Go big or go home

Today I started on what will ultimately be almost a year long project. I roughed out the largest bowl that I have ever done, and just about the largest bowl my lathe will handle. The blank measured just under 20" in diameter x 8" deep. the roughed out bowl is about 18" in diameter. It will ultimately be dried, re-turned, and I wm planning on embelleshing the outer surface with a flame motif of analine dyes and wood burning. It is going to be a gift for a good friend who is retiring from the fire department next May.

I was also able to core out the center and save a few bowl blanks from it. This not only saves time by not having to rough out the whole bowl, but it gets much more yield from the blank. This blank ultimately will get me 4 finished bowls. I would have had a 5th bowl just a little smaller than the biggest blank, but I don't have the large size coring tools and had to improvise a little bit. This resulted in losing the larger bowl. I'll still take what I can get. I'm happy getting the 3 smaller bowls out of the piece.

Clean up

I spent the last several days catching up on projects around the shop. Somewhere in the middle, I decided it would be a good idea to re-arrange a bit. It was a lot of work, but I think it will be much more effecient in the long run.

I also spent some time working on my vacuum chuck which will allow me to better finish the bottom of my bowls and vessels.

Half of the problem with turning is that my head gets ahead of my hands. I have several ideas for projects just waiting to be turned, but I have limited time in the shop right now. Besides that, I have to admit that as much as I love to turn, it is not near as much fun when it is 110 degrees in my shop.

Finally, hats off to Jason Clark, who is a great help and to Mike Mahoney. Mike is a production turner out of Utah that also does some really excellent art pieces. Mike is also puttin gup a blog and is a great inspiration for both technique and design ideas.

Improvements

Last night I went to a fellow woodturner's house. He is a great turner and mentor, and I was having trouble with a coring system. I think we were able to fix my problem. It was also great to spend time in someone else's shop. It always spurs ideas on things you could do in your own shop. It was also nice just talking about kids/shop/clubs/whatever with someone for a few minutes before heading home.

Today it is off to see my grandmother (who did the clay quail in the previous photo) to visit and to see if I can get some more! Below is a picture of some of her other work. I think it is really amazing, especially considering she is 86!Then I plan on spending the day with my family, and if time permits, to try and core a few more bowls. They are MUCH easier to core when still wet.

Check out Jason's work...http://www.fourcornerswoodturning.com/   or his blog   http://www.agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/

I also plan on completing my vacuum chuck and making a few shelves sometime this week. Time permitting. LOL. I will post pics as I get them done.