.
I must credit a AAW discussion forum for highlighting the core problem: Consistent hole placement. But short of precisely measuring each hole and making sure the drill bit hits that spot – what is a woodturner to do?
My first thought was to use stops on the drill press. Even these seem to lack the precision that would be required.
Finally the epiphany, use spacers on each wing of a right angled fence. The width of the spacers would be the distance between holes. Great, now I just need something to hold the button blank down while drilling the holes and by the way, how do you turn them evenly and consistently.
As my thoughts evolved, I hit upon a solution that grew into a system.
- Modify the spacers to be exactly one half the distance between the holes. Now it would take two spaces to position each corner hole. The new spacers could be used to drill a consistent center hole. But I did not want a center hole in each button. Instead, drill the center hole on two waste blanks the size of the buttons and at least two corner holes.
- Now make wood faceplates: one for the spindle and one for the tail stock. I prefer threaded faceplates as shown in a recent video. Glue one of the drilled waste blocks to each faceplate. Use the center hole in the waste block to align it to the faceplates. Now we’re cooking.
- Next, stack up all the drilled button blanks on two brass rods. The rods are the same size as the holes in the buttons. The rods go thru opposing holes in the button blanks.
- Insert this stack into the corresponding holes in the faceplates. Note that everything is indexed to the spindle axis using those holes in the waste blocks.
- Turn the stack of button blanks as a single column. Watch out for short grain tear out. Near completion of the column, glue some sandpaper to a scrap block and sand the column. No need for fine grit sandpaper as the rims will be finished later. At this point, aim for a consistent diameter for the column of button blanks.
- Create a jamb chuck with a recesss sized to fit the newly rounded button blanks. (Remember the consisten diameter – I hope you measured it)
- Turn the face and backside of each button. This goes fast. Just watch out for tearout over the button holes. There’s a lot of fragile short grain. Try shear scraping. Don’t worry about the rim. Tooling the rim will just ruin the jamb chuck.
- Now take the spindle faceplate from #2 and reduce its diameter enough to have access to the entire rim area front and back of the button.
- Put short brass rods in opposing holes in the faceplate and mount a button to the faceplate. Bring up the tailstock to securing it. If you’re careful to keep pressure on the button, you can remove the tailstock for final sanding and finishing.
That’s it – an integrated system where the jig, faceplates, and chucks work together to deliver a consistent and beautiful results.
Free Sketchup models of the handcrafted button system are available at http://www.AsWoodTurns.com/ButtonJig
Handcrafted Wood Buttons For A Coat or Jacket
Recently a viewer, Jari Hirvonen from Finland, asked how to make wood buttons.
Hmmm.
Buttons need to be all the same size and same decorations. They’re also small and have those four closely spaced holes in the middle.
After some research, I made a drill press jig to conquer the drilling problem. My blanks then had four equally and uniformly spaced holes in the middle. So far so good.
Then how to get them all the same diameter. I made wood faceplates for both the spindle and live center. A center hole in each faceplates aligned to a scrap block drilled to the same pattern as the buttons but with an extra hole exactly in the center. I glued these scrap blocks to the faceplates using the center holes for alignment.
Now to turn the faces. Yet another chuck — this time a jamb chuck to hole one button at a time while turning the face and the back. I could not turn the outer edge at this time — it would damage the jamb chuck and reduce the wood holding the button in the jamb chuck.
So finally, I resorted to another faceplate — this time reusing one from when the buttons were stacked. This time two short brass rods held the button in alignment while the outer rim was refined. A rubber stopper on the live center kept buttons from flying around the shop.
The buttons are about 1.25 inches in diameter and just less than 0.25 inches thick. They are finished with a blend of beeswax and mineral oil. I only lost one button to a catch when turning the outer rim.
This project took some figuring, a new jig, new faceplates, new jam chuck. After that, the rest was easy.
I’ll show more of the drilling jig in a separate video.
Turn A Common Wood Stud Into A Segmented Bowl
Segmented Wood Bowl
Summers Woodworking issued a challenge: Make something nice from an ordinary 2x4x8 stud. I couldn’t resist. For me, that means it would have to be round. But how to turn a 2×4 into something both round and nice? Hmmm.
So I decided to make a large segmented bowl, using almost all of the 2×4. I’m not sure what kind of wood it is except that is is some kind of softwood. I noticed this especially when fine short grain tips of segments would break away.
I wanted the base to be a pinwheel design. So the segments tips are offset somewhat. But then with the tips breaking away, I had to inlay small wood discs over the points from both inside and outside the bowl. The pinwheel effect is not noticeable. The base is also inlaid within the bottom ring. Since the base is 8 segments and all other rings are 16 segments, I did not want the change noticeable from the outside. In fact, by inlaying the base as a disc within the bottom ring, the change is barely noticeable from the inside of the bowl.
The other six rings each have sixteen segments, gradually increasing in diameter to about 14 inches. The walls are about 1/2 inch thick. I did not dare go thinner with this softwood.
I turned the exterior with a large bowl gouge; the inside with carbide scrapers.
The bowl ended up about 5 1/2 inches tall. It is finished with gloss lacquer.
I now have a very nice, large bowl instead of a common 2×4 stud.
Woodturning An Easter Bowl Without A 4-Jaw Chuck
A little while ago, a viewer asked how he could turn a bowl without a chuck. He has a nice piece of wood and a new lathe but does not own a chuck. For many years now, I’ve consistently used a chuck when turning bowls.
As it turns out, I recently purchased a mini lathe myself and don’t yet have a chuck to fit the new lathe. I figured now would be a perfect opportunity to try out the my new lathe and to take on the challenge of turning a bowl without using a 4-jaw chuck.
The last time, many years ago, I turned a bowl using only a faceplate, I left screw holes in the bowl’s base. But now, I consider leaving screw holes totally unacceptable.
So, this was a challenge for me and the project had its issues. But in the end, I have a very nice small walnut bowl about 5 1/2 inches in diameter and 2 1/2 inches tall, finished with walnut oil. There are no screw holes in the base.
For the first mount, I screwed the faceplate to what would become the inside of the bowl and shaped the exterior. Then I glued a waste block to the bottom.
For the next mount, I screwed the faceplate to the waste block. Centering the faceplate on the waste block was a challenge. Then I refined the exterior and hollowed the interior.
For the final mount, I screwed the faceplate to a couple of layers of MDF shaped to fit the inside of the bowl. This was my jam chuck. With a little padding between the bowl and the jam chuck, the tail stock held the bowl on the lathe while I turned off the waste block.
I will now go back to using a 4-jaw chuck and will purchase one for my new lathe.
Woodturning A Pot O’ Gold Bowl For Leprechaun Gold
For St. Patrick’s Day, I need a pot for the leprechauns to leave me a little of their gold. Fortunately, at a recent club meeting, Nick Stagg demo his bowl turning techniques. And even more, he gave me a big block of ash that he had used as a jam chuck.
However, in my haste to leave town for a long trip, I neglected to protect the ash blank. While I was gone, it developed several large
checks in the end grain. I thought I would just turn the bowl down by one half to one inch to get rid of the checks.
Boy was I wrong, the checks went very deep. Now I have a small bowl for the leprechauns’ gold. But I’m not greedy – I’ll be happy with whatever they leave me.
This bowl is about 4 1/2 inches in diameter and about 4 inches in height. It is finished with mineral oil and beeswax. This wood was green — so there will be more shrinkage and warping. Hopefully, it will enhance the bowl’s character.
With what I learned at a Richard Raffan course I attended while on my trip, I changed my mount tenon to a small bead instead of a large dovetail tenon. It worked and I did not have to remount the bowl after hollowing to finish the foot.
We’ll have to see what happens to this bowl as it dries. If necessary, I can still remount it to thin it down a little and/or to remove bad warping.
Now, if the leprechauns will leave me a little gold…