Lathe / Woodwork question

Could you clamp to the inside of the flowers end with some kind of band around it to stop it splitting? And/Or some kind of spigot down to the inside of the base so you can work on the underside?

Alternatively, as it's you, could you hang it in the middle of a wall of death while you ride pillion blindfold on the motorcycle, driven by rabid chimp, and sculpt the base with a samurai sword and circular saw on a stick?

Work your way in as far as you can towards the clamped area, cutting so as to start to form a hollow, once satisfied with shape remove it from the lathe and cut the remaining nubbin away using a gouge type chisel or a spoon carving knife, sand if required.

[i]Alternatively, as it’s you, could you hang it in the middle of a wall of death while you ride pillion blindfold on the motorcycle, driven by rabid chimp, and sculpt the base with a samurai sword and circular saw on a stick?[/i]

I like this suggestion. What kind of motorcycle?

[i]Work your way in as far as you can towards the clamped area, cutting so as to start to form a hollow, once satisfied with shape remove it from the lathe and cut the remaining nubbin away using a gouge type chisel or a spoon carving knife, sand if required.[/i]

This is what I have done but that leave a 55mm tenon to cut off which is now inside a slightly hollowed area. I have a wood carver for the angle grinder that I used to make my sea horses ( https://studio.youtube.com/video/a9be2NnQVKw/edit) but was wondering if there was a better way.

When you turn bowls/vessels like that with the intention of holding them in a chuck, what you can do is to first turn an internal, dovetail -shaped spigot on the bottom of the piece.

Then, instead of the chuck clamping onto the outside of a tenon, you use it expanding into the spigot.

That is, if your chuck is able to do this. Most will be and will have tapered jaws to clamp internally or externally.

The process I used to do for stuff like that was to first mount the timber onto the chuck at the open end/top first. You can do this by screwing it onto a faceplate or drilling a hole and using a screwchuck (a big diameter coarse screw that threads into the wood, then you hold the metal screw in the chuck) Any of these methods will later be removed when you turn the inside of the bowl.

So you mount it with the bottom out and then turn your spigot, sizing it to fall within the range of your chuck jaws.

You can then turn the piece around and mount it on the chuck with the jaws expanding into the spigot.

You can then turn the outside, and use the tailstock to add support if needed.

Finally, you can turn the inside.

When it's finished, the spigot in the base helps to give it a concave shape and make it more stable.

It's also as nice place to sign your work.

Hope that helps.

I like this suggestion. What kind of motorcycle?

Suzuki Katana seems appropriate...

If you want to turn down the base of an existing vessel such as that, another technique you can try is this.

Mount a blank onto a faceplate. Turn a mound/semi sphere shape of suitable size for the vessel. It's called a jam chuck.

You can then turn the vessel around, mounting its open end onto the sphere and then bring up the tailstock to support the piece.

This then gives you way more room to turn down into the base working near to the tailstock.

Thank you Kayak - You have answered what I should have done and what I can do to correct what I didn't do. Plus I know what motorbike I need to ride the wall of death with a rabid chimp and a samurai sword.

That is why this is the best forum ever (if a little slow to update)

The only caveat to that is that you have quite a long vessel there so obviously if you've only got it held at one end and you're working on the other end, you can get quite a lot of 'lash ' from the forces involved.

It's not normally so pronounced on bowls etc which can be wide but tend to be less deep. Something like that though which is fairly tall can obviously whip about a bit.

That's where experience will come in as there are things you can do to minimise that such as turning the bulk of the outside shape while it's between centres, and possibly even losing some material from the inside.

Anyway, experimenting with it is what makes it fun. 🙂

Impressed with what you've done already from being a complete newb to it.

When/if you get more into it, you might want to look at specialist chucks as they tend to be a lot more minimal than what you have there.

It's a massive chunk of metal that chuck and it extends out from the headstock fairly far.

The more distance you have from the main headstock bearing, the more likelihood of vibration and lash.

I used to have a Nova chuck bitd which was fairly low profile and so I was able to keep most of its mass nearer to the headstock bearing which helps turn it truer.

Anyway, nice work. It makes me want to tinker again but unfortunately I no longer have a lathe, or a garage or a workshop!

Good work WCA.

I  am both impressed and relieved that you have avoided flying chunks of wood/death while making objects of delight !!:-)

I had had visions of wood missiles making contact with ' The Citroën '  LoLz

I follow advice and used a jam chuck which worked. Thanks.

I then tried a bowl with the dovetailed base which fitted my chuck. That worked too. Well, it only flew outonce but that's what face masks are for, right.

Anyway, here is my first attempt at a bowl.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2yF27rvWBv22h5CNA

Pretty nice. You can see some tool marks but you can always mount it again and do lots of scraping and/or sanding to get it smooth and flowing.

The more practise you get, the more you can refine the shape, thin the walls a little and sharpen up the rim.

Noice 🙂

Maybe look at some lung protection. Lathes make a lot of very fine airborne dust.

You can pretend to be a spaceman.

https://www.rutlands.com/products/powered-air-purifying-respirator?variant=45338761167155&utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Rutlands%20-%20Multifeeds&utm_content=Powered%20Air%20Purifying%20Respirator%20-%20TH3&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxcicoMqCiwMVepRQBh1hVweNEAQYAiABEgIzWvD_BwE

And here is my latest Work In Progress. I thought I would try something a bit bigger and decided to make a lamp.

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[url= https://i.postimg.cc/8Pr9Zk39/Lamp-2.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/8Pr9Zk39/Lamp-2.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= https://i.postimg.cc/23pHsvJJ/Lamp-1.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/23pHsvJJ/Lamp-1.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

I 'think' I need to do some fine sanding and wax this now. I will then remove the bits from the ends and drill a long hole through the middle for a wire. I don't think I can use the drill on the lathe as it is a big chunk of wood and would probably wobble too much to drill cleanly.

Any advice or tips VERY welcome.

The way they do it is with a hollow tailstock and a massive long auger that you push through as it spins.

Happen you might have to get it started on a pillar drill though.

[i] hollow tailstock and a massive long auger [/i] Don't have one of those

[i]a pillar drill[/i] will be using one of these and then a hand held with a long bit I guess

Looks like i won't be using my pillar drill after all