The weekend of the 24 and 25 November
I started off by going to my local sawmill to try and get some offcuts. There wasn't too much available but managed to get a piece of oak about 2 meters long x 10cm thick and about 50cm wide. Got the sawmill to cut it in half, loaded it into the back of my car. I asked the people at the sawmill if they had any other hard wood but unfortunately they only have oak. I arranged to drop off a list of my requirements and they said they would try and get it cut for me by next weekend. Got the oak offcuts home and painted the end. The wood has some splits but I'm sure I can get some pretty good blanks out of the two pieces.
Now that I have my Power Chuck I have decided that the sacrificial wooden face plate I turned and glued was no longer required. I am determined to use my chuck. Looked at all the bits and pieces and (due to a missing instruction manual) and fathomed out where they went and how they were to be used. Also, Emailed my supplier and they will put an instruction manual in the post.
Anyway, enough of that, lets get on to my woodturning exploits. Mounted the block between the centers and rounded it off. Turned down both ends to be able to use the compression jaws. I used a parting tool to cut nearly all of the way through the cylinder about and inch from the one end. The small piece will become the lid and the rest will be the base. Stopped the lathe and removed the cylinder, then used a saw to separate the two pieces. Mounted the base in the compression jaws and got to work. As I don't have any fancy augers yet, I took out a 8mm wood but and held it in some pliers to drill a whole down the center of the base. Marked off the depth with a piece of tape. Took out my bowl gouge and got to work removing the inside of the bowl. This time didn't have any dig ins and the inside came out quite easily. Left the bowl on the lathe and shaped the outside, gave it concave sides. Gave both the inside and outside a sanding and then got to work on the lid. Turned the inside of the lid and kept stopping to ensure that the lid would just fit over the base. Eventually got that right and then put and attached the base to the lid and used the tailstock to keep them together. Then used sand paper to smooth the outside and to make sure that both the lid and the base had the same diameter. Then for some fool reason decided to remove the piece of wood that I used the compression jaws on the base. I only realized the error of my ways when I wanted to finish off the inside of the base. I had a wooden bowl and a lathe but didn't have anything to put the pieces together. Then I remembered I had an expansion jaw that came in my chuck set. Took everything off the lathe and carefully inserted the expansion jaws. Had a hard time getting the thing centered but by trial and error got it right. I then turned a small recess in the base off the bowl to enable me to use the expansion jaws. Attached the expansion jaws to the base and started working on finished the inside of the bowl. Once that was finished I replaced the base with the lid and smoothed that off. Took it all off the lathe to ponder my workmanship and damn well dropped the lid. Broke two small pieces out from the edge. Glued then back and left it for a couple of hours for the glue to set.
My center boring kit arrived at last. Went back to my first oak light stand, and drilled out the center, must say with all of this fancy equipment life seems quite enjoyable.
Now that all of that is finished I need to sharpen my tools. I have a grinder, a shaky hand and no tool rest. Once again back to the Internet to see what I can find out about toolrest. Also looked at two books I'd received on woodturning. The damn things look very complicated and expensive.
Went back to the garage and had a brain wave. If I cut a 25mm x 25mm hole in the side of my makeshift work bench. Then insert a 25mm x 25mm x 500mm piece of wood into the hole and fasten a curved block on the end. I could then use the block to rest the handle of the gouge on and slide the piece of wood in or out to give me the correct angle on the grinding wheel. To see a rough sketch of my toolrest click here.
I finished off Saturday by using my make shift toolrest to sharpen my gouges. I must say, it worked a treat. Not the perfect bevel on all the gouges but a lot better than if I'd done them by hand.
On Sunday I was banished to the garage, sooo, what could I do. I'd purchased a few bowl blanks from Ockendon Timbers and decided to use on if the maple ones to turn a bowl. This time I first sat down and planned out what I wanted to do. I hoped to prevent the problem of removing bits of wood that I would need for fastening on the compression or expansion jaws from the chuck. I marked off the centers but didn't get it quite right. Had to use the roughing gouge to get the blank round. Once I'd done that I turned down one end to a about 75mm diameter and about 3mm high. This was to take the compression jaws. Fastened the wood to the lathe using the compression jaws and got to work. I first shaped the outside as I wanted it and then used a pencil to make a line about 5mm in on the end of my prospective bowl. I used a 12 mm wood drill bit to drill a hole to the depth that I wanted to make the bowl. I checked and rechecked to make sure I wouldn't leave to much wood or take out to much. Got to work on removing the inside with my long bowl gouge. I must be getting a little better as I only had one serious dig in. It was bad enough to pull the bowl right out of the jaws. To cut a long story short I ended up with a maple bowl with a wall thickness of about 5mm. I was quite chuffed with my work.
Things I learnt this weekend
